The Waiting Game

There are some business men and women who actually purchase domain names featuring words or phrases that have not become very common as of yet. They build links to the domain and then they sell the website and domain name to someone who wants it. For example, some of the employees at Thrive Learning Institute have been learning to “flip” sites from other employees of Thrive Learning Institute. It’s very exciting to be able to make a profit off something that took a relatively short amount of time. This is a great example of creating a product to sell.

Identifying Your Customers

Identifying your customers is more important than I think a lot of people realize. In order to market properly, one must know who they are marketing to. For example, someone who is marketing purses for women will want to focus their ads and their content on women since it is women who will be buying the purses. There are, however, some exceptions. One exception is Christmas; advertisers may want to target men in an attempt to get them to buy the purse for their significant other. By the time you are finished, you should have created a customer base.

Marketing Your Product

Marketing online is a bit different than marketing in brick and mortar stores. For one thing, most often there is only one advertisement on television at one time, but online your customers are looking at somewhere around ten links, maybe even more, of people selling the exact same product you are selling. So, the question forms, “how do I stand out from the masses”? Stand out by being first. Do search engine optimization (SEO) to get ranked at the top of Google and then you’re all set to go.

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There are some people who believe that appearance is nothing when it comes to being online. They suppose that appearance is something that goes out the window when they convert over to an online store. The truth of the matter is that appearance may even matter more now that they are online for the entire world to see. Here are some tips for a well designed website.


Above vs. Below the Fold


Imagine that your web page is a sheet of paper folded in half. Everything on the top half of the paper is visible when you set the paper on a table. If your goal is to get your target market to reach down, unfold the paper, and continue reading, you must have content on that top section that inspires action on the part of the potential reader. In other words, you want them to pick up the paper and continue reading. Likewise, when someone opens your website you’re going to want to have something on the screen that’s going to make them want to scroll down to read more. This bit of something should be just above the fold, or just above the end of the first screen.


PARC or CRAP


PARC is simply an easy way to remember proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast. I would also add flow to that combination of design principles to remember. In web business good design could mean the difference between getting a sale and not getting a sale. It could also mean getting a lower bounce rate if people are willing to stay on the site long enough to find the product they’re looking for and if the website is organized. In other words, if your design doesn’t even follow the basic principles of design, you’re probably in trouble.


Navigation and Search Ability


Another issue that must be taken into account when making your website visually appealing is the basic navigation and search ability that exists for customers and clients. There are very few things on the internet more annoying than going to a website only to not find what you are looking for. You sit there for what feels like hours looking for a specific product which had been advertised or trying to figure out what the website is selling in the first place. It may be funny to you to imagine landing on a site and not being able to tell what the site is selling but, surprisingly enough, it happens all the time. If you want people to purchase your product, make it possible for them to find what they’re looking for. You may be surprised how much doing this one thing will add to your sales at the end of the year.


Seriously, there are a lot of things you can do that will only take a moment but will help your site immensely. A lot of these issues are website design issues, but will be worth the extra time it will take to fix them.

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Everyone has their own idea of how to run a successful website. Some of their advice seems like a lot of junk, but others seem to give old advice which mysteriously always makes sense. Have you ever heard the “back in my day” speech? You know the one…my parents used to give it to me all the time and I would simply laugh and say that “times have changed and things are different”. That seemed to be a logical explanation for my teenage mind but now that I’m older I’ve realized that maybe my parents had it right all along. They used to say things about businesses too, like, “back in my day, we used to talk to real people when we called customer service”.


I’ve been thinking about this over the years since I got a lot more involved with businesses and how they are run. It seems like if you go to a brick and mortar establishment, you can speak with a real person and get their opinion on a purchase, funny, you can actually see and hold what you’re purchasing too, what a novel idea. However, when we go online to make a purchase, sometimes we’re not exactly sure what we’re purchasing and there are no humans to speak to. I can’t help but wonder how these kinds of online businesses actually stay in business for any long period of time.


Here’s a trick that I have found to work for me, time and time again. In essence, you will probably be going up against several other websites which are selling the same products you are selling. You need to stand out from all the rest, right? Well, if you need to stand out, why not use some good old fashioned customer service? In other words, along with selling them your product, you’re trying to sell them on your company and on your ability to provide service.


To help make my point, think back to a time you have been in a store and asked for customer assistance. Has there ever been a time customer assistance never came? If so, did you stay in the store very long, were you frustrated? Just last weekend my friend went to purchase a Wii at a popular retail chain store. After waiting way too long for customer assistance, she finally decided she would go purchase the product elsewhere, even if it meant paying an extra $50. You may think that this has nothing to do with online stores but it does. A couple months ago a coworker of mine started up a business of his own, a small niche website. So far, nearly all his orders have been made via the 1-800 number they placed on their site. It’s been proven time and time again, people simply want the opportunity to speak with a real person instead of having the communication process take place with artificial intelligence. I wonder if they would have had any sales had they not given their potential customers this ability.


Long story short, “back in my day”, we used to be able to speak to real people and we used to be able to trust what we read. Be honest with your customers, serve them and choose to sell something that you love so you can provide the best service. I wonder what would happen if we went back to that? I wonder what would happen if we had a return to customer service in the true sense of service.

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Have you ever wanted to start your own home-based business? Unless you love going to the office every day or you have a big crop of money growing on trees in your back yard, you probably have. So many people have a dream to own there own business, to work from home and be able to spend time with their family or to have the freedom to do what they want, when they want to do it; however, comparatively, very few actually accomplish their silent wish. Why is this the case? What stops individuals from branching out on their own? What’s so compelling about work from home businesses for those who actually reach the achievement and fulfill their grand ambition?

What Stops Individuals From Branching out on Their Own?

Well, other than the fact that if everyone branched out on their own and worked from home we would really have a health care crisis on our hands and a very anti-social culture to boot, who really knows for certain. I suppose it may have something to do with the combination of the constant demands of everyday life as well as a supreme fear of the unknown. I would be willing to venture a guess that a relatively high percentage of these individuals believe they don’t have the time it takes to act upon their desires. Well, I say to them, how do you know until you have actually given it a chance? If you’re one of these people, try something for me. Start a record of the things you do after work each day. After a couple weeks, examine the list and see if there is anything on there you could have gone without doing, if there is, you have plenty of time to start a home business on the Internet.

Perhaps you are among those who use fear as a motive to abandon your dreams. Perhaps you’re afraid you will forget something and make an irreversible mistake that will send you into poverty and haunt you all your life. To you I say, stand up and give life a shot; it really is not as bad as people crack it up to be. Worst case scenario a person goes full circle and ends up where they began. If that happens, you can start over and take a different path.

What is so Compelling About Work From Home Businesses?

Now that we’ve examined the negative points of why people drop out of home business, now we’ll discuss some of the positive elements which are so compelling that it’s hard not to want to stay at home.

I remember when I was in college we had a guest speaker come to speak about entrepreneurship. She had pictures of her “office” which consisted of a computer in the family room where her children played. I remember thinking how exciting it would be to be a stay at home mom and still help support my family. If that’s not a great reason to have a home business, I’m not sure what is.

If you’re less on the sensitive side of home business and more on the practical side, you may like this explanation as to why people want to work from home so badly; it will save you money. That’s right, starting up a brick and mortar business can cost you around 100,000 dollars or more. If you’re working from home, you get rid of a lot of the start-up cost. For example, you won’t need to pay rent, your utility and gas bills will be substantially lower, and you most likely won’t have to keep inventory.

So, what do you think? Do you think you can do it, be one of those few who actually follow through and reach out for something that really is quite tangible or are you going to be one of the many who choose to wallow in fear and possible future failure? Either way, I wish you the best of luck.

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What are you missing?

Would you believe there is a very simple way to get you ranking higher in search engines such as Google, so long as you’re not already following these guidelines. Simply include your keywords or keyword phrases in your title, meta information and, of course, in your content.

Title

There are so many people out there who don’t realize that simply including your target keywords in your title can actually make you rank much higher in search engines such as Google. It’s been proven that those who have the specific keywords searched for, in their title, will actually come up much higher in the search engine rankings.

You can also include one keyword or more in the domain name; that should help immensely in bringing up your site in search engines. For example, if you search for “dropship directory” in Google, dropshipdirectory.org is the first result to pop up. It also has the title “Dropship Directory”. This goes to show that it really pays off to have your keywords you’re trying to rank for in both your title and your domain.

To solidify the point I’m trying to make, check out the page rank of the two sites below dropshipdirectory.org. Some would suspect that these two sites would have a lower page rank since they’re ranked lower but you will find that these two sites actually have a higher page rank than dropshipdirectory.org. Yet, do to the proper use of keywords, dropshipdirectory.org still ranks higher in Google.

Meta Information

There is also a lot to be said about meta information and increasing your rankings with Google. Optimize your meta tags, titles, and descriptions, being sure to use your keywords in all three. This should help boost your rankings in Google and other search engines.

Content

As always, please be sure that your content is well optimized. This means that you should be writing about your keywords and including your keywords every one in twenty-five words or so. Doing this will help search engines pick out those particular words or phrases and will help rank your site even higher.

All in all, if you’re not following these simple guidelines, you’re giving up a lot of potential for ranking higher. I would suggest walking through these three things to get started, then you can read up on more ways to increase your chances of ranking on Google and other search engines. If you would like to know more about Internet marketing, you may read more on the Thrive Learning Institute Blog.

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Thrive Learning Institute is giving back, in a big way by supporting their local chapter of Golden K Kiwanis, an organization which serves the children of the world.

Employees of Thrive Learning Institute are proud to work for a company that cares so much about serving the community. In an effort to help fund local programs for children, Thrive Learning Institute teamed up with the Orem Owlz, their local team, and Kiwanis Club of Orem.

Thrive Learning Institute donated over $6,000 to benefit local programs for children. To learn more about how Thrive Learning Institute, Kiwanis, and the Orem Owlz work together to bring light into the eyes of local children please visit the Orem Owlz.

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There are hundreds of places on the Internet that a company may submit their press releases or other public relations material. These sites have varying structures that they want you to follow; I would suggest going into the site, reading up on the way they would like the content to be submitted and then submitting the content accordingly.


Building a Social Media Image


There are several social media sites where a companies branding and reputation may be formed and solidified. Use these social media sites to your advantage, however, be aware that they can also be to your disadvantage. We will discuss some of the negative implications of web public relations later.


Facebook is a highly used social media site where millions of people go to share information about themselves and reconnect with friends, family, and old associates. Many businesses have now found their way to Facebook and are using it to share the word about their companies and products. I would suggest setting up a Facebook account and setting up a company profile, if you have not done so yet.


Blogger is a great site to set up a blog on. I fell in love with Blogger when I first entered the Internet marketing industry. Humanizing your company is almost always a great public relations move; you want your customers to realize that they are working with real people with real personality, just like them. It’s okay to allow your companies “personality” to come out in your blog posts. Write according to the needs of your customers, answer their questions, relate to them on a personal level, and give them content that will help them learn and grow in their areas of interest.


WordPress is another great blog site. In fact, if you go to wordpress.org, you may set up a customized blog and feed it through your own website. I would suggest, for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes, having a Blogger Blog and a WordPress Blog. This will enable you to have a blog on your companies web site. It will also provide a way to get some extra links and content on your Blogger Blog. Since the WordPress Blog is directly connected to your company site; I would suggest being strict about using only company-related content. By company related content I mean anything related to the company, what the company sells, and what the company is about.


Twitter is another social media site which has exploded in the past year or two. It is also a site to share information with friends, family and associates and also provides a place for a profile. I would suggest setting up a Twitter account, filling out a profile for your company, and then start Tweeting like crazy. You can tweet about your blogs, your Facebook account, new articles, new improvements in the company, etc.


Marketing Implications


Be aware that, as with everything in business, there are negative implications to these practices along with the positive. The biggest one is that social media is viral. Being viral means that it spreads quickly and, once something is posted online, it’s very hard to stop the inevitable process of viral marketing. While that is a positive thing if your content is good and reflects your company in a positive way, it can also be a very negative thing if your company is reflected in a negative way. Be very careful what you post on the Internet about your company and make certain to monitor what your competition or your opposition is saying about your company; the things they say are viral too.

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Are you interested in using eBay to buy the products that you need or even sell items that you no longer want? If you are, you will need to create an eBay account, if you haven’t already done so. Although many automatically assume that getting started with eBay is a complicated task, it doesn’t have to be. All you really need to do is follow a few simple steps and you should be good to go.

The first thing that you will want to do is visit eBay’s website, which is located at eBay.com. Once you are at eBay’s website, you can then click on the link that allows you to register a new account. At that stage, you will be brought to a signup form. That signup form will ask you a series of questions. For instance, you will need to enter in your full name, your address, your telephone number, as well as an e-mail address. You will also be required to come up with an eBay screen name or sign in name, as well as an eBay password, which will be used to access your eBay account. Once you have correctly filled out the form, you will be sent a verification email from eBay.

Once you have received eBay’s verification email and followed all of the instructions, which will help you validate your eBay account, you will be able to start using eBay right away. When you first get started, you may need to sign in to your eBay account. As previously stated, you will need to use your eBay sign in name or screen name and password to do so. For that reason, you may want to write down your sign in information and keep it in a safe place. Once you have signed in to your eBay account, you can then do whatever you want; buy or sell.

If you are interested in using eBay to shop online, to buy, you will want to start searching for items to buy. This can be done a number of different ways. eBay allows you to browse through their large selection of items, by detailed categories. You can also perform a standard eBay search or an advanced one. Searches are more likely to give you accurate, tailored results. When browsing or searching for something in particular, you should be able to see a large number of auction listing all on one page. The information that you will be presented with at this time is the standard, bare minimum. If you would like more information on the item in question, such as how much shipping costs or too see additional pictures, you will want to click on the link to view the detailed sales page. Should you like what you see, follow the instructions to buy and you will have made your first purchase on eBay!

As it was previously stated, if you are interested in selling on eBay, to make a little bit of extra money, you can also do so. The only difference is that you are required to pay small fees to become an eBay seller, unlike eBay buyers who have completely free accounts. The amount of money that you are charged will all depend on your auctions, particularly how much you list each item for, as well as how well each item sells. To get started with selling, you will want to click on the “sell,” link at the top of the eBay webpage. What is nice about listing items for sale on eBay is it is relatively easy to do. For instance, you need to choose a category for your item, make a headline for your auction listing, write a description of your product, upload pictures of what you are selling, outline shipping costs, as well as accepted forms of payments, but everything is outlined for you, in a step-by-step matter.

Whether you are interested in becoming an eBay buyer or an eBay seller, you can do both, in as little as a few minutes. eBay, as previously mentioned, is considered one the most shopped at online marketplaces. For you, this means that if you are looking to make money on eBay, you should be able to do so and if you are interested in buying on eBay, you should be able to find millions of products to choose from.

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I don’t think that people really understand what’s going on when they get so stressed that they feel they can’t stand it any longer. Work related stress is very serious and can be very detrimental to your health.

My Dad was under a lot of stress about three years ago; I don’t think he even realized how big of a tole it was taking on his body. In fact, it got so bad that he ended up checking himself into a hospital which ended in him being flown by helicopter to a larger hospital. We were told to prepare for the worst. My heart sunk; I couldn’t lose him, I simply couldn’t. The doctor came out later to inform us that my Dad had a heart attack when he first got to the hospital and that they were doing everything they could for him. He also told us later that his heart attack had been caused by stress.

“Stress?” The thought didn’t just come to me, it hit me like a load of bricks. “Could stress really be so powerful that it could take away my Dad?” From that moment on, I realized what a powerful enemy stress can be. My Dad survived and is still working for the same company but he is a lot more careful about managing his stress levels now.

Here are some things that could have helped my Dad that could very likely help you before it’s too late.

Know when you’ve reached your limit

There’s only so much stress that one person can handle. You need to pay attention so you know the warning signs your body gives you before you reach the limit. Stress comes to all of us in different ways. It could come as anxiety, shortness of breath, slurred speech, drowsiness, and fatigue, among many other signs of stress.

If you experience these symptoms for a prolonged period of time it has been suggested that you seek medical help. In some communities there are free stress management courses.

Stop stressing over things you have no control over

The human body has enough things to stress over without you having to give it more. My sister used to recite a poem to me every time I would get stressed out over something trivial that I really couldn’t change. I’m not sure where it originated but she got it from a co-worker of hers many years ago. It reads:

For every worry under the sun,
there is a remedy or there is none.
If there is one, hurry and find it
if there is none, never mind it.

If you’re stressing over things that aren’t your responsibility or anything you don’t have direct control over then STOP! You don’t deserve to have to stress over everyone else’s jobs and lives.

Organize your work according to priorities

Organization is often key to stress relief. There have been some days when I have made a list and then numbered the items according to priority. I then get to work taking on the tasks one by one until they are all crossed out and defeated.

Exercise Your Way Out of Stress

Have you ever had that urge to run and not stop for miles. For some people, running, playing sports or any other kind of physical exercise is a natural stress reliever. If you’re in a condition to exercise I would suggest trying this. Even going for a walk in a safe neighborhood can help release stress.

Serve Someone Else

Look around you and find someone who has circumstances worse than your own or who is having a bad day (there’s always going to be someone) and do something nice for them. Serving others has been proven to reduce personal stress levels. I have also read about people volunteering once a month with their family at a soup kitchen or something similar. There are always people around you who need to be served. All you have to do is look around.

I remember one particular day when I was over-stressed; I was reaching my limit and I could tell I was about to come to my wits end. Off to the side of the road was an older woman trying desperately to clean up some sticks and bark before the rain came. I’m not sure why I stopped, but I did. I started helping her and, as we raked, we began to talk. She managed to reduce my stress by helping me solve my problems. My stress seemed to be raked away with the rest of the debris which had accumulated in Beth’s yard.

Try some of these techniques, they may save your life one day.

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Business originated as bartering for this good or that, trading one service or good for another within a village. It then branched out to trading with neighboring villages and eventually with neighboring countries. That’s how we have such things as chocolate, tobacco, silk, etc. Not a whole lot of advertising was taking place at the time, especially since these items were delicacies to foreign markets and were accepted with open arms.

Now we’ve developed into a global market place where commodities can be traded back and forth with companies across the world, all in a matter of moments. With the invention of the World Wide Web someone in the United States can buy a product from someone in China at the click of a mouse. Pretty cool huh, considering we started off using caravans of carts and horses taking extensive journeys to trade.

Thanks to technical advancements such as the Internet, we can now market to the entire world at the click of a mouse, well, to all those with an Internet connection that is. Don’t think that you can get away without market research simply because you can market with a click of the mouse. That’s where a lot of people go wrong; they think that everything should be able to be done in an instant. Cultural differences and government regulations are just a couple of the details that many forget about in their haste to start a business.

Identify Critical Cultural Differences

If you’ve never searched for funny cross-cultural differences, I think you should. If you’re in the mood for a good laugh, this is one way you can get it. For example, when General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova to South America it wasn’t selling very well. They quickly realized that “Nova”, in Spanish, means “it won’t go”. The car was renamed and, big surprise, sales went up.

This example was mainly with brick and mortar establishments but it really does apply to Internet business as well. Be weary of how you market things, what your slogans mean, what colors you use, and the entire atmosphere of the campaign.

Familiarize Yourself With Government Regulations

There are so many regulations to business in foreign countries that, in some cases, it’s easier to hire a professional to figure out what you need to do. If you would like to go global, make sure that you are aware of the different government regulations surrounding imports and exports, this includes e-commerce. Also, realize that in some countries, when you ship a product to the consumer, the product may end up sitting in customs for weeks waiting for someone to approve it. This is why it is imperative that you find out as much about shipping to/from a particular country as possible.

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