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Entrepreneurship - William D. Bygrave

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Thursday, July 5, 2012

How Brands are Using Pinterest

By Diana MacHiavelli


Why is Pinterest the latest rage for marketers? Users pin items they want to buy. This is valuable information. Unlike other social media platforms, users are connecting with Pinterest in a genuine way based on interest.

As a brand, there are a few different ways to use Pinterest. One way is to create boards with both your brand's items as well as things that your readers might be interested int. It is important to also engage with the pins of other users by liking them and re-pin them. This will help to create a relationship with your fans. It will also create a community around your brand and will drive traffic to your website. You can also add a "Pin it" button to items on your website, which you can then track to find out what your most popular products are. You can then use this information to make highly targeted ads.

Mod Cloth uses Pinterest's "multi-contributor" feature. This allows for other users to post clothes and outfits on the company's page, which is a brilliant marketing tool. This allows for users to engage with the brand and feel as though they are a part of it. It also allows for other brand fans to get inspired by other fans and therefore make more purchases. After all, girls are more inclined to make purchases when they see other girls own the items.

Another good tactic that the company Step2 is enhancing the shopping experience by promoting social discovery on their Facebook Page. It allows users to follow specific products and categories and get it straight to their news feed. They also have a "follow a reviewer" feature, which enables individuals to subscribe to product reviews, forms someone with similar preferences and tastes.

Personalization is the future of the web. Marketers who learn how to manipulate this will pave the way for e-commerce.




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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Wrestlers Who Could Own a Debt Collection Company

By Rob Sutter


The bottom line is more than merely the catchphrase uttered by the popular Stone Cold Steve Austin. The bottom line is also the goal of any professional wrestler, who wants to make money. Wrestlers are paid substantially well, just like any other athlete in a different sport you could name off. In the realm of professional wrestling storylines, though, some people might not be complacent, content with only a paycheck to live with. Some of these corrupt wrestlers want more green and an equally corrupt debt collection company could be the ticket for them in World Wrestling Entertainment.

Many a debt collection company can perform honest work and there will be no reason for the collector or the client to distrust one another. Companies such as R-R-S fall into this category well. What about those companies that simply do not want to follow the kinds of rules that everyone else plays by without fail? I feel like wrestling could make use out of a storyline debt agency with all of the corrupt features exemplified to make it seem more cartoonish, though debt collecting in itself is not as playful, as seen at this link.

The only person who I can truly see running a debt company in professional wrestling would be the boss himself, Vince McMahon. I want you to erase from your mind the fact that he's in his mid-60s as well as the idea he might be going insane because of said age. He is still a great character who people remember and he can still perform well in that regard. He is best when he's the abusive boss, at least in my view, making him perfect for an immoral debt collection company.

It wouldn't be difficult to picture McMahon doing everything he could to make certain that his payday would come. Bringing a corporation together with cronies to do his hard work wouldn't farfetched, especially considering his character and how he'd utilize debt collecting in the worst kinds of ways. Abuse over the phone and in person would be one law that'd be broken in an instant. Even those who aren't exactly in financial debt wouldn't be safe; another law broken would be attacking those who do not have debts to pay off. These rules are only a few of the many examples one could list off.

With so many storylines of various topics, WWE could have no problem injecting a debt agency into the mix. Acquiring money is practically tailored to villains too, considering it would take greater heroes of high moral standards to rise above such a challenge. We all had a boss or high figure of authority we didn't think highly of. I think that, with debt collecting as a subject, these storylines almost write themselves.




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Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Lessons Gained From The Turnaround King

By Denise Gosnell


I don't watch TV much, but I recently saw a show called "The Turnaround King" and it grabbed my attention. The show focuses on assisting businesses to help them turnaround and come out of a slump and thrive.

In one portion of the show, there was a fitness center that was losing it's shirt, and was going to have to close its doors unless something changed, and fast! So the expert advisor developed a plan that the fitness center implemented without delay.

Here's what they implemented. To attract more people to come into the center for a tour, they created a direct mail campaign using post cards that were mailed to every person living within a 20-mile radius of the fitness center.

They included a 7-day free trial membership for those individuals who could make a basket in their gym within 2 shots. They also increased their prices on memberships and required a longer-term commitment. They basically made all of their staff into sales people. And finally, they began selling t-shirts and other items to all the new members as part of the sign-up process.

What was the end result? The fitness center increased its sales by over thirty percent within 2 months! What an accomplishment.

Let's break out the lessons that can be learned from that illustration.

Lesson #1 - Traffic + Conversion = The Secret Formula To Increasing Sales

The secret formula to increasing sales for any business is this:

Conversion + Traffic = Sales

In other words, the goal is to get more traffic to come into your store or to visit your web site. For example, in the Turnaround King, they did this by mailing out post cards to everyone living within a 20-mile radius of the fitness center

Some other ways you can increase traffic for your business is by running pay per click advertisements, networking in your community, participating in forums and blogs, taking advantage of the giant marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, etc.

In fact, there are dozens, if not hundreds of different ways to increase the traffic that comes to your site and/or store. We cover them in more detail in our BizMarketing product (and more comprehensive BizFast Product).

In addition to traffic, you also need to get more of those visitors to buy from you. The Turnaround King did this by adding the trial membership, raising the membership prices, and adding more sales people.

There are several other ways you can increase your conversions too. You can improve your sales pitch so that it resonates better with your ideal customer and makes them want to buy from you. You can add bonuses or incentives to make your offer irresistible. You can also add a stronger money back guarantee.

But here is the critical point: If you improve both your traffic and conversion numbers, then you WILL have an increase in sales. It is a mathematical fact.

In fact, many businesses can do just one or the other and see a significant increase in sales. For example, if you already have a high closing/conversion ratio, then simply getting more visitors to your site and/or store will increase your sales dramatically.

Or, if you already have tons of visitors, but aren't making a lot of sales, you can simply increase the amount of closes/conversions that you get so that you make more money from the visitors you already have.

But if you really want to super-charge your sales, increase both the traffic and conversion numbers. And you WILL see an increase in sales - guaranteed. Again, it's a mathematical certainty.

Lesson #2 - Increase the Value of Each Customer

The other key ingredient to increasing your overall company revenue is to increase the lifetime value of each customer. In other words, you want to generate as much revenue as possible from each and every customer.

In the Turnaround King example, they did this by adding long-term contracts, so that they would keep each customer longer. They also offered t-shirts and other items that were sold to new members when they joined the club, and that existing members could also purchase.

Whether you have a physical store or an online business, there are numerous ways that you can increase the lifetime value of each customer.

Here are just a few examples:

- Offer related items to customers when they are making their initial purchase (upsells and downsells)

- Put a related offer at the bottom of each customer receipt

- Send promotions to your existing customers, such as discount coupons or other offers for related or additional products that you offer

You can also increase the value of each customer by either increasing your prices, or reducing your costs for selling the item to that customer.

We cover dozens of ways that you can increase the value of each customer and grow your sales in our Business Profit Explosion Report that comes as a bonus to our BizMarketing and BizFast programs.

Lesson #3 - Always Look For Opportunities To Improve Your Processes

You should always be looking for ways to improve your company processes to make it easier for customers to buy from you, and to help increase your sales.

In the Turnaround King example, they trained each staff member on how to handle at least certain parts of the new memberships. Before, there were only a few people who could handle memberships, and prospective members were forced to wait a long time for a membership advisor, and many left because they didn't want to wait.

There is always something you can do to make each employee capable of moving the sale along, even if it isn't his or her job.

Lesson #4 - Combine These Strategies Together For Maximum Results

Take a moment to analyze your business and brainstorm on several ways that you can increase the amount of traffic that you receive. What advertising channels can you add to get more exposure?

Then, analyze your current sales process and identify several ways that you can make your closes/conversions higher so that you get more sales from those people who consider your offerings. Can you add some bonuses to make your offer more compelling? What about a better guarantee?

Next, analyze some ways that you can increase the value of each customer that you have. What related items can you offer them? How can you increase the amount of profit that you generate from each encounter?

If you take the time to go through this process and actually implement those changes, you will be amazed at the improvements you will see in your business. And any time you feel unhappy with your sales, re-visit this process and start all over again.




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Monday, July 2, 2012

Making An Income From Web Based Real Estate

By Ricky Bahal


For loads of people, the reason they start to take on Internet advertising is because they're hoping to earn some extra income and/or earn enough to quit their jobs. There isn't any doubt that the Online world has offered up more than a few chances for men and women that have lead them to freedom and better lives. This is most often achieved by creating some passive income streams as well as the idea of "earning while sleeping" always has been quite attractive. Nevertheless, what you may possibly not realize is that after you start building an online business you have an asset that has value. One way you can make money quite quickly on the web is by selling this virtual real estate for nice lump sum earnings. So here are several ways that you can accomplish that.

The very first thing we need to look at is domain names and why they can be sold for plenty of money. The early years of the world wide web saw men and women with foresight grab some very valuable domains and those domains will only be available again at an enormous price. Obviously, however, the world of domain name purchasing and selling is quite active and there's quite plenty of cash to be created. This is true simply because some men and women will pay quite a lot for keyword domains; you can also jump on trends and invest in the names that have not yet been already snapped up.

There are also many domains which are dropped on a regular basis and you can find good value here if you understand where to look. It is important to acknowledge that a good dot com can be really difficult to find but it's also a good idea to try other extensions like dot net and dot org. There's real value to be found in country code domain names plus some markets still have them available to buyers. The next action in virtual real estate success is to actually put an internet site up on the domain names that you have purchased.

When you build a site (even a self hosted wordpress blog) on your domain, you've got something of great potential value. There is actually a market for brand new websites that have been built in the right niche and there are buyers prepared to purchase these. Of course, if you actually take some time to develop the site, earn some revenue through it and get a good traffic flow, you will be able to get quite considerably more leverage and more money through the sale. When you go to auction sites like Flippa, you will see the kind of prices that some of these sites are being sold for. As you receive more experienced in this arena, you might even see websites that you would like to purchase that are being under monetized. Then all you need to do is develop the websites a little bit more and then flip them for a tidy amount.

Virtual real estate is really like selling any other type of property in as much as the price will be based on the demand for what you own. If you do some research, you'll see which kinds of domains and sites sell well and you can better target your own efforts. Ultimately, what matters the most is that selling your internet sites and domains can be a really wonderful way to make some money quickly and to supplement whatever other companies you want to do do on the web.




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Sunday, July 1, 2012

Three Useful Ways To Select The Best SEO Company

By Gregorio D. Kimbrough


Companies use a few different ways to effectively pick the best SEO company for their needs. The charged rates are sometimes the top criterion, with many thinking that the price of a service will indicate the quality delivered. Others think that it is about the responses left by others about the abilities of the company. As contributing factors, both of these are useful, but they are not a substitute for using common sense and choosing carefully. The only effective way to get a feel for a company is to trial them.

Companies can trial the services of a marketing team with a few different approaches. The most useful way to do this is to find out if the company offers free evaluations or analysis. Some SEO services will offer this as a complimentary service so that businesses can assess what needs to be done for their website. Similar to the processes of a mechanic, a free inspection can help a business to accurately identify the problem, and propose a way of fixing it. This will make it clearer to recognize if the service will be the best SEO company for the website.

Features can be used to narrow down and select the best SEO company for a website. Keywords and links are commonly mentioned about in the industry, and almost all companies will need these, but there are other specialist tools that can be used. A website that would like more traffic and also better visibility in web searches will require a company that has comprehensive link building skills. Those that target social media users will want a service that can effectively market on social media sites.

A third way of getting to know an SEO company and judging how well its services will fit with a website's needs is to get to know them better Reviews of their processes will be helpful, as will their own marketing efforts for their pages and social media networks. A good way of learning more about the SEO company is to sign up to their newsletter or read their blog, as both of these will give a good idea of the level of competency with the industry

It may be that best SEO company will be a regional one. For example, those that work in Illinois may get the most from using Chicago SEO services. Localizing keywords and search engine strategies is one of the best ways to make search listings more relevant to consumers. This is often the best way to attract large quantities of suitable web traffic. When included with the right features and a good cost, a local SEO company is one of the most powerful marketing services to use.




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