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Many entrepreneurs make basic marketing mistakes either because they don't know about these mistakes, or they don't have an effective system to avoid them.

This article is about the simple, basic mistakes you must avoid in order to make consistent profits with your business.

1. Failing to Master the Primary Function of Your Business

It amazes me how many businesses don't master their core business. By this I mean, if you own a grocery store in town, do you have the basic items and brand names your customer buys on a daily basis… in stock all the time?

You should, as your customers rely on you to have these items in stock when they need them. And if you don't, they'll shop somewhere else.

Now think about your business. Do you have a system in place for you business, which allows you to master the primary functions in your business so your customers are happy in their dealings with you?

You don't need to master marketing or become a business guru. Simply set up a solid system and master your core business, so your customers get what they wanted from you in the first place.

2. Not Specializing and Targeting a Specific Market

Small business owners seem to 'forget' who their customers really are and don't realize they need to specialize. Seeing they don't have a huge advertising budget, almost all small businesses need to specialize.

This allows them to compete with a small advertising budget.

Decide what you what to specialize in and decide which customers you want to go after. And then simply go after your target market every day.

3. Failing to set up a Database of Prospects and Clients

You may think this is obvious, but I still come across many entrepreneurs who are too lazy to set up a database of prospects and clients. If you have a brick and mortar business, you too can easily do it too.

Simply collect the email addresses of every prospect and customer you meet and add them to an autoresponder program such as aweber.com.

Then build a relationship with them by sending them valuable content and offers you can sell to them.

4. Not Systematically Following Up on Leads

Make sure you keep in contact with your existing prospects and customers at least twice a month. I notice many small business owners 'forgetting' this step too. If you don't keep building a relationship with your prospects and customers, they'll forget about you and buy elsewhere!

Remember they've already purchased from you and trust you. Selling additional products to them is easier than find and selling to new prospects.

5. Failing to improve the Usability and Conversion of Your Website

How many visitors on you blog or website are you converting to subscribers or customers? How easy is it for your visitors to understand what to do on your site?

To improve the usability of your website, make sure all links are blue and underlined, for example. Web visitors are used to seeing blue links.

You can also increase the size of your "Buy" or "Subscribe"buttons. It almost always increases conversions. Also make sure you eliminate all distractions which will stop your visitors from buying or subscribing on your site, especially on the order pages.

Distractions could mean links to other sites or any unnecessary things which distract your visitors from buying or subscribing on your site. This also increases conversions.

So study your websites and blogs, and make sure it's clear what your visitors must do on your site. Also investigate how you can increase the conversion rates so you can turn more visitors into buyers.

Do you have any additional marketing mistakes we should watch out for?

Popularity: 4% [?]

Do you own… or intend to own an internet business?

And do you have a written a business plan for your business? Most entrepreneurs don't have one. This is an expensive mistake. You need to know exactly where you're heading with your business if you want to succeed.

Take simple steps to put together a business plan today. You don't need to go into great detail. Jot down easy steps of information to keep you on track… and accountable for taking action in your business.

Follow these 7 Steps To Write a Business Plan

Step 1: Reflect on The Previous Business Year

In a few statements, reflect on how your business performed during the last year. What were your successes? What were your setbacks? What exactly is working and what not? What do you need to change and improve for the coming year?

Step 2: Write Your Business Plan On A Single Page

Are you focused enough on your main business activities?

You need to define your business, your target customers, and your major goals on a single page. And only on one page, please. This helps you to have a quick overview of your business planning.

I also have my plan saved in the Microsoft Word software on my computer, so I can change and improve the plan quickly.

Step 3: Write Down A Vision Statement

Everybody is building some kind of vision and business. What kind of business are you building? Make your Vision statement very specific. This is your vision of your company. Create your vision precisely, so you know it step-by-step, and you can share it with a team if you need to.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What type of company is this?
• Who is my perfect customer?
• What kind of business am I building?
• How big will my company be and what profits do I want to generate?

What are my most important products and services?
What will my marketing strategy look like?

Step 4: Define Your Mission

A mission statement always answers the question: Who will you serve and what can your do for them?

Then think ahead and answer the question: Why will my customers purchase my products and services? Which problems do I solve for my clients and what makes my solutions unique?

An sample a mission statement for a Ranch Management company could look like this:
“Healthy Land, Happy Families, Profitable Business… Ranching for Profit”

Step 5: Write Down Your Action Oriented Goals

Write down your specific goals you want to achieve for your business. And then write down action-oriented goals. I've found the most effective goals to be an action-oriented, as it helps to accomplish the most important task… taking action daily.

Once you've put down your yearly, monthly and weekly goals for your business, consider additionally writing action goals. They state which action you'll take on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. And then focus on these action goals every day.

Another guide to track how you're doing in your business is to write down your goals with numbers attached to them, so you can compare your goals to the years before. Examples could be:

- Reach a gross profit of $200,000 for this coming year
- Get 10 new clients every month

Step 6: State Your Business Strategy

Which strategy are you going to choose to achieve your business goals?

Your strategy is simply a definition of what steps you'll take to make your business successful. You need to set a specific direction and follow that direction without side-stepping along the way.

For example, you should decide how you're going to:

• Position your Business in the marketplace
• What pricing policy you're going to follow
• How you're going to attract targeted customers to your business
• How you're going to find joint ventures

You need to define a simple strategy and follow it. You can't market your business in 150 different ways, for example. You'll probably have to choose up to 10 ways initially. So be clear what your strategy is and do it.

Step 7: Create An Action Plan

After you have defined your goals in Step 5, you'll also have defined your action-oriented goals. Now simply create an action plan from these action-oriented goals. Make an action plan for at least the next year, and break it down to all the way down to a daily plan.

I have a daily action plan with only 3 or 4 things I must do. If all else fails on that particular day due to an emergency, I've achieved the most important action goals for that day. Remember, do them first thing in the morning, and you'll be surprised how much you can achieve in a year.

So again… focus your the priorities for the day and do them first!

Take these seven simple steps to write an effective business plan and raise the productivity in your business! Should you want more information on how to create your business plan, check out Jim Horan's great book "The One Page Business Plan".

Popularity: 100% [?]

Most entrepreneurs need to set up a blog to get traffic for their particular niche or business. Internet marketing folks generally know this, however many entrepreneurs and small businesses are lacking the know-how in setting up a blog that will result in more traffic and profits for their business.

I've set up Blogger, Movable Type and Wordpress blogs, and Wordpress wins the race by a mile. It's easy to set up a Wordpress blog… even if you're not technically minded. And it's easy to add content to a Wordrpress blog too.

This article is about how to set up a basic Wordpress blog to get you traffic and customers for your business. Even if you have a website already, consider including a blog in your site too. The search engines love blogs and generally index the new information faster than website pages.

9 Basic Steps You Need To Set up Your Wordpress Blog

1. Find a Domain Name and Register It

I use Moniker.com. It's an excellent domain company. Use them to register your domain names and keep them locked up safely. Next, setup your blog web hosting. Find a reliable web host make your blog available 24 hours a day, all year round. Here I use iweb.ca. They have the best support I've ever experienced with web hosts,

2. Install Wordpress

The easiest way to install Wordpress is to make sure your web host offers a cPanel and Fantastico with its hosting. Wordpress can be installed automatically with a click or two.

If you can't get hold of a web host with the above features, you can go to Wordpress' website to download and install the blog manually.

3. Find And Install A New Wordpress Theme

Once you install Wordpress, it looks very basic. You then need to go to a website on the internet to find a theme to make it look like a nice looking blog. A theme essentially adds colors, and graphical elements to your blog. Many themes are free and some websites offer professional-looking paid ones. For free themes, check out http://themes.wordpress.net/ and http://www.wpthemesfree.com.

If you intend to make money with your blog consider purchasing the semiologic wordpress software. It has many great looking themes and it takes only a few clicks until your theme is up-and-running.

4. Install Widgets On Your Blog

Once you've installed a theme, install what's called widgets. These are simply additional functions to make your blog more useful to your visitors. For example, you can add a "Recent comments" widget which will enable your blog to display the recent comments of your visitors. Or you can add a "Links" widget which enables you to add links in the sidebar of your blog. Once you've added your widgets, add Plug-ins to your blog.

5. Find and Activate Plug-ins For Your Blog

Plug-ins are amazing, as they add very helpful capabilities to your blog. For example, you can download and SEO plugin which will optimize your blog for the search engines. Or you could install a plug-in which would help you to manage the comments your visitors leave on your blog. These plug-ins automate a lot of functions and saves you loads of time. If you choose to get the Semiologic software, a lot of these plug-ins are already set up and you're ready to start working immediately.

6. Add Your Personal Details to Your Blog
Remember to add your name, your physical address, your email address and your disclaimers. If you're setting up a blog for lots of readers, this information is essential.

7. Write Your First Post and Add Your Categories

Now you can start writing information, tips or articles. In blog terms, this is called a post. If you're not used to writing, you may find it tough at first. Simply keep your posts short. And keep going. Thanks to the internet, you can get a lot of information and advice from other websites, so it's easy to do research and develop more content to write about.

Also tell your story about how you got started in blogging. You don't have write a big manual, simply have fun and share your ideas with your readers.

After writing your first post, you'll see you can then add different categories. Add relevant categories to the topic of your blog. If your blog is about marketing, you may have categories such as "Online marketing", "Postcard Marketing" etc.

8. Write At Least 2 Posts per Week

People look on the internet primarily to find information. Update your blog often and your readers will read your posts regularly. Don't worry if you only have a couple of readers in the beginning. Keep going. Create more content and you'll get more traffic from your articles in time.

Also don't worry if you don't understand all the terminology such as Digg, RSS Feed etc. you hear in the blogging world. Plod along and you'll grasp their menaing at a later stage.

9. Use A Step-by-Step Wordpress Training to Get Up to Speed Fast

I'm in the process of setting up a video course called "How to Setup A Wordpress Blog", to help you create a professional Wordpress blog quickly. The videos are kept online and are always updated with the latest information. It will be available on the 1st July. Click here to pre-order it at a reduced price now.

Popularity: 77% [?]

If you want good search engine rankings for your web pages, and are looking to for an easier and faster way to build backlinks to your website or blog, then read on…

Up until now, most website owners have been searching for blogs which use the "Do Follow" attribute to get targeted keyword links back to their sites. They then added a comment to the blog and got a one-way link back to their site..

The problem was… the anchor text (the hyperlinked words of the link) which pointed back to their site was their name, such as Joe Smith. If you had a website about blue widgets, you need the link to say "blue widgets" and not "Joe Smith".

Now you can find blogs using the KeywordLuv plug-in to get the targeted one-way links to your website or blog.

How the KeywordLuv plug-in Helps You
Get Targeted One-Way Backlinks.

The Wordpress KeywordLuv plug-in helps you reward your visitors who comment on your blog…. by separating their name from their keywords.

For example, if I go to a blog which uses the KeywordLuv plug-in and comment on that blog, I simply enter
Riggie@Internet Business in the name field instead of just Riggie, for example. The symbol @ does the trick here.

The title of a comment in the blog would now look like :

Riggie from Internet Business says :

instead of :

Riggie says :

This allows me to get a targeted link for the term "internet business".

As you can see, this plug-in allows a visitor to enter his name and his targeted keyword link back to his site. It's a win-win for the blog owner and the visitor. Please don't misuse this privilege.

You're a guest at someone else's blog and getting these targeted links will only work if you give contributing comments at the blogs' you're visiting.

Where You Can Find Lists of High PR Blogs to Comment On…

1. Remember… the blog must be a "Do Follow" blog too. You can find a List of "Do Follow" blogs here at D-List.
   
   
2. Stephan Miller has started compiling another List of Blogs using the CommentLuv Plug-in at Link Love for CommentLuv Blogs.
   CommentLuv is another great plug-in which I use on this blog. It highlights the commentator’s latest post automatically by parsing their blog’s feed. This means, with every comment you leave, your latest post is automatically showcased in your comment giving you some exposure with my other readers.
   
   
3. Fortunately for us all, R T Cunningham had created a list of blogs using the Do Follow, Keyword Luv and the CommentLuv plug-ins. The list shows you exactly which blogs only use the "Do Follow" and which ones added any of the above plug-ins. This saves us a lot of time finding the blogs to comment on, and be sure to get a targeted link back to our sites. Thanks RT, you're a star!

Do you have any comment or suggestions about how to get targeted one-way links?

Popularity: 94% [?]

Using and understanding online list building tools is important if you want to build a list of prospects and customers quickly. Unfortunately most entrepreneurs don't have a streamlined email marketing and list building setup that works well.

They simply need more information about how to combine the internet software and services on the internet to succeed with speed.

Here are 4 Online List Building Tools to Help You Build your List:

1. Setup an Autoresponder Immediately

I use Aweber.com or Autoresponder Plus extensively to send my customers information and articles. Although the Autoresponder Plus internet software works smoothly, I prefer Aweber, as I find Aweber gets more emails through to my subscribers. Autoreponder Plus also needs to get installed everytime there's an update.

With Aweber I avoid this problem and can send my business newsletter without worrying about updates.

Which ever way you decide… set up and autoreponder and use it! Set up an autoreponder series and promote your business effectively with it as soon as you can.

2. Setup a Blog or a Site with Popup Software

I know many customers who hate popups. I do too at times too. But… your business only makes sense when your get around 10% and more subscribers per 100 visitors on your site.

If you're not… it's simply not worth all the work to run a blog or website, as you'll not earn a good income from your site in the long term.

If you use popup software intelligently, you won't nerve your visitors too much. For example, you can try and get people to opt-in with an exit popup only. Or you can setup a popup to only appear once for every visitor. Time and time again, I see popups adding a good deal of my subscribers to my sign-up forms.

Whether you're offering products, subscriptions or simply content on your site… keep testing and using popups on your "squeeze pages" and blogs.

3. Use Latent Semantic Indexing Tools to write Effective Content

When writing articles or web pages, most people focus on a primary keyword or phrase and end up with 300 to 600 words that are tightly focused on a certain phrase, say 'golf balls'. They forget though, that the search engines expect a much richer set of keywords. And their problem is… the search engines are now sophisticated enough to tell whether or not your web pages are including these words on your pages!

Latent Semantic Indexing is a very advanced system that search engines now use which assesses the importance of a web page according to the words use on that particular page. Writing your content considering LSI, will help you get found more effectively for more keyword combinations.

In other words, if you write a page about 'golf balls' Google would expect you to use golf ball-related words like these:

-golf -golf balls
-ball -balls
-nike -price
-logo -callaway
-pro -distance
-tour -pack
-review -sphere
-dozen -dimples
-flow -maxfli
-drag -golf ball

So you see… it's simple. You can get free LSI keywords for any particular keyword phrase at the search engine http://www.quintura.com/. Another tool you can buy is Keyword LSI Spy. This is an amazing tool which will give you loads words to spread throughout your article so the search engines will favor it in its rankings. It also shows you a wealth of information about your competition's websites for a certain keyword phrase.

Which ever LSI tool you decide to use… make sure you use one to get good rankings for your articles and web pages.

4. Use the Free Google Analytics Software to Track Your Progress

Google analytics shows you where your traffic is coming from, with which keywords your web pages are being found, where your visitors are entering or exiting your website, and so much more. Get an account now and track your adwords campaigns as well as the entire traffic to your website or blog.

You'll quickly learn amazing details about how your web pages are being found and how your visitors are using your site. This can help you to see what's happening on your site and keep changing it to get more targeted traffic and convert more visitors to subscribers.

Do you have any great list building tools you'd like to share?

Popularity: 71% [?]