Advertising: Know Your Target Market

One question many beginners ask is what is the best advertising methods. There are many to choose from and not one method is better or more effective than the other.

The key point is who are you catering to? In other words, who is your target market? It’s not about trying out every possible advertising method although there are the most common ones that are effective for the majority of people.

Let’s take for example way, way back when I started online I went the “get paid to” route. It was get paid to read emails. I had joined several get paid to sites and most if not all have a referral program. In order to get referrals, I used other paid to sites and traffic exchanges to find my referrals and it worked beautifully for me. When I tried using traffic exchanges for another online endeavour, it didn’t work very well. Honestly, it was awful. Why? Because I wasn’t hitting my bullseye aka my target market.

So when people say this particular type of advertising doesn’t work at all for me, the question you have to ask yourself is, “Are you marketing to the right people?” because there’s no point in trying to sell dog biscuits to cat owners.

Start out with a few different free advertisng methods first so you can see which one is working for you. Stick to an advertising budget as it can easily put you in the negative without any rewards.

Be consistent and patient because it takes time to really gauge what is working and what is not.

~Sophia

How Product Reviews Can Benefit You and Your Business

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.

~ Shelly Hill ~

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

The Four Seasons of Marketing

It’s hard to think in the middle of summer that you should be gearing up for your holiday advertising promotions, but it’s necessary because people are looking for this type of information now.

Here some ideas that will help you market your business or product year round.

The Four Seasons of Marketing

Like the four seasons in most places in the world, there are four seasons of marketing.

A lot of people hold their marketing plans based on the different holiday seasons or during special or current events. When demand for a product is high in a certain period, you should take advantage and cash in on this trend.

In order for your marketing plan to work effectively during these sometimes time-sensitive seasons or peak periods, you must plan well in advance.

Here are some tips and ideas to help you use seasons and special events in your marketing plan.

1. January – March
January is the month for health and wellness especially after all the holiday festive gorging and weight loss are constantly on the minds of people. With an uncertain economy, this may push some people to seriously start thinking about finding a new business venture.

Use special events day like Valentine’s Day which is geared towards flowers, organic chocolates, skin care products, candles, and the likes.

Searching for some green as in money? The leprechaun usually finds its pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. You can add more money to your wallet by working with a tax service.

2. April – June
With Easter and spring break, some families take this time for a short vacation or find new activities to do together. Graduation is on the horizon and beauty products fit right in. Scrapbooking and other craft ideas make wonderful gifts.

Send greeting cards on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. The recipients would enjoy jewellery or gift certificates or something more personalized for Dad; an e-book compilation of golf tips from famous golfers.

It’s time to get your body beach ready. Weight loss and health and wellness products gain ground again in early spring through early fall.

3. July – September
The focus remains on health and wellness, weight loss along with skin care products and eating right. Inexpensive weekend getaways and/or vacation for the entire family will have seekers looking for travel deals. It’s not long before Labor Day rolls around and it’s back to school with school supplies, meal planning and getting back into the daily routine.

4. October – December
Most of your holiday marketing plan will come into effect in these months with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Use your creativity, personalize it and kick start your advertising plan.

As you can see when it’s done correctly, seasonal marketing can enhance and maximize your sales. If you don’t have a tangible product or your product is not seasonal there are ways to work around it. If you have a service related business, you can tie it into any of the four seasons or choose a special or current event.

Look for affordable advertising and low cost advertising for your holiday promotional needs.

S McIntyre owns www.WorkAtHomeSpace.com, a free work at home resource focusing on telecommuting companies, daily telecommute job leads, articles, business resources and other work at home related topics.

Use Affiliate Marketing To Increase Your Work At Home Income Stream

Written by: Sophia McIntyre

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to diversify and supplement your income source when you work from home. Whether you work for a virtual employer or have your own home based business, adding affiliate programs can help bring in extra residual income each month.

What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is promoting a merchant’s service or product. You are paid a commission when you make a sale. You may also earn on pay-per-click or pay-per-lead, but pay-per-sale is the most common way of earning when it comes to affiliate programs.

How easy is it to earn with affiliate programs?
It’s largely due to how well you know about the different types of marketing methods you can work with. If you’re well-versed and know your way around the web, then you have an advantage over someone who is not so business savvy.

There is a learning curve, but it can be mastered if you’re willing to learn and absorb all the free information out there. Remember though, top affiliate marketers who make a lot of money didn’t make it by chance or luck. They invested hours of time and they invested in their learning of how to become a successful marketer.

How To Choose Affiliate Programs
Choose products or services that are geared towards your interests, but also think if there’s a demand for that product. You don’t want to have to compete with thousands of people who are selling the same thing you are so look for something that is unique, but is popular and is wanted by the masses.

Look for a merchant that offers more than one product. A product can lose its appeal which then leads to discontinuation. A plus side to this, if people like what the merchant is offering, they are more likely to come back and see what other products you have.

The higher the commission, the better it is for you. Would you rather receive a commission of $10 or $50? In addition, if you have a revenue goal each month, you can reach it a lot quicker. Also look for affiliate programs that offer affiliate support and offer the most marketing tools.

All in all many people continue to look for more ways to earn an income online. Affiliate marketing is that choice because anyone can do it. With the right affiliate programs and with all the learning tools under your belt, affiliate marketing is the sure-fire way to have a continuous stream of income lining your wallet each and every month.

Go now to download your free copy of 5 Simple Steps to Start Making Money with Affiliate Programs

10 FREE Ways You Can Advertise Your Business Online

When it comes to promoting a home business online, there are many ways you can advertise your business for free. I always recommend that you start out with free advertising and as your business grows, venture into some paid advertising.

The following is a list of 10 ways you can advertise your business for free.

1. Create A Business Blog – You can create a business blog on various blogging sites for free.

2. Email Signature Tag – Add your business information to an email by creating a signature tag. Make sure it’s attached to all outgoing email.

3. Email Signature Tag Referral – Ask your friends and family members to add your business signature tag to all of their outgoing emails.

4. Forum Boards – Join a few forum boards related to your business niche. If you sell items that women want to buy, join a few mom or women topic forum boards. If you sell weight loss products, join a few boards that are specifically for dieters.

5. Link Exchange – Contact website owners who are in the same niche as you. Ask them to exchange website links with you.

6. Online Talk Radio and Podcasts – If you consider yourself to be an expert or leader in your field of business, volunteer to be a guest speaker on one of their upcoming programs.

7. Article Marketing – Write a few niche related articles and submit them to article databases. Website owners and ezine publishers are always looking for new content. Create professional looking Author’s Resource Box with your business information in it.

8. Banner and Button Exchange – Find a few niche related websites and exchange your button or banner with that site.

9. Social Networking – Join a few of the free online social networking sites such as myspace, face book, linkedin, yahoo groups, ryze and twitter.

10. Barter For Advertising – If you have extra product inventory or you can provide a service that another website owner can use, contact them and offer to barter with them in exchange for some advertising on their website or blog.

NOTE: This article is Exclusive to Work At Home Business Options and can not be reproduced without our permission.

Copyright © 2009 Work At Home Business Options and Shelly Hill

Using Your Car To Advertise Your Business

Using your automobile to advertise your business is not a new concept, however these days there are new products out on the market that you might not have considered. Instead of just driving around in your car to do your daily errands, why not put it to work for you?

Here are a few ideas of some items you can purchase and get custom imprinted with your business information or business logo.

1. Custom Designed Licensed Plate
2. License Plate Frames (these go around the license plate and can have your company name or logo)
3. Static Window Clings
4. Bumper Stickers
5. Car Door Magnets
6. Antenna Business Logo Flags
7. Removable Banners
8. Flyer Holder (plastic holder that attaches to the car to hold flyers)
9. Brochure Holder (plastic holder that attaches to the car to hold your company brochures)
10. Magnetic Business Card Holder
11. Automobile Sun Shades (cardboard dash protectors imprinted with business information)

If you purchase any of the above type of products, make sure you save your purchase receipt. Check with your accountant or tax preparer to see if you can write off these type of purchases as a business expense.

The next time you go out to do your daily errands, take a look around and see how many vehicles that you see that have some type of business logo or business information on them.

You can go to any of the online major search engines and do some keyword searches for the products listed above. You will find hundreds of online websites that do custom printed work for a reasonable price.

Putting your vehicle to work for you can be an beneficial way of advertising your home business.

NOTE: This article is Exclusive to Work At Home Business Options and can not be reproduced without our permission.

Copyright © 2009 Work At Home Business Options and Shelly Hill

45 Creative Offline Advertising Ideas

Are you looking for creative ways to market your home business offline? If so, I have some creative offline advertising ideas for you to try out. I recommend that you try 2 of these ideas every week and to be consistent with your offline advertising.

1. Make up advertising filler packs and pass them out every where you go, every event that you attend and swap them with other women home business owners.

2. When you travel and stay in hotels, leave your catalog, business card, business coupon behind in your room, lobbies and other places that people congregate. I like to leave my business card with my hotel housekeeping (maid) tip.

3. Print out flyers with your business name and contact information along with any specials you are running. Leave these flyers in public places where others can see them. Public Places: Grocery store message boards, community center message boards, employee lounges, etc.

4. Contact local area bridal stores, bridal supply stores, caterers, tux rental centers, dj’s, photographers, etc. if your company/business offers a bridal registry. See if you can leave them your business cards!

5. Daycare Centers: You can get a lot of business from the parents who use daycare centers so contact them about leaving your business cards or flyers.

6. A lot of churches and religous groups hold spring and fall festivals, so make sure you contact them about getting a booth space at one of their events. Booth spaces are usually very economical with these types of groups.

7. Join your local Chamber of Commerce! They always hold local business events in your area. This is a great way to network and to make new business contacts.

8. College Campuses: College Students are always looking to spend money and they are usually on the hunt for a business opportunity to help pay for their school expenses so you can target them for sales and for recruting into your business opportunity. Most schools have a student center, so that is where you would want to leave your business cards and flyers.

9. Contact your local area Welcome Wagon or Welcome to the Neighborhood group. See if you can add your business info to their Welcome to the Neighborhood bags.

10. Contact your local area hospitals and see if you can add your business info to their New Mommy Diaper Bags. A lot of hospitals give out free bags filled with goodies to all the new moms who have babies at their facilities!

11. Contact your local medical offices, particularly the Obstetrics & Gynecology Offices and the Pediatrician Offices. A lot of those offices also give freebies to expecting or new moms. See if you can add your information their freebie packages.

12. Donate a prize or a gift certificate to your local radio station for their numerous prize giveaways and contests. This gets you free business exposure. Often times, they will also list you as a prize sponsor on their website too.

13. Donate a prize to your local area Bingo Halls! They are always looking for prize donations.

14. Call your local Chamber of Commerce to find out when there will be local job fairs in your area and get a booth at one or at the very least attend one so you can make some new contacts in your local area.

15. Call your local area colleges and trade schools to find out when their next local area job/employment fair will be. A great way to market your home business opportunity to others who might be interested.

16. Contact local area car dealerships. I make up small packets of business information, my business card, my coupon and a small freebie. Ask them if you can drop off 100 packs to them to hand out to others who come in for those FREE test drives.

17. Contact your local area gyms and fitness centers. A lot of times you can get a table and market your business for an economical fee of $25.00.

18. Network with others in your community who have home businesses. They are usually in the know on local business events that are upcoming in your community.

19. Contact companies in your local area to see if you can come in and set up a display in their employee lounges or cafeterias for an employee shopping break. This works best if you offer an exclusive discount or deal to their employees.

20. Does your local area TV Cable Company have a local information channel? If so, contact them to see if you can advertise on their information channel.

21. Contact local small companies and shops to see if you can offer an exclusive discount to their employees. Companies like to offer perks to their employees such as shopping discounts from various local businesses.

22. Small home town newspapers! I don’t get a great response to the big city newspaper ads but I do get a great response if I place ads in small home town newspapers!

23. Get a low cost outdoor banner ad printed up to market your business during outside community events such as: sporting events, music concerts and so forth.

24. Take your business on the road during the nice weather seasons. Contact your local area parks and recreation centers to see what kind of events are coming up and inquire about getting a table or booth at their outdoor events.

25. Community coupon clipper packs and coupon packs. If your community has them, call them up and find out how you can advertise in them.

26. Contact local area businesses such as: salons, banks, massage parlors etc. See if you can come in and set up a display. Offer a contest and prize with your display. Use the entry forms to gather contact information for possible new contact leads.

27. Contact local area pizza shops, diners, deli’s and coffee shops. Most of these types of businesses have paper placemats where you can buy ad space and have your business ad placed on them. People do READ these ads!

28. Contact local area bars, restaurants and clubs to see if you can buy some advertising on their paper beverage coasters.

29. Local Television Newstations are always holding on-air contests and website contests for their viewers. Contact them to see if you can donate a prize to get some free business exposure for your business.

30. Attend local area Holiday Shopping Events. Customers who are ready spend some holiday money and looking to purchase holiday gifts attend these events. Get a booth or table space and market your business to them.

31. Hold a local community block party at your home or at your local community center. Families are always looking for something to do on the weekends!

32. Get your business listed in your local yellow pages phone book. Way too often home business people over look this valuable advertising tool. These days a lot of phone books have coupon sections too, so make sure you inquire about adding your coupon to that section.

33. You can take this phone book idea one step further by finding out who prints up those vinyl phone book covers that are covered with local business advertising in your area and find out how much it would cost for you to add your business ad to that phone book cover.

34. Get your business information printed up on pencils and hand them out for FREE to local colleges and adult technical schools.

35. Get a vehicle banner made for your automobile. I recommend the vinyl clings so that you can easily remove them when it comes time to wash your vehicle.

36. If your city has a travel guide that tourists request, make sure you place a business ad in that travel guide. This is a great way to get your business information into the hands of non-local customers.

37. Local City Maps! These days you can find all kinds of small business advertising printed on the sides and backs of those city maps! You can get really good economically priced ads placed onto those maps.

38. Contact local area hotels, motels and bed and breakfast inns in your local area. Ask them if you can leave your business information with them for their guests to peruse when they are in the lobby.

39. Get your business information printed up onto balloons. Give these ballons to local sporting events, charity events etc. A great way to get more business exposure.

40. Find a few home business owners in your local community and team up with them! You can all sponsor a local boys/girls sports team, a parade float or other things in your community! This makes it very economical for those who are in small business to get business exposure and to participate in your local community events.

41. Get T-shirts printed up with your business information printed on them. Hand them out to your friends and family members and ask them to wear them when they are out in the community running their errands.

42. Get some canvas tote bags printed up with your business information on them. Pass them out to a few lady friends and ask them to use them when they are out and about in the community attending events or running errands.

43. Get a license plate made up for the front of your car with your business information on it.

44. Wear a business name tag every time you go out in the community. People do read them and do notice them!

45. Local Area Magazines! Does your city publish their own local area magazine? If so, contact them about placing some advertising in their magazine.

Shelly Hill has been working from home in Direct Sales since 1989 and is a Manager with Tupperware. You can contact Shelly at:
Web: Classy Home Business Women
Web: Shelly’s Tupperware Home Business

Top 4 Most Effective Free Advertising Methods

Here are four effective free advertising methods that have been tried and tested and best of all, they truly work!

We do this naturally and we do it almost every single day. When you recommend a favourite work at home website, rave about a great marketing e-book, share a new business adventure or talk about a new product with such enthusiasm you are spreading the word. One friend will tell another and so on and so on. Word of mouth is still one of best free advertising tools today.

Signature advertising is by far the single easiest methods available. Use it in forums (where it is permitted) and emails. A signature file or sig file is a text of information about your business that may include your name, your email address, telephone number and other pertinent information. The link is automatically appended to outgoing emails and internet postings (forums). Signature advertising creates one way back links to your business or website and drives targeted traffic to your website.

Writing articles have proven time and time again how powerful and effective it really is. It drives traffic to your website creating more exposure, you gain more incoming links and you get higher ranking in search engines. The more traffic you receive the more profits you make, but it’s only effective if you write quality articles rich in keywords and keyword phrases and provide useful information. Otherwise, no one will want to re-print them and your resource box like a signature file is null and pointless.

From community forums to social networking sites such as Ryze, Facebook, MySpace, Adland Pro etc. networking groups is taking its place among the other great free advertising options. It’s a place to gather, meet, share, discuss, inform and learn about various businesses. The same can be said for networking marketing in the real world where you can meet in person at various venues.

There are many different avenues to explore and promote your business online or offline, but when it comes to free advertising these are the four methods that have proven to be on the top of the list for being successful and effective.

S McIntyre owns www.WorkAtHomeSpace.com, a free work at home resource focusing on work at home companies, daily telecommuting job leads, articles, business resources and other work at home related topics.