When you need help with your mlm business who do you turn to? Are there people above you in your line that are successful at what they do. It may not be the person directly above you do do not be afraid to look several levels up. Find the one that appears to have the most mastery of multi level marketing and use them as your mlm consultant. Politically, it is best to work with and through the person that brought you into the mlm plan rather than around them. While you want the best advise possible you do not want to alienate anyone in getting it.

When we were actively involved in multi level marketing there were always seminars being offered by people above us that had created a successful business. After attending several of these we were able to pick out the ones that were successes based upon what they had done and those that taught classes based upon what they had learned that should be done. When we picked the mlm consultant we always picked the one that had been there and done it. What they did, did not always work for us, but it had a least been successful for them and we could learn from it.

If you give really great massage treatments all the time it’s true that your clients may recommend you to their friends, which may generate more business for you, however when it comes down to it, just being a great therapist does not guarantee that you will be able to build a thriving and successful massage business.

In fact, a large majority of the massage therapists that I know, all say that they would like more clients.

So how does the career massage therapist get a steady stream of clients? Well they certainly don’t just sit and wait (and hope) for the phone to ring, that won’t pay the bills. No, what every massage therapist who has decided to go out on their own should be doing (when they are not massaging) is in fact ‘marketing massage’.

Now I know that the idea of ‘marketing’ may conjure up in your mind, corporate images of elaborate and expensive advertising campaigns and the like, but really all I’m talking about is consciously and effectively putting your business in front of the different kinds of people you would like to attract to your massage business as clients, and getting them to make contact with you and book in for a treatment. That’s all!

You could be the most knowledgeable, talented, highly trained massage therapist out there but unless people ‘know’ about you and how ‘your service’ can be of BENEFIT to them, you may never experience the kind of practice or income that you want or deserve!

The first thing that I feel is necessary to grasp is that a massage practice (no matter how big or small) is in fact a ‘business’, your business! The next most important thing is that there are two sides to your business and one cannot survive without the other.

One side of your massage business is the providing of excellent massage treatments. The other side of your massage business is the marketing side i.e. the strategies and systems you use to attract a continual stream of clients and to get them to book in for a massage with you.

The secret to building a thriving and successful massage business is to realize that you need to be a marketer of massage first (in order to get the clients), and a provider of massage second. These are the twin pillars of your business. Once you get the clients on the table your job is only half done, you then need to give them a first class treatment that is based around their needs, each and every time!

So now that you know that you need to be a massage marketer as well as a massage therapist, the next question to ask is, “How do you market your massage?” Well it all starts with the most important rule.

“Don’t try to be all things to all people all at once!”

The biggest mistake I see therapists who are trying to build up a list of clients make, is that they will do up a brochure or business card etc that has their name or business name and / or logo, a list of the services they offer, and maybe a little about who they are and their qualifications, and that’s it!

The thing is, every other therapist is doing exactly the same thing, so not only do they not stand out from the crowd, they are not speaking to the specific needs of the people that they are trying to attract as a massage clients. In fact many therapists are not even sure who it is they’re even trying to attract.

So before you even think about printing up another brochure, flyer, business card or doing another ad, you need to first ask yourself, “What type of clients do I want to attract to my massage business? Who are they? Where are they? How can I get them interested in my business?”

Some massage therapists like to work specifically with sports people, others with women only, or people with back pain, others with people who are rehabilitating from illness or injury and others primarily for relaxation and rejuvenation etc, OR you might be the kind of therapist who wants to attract and work with people from all types of backgrounds. There are really no limits!

However, in order to effectively attract specific types of people into your massage business, your marketing must be ‘tailored’ to reach these people directly and speak to ‘their’ individual needs!

The mistake that a lot of massage therapists are making is that they’ll do up a brochure or put an advertisement in a magazine or newspaper and they’ll try to promote to all of these types of people at the same time. They might list the different benefits of their massage treatment by saying that their massage is good for back pain, relaxation, sports injuries etc.

By doing this they are saying that their massage is good for everything and everyone and while this is probably true, they are not speaking directly to each individual type of person, and therefore the power of their message is diluted.

The key to getting a great response is to market to each style of person individually, and whether or not you use a flyer, brochure or paid advertisement, you need to come across as a specialist by listing only those benefits of your massage that will appeal to that style of person.

Let’s say that we work from home or out of a small clinic and there are a couple of gyms in our area. We know that many people who go to workout at the gym will be interested in receiving massage so we decide that we would like to attract some of these people as clients.

If we want to attract a particular style of person to our massage business, we first need to get into their head and find out what their ‘needs’ are.

This usually isn’t too difficult. In regards to people who go to the gym, just put yourself in their shoes. “Why do they go to the gym?” People generally go the gym to workout because they are health conscious and they care about their physical appearance and their level of fitness.

Now think about what happens after you have a hard work out? Your muscles can become tight and tense and often there is soreness due to lactic acid build up. You often feel energized but your body now needs a period of rest to rejuvenate before the next workout.

Keeping this in mind, a great way to market to people who regularly workout at the gym would be to focus on all of the ‘physical’ benefits that these people would receive should they come to have a massage with you.

You could for example, focus on the BENEFITS of receiving massage treatments ‘in between’ workouts and list only those benefits that would most appeal to the style of person who works out on a regular basis.

Some benefits of receiving massage that would be effective in this example are that it:

- Quickly eliminates muscle soreness after your workout.

- Relieves muscular spasm quickly.

- Improves your flexibility and range of movement.

- Cuts your recovery time in half.

- Reduces the chance of injury by alleviating tension in the body.

- Increases your body’s ability to absorb nutrients and vitamins.

- Oxygenates your body’s cells giving you greater levels of energy.

- Can greatly improve your general health, well-being and appearance.

- Makes you feel relaxed, refreshed and ready to take on the world!

At the top of your flyer you could combine a few of these benefits into an attention grabbing headline for example, “Discover How To Quickly Eliminate Muscle Soreness After Your Next Workout!” followed by a subheading, …and feel completely relaxed, refreshed and ready to take on the world!

A benefit rich headline that captures the interest of your ‘target market’ should be at the top of every piece of marketing you do, whether it’s a flyer, an editorial or just a simple advertisement!

You could then follow up with the rest of the benefits above, so that you come across as a therapist who ’specializes’ in working with people who do intensive exercise on a regular basis.

If possible you would then throw in a testimonial or two from clients that fall into the same ‘target market’ that you have massaged previously, so that it gives you credibility and shows why they should have a massage with you.

Then give them a special offer of say 90 minutes for the price of an hour and mention that it’s for a limited time only, tell them to call A.S.A.P to make their appointment type and in your phone number so that it is big and bold. If possible, include a small photo of yourself and voila, you have a very targeted, inexpensive method of putting your business in front of a specific type of client that has a high probability of making contact with you.

Now this is just one example, and you could tailor different flyers for different styles of people and also different styles of massage. The main thing that I’m trying to get across here is that even though your massage itself may not change that much from person to person, you need to target your marketing so that you are speaking to each different style of person (target market) specifically and answer the question, “What’s in it for them?” by clearly listing those benefits that will be appealing to that style of person.

So to recap on what I covered so far today, think of your massage practice as a business that has two equally important sides - the ‘marketing of massage’ and the ‘providing of massage’.

Work out what types of people (target markets) you would like to have as clients and then market to each of those groups individually with benefit rich, ‘attention grabbing’ headlines. Then answer the question of “What’s in it for them?” by illustrating the specific benefits of your service.

Then, make sure you give yourself credibility by throwing in one or two testimonials from clients that are in the same target market and make them a ‘time sensitive’ offer that they can’t refuse. Last but not least, tell them ‘how’ to make contact with you. Make sure that these elements are included in ALL forms of marketing that you do, whether it be brochures, flyers, editorials or simple classified ads etc.

Then when clients show up for their massage treatment, give them 110% each and every time! This is a must!

If you can do just these simple things with your marketing, I have no doubt that you will be well on the way to building a very successful massage business with a steady stream of clients!

Jamie Thomas is a marketing mentor and motivator to hundreds of massage therapists around the world and is the creator of http://www.massagemarketing.wordpress.com. A site loaded with FREE massage marketing and success tips for massage therapists. Visit now and get your FREE report on the ultimate massage marketing strategy!

Globalpropertydirectory.com is gaining steam as one of the worlds largest resources for real estate information. For a short time, individual agents, companies, and property owners can submit their listing for free. Listings include live hot links back to your website (good for search engine rankings and building up PageRank) a full description of your property listings, a map, and as many images as you’d like to provide.

Globalpropertydirectory.com has been built by a professional search engine optimization company, which will ensure your listing has a great chance of rankings on search engines. And in this time of turmoil in the real estate market, any additional exposure and traffic you can bring in helps. There are lots of potential buyers out there still - real estate is booming in many parts of the world, and the US market has a lot of great bargains for international investors. Once this site achieves a certain level of monthly traffic though, we will start charging for advertising and listings. So act fast to get your free real estate listings.

GlobalPropertydirectory.com is sure to help bring more visitors to your site, and uniquely qualified visitors - who are all potential buyers.

Companies, contact us about adding multiple listings via our data feed service.

Everyone seems to be jumping on the internet marketing bandwagon lately. In the race to get their business online, many successful businesses forget to ask themselves some tough questions about what they are doing, what their expectations are and what their plan is to meet those expectations.

The internet can be a powerful tool that can put you on solid footing with bigger companies. On the other hand, the other companies may have more money to pay for advertising. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind as you analyze your internet marketing strategy.

Advantage of Internet Marketing

- your store is open, 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. Further, your customers are worldwide in reach, and can shop anytime that they want to

- the cost of spreading your message is next to nothing. Emailing your subscription base is more oftne cheaper than sending a letter through the mail

- updating your subscribers can be done almost instantly through email. Visitors to your website can get up to the minute information on each visit. If you are having a sale, your customers can start shopping at the discounted prices literally as soon as they open their email

- if you have an information sensitive business, such as a law firm, newspaper or online magazine, you can deliver your products directly to your customers without having to use a courier

Disadvantages of Internet Marketing

- online marketing is not free. The cost of software, hardware, wed site design, maintenance of your site, online distribution costs and of course, time, all must be factored into the cost of providing your service or product.

- slightly over 50% of households shop online. While that number will continue to grow, you are reaching less than two out of three households.

- the internet is still regarded as a source of information gathering for the majority of your customers. Of the number of visitors to your site, the vast majority of visitors who are motivated to buy will do so in person. Many people prefer the live interaction when they buy. If you have a small business with one location, this may deter customers from buying.

- easier to have outdated information on your site, thus timing of updates is critical

- there is no replacement for good old fashioned customer service. The majority of internet marketers lack customer service and inquiry response programs. As a result, many online visitors to your site will already have painted your site as poor service before they have even contacted you. The majority of websites also have poor navigation, which makes it difficult for your visitor to find what they are looking for. Many sites were created with a marketing view, not a customer service point of view.

- is your site secure? Does your customer know this? There are many incorrect stereotypes about the security of the internet out there. As a result, many of your visitors will not want to use their credit card to make a purchase. The fear of having their credit card info stolen is a clear and present danger in the minds of your visitors

- there is a lot of competition for your product already out there. By the time your visitor finds you, they have already been clicking many links. Unless they can find what they are looking for quickly, they are gone.

- many web visitors expect something for free. What do you have to offer them?

There are many other pros and cons of internet marketing. Its important for you to consider each when creating your internet marketing strategy. Each of the disadvantages can be overcome, but only if you view the customer experience from the eyes of your customer, not as an internet marketer.

Northern Source offers web design services for small businesses. You’ll find more helpful hints at http://www.northernsource.com

Christopher Smith has been creating web sites for small businesses for over 7 years. In addition to providing deisgn and consultation services, Christopher also provides tips on search engine optimization, internet marketing and traffic generation.

Online marketing more often than not takes a beating in the press. In truth, it is one of the singularly great things about the net if you can get the hang of it.

If you can figure online marketing out, it gives you the ability to spend your time, not your money, advertising your business. It gives you access to a much broader market than any brick and mortar business. It allows you to kick the crap out of big companies that just throw money at Internet marketing, a tactic often used to crush smaller business in the brick and mortar world.

When you get down to brass knuckles, online marketing not only gives you a level playing field with the big or bigger boys, it gives you an advantage. I like to call this the leverage and arrogance advantage.

Assume you write one piece of great software and try to start a small company in the brick and mortar world. If you are deemed to be a threat by the big software companies, what is going to happen? If you don’t get bought out, they are going to wipe you out. Since you have limited resources and little leverage with retailers, you are screwed, blue and tattooed. Not on the web.

Online marketing is beautiful because it flattens the playing field for all players, big and small. The key is search engine optimization. Regardless of how much money a dominant company in an industry throws at search engine rankings, they will never have an inherent advantage over you. They have no leverage, because there is nobody to buy off. The best they can do is buy advertisements, which fewer people click. If you get the top ranking on Google, Yahoo and MSN for your keywords, nobody can knock you off unless they do a better optimization job than you do. In no way, shape or form would this ever be possible in the brick and mortar world unless you have a monstrous amount of cash.

The second reason you should use online marketing is arrogance. Dominant brick and mortar companies use marketing firms to push their brands on television, billboards, magazines and so on. When the companies open a site, they often have the same marketing firms handle their internet efforts as well. Crushing them on search engines is like taking candy from a baby. They just throw money at the problem, a strategy that fails every time on the web.

You, however, are not going to waste money by purchasing banner ads and other junk that will waste your money. Nope, you are going to pursue search engine optimization on your own or through a credible group. While the dominant company is spending $20 a click for their ads, you are going to be laughing your way to the bank as customers pour in from your top rankings on Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Does online marketing deserve the criticism it gets? Sometimes it does. Once you figure it out, however, you will never slander it again.

Halstatt Pires is an internet marketing consultant with MarketingTitan.com. Visit us to read more Internet marketing articles.

Recent research predicts that the online ad market will decline by 25% in 2003.**

In 2004, net advertising is a buyer’s market.

Everyone has seen the media spotlight focused on the big dot-coms who, dependent on ad revenues, have either gone out of business or been forced to cut back.

Unfortunately, it’s the same story for small business owners. The economic downturn leaves many potential advertisers much more reluctant to pay the prices they would have a year or two ago.

I recently came across a message board where one advertiser summed it up this way: in these hard economic times, she has read that people are less willing to make purchases. This means that she is much more at risk to suffer a loss rather than make a profit.

Like most people, this advertiser does not have any extra money to spare - and certainly none to lose to a failed ad campaign. To turn the odds in her favor, she regularly goes bargain-hunting for ad specials.

Frustrated webmasters and online editors are feeling the pinch of lost ad revenues. This is particularly evident with the recent launch of ad auction sites such as WebmasterBids.com and EzineAdAuction.com. These sites are specifically meant to aid newsletter editors and webmasters in selling their remnant ad space - space that would otherwise remain unsold, the profits lost forever.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t benefit from your ad space! Quite the contrary. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Encourage Customers to Book Multiple Ad Slots. Offer large discounts on multi-ad packages. This is a win-win situation - your customer receives excellent value, and more of your ad space is booked with less stress.

2. Auction Off Remnant Ad Space. As mentioned above, there are at least a couple of places where you can put your unsold space up for auction. If you prefer you can set a ‘reserve’ price, under which you are not obliged to sell.

3. Offer Incentives to Subscribers and Previous Advertisers. Your own mailing list is a great source of advertisers! They’re familiar with your newsletter and know what type of exposure their ads would receive. Previous advertisers also have this type of first-hand knowledge. Encourage them to book with you by offering great incentives - free bonuses, significant discounts, or anything else of value.

4. Swap Ads. Approach other editors within your niche market and offer to swap ads. This is a great way to increase your exposure, fill your ad space, and do it all without spending a single dime.

5. Barter. Is there something you need but just haven’t gotten around to doing it? Use your ad space as a bargaining chip. For example, you could ask a graphic artist to create a banner or eBook cover for you in exchange for ad(s) in your newsletter. To sweeten the deal you could offer an ‘endorsed’ ad.

6. Go the Extra Mile. Provide prompt, friendly, and reliable service to encourage repeat orders. A little extra attention goes a long ways!

In the meantime, if your business relies heavily upon ad revenues for profits, start building another viable income stream. For example, one model that’s becoming increasingly popular is the content-rich, fee-based membership site.

Companies that are overly-reliant on ad revenues have a choice: adjust to the ever-changing world of the Internet, or risk going out of business.

We’ve all heard the phrase, ‘Never put all your eggs in one basket’. That’s good advice for every online business owner.

** References: http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/ 0,4586,5081626,00.html

About The Author

John Schultz is the brains behind WebmasterBids.com, the place where webmasters can go to auction off their remnant ad space! Webmasters make some extra money, and visitors can pick up some great deals … visit today at http://www.webmasterbids.com/

Copyright 2004 craig gibson

1. You could cross promote your product with other businesses’ products in a package deal. You can include an ad or flyer for other products you sell and have other businesses selling for you.

2. When you ship out or deliver your product, include a coupon for other related products you sell in the package. This will attract them to buy more products from you.

3. Sell the reprint/reproduction rights to your products. You could include an ad on or with the product for other products you sell. You could make sales for the reproduction rights and sales on the back end product.

4. Send your customers a catalog of add-on products for the original product they purchased. This could be upgrades, special services, attachments, etc. If they enjoy your product they will buy the extra add-ons.

5. Tell your customers if they refer four customers to your web site, they will receive a full rebate of their purchase price. This will turn one sale into three sales.

6. When you make your first sale, follow-up with the customer. You could follow-up with a “thank you” email and include an advertisement for other products you sell. You could follow-up every few months.

7. You could upsell to your customers. When they’re at your order page, tell them about a few extra related products you have for sale. They could just add it to their original order.

8. When you sell a product, give your customers the option of joining an affiliate program so they can make commissions selling your product. This will multiply the sale you just made.

9. Send your customers free products with their product package. The freebies should have your ad printed on them. It could be bumper stickers, ball caps, t-shirts etc. This will allow other people to see your ad and order.

10. Sell gift certificates for your products. You’ll make sales from the purchase of the gift certificate, when the recipient cashes it in. They could also buy other items from your web site.

About the author:

Craig Gibson publishes Home Business Tips,a fresh and informative newsletter dedicated to supporting people like YOU! If you`re looking for the *best rated* home business opportunities, the latest time saving tools and helpful support
from an honest friend in the business, come by and grab a F-R-E-E subscription today at: http://www.eazymarketing.com

You certainly know by now that the term “viral marketing” is not just another dot-com cliché. Quite the contrary, it describes the incredible, unmatched power of the Web to promote your business by marrying email to the traditional concept of “word-of-mouth.”

Viral marketing, the concept of making each customer a marketer by encouraging word-of-mouth referrals, is indisputably one of the most effective mediums of ongoing self-promotion a site can employ. It gives Internet companies a cost-efficient, proven tool to increase traffic and lower advertising costs.

Hotmail originally broke through the mold by proving that companies no longer needed to spend millions on flashy advertising to become the best and biggest in the business. With a simple viral marketing campaign they effectively cornered the market with a budget that spent money on original customer acquisition and not over-the-top Super Bowl ads.

However, instead of just standing by idly and hoping it happens, you can actually “drive” viral marketing by crafting an extremely effective viral marketing program targeted to your audience. This article will provide you with the key steps to create a viral marketing program that will power your business to new heights of success, and do it for a fraction of the cost of other promotional efforts.

-DO EVERYTHING RIGHT FIRST

Your potential customers now have the power to tell colleagues, friends and family about great web site experiences in greater numbers and far faster than we could have imagined just a few years ago. Think of the power of a dense email address book and a few mouse clicks. In fact, that is the “fuel” behind viral marketing. The downside is they can do the same thing regarding bad experiences with the same efficiency and speed. Research has shown that people share bad experiences up to 5 times more often than they tell about good ones. Before you post a site to your server and invite people to visit it, everything should be quality tested and in perfect order. While software makers can sometimes get away with shipping buggy software, you can’t issue a “patch” to a site that has already turned off your target audience because in this market, your audience will go somewhere else, fast. And instead of gaining customers “geometrically”, you’ll be losing them exponentially.

-TWO TOOLS: Buttons and Links

There are two basic tools in your viral marketing arsenal: buttons and links. The idea is that with a single click a visitor can share your site with others, and those people in turn can do the same. The goal in designing and placing these buttons and links is to make them obvious, easy-to-use, and perhaps even rewarding to use. By making your buttons more obvious, you give the visitor a visual cue to pass your site on to a friend and take an active role in the creation of your own viral marketing campaign. You can take an even more active role and move beyond mere suggestion by actually offering your visitors an incentive to pass something on.

-ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS

The analysis is pretty straightforward. For your buttons and/or link to work, you’ve first got to get it in front of your target audience of potential customers. Second, your potential customers have to be able to readily tell what it is that has been artfully put in front of them. It’s that old three-click rule - if you can’t find what you want on a site in three clicks, you’re going to surf elsewhere, and if you can’t understand what you’re reading immediately, you’re going to tune out. Part of what needs to be clear to potential users is what they need to do and exactly how they can do it. If you fail in any of these elements or if you confuse your message with unnecessary complications, you’re potential customer is gone, and you’ve blown your possibly one shot at a few seconds of their attention.

Your referral tool needs to, at the minimum, accomplish seven critical things:

1. Stand out from the clutter of the page.

2. Be instantly understood

3. Embody a clear call to action.

4. Give clear instructions on how to act.

5. Be placed effectively.

6. Offer an incentive.

7. Make the offer simple, clear and obvious.

-BUTTON VS. LINK

Button: Eye-catching, can be graphical. Link: Line of blue text. Both viable, both serve their respective purpose. The tool you choose will depend on two factors: 1) what you want your visitor to share with others, and 2) the context in which your visitor will be sharing. If you want people to share content items such as articles or white papers, you can use either a button or a link, although a button is more appropriate as it’s more attention getting. Also, if the context is your site as a whole or a specific product or a service on your site, then a button is preferable because eye-catching buttons can be designed and placed by using simple code that will load almost regardless of browser or bandwidth. However, when the context is email, whether mailing to your own opt-in list, doing a targeted promotion, or simply sending “Thank you” emails when customers submit an order, you are better off sticking with a link. Many of your potential customers don’t have email that supports HTML, and even if they do, a button can easily get chewed to bits in cyberspace when moving across platforms and programs. A good rule of thumb is site = button and email = link.

-OPTIMIZE YOUR BUTTON

To optimize the design of your button, look back to the seven elements of success. To fulfill the first rule, and to stand out from the clutter of the page, the button needs to be small enough not to take up too much above-the-fold real estate, but not so small that it won’t be seen. Simplicity is the key here - your button should have a pleasing and eye-catching design, not one that will give the viewer a headache from Flash overkill or frightening color combinations. If your user doesn’t know what your aesthetically pleasing button is for, they’re probably not going to use it. This is where you need to do what your elementary teacher always admonished you to do: use your words carefully. Clearly spell out in straightforward terms what the button is for, why you want your user to use it, and finally, how they go about using it.

-PLACE YOUR BUTTON

Now it’s time to place the button, and there are multiple placement options depending on what you want your visitors to share and in what context the item to be shared appears. Remember that your button is a call to action, so the best placement is at the point in your process where your visitors are the most engaged, and motivated. The number one location for a product referral is the page where the product appears and appears by itself or differentiated from other products. Not only will your visitor not yet be preoccupied with billing addresses and credit card numbers, you also do not run the risk of losing a referral opportunity because you placed the button deeper in the ordering process, where the likelihood of an abandoned shopping cart rises.

If you provide a referral tool for an article or white paper, the best spot for the button is at the beginning of the article or white paper for shorter pieces and at both the beginning and the end for pieces more than a page in length. Like most surfers do not read every line of text on every site, it is likely many of your visitors will also not be reading every single sentence and paragraph of what they might send on, especially if they’re doing preliminary research or idly surfing.

Other prime locations for referral buttons, depending on your site and on your needs, are your home page, your product or service pages, and on any special offers. Ask yourself what it is you want visitors to your site to pass along and place buttons accordingly. Place the button close to names, icons, or logos that you expect to catch attention, while also keeping the important basics as close to the top of the page as possible. Web sites, like newspapers have a “fold” (i.e., what’s seen before the user has to scroll) and anything considered of paramount importance should be placed above the fold.

-OPTIMIZE YOUR LINK

A link is a link is a link. Not exactly a lot of design flexibility, is there? The best you can do, and what you should do it if you can, is to create links that carry at least a part of your message. A very simple example would be http://www.xyz.com/share. The real key with links is to accompany them with a short, clear, and compelling message. Also, underline or color the text of your link so that it is obviously a link.

-PLACE YOUR LINK

Again we go back to our earlier point that the call to action works best when the visitor has been fully engaged. If you want people to share an article or white paper, the link goes at both the beginning, when they’re first interested about the material, and at the end, when they’ve read it. If it’s in an email, you put it at whatever point in your message that you’ve given your reader the strongest incentive to act. Place it too early in the process, (before that special offer or promotion), and it is like suddenly demanding money from your customer when they are only halfway through the purchasing decision process. You not only won’t gain a customer, you will lose one customer with exceptional word-of-mouth potential.

-THE SECRET INGREDIENT

Consider Three Scenarios:

1. People love your site, but you don’t give them any tools, much less any incentive, to share it.

2. People love your site, and you give them an easy and obvious way to share it.

3. People love your site, and you not only give them an easy and obvious way to share it, but you actually reward them for doing so.

Which scenario will result in the most referrals? Which scenario would you yourself respond to best? Adding referral tools is a great start, but when you also add an incentive, you’ve given your visitors no reason not to act, and your response rate will skyrocket accordingly. As e-sales guru David Weltman, successful CEO and former IBM advisor, says, “What you get is referrals on rocket fuel.”

But before you start handing out incentives, consider what your target audience will value and appreciate. To a tech-savvy audience, an offer of a free “Outhouse Construction for Numbskulls” manual will be less compelling than, say, free shipping or entry in a contest to win a new monitor.

-IN CONCLUSION

When used properly, nothing can match the power of viral marketing. It is so effective because it is based on personal opinion, much the same way an editorial carries more weight than an advertisement because it’s coming from a trusted source. You trust your friends and colleagues to send you material that is interesting, useful, and pertinent to you personally. Trust will always be more powerful than flashy design and expensive ad campaigns, and when information comes from someone you trust, it is much more powerful.

You can employ a team of designers and programmers and copywriters to build you a beautiful and functional site. You can pay for content, buy advertising, and even purchase lists of email addresses. The one thing you can’t buy when growing your business is the trust of your users and the recommendations from current customers to potential new ones. That’s achieved only with viral marketing.

About The Author

David Bell

http://www.wspromotion.com/

Advertising research and development center

Hello, do you have a website and sell something on the internet?

If yes, may I offer you 10 blazing ways to sky-rocket your profits
at your website!

1. Use a “P.S.” at the end of your ad copy. This
is were you either want to repeat a strong benefit
or use a strong close like a free bonus.

2. Publish a free ebook and give it away from your
website or in your e-zine. This will increase your
traffic, sales and e-zine subscribers.

3. Create multiple streams of income with your web
site. You could sell your own products, join affiliate
programs, sell advertising space, etc.

4. Give your visitors compliments in your ad copy.
This can earn their trust and put them in a good
mood, in return they will be easier to sell too.

5. Create new products or services only if there is
a strong need for them. You won’t have anyone to
sell them to if you don’t have a market.

6. Sell your backend products to your customers
right after they order. Take them to a “Thank You”
web page that includes other products you sell.

7. Sell a few products on your website instead of
selling a large amount of products. To many choices
can overwhelm your visitors and they won’t buy.

8. Include content and free stuff on your website
that promote the products you’re selling. If they
don’t read your ads, they may read your offerings.

9. Remind your visitors that you’re human not just
a website. You could publish information on your
family life, a picture of yourself , a profile, etc.

10. Provide a “Contact Page” on your website.
Give your visitors as many options to contact you
as possible. This’ll add credibility to your business.

Warmly,

I-key Benney, CEO
Mscsrrr

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I-key, an “Enlightened” man & Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of “Mscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash System”, home based business, online investment opportunity (http://www.mscsrrr.com ) which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shinning success during the past 2 yrs ago.