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.

Signature Advertising, Does It Work?

Over the years, I have read many articles online about how important it is to have your business listed in your signature tag.

If you are not familiar with what a signature tag is, let me explain.

A signature tag is a link and some text that is attached to all of your outgoing emails and on your forum board posts. The hope is that whoever is reading your emails and/or your forum board posts that they will see it and click through to your website.

I have been networking my home business online for the past 10 years and I am often asked, “Does signature tag advertising really work?” My answer to that is yes…however, you will not get hundreds of sales or thousands of website visitors by utilizing a signature tag.

To be honest with you…You will get some website visitors and you will occasionally get some product sales by people who see your website link and click-thru to your website.

With all of that being said, you need to keep a few things in mind when you are setting up your signature tag. Here are a few pointers:

1. You should have no more than three links in your signature tag at any given time. Anything over three is considered link spam. You will find that a lot of online forums will only allow you to have two links in your signature tag and some others will allow you to have three.

2. Double check your links for typos. I can not tell you how many times I have come across a signature tag that had broken links in it due to typos.

3. Keep your signature tags short, simple and to the point. No one enjoys reading a paragraph long signature tag.

4. When adding text to your signature tag, make it compelling. Give the reader a reason to want to click through to your website. When I say ‘compelling’, I don’t mean sales pitch spam!

5. Change the text in your signature tag often. Those who see your signature day in and day out will eventually quit paying attention to it. To keep people interested, change up your signature every couple of weeks.

Will you get thousands of website visitors and make millions of dollars by using signature tags? No, you will not…but the few sales and visitors you do get will be worth your time and effort on setting up and maintaining proper signature tags in your outgoing email and forum board posts.

~Shelly~

Are You Ready For The Holiday Shopping Season?

Are you ready for the holiday shopping season? If not, then it’s time to start your holiday advertising campaign. Yes, I am aware that its only August 11th, but many online and offline publications are already gearing up for the holiday shopping season which means, you need to get on the ball and plan out your holiday marketing campaign now!

If you are looking to do in-print ads to attract the holiday shoppers, now is the time to be securing those ads as many print publications work months in advance. If you are looking to do online shopping advertisements, now is the time to secure your October, November and early December ad spots as they are limited spots and will sell out quickly.

Many of the Direct Sales companies have already released their holiday 2009 catalogs so its time to get busy booking your fall and holiday parties. If you do theme home parties, sit down and come up with a few holiday themes that your party hosts and guests would enjoy. Invest in some new business products that are holiday theme’d so that you are ready to go with those holiday home parties.

There are only a few weeks left of summer and if you wait until the end of September or early October to get started, you will be left out in the dust. Take the time out now to come up with a holiday advertising and marketing plan and set it into action next week.

To your success this holiday season,

~ Shelly ~

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

Direct Sales – 7 Ideas On Using Your Home To Promote Your Business

When it comes to Direct Sales, one of the most valuable tools you have to market your Direct Sales business is your own home.

There are many creative things you can do to market your business out of your home. Here are some ideas to get you started.

1. Hold a joint Direct Sales Vendor Party in your home. Invite other Direct Sales Consultants in your community to participate. In order for this idea to work, each of the Direct Sales Vendors need to invite a minimum of 20 customers to the event. Each vendor then sets up a table display with their products and business information. Guests and customers arrive and can browse the table displays to see what interests them. This works best with only 5-10 vendors unless you have a very large house or hold the event off-site.

2. Host a Community Block Party for your neighborhood. These work best during the summer months and if held on a Saturday. You can invite 1-2 other Direct Sales Consultants to participate to keep costs down. You will want to hang up flyers and pass out invitations to all of your neighbors. Serve some refreshments or hold an outdoor barbecue.

3. Invest in an all-weather yard sign. You can find some really affordable ones online that you can have custom printed with your business information. Find a good area in your front yard to place your sign so that everyone who walks or drives by can see it.

4. Neighborhood Children’s Shopping Party. This idea works best in November (to promote holiday shopping) and again in April (right before Mother’s Day). You will want to invite the children from your neighborhood that you personally know and with the parents permission. Children love to shop without their parents, especially when it comes to purchasing gifts for their parents. Parents love this idea as it gives them an hour or two break from the children. If you are expecting 7 or more kids to attend, then please do yourself a favor and get a volunteer helper.

5. Co-Sponsoring A Home Party. Find another Direct Sales consultant in your area who is with a non-competing business. Hold a joint home party together in your home. You both invite your customers to the joint home party which in turns put you in touch with customers you might not of ever met. This is a great way to move beyond your circle of friends.

6. Vinyl Window Cling: I recommend getting a vinyl cling business sign that measures approximately 4 inches by 6 inches in size. Get your company name printed on it and place it on your front door window. You are now advertising your business to everyone who enters your home or who might be there delivery packages. Keep the size close to those proportions so that its not to obtrusive.

7. Business Banner or Flag: You can find some custom printers online by doing a keyword search through a major search engine. You will also need to invest in either a flagpole or a banner holder. Get your business name printed onto a banner or flag and hang it up in your front yard.

I hope these 7 ideas have inspired you into using your own home to help promote your Direct Sales Business.

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

Direct Sales – What Are Filler Advertising Packs?

I am often asked “What are filler ad packs?” by other Direct Sales Consultants. Filler Ad Packs are also known as Filler Advertising Packs but for the sake of this article we will use the common usage term of Filler Ad Packs.

Direct Sellers started making up Filler Ad Packs a few years ago as a means to market their Direct Sales Businesses.

Let me explain what they are and then give you a few ideas on what you can do to make your own creative filler packs.

Filler Ad packs are little zipper close bags measuring approximately 3 inches by 5 inches in size. Some people do use non-zipper close bags but then you will need a ribbon, staple, or other item to close your bag. Once you make up several of your little Filler Ad Packs, you will want to find other Direct Sales consultants to swap Filler Ad Packs with. That consultant will hand out your Filler Ad Packs at her home parties and with her customer orders and you will do the same with your customers.

It’s a win-win situation for both consultants involved as it is getting your business information out there to new people you might not of reached on your own.

Enclosed in the little bags are a few things such as:

Business Card
Discount Coupon
Sample of a Product (or) a little promotional giveaway item

It doesn’t matter what type of Direct Sales Company you are with, there is always some type of item that you can use to create your own Filler Ad Pack.

Here are some creative ideas to get you started.

Direct Sales: Candle Businesses

tealight candles, match books, mini scratch and sniff cards with candle scents, pens, pencils, magnets, candle burning tip sheet, mini candle snuffers, mini note pads or even little birthday cake candles.

Kitchen and Gourmet Food Businesses

recipe cards, spice sample packs, cookbook bookmarks, corn cob holders, mini pill boxes, cocktail drink umbrellas, refrigerator magnets, shopping list pads, mini note pads, chore lists, kitchen cleaning tip list, pens, pencils, kitchen scoops, mini chip bag clips, printed food gift container labels, spice jar labels, mini herb garden seed packs, single serving tea bags, single packets of instant coffee, coffee pods, bottle openers and jar grippers.

Book Consultants

bookmarks, printed childrens coloring pages, book ID plates, chore lists, mini note pads, pens, pencils, mini erasers, business card magnets, stickers, mini desk top calendars and ABC childrens refrigerator magnets.

Jewelry Consultants

magnetic business cards, jeweled bobby pins, hair barrettes, pony tail holders, samples of jewelry cleaner, jewelry cleaning tip sheet, pens, pencils, extra earring backs and inexpensive jewelry charms.

Cosmetic, Bath and Body, and Skincare Consultants

magnetic business cards, product samples, mini note pads, pens, pencils, skincare tip sheet, extra eye shadow sponge applicators, make-up sponge, sample pack of cotton swabs, cotton balls, samples of bubble bath, samples of body lotion and mini fingernail files.

Craft and Art Consultants

mini printed childrens coloring pages, pens, pencils, erasers, glue sticks, kids scissors, magnets, mini 4pk. crayons, mini colored pencils, paint brushes, chalk, stickers and balloons.

Miscellaneous Items such as these can also be used:

mini vinyl window clings, temporary childrens tattoos, all occasion gift tags, individually wrapped hard candy, packs of gum, mini wallet sized calendars, emergency id cards, key fobs, garden seed packs, paper clips, colored staples, mini blowing bubbles, and scratch off discount coupons.

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

10 Quick Ways To Advertise Your Direct Sales Business

I am with a Direct Sales Company and I do a lot of recruiting. I like to tell all of my newly recruited consultants to get busy advertising their new home business right away by using the ideas listed below.

1. Buy Business Cards: Give them to everyone so buy a lot of them!

2. Run an ad in your local newspaper: I have found that some ads are priced by the number of words so be selective about how you word it!

3. Have an open house for yourself to introduce your products and your new business to your friends and family. This is a great way to have your friends and family over to see what you have to offer before hitting them up for a party.

4. Send out a newsletter announcing the start of your new business. Send it to all family and friends (Pull out that Christmas card list) You can send a newsletter out via postal mail or via email.

5. Offer to do a fundraiser for your child’s school or church. These days, all groups are hurting for donations and funds, this is the perfect time to get involved and to put together a fundraiser for them.

6. Post fliers on area bulletin boards (churches, restaurants,
banks, libraries, etc as a lot of places have announcement bulletin boards)

7. Call the radio station and see if they will announce your new business if you donate a couple of prizes for their daily birthday drawing.

8. Visit your child’s school and see if you can put fliers and samples in the teachers mailboxes or place samples and catalogs in the faculty breakroom.

9. Start working on a website if your company does not offer one. If you are with a company that offers one for an additional fee, go ahead and get it. Unless this is a skill you can do yourself!

10. Start an email address list for newsletters, specials and announcements. Have specials just for the people who are on this list. Give people a reason to want to sign up for the list!

These are 10 quick ideas that you can get started with today when it comes to advertising your home business.

Shelly Hill has been successfully 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

Using Small Promotional Items To Market Your Business

These days we are all looking for creative ways to advertise and market our home businesses. One of the ways you can do this is by offering free small promotional items or giveaways. I like to use these for in-person business contact when I am out in my community locally here in my home town.

What can you use? I use many things depending on the time of the year and if we are running specials on certain products. The items you use should be inexpensive to keep your costs down. Here are some suggestions:

Pens, Pencils, Markers, 4 Packs of Crayons, Pocket Protectors, Mouse Pads, Business Card Magnets, Window Clings, Stickers, Mini Erasers, Kitchen Gadgets, Childrens Temporary Tatoos, Mini Bubbles, Preprinted Recipe Cards, Key Chains and Key Fobs, Samples of your products and so forth.

I like to turn all of my business cards into magnets. Some of them I use a decorative hole punch and punch a hole in the corner of my business card. I then attach the magnet to the backside being careful to not cover the hole. I then buy decorative ribbon or raffia at my local craft store. I can then tie my magnetic business card onto pens, pencils, citrus peelers, lettuce corers, recipe cards and things similar to those type of items.

I also buy in bulk zip close plastic bags that measure approx. 3 inches by 6 inches in size. If you buy them in bulk from a wholesale company you can get them pretty inexpensively. I then insert my magnetic business card and include one or some of the following items: mini magnets, mini erasures, stickers, recipe cards, mini post-it note pads, key chains, a business coupon etc.

You can also print out your business info onto a self stick label and apply it to the front side of the zip close bag and then insert a sample of your product that you are trying to market. When I do samples, I include samples of our gourmet spices, dips or marinades. I punch a corner hole and tie on a recipe card with a recipe that they can use the enclosed sample with. You can also do this if you sell bath soaps, bath salts, mini tea light candles, etc.

Now, What do you do with all of these promotional items that you have prepared? You can use them while you are out in your community doing your errands and promote your business at the same time! You can also use them as give-aways to those who attend your home parties. They are also great to use if you participate in any of the online Mommy Filler Pack Swap Programs!

When you go to the bank, include one with your bank deposit for the bank teller. Better yet, go inside the bank and hand out a few to all of the bank tellers and customers! When you dine out, leave one on the table with your tip for your waitress/waiter. I also give them to all of the store cashiers when I hand them my payment for my purchases! When I go to the postal office to do shipping, I also hand them out to the postal clerks and customers who are waiting in line! If you stay at a hotel/motel, leave one daily for your maid along with her tip! You can hand them out every where you go!

To make myself into a walking billboard for my business, I made a canvas tote bag that I purchased for $3.00 at our local craft store! I decorated the outside with fabric paints with business slogans related to my home business. I then fill it up with my catalogs, order forms, business cards and my promotional giveaway items! I dont leave home without it! If you sell clothing, jewelry, perfume or anything that you can personally wear, make sure you wear it when you go out so that others can see your products!

There are many ways you can promote your business on a daily basis. I hope my ideas have started the creative idea process within you!

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