An online community could be a chat room, e-maildiscussion list, discussion forum or other technologiesthat allow groups of people to communicate at yourweb site. When you have a popular online communityit will increase your traffic and sales. Below are tenways to attract people to participate in your onlinecommunity.
1. Tell your visitors that you post a new, free offerevery day, week or month in your online community.The free offers should be attractive to your targetaudience.
2. Regularly schedule experts or famous guests toparticipate in your online community. You coulddesign it to be a virtual class or a question/answersession.
3. Post testimonials on your web site from peoplethat have participated in your online community.The testimonials could be about what people havelearned or liked while participating in it.
4. Don't allow blatant ads in your online communities.If people decide to visit your online community andsee a ton of ads they most likely won't be back.
5. Post all the benefits of participating in your onlinecommunity on your web site. You could write it likeyou're writing an ad for a product you're selling.
6. Submit your chat room, e-mail discussion list ordiscussion board to online community directories.You can find them by typing " the community type"with the word "directory" in any search engine.
7. Create an e-zine just for people who participatein your online community. Allow them to subscribefor free. When they receive each issue, it will remindthem to come back and participate in your community.
8. You (the owner of the online community) shouldparticipate regularly. Post information that will benefitthe other people. This will show them you care aboutyour online community members.
9. Have plenty of people to monitor your onlinecommunity. They could remove postings that turnaway people like profanity, spam and other off-subject postings.
10. Your online community should contain userfriendly features, like a search option for archiveddiscussions, easy posting or chatting options, emailupdates or digests, etc.
Thursday, 4 September 2008
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
10 Ways To Increase Sales By Promoting Yourself
People will feel more comfortable purchasing yourproducts if you give them a little information aboutyourself or business. The information could be yourprofile, employee profiles, overall business history,education credentials, awards you've won, etc.Below are 10 ways you can use to promote yourself.
1. Teach a free chat room class on a subject relatedto your business. You could install a chat room onyour web site or use a free one from another web site.Before the class starts tell them a little about yourself.
2. Publish a free e-zine. Use some of the extra spacein your e-zine to write about yourself or business. Thiscould be called "A Note From the Editor".
3. Publish a section on your web site called "AboutUs". With your information you could also includepictures. This shows people your not hiding behindyour business.
4. Write an article on your area of expertise. Includea resource box at the end of the article. You can addinformation about yourself in the resource box. E-mailthe article to web sites or e-zines that accept articlesubmissions.
5. Create and giveaway a free ebook. In the ebookinclude a section called "About The Author". Also,include an advertisement for your business.
6. Participate in online communities like newsgroups,discussion boards, e-mail discussion lists and chatrooms. You will meet many people and in return theywill get to know you.
7. Donate your time, products, or services to charities.You can list the charities you've contributed to on yourweb site. This will show visitors that you and yourbusiness care about others.
8. Promote yourself offline; teach a free class offline,speak at business seminars, join a business club orassociation. Assemble fundraisers for charity. Theseare just few ideas to promote yourself offline.
9. Offer free consulting to your visitors. You could doit via e-mail or phone. They will get to know you andfeel more comfortable buying your products.
10. Publish information about yourself and businesshistory in your ad copy. While people are reading itthey begin to trust you and your business. Don't overdo it though, you want to keep them interested inyour product.
1. Teach a free chat room class on a subject relatedto your business. You could install a chat room onyour web site or use a free one from another web site.Before the class starts tell them a little about yourself.
2. Publish a free e-zine. Use some of the extra spacein your e-zine to write about yourself or business. Thiscould be called "A Note From the Editor".
3. Publish a section on your web site called "AboutUs". With your information you could also includepictures. This shows people your not hiding behindyour business.
4. Write an article on your area of expertise. Includea resource box at the end of the article. You can addinformation about yourself in the resource box. E-mailthe article to web sites or e-zines that accept articlesubmissions.
5. Create and giveaway a free ebook. In the ebookinclude a section called "About The Author". Also,include an advertisement for your business.
6. Participate in online communities like newsgroups,discussion boards, e-mail discussion lists and chatrooms. You will meet many people and in return theywill get to know you.
7. Donate your time, products, or services to charities.You can list the charities you've contributed to on yourweb site. This will show visitors that you and yourbusiness care about others.
8. Promote yourself offline; teach a free class offline,speak at business seminars, join a business club orassociation. Assemble fundraisers for charity. Theseare just few ideas to promote yourself offline.
9. Offer free consulting to your visitors. You could doit via e-mail or phone. They will get to know you andfeel more comfortable buying your products.
10. Publish information about yourself and businesshistory in your ad copy. While people are reading itthey begin to trust you and your business. Don't overdo it though, you want to keep them interested inyour product.
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
10 Ways Outsourcing Can Help Grow Your Business
Outsourcing is when you hire outside professionals or services to take on part of your business workload. You may want to outsource part of your work because you don't have the room, you need an expert, you have periodic busy periods, or you need more production to get orders out on time, etc. The following are ten ways outsourcing can save your business time and money.
1. You won't have to take the time to train employees. This will allow you to spend more time working on your marketing and advertising campaign.
2. You won't have to do time consuming tasks like adding on new equipment or learning new software to complete certain tasks. This will allow you to spend more time testing your advertisements.
3. You won't have to interview employee candidates. This will allow you to spend more time improving your customer service, in return you will get more repeatpurchases.
4. You won't have to fill out all the employee paper work like tax forms, scheduling, retirement plans, etc. This will allow you to spend more time developing new products.
5. You won't have to buy extra office or work space to complete certain tasks. You can use all the money you save on other business expenses.
6. You won't have spend money on employee costs like taxes, medical, vacation time, holidays, workers comp., unemployment costs, etc. (These may vary depending on which country you do business in.)
7. You can speed up you order and delivery system with the extra help. Your customers will appreciate the fast service and you'll have a higher chance that they will buy from you again.
8. You could expand your market share by becoming a middleman and offering your subcontractors products or services. This will increase your business profits and give you multiple income streams.
9. You can take on extra or large orders your business couldn't handle before. This will expand your market share and you could also offer to take the work your competition can't handle.
10. You could get end up receiving orders from your subcontractors. Your subcontractors may also tell other people about your business.
1. You won't have to take the time to train employees. This will allow you to spend more time working on your marketing and advertising campaign.
2. You won't have to do time consuming tasks like adding on new equipment or learning new software to complete certain tasks. This will allow you to spend more time testing your advertisements.
3. You won't have to interview employee candidates. This will allow you to spend more time improving your customer service, in return you will get more repeatpurchases.
4. You won't have to fill out all the employee paper work like tax forms, scheduling, retirement plans, etc. This will allow you to spend more time developing new products.
5. You won't have to buy extra office or work space to complete certain tasks. You can use all the money you save on other business expenses.
6. You won't have spend money on employee costs like taxes, medical, vacation time, holidays, workers comp., unemployment costs, etc. (These may vary depending on which country you do business in.)
7. You can speed up you order and delivery system with the extra help. Your customers will appreciate the fast service and you'll have a higher chance that they will buy from you again.
8. You could expand your market share by becoming a middleman and offering your subcontractors products or services. This will increase your business profits and give you multiple income streams.
9. You can take on extra or large orders your business couldn't handle before. This will expand your market share and you could also offer to take the work your competition can't handle.
10. You could get end up receiving orders from your subcontractors. Your subcontractors may also tell other people about your business.
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