The Dangers Of Thinking Too Big And Too Broad

Planner before him… he sits puzzled… wiping sweat from his brow. Fighting off an overwhelming feeling of combined fear, wonder, dread and ambition he slowly flips through the pages as he watches the clock counting the hours left in the day. Twenty-four of them – twenty-four hours a day is all he has. How should he spend them?

Should he finish the website launch that is so close to being completed, or should he work on the e-book that is sure to replenish the dwindling balance in his bank account?

If that site gets indexed by the end of the month, surely the advertising dollars will compensate for the software programmer he hired for product development, but without the money the product launch won't happen. If he wants that e-book finished he'll have to do it himself, no money is left to outsource it. The domain for the content site is about to expire. Should he give it up or renew it?

Distraught, he decides to take the weekend off. Maybe a little leisure time will help him to think clearer.

Internet marketing is so filled with opportunity and it is still evolving, so constantly new possibilities for making money online arise. It is so easy to get caught up in the potential, starting a new project before a previous one is finished, deciding that a new idea is better than an old one…

The result is becoming financially strained, motivationally misdirected and physically and mentally worn out, all the while accomplishing nothing.

Each and every project you pursue demands focus and dedication. If you are going to make it happen, you've got to commit the resources, both time and money, and see it through.

As new ideas and opportunities arise take note of them, but don't go off on a tangent trying to bring them to fruition when you've already got all your irons in the fire. Thinking too big and too broad leads to spreading yourself too thin and, ultimately, to failure in e-business.

Think about it for a moment. If you aspired to open a brick and mortar muffler shop in your town, would you even consider buying into a restaurant franchise before the shop was established?

Not likely. Why?

Because opening a muffler shop and a restaurant simultaneously would place too much of a demand on your resources – both your time and your finances. While it may be easier and less expensive to start on online marketing venture, the concentration required is equivalent. So always take that into consideration and your success is sure to unfold before your eyes. http://Infosdemocracy.com

Seven Ways to Make Your Customers Feel Important

Two important pre-reading notes: Before you chose to read or not read this article, let make two things clear. Everyone has Customers. Even if you work in an internal staff department in a large firm, you have Customers. They are the people you provide work to. And second, don't be put off by the term Customer. Maybe you call them Clients, Students, Patients, or (heaven forbid!) Users. If one of those words works better for you, read that word every time you read Customer. Now that I have eliminated your reasons for not reading, please continue . . .

We can read lots of books and articles about Customer Service strategies and how to build processes that will serve Customers more successfully. All of these things are valuable, but if we put all of our focus on processes, systems, strategies and procedures we may lose track of something very important.

Customers are people first.

This means that each of your Customers, like everyone else, wants to feel important. It a universal truth - we all want that feeling, and will gravitate towards those that make us feel that way.

Hint: Having Customers gravitate towards you is a very good thing.

Here are seven ways that you as an individual, regardless of any corporate policies or systems, can make Customers feel more important, written from the Customer's perspective:

Please use my name. I know I may have a Customer or registration number and that I might need to give that to you. But I also know that once you put that number in the system, you know my name. Use it. If I hand you my credit card, now you know my name too. Please use it.

I want to be a part of the "in" crowd. That's why I like being invited into Frequent Flyer clubs, frequent buyer clubs or anything that provides me with discounts, special services, education or surprises. If you have this kind of club, invite me to join. If you don't have one yet, please think about starting one.


Ask me for my advice. I have an opinion, and if asked in the right way, at the right time, when I know you really care about the answer, I'll give you that advice. Opinion cards may be OK, but I would love to be asked personally. Give me the chance to tell you what I think, and I'll reward you with more of my business. I don't often get asked for my opinion and it feels good. And who knows, you might even get a great idea for a new product or service.

Acknowledge me. I know you are busy sometimes. I can see the line. I even understand that your system might be down, or that you have five people in the phone queue. I've been there, I work too. But when I call or come by, acknowledge that I am there and let me know you are glad I'm in the line. A smile and a hello, or a "We'll be with you shortly" will go a long way. Acknowledge me and I'll understand. Ignore me, and well, how do you feel when you've been ignored?

Surprise me. A little extra something with my order or a hand written note would be nice. A special discount "just because" or a free sample of dessert. It doesn't have to be a big thing, and it doesn't have to be every time. If you get a good surprise, do you want to share it with others? Me too.

Apologize. I hate it when people try to prove they were right, or don't mention that fact that the order is three days late, or the surcharge can't be removed, or the item is out of stock. But again, I know things do happen. When things do go wrong though, please give me a simple apology. Here's the funniest thing. When you make a mistake, and then apologize (perhaps even including a surprise of some sort) I'll love you more than ever. Apologies and good service recoveries are so rare that you can take my dissatisfaction and turn it into loyalty, if you will do this right.

Listen. Most all of the other things I've told you require you to listen. I can tell when you are really listening to me and that makes me feel very good – because true listening is rare, sometimes even at home. Listen to my concerns. Listen to my ideas. Listen to my order, so we don't have any misunderstandings. When you really listen, you can't believe how good that makes me feel.

All of us can do most of these things each day. When we do we will make our work more enjoyable, easier, and quite likely will begin creating legions of loyal Customers immediately.

And before you go, read these seven things again, with the voice of one of your Customers in your head, as a reminder of how you can make each of your Customers feel more important. http://Infosdemocracy.com

Secrets To Affiliate Marketing List Building

The Money is in the List?

I am sure that you have heard this before. If you are involved with Internet marketing, you have probably heard it over and over again. But, Is it True?

Absolutely!!

I am involved with affiliate marketing and the great thing is that you do not need a product to begin making money. There are thousands of viable products available that you can make a great income on.

Whatever your interest or your niche is, there are plenty of products waiting for you to make money with. There is also plenty of room for you to create and promote your own product. Provided of course that it is a good one.

As for affiliate programs, they are very simple to get started with. You just need to sign up for their affiliate program, promote it, and watch the money start rolling in (hopefully). This is all great, but then what? Most likely you would find another product and start all over again.

What if, when you find or create this new product, you already have hundreds or thousands of people to instantly tell about it? You can shoot them a quick email and have immediate money in your pocket. Then you can start advertising this product and create even more people for your next great idea. As you can imagine, this process can take on a snowball effect. Before you know it, your primary income will be from your online business. Now you can work from home!

How do you go about starting a list?

One of the best ways is to create a squeeze page. This is a simple one page website that is designed to capture your visitors name and email address. You can do this by offering a free report, a free subscription to your newsletter, or both.

Once you have their information they are added to your auto responder and they are a part or your list. At this time you would redirect them to your affiliate product website or to your own website with a link.

You have now created a potential customer for your current and your future products.

When you start to email them regularly make sure that you are offering them something of value. Some ideas include: useful information, free reports, free software, and creative ideas that you come across.

You can than suggest your product and offer a link to your product or affiliate page. Build up your product with a strong sales message and watch the sales start pouring in.

One piece of advice, do not oversell to your list. This is a very valuable resource and should not be jeopardized.

You need to give good solid information and only promote worthwhile products. Treat your list as a group of friends that you want to help with the information that you are providing. Not as another dollar in your pocket. Just follow the golden rule and treat your list as you would want to be treated and you will be on your way to success. http://infosdemocracy.com

Recognizing "Smart" Performance Can Be Difficult

The monthly performance recognition awards have come round again but, once more, Fiona White is sure she won't be featuring. Fiona is a consistent administration worker. She is well organized and clears her desk of the day's work without making fuss or having 5-minute panics like some of the others seem to do. She often helps these people out because she has enough control over her own work to be able to reschedule things. However she is not a high profile earner for the company. She'll never make the big sales, negotiate the mega-deals or save the business thousands through the work that she does. She knows she is one of the better performers in her field but does anyone else?

Ever since the advent of 'time and motion' studies there has been an understanding of the difference between working hard and working smart. Some individuals prefer to work in a state of chaos. It provides them with the challenge that perhaps the job does not. They can battle disorganization instead of strolling along doing the job. Making substantial achievements for them always has the appearance of running a marathon.

Smart workers, on the other hand, may appear to be doing the equivalent of cycling downhill with their feet on the handlebars because they have the job so well structured. They know that both sets of results, from the hard and the smart approaches, have equivalent value and they would be very unhappy if their sweating co-worker was rewarded with praise and they were not.

The people working at the coal face of the business often know how to get results that will attract recognition. That they don't do this permanently is a reflection of their motivation and their understanding of the market value for their effort. This can be seen most clearly where staff are paid minimum wage. If more effort can achieve greater income through bonuses, overtime or a performance recognition system they would prefer to utilize this rather than make themselves more efficient

These views of performance might provide a confusing picture but all they really do is prove that a "job well done" must be seen in context. A coat of paint never did cover up poor workmanship and most jobs can be broken down into the important stages of:

planning and preparation
material sourcing and processing
component production
quality checking components
product assembly
function testing
quality checking product
packaging
delivery

Even a written document, a software program or a product design has to follow these steps otherwise the whole thing will come back and bite your ankles.

Good performance worthy of praise will inevitably be a subjective judgment; however checking back to make sure that the relevant steps have been followed will help to put things in perspective.

Fiona White's manager would need some pretty sophisticated radar to discover how well she was really working because, let's face it, she may never get round to self-promotion.  http://Infosdemocracy.com

Customer Service Leads to Customer Loyalty

All customers want and expect superior customer service, and it is all too important that we give it to them. Otherwise, our competition will.

Your customer doesn't want to be treated like another statistic along an assembly line. They want to be treated with respect. It is very important that your customer realizes just how important their business is to you.

Imagine if you were a daily customer at a bank, restaurant, or some other establishment. And every day that you walked in, a sales associate would take care of your business, than hurry you out the door, without so much as a hi, bye, or even making eye contact for that matter.

Okay, so you don't necessarily go to these places to make new friends, but you would think that the experience could be just a little bit positive.

Maybe this isn't enough to make someone take their business elsewhere. However, it just might if they were approached by your competition, and your competition gave them an idea of just how the grass can be greener on the other side, and managed to swipe that customer from you. And if they did, would you even realize it?

The most important thing to your customer when doing business is customer service. People want to be treated with respect. They want to be addressed by name, they want their phone calls returned, and they want their problems resolved in a timely fashion.

Customer service, believe it or not, is more important to people than the amount of the product, or the over all fees' they have to pay.

So before you discuss pricing, give them great customer service up front.

When I was in banking, I had an elderly couple take their business to a new bank that just opened across the street offering all kinds of special promotions at their grand opening. They happened to be very good customers of mine, and they were sad to go. They told me that the new bank was able to offer them the same products I could, except the products were free.

I told them that although the products may be free, they would never experience the customer service there that they received here.

They understood, but left by telling me that it just made economic sense for them to leave.

A month later, they came back. Needless to say, they were not happy with the other bank's customer service.

I wasn't at all surprised and was only too happy to have them back.

Excellent customer service is a great way to build customer relationships, and also build customer loyalty.


When I say customer loyalty, I mean they won't be so quick to jump ship when approached by your competitor.

People love to have the peace of mind that whatever product or service they have with you is secure with you. They like knowing that if ever there is a problem, or if they have a question, you will be there to resolve their issue, regardless of what it may be.

Excellent customer service also leads to loyalty because if your customers like the way you treat them, they will be happy to refer their friends and family to you.

Providing excellent customer service to gain loyalty is quite easy. People love to be greeted by name along with a smile. They love to have their problems resolved quickly, so make sure they know that they can depend on you. They like to have their phone calls returned, so return them.

Customer service is key to retaining your customers, and obtaining all of their business. It is also a great way to obtain referrals from them.

Trust me, treat your customers the way you would treat your friends or family and they will stick with you forever, and provide you with a lot of business. Good luck.

This article may be reproduced by anyone at any time, as long as the authors name and reference links are kept in tact and active. http://Infosdemocracy.com

Book Promotion Woes?

Too many new authors believe that once their book is written the sales will just come pouring in and they will make a bundle. Sadly, this disillusionment is shattered when they receive a royalty check. The honest to goodness truth of the matter is that the writer's work is only started when the book is released. Even the huge author names of today began by peddling their books out of the back of their car. Many big-name authors also began by self-publishing because no one recognized their talent. They did not start off their career with a huge bang. They did not have the money to afford publicists and big marketing firms when they started out and yet they are super successful now. Take heart from their examples.

Marketing, promoting and networking must be done every single day, for the life of the book, in balance with your other activities and obligations.

Many new authors feel their only way to success is through book signings and bookstores stocking their book. They are wrong. While in larger centers with good promotion a book signing event or book reading event may result in as much as a couple hundred one-time sales... most smaller venues can only expect less than 10 sales. Is this worth the 2 hours or more that you spend at the event? Not counting all the preperation, marketing the event, promotion materials, time taken from work and any displays that you have designed and possibly paid for ahead of time. These events do not pay authors to host an event so any sales they do have may not even cover the traveling costs, hotel cost, meals, parking or supplies - let alone the time they put into it. Nor do they usually result in long-term sales - sales are often only during the few days around the event.

Bookstores can only realistically stock less than 1% of the 3 million books available on the market. Their discount with the publisher/distributor is large. Authors are paid royalties only on what their publisher has recieved. So is all the time and effort going into attaining spots on bookstore shelves worth it?

While the markets above are valuable and important to any author - what authors need to do is think outside the box. Figure out where your efforts will bring the greatest results. Don't expect immediate and overwhelming acceptance by the media or your audience. Marketing, networking and promoting are long-term efforts that will reap greater rewards as efforts continue.

Many authors live in tiny towns and hold down jobs or have physical limitations that prevent out-of-town promotions; much like ourselves. This can be overcome. Again, think outside the box, use the Internet and your contacts - and be persistant. Newspapers, libraries, and bookstores are only the most obvious markets and also are the most difficult to gain the attention of without a strong image because everyone is vying for their attention. Work on your image and get strong promotion materials that help you stand out among the hundred thousand or more new books released annually.

So develop a long-term marketing plan and stick with it for the full term of your contract with the publisher. The market plan will grow and change as time goes on. And keep good records so you can determine how you will go about marketing the next book.

I just wanted to mention here that some authors get overwhelmed by the immense amount of effort it takes to market a book. If we take one day, one step at a time we will find it is not so overwhelming. I find it works best to figure out what you will concentrate on this week and then set a goal for today. I do this nearly every day. It helps me keep a steady pace going, without taking on too much or too little.

Remember too, that efforts you are making today may not reap immediate results. You may have to hit a market several times before they pick up your proposal. For instance, some contacts from nearly a year ago are now resulting in promotions in their publications. So be patient and professional in all that you do. Again, keep records so that you can follow up.

Newsletters can be small but effective markets for your work. On average, they can range in size from 1000-17,000 readers or more. E-zines typically reach an audience larger than 5000. Get a few of them in one month and you are reaching a wide audience! You don't need to be rich or famous or have a publicist if you are determined and able to commit effort every single day. (Do take some time for yourself, though!) http://Infosdemocracy.com

Outsourcing means fast efficient turnover and a competitive edge

An invaluable tool to business growth is outsourcing. It can be used strategically to influence corporate growth and financial stability.

The key is to outsource work which is non-essential or areas where the company lacks expertise. This frees valuable resources which can focus on areas of competitive advantage.

Growth can be enumerated in many ways not just in costs saved.

When you outsource a specific project you save on time and resources spent on training required to complete the project successfully. You can harness the talent, technology, and expertise of niche providers. By outsourcing, you can appoint a consultant or company who has core competencies in the field and can complete the project within the given time. The company saves on hiring permanent employees, training, benefit payments, hidden costs, absenteeism, requirements of workspace, and equipment.

The company focuses on core aspects and transfers the nitty-gritty of non core aspects to outsourced companies. This just means fast and efficient turnover as well as a competitive edge.

Outsourcing is a way to maximize workforce flexibility without the added burdens of permanent financial commitments. One uses highly qualified consultants who can complete a particular project in no time at all.

Time is money and by outsourcing a company saves valuable time which can be channeled productively, leading to growth.

Capital is used efficiently without unnecessary wastage in overheads, office space, technology, and training. Outsourcing spurs growth by providing skilled manpower and increased productivity at lower costs. If the outsourcing is selected intelligently, it leads to tax breaks saving the company thousands of dollars.

Further, business risk is shared by the outsourcing company which will know how to minimize or avoid risk in their area of expertise.

The business world is moving at a fast pace and companies need to provide quick service and low rates. Outsourcing allows a firm to do just this, provides the most advanced technology, efficient service, and low rates.

A company can, by outsourcing certain sectors provide in house support which will not be otherwise possible without expansion. So, one can gain economies of scale, efficiency as well as expanded expertise.

To summarize, growth of a company when outsourcing is adopted can be evinced in:

• Cash flow.

• Emphasis on core competencies and long term value creation.

• Minimization of risks by reliance on experts.

• Using external talent and technologies when essential and keeping overheads small and manageable.

• Infrastructure of large firms without associated burdens of large offices, greater number of permanent employees, and hidden costs of maintenance.

• Improved process and project deliveries.

• Service improvements.

• Technology infusion.

• Little or no capital investments.

• Better project costing.

• Asset conversion.

In the modern world outsourcing is an intelligent way of handling a growing business poised for success in every field. also freelances for Submit free Press Release Site. http://Infosdemocracy.com