Welcome to Michael's Article Collection

How to Earn More by Visualizing Your Marketing Success

Did you ever imagine yourself lying on a beach enjoying the sun or spending the holidays relaxing with relatives? We all daydream and picture ourselves in places we'd like to go to, or doing things we enjoy or have always wanted to try. What do you do next if you want to make your daydream real? If you want to take a vacation you make plans, buy your plane tickets and reserve a hotel room. When. . .

Want to Increase Your Online Sales? Make Sure That Your W...

If you own a web site or if you are going to build a new one, the most important thing about your site is to achieve as high as possible visitors to sales conversion rate. Although they say that "the traffic is king online", if your website converts poorly, your online business will fail, unless you receive tons of free traffic which I doubt. On the Internet today every website has competitors.. . .

How To Create Instantly Compelling Ads Every Time

Use This Quick 3-Question Evaluation Process… And You Can Be Sure That Your Message Will Sell! Evaluation #1: “Well, I Would Hope So!” When you make a claim, don’t think about it in terms of coming out of your mouth…think of it in terms of it entering your prospects ears. Then you’ll realize how ridiculous some claims sound. Whenever you make a claim, ask yourself if the prospect will immediat. . .

Building Your Fan Base

Want to build your fan base? Meaning, do you want to attract more clients or customers to you and your product or service? Then build a platform. A platform is media lingo for having a solid base from which to pitch your work. It’s about numbers, about how many people know what you do. It’s about building your following, that you can use to then build it even more.So, how do you build your plat. . .

“Super Verbs” Really Move Your Copy

Run or hustle? Eat or devour? Move or scurry? You can boost the power of your copy by boosting the quality of verbs you use. Verbs show action, and the way you describe that action can have a dramatic bearing on your readers. Why would you want to fill your copy with complacent words when you can conjure emotions and visual imagery in the hearts and minds of your readers? Sure, "run" and . . .

Simple Graphic Design

THE TIRES ARE TURNING BUT YOU ARE GOING NO WHERESound like a familiar story? So you've got a great concept or idea but you just can't seem to get it down. You have been working on your computer for hours, days, weeks but just can't seem to accomplish anything concrete. STOP. Think about it! How can you realistically create an effective graphic design if you don't know what you are trying to cre. . .

Design Web Album and Deployment Using Adobe and Macromedi...

OK, here is my mission; completely install a customer example photo gallery found here http://www.cardprinting.net/ in 2 hours or less. The basic process starts from Adobe Illustrator CS or Corel Draw 12. This is the format all customers’ work is saved in. There are aproximately. 300 files I need to access export and create a photo album with full navigation.Here's how I did it. Instead of open. . .

RSS FEEDS: Whither Thou Go'est?

I open up the 'Feed Reader' every day on my laptop and cruise the 'news feeds' I 'subscribe' to. The amount of information is now overwhelming, I need to just 'subscribe' to only the 'feeds' that are of immediate interest, else I would be reading 'feeds' twenty four hours every day. When I click on a link to find out more about a news item, I am taken to a web page with the article of news on i. . .

To Be Successful Sell to Wants not Needs

My mother used to tell me, tongue in cheek, that I never wanted anything in my life– everything I asked for was something I needed!! Think about it. We say, “I need a new car.” “I need to go on vacation.” “I need someone to clean my house.” When was the last time you heard someone say, “I want a new pair of shoes.” I bet even Amelda Marcos said, “I need a new pair of shoes.”As consumers w. . .

The Write to Link Popularity

Using writing as a means of boosting your link popularity can be a turnoff for many webmasters, when in fact it can lead to a wealth of links. I first learnt about link popularity while researching about many different methods that I could use to market a Geocities site I had. After emailing countless webmasters and receiving some dismal results, I realized that it was hopeless to get people to. . .

Privacy: Reduce your Customers’ Concerns by Building Trus...

Before making a purchase from you, buyers need to trust your company and think that your products and services will do what they are supposed to. Do your marketing and online practices help establish the trust necessary to convince prospects to buy from you? What is the connection between privacy and trust? Evidence shows that the two are closely correlated.Since the beginning of interpersonal . . .

Marketing Success Defined

How do you personally define success? High income? Substantial net worth? A fine home? Peer recognition?On a personal basis, there are likely almost as many definitions of success as there are people in the world.In marketing, though, there are just four measurable elements of success: Profitability, Market Share, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Retention. Profitability requires little expla. . .

Loyalty Programs May Keep Customers Coming Back – But Fir...

Remember trading stamps? If you’re over 40, chances are you will. Every time you shopped at a participating grocery store or gas station they gave you stamps to paste into a book. When you’d accumulated enough stamps, you could cash them in for “free” gifts. These stamps were one of the first loyalty programs. They kept customers loyal to a particular product or merchant because they offered an. . .

Making a Hit with Your Marketing Campaign

Considered a vital link in a show's promotional plan, direct marketing is vital only if it's done right. It's certainly not as simple as typing a letter, adding an address and stamp, and popping it in the mail. Direct marketing specialist Debbie Bermont, president of San Diego-based Source Communications, offers her golden rules for creating that vital, highly successful direct marketing campai. . .

The A-Z of Exhibiting Overseas

Exhibiting overseas is one of the fastest and most cost effective ways to identify the best foreign markets for your products/services. International trade shows and fairs offer opportunities for multilateral contacts and business deals. They allow you to test your product’s export suitability; explore the strength and scope of your competition; and gain exposure to potential suppliers, in-coun. . .

How Heavy Hitters Avoid Rejection Working MLM Leads

“But, these people are telling me NO and I don’t like the way that feels,” he told me.“The same rejection, real or imagined, that make some people $10,000 per month in this industry will cause others to abandon their dreams,” I replied.In the MLM industry, you see the heavy hitters who know how to work MLM leads flourish no matter if the industry is up, down or flat. Why? What do they know that. . .

Winning the Traffic Exchange Game

Winning the traffic exchange game can be done. I was just starting out online and had no money so I was looking for a free way to drive traffic to my site. That is when I first found traffic exchanges. I found the concept to be great and signed up for everyone I found and started clicking and clicking and clicking. After countless hours, a blistered clicking finger and a lot of frustration I fo. . .

Google's Wonderland: Trouble In Paradise?

The fairy tale existance of Google is starting to experience shockwaves.So, what's the source of these shockwaves? Click fraud. As my readers know, I've written several articles on the subject of click fraud, suggesting that since it's the market leader, Google should take a more proactive approach with the problem of click fraud.Until now, Google has been mostly quiet about the subject, issuin. . .

How to Add Warmth, Color & Texture to Your Advertisements

"…A powerful agent is the right word…" --Mark TwainAnd what true words those are! Your marketing efforts have the ability to succeed…or to fail…based on the words you choose to represent your products, services, and yourself in your ads.You have the ability to choose any words you desire. The problem is, sometimes, we draw a blank. Our minds seem amiss of anything creative to say. This is when . . .

Postcard Marketing – Low Cost Visibility

You need to be visible to attract customers, right? But how do you get that visibility when you’re short on cash? Here’s an idea that’s worked for many businesses. It’s postcard marketing, and it’s very affordable. You can design your own postcards or hire a designer. Print the cards on 67# card stock to meet USPS requirements. Two or four cards will fit on an 8 ½” x 11” sheet so you’ll ha. . .

Marketing is a Patience Game

“Get your positioning and your programs implemented properly, and the numbers will come. But you’ve got to have some patience.”– Jack Trout with Steve Rivkin“The New Positioning. The Latest on the World’s #1 Business Strategy”One of the biggest derailers of successful marketing is the process of continually changing your marketing strategy. According to Jay Levinson, author of the Guerilla M. . .

How Do You Define a Good Logo Design?

Everyone wants his company logo to be the best but how good is good? How do we define a good logo? Is it necessary to be colorful or an exquisite piece of art? Can a simple design work as a good logo? We are often in a dilemma.Now to define a good logo design we first need to understand the purpose of having a logo. A corporate logo is one of the most essential branding elements for your compan. . .

How to Create a Multi-Functional Newsletter to Promote Yo...

A marketing strategy is worthless if all it does is promote your freelance business and plea to prospects to hire you. Such is the case with many print and e-mail business newsletters. Few freelancers understand how to use a business newsletter to secure clients in the long term. Instead they use their newsletters to pitch their freelance services and advertise their qualifications. This method. . .

7 Creative Ways to do Marketing

There are plenty of ways to let customers know about your products. Why not use things that are already in place for communication with clients?1. Invoices: Fill your invoice statements with special offers or information about new products and services. Either add small brochures or flyers to the invoice letter or print your marketing message on the invoice itself. Remember – you are already pa. . .

Do You Have to Be Aggressive to Make Sales?

A few weeks ago I was onsite at a company that had hired me to train their sales team on how to stop using traditional selling and start using the Unlock The Game™ sales approach. After one coaching session, one member of the sales team came up to me and said, "Ari, your approach makes complete sense -- but I'm afraid I'll lose sales if I stop being aggressive and start being passive!" Whenever. . .

Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website - Step 9: Monitoring

Welcome to part nine in this search engine positioning series. Last week we discussed the important topic of link building. In part nine we will be covering the monitoring and the various areas you should consider and tools you may want to use.While this area isn’t directly related to attaining higher rankings it is definitely equally important. Once you’ve got good rankings your competitors ar. . .

Why Strategic Marketing Should Be Taught In Seminary

Why are so many churches content with being culturally irrelevant and creatively archaic? If you train someone to be irrelevant, they will be. If someone is given archaic ideas for presenting relevant material, the material will no doubt be perceived as boring and outdated. Seminary is not the cause for antiquated portrayals of a pertinent message, however it can be a prominent contributor to w. . .

What Santa Knows About Marketing

What's that ringing sound you hear at this time of year? It's the sound of store registers ringing up the sales generated by Santa Claus. Just because he's old, overweight, long haired, unshaven and dresses funny, don't overlook his marketing success. Santa is a marketing expert and you can become one, too, if you follow his marketing methods. What's that you say? You don't believe in Santa Cla. . .

Success on the Web: Detailed Case Study with ROI Figures

Top of the HillMont Blanc Ski Resort is a relatively small operation and one of a handful of similar ski resorts that can be found on the road leading to Quebec's largest and most famous resort Mont Tremblant (actually Mont Tremblant is an entire ski village). The problem for Mont Blanc then was how to stand out online. The site itself was unremarkable (some would say that's a compliment). Sea. . .

The End Of Marketing

Working with top companies worldwide in all major sectors for 20 years, I've discovered that few of them come even close to achieving their potential results. A key reason is that their leaders "don't know that they don't know". They don't know that marketing as we know it has come to an end. A more successful growth-dynamic must replace it. That dynamic is tied to human emotions and the res. . .

How Important it is to Have a Professional Logo Design fo...

There are a lot of things that contribute towards the success of a business. Having a good quality product doesn't necessarily assure the success of a business. To build a long term impression on your customers, it is vital that you have a proper marketing strategy and something unique about your company. Here comes in the importance for having a custom logo design.I think it is absolutely impo. . .

Adobe Photoshop levels-Turn junk into gold by clicking a ...

There is no doubt in my mind; Adobe Photoshop is the greatest Photo editing program in the world. Whether you are a novice or an expert Photoshop is the program for you. Photoshop is used by my children and by the movie making industry. So what exactly can I do with Photoshop? The better question is what can’t you do with Photoshop?Today I would like to talk about the simple little function in . . .

Developing Your Own Pitch

If you have surfed any of the exchanges for credits, you have seen them; countless affiliate web pages for all the different programs available.When you decide to sign-up for a money-making affiliate program, you are usually given one or more web pages to promote that program. These affiliate pages usually have your member ID embedded into them, so that whenever someone signs-up, using that pag. . .

Design a Web Album Using Adobe Photoshop- Part 2

So let's begin crunching down these 300 images using Adobe Photoshop from start to finish. When I say 'crunching', to some 300 images may seem like allot, but it's not. I have done jobs for clients that have 100,000 plus images. When you have that many images to produce there are other programs I use that are designed for this. We’ll cover that another day.To this point we have ensured that ou. . .

Publish a Web Album Using Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia D...

So now we have you pile of images looken real good, nicely organized in directories with an index.htm file, nice. Are we ready to publish this on the net? Well, yes…but. There always is a but. Here are a couple of suggestions that will help you enhance your online photo album.1) Make sure your album (folders and all) are in the correct location with the website contents that you publish from, u. . .

Effective Marketing

For any business to be successful whether on or offline it has to be marketing effectively. You are going to need more than a great looking site with fabulous products or services to obtain success. You will need to run an effective marketing campaign and for this you will need a marketing plan.To obtain online success you will have to be involved in planning from day 1 and you will have to wor. . .

How to Write Your Way to More Quilting Business

So, you've opened up your quilting business? You're in a good location, provide a superior product and offer compelling prices. Yet, somehow, you'd like to see more people frequenting your quilt shop or signing up for your quilting classes, taking advantage or your machine quilting services, or purchasing your quilts.One way to achieve your quilting business goals is to write articles. If you'v. . .

Copywriting Secrets Of India's Mystics

Hi everyone,Been ruminating on this one for a little while now but it’s probably one of the most profound discoveries of my life. It all began with a little book about music and it’s had such a deep influence on my copywriting and small business, indeed my whole outlook on life, I'd like to share it with you all now.Here’s what happened…About 8 years ago I bought the book “Man and Music In Indi. . .

Ordering Commercial Printing For Your Company Can Be Indi...

"I went to see a printer today to get my company's stationery printed. They ask too many questions, I can't answer!" I feel kinda dumb.How many times have you felt this way? It's kind of like going to the auto garage for a tune up and being told you need a new 02 sensor, your syncro mesh gear has a tooth missing and so on. You know you have to get it done but who can you trust to give you the b. . .

Advertising doesn't cost...it pays!

Well this has been a busy day. I am truly fatigued. So I may cut my writings today short, but not cheap. We set a sales record today and entered more new printing orders than any other day since our inception in 1989. Today was a banner day…great.What I want to write about today was advertising… When should I advertise? How should I advertise? How much of a budget should I allow? These are t. . .

Affiliates Go To School!

It has been said that only 2% of affiliate marketers ever make any “real” money from their efforts. The rest struggle and flounder as they see most of their efforts fail. Rather like master archers hitting the bull’s-eye each time while the rest struggle to sharpen their arrows, draw the bow and try to figure out what to aim at! Those who run affiliate programs are often very sincere and well m. . .

Interview with a "Video Virgin"

Shani Alexander is the founder of Relocations Made Easy (www.relocations-made-easy.com) which produces an interactive website and CDROM tool that advises people on how to make a stress free relocation to a new city. To create her interactive product, Shani needed camera vision of herself explaining to viewers how the product worked in front of a cityscape backdrop. We interviewed her to find ou. . .

Search Engine Tips & Techniques

As you are building your site or getting your site built, you need to do as much as you can to ensure higher rankings in the search engines. There are a variety of little tips and techniques you can use to do this.Meta tags & keywords - Meta tags are included in the section of your site and are read by the search engines. The two most important kind are "description" and "keywords" Descripti. . .

The Impact of Price Popularity on Profits

The goal of almost every business owner is to generate a profit either for themselves or their shareholders. This can be challenging at best. So much thought and effort go into running a business, accounts payable, accounts receivable, dealing with vendors, customers, etc. Because of this people sometimes do not focus on one of the most important factors- pricing. Knowing how much you can charg. . .

Are You a Cultivator or a Harvester?

As a result of providing marketing consulting, training and coaching to a variety of individuals and industries over the years, I have come to recognize that people generally approach the business building process in one of two ways. Everyone tends to be what I identify as either Cultivators or Harvesters. The problem is the business building process requires both cultivation and harvestin. . .

Wimpy Google and Michael Jackson: Birds Of A Feather

Google Inc. is suing a Houston-based company for allegedly clicking on sponsored links to fraudulently boost advertising revenues. Google filed a lawsuit two weeks ago in Santa Clara County Superior Court in California against Auctions Expert International LLC. Google is accusing Auctions Expert of abusing the Google AdSense program, in which web publishers display Google's pay-per-click ads an. . .

The Boy Who Cried Wolf Redux

You've probably heard the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. The problem is that the child was looking for attention and thought it would be fun to scream at the top of his lungs that a wolf was nearby. Each time he did, the entire town came running to his rescue! It worked twice! But each time all the townsfolk came running to his field all set to do battle with a big, mean wolf, all they found . . .

So What's Your Argument?

Arguments aren't always bad things. Sometimes They're used to convince someone of an important point they may not yet realize. You've probably used arguments in this way most of your life in fact! Maybe you wanted to go somewhere and had to convince your parents that is was a good idea to let you go. So you argued your position with them. Maybe you wanted to buy a big ticket item and had to arg. . .

The Key to Eliminating Objections and Increasing Sales

You're in a meeting with a promising prospect. You review the project and the services you provide and then, just when you're hoping to get the okay, the prospect raises an objection. They may tell you:"I haven"t got the time right now.""Send me a written proposal and I'll think about it.""We already have a supplier.""We prefer working with a larger company.""Its too expensive.""We really don't. . .

Getting The Big Picture Series: Part 5-"The Free-Way" #1

Will the search engine's take notice of you? Search engine placement is the most important aspect of internet marketing promotion. What is a search engine?The search engines function is to search the entire Internet, site or database under your defined term. It will retrieve any data that fits under the criteria of your search. Examples of search engine's include Alta Vista, Excite, and Google . . .