Work At Home Business Options

Archive for December, 2010

Are you emailing your sales specials to customers way too much? During this past holiday season I realized that a lot of companies went over board with the sales spam ads to their customers. For the past few weeks I posed this question over on the social media outlet on Twitter.

Do you feel companies are sending out too much holiday sales spam via email newsletters this year?

Well…at least 95% of the people who answered my question over there agree that companies did go over board this year. 95% of the people who answered my question were fed up with the constant Black Friday Ads, the constant Pre-Christmas & Holiday Ads and now they are fed up with all of the After-Christmas & Year End Clearance Sales Ads.

This year it seems that companies just went over board with email spamming holiday ads to their customers. I know for myself…I usually hear from these companies once or twice a month…a few of them I heard from weekly (on a regular basis)…but this holiday season the majority of them decided it would be “cool” to spam all of their customers 3+ times a week with their email newsletters that was filled up with nothing but their pre-holiday and holiday specials.

Yes…I signed up with “some” of these companies to be alerted to their customer sales specials but…It was always a once a week or once a month deal. I didn’t sign up to have my email box bombarded with the constant sales spam daily or numerous times a week.

What I found out by asking this question over on Twitter is that the majority of people felt that companies went over board this year on sending out the email holiday spam. So readers…how do you feel? Did you feel that companies went over board this year with the email sales ads? Did these sales ads tempt you to buy more products or did they irk you off with the constant bombardment?

Shelly

The Four C?s of Business Success by Kathleen Gage

If you currently own a business, or you plan to start a business, consider what it will take to create the type of success you desire. Success that allows you to literally fulfill a life dream and a life path.

As you hold the vision of where you would like your business to be consider the following – building a business takes clarity, courage, creativity, and consistency.

Clarity – It order to optimize your business opportunities it helps to gain clarity on your purpose. Why are you in the business you are in; what positive impact can your business have on others; and what contribution do you want the products or services you offer to make in the lives of others?

Courage – Even with the utmost clarity there may be occasions where fear will crop up at the most inopportune time; fear that can literally immobilize you. Perhaps you need to make much needed calls to potential clients and you fear rejection. Maybe you need to complete the paperwork to secure financing and you have convinced yourself you will be rejected. Or, you know it is time to roll out a new marketing strategy, but you fear not knowing exactly how to go about it.

It has been said that courage is not the absence of fear. It is the ability to identify the fear and walk through it anyway. A powerful strategy to diminish fear is to get quiet enough to gain a sense of what your true purpose in business is.

Once you gain clarity on your purpose, get a sense of the next right action to take. The action can be to gain a greater understanding of the client’s needs and situation. Perhaps you need to know more about your product or service. Maybe it is simply to pick up the phone and make a call. It is in the willingness to take action the fear will lift.

Creativity – There will be many occasions where intuition will be far more important than reason. When faced with an obstacle you get an intuitive thought or a feeling to try something different. Sadly, many people avoid trusting their intuition and miss incredible opportunity. Some of the most successful people trust their intuition and inner knowing to lead them to step through the door of the unknown into the realm of possibility.

Consistency – Although creativity is incredibly important so is having consistent systems in place. More often than not, success is the result of one tiny action followed by another tiny action. It is in the consistency of our actions on a daily basis; making the call, following up on a regular basis, inputting the names into the database, and having a solid system that allows us to free our minds of unnecessary concern and clutter. When the mind is clear, there is more opportunity to gain clarity, be creative and walk in a place of courage. When all these elements are in place, there is a greater chance for success.

Kathleen Gage is an award winning keynote speaker, best selling author and business advisor specializing in marketing and promotions. Access Gage’s FREE eBook Street Smarts eMarketing Tips Guaranteed to Jump Start Your Internet Presence to Put You Miles Ahead of the Competition at http://www.streetsmartsmarketing.com/free-ebook.htm

Article Source: WAHM Articles

If you are just jumping into the online world of blogging…it is important to remember a few things that you will need to do to your blog every month to keep it in tip top shape. When a blog is properly maintained it will run more smoothly for those who visit and read your blog.

Here is a list of things you need to do to your blog every month.

1. Backup – Your blog should be backed up and saved to your hard drive a minimum of once per month. If your blog should ever crash or if it ever gets hacked…you will be able to upload a current version of it and get it back up online quickly.

2. Check your blog’s load time. I like to check my blog’s load time every month. You want to make sure your pages are loading quickly and properly because your readers will not sit and wait for 3 minute page loads. If your blog is loading slowly, trying condensing your graphics or removing some advertisements…doing these two things will usually fix the problem.

3. Check your blog’s Google Page Rank & Alexa Rating. You can do this by going to Google.com and Alexa.com. I like to keep an eye on my blog’s ranking in various search engines…of course the higher your blog ranks, the better for your blog.

4. Check for broken links. If you are exchanging links with other web sites on your blog, you need to check for broken or no longer active links on a monthly basis.

5. Check for expired ads. You will find that the majority of bloggers these days do accept various forms of advertising on their blogs. You need to remove all expired ads on a monthly basis to make room for new advertisers.

6. Check your site’s stat counter & traffic reports. I recommend that all bloggers install a stat counter onto their blog. These stat counters will tell you how many people are visiting your blog on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. These stat counters will also tell you how your blog visitor got there so that you will know what forms of advertising are working for you to get visitors to come over to read your blog.

7. Check for swiped content. There are various sites online that can help you detect if anyone has swiped content from your blog. You can sign up for Google Alerts or Copy Gator and be alerted when someone posts your content onto their site without your permission.

8. Affiliate marketing. If you are doing any type of Affiliate Marketing on your blog it is important to rotate your banner and button ads on a monthly basis to keep the advertisements fresh.

9. Blog Comments. If you are not moderating the comments that are left by readers of your blog it is important to take a look at them on a monthly basis. You will want to make sure that no spammer or scammer comments slipped through the cracks.

There are more things you should be doing to your blog on a monthly basis but I feel these 9 items should be at the top of every good blogger’s list. Keeping your blog updated and in tip top shape ensures that those who visit and read your blog will keep returning to read your new updated blog content.

This article is copyright 2010 by Shelly Hill, All Rights Reserved. This article can not be reprinted without Shelly’s permission and proper credit given to the author along with live & clickable links back to the author’s web site at http://www.workathomebusinessoptions.com

Stress Headaches – The Causes & Remedies by Darlyn Burkle

Headaches come in a variety of forms, and plague millions of people on a daily basis. Sometimes they can be caused by lack of food, or tiredness, sometimes they are a symptom of a virus or other illness, and sometimes they are caused by stress.

Stress headaches are a very common ailment, and while taking medicines can alleviate the symptoms of a stress, or ‘tension’ headache, the best way to treat them is to treat the causes of them. Almost 80% of adults experience stress headaches occasionally, but some people suffer from them on an almost daily basis.

In Search of Relief

Stress headaches are not believed to be hereditary. They are usually accompanied by tensed muscles in the neck – sometimes the tension in the neck can make the headache worse. Stress headaches are usually tied to something going on around the sufferer – from work or school related stress, to family issues or relationship breakups. When stresses mount up daily, the occasional acute headache can turn into a chronic problem.

Stress headaches can last for anything between half an hour to a full day. The headache usually feels like a constant, painful pressure, unlike migraines which are more likely to be a throbbing feeling, with other symptoms such as nausea and sensitivity to light. Tension headaches are usually not as severe as migraines, but they are still incapacitating in many cases, especially if associated symptoms such as aching muscles, fatigue, insomnia, or dizziness are present too. Usually the onset of a stress headache is experienced during the day, but in some cases, individuals report waking up with one.

Help For Tension Headache Sufferers

If you suffer from regular tension headaches you may find yourself in a situation where the headaches and other symptoms lead to an inability to concentrate, irritability, and more stress. This leads to a cycle of more headaches, and this can be difficult to break out of.

Pain relievers can help with occasional stress headaches, but should not be taken frequently. The best treatment is to prevent the headaches by learning stress management techniques. If a cycle of chronic stress headache is allowed to develop then this can be detrimental to the health of the sufferer. The headache themselves do not cause any damage, but other symptoms, such as insomnia, can lead to tiredness, irritability, and more stress. Breaking the cycle of tension headaches can vastly improve your health and your quality of life.

I Choose Us.com is an exclusive website for women that provides resources on how to achieve lasting stress relief. The six-month membership program helps women identify the physical symptoms of anxiety and stress and manage their stress levels more effectively. Members receive one new lesson every week for six months.

Article Source: WAHM Articles

I would like to thank Chris Carroll who is an expert in the field of Direct Sales and Network Marketing for her guest article here on my blog.

Developing an Effective Marketing Plan for Your Direct Sales Business

Creating an effective marketing plan for your direct sale business is a critical step in growing your business each year, but it doesn’t have to be hard or scary. You need a plan that will help you grow your business as well as being flexible enough for you to tweak as you go through the year.

Your plan does not have to be elaborate or huge, but it does need to work for you and be something you can follow. Here are a few things to think about as you develop your plan.

1) Identify what you want your business to do for you this year. Grow? Stay the same? Change? If so by how much?

2) Break that down into manageable pieces through a daily, weekly and monthly plan. For instance, if you want to grow your business by 52 customers in a year, that is basically 1 customer per week. Focus on what you can do to gain one customer per week and 4 per month. Where are you going to market to get that customer and how.

3) What tools will you need to make your plan happen? More books? More training? New venues? Break that into manageable pieces, weekly or monthly goals.

4) Track your success weekly so you know if you have everything working correctly. If something isn’t working, change it and try something new.

5) Be detailed on the how, where, when, who and what in your plan. The more you are, the easier it will be to know what works and doesn’t work.

6) Keep your goals in front of you all the time so you make sure you are focusing on them and working towards them each time your work your business.

These are just a few tips to keep you on track of your marketing for your direct sales business. You will need to become specific on how and where you want to market your business. Be creative and make sure you stay accountable to yourself and you will be successful. When you have a plan, you will work your plan. Without a plan, you have no focus and no goal.

Copyright Chris Carroll ~ All Rights Reserved

Chris is a work at home mom that has made direct sales her business of choice and enjoys sharing information and tips with others. You can find her at her business site http://DirectSalesTalk.com . She has also partnered with a friend on a product review site for small business owners at http://TwoClassyChics.blogspot.com .

Top 5 Ways to Get More Datings At Your Direct Sales Home Party

By Rayven Perkins

The very heart of the home party plan business is dating more parties. Without parties, your business is at a virtual standstill, with no ways to generate substantial sales. With your date book filled with scheduled parties, a world of opportunity opens up for you to grow your business and experience financial rewards.

So how do you generate more parties? Here are my 5 favorite ways to get more parties dated during a home party demonstration.

#5 Offer Incentives

As you go about your demonstration, be sure you point out various dating incentives to your guests. Make sure the guests know that they can receive a gift just for dating a party, and another for holding the party. Go over your party plan companies hostess plans, and when possible, show guests the actual items they can receive.

#4 Stack Your Hostess

Play a game of Show and Tell. You can explain hostess gifts to your guests until you are blue in the face, but until the guests actually see what it is that they can receive, it doesn’t mean much to them.

Towards the end of your presentation, have your hostess sit in a chair at the front of the room. Take this opportunity to thank her for hosting the party. Then begin to stack her.

Starting with the gift of least value, hand all the items to her one by one that she has received for hosting the party. Give her the conversation starter gift, the dating gift, the hosting gift. Make sure you stack her with all the items it is possible to receive, even if the party sales are not totaled yet. Does your company offer half price items in addition to other hostess gifts? Stack her with those as well.

When guests see just how much they can receive, they are more likely to date a party themselves.

#3 The Theme Book

Your party guests want to have fun! What better way to get them excited than by offering a wide array of themed parties? Everything from the traditional Auction Party to a Banana Split Party, Couples Party, Children’s Party or Margarita with the Girls. Get creative and think of fun ways that your guests can come together with their friends.

Print out a simple information page with each of these ideas and put the pages in a 3-ring binder. Leave the binder on the coffee table before and during the party. When your guests find a theme that interests them, they will be happy to date a show with you.

#2 Dating Games

Most home party consultants offer their guests some sort of prize or trinket for coming to a show. Reserve your most sought after trinkets and prizes for a special dating game. At the end of your show, offer the best goodies to your guests for participating in the Dating Game.

Have all the trinkets in a large bowl or decorated box. On each trinket, attach a note. Half the notes should say “Host a Party” while the other half should have a variety of messages ranging from “Draw Again” to “You’ve Won a Free Item”. Tell the guests that participation in this game is optional. Explain to the guests that on each prize is a note, and whatever the note says is what is to be done. If a guest draws a “free item” prize, you will give her a specified free item, but if she draws a “Host a Party” prize, you expect her to date a party tonight.

This really helps to determine which guests are willing to hold a party. Only guests who are willing to consider the idea will draw a prize.

#1 ASK!

This might seem obvious, but the best way to date more parties at your next demonstration is to get into the habit of asking each guest. Do not feel that you are being pushy. The guests expect you to ask them to host a party! One method I have used to force myself to ask each and every guest when they place their order is this.

At the beginning of the party, I make an announcement. I hold out a $20 bill and say “At the end of the show I will be asking each and every one of you to host a party to be eligible to receive all these wonderful hostess gifts! If, however, I forget to ask you to host a show, I will give you $20 worth of product of your choice!”

This forces me to ask each guest, and makes each guest aware, prepared, and even looking forward to my question.

Did you like these ideas? See the complete Direct Sales Resources section at Direct Sales Resources

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rayven_Perkins

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