Hello
and welcome to Rim Digest, the ezine for
"Responsible
Internet Marketers".
January
4, volume 7-issue 1
Happy
2007, everybody! :-)
Subscriber
Count as I hit send is 1364
Rim
Digest eZine: http://www.rimdigest.com/
Your
editor: Jan Tallent, rimdigest@usa.net
Striving
to be the BEST resource for Small Biz Owners...
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Today's
Issue Contains:
Publisher's
Spot
Featured
Article: Operating Successfully On A Shoestring Budget
Positive
Quotes
Feedback
Recommended
eZines
Publisher's
Goodbye and Legal Stuff
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I hope
all of you had a great, happy and SAFE
New
Year. We at my house did and things are starting
to look
up at my brick and mortar store as well.
Instead
of some $0.00 days which made it not worthwhile
to even
have the lights on, we are getting slow but
steady
days and building more and more regulars!
On the
BEST note, I got to see my oldest daughter,
Crystal,
and my only and darling, adorable
grand-daughter,
Madison, who is turning ONE on
the
11th (next issue)- and my youngest daughter,
Shannon
went with us- it was so much fun for all
of us
*girls* to get together and I am now counting
the
days until the 13th when I get to go to Madi's
b-day
party and then bring her back home with me
to have
OUR celebration and get to keep her until
the
15th. *smile*
May
this be the happiest and most $ucce$$ful year
of your
life SO FAR and may they continue to only
get
better. I love all of you and again, thanks
for the
loyalty of the *old* rimmers and for joining
us if
you are new.
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Featured
Article
Operating
Successfully On A Shoestring Budget
by
Willie Crawford
Almost
daily I get email from people trying to get their
businesses
off to a good start who tell me they're
operating
on a shoestring budget. My first thought is
always,
"I hope you're cutting the right corners." What I
mean by
that is - there are certain corners you can cut,
and
then there are things many new business people do that
limits
their business growth substantially. Distinguishing
between
the two requires a lot of analysis and careful
consideration.
Basically,
there are some things that you must do to succeed
in an
internet-based business. These essentials are based
upon
the fact that people dealing with you on the internet
must
make their assessment of you on the image you present.
If
cutting corners presents the image of a struggling
business
person who might not even be capable of fill their
orders
- you have killed most of your potential sales. I will
just
throw out just a few essentials and suggest you to mull
these
over. There are a lot of articles out there proving the
essentialness
of each.
(1) You
must have your own domain name. You need to use this
domain
name in your own webpage address and in your email
address.
The prevailing thought is that if you do not have
your
own domain name, you are either still struggling too
much to
be worth taking the risk on, or you are a fly-by-
night
operator hiding behind a throw-away address. Either
perception
will kill more business than you can afford. A
domain
name only cost $35 per year. Folks, this is only 10
cents a
day to add TREMENDOUS LEGITIMACY to your image.
Reserve
your own domain name today! To see if the domain
name
you've been considering is available check free now on
my
webpage at:
http://www.virtualisys.com/vr/wcrawfor/domain_search.html
(2) You
must allow customers to order using the payment
option
they prefer. This means you must allow them to pay
for
your product or service using credit cards, online
checks,
or by mailing the payment in to you. Neglect
offering
any of these options and you are loosing sales.
It's
also a proven fact that customers who pay using credit
card
also place bigger orders. Perhaps it's that perception
we all
have that credit cards aren't real money. Yes, a
traditional
merchant account can be very expensive, but
there
are alternatives for the struggling new business.
(3) You
must build a customer list of individuals whom you
have
permission to maintain regular contact with. These are
the
people who subscribe to your newsletter, or are members
of your
website mailing list. These are the people who
gradually
get to know and trust you and are most likely to
buy
your worthwhile products and services. Marketing on the
internet
is generally a three step process. You get people
to
inquire about a product or service, you provide the
requested
info, and you follow up. If what you have to offer
fills a
real need, your prospects will buy if you keep in
touch!
To repeat - you generate interest in your product or
service,
build a list of people who have told you that they
are
interested and that it is ok to email them periodically,
and you
FOLLOW UP.
(4) You
must advertise to build upon your mailing list and
bolster
your online presence. Advertising is: (1) placing
classified
ads in ezines and at free classified sites, (2)
posting
to discussion groups, and newsgroups, (3) writing
e-zine
articles, (4) getting listed in all of the major
search
engines under the proper keywords, (5) trading links
with
compatible sites (6) using free-for-all links pages
both to
attract traffic to your site and to improve your
search
engine rankings, and (7) giving people a reason to
come
back to your site frequently to see what's new. Do all
of
these things and your customer list will gradually grow
over
time to hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands.
You
will have requests to be removed from your list from time
to time
but the new subscribers will be many times greater.
It does
take time, but you business can grow operating on a
shoestring
budget.
The
thing you need to watch is false economy. If you spend
$30
advertising and earn $60 in profits from that ad, then
you
have just doubled your money. Reinvest that profit in
a place
where you generally get back twice what you spend
and
after five time that $30 has grown to $960. Folks, there
are
places where this happens, especially if the product is
a low cost
product such as information. Ezine advertising is
some of
the most effective advertising available. That's why
you see
all of the enthusiastic testimonials in some of the
better
ezines. They get great results. The ezine is mailed
to
people who anxiously look forward to each content-rich
issue
and they devour each issue. You ads are read if the
ezine
is a good one. So this is one of the proven places
where
too many businesses practice false economy.
The
other place people often practice false economy is when
they
trade time for money. Your ad has to be seen by a
large
number of appropriate prospects. Research also shows
that
many of these prospects will need to see the same ad 7
or more
times before they seriously consider it. To me this
means
using automatic submission services (for some search
engines,
free for all links pages, and free classifieds
sites)
when appropriate. For example, free-for-all links
have
been proven to attract traffic to your site. The service
I use
will post two of my URLs to around 600 sites every day
for $20
per month. That's 36,000 links posted a month for
only
$20 or $.0006 per listing . I don't know about you, but
first
of all I don't have time to post 30,000 links per month.
Secondly,
since this would probably take me over one month to
post at
the speed I type, I think my time is worth more that
$20 per
month. The service I use is called autolink and their
banner
is across the bottom of many of my pages.
You
need to think of all you expenditures in these terms. If
you get
good results from an investment in your business
then
choosing cheaper means of doing things may still grow
your
business, but will it be at an acceptable pace? Operating
on a
shoe string budget still means paying for some business
essentials,
but also taking advantage of the many freebies
that
are out there. These freebies are available on many
popular
websites including mine at http://www.williecrawford.com
Use
them, but pay for the things you NEED to, and that your
business
can't afford to do without. Doing otherwise turns that
shoestring
into a noose.
-------------------------
Willie
Crawford is a well-know internet marketing consultant
and
writer. His website is filled with articles designed to
help
you succeed. Visit http://www.williecrawford.com/ today!
This
article may be freely used in your ezine or on your
website
as long as it is reproduced in it's entirety, to
include
this footnote and it is not altered.
*
Copyright © 1999 Willie Crawford All Rights Reserved *
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Vote
for this Ezine at the Cumuli Ezine Finder:
http://www.cumuli.com/ezines/vte.html?ez=rimdig
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Positive
Quotes
I come
to the office each morning and stay for long hours
doing
what has to be done to the best of my ability.
And
when you've done the best you can you can't do
any
better.
--
Harry S. Truman
and
I like
living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly,
acutely
miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all
I still
know quite certainly that just to be alive is
a grand
thing.
--
Agatha Christie
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Feedback
none
this issue :-)
*********************************
remember,
this is YOUR newsletter, send any
comments,
good or bad, address change or other
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correspondence to mailto:rimdigest@usa.net
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if you
like this ezine, please forward a copy
or an
invitation to a friend. :-)
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Culinary
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the
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eCommerce
Resources eZine: http://tinyurl.com/nbk5
Biz
Site Biz E-zine: http://tinyurl.com/6ytsh
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"Bye"
for now and thank you for reading. I appreciate your
being
part of my *rimmers* family. Hope to "see you" for
the
next issue- which will be delivered next Thursday.
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will also hear from me with the occasional solo.
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Please
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Jan
Tallent, Marketing Warrioress
at http://www.jantd.com/ and
Publisher of
Rim
Digest eZine, http://www.rimdigest.com/
Both
Divisions of the Tallent Agency
po box
858 - Steelville, MO 65565 USA