Work At Home Business Options

Archive for February, 2010

When it comes to shipping products to your customers what is your normal shipping time? When there are delays in shipping a product to a customer/client, do you take the time to notify them of this delay?

To keep your customers happy, you really need to keep them informed of their order status once you have placed the order. Just taking the order and submitting it…is not enough. Here is what you should be doing.

1. Once you have processed the payment and submitted the order, email the customer a copy of the receipt or shipping invoice.

2. Once the product has shipped, email the customer to let them know that their purchase is on its way.

3. Wait 7-10 days and follow up. Send the customer an email or give them a call to make sure their order has arrived and to inquire if everything was perfect with their order. If not, do what you can IMMEDIATELY to rectify any shipping problems that might of occured.

Keeping customers informed of the ordering and shipping process is making for a very happy customer which in turn gets you repeat business and future referrals from that particular customer.

~ Shelly ~

Big Mac and fries go hand-in-hand and so does a cold and cough. When it comes to blogs, generally it’s not recommended to combine a personal and business blog unless it meshes well.

Shelly has a cooking/baking/foodie related product review blog. She also has a crafting blog, a direct sales/product review blog and personal blog and I have a health blog.

What all these blogs have in common is they are standalone blogs that are used for business or for personal. One thing many people make the mistake of is mingling their personal life with a business blog. In my opinon, it doesn’t work because do your family and close friends really want to read about your business or do you think your potential customers want to read about your toddler smearing poop on the wall?

It’s not hard to build a new blog, but it’s hard work to promote it, maintain it and work it and maybe that’s a reason it can be scary for some people, but it shouldn’t be. By not separating a personal blog from a business blog it can be detrimental to your business.

Another reason some people may be hesitant is not having enough material to write about their business. I think there are plenty of things you can talk about your business because there are a lot of blogs out there. You can focus on your products, but that’s not the only thing to focus on. It’s giving them the knowledge, the information and explaining why and how it can change their lives for the better.

Like a lot of things it’s best to just keep your personal life out of your business.

~Post is by a guest blogger~

When it comes to networking online for your home business on various social media sites, it is important to fill out your profile pages correctly and professionally. It is equally important to add an image to your profile page aka an avatar.

If you are doing personal or business networking, I feel its important to add an avatar (picture) of yourself into your profile. I really dislike seeing business buttons or business logos. When I am talking back and forth with someone on a forum or social media site ie. twitter, I really like to see the face of who I am chatting with.

Here is how I look at this issue. If I went to an offline networking business meeting and walked into the meeting, you would see my face…you wouldn’t see my business button/logo. I can see you using a business logo if you are a large company like Kelloggs or General Mills on your twitter sites…however, if you are a small home business owner, it makes no sense to me, to use a company logo as your avatar instead of a head shot of yourself.

How about you? What is your preference?

It’s amazing what things you read make you take notice of you or your business. Some times I feel the article is talking directly to me, but that’s probably due to my paranoia and it’s really not a bad thing, but a helpful thing.

People interpret others in different ways through different things.

- How you are viewed by your website
- How you are viewed by your online behaviour
- How you are viewed by your articles
- How you are viewed by how you network and communicate with others

While these are all legitimate views, they are not always necessarily a true reflection of a person. Thank goodness for that!

A website can tell a lot about you.

If you have a spammy-jammy-scammy looking website, you’re either a scammer, a poor website designer or you have poor taste. Think about it for a moment. Remember the last scam website you looked at? What did it look like and I’m sure you can imagine what kind a person a scammer would look like.

How about a traditional, private person? Their website looks conservative and simple using a monochromatic scheme with a hint of colour. A person who’s not detail-oriented or organized may have a website that looks thrown together without much thought.

Your website is a store front. It either welcomes people or pushes them away. It does say a lot about you, your business or your work ethics or maybe it doesn’t say enough.

But does it say what you want it to say about you?

Over the weekend I was hungry for some homemade chocolate bark candy so I decided to make my own. Here are the ingredients you will need to make some delicious chocolate bark.

1 full tub Baker’s Milk Chocolate Discs
1/2 cup mini marshmallows
1/4 cup broken pretzel bits
1/4 cup broken graham crackers
1/4 cup chopped peanuts

Follow the directions on the Baker’s Milk Chocolate and melt the chocolate discs in your microwave. Once melted, pour the chocolate into a mixing bowl. Stir in the marshmallows, pretzels, graham crackers and chopped peanuts. You can omit any of those items that you don’t like.

Lightly spray a round glass pie pan with nonstick vegetable spray and spoon/pour your chocolate batter into it. Place foil or a lid on top and place into the refrigerator for 30 minutes so it sets up. Remove from refrigerator and let it come to room temperature. You can break it up into pieces (like a brittle) and store in an airtight canister or you can cut it into slices.

When it comes to having a home business, it is very important to market your business and your business products towards your targeted niche. When it comes to Direct Sales, Crafts and other type’s of small home businesses, the majority of time this niche is women and/or moms.

One way to expose your business products to online moms is by participating in a product review. By sending your product to a reviewer, you are giving the reviewer the chance to use and inspect your product. This reviewer will then write up a professionally done product review and post it online for others to read.

However, let me give a caution of warning with this…You will find online reviewer’s who only care about getting free product out of you! You need to do your research before sending any type of product to a reviewer. You want to find one that is going to be actively promoting his/her review on numerous social networking sites such as work at home mom forums, Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in etc. You don’t want a reviewer who just posts a review on their site and that is the end of it. You want that product review to be seen by as many ‘eyes’ as possible.

Furthermore, you want your product reviews to be professionally written and posted by someone who is highly regarded in their niche.

A bonus to participating in a product review is that you will get a quality link back to your web site, Blog and social media profile pages. This quality link back will be a great way for visitors to find you for years to come…plus, it will help you with search engine ranking.

When potential buyers read product reviews they are looking for the review to come from a trusted non-bias source…a truthful opinion about your product will help to entice buyers to buy your product or to visit your web site to check out additional products and/or services that you provide.

Product Reviewers can help you to create an online presence and to help create a positive buzz about your business and the products you are trying to sell.

If you are looking for a site that will do product reviews for your business and or Direct Sales businesses, check out http://twoclassychics.blogspot.com

~ Shelly Hill ~

This information can not be reprinted without my permission. Copyright 2010, All Rights Reserved.