Welcome to Michael's Article Collection

Ideas for Boosting Sales

Every business owner’s goal is to have a lot of profit as much as possible. But earning a lot of money is not easy. It needs a lot of hard work, determination and a good marketing strategy. So if a business owner wants to increase his sales would a brochure do? Typically brochures are not used as a final sales tool. But because it serves as an introduction to potential customers, it is importan. . .

5 Reasons Why Headlines Are Crucial To Your Website’s Suc...

With such visual and sequential prominence, it's little wonder why headlines are the number one key to an effective web site. Without a powerful lead, your message stands little chance of being noticed in an increasingly competitive marketplace. If your headline doesn’t capture attention and pull prospects into your sales copy, than your marketing effort is a total waste of energy and resources. . .

Short Or Long Copy: The Best Sales Letter Strategy And Why

Imagine yourself face to face with your prospect. Your goal is to make the sale today, in order to put food on the table and pay the bills. If you fail to close the deal today... you'll have to go to bed with an empty belly and ignore the growing stack of bills for another day. Do you limit your efforts... or do whatever it takes to close the sale? Would you use short copy or long copy? You’ve . . .

Internet Marketing

Marketing on the internet legitimately assumed a very important place among various managerial practices and strategic solutions that companies’ executives resort to in order to boost sales and improve performance. The last decade can also be considered the age of the internet and computer technologies. Only a few years ago many people did not know what the internet was exactly and few people a. . .

The Wrong Time To Write A Press Release

Is there ever a wrong time to try to get free publicity for your company, product, or service?Oh, yeah.The "wrong" time isn't just about bad days of the week, like Monday morning, or bad times of the year, like Christmas Eve.The wrong time I'm referring to is more internal.Let's say you're almost finished with your web site. It will be up next week, and you're almost ready to start taking order. . .

The Real Goal Of Network Marketing

Her name is Jessica and she is a single mother in Georgia. She is engaged and living with her fiance, but she has 2 kids she wants to take care of and she wants them to know their mother. She wants to be there for them and with them. She wants to raise them as once kids were raised...as she was not raised. Her fiance has a good job, but with 2 kids and one on the way, it's hard to make ends. . .

Get Googled with Adwords to Boost Website Visits

The Google Adwords program is a very popular new program. Mainly people who have products to sell on the Internet use it. If you want to sell products, it might be a good idea to check into the Google Adwords program to give you web site more exposure. Besides, it is not hard to learn and it can mean big profits for your business too.The Google Adwords program is a PPC, a pay per click program. . .

Importance of Marketing

Marketing is a broad topic that covers a range ofaspects, including advertising, public relations, sales,and promotions. People often confuse sales withmarketing, when in fact the two are very different. Theformer involves getting a product or service into themarket, promoting it, influencing behavior, andencouraging sales. Sales are the actual transaction ofgetting a product or service into th. . .

Why Brochures are Effective

Human perception is a fascinating phenomenon and fortunately for small business owners marketing experts have tapped into this phenomenon for our benefit. This article will illustrate the chain of logic that a prospective customer follows when reacting to your advertising efforts and why brochures are one of the most effective methods of promotion.Several things happen when a prospective client. . .

Advertising To Those With Javascript Turned Off

Just about all of the contextual advertising services and many other types of services use JavaScript to include their ads on your website. This is great because it's easy to put the code on your website, have ads running and then forget about it. But what about those users who have Javascript turned off?Well first of all they won't see anything. Your content that is below it will just move int. . .

Sales Letters that Sell!

The average consumer is inundated with sales pitches. So if you’re selling a product or service to today’s ad weary consumer, if you want your sales letters to get results, you’ll need a step-by-step plan that breaks down the barriers to buying. A plan that bypasses the head and goes right for the heart. If the heart’s in it, the brain will followBuying anything is largely emotional. Whether i. . .

Email Marketing Campaigns Done Right

If I Told You the TOP Professionals Jumped off a Bridge, Would You Jump? Email marketing campaigns can be very profitable if done right. However, with the advent of spam filters and the amount of email advertising received by people each day, email advertisement has become more of a challenge. There is still one avenue for email advertisement that seems to be stable and seems to provide sellers. . .

Advertising Lessons from American Idol

When products or brands are trying to build market presence they often look for innovative ways to get consumers to try them. Shows like American Idol which attract large numbers of viewers every week provide the perfect platform for this type of marketing. Services like SMS have been around for over a decade, and while popular Europe, Asia, and Japan, have never caught on in the United States.. . .

7 Ways To Make Money Using Nothing More Than Your Subscri...

An opt-in list can be quite crucial to any site or internet based company. Even for a small venture such as a niche profit site an opt-in list can make a world of difference and also add some extra income for your pocket. Rarely would you see an e-commerce site, big or small, that is without an opt-in list.An opt-in list allows for a company to market their wares and site via an e-mail. Wi. . .

Enhance Your Unique Selling Proposition

Having a strong Unique Selling Proposition can help you gain a distinctive edge in any competitive marketplace. Your USP, also known as a Unique Selling Advantage or Unique Competitive Advantage, helps to position you in the eyes of your prospect. It should clearly and succinctly communicate to your prospective customer why he or she should buy from you.The best USP’s come about from an in-dept. . .

Keyword Advice

Online "experts" are always offering conflicting keyword advice. This is because different keywords are good for different reasons. Once you know the factors involved, you can decide which ones are best for your web site. I have a page of my backpacking site optimized for the term "dirtbagging." I think I get half the world traffic for that keyword, but that only means ten visitors a month. I w. . .

To Use or Not To Use Posters

Posters have been used since the 19th century to advertise new products. Since then the use of posters as promotional materials for opera shows and any major events have been widespread. Today, aside from being great advertising materials they are also used to communicate messages or announce any upcoming events. For any business enterprise, posters are a great help in marketing a product or se. . .

Headlines Online -- 7 Ways To Use Powerful Headlines Prof...

Are you applying proven principles to ALL your headlines? If not, you're missing a golden opportunity to build your business. A strong headline can make a huge difference in the offline world of marketing. But it works just as well online. In this article, I'll reveal 7 ways to utilize the power of headlines online. To achieve online marketing success, you need to promote your most appealing an. . .

How To Use Ebay To Gather Tons Of Quality Traffic

The major bugbear of any webmaster is that no matter how stylish, how well written or how downright beautiful their site is – it all counts for nothing unless you have traffic.There are many articles (just like this one) that can describe the varying ways of getting eager visitors to gaze upon the marvels of your site.You could use reciprocal links to get visitors from other websites – although. . .

Get More Clients with the Book Yourself Solid Trust Build...

An effective sales cycle is based on building a relationship of trust with your potential clients. I'm sure you've heard it said before, but it's worth repeating, "People buy from those they like and trust." It is truly as simple as that. Trust is critical. Especially for the service professional and small business owner. Without trust, it doesn't matter how well you've planned, what you're off. . .

Dear New Affiliate, Be Picky When Choosing Affiliate Prog...

Question: How do you choose an affiliate program to promote? There are so many out there. Which ones are good?Dear New Affiliate,There are several ways to determine whether an affiliate program is worthy. Oftentimes it looks like the Affiliate Manager has all the power, but this is a partnership. There really are thousands of programs available. Don’t sign up and promote just any of them. If yo. . .

Dear Affiliate Manager, Women Are From Venus

Question: My target market is women, and I’m having a hard time getting them to promote my products. They just seem unmotivated. I don’t get it. Does my affiliate program stink or am I recruiting bad affiliates?Dear Affiliate Manager:This just goes back to basic psychology. Women and men value different things.Car salesmen are taught this in their training. When a husband and wife walk into a c. . .

Dear Affiliate Manager: Are You Hoarding Your Articles?

Question: My affiliates keep bugging me about my articles. Why do they want my articles and should I let them have them? What do I get out of it?Dear Affiliate Manager,You hit on my pet peeve. Stop hoarding your articles already! Do you want your affiliates to promote your program repeatedly to their lists and on their sites or don’t you? Isn’t the goal to get your website exposure all over the. . .

The Psychology of Network Marketing

The general public usually misunderstands the network marketing industry. When they hear of network marketing opportunities their biased perceptions of the industry can cause them to avoid these opportunities. This negative reputation has been brought about by information about organizations within this industry that are perceived as being unscrupulous and deceptive. And as we all know, negati. . .

Where To Place Classified Ads To Build Your Business

I happen to love classified ads as a way of generating new business. But simply “placing tiny classifieds ads in newspapers” does not work for most business-type applications – despite what you may have heard on those infamous infomercials. If you’re buying and selling items of personal property like vehicles, furniture, antiques, or sports equipment -- newspapers may be the natural choice for . . .

3 Fast and Easy Ways To Generate A Money Making Opt In List

So, you put up a website and started building your list, and you kept on building your list for a few months and sending out the weekly emails asking them to buy your recommended product or service because its the best thing since sliced bread and . . . NO ONE'S BUYING!!So you keep it up for a few more months, building your list a bit more and sending out the weekly emails asking them to b. . .

Article Writing

When I learned about article writing as a way to generate web site traffic, I was intrigued. Unfortunately, it took me several hours to write that first article for my backpacking web site, and another two hours to submit it to several article directories. I still liked the idea, but it seemed like a lot of work for the results. There had to be a better way.Today, I often write a new article in. . .

How To Keep Your Target Customers Interested

Modern life has made all people almost busy all the time. If they are not at work or at school, you will find them at parties, concerts or any events that includes music, food and drinking. That’s just about the life of every American today. So amidst this busy lifestyle, if you are a business owner who has new products or services to offer or a businessman trying to lure in new customers you w. . .

4 Methods To Quickly Gain Your Opt In Subscribers Trust

While the rest of the world have developed many barriers and protection to keep their email accounts spam-free, there are also those that sign up to receive emails that promote various products, and services and their sites. This is mainly because these opt in subscribers wants to know more about what these sites are offering and can be beneficial for them. They expect to be kept posted on. . .

P.S. -- The Last (But Certainly Not The Least) Important ...

Look at the conclusion of any successful sales letter and what do you see? Webster’s defines it this way... “Postscript -- To write after; a paragraph added to a letter after it is concluded and signed by the writer; an addition made to a letter or composition after the main body of the work has been finished, containing something omitted, or something new occurring to the writer.” For marketer. . .

Using Articles To Generate A Subscriber Stampede

Getting customers at your site should always be ranked as high as the importance of the quality and the excellence of the product and the services you provide. They should go hand in hand in providing your customers the satisfaction they get in exchange for the money they have paid for them. Customer service should as well, be as fantastic as possible so that the customers are provided wit. . .

How To Create An Order Form That Leads To More Sales

Your order form is a crucial component of your marketing communications – both online and offline. As a separate piece of your direct mail package, or individual page of your website, the order page brings together the key components of your sales message in one concise summary. In essence, the order form should facilitate the sale. After all, it’s the ultimate destination you want prospects to. . .

Risk Reversal – Eliminate Your Customer’s Fear

The Mission...To remove any obstacle that stands in the way of a sale. Most of us has at one time or another been ripped off by some unscrupulous individual or a business of dubious character. Because of this negative experience, we’ve become fearful of it happening again and so we’re very careful about with whom we do business.Your prospects are no different. They fear being taken in some way.. . .

Don't Read This Article - I Dare You!

See? It worked! The title said 'Don't Read This Article - I Dare You!', and here you are reading it anyway. Victory for me and my amazing psychic abilities?Hardly.Actually, this Maiden Voyage article of The Don't Chronicles has but one goal: to teach you the power of negative thinking! No, I don't mean that you should give up on your positive attitude. I mean that people don't like to be told ". . .

Donor Acquisition Fundraising Letters: Five Tips For Attr...

Your organization is doing well if 85 percent of your donors renew their support each year, according to Stanley Weinstein in his book The Complete Guide to Fundraising Management.To put it another way, you are doing well if no more than 15 percent of your donors fall away each year. So do the math.If your organization has 10,000 active donors, and if 8,500 (85 percent) of them renew each year,. . .

Premiums and Freemiums- Who's Doing What?

Just like in the fashion industry, premiums have their hot sellers and their has-beens. The industry is sensitive to changes in technology that render some premiums obsolete, and to political events that affect the business climate. Stan Konik, President of Konik and Company, a merchandise premium supplier to the publishing industry for over 30 years, reports that cameras, which used to be very. . .

Printing Your Own Cards

Business cards may be small but certainly they can work big wonders for your business. For big businesses, seeking the help of professional printers help them create professional and sleek looking business cards. But for small business working on a tight budget, availing of these professional services can be costly for them. So what could a small business owner do? They can always consider maki. . .

Trade Catalogs and American Advertising

The 19th century was the year of trade catalogs. This era saw a revolution in the business and industrial history as reflected in these trade catalogs. The Industrial Revolution evident in this century was a major force in the modernization of the business industry. Aside from new methods of producing goods that brought down its prices, even making luxury items available to ordinary people, thi. . .

Finding the Right Printer

To produce thousands of copies of a fifteen page brochure at a rate of one page per minute with men working 24 hours a day would perhaps take over a week. But to produce the same quantity of brochures using your desktop printer would take over a decade! Clearly, desktop printing is not really an option in terms of cost, quality and speed. Hence, when you need large volumes of brochure or catalo. . .

Internet Copywriting - Make Your Offer Irresistible!

Want to increase your online sales? Make sure your offer is one they can't pass up!Any offer you make through your Internet copywriting needs to be worth the readers' time. Time is valuable and there is no bigger waste of time - for you as the creator or for your reader - than a worthless offer.A number of years ago, a newspaper advertising sales rep went to her boss, disgusted that her client . . .

No-Cost Marketing Strategies for Home Based Businesses

Many small businesses are run from people’s home computers and fall under the radar of business statistics. Whether you are working for a multi-level marketing company or selling painted bird houses the difficulty of advertising your products without a budget is overwhelming. Let us face the fact that $20 a month spent on classified advertisement isn’t going to bring in a flood of visitors. A h. . .

Successful Internet Marketing

When getting started marketing on the internet it seems very overwhelming. I mean with getting your website put together,your splash page(s) your Adsense, your Adwords,ezine advertising, the ad tracking, Writing articles, Viral marketing, a blog, linking, SEO, any affiliate sites, traffic generation, auto responders, list building and more you might think to yourselfman what am I doing? If you . . .

How To Kick Start Your Business With SEO & SEM

Who is this for?If you are a webmaster who is about to start his/her first online business or web site, you probably know that it is not that easy to get high traffic to your site. In fact, nowadays it takes a lot more work to be successful online, than it had been some years ago. The main factor that influences your success is that most business or web site owner do not know anything (useful) . . .

2 Secrets to Maximize Your Viral Marketing Efforts

The goal of viral marketing is to spur activity and communication among prospects and your customer base. Your consumers propagate traffic to your site by the Internet’s version of word of mouth. Let’s not also forget that the traditional “word of mouth” viral marketing works just as well to promote your online business. Effective viral marketing involves time-tested marketing that requires. . .

The Offset Process of Book Printing

Books have been a part of people’s lives. They provide us knowledge, information and different stories. They make us laugh, cry and even bring us inspiring tales. This is perhaps why books have a special niche in the printing industry. Hence, they are carefully and effectively produced and designed to make a lasting impression to its readers. Books are usually printed using standard paper and s. . .

Why Is It Important To Have Your Own Information Product ...

Imagine this, you open your email first thing in the morning and you see fifteen new orders; one from Switzerland, one from Australia, one from India, and a dozen from all over the United States. All for the product you just recently made available on the Web. It’s 7 a.m., you’re still sipping your first cup of coffee and only half awake, and already it’s been a very profitable day. While this . . .

Get Clients with a Small Business Networking Strategy

Networking, Ugh!Much like the thought of marketing and sales, the thought of networking may make you cringe. For most solo-pros, service professionals, and small business owners, they hear the word networking and it brings to mind the old business standard of promotional networking at 'meet & greet' events where it's understood and accepted that everyone is there to schmooze and subtly manipula. . .

Free Article Submission Sites Are Your Gateway to Targete...

There are hundreds of "free article submission" sites that will gladly accept your articles written to provide readers with useful information. As long as these articles are not thinly disguised sales letters, but provide solid content, these sites will accept them for publication, copyright free. In turn, they will then make those articles available for reading--and for publication--for anyone. . .

Efficient Blogging

One of the challenges of blogging is to come up with good posts that interest readers and keep them coming back. Sometimes I do not feel like I have good original wisdom. It is presumptuous to think I can have top quality original material all the time.A second challenge is the time to blog. I run a $1 Billion dollar company so when I decided to blog I knew I needed to figure out how to do it e. . .

Improve Your B2B Direct Mail Response Rates With Premiums.

Premiums are an effective way to increase your direct mail response rates. Whether you are selling a product or service directly through the mail, or whether you are using a sales letter to generate leads, premiums can help you boost response, increase conversions and motivate buyers to pay now rather than later. A premium is simply an item that you offer to your buyer to take action. As Dick B. . .