home base business

Internet Marketing Tips: Five Secrets for Writing (and Selling) from Your Heart

By: Kendall SummerHawk

Thank goodness online writing is soooo different from compositions that we had to do when we were in school! Lucky for us, our reader is not a critical schoolteacher, red pen in hand, grading our work. Instead, our online readers are real people, just like you and me, who want to learn something and get inspired.

Years ago, I practiced at writing “corporate speak.” My proposals and reports where carefully crafted to keep out EVERY aspect of my own personality, thoughts, and feelings. I got so good at it I could have been dubbed the “Stepford Writer.”

When I started my own business coaching firm and began marketing on the internet, I had to adopt a completely different style of writing. I needed a style that was deeply personal and expressed my brand authenticity. It hasn’t been easy. Believe me, many pieces never saw the light of the computer screen before they were dispatched to the trash with a stroke of my delete key.

The great thing about writing is that ?it’s only words!? You can change them. (I love that!) Words give you the power to persuade, influence, and inspire your clients. Word power is an unbeatable way to get prospective clients to hire you, attend your next teleseminar or buy your information product!

So, how do you write from the heart AND sell your message online? The following internet marketing tips were derived from the years that this marketing coach has been doing just that!

Here are five secrets that will get you clicking away at the keyboard in no time at all:

Writing Tip #1: Just write.

If I try and edit as I write, I quickly find myself under the thumb of my inner critic. (After all, we all have one!) Why not send your inner critic on a coffee break? How? Get rid of him by just writing; leave the editing for later. Getting those first words out is the toughest part of writing internet marketing pieces, so just get to it.

Writing Tip #2: What are the emotions you want to evoke (or provoke?)

Before I start writing ANY internet marketing piece (even a simple email announcement for an upcoming teleseminar,) I take a moment to focus on the key emotion that I want to evoke. Is it inspiration? Excitement? A hunger for more? Don’t try and rein in your natural energy or personal viewpoint of the topic. Believe me; people go online to read something that is strong, even provocative. If you find yourself saying, “Oh, I can’t say that on the internet,” then please, say it. It’s you, it’s authentic, and people want to hear it!

Writing Tip #3: Just say it!

As my Jewish grandmother would say: “Quit trying to be so perfect already!” Whenever I’m stuck, (I can tell I’m stuck when I have re-written the same sentence for the information product three million times,) I call my mom, an incredible writing coach. The one question she always asks me is, “What do you want your cyber audience to know?” After I’m done telling her she follows up with, “So write THAT!”

Writing Tip #4: Keep it conversational.

You know that voice inside your head that is busy chattering all the time? Now is the time to put her to use! Try having a conversation with that voice about the topic you’re struggling to put online. Then just type up the conversation. I know this tip sounds a little wacky, but it’s what I use to keep my internet marketing fun, upbeat and very personal.

Writing Tip #5: Don’t be your own judge.

Just a few weeks ago a business coaching client emailed to me her website home page. “I don’t think it’s very good but I can’t stand looking at it any more. Can you tell me what you think?” It was brilliant. It was strong, crystal clear, and engaging. Unfortunately, she was her own harshest cyber censor. (Like we all are!) Better to be brave and send your internet marketing piece to someone else for feedback. Just be sure that they understand YOU, and your business, so that the feedback you receive is meaningful.

Maybe you love to write, or maybe writing seems daunting to you. Either way, online writing is nothing more than speaking from your heart. Rather than worrying about your cyber writing, spend your energy telling people what you REALLY think. Do it in writing and you’ll make a lasting impression that is certain to pull more business from the internet.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_8937.shtml

8 Techniques Taught By Network Marketing Companies That Won\’t Work…And Why!

By: William Winch

It’s highly unlikely that 96% of all people who start a home based business in Network Marketing fail because they are lazy or not willing to work. Sure, some people sign up and throw their distributor kit under the bed, never to open it again and wonder why they never got rich. Some people even earn some money and then give up when they learn that it takes hard work and dedication to get up to where the top earners are. But 96%??? That number is just too high to blame on laziness.

The reason these statistics exist is because people don’t know true marketing techniques and principles to grow a business. It’s a simple process and anyone can do it. You just need to know how, and what it is you need to do. Just as there are countless things that work, there are just as many things that don’t work when it comes to growing a home based business.

Let’s look at 8 useless techniques companies teach their distributors, and why they don’t work.

1. Building A List Of Your Friends And Family.

This technique only works for the company as a whole, not for the individual distributor. If 100,000 people build a list of friends and each gets 2, the company triples its profits. You, on the other hand, will only earn a whopping check for $3.50 for your efforts. Not to mention being black-listed from the next family reunion picnic.

2. Passing out business cards, brochures, audios and DVD’s.

Companies love teaching this because it is any easy way to get them started without teaching them the proper marketing techniques. Also they make money off every piece of literature you purchase from them to give out for FREE! This has you paying for the company?s advertising, not them, not to mention the one person out of 100 they will make money from after they sign up from your efforts. Again, for them it’s about numbers.

3. 3-Way Calling.

This is one of the most counter-productive methods to grow a business. if you?re doing 3-way calls to your upline?STOP! Think about this for just a minute. You have a prospect that has a few questions about the compensation plan and you tell them to hang on a second while you get Ralph (your upline) on the phone. Who are you working for at this point, and who becomes the expert in their field? You got it?Ralph is now the expert and you just acted as the cog in the wheel to help grow your upline?s organization, but what have you done for your credibility as a business owner. You COMPLETELY destroyed it.

4. Hotel Meetings and driving all over town.

Doesn’t this defeat the purpose having a “home based business?” Time and gas are costly, and just because you drive a half hour to meet someone for lunch and pay the tab doesn’t mean you will sign them up into your business. Hotel meetings are great for inspiration, but getting a whole team of people to consistently forfeit a whole day off to attend is like pulling teeth.

5. The Product Sells Itself.

If this was true, why would the company need you? Products do not sell themselves. They need advertising and promotion, no matter if they are sold in stores, on television, or through a network of people. It sounds good, but don’t fall for it.

6. Get 3 Who Get 3 To Get Rich.

Have you ever seen a person actually use this approach and become successful because of it? Probably not. It’s a mythical and unrealistic way of growing a business. A perfect example of “too good to be true.”

7. Put Up A Fancy Website And People Will Go To It.

There is an art and science to how a home-based business website should be constructed, what needs to go on it and getting targeted visitors that truly have a desire for what you are offering. How useful is a convenience store located out in the middle of the desert without any directions to get to it? Then, what if someone actually found it and it wasn’t full of anything useful to them? Just having a fancy website means nothing.

8. Holding Home Parties

How many millionaires do you know that hold house parties? This technique does work if you want to build a business at a snail’s pace. There are easier and faster ways to making money than inviting a bunch of strangers into your home every week. In today?s world you just don?t know who you are inviting into your home? do you?

If you want to be successful in Network Marketing, you need to be properly trained on how to be a marketer, not a distributor. Unfortunately, companies focus on teaching you how to play the numbers game and it’s usually in their favor. If 96% of people quit but each one gets a few customers ordering products every month, the company as a whole will keep doing well. You, unfortunately, will never become rich. I know this from personal experience. I spent over ten years trying everything under the sun. When I stopped using these techniques and learned the basics of how to be a marketer, my business finally began to grow enough to stop worrying about money.

Don’t give up. Just change your way of thinking.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_8963.shtml