Off line marketing for your on line business

With the exploding numbers of on-line businesses, it is increasingly more difficult, and far more expensive, to market your business effectively on-line. Internet businesses are now turning to the off-line world to advertise. Here is what you can do to market your on-line business, in the off-line world, without going broke. Off-line marketing consists of print, direct mail and TV/Radio advertising. Although TV and Radio are the most effective means of off-line marketing, they are cost prohibitive for most on-line businesses. So for the purposes of this article, we will concentrate only on Print and Direct Mail. Print ads include everything from simple black & white flyers, distributed by hand at the mall, to a full-page color ad placed in a magazine. If you are a member of an industry organization, you can advertise in their related industry publications. This is the natural first choice when deciding which magazines or periodicals to advertise in. When placing print ads, you will need to place the largest ad you can reasonably afford. And you will need to run it consistently over several weeks in order for it to be truly effective. Depending on your type of business, you can place ads in local "Penny Savers" magazines and in local and regional newspapers at fairly reasonable rates. Additionally, posting or handing out flyers at malls, supermarkets, parking lots, etc. is another surprisingly cost-effective method of offline marketing. For example, if your site targets a certain industry, lets say “Arts & Crafts”, you can hand out flyers at the large retail arts and crafts stores, leaving flyers on customer’s cars in the parking lot. I think if you operate an Internet home business, unless you have a BIG marketing budget, you should stay away from placing ads in large magazines. Even small industry publications tend to be over-priced, and in order for your ad to be effective, once again, you must be consistent and place ads regularly. Just doing one-shots is really a waste of your money. Probably the most reasonable and, in my opinion, the most cost-effective means of advertising is Direct Mail Marketing. Direct mail ensures that your message gets directly into the hands of your potential customers. All it takes is a simple post card, with your message, mailed every three months and you’re set. Now compiling a mailing list to mail to is another story. My suggestion is to join professional organizations in your industry. Almost every industry has some sort of professional organization related to its field. Most of these organizations publish their own newsletters and magazines and maintain member mailing lists. These lists are usually available in printed format, or online; however, if you want them formatted for a database, you will most likely have to pay a rental or buy fee. If that doesn’t work for you can also purchase mailing lists from independent list brokers. Once you have your list you simply import it into a database, like Microsoft’s Access, and then you will easily be able to spit out letters and/or labels for your marketing materials and off they go right into the hands of your customers…very effective. Now the “down side” to direct mail is that it is very labor intensive. Someone has got to lick the stamps, place the mailing labels, sort, print, etc. This is where family comes in handy. Put your kids on the payroll and let the little buggers go to work. If not, there are mailing services available that will handle all of that for you for a fee. Keep in mind, as with all advertising, statistics show that it generally takes 7-8 times for a customer to be exposed to your message before they decide to take action. So needless to say, be sure your marketing budget allows for a long-term plan that includes multiple exposures. You will need to stay in your customers face constantly over an extended period of time, no matter what your offline marketing campaign may consist of. And using both the Print Ad and Direct Mail methods is important to your overall marketing success. “U can do it…just dive into it” Duh Idiot’s Home Biz Start-Up Guide™ © 2006 A Covert Operations, Ltd starting-a-home-business. org

To make money online you must commit

Are you completely overwhelmed by all of the money making websites and emails that you are bombarded with every day? I know that I am. Did you know that this is why most people will never succeed with an online business? This is what I call information overload! Internet Marketers count on this attribute to make their fortunes. They know that you are looking. They know that you are impressionable and they know that if their sales letter is strong enough then you are hooked. Then what happens to you? You just found the perfect product or idea, one that is guaranteed to give you the financial freedom and the wealth you are so desperately seeking. You read through the sales page, find your excitement building, order the product or just give your email address and deep down you know that this is “the one”. You receive the product or e-book, and then what? This is where it ends for most people. Before you even finish reviewing the product, provided that you even start, you move on to your next great idea. This last “great idea” just sits on your desktop, completely forgotten, collecting virtual dust. Your days of moving on Must Stop Now! There are many legitimate ways to make money online and a whole lot of hype revolving around them. Now is the time to make a decision. You can not succeed without a plan. Find a product--Evaluate it--Research it--Do it--Stick with it! Do most people fail because of lack of knowledge? Lack of ideas? Lack of resources? No! Most people fail because of lack of commitment. Everybody wants to make money online. Everybody wants to fire their boss. Everybody wants to work from home. Everybody does not have what it takesmitment. You are told that you can make a fortune by signing up with such and such program. Pay the small fee, do a few simple steps and watch the money pour in. Bam you’re rich. There is no such thing! Whatever you do, whatever you join is going to take hard work, time, and commitment. The reward, however, can be great. You can work from home, you can make more money online than in any conventional job and you can become financial free. It is time to join among the ranks of the successful Internet marketers. The fact that you are reading this article shows me that you have what it takes. Chances are that you already have an idea about what you would like to do. Research this idea, build upon and most importantly, do it! When you are presented with other ideas, think about how they can fit in with your current project. If they don’t, discard them. If they do, then pick out the useful parts and utilize them, ignore the rest This article is not to sell you on any program. I am not trying to pitch the next big thing. I am trying to have you reach deep inside of yourself and to have you make a decision on what to do. Stop making everyone else rich on your uncertainty. Make a commitment and create your own path to financial freedom. Make a plan, stay focused, commit and most importantly--never ever give up!