7 Steps to Survive in Challenging Times

Advertising & Marketing Communications spending is one of the first things companies decide to cut when faced with slowing sales. Advertising agencies have already started feeling the pinch. Ad people are anxious and scared as well. So, what do you do to survive this critical phase and come out victorious. You must fight back! Here is your survival guide:

1. Promote your agency more aggressively -

Doing nothing only leads to failure. This moment is the test of your leadership. Go out there, and face the recession head-on. Promote your agency more aggressively than ever before. Relentlessly pursue new business leads. Re-negotiate costs with your vendors, IT providers and even with your landlord! Generate great business-building ideas for your existing clients. All these will fuel you and your agency with renewed energy.

2. Be there for the client -

Do not take your clients for granted even for a single day. Make sure that you personally visit each of your clients in the same month. Your clients need your help like never before, for they're now seeking answers to kick-start their sales and get rolling. If their agency stands by them in this battle, enabling them to invent new solutions, they will most likely never forget you once the good times resurface

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3. Create opportunities -

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Don't wait for the chance. Meet as many people as possible. There is always an opportunity to capitalize on. Collaborate with your partners, tie up with complimentary service providers and forge strategic alliances. Remember, somewhere a potential client is planning to take advantage of the downturn. Keep your eyes and ears open. If you just sit back and wait for the next new-business win, you are simply waiting for a disaster to take over.

4. Think Smart. Work Harder -

In your efforts to fight back the downturn, be sure your agency's work is as smart as it can be. Put in those extra hours. Ask yourself: Is the message as relevant today as it was six months ago? Is it as cost effective? Is there a better and perhaps cheaper medium to communicate the message? Maintain the integrity of your agency's work throughout these times, and you will surely earn the trust and respect of your clients.

5. Don't stop innovations -

Slow client spending is not an excuse to go conservative with your work. Don't play safe. If you think you are going to hold on to your clients by being extra cautious with your work, you might give your clients an excuse to switch to another agency that will continue to take intelligent risks. Recession is the ideal time to innovate and experiment. Suggest media innovations. Try your hand and unleash your creativity online through blogs, social media and viral campaigns.

6. Improve internal communication -

Do not sit quietly in your cabin and distance yourself from the staff. Get up and mingle with your staff and let them know what's going on with the agency. Feel the pulse of your own team. Better internal communication only makes the team stronger. Also, do not stop looking for the best talent. This economic downturn has put a lot of really good people on the street. Now may be a rare opportunity to upgrade your staff strength. Provide creative stimulation to engage your employees. Keep the spirits up to make sure that the happiness quotient remains high in your office.

7. Stay focused -

Just because times are tough, your agency shouldn't move away from the strategic course you set. Be it a plan to differentiate your agency or expand into new services, stay true to your long term goals even if it takes a little longer for them to materialize. When the economy turns around, you'll have the wind at your back.

10 Top Tips For Improving Your Cash Flow

It's not all about the Profit and Loss Statement. You need to watch cash flow too. Follow these 10 top tips which might just ease your Cash Crunch problems.

1. Watch Cash Flow Daily

Most business owners are used to judging their business performance by looking at Profit and Loss. The P&L statement does provide good solid information on the health of the business. But in these days of Cash Crunch a cash flow statement is far more important. Look at your cash flow daily. Put it at the top of your To Do list each day and bear it in mind throughout the day. Ask yourself, "What will this decision do for our cash flow?"

2. Collect Cash - NOW!

It's stating the obvious but collecting what's owed to you is often a great first step. Look at those unpaid sales invoices, find out why they've not been paid and assign responsibility appropriately. Get the right person to sort out the problem and don't just leave it to the credit controller in accounts. It may be something simple like 'send a copy', or a quiet reminder on the phone, or it may be something more serious. Find out today and do something positive NOW.

3. Reduce Costs

This is the knee jerk answer to lack of cash: cut costs to match the falling income. But as the weeks go by it may become clear that such a move was cutting your own throat. Think very carefully about what you are spending your money on. Does it make sense? Does this expenditure contribute to sales? If you do decide to reduce expenditure, make a detailed plan - and tell everybody about it, so that they understand and work with you.

4. Negotiate a Better Deal

Cutting the cost, paying less, does not always work. Cheap is not necessarily good. It's better to look at 'value for money'. Can you get more for your money and make your business more efficient as a result? Remember, the businesses you're dealing with are having the same problems. They don't want to lose your business and they will talk constructively to maintain your custom. Negotiate on price, specification and delivery - and don't forget to ask about payment terms. For you, 60 days is better than 30 days, but don't cut their throat in the process.

5. All for One and One for All

Make sure everybody looks after cash flow. It's not just the accounts department that is responsible for cash in the bank. Get your managers and all staff to think about cash. If someone's delivering to a customer, can they collect a cheque whilst they're there - saving the customer postage - and you get the cheque in the bank faster? Ask your sales team to consider cash too. They may negotiate a great sale, but when will you get paid - will you get paid...or will that new customer have gone bust by then?

6. Use it or Lose it

This is not something that everybody can use but it's worth asking the question, particularly in the run up to the end of the tax year. Do you have customers with 'use it or lose it' budgets? Where the answer is 'yes', speak to those customers and ask what you can do to help them. Find out how their financial budget works and come up with a mutual back-scratching solution. Don't wait until April - find out today!

7. Use Assets Wisely

Look at your fixed assets. Do you need all those vehicles? Are your premises being utilised to the full? Watch your stock levels too. Having stock sitting on shelves is parking cash to collect dust. Think about what stock and assets generate cash. Make those that generate cash work harder for you - and consider ditching the rest. If an asset isn't earning money, why is it there? If stock isn't selling, why is it not selling, and do you need that stock?

8. Change Your Charging

I used to say "why bill monthly in arrears, when you could bill quarterly in advance?" There was a lot to be said for that in the cash-rich past and certainly if you can go down that road now it is worth doing. However, your customers are probably cash poor too and consequently won't want an enormous bill at the start of the quarter; they may walk away. Consider periodicity as a way to make it easier for customers to pay. Small monthly bills, even in advance, may make life easier for your customers - making it easier for you to keep them coming back for more.

9. Outsource

When cash is in short supply and the future may be uncertain, investing cash in new machinery may be unwise, but you still need to produce the goods. New people, with full time salaries, are costly investments especially when you add in all the associated costs. Consider outsourcing some of your production to someone who has spare capacity or machinery lying idle. Consider a VA rather than a PA. You'll still be able to get the work done, but you won't have such a big cash commitment. Outsourcing aids flexibility too, allowing you to respond to the changing environment.

10. Live the Life

They say that actions speak louder than words. As the boss, you need to lead by example. Don't just tell your staff what needs to be done - do it yourself. When you're out meeting customers, bring back a cheque if there's one to be collected. Travel economy, not business class. If you live the life you're asking your staff to live, they'll follow you and you'll all be successful together. Whatever you do, don't sit in your ivory tower avoiding the pain whilst making them suffer because, before you know it, you'll be very lonely - and broke!

7 Don'ts to Avoid Like Bad Company

There are right and wrong ways to network, and you've probably seen them all at one networking event or another. Sabotage your own networking efforts and decrease your networking productivity by ignoring these seven prohibitions.

Don't lie, stretch the truth, or exaggerate.

Be known for your honesty and integrity. These character qualities are as much a part of your brand as your logo and tag line and much more precious. People buy from those they know, like, and trust.

Don't brag.

Be a problem-solver and a giver instead of a braggart. If you can't help bragging, speak highly of others by mentioning their product or service as the solution to a frustrating or frequent problem. Be generous with referrals and recommendations. Not only do people appreciate your thoughtfulness, they will also often reciprocate.

Don't always talk about yourself.

Be a conversationalist. Ask leading questions. Draw others in. Remember that the only good thing about egotists and those who monopolize conversations is that they will never talk about you behind your back. Give others an opportunity to talk about themselves and to say nice things about you.

Don't forget to listen.

Be an exceptional listener and you may stand alone in a crowd of people crowing about their accomplishments. By listening, you become more approachable and more engaging. You also develop keen insight into the wants and needs of your prospects and clients, becoming known as someone who cares.

Don't be negative.

Be an encourager. There are enough sources of doom and gloom without adding your voice to the tumult. Offer positive feedback. Propose workable solutions. A thoughtless remark or an uncaring attitude can have long-lasting impact on your relationships and your business. A kind word, a caring phone call, or a thank you note may be remembered (and make you memorable) long after the exact words are forgotten.

Don't go without a plan.

Be intentional in your interactions with people. Find out more about another person. Follow up on a previous conversation. Provide what you have promised. Ask how you can help.

Don't forget to show up.

Be present both physically and mentally. Participate and increase your ability to make connections, build relationships, and make the most of networking opportunities. Make a difference by being present at events and in the lives of others and you will more readily come to mind when your product or service is needed.

Don't sabotage your networking efforts. Pay attention to these rules: don't lie, don't brag, don't always talk about yourself, don't forget to listen, don't be negative, don't go without a plan, and don't forget to show up. Enjoy productive networking by being good company.

Evaluating The CEO - 10 Tips For Process And Content

The organization's Board of Directors is responsible for evaluating the performance of the chief executive officer. Boards who are not taking this function seriously are making a big mistake. Skipping performance reviews tells the CEO that he/she is not valued enough to warrant such an investment of time, energy, and effort by his/her supervisors. This is a poor message to send the person who bears all of the burdens of a company or agency.

Sometimes Boards ignore evaluations because they simply don't know how to conduct them. The purpose of this article is to provide critical tips around both process and content related to assessing the work of the individual in charge. If YOU currently serve on a Board-regardless of whether the organization is large or small, make sure the following are happening:

1. Evaluate the CEO on an annual basis without exception.

Ideally, CEO evaluations should be handled by the Executive Committee and scheduled for the same time each fiscal year. Year-end is a good time to do them, for example. There are times when evaluations need to occur more frequently, however. At the conclusion of a new hire's probationary period (whatever length of time that is) the first evaluation should occur. Within three months of an unsatisfactory annual review another evaluation should take place to follow up on progress made pertaining to serious deficiencies. Giving a poor or questionable evaluation to a CEO and then failing to put forth standards for expected changes and corresponding time frames for demonstrating those changes is unacceptable behavior on the part of the Board.

2. Incorporate a self-evaluation into the overall process.

The Board's Executive Committee needs to decide upon meaningful foci for the CEO's self-evaluation. This needs to be done well in advance of evaluation process implementation. Suggestions for content include: discuss in writing how well the strategic plan objectives have been met during the year, reasons for not meeting particular objectives, specific struggles encountered in the position and how those may be overcome, and personal barriers to success on the job. A secure Board may even ask the CEO to evaluate his/her relationship with the Board of Directors, discussing what is working effectively and what could be improved from that person's viewpoint. Most Boards, unfortunately, are not open to this sort of candid feedback.

3. Seek input from employees representing various layers of the organization.

Members of the Executive Committee can conduct twenty minute face to face or telephone interviews with a sampling of the staff to gain insight into how folks experience the CEO firsthand on a regular basis. This piece of the process is critical. Because the Board is somewhat removed or totally removed from day to day operations, they should spend time with the people who know what is actually happening. Frequently, Boards skip this piece, and it's a mistake to do so. It's difficult to evaluate somebody from fifty miles away. Meeting with staff allows the Board to get an up close and personal view of reality.

4. Measure CEO performance primarily against the job description, job standards, and the strategic plan.

While these three documents provide the meat for evaluating any CEO, the rub lies in how comprehensive and clear they are in the first place. Incomplete, poorly constructed documents can lead to an ineffective, useless, and potentially disastrous evaluation. The Board needs to make sure that they are reasonable, well written, and relevant to the current work environment BEFORE trying to measure CEO performance against them. Otherwise it is unfair to the executive. If a Board has a certain expectation of the CEO, it better appear in one of these documents. Inventing expectations at the last minute - apart from what's on paper - isn't credible.

5. Assess how well the CEO grows other people.

Leadership is more than meeting or exceeding revenue/profit goals. How much and how well does the executive invest in the company's employees? Exactly what does that investment look like? Or isn't it happening at all? Do people feel motivated to excel in their jobs? Are they recognized for outstanding contributions? Are they given appropriate freedoms? Are they given the opportunity to voice their creative ideas? Are they granted permission to attend professional development workshops and seminars and then share what they've learned? A Board can find out the answers to these questions simply by asking the staff.

6. Examine the CEO's interpersonal skills and their effect upon the organization.

A Board needs to know how well their chief executive officer interacts with others, if he/she praises others and makes them feel valued, how he/she criticizes people, if he/she engages in personal interest conversations with them, if he/she can inspire employees to reach for the stars. A CEO tool box lacking effective interpersonal skills strongly implies that this particular CEO may not work out at this particular company or any company for that matter. In fact, interpersonal skills count for a great deal when one looks at the whole package. Whether an extrovert or an introvert, the CEO has to be able to get along with others in all sorts of situations.

7. Check the CEO's ability to manage conflict, risk, and organizational change.

This area cannot be overlooked or minimized. Most Boards know what's going on here just by the nature of Board work. How does the CEO deal with conflict between him/herself and another Board member? Between Board members themselves? What observations can be made? How does the CEO present various risks and upcoming changes to the Board? Does he/she face them head-on or shy away from such discussions? Again, what does the Board observe here? CEOs give many clues about their performance during Board meetings as well as during less formal interactions with individual Board members. The key is that the Board has to pay attention to those clues. Sadly, many folks "sleep" in Board meetings, ignore definite signs of trouble, or tend to go along with the crowd when opinions are voiced. Why? It's easier to function like this than to pay close attention, take a stand, express a different view, and/or truly get involved.

8. Identify the CEO's efforts to develop him/herself personally and professionally.

It's tough to grow others if the CEO is doing nothing to grow him/herself. Does the CEO value growth in general? Is he/she reading trade magazines, attending seminars, conferences, and workshops, joining professional groups, networking with other executives? Is he/she seeking a mentor and/or mentoring someone else? Has he/she considered the benefits to hiring a coach? A therapist if necessary? Boards may think these things aren't their business, but they are wrong. All of these things are Board business. Who wants a chief executive who pooh-poohs personal and professional development? When this type of a person heads up an organization, watch out! Whatever happens-or doesn't happen-at the top trickles down throughout the multiple layers of the company and has a huge impact.

9. Develop a corrective action plan that addresses cited deficiencies.

Just talking about what isn't working can never be enough. The Board Chair needs to include deficiencies in the written evaluation, discuss them clearly with the executive, AND create an action plan for correcting problems and/or developing important skills that are currently lacking. An action plan serves as a road map. It is something the Board can use to measure progress over the next few months. Ideally, the CEO buys into the plan and is motivated to make the changes the Board desires. Some negotiation may occur, depending upon the issues. Both the CEO and the Board Chair should then sign the action plan to seal the deal, so to speak.

10. Establish an evaluation environment that invites dialogue.

The formal evaluation of the CEO should never be a one-way communique from the Board Chair. It is not a diatribe or a thesis to be delivered without comment. The Board Chair is not a dictator. The Board Chair is a facilitator of information that, in the best scenario, leads to positive growth for the executive and improvement for the organization at large. The evaluation process must not become a power struggle between the two people. When that happens, much is lost. A great strategy plays out like this: the Board Chair relays an observation about something and asks the CEO how he/she views that same thing. Where do the differences lie, if any exist? Discussion focuses upon the differences in perception. In cases where the gap is wide, both individuals need to hammer out what each can live with in order to reach some kind of consensus around how to move forward. But evaluations are not contests where one person wins and the other loses.

Ten Tips to Accelerate Your Business Success

Having started your business, you constantly think of the ways to make your business a success because success in business is unpredictable, variable and uncertain. The following tips may be of use to accelerate your success:

1. Being the owner of a small business, you should find out your area of strength and concentrate on it. You have limited resources which should be utilized efficiently. You can not be good at everything. Therefore if you stick to your area of expertise, you can become the best in that and your business will definitely grow.

2. Though you are small, you can beat the big players in your area of expertise, because big companies have their own hurdles. With more creative use of your flexibility, you can respond to customers' queries and demands quicker than the big players and your services will be more personalized.

3. Your business should offer unique solutions to customers' requirements. For doing this, you should study the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and how they deal with customers and the support services they offer. If you differentiate your offers, your products, your packaging, etc., you can offer better solutions to satisfy your customers.

4. The way in which you and your employees respond to customers makes all the difference. Customers must be treated with respect and even if you do not have solutions to their problems or if you are not able to guide them to the right source, they should be informed of this in a polite and courteous manner.

5. Quality of your products and your support services are the two pillars on which success of your business can be built. You should never compromise on these two things. At the same time, you should think through and put in place effective price control measures.

6. The changing business environment, market trends, fashion, lifestyle of people, etc. demand that you should also keep on improving your products. When the whole world is changing, you should also break free from the shackles of some of the debilitating systems of the past.

7. You should remember that you are not selling products. It is more about creating a durable relationship with your customers. If you give the most appropriate solution to your customer's requirements, this relationship gets strengthened. The customer becomes a loyal customer and by word of mouth, your business gets popular. For making your products demand-driven, you should completely understand their requirements. You should adopt the strategy of dialogue with your customers and listen to them with all attention so that you can come out with the most suitable solution to their problems.

8. You should have a business plan for succeeding in your business. This business plan should contain your short-term and urgent goals, long-term goals, your sales targets, costs, financial plans, implementation of contingency plans, etc. It should also contain your plans for tackling road-blocks much before they occur. These hurdles present opportunities to you to fast-track the required changes in your business that will help insulate it from future obstacles. You should put in place amenable systems for tracking your performance and if there is any deviation from the business plan, you should immediately take corrective steps to bring the business back on the right track. Preparation of the business plan is to reduce the adverse impact of unfavourable conditions and maximize the benefits of favourable situations.

9. You should always try to improve your systems, products, procedures and processes of doing your business. This will improve the quality of your business, simplify the routine work and improve the efficiency of the business.

10. You may have observed that successful entrepreneurs seem to have more leisure time than others. This is because they work smart. They give a lot of importance to time. Their mode of tackling problems is always proactive and not post-facto. They are flexible and they know their weaknesses. To offset their weaknesses, they will take the guidance from experts or try to acquire the required skills. They do not stagnate. They keep on moving because they know pretty well that in this competitive world, if you want to be stationary, you should keep running. Their lives offer all the right steps in the right direction that make for compelling emulation so that you can also be successful in your endeavors.

Top 10 Keys to Success

In 2002 I started my own home business after my 20th year of teaching kids. When you move from employee to entrepreneur, there's certain steps that lead you from point A to point B. I didn't magically appear at point B, it was a step by step process. Yes, I'm successful with my home business because I understand the power of these Top 10 Keys To Success.

1. THE KNOWING

Knowing is everything. If you know that you'll be successful, your success is assured given time, skills and persistence. but If you're doubting if you'll be successful, then the odds are against you. Knowing is the faith in the unseen. Seeing it first in your mind before it actually manifests physically. Knowing is an absolute certainty. You're not wondering, wishing or thinking, you'll be successful...you know it.

2. BE CONSISTENT

Where do most people fail? In being consistent. I know for me in the beginning this is where I was coming up short. Sometimes I give 100% and sometimes it would be 10%. With those numbers, my business was hot and cold. It wasn't until I was consistently consistent each day that my business reflected it.

3. PERSISTENCE

I have persisted many times when I actually felt like crawling into bed and not getting up...but I kept going because I knew that every successful person faces adversity. If there were no problems, then everyone would be working from home creating large incomes. Of course, there's been problems! Like the time I placed this large ad and put the wrong 800 number in the ad. Or the time I was talking to a prospect and couldn't remember who I was talking to. Persistence is absolutely the key to success.

4. FOLLOW YOUR OWN HEART

With any business, there are always things to pull you off course and distract you. You've heard people say to "trust your gut," or "follow your instincts." I say follow your own heart. Here's how I decide which way to go sometimes. I ask myself, "Is this moving toward my goal or away from my goal?"

Fall in love with your business. I love personal development. Since first reading Norman Vincent Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking" in 1984, I was hooked. So what would be a good business match for me? Personal development. Decide what it is for you. Do you like travel, cooking, financial or organic products? There's a business for everyone out there. Follow your bliss! Find a business that you can be excited about...excited enough that sometimes you wake up at night thinking about the grand possibilities in your future.

5. ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

Having an attitude of gratitude will transform how your life looks. Why is that? Because gratitude is a high vibrational energy that is attracting great things to you. Be grateful for all things in your life. Keep a gratitude journal of 5 things each day that you're grateful for. When you see the world through appreciation, you'll manifest people around you that are resonating at the same level.

6. BE OPEN TO NEW THINGS

How many times do we get set in our ways and don't really want to learn new things or implement new ideas? Too often. Do you know that when I started my business in 2002 I had never sent an email? In fact, I didn't even own a computer. Sounds funny to even say that now! Be open to ideas, people, and circumstances that are new to you.

7. CELEBRATE YOUR WINS

Celebrate even the smallest of wins. So often people look at what's wrong or not working instead of what is working. Even when they accomplish a goal, they don't even acknowledge achieving it, instead they're already looking down the road for what's next. Celebrate each step forward toward your goal. Even if it's a check mark or a smiley face beside a daily goal. I love checking off my goals, I feel good when I do. So what do I do? I set all kinds of small goals for myself for the month so that each day or so, I'm checking off an accomplished goal.

8. UNDERSTAND THE LAW OF ATTRACTION

The Law of Attraction says that whatever you focus your energy and attention on, you will attract more of the same, whether it's wanted or unwanted. Yes, we all have monkey chatter that goes on in our heads, a great question to refocus your energy is, "So, what do you want?" This question changes your vibrational energy from negative to positive. When you find yourself talking about lack of customers, poor sales, falling bank account or computer issues, remember to ask yourself what you do want. Talk about what you do want and your life transforms.

9. BE THE LEADER

People are eager for leaders that can show them the way. Not quite sure of your goal? How can you expect others to follow if you don't know where you're headed? Get clear on where you're going with your goals and others will follow you.

Not sure how to start with your leadership? Connect with other leaders that have gone before you. Find others that you can mastermind with. This is so powerful! Looking to be a better parent? Find other successful parents that you can mentor with monthly. Looking to start your own business? Find a successful entrepreneur that is in your niche. Actively look for groups that can assist you. There's a multitude of groups online, just search them out.

10. SERVICE TO OTHERS

Being of service to others will always serve you. Call it "what comes around goes around," people that have a servant's heart will always attract great things because their intentions are pure.

Take a pay it forward mentality. This is key! Integrity is everything. Look for opportunities that you can assist others. Instead of paying others back for service or goods given to you, pay it forward to others. It's a wonderful feeling to experience!

10 Steps to Build a Compelling Vision

Are you building a new organization, launching a change effort, or just managing an organization through changing times? If you are, you will be much more effective if you communicate a clear compelling vision that sets the direction for your organization. A clear vision not only keeps your organization focused and motivated but also enables other organizations to fully engage and support you, ensuring your success.

Below is a list of 10 steps you can take to build a compelling vision.

1. Assess what is happening around you. Determine who your stakeholders are, and assess their needs and expectations of your organization. (Stakeholders can include major customers, partners, board members, peers, influential people within the organization) Find out how your stakeholders will measure your success. Then look externally and review how your competition is responding to changes in the market. Consider if there is anything you can learn from them.

2. Look for trends. As you do this analysis can you see any trends that you need to address. If things continue the way they are what will that mean for your organization?

3. Think Big. Give yourself some time to think about the opportunities in front of you. What is the biggest thing that you want to achieve. Think outside of the box. Don't limit your thinking. Is that big enough?

4. Think long term. Make sure that you are taking a long term view, and not being side tracked with short term needs or personal ambition.

5. Dream your vision. Take a moment. Imagine yourself in the future - one year from now. Write down what will be different in clear simple terms. Your organization has been successful. Describe what you have achieved and the key people that have contributed to your success. Describe the benefits that this brings to the company, your customers, partners and employees.

6. Have passion. Does this vision get you excited and motivated to act? Does it have meaning? If not, what would it take for you to have real passion for your vision? Revise your vision. Address any obstacles that are in your way.

7. Access the available resources. Review the capabilities of your existing resources. Are there any gaps? When you start to implement your vision you will need to address these gaps.

8. Invite others in. You are now ready to involve others in your planning. People generally like to collaborate and help. Be open to other's ideas and input and share your vision with them. Begin to build a joint plan for how to implement the vision.

9. Balance conviction vs. openness. As you communicate your vision, you need to believe that your vision is right while still being open to new ideas and suggestions from others. Without the support and commitment of others you cannot succeed.

10. Keep objective. Your vision is not you. If people reject your ideas they are not rejecting you. Keep your objectivity with you at all times so you can be open to suggestions that will improve your vision.

Ten Things to Think About When Writing a Business Plan

1. Whether you are raising money, borrowing it, or financing a new business yourself, you should force yourself to put into writing a detailed business plan for what you have in mind. Without one, you most likely will be unsuccessful at obtaining money. With one you can guide yourself and your management team through the entire start-up process in an organized and successful manner. That being said, having a written business plan is a must.

2. If you are raising money for your business, you should first carefully think about who potentially will be providing the funds to start the business. For example, if you are hoping to borrow from a bank, your plan should clearly address the risks involved in the business with emphasis on the new business's ability to pay back any loans obtained. If you are soliciting funds from investors or venture capitalists, your plan should emphasize the business's growth potential and it's subsequent return on invested capital. At every step of the way, you should be conscious of writing FOR and TO the targeted reader of your business plan.

3. Making a detailed outline of what you have in mind is probably the most important thing you can do before you actually start writing your plan. Take your time and give your outline a lot of thought. Organize your thoughts in simple phrases or sentences and number and letter each phrase or sentence. Break down big topics into smaller, detailed lists of specific things that must be researched or said. Composing a detailed outline can be tedious, but don't slack off on this crucial part of the process. Writing from a carefully written outline will give your business plan a definite beginning, middle, and end.

4. A business plan will achieve its objectives only if it is credible. Credibility is established by the people who will be involved in the venture and how various verifiable facts and statistics are used to support the proposed business idea. The industry or market niche in which the business will compete must be extensively researched. So too must the targeted customers of the business be analyzed and discussed. Much effort should be expended to thoroughly research these subjects by using information found in libraries, on the Internet, and from companies with pertinent databases for sale.

Another source of credible information can be obtained by interviewing industry experts, suppliers, competitors, and even potential customers themselves. The depth of knowledge and insight that can be conveyed in the business plan as a result of thorough research will go far to solidify the needed aura of credibility. Remember to keep track of where you sourced your information so that it can be properly footnoted in your business plan. Footnotes add to credibility.

5. Be organized from the start. You will be surprised at how much information you can collect in a very short period of time. It is imperative that you collect and organize your information in a manner that conforms with your outline. Set up labeled files at the onset. Have a separate, secure place to store them. Plan up front how you will collect and organize information gathered from the Internet on your computer. And don't just copy information from the Internet.

Keep track of the addresses from where the information came, in the likely event that you may want to revisit some sites for clarification or additional information. It sounds old fashioned, but keep paper and pen on your person and on your nightstand at all times. Write down every fleeting thought that comes into your head. In the busy pursuit of information, it's easy to forget an idea that popped into your head the day before or in the middle of the night.

6. The body of the business plan must contain the usual descriptive elements such as a clear statement of the business, the planned marketing strategies, a thorough analysis of the competition, a description of operational procedures, an honest list of perceived risks, and other written sections pertinent to the business idea. But what will set your business plan apart from others will be the insertion of a "compelling reason" why your business idea is unique. To just say "this business is different and therefore it will be successful" probably will be ignored or discounted by a sophisticated reader.

But if you build a story through the presentation of your researched facts and take the reader to a logical point where the uniqueness or cleverness of you business idea becomes apparent, he will be more than receptive to your idea when you state the "compelling reason" why your business idea is truly unique and will work. You will have drawn him in and captured his imagination. The "compelling reason" will make him receptive to all the other positive attributes your business idea represents.

7. The financial statements you include in your business plan should span three years with Year 1 broken down into 12 months and Years 2 & 3 broken down into quarters. They should contain both profit and loss and cash flow statements. Two important elements you should include in the financial section of your business plan is a clear statement of the assumptions that underlay your projected numbers and the obvious use of a conservative approach in projecting those numbers. Be thoughtful in your assumptions. Make them easy for your reader to understand. Base them on facts gleaned from your research that appear elsewhere in your business plan. Always take the lower side of any range of figures.

The important thing is for the numbers to work ie payoff the loans or give a reasonable return on investment. Bankers and investors are not impressed by big, optimistic numbers. They see them all the time. They are usually persuaded by that "compelling reason" why the business has a good chance of succeeding and reassured that the projected numbers are achievable because they are obviously conservative. Let their imaginations take your financial projections to higher, exciting levels on their own time.

8. Your business plan should contain detailed resumes of the principal people who will be involved in and/or running the new business. The resume section is often the second place venture capitalists go when they pick up a business plan. They first read the executive summary to get a general idea of what the business is all about, and then they go to the resume section to see who the players are. If they don't see competent, proven people with direct, related industry experience, they often discard the business plan right then and there. So be thoughtful on who you bring into the business and carefully design their resumes to highlight past experience and accomplishments that directly relate to your proposed business idea.

9. The Executive Summary should appear as the first section of your business plan and should be the last section you write. It is a synopsis of the business idea you have already carefully organized and written. It should give a broad overview of what the idea is, and should, in a page or two, give the reader a clear understanding of what the proposed business specifically does, into what industry it falls, what broad economic climate and competitive conditions exist within that industry, and what general elements of the business idea give the proposed business a chance of being successful.

It should contain summary figures on the return on investment or the loan payback. The Executive Summary is the first section the reader will examine so take your time with it, be concise and comprehensive, and consider it to be almost like an advertisement for your business idea. It should have a ton of optimism as opposed to the factual and objective tone you want the rest of your business plan sections to have. The Executive Summary is often the only shot you have at capturing the reader's attention, so be thoughtful when writing it.

Remember, most venture capitalists and bankers have stacks of business plans filling their offices waiting to be read. Often junior members of the firm are given the task of doing the initial sort before a plan will reach the eyes of a decision making partner or officer. The person who first reads your Executive Summary thus has the power to reject your proposal but usually not the power to approve it. He only passes it on, and if the Executive Summary can catch his eye and make him read further, it's done its job.

10. Subconscious impressions are very important to the success of a business plan document. How the document is organized, what type style is selected, the sparing use of italics or bold type, how varying paragraph indentations are used all make for either a positive or negative impression. Misspelled words are death as are serious violations of the proper use of grammar. Short concise sentences will communicate better than long rambling ones. Your objective is produce a professional looking and reading document that clearly communicates that you and your team are professionals and thus know what you are talking about.

Pass your draft business plan by people you respect and have them proof read it and critique it. Determine if they clearly understand the points described in it. If they don't, go back to the drawing board and rewrite the sections in question. Take a lot of time on this final review and edit process. It is the last and probably most important step you can take for creating a successful business plan.

7 Tips For Business Owners and Managers

None of us have all the answers when it comes to running our own business. It can often be a lonely place, particularly when business is not so good. However, you do not need to go it alone as there are plenty of options for help and advice. It is worth considering one or more of the following tips to help you gain perspective on your business and maybe get a little bit of external help through difficult times.

1. Join a small business network

2. Visit online small business forums

3. Consider getting a management consultant or business coach on your team

4. Invite retired business professionals to sit on your Board

5. Seek a mentor in a larger company to oversee your progress

6. Talk to your small business banking specialist

7. Go it alone but harvest best business practices from article publishing web sites

There are loads of different small business networks out there that are formed to provide a platform for other small business owners, like you, to help each other. The reality is that many businesses will be experiencing the same challenges as you and some of them will have already addressed your particular problems in relation to their own business. Conversely, you will have solved some of the problems that other business owners are experiencing. This sharing of experiences, information and support is hugely beneficial and membership costs are minimal.

Some of us are not joiners by nature and would prefer to avoid breakfast meetings in the early hours of the morning. Therefore, a more suitable option may be to join one or more online small business forums. This can be done on a semi-anonymous basis and you may choose to use the forum as much or as little as you desire. It provides the same type of support as small business networks and can be a bridge to interacting with other business owners with similar challenges to yours.

Hiring a management consultant or business coach does not have to be a hugely expensive endeavour for your business. You can start with a short term contract to have him/her visit with you once per month to act as a sounding board and to help chart your ship through rough waters. If he/she has done work in your industry segment before there is a huge value added component that can be brought to the table.

Many successful retired business people in your area may be chomping at the bit to get involved in something new. After all, there is only so much golf they can play. The value they can bring to your business is enormous and their business connections could transform your business. Talk to some of the retired executives in your locality and invite them to get involved.

Some of the larger businesses in your area may have a strong community spirit and want to give something back to the community. You will know the good ones from local newspapers and magazines. Contact some of them and invite one of their senior executives to work with you as a mentor to your business.

Bankers have a bad name in the current economic climate but there are many specialists dealing with small businesses that have tremendous experience in advising companies like yours on a whole range of business issues. Chances are that they have seen your type of business issues before and can offer advice. This service is usually free.

7 Top Reasons For Writing Or Not Writing a Business Plan

Many entrepreneurs and small business owners have never written a business plan and really do not see the need for one. Here are 7 top reasons why you should not, and 7 top reasons why you should, write one.

• 7 top reasons often given for not writing a business plan.

1. Written plans are only for big companies

2. I am in control of my business and do not need a plan

3. I do not have the time to waste on such luxuries

4. I can always do one next year

5. My bank has never asked for one

6. I will only need one plan if I want to attract external investors

7. The business is too small to need one

• 7 top reasons why you should write a business plan

1. The simple process of writing a plan forces you to analyse where your business is right now

2. Involving team members helps you to understand some of the mistakes you are making as well as some of the things you do really well

3. The planning process encourages members of your team to contribute ideas on the future success of your business

4. It allows you to understand where you are heading to and to communicate this to team members and gain their commitment

5. It allows you to do a gap analysis on where you are now compared to where you hope to be in 3 or 5 years time

6. It allows you to set and agree milestones that chart the progress being made over the life of the plan

7. When you write things down, there is a far better chance of making it happen

The Best Internet Advertising Tips

The goal of internet advertising is to increase exposure and traffic. If a website, product or service offered online is not known it can hardly be visited or patronized and thus would not earn money online. The first step towards achieving steady daily profits is to generate and sustain web traffic. As an increasing number of people continue to know about your good and services the number of potential customers continue to increase. The best advertising tips are thus geared toward increasing web exposure and traffic.

A list of the best internet advertising tips cannot be complete without first mentioning that the product, service or website advertised should be worth the effort. This means that what is advertised should be of good quality. Using the best advertising tips on a faulty or sub-standard product would only just be a waste of time. Care and effort should be put into creating a product/service that is of good quality and that is able to effectively do what is promised to consumers.

One of the best internet advertising tips you can get is to use pay per click programs. While you have to pay for this service, the cost is small and it really works in generating quality traffic. To use PPC, you need a search engine that offers the service such as Google or Yahoo. You pay a specified amount for a particular number of traffic clicks. Your ad is displayed on pages with related keywords exposing them to visitors already interested in your area of operation. You are not billed each time your ads are displayed but are billed only when ads are clicked through. The reason why marketers love this tool is that even if a small percentage of visitors generated this way actually become customers you still come up profitable. It is also easy to monitor the cost/benefits of this advertising method.

While marketing techniques such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are no longer new and are being used by many, the best advertising tips reveals relatively new methods that can be used to increase web page rankings. One of the online business tips to increase traffic is the use of online blogs. Blogs started out as personal online diaries or online mediums for individuals to air their thoughts and views, but today a lot of internet home based businesses use it to generate traffic. Search engines spiders and crawlers love blogs because of their fresh regular content. Blogs are also smaller and easier to trawl and index. A home based business can thus create and maintain a blog discussing on topics related to its business. The blog pages gets high ranking and readers are directed to the main website as reference or for more information. This is quite effective because readers who benefit from your blog content are likely to see you as a professional and are likely to follow suggested advice such as product recommendation.

Closely related to the use of blogs is the creation of quality off page links. When you create links to your web pages in other websites this increases your search engine ranking and exposes your web pages more. Write brief useful related content, post them on forums and review websites. You can also post them on article websites such as Ezinearticles and Goarticles. Article submission websites like these enjoy high ranking and visitors and thus is a sure way to advertise and expose products/services and web pages.

7 Considerations Of A Pay Per Click Campaign

There are some very important things to consider for someone that has decided to try a pay per click campaign. Pay per click campaigns are expensive to run and if you are not careful you can lose your entire marketing investment without much of a return.

Any pay per click campaign needs to be considered an investment because you spend your funds on such a campaign in the hope of generating new sales. And if you fail your investment can be wiped out. A successful campaign takes careful preparation. Here are 7 things you need to consider for your campaign.

1. You need to know your product. There are many products out there for you to sell. But to sell a product successfully you should know it well. Your sales page needs to reflect that knowledge. Your goal is to build trust with potential customers. If you don't know your product well then how can you be convincing enough to sell that product to others?

2. Set a budget for your pay per click campaign. A budget is important to your campaign. Just like any other marketing efforts you may conduct it is important to be able to measure success. Many pay per click campaigns fail but by sticking to your budget you have the opportunity to cut your losses if necessary instead of continuing to throw good money after bad.

3. Make sure you have a professional looking website or sales page. Many people fail in this area. The money you spend on your campaign is meant to entice someone to click a link that will take them to your website. Once they have done that then it is up to you. They will often stay or go based on how well a website is designed. If it is easy to navigate and gets to the point quickly visitors are more likely to stay. But if the design is poor and the website loads slowly then they probably won't stick around.

4. Your ad is everything. If you are trying to attract visitors to a sales page then that page needs to have a clean design. Your job is to persuade your visitors to either purchase a product or sign up for something. But you can either win them over immediately or lose them forever. A poor website will lose them. And make sure your ad copy does the same thing. That little bit of text that is attached to your keywords can go a long way.

5. A successful pay per click campaign needs the right keywords. To start you should find about twenty or so keywords that you can test the effectiveness of. If possible check out what keywords other websites are using. Also consider niche keywords. And make sure you develop some key phrases. Many campaigns actually do better by focusing on niche areas for keyword bidding. This is because the pay per click cost is lower than it is for primary keywords.

6. Know how to bid for the keywords you need. Bidding high can drain your cash before you really have a chance to get started. Of course bidding too low won't help you either. Bidding on keywords is a balancing act and you need to actively manage your campaign to maintain the proper balance.

7. Pay attention to the bottom line. Not all pay per click campaigns make money. And some don't make enough to justify the effort. You need to know when to cut your losses. On the flip side you also need to know when it is prudent to invest more money into an already successful campaign. Because you want to build upon your success.

Running a successful pay per click campaign is not easy but it does offer many people and companies the best chance to succeed online. For companies that are serious about growing their online presence pay per click is a very necessary part of the marketing process. You can do it but you need to be properly prepared.

7 Tips To Improve Your Google Adwords Campaign

Advertising budgets are being cut, marketers are being pressured, costs are going up. This is particularly true on the Internet and with PPC campaigns. The effectiveness of a PPC campaign is dependent on the following four events, the impression rate, your ad position, the click through rate (CTR), and the conversion rate.

Determining the balance among ad position, impression rate, or clicks can assist you in making your PPC advertising campaign successful.

Let's first, though, examine how Google will display the results of your sponsored ads.

1) Your daily budget controls the impressions of your ad

Your ad impression or frequency at which they appear may be diminished if budgeted too low. Being seen is important to you ad campaign and impressions are critical.

2) Rank Number decides where your ad is positioned

Your rank number is important as the higher it is, the higher up on the page your ad is positioned. The formula for rank number is as follows:

CPC (Cost Per Click) x CTR (Click Through Rate) x Ad Quality = Rank Number

We now leave Google behind and see what you can do to enhance your PPC campaign performance.

3) Increase daily budget

In order to receive maximum exposure of your ad you need to make sure it appears when your keyword is searched. If it does not appear frequently enough, you probably need to increase your daily budget for your keyword.

A 50% increase in your budget would still leave you a safe margin. Since you only pay on clicks through and not impressions, you can increase your impressions while maintaining your desired budget. An example would be: You have put aside $10.00 per day to actually spend for your Google ad budget. You could bid $15.00 if you must for more impressions, but if you don't reach a click through rate that exceeds your budgeted $10.00 you are still within your budget. When you do this make sure to monitor your activity daily to make sure you do not exceed what you can afford.

4) Use keywords to improve your delivery.

Your PPC campaign can consist of one or more AdGroups. Google set up AdGroups based on a collection of keywords and ads that display when certain keywords are searched on Google's search engine. It can be the case that even though you have a large collection of keywords in your AdGroup, only a few of them results in your ad being displayed. Your daily budget controls the number of impression your ad can produce. However, these impressions are competing with other AdGroups and individual keywords, so your budget might not be sufficient for some of those keywords.

You might consider setting up a new AdGroup and extract some of your keywords to use in another ad campaign that produces low impressions so that your ad is assured to be among those displayed when one those keywords are searched.

5) Select the right AdGroup

Besides keywords you also select an AdGroup when setting up your PPC campaign, and like the keywords mentioned above, different AdGroups produce different results. Splitting your ad campaign to include different groups can help the frequency of your ad impressions.

6) Optimize your clicks

If you find that one of your PPC ad campaigns is producing unwelcome visitors or clicks, you can improve you ROI by reducing your Max CPC and /or your ad position. You can use the savings to increase your bid on targeted keywords that are doing well.

7) Your ad should target your market

All you have done so far will be for naught if you do not satisfy your visitor. Your carefully chosen keywords have delivered you a potential customer. It's now up to you to sell them your goods or services, have them download that white paper, or sign up for that free newsletter, have them do what your web site is about. Your landing page needs communicate exactly what your ad implied. Make sure your goods or services are what you promised in your ad. An advertised sale or discount should be prominently displayed. When you visitor shows up and finds what they have been searching for you want to be the web site that can deliver it.

It takes work and testing and then more work to make your PPC ad campaign produce that which you expected, make you more money than you spend. You would not have signed up for that campaign if you had not wanted to make a profit, it's there for you if you work for it.

Should You Pay For Traffic?

The stories we read all over the internet make it seem as though anyone can jump online and make a grand living within a few short months of launching just about any internet based business. Of course, those who have tried and have failed (which is about 100 times the number of those who have accomplished their dreams) do not post their stories. A lot of the information out there is misleading. Building an online business is not easy. There is a lot of competition out there that can get in your way, bring you down, and stomp on you. You have to do things differently if you want to succeed. One of the biggest questions right now is "Should I pay for my web traffic?"

While the final decision is yours, those who pay for their traffic are ten times more likely to succeed versus those who don't. Traffic is the ultimate necessity when it comes to internet business. Without traffic, what really do you have?

Part of owning any type of internet based business is learning how and when to invest, and what to invest. Sometimes you have to invest your sweat and energy and sometimes you have to invest your hard earned cash. Without investment of all three, you may as well go back to your day job. Investing in your business is the only way it is going to grow. When it comes to investing in traffic, well defined traffic, the more you can pay for, the better.

The success of an internet based business is really just a numbers game. The more people who come across your website, the greater the changes are that you are going to succeed. You absolutely need a high enough percentage of people to not only view your website, but determine it has value for them and to jump on board with you in one form or another. This is the very basic formula for successful internet based businesses. Of course, you can't determine the behavior of other people's behavior, so you can't force people to stop at your website. Especially if they can't find it.

There are a whole mess of free advertising offers out there that promise that a certain number of people will wander across your website in a given amount of time. Free programs are usually exchange programs, meaning everyone who wanders across your site are invested in something else already. Sure, they looked at your site, but their energies are devoted to their own programs.

Those programs that charge a fee, and a pretty hefty one at that, are the most successful at giving you enough traffic to make a small number of sales. It isn't that simple. Free programs require that you view a certain number of websites in exchange for the traffic. Paid traffic is more likely to be interested since they aren't busy doing their own promotions.

Search engines are a vital part of your internet based business. Almost everyone who needs something goes directly to a search engine to find it. This is a form of paid traffic is you are in the first few slots. You can't get there without shelling out a bit. Without search engines, your business is going to struggle. You might have to build from the bottom up, but sooner or later if you want to experience large scale success, you need to land on the first page if not the top three slots. Most people who flip through the results of a search engine only read the top three slots if they match their criteria.

You need to develop and maintain consistent traffic in order to continuously bring in a profit. Without continual traffic, your sales are going to be sporadic and unpredictable. Even if you think you can get there on your own, the best insurance policy against spotty traffic is the purchase of good search engine slots and the purchase of continual traffic.

Are You Familiar With Click Fraud?

It's a recognised fact that numerous AdSense users are getting there accounts terminated if they've been acting dishonourable. Considering the money one could make from good use of AdSense, the shut down of your account may be a real blow. In particular if the owner doesn't recognize why their account is being revoked!

Click fraud is the act of clicking on ads for the purpose of costing the publicist money. Much website owners are in the know about this click fraud and are making this thought audible; click fraud is the one big difficulty with AdSense. Behind all, it can get your account taken away from you, even when you're not the one committing the fraud!

How can you keep this from happening to you?

The bulk of web hosts have a web user logs. If click fraud happens to you, it is a must that you hand this log over to Google. This allows them to look for any suspicious activity on your site. Problems like this are very serious and giving them the log lets them know that you are pledged to cooperating and want to work towards solving the problem.

Click monitoring software can too help. If you don't have a system like this, it is time to change that! Doing so is easy, effortless, and oftentimes free. As usual, all the data you have received can be inverted over to Google. This lets Google know that you are combat click fraud, rather than perpetuating it.

Take your server logs and observe them for any thing that seems suspicious. Info anything that you might find odd, even if it seems like a littler action.

You may need to contemplate incapacitating ads for your own IP address and local geographical expanse. This will prohibit accidents and will prevent Google from mistaking some other user for you. You may do this through an entry file.

Keep your AdSense off of pop ups. Your ads may not be displayed on subject sites that upgrade non-legal activity. You should refrain from sites that aren't necessarily logical as well, that are where the substance is potentially unpleasant. Grownup sites, for instance, may be avoided.

Be true about times when you may have clicked on your own ads, whether unexpectedly or advisedly. Also be truthful about any immorality of Google's cost of servicing, and anything else you might have done that is against Google's rules. Confessing is way dearer than Google learning about it without your knowledge. If they find you have violated their terms of service or other rules, you will stop your account and everything you have worked so tough for. The only chance you have is righteousness!

Do not tell your ancestry or friends about your AdSense. Chances are they may start clicking on them to help you make money without you knowing it. As you know, this could harm you more than it helps. Nonetheless, if someone you know does come upon your AdSense makes sure they realize why they shouldn't click the ads.

Most pay per click networks has varying measures to protect website owners against click fraud. Some search engines could track much more than 50 data points, IP addresses, user's session content, and can also relay patterns. Then there are the special teams monitoring how things are moving to help advertisers stop click fraud.

Don't get your account suspended! Resist click fraud at all costs.

The Top 7 PPC Landing Page Tips

If you're looking for PPC landing page tips then the best advice you can get, especially if you are doing pay per click, is to simply give Google what it wants in terms of structure as this will lower the risk considerably of getting slapped with high bid prices.

But a good landing page is not only vital in PPC. In fact, it's just as important to make sure your page is structured in the best and most efficient manner to maximize free traffic to your site and to keep the visitors from making a quick exit. This occurs when they find a website which provides different information to what their keyword search suggests.

In this article however, we will concentrate of PPC landing pages and steer you in the right direction in structuring your page to keep the paid ad services happy.

Tips For PPC Landing Pages

1. Using your home page as you landing page is one of the most common mistakes among small business owners on the Internet. This is a big mistake because it forces the customer to have to search through pages and pages of your website to try and find the product that you are selling.

It is much easier to make a small landing page that is not a full website. This is much more effective because it shows the customer exactly what the want to see. Using a landing page is much more effective when it comes into bringing in sales. The fact of the matter is that landing pages are much easier to create and require significantly less time to create.

2. Many people make the mistake of having an extremely generic landing page. In reality, you should have a different landing page for every single product that you are promoting. The fact of the matter is that someone clicked on your link because they were interested in a specific product. This is why it is important to have your page contain information that only pertains to this product.

3. Having a confusing and unorganized landing page is another mistake that many small business owners make on the Internet. Whenever you are trying to sell a product, on the Internet or in real life, it is important to be as clear and precise as possible. At the same time, you should keep your landing page simple and feed information to the viewer slowly.

4. Chances are that you have spent a lot of time optimizing your pay-per-click ads, but you may not have done the same thing with your landing page. This is a big mistake because it will result in significantly less sales. For each list of keywords it is important to have a landing page as well as a pay-per-click ad. It is extremely important to maintain a line of constant communication with your customers throughout the entire process.

5. Some people make the mistake of asking for too much information at once from their customer. If you ask for too much personal information at once then you may quickly scare them away. The fact of the matter is that not everyone is willing to give their personal information out on the Internet. There is no need for any additional information besides a first name and an email address if the individual is not making a purchase.

6. Many people make the mistake of putting too many images on their landing page. This can result in your site taking an extremely long time to load. There is no need to insert a large quantity of images on your website. It is better to keep your site simple and organized. If your site takes too long to load it may scare away some of your potential customers.

7. You're selling instead of providing information. When you get someone to click your ad you have already completed the selling process. The next part of the selling process is telling the customer what you have to offer for them. After they click on your ad, it is important to educate the customer about your product. This will encourage them to make a purchase without feeling as if you are extremely eager to get them to buy your product.

Pay Per Click Goes Where You Want It To

If you've been watching the American series about the birth of modern advertising, Mad Men, you might be familiar with some of the ways that companies try to get us to buy their products or services. Marketing and advertising has been around as long as people have been trying to sell us things. It's no different today than it was fifty or a hundred years ago. However the world has moved on and it's no longer enough to stick up a poster or put an ad in the local paper to successfully advertise your product and maximise its coverage.

The internet has had a huge impact on marketing and advertising. When it first cam along in the form we know today many people predicted the death of advertising and said it was a bad thing for designers and creative agencies in the advertising business. As with all sweeping predictions like this though, they were very far off the mark. The internet has just pointed things in a different direction while at the same time breathing new life into the advertising industry and opening new doors. As a result new opportunities have come up for people in the marketing industry.

Banner ads, email subscription lists and even whole mini websites have become the norm for companies wishing to advertise online and each has repercussions in the real world as well. Far from killing off the need to advertise, the internet has revived it and increased the need to advertise.

Pay Per Click (PPC) is one such area that has become a staple of the internet and the advertising industry. It has several attractive things about it including the fact that the cost is determined on how successful it is. An advertiser is only ever charged when someone actually uses PPC to look at a certain product or service. It's a bit like having to pay something every time a person visits a shop on the strength of an advert on TV. The charges are small but the more people who use a PPC link the more money changes hands.

PPC works by placing an attractive and informative graphic on a web page and making that graphic a link to a website. In this respect it can be said to be very traditional in its basic premise. Advertising has always been about attractive design aimed at getting you through the shop door. Artists and designers are still involved in the whole process in the same way that they would have been on advertising campaigns for Cadbury's or Ford over fifty years ago.

Where PPC differs from traditional advertising though is in the ability to measure the impact of the graphic or advert and so determine its effectiveness and charge a fee accordingly. Its an extremely fair and transparent way of working on a campaign. These PPC ads can be placed on websites including blogs, search engines and social networking sites.

Another very attractive aspect of PPC is that it can be targeted at certain areas. In the same way that TV advertisers will put sportswear ads on at half time in a football match or billboards advertising snacks can be placed at outdoor events where people will want food so to can PPC be placed to achieve maximum impact.

The best example of targeted PPC is through search engines. When someone types in a particular word that describes the product or service they require the page they are given can be manipulated to only contain Pay Per Click advertising relevant to that search. In this respect, to advertisers wishing to make the most of their advertising budgets, it is economical and cost effective.

PPC Advertising - Does it Work?

Online pay-per-click advertising, also known as PPC advertising, is one of the most popular ways to get traffic to your website that are used today. With PPC advertising website owners can get targeted visitor traffic to their websites without having to stretch their budgets too far.

PPC advertising works on the following premise: that you only pay when the advertising has done its job. Essentially, you bid on certain strategic keywords or key phrases with search engines such as Google, Yahoo or MSN. If you win the bid for that term your website ad will come up high on the list of advertisers when those keywords are looked for in any online search.

The benefit of using PPC advertising is that you only pay your bid on a key word or key phrase if customers click on the link to your ad in the search engine results. The more your ad is clicked on, the more you pay. The overall goal with any PPC advertising campaign is to get website traffic and if you are paying more, you are getting more visitors to your website.

There are some important things to know as you begin to consider any pay-per-click advertising campaign. First, it is very important that you choose the keywords that are best suited to your particular web site. Your advertising dollar will do you little good if the people who find you through your PPC ads are not looking for whatever it is you are selling.

PPC advertising can be a very successful marketing tool when used correctly, but you must maximize the efficiency of your ads in order for it to work well for your business. Pay-per-click advertising can be used as your only method of online advertising, or it can be used in conjunction with various other forms of advertising.

PPC advertising can typically take one of two forms. First are the ads you see spread throughout the Internet. These may be obvious or can be more effectively merged into the site construction - they offer a short blurb describing your business and a link to your website. The second common form of PPC advertising is paid search engine rankings. This strategy allows customers searching for your particular keywords to find you at the top of the search engine listing, even if your site ranking wouldn't normally place you there otherwise.

There are many different ways to get your web site seen online. This type of advertising makes sense to people who want to make sure that they are only paying for results, and not pre-paying for something that may or may not prove beneficial. This is where pay-per-click advertising works best for website owners; you only pay when someone clicks on your website through the search engine.

As an owner of several online business websites myself, I've learned that using PPC advertising can be beneficial in several ways. When I completed my first business web site and was ready to launch it, I wasn't really sure how I was going to attract new customers. A friend of mine was using PPC advertising with her own website, and explained the process to me.

Generally speaking, you bid for key words and key phrases that are targeted to your websites audience and if you win one of the top bids the search engines will rank your website on or close to the top of the list when people look for those keywords. Tip: you basically want to be seen in one of the top three ads if possible, for best exposure.

The great thing about PPC advertising is that you only pay a certain amount when someone clicks on your ad link when it comes up in the search engine. To me, PPC advertising is a win-win situation, and though it isn't the only form of advertising I use, it is definitely one that I will frequently use.

If you are trying to get more exposure for your website you really should take a serious look at PPC advertising. It has proven over the last couple of years to be one of the most effective marketing tools in the business. It has been estimated that millions of dollars are paid out per year for PPC advertising, proving that it really has a place in online advertising. PPC advertising works because people respond to it.

Whether you are into PPC advertising to make money or you need exposure for your website you will find this type of marketing very lucrative. Google has really made a name for itself with pay per click advertising with its Adsense program and there are many programs that have followed on its heels.

Web publishers like the idea of PPC advertising because the links are relevant and they get paid for each web visitor that clicks on the link. Advertisers like the pay-per-click advertising method because their ad is placed on relevant web pages. Because the idea is to make the web page and the advertisement relevant to one another more people will click, benefiting both parties.

Pay-per-click advertising is simply genius, no matter what side of the business you are on. It works because if people don't find all of the info they need in one particular place they will then click on the links on that page. Also, people trust web pages that provide good content, so they assume that the links on the page are worth clicking. All around PPC advertising works because it is set up to work! This is a truly flawless advertising plan.

Is PPC advertising suitable for you? If you're looking to increase your online presence, find new customers, sell more product or simply make your brand known, PPC advertising may be right for you. With careful thought, pay-per-click advertising can be both profitable and beneficial for your online business.

Pay Per Click Can Be An Excellent Form Of Advertising

As the Internet continues to dominate much of modern society, it's no surprise that advertising our business throughout major search engines has become big business. One of the best ways to do this is through Pay Per Click services. The purpose of this is to maximise brand awareness and increasing online sales by placing your website as close to the top of search engine results as possible. If monitored effectively, Pay Per Click can be an extremely effective and profitable marketing tool.

Pay Per Click is a form of paid advertising, offered by most of the top search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Your company pays a fee every time a customer clicks on your web-link and is directed to your website from the search engine. The purpose of advertising is to promote your brand which essentially then leads to an increase in sales. Pay Per Click can achieve this.

Once you have your pay-per-click campaign set up, it's a relatively easy procedure to maintain, as long as it's closely monitored. To get started, you have to bid for your pay-per-click fee, and once this has been agreed, you are up and running. Unlike SEO, you don't need to have a particularly in-depth knowledge of search engines; however it obviously helps the more you know.

While this all sounds great, there are drawbacks. Pay-per-click is essentially a bidding war. If a competitor bids higher than you, your position will lower within search engine results, forcing you to increase your bid in order to resume your position. This can end up becoming incredibly expensive so before you enter in to these bidding wars, you must make sure you have the budget to cover these costs.

It's important to do some research before signing up, to determine if pay-per-click will be a cost effective method of advertising for your business. The best way to do this is to look at how much each visitor is worth to your site, by dividing the profit made through your website within a set period of time by the total number of visitors during that time frame.

Whatever this cost per customer works out to be, it should be higher than the amount you agree to pay-per-click to ensure you will make a profit. Unfortunately the most popular keywords are likely to cost considerably more per click. However as long as you continue to bid less for these phrases, you should continue to make a profit. It's when you start paying more per click than profit made per customer, that you find you start to enter deep water.

In pay-per-click, your written description is crucial. The purpose isn't necessarily to attract passing traffic but to secure people who are looking for your particular product. The description must be as specific and relevant as possible and any spelling mistakes for example will give a very bad impression so the copy must be up to a high standard. It's perhaps the most important part of pay-per-click advertising and therefore essential you get it right, to ensure the whole campaign is profitable.

There is no limit to how many keywords you can add to your bid; however this doesn't mean every word you include will be equally relevant. Some will be much more effective than others. There are ways to find out how many times a particular word is entered in to a search engine over a period of time, which will help you determine the most appropriate words to use.

Pay-per-click advertising requires constant monitoring of your bid. Competition for top ranking positions is intense and this can often lead to bidding prices increasing way beyond profit margins. This then makes it impossible to continue bidding for that particular term, forcing the bidder to withdraw and start again on another term. You cannot keep bidding until you win; you must always keep in mind your profit margins otherwise you simply end up losing the bidding war. As long as you monitor each phase closely however and keep to your budgets, Pay Per Click could be the start of a whole new era for your business.

Uncovered Truth about Data Entry

Traditional data entry requires one to either copy-paste certain text over and over again, continue to fill out simple forms, or something along those lines. It requires simple work that does not require much thinking, but rather a lot of repetitive tasks. You usually will not be asked for your opinions as you are in surveys or asked to "Tell Us What You Think". Data Entry jobs are plain and simple manual labor jobs. Hence, there are some people who will not mind doing them and can earn a lot of money quickly, while others will be miserable doing data entry. It is not for everyone.

• New Trend in Click Bank Product Data Entry Jobs

Recently, there has been a growing trend in using click bank to find and advertise data entry programs. These programs say that they will teach people how to make money through data entry, and as a result, many people visit these web sites looking to learn more about the business. Those new to data entry are especially likely to visit and even purchase the products advertised.

• Click Bank Data Entry Truth

click Bank data entry jobs are usually e-Books or other materials that tell you how you can make money using AdWords and selling affiliate links to Click Bank products. Not only are these programs misleading as you actually do not make money for the data entry, you only get money if you sell a product, these programs are also fraud and contain false information. They claim that after purchasing the e-Books there are no more expenses; however, you will have to pay AdWords hundreds or thousands of dollars to advertise. Hence it is recommended to stay away from Click Bank data entry jobs.

• Finding a Reliable Data Entry Job

The key is to find an honest and reliable freelancing or part time / full time data entry job. This will take some time but we will outline some of the best ways to secure long term high paying data entry jobs and where they can be found.

• How You Can Protect Yourself from Scammers

Many people who purchase the click bank data entry product fail and give up with data entry jobs. It takes some time to realize that they were actually scammed and lost their time and money. Do not let this happen to you. There are scammers in every industry so it is important that you do your research and stay away from scam programs.
Search Engines are the best way to protect yourself from scammers. There are billions of web sites on the Internet today and thousands of them contain unbiased reviews of data entry programs. You can use search engines to find this information quickly to insure that you are not being scammed and to find the program that is best for you based on real user views and experiences.

5 LOGICAL STEPS TO PROFITABLE FOREX TRADING CAREER

One thing that contributes so much to the failure of many in taking lasting profits from the forex market is ignorance about what steps to take when making trading decisions. Let us quickly go over to 5 secrets steps to a profitable forex trading career.

• STEP1: learn to plot the charts.

If indeed you truly want to have an enduring forex trading career, there is need for you to learn how to plot charts on all time frames. The type of chart you plot are determined by your trading system and strategy. charts are easier to plot on the metatrader4 trading platform.

• STEP2: Understand your set up conditions

These are conditions you need to spot before you enter a trade. This is one area many traders are led astray. A trader has to wait for his or her set up conditions to be met before initiating a trade. Most traders make money and give it all back due to failure or in ability to follow the set up conditions included in there trading system.

STEP3: Know your entry points.
These are price levels which offer high probability entry opportunities with low risk. certain trading tools can be of tremendous help in determining these levels. A good and decent trading system should provide you with these tools.

STEP4: Know and respect using stop loss.
Once you have entered a trade, your first aim should be to protect your account. To do these you need to place stop loss order. Please ignore any trading system that encourages you to trade without stop loss order. A decent system should guide you on the best level to place your stop loss with higher probability of winning the trade, you might also choose to use trailing stop to protect your profit. Trailing stop helps to adjust your stop loss order if the trade is moving in your favour.

STEP 5: know your take profit.
As soon as your trading system generates signal, it should be able to give you the profit potentials of the trade. Please note that guess work is not allowed in trading. Guessing can be very dangerous to any trader. You need to run thorough analysis before accepting take any trade with high probability.

A Small Business In 5 Simple Steps

Even if your business is not as enormous as the giant corporations, it doesn’t mean you should disregard writing a business plan. In fact, you should learn how to write a business plan for a small business. Why?

Because a business plan gives you structure. It provides your company direction and goals. Without it, you’ll just be like a buoy floating on the water, without any real destination. How do you expect your business to grow successful then?

Learning how to write a business plan for a small business is quite easy. Below are your guidelines.

• Profile

One of the first things you must consider is writing your company profile. What does your company do in the first place? How long has it been in existence? Who do you cater to? These things will give you a sense of what the company is all about and what it should look like to the customers. This will make sure that you stay on track.

• Mission-Vision

Every business should have a mission-vision. It doesn’t matter how small or big your company is. A mission-vision also helps keep you on the right path. It reminds you of your business’ goals and aspirations. From here, you can already deduct just how long you plan your business to stay.

• Objectives

Your objectives will require you to come up with medium-term and long-term goals. When writing a business plan for a small business, this is the part that speaks of what your company is really here for. What does it hope to accomplish?

• Strategy

How will you achieve your goals and your objectives? How will you fulfill your mission-vision? That is what Strategy is here for.

Here you can write down just how you plan to make things happen. From time to time, you can check this part to see if your strategy is indeed working. If it doesn’t, then you can always change your strategy.

• Summary

The summary is written at the end of the business plan. It highlights all the important parts and recaps the points that need to be emphasized.

While this part might be longer than the others, it’s also very important. If your customer doesn’t want to read through your whole business plan, they can always look up everything in the summary.

This is how to write a business plan for a small business. Make sure to include all of the above mentioned components to make sure your company stays organized. If your business plan is clear and organized, there’s a higher chance that your actual business will also thrive.