Wordpress marketing is one of the most popular blogging tools available on the internet today. What a lot of people do not realize though is that it is also a powerful Content Management System that is able to be used for more than just blogging. When you use wordpress you have the ability to either a blog or a website which ever you choose.

Wordpress was originally designed as a blogging tool but you no longer have to use it just for blogging anymore. With just a few updates here and there you can also use it for your website and you can either in conjunction with a blog or no blog at all. Just the fact that Wordpress was once originally designed for a blogging platform gives Wordpress some compelling advantages. It is designed for easy publishing and changing your content whenever it is needed. There are also other advantages that are great for small business owners as well.

1. First of all Wordpress is SEO optimized. There are a few adjustments that you will need to make but overall there are several SEO benefits that Wordpress provides to your for free. This saves you considerable amount of time and effort that is usually needed when you are creating your site to be SEO optimized.

2. Another great advantage of Wordpress for online small business owners is that the content is easily updated and you will not even have to know any HTML to get it done either. You can easily create new pages or edit your existing pages using a simple rich text editor. This is another great way for you to save money when you are first creating your site.

3. There are also thousands of people in the internet world that create extensions of the Wordpress program. Just think how many free themes and ratings, among hundreds of other options, are available to you for free. You will not have to pay the hefty price you would normally have to for a web designer because these extensions will allow you to do it for yourself.

4. If you happen to run into a problem or wish to add on custom features, it is very easy for you to find support as there are thousands of Wordpress developers available on the net. All you need to do is type in Wordpress support in your favorite search engine and you will be amazed at the results that you will get.

5. The finale benefit for small business owners is that Wordpress is easy to install. There are many companies that also offer help with your quick install to get your site up and running in no time.

As you can see there are several different reasons why Wordpress would benefit your small business.

Wordpress marketing is one of the most popular blogging tools available on the internet today. What a lot of people do not realize though is that it is also a powerful Content Management System that is able to be used for more than just blogging. When you use wordpress you have the ability to either a blog or a website which ever you [Continue]

Pay per Click, or PPC, marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools that are available on the internet today.  But just like any other advertising campaign it needs to be done with careful planning and consideration in order to avoid certain pitfalls that may occur while you are creating your marketing campaign.  If you begin your PPC marketing plan without careful planning first you have set yourself up to lose thousands of dollars and tons of wasted hours.  There are books available that you can read that will help you put a great plan into place for your PPC Marketing plan.

Putting a successful PPC marketing plan is easy though without books if you avoid a few of the more common mistakes that most people make. Note though even if you have discovered that you have made one of the following errors that can be easily fixed quickly and get your campaign back on track.

1.The most common mistake people find themselves doing in creating their PPC marketing plan is using their homepage as the landing strip.  While to most business owners it may seem logical to have your visitors brought to your homepage there are reasons why this should not be done.
• People who will click on your advertisement are most generally looking for a specific item. Instead of bringing them to the home page, create a landing strip for your ad to bring them too.  This will allow you to bring your customers exactly the right spot that they are searching for. This will make them happy because you saved them time and as a result they are more than likely to visit again.  Each of your landing page should be keyword specific relating to your add. It should also not contain any other links or distractions.

2.If your landing page is confusing to your reader you will lose sales as a result.  If you create a PPC that is targeted to the visitors key word it will result in sales almost every time as long as it easy for them to read and understand.  Your landing page should also be part of the keyword that they are searching for.  Make sure that it easy for the reader to find. You should also have several different landing pages if you have several different keywords or topics.

3.Every search engine that is available on the internet today will use its own methods as to where to place your ad.  One of the biggest mistakes that people who are new to PPC marketing make is that they do not tightly target their keywords well enough to get considered for optimum placement on the search engines.  Over 85% of all search engine results are based on the top three ads.  If you are not able to focus your keywords well enough you will not make the top three and have the potential to lose a lot of money as a result.

As you can see the more common mistakes made by new users to the PPC Marketing world are fairly easy for anyone to make. Knowing how to fix them is the key to a great PPC marketing campaign.

Pay per Click, or PPC, marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tools that are available on the internet today.  But just like any other advertising campaign it needs to be done with careful planning and consideration in order to avoid certain pitfalls that may occur while you are creating your marketing campaign.  If you begin your PPC [Continue]

Tips On How To Start A Profitable Internet Home Business
To start an internet home business can be a very rewarding and a profitable option in this economy of recession and unemployment. The opportunities of starting home based business are numerous in the last few years have increased and they have offered a great platform for anyone having a computer and internet connection. The start-up cost is really little.

If you follow the steps below and combine it with perseverance ,purpose and hard work, you can get success easily.

1. Set your goal first. It is essential to identify what you want. Without any aim, you can lose your focus. Try to be specific in every aspect.

2. While starting home business, come to a decision how much money and time you want to invest. Don’t treat it like a hobby and make budgets for buying, marketing, advertising etc.

3. You will get loads of information on the web and it is tough to know who to believe. Try to find out a successful system and follow it.

4. Put in your effort every time. Once you have settled on how much time to spare and chosen a system to follow, you must put in constant effort on a regular basis. It is the best way to get success and make profit.

5. Try to be focused. Stick to the system which you have already chosen.

Useful tips for starting home business

You will get a number of options for starting home business. The greatest advantage is that you can become successful in achieving your financial goals from your work from home business by arranging it in the right way. Like any other business, your home based business requires the following things to be started-

I. Right business idea

II. Extensive market research

III. Effective marketing

For starting internet home business, first you have to come across a commercially viable market and make a decision which business model you are going to use to launch your products in the market. Either you have to DO IT YOURSELF or hire someone to work it out. Make your mind up how much time you can afford to give over to your business.
The next step is to fix your business, marketing strategy and financial goals. All of them should be planned properly. Once you have planned how much you want to earn, set your marketing objectives depending on how much time and money you want to use up on marketing. If you are not sure enough, you should go through a comprehensive market research.

If you have a clear understanding of the market, you can easily find out your potential customers. You should concentrate on strategies that your contenders are using most effectively.

If you have a clear business idea, it would be easy to set the business objectives. Setting attainable goals and doing proper market research not only help you to choose the right marketing strategy but also reduce a lot of money and time.

There are several opportunities for starting home business and it is important to do extensive research to set up the best alternative to start. Choose the best option and begin your venture.

Tips On How To Start A Profitable Internet Home Business To start an internet home business can be a very rewarding and a profitable option in this economy of recession and unemployment. The opportunities of starting home based business are numerous in the last few years have increased and they have offered a great platform for anyone having a [Continue]

Here’s an interesting notion: Do you realize that there are mistakes you can make at various stages of your small business’ growth that can be slowly killing it for months or even years if you don’t watch for them?

Well, these mistakes do exist and they are not just reserved for the rookie companies. Many working small businesses, including those you might think are “successful” because they’ve been around for 10+ years, are often still making them… and are possibly losing a lot of money and/or wasting a lot of time in the process.

Although some of these big and sneaky mistakes seem aimed more at service type companies, they really do fit the bill for almost any type of industry. I’ve done my best with the listings below to give examples to prove it.

Underestimating Project/Service Time- This is a big one and it pertains to service companies as well as companies that sell a product. This is a service company’s bread and butter. If you don’t estimate your time to perform each and every service in your repertoire, you will get burned and there is little you can do about it but bite the bullet and learn from it. The best way to estimate time is to do it once yourself or watch your best employee do the task and then throw in a little fudge factor on top of it. For product companies, time becomes an issue with logistics so be aware!

Not Knowing YOUR Company Numbers/Incorrectly Setting Prices- Notice I emphasized the word “your”. It’s a common mistake to use a competitor’s as your pricing gauge without actually knowing why they use those numbers. Think about the nightmare you will get yourself into if you take a competitor’s price, cut it by 10% and then start selling. What if the competition has a bad pricing structure and is barely making money or even losing money?!?! What if your costs are more than theirs?!?! You can use competitor as a starting point but you can’t base your whole strategy on it.

Different industries have their own variables as far as costs go and you need to be aware of them for your project or product pricing. What you pay for a product you are going to sell is not the only cost to have in your head when you are pricing products. How much your labor and materials cost for a service is only a piece of an hourly rate. Employees cost more than just salary and not every employee is part of your labor cost. Every company has insurance to pay for. There are tons of overhead expenditures that need to be part of your price. Oh, by the way, the big one that many people forget about in their price is the quality factor. What you include as “standard services” or “standard product features” as well as job site etiquette or in store service or warranties all need to go into your pricing. I’ll get to more on why in the next segment.

Not Charging for All of Your Time & Costs- This seems like a stupid statement to some but I bet most business owners will admit that they have given away a little too much of the farm at times. Hey, there is nothing wrong with giving a little extra here and there to show you care. But either way, that’s not what I’m talking about here. What concerns me are those that put a lot of quality into their work or products or stores and do not cover the cost for it. As an example, say you run a service company and your competitors don’t do a certain standard service that you do. You can’t just undercut their price to steal a job; you need to have that cost covered in your rate and advertise the fact that it comes with the price upfront. Stores undermine themselves, for example, when they put more people on the floor for customer service but don’t charge for it. These things cost you money and when your competitors don’t do them it costs them less money. Put out better service and then under price them, and your competition just has to wait a little bit for you to fall on your face so they can swoop back in.

As a business owner you need to believe that you are providing your clients worthwhile wares that deserve to be paid for. If you get the chance to explain why your prices are higher, then take that opportunity and do it. If they don’t like the fact that you include things that others charge extra for later or that you treat them better, then they are most likely completely price shoppers. You don’t want them as regular customers anyway. Trust me.

Not Getting Paid Fast Enough- That’s right, the old cash flow issue. As long as you are actually making enough money to pay the bills, this problem can be solved, prevented or at least made to be not as bad as it could be. Here’s the deal:

First off all, bill customers very promptly. It is very common for a small business to not have the procedures or systems in place to get invoices generated and out the door in a timely fashion (see the next segment for more). Again, this would seem unlikely since that’s the reason why we are doing the work- to get paid. But it is very easy for the people responsible for getting this info to the billing people to be too busy to get it there or not have enough organization to give it to them the right way.

The second part to slowing down or stopping a regular cash flow crunch is to make the quickest payment deals possible with customers and the slowest possible with vendors and employees. If there is any way not to pay employees any more than twice a month, you better do it. Contractors always have an issue with this. If you must pay weekly, then tell them before they are hired that they will be getting the first week held back, essentially buying you a week. It will help, I promise.

Part three involves credit. If your company can get a credit card, then get it. This allows for certain important things to be bought (that you can afford) that might come up during a cash flow crunch. Better yet, especially if you have no choice but to deal with 45+ day customer payments, do your best to get a company line of credit. This is a must if you plan on selling to the government or doing commercial service work. These clients often have 60 to 90 day wait periods.

Failure to Have Solid Systems and Procedures in Place- Too many procedures (known as “red tape”) is the reason why many people start their own business in the first place. Unfortunately, having no procedures and systems in place at all is not an alternative. Depending on the type of industry, business owners must come to a happy medium or chaos and the unknown will ensue. Some basic examples where procedures or systems are needed include billing, collections, payroll, hr (interviewing, hiring, vacations, benefits, job responsibilities, etc.), manufacturing, operating equipment, maintaining equipment, inventory, sales calls/visits and logistics to name a few.

Even a one person show needs to have some admin procedures in place. This will make it easier to hire temps and subcontractors and control what they are doing for you. Without at least a watered down version of a system or procedure to do everyday work, you will be to blame for causing many major headaches as your company grows. I can’t emphasize how important this is for when you bring on new employees. I’m sure you heard this before, but I am also a big proponent of having an employee handbook even for one employee. It’s amazing the trouble people can cause business owners just because they allow you to pay them.

Spending Advertising Money Just to Say You Advertise- I would almost rather see my clients not advertise then to spend without regard to tracking the results. There is no point in a marketing campaign if you do not put things in place that allow you to measure how well the plan is working. The other wasteful part of marketing that many people make the mistake of doing, is not tracking their previously successful campaigns. Why some people think that just because a $400 dollar a month ad worked once very well for one busy season, that it will automatically work every year after that is beyond me.

Spreading Yourself Too Thin- This is a classic mistake made by every entrepreneur. The key is to figure out when you are at that “wearing too many hats” point and start getting some help. The solution here is to know your strengths and to be able see when you are not performing the duties that demand these skills. If you are the best sales person on the company, you can’t get caught up in day-to-day operations. If you do, sales will slip and eventually you won’t have any operations to worry about. Think about this to help you figure out if you are spread too thin: Did you really go into business for yourself to work 80+ hours a week?

Not Getting Help Soon Enough- Set goals to know when to hire people to take over where you are light on knowledge. Not getting help or waiting too long can kill a company. Most people who start a business do it because they are good at the technical end or the sales end. If you know the best way to make a widget, then your strength is in production and that is where your time should be spent. Hire an outside company or consultant to take care of the sales and marketing and then hire inside when you can afford someone full time. Don’t be something to your company that you are not. It will only hold you back.

The three big issues people like to tackle themselves but usually are least knowledgeable about are legal issues, accounting/bookkeeping issues and daily operations issues. The odds are that these three things are your weakest link so if you don’t have a partner that has the background for these subjects, then be prepared to get help as soon as possible. It’s preferable that you do this before you start a business.

Although looking for these problems at any time is a good idea, the end of a year or season is an excellent business interval to make sure you are not making these errors. Take the time, or make the time, to fix these problems. If you don’t know how to reverse the problems, then get some help. If you really don’t have enough time to either figure out if you have these issues or know they are there and can’t break away long enough to do it right, then get some help.

Here’s an interesting notion: Do you realize that there are mistakes you can make at various stages of your small business’ growth that can be slowly killing it for months or even years if you don’t watch for them? Well, these mistakes do exist and they are not just reserved for the rookie companies. Many working small businesses, [Continue]