Free Online Business?
Is there such a thing as a free online business? I am here to tell you that there is no such thing! Sure, you can start a free online business with a small investment but, rest assured, there will...
Austin Returns to Victory Circle - Cybergolf National
 Hamilton Spectator | Austin Returns to Victory Circle Cybergolf National - Whether by expression or words, one of the most refreshingly honest players in professional golf is Woody Austin. Also regarded as a streaky player, Austin got hot at the right time, carding an 8-under-par 62 in the final round to capture the Stanford ... US Open odds don't worry Austin after third career victory Golf Roundup Austin?s 62 Wins Him St. Jude Title |
Sound Off: The Sprint Customer Blacklist
In today's column, I discuss Sprint Nextel's decision to terminate customers who called customer service too often. Sprint sent letters like this one to about 1,000 subscribers. It has 54 million in all, so the letters don't represent a major purge....
Web Hosting News: SpaceAsia Introduces Virtuozzo-based Virtual Private Server Hosting for Asian Mark
... Host Unlimited Sites - Only $5.95/mo - Incredible web hosting plan with 300 GB space & 3000 GB bandwidth, free domain name, 24/7x365 Live ...
Harnessing web 2.0 development
World has come closer and communication has become faster with the harnessing web 2.0, I won't be wrong if I say 'Network made easy with web 2.0'. O'Reilly Media in 2003 coined the term Web 2.0 to em...
Toshiba to Ship OLED TVs in 2009
Following Sony, Toshiba plans to begin selling TVs with OLED screens as soon as panels are ready.
Aperture 1.5 Beyond the Basics: A workflow for laptop users
... and CD-ROM titles include such subjects as ');" class=hotlink2>Photoshop ');" class=hotlink2>Flash ');" class=hotlink2>Office ');" Web design, digital video, and many others. lynda.com's all-star team of trainers and teachers provides comprehensive ...
Software Review - Poser 7 From e frontier
... on how to use the scripting language. Poser 7 is great for graphic and web design, to create faces and figures for your illustrations, and web designs. It would work ...
Plaintiff Says Affirmative Defenses Not Supported By Reliable Evidence
PHOENIX - A PPA plaintiff is moving to strike two expert reports submitted by defendant Bayer Corp., arguing that their opinions that her stroke was caused by other factors are unsupported and should be excluded under Daubert (Pamela Stowe v. Bayer Corp., No. CV-01-526-TUC-BPV, D. Ariz.). Full story on lexis.com
Are Proprietary Databases Doomed?
Allan Packer's Weblog: "Times of change are upon the database market. The major established database companies are being challenged by open source upstarts like MySQL and PostgreSQL..."
How High Can They Jump? Tiger Strength Reconsidered
 | Recent Tiger attacks stir debate: Have we underestimated tigers? "What animals normally do and what they can do are often very different things," a conservationist says. |
NeboWeb Launches its Proprietary Web 3.0 Project Management Tool
NeboWeb embraces the future of interactive marketing with its new, customer-focused, Web 3.0 device. (PRWeb Apr 1, 2008)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/04/prweb819674.htm
Four Important Features in the Best XP Spyware Remover Products
Are you looking for a good XP spyware remover but do not know where to start? By the end of this article you will know what features are important to have and why. Spyware is nothing short of a p...
Chordiant 'Listens' In On Call-Center Conversations (TechWeb)
TechWeb - Intelligent Enterprise - Chordiant Recommendation Advisor 6.1 monitors call-center conversations and offers agents recommendations on what actions to take.
Improve Your Marketing: Move to Two-Steps
If your marketing material is not generating a response from potential clients then you need to follow this "two step" method of getting your marketing materials right. I recently received the following question from a reader: "I'm not getting massive success with the marketing I've done so far. In fact, not one person has called me because they've seen my flyers. I'm starting to think people may be turned off by them. Any suggestions on how I can judge if they're a turn off?"First of all, if the telephone isn't ringing, you know you need to do something differently, but this question highlights exactly why I don't recommend just printing up a bunch of flyers and randomly distributing them. The flyer itself may be perfect but it may not be getting seen by the right people. Or the flyer may be reaching the right people but not doing a good enough job of motivating them to take action.
The problem with this method of marketing is that it's hard to get feedback on what specifically you need to change. So first of all, you need to ask yourself, have you got the right brochure reaching the wrong people, the wrong brochure reaching the right people, or worst of all, the wrong brochure reaching the wrong people! The one thing I know for sure is that when you have the right brochure reaching the right people, you are well on your way to becoming a 'Client Magnet.'
So here a couple of things you can do to make sure that you have the 'right' marketing materials, and secondly making sure that it reaches the right people.
Getting Your Marketing Materials Right
1. What action do you want the reader to take, as a result of reading your brochure/flyer/web-page/email/sales letter? The job of your marketing material is to motivate the reader to take action, so first of all, you need to be really clear on what you want to accomplish. Try to accomplish too many things simultaneously, and you will fail.
2. Does your marketing material inform or persuade? Many people think all they need to do is print up some information about themselves and the services they offer and then wait for the telephone to start ringing. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that! I think of marketing literature as a 'sales person in print'. In other words,
it needs to do all the things a real live sales person would do: get rapport with the reader, engage in a dialogue about their needs, understand their problems, recommend a solution, overcome objections and close.Take a long hard look at your marketing material, does it do all of these things? If not, then you need to change it. Even if the action you want the reader to take is 'phone for a consultation', you need to include all of the above steps. When you have done the above, then you need to make sure that your marketing material gets read by the right people.
Getting Your Marketing Material Read By The Right People
As I said above, I don't recommend randomly distributing flyers, because you have no way of measuring their effectiveness. You can't tell who saw your brochure and who didn't. You have no idea who was tempted and who was put off. So for this reason, I favor a 'multi-step' approach which focuses on getting your target audience to 'raise their hands' first, then you send your brochure and now at least you have some way of measuring the effectiveness of your brochure. The number of sales divided by the number of brochures you sent out equals your conversion rate! So this is where you need to get creative.
Start to brainstorm lists of places where your target audience is likely to congregate. Will you find them online, offline or both? Are they members of clubs or associations? After you have identified a few places, you need to give them a reason to 'raise their hands'. I like to offer an 'Ethical Bribe' such as a free report, e-course or teleseminar. When people raise their hands, then you can send them your material (by post or email) and gauge the response. The point I want to make for now is that you need to take steps to make sure your marketing and sales materials are being seen by the right people.
It doesn't stop there... So, now can you sit back and wait for the phone to ring? If you have followed the above advice, you can certainly expect some response, but the thing you now need to do is measure the effectiveness and see what you can do to increase conversion rates. This is the fun part of marketing, as you can start to see what small changes can bring huge results. But my overriding message for you is this: just changing your sales literature - whether it is a brochure or a web page - without paying attention to who is looking at it, is just a stab in the dark.
Post provided by Bernadette Doyle who publishes her weekly Client Magnets newsletter for trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, then sign up for her weekly e-zine now at http://www.clientmagnets.com
Akerman Attorney Dies in Vacation Accident
Friends and colleagues expressed shock Thursday upon hearing of the death of Akerman Senterfitt attorney Steven E. Chaykin. The former federal prosecutor died Wednesday while trying to rescue his wife after she slipped into a fast-moving river during a Colorado vacation. "It's tragic but the means of his death -- trying to save his wife -- is the way he lived his professional life," said Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. Attorney and colleague. Melissa Chaykin remained hospitalized Thursday.
F.B.I. Will Present Scientific Evidence in Anthrax Case to Counter Doubts
Officials have decided to make their first detailed public presentation next week on the forensic science used to trace the anthrax used in the 2001 attacks. (Read on Source)
Michael McCarthy: We are not alone in experiencing grief
Do animals experience grief? It depends what we mean by the word. Certainly, many mammals and even birds clearly exhibit symptoms of what has been termed "separation distress" when they are parted from a mate, a parent or their offspring. (Read on Source)
BDI Denied Leave To File Summary Judgment Motion
NEW YORK - In his Nov. 2 status order, ephedra multidistrict litigation Judge Jed S. Rakoff confirmed a ruling by MDL Special Master James Niss, denying a defendant leave to file additional motions for summary judgment (In Re: Ephedra Products Liability Litigation, 04 M.D. 1598; Russell Wilburn v. N.V.E., Inc., No. 06 Civ. 13046, S.D. N.Y.; See September 2007, Page 6). Full story on lexis.com
Minor Linux Victory: Getting Amazon MP3 Client To Work in Kubuntu "Hardy Heron" 8.04
I'd been having problems getting the GDebi package installer to install AmazonMP3's download client for Ubuntu Linux. Doesn't sound like much, but it's the only way you can take advantage of the whole-album discounts that AmazonMP3 offers. Otherwise, you have to buy the tracks individually. (Read on Source)
As America Implodes, the Bike Industry Booms
Global warming, rising fuel prices, rampant obesity -- it's all good news for the bike biz, which fills Las Vegas for the biggest Interbike trade show in recent memory.
Wired.com
Kingston Ships 32GB USB Thumbdrive
Kingston Technologies on Wednesday announced that it is shipping a 32GB version of its DataTraveler 150 USB flash drive. The...
Le Web 08: Startups Plan 'Facebookification' of the Web (PC World)
PC World - If the next generation of Internet startups presenting at Le Web 08 conference in Paris have their way, the Web of the future could look like one big social-networking site.
Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals for October 2008
Hong Kong Visitor Arrivals for October 2008.
Oklahoma QB Bradford wins Heisman Trophy - Houston Chronicle
 New York Times | Oklahoma QB Bradford wins Heisman Trophy Houston Chronicle - By JOSEPH DUARTE Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Matt Slocum AP Sorry, your version of Flash doesn't support this video. Please download the latest version at adobe. Some Heisman Voters Just Hate Gators, Says Third-Place Tebow Oklahoma?s Bradford Wins Heisman Trophy |
Dark Chocolate Is More Filling Than Milk Chocolate And Lessens Cravings
Dark chocolate is far more filling than milk chocolate, lessening our craving for sweet, salty and fatty foods, according to new research. In other words, eating dark chocolate may be an efficient way to keep your weight down over the holidays.
Man Utd seal deal for Serbian duo
Manchester United complete the signings of Serbian duo Zoran Tosic and Adem Ljajic from Partizan Belgrade. (Read on Source)
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