Common Mistakes Newbies Make On Twitter

When it comes to social networking and networking your home business online, often times people will turn to social media sites such as Myspace, Linked-In, Facebook and Twitter.

Today I would like to discuss Twitter and the mistakes I often see newbies (new users) do on Twitter that can drive followers & business away from them.

Here are some things you should NOT do on Twitter.

1. Do not send business information, sales information or business links to people via DM (Direct Message) unless that specific user asked to receive that information from you. This includes automatic DM’s that folks send to everyone who is now following them. (Thanks for following me type of DM’s)

2. Don’t Tweet business links 24/7. No one wants to read tweets that contain your business link over and over and over again. If you do that, you will be labeled as a link spammer.

3. Don’t do keyword searches for your area of interest on Twitter and then send @ reply business spam messages to users. A lot of users will report you for spam & block you from their Twitter streams & accounts.

4. Do not set your Twitter account up on auto-pilot aka, Tweet later type of services unless you plan on logging in every day and tweeting in real time too. Tweet later type of services is where you set up an account with them, draft up your Tweets and have that service post your tweets on Twitter for you.

Part of networking is being real, connecting with and chatting with your followers. You can’t do that if your Twitter account is on 24/7 auto pilot.

5. Watch what you tweet. No one wants to read tweets about what you did in your bathroom, bedroom, etc. Furthermore, leave the trash talking potty mouth at the door. You don’t want to offend your followers by discussing inappropriate content or using foul language.

For Twitter to work for you…you really need to mix up your tweets. Yes, tweet about your business and provide some business tips…but also spend some time chatting with your followers so that they can get to know you and you can get to know them.

Do you have any ‘mistake’ type of tips you would like to share with our readers? If so, leave them in a comment!

Shelly

Online Article Marketing Can Drive Traffic To Your Site

When you write online articles and use them in an article marketing campaign, you benefit in many ways. Let’s take a look at a few of those benefits.

1. You build quality back links to your web site which helps with search engine ranking.

2. You drive quality traffic to your web site and/or blogs. This targeted traffic is obtained by readers clicking on your links in your Author’s Resource Box.

3. Writing articles give the impression that you are a leader in your niche. It helps build credibility to your personal and business name and readers will look to you as a professional.

4. You will generate your own business leads. When people read your articles and click through to your web site, you are exposing them to the products you sell and the home business opportunity that you represent.

When it comes to writing your first article, here are a few important tips.

1. If possible, be personable in your articles. Try to make a personal connection with your readers when you write.

2. Your articles should contain a minimum of 250 words. Use proper keywords in your articles to help readers find the information that they are looking for. Your keyword should be in your title and in the body of your article three times. Anything over three times is considered keyword spamming.

3. Leave the sales pitch out of the body of your article. If you are pitching a product and/or business service, leave your sales pitch blurb for your Author’s Resource Box. You can’t use links in the body of your article. In addition, most article directories will not allow affiliate links in the Author’s Resource Box. If you have a blog, use that link instead of a link to your consultant web site.

4. Always spell check your article for misspelled words or grammar mistakes before submitting it to a directory. I find it very helpful to have a fellow writer proof my articles before I submit them.

Once you have your article completed, you can publish your article on blogs, niche related forum boards or in article directories. If you are publishing your article in a directory, your article will then be used by web site owners to be published on their web sites, in newsletters, ezines or on blogs.

If you are new to article writing and/or article marketing, there are several groups online that you can join. Writers within these groups can help you with your article writing and teach you proper article marketing skills. One of my favorite groups for new and experienced writers is http://www.wahm-articles.com. You can join their online community for free, as well as submit your articles to their online directory.

In closing, article marketing can benefit your Direct Sales business by building quality back links to your web site, improve your search engine ranking, generate your own leads and more importantly…give the impression to others that you are a leader in your niche.

Shelly Hill, copyright 2010, all rights reserved. Please do not reprint this article without Shelly’s permission. Thanks!

Don’t Disguise Sales Spam As Newsletters

When it comes to writing and creating an effective newsletter that you email out to your customers & clients, you need to keep the sales ads to a minimum.

Don’t draft up a slew of product sales ads and recruiting business opportunity ads and then disguise it (name it a newsletter) and email it out to your customers. If you do, you will lose subscribers really quickly!

A newsletter should contain helpful and educational information about the products you are trying to market. You can included customer/client testimonials, a blurb about your business opportunity, etc in the newsletter but it certainly should not be full of nothing but sales ads.

Think about newsletters like this: If you signed up to get company X’s newsletter and it arrived in your inbox and you opened it up to find NOTHING but 15 sales ads inside it. Would this turn you off? It would me! I want to know why I need a product, how to use a product, features of the product and how this product can fit into my life. Give me a reason to want to purchase it besides that its on sale for a great price.

Newsletters to me are a tool to reach customers and its a valuable tool if done correctly.

So instead of disgusing your sales ads and naming them as newsletters…put some time & effort into your newsletter and educate your customers about the products you are selling.

Shelly

Direct Sales and Door to Door Marketing

Often times I am asked by Direct Sales consultants if door to door marketing works? If my opinion, it depends on the company you are marketing for.

For example: If you are marketing let’s say ‘cookware’ then door to door marketing usually doesn’t work. However, if you are marketing for a company that sells ‘cosmetics and skincare items’ (like Avon) then door to door marketing can work.

If you are planning a door to door marketing campaign, please realize that it can get expensive. Often times you will need catalogs, brochures, fliers, samples, business cards and then some door hanger bags incase the resident isn’t home so you can leave a catalog and information. All of those items can cost a lot of money if you are marketing on a grand scale.

My personal recommendation for those who are interested in trying door to door marketing is to take it slow and to start out on a small scale.

You should try just your neighbors in your neighborhood first and see what kind of reception you get. (perhaps 15-20 for your first marketing campaign). If things go well and you get some orders or a party booking, you can increase your marketing strategy.

It is better to start small and work your way up. After all, you are in Direct Sales to make money and not waste it.

Have you ever tried any door to door marketing? Did it work for you or was it a failure? Do you have any door to door marketing tips to share with our readers?

Shelly

Twitter and Setting Up Your Account To Tweet Later

Twitter is an online popular social media web site that has become the flavor of the day in regards to marketing your home business, communicating with clients and customers and so forth.

A popular trend on Twitter is for home business owners to set up tweet later accounts. If you are not familiar with this, you can set up tweets to go out various times to your twitter followers whether you are online or not. There are several online sites that offer this type of tweet later application.

I believe that setting up tweets to go out when you are not online or too busy to tweet…however, you need to change them frequently. If you are tweeting the same 20 tweets over and over for days on end, it will irritate your twitter followers and many will quit unfollowing you.

Just like your web site and blog, your tweets need to include updated content often. If you are using a tweet later type of application, I suggest changing your content at least every 2-3 days if not more frequently.

Your followers don’t want to waste their valuable time reading and seeing the same handful of tweets from you over and over.

What are your thoughts?

Shelly

How To Plan Your Own Vendor Show or Craft Show

Many people who are involved in Direct Sales participate in or plan their own craft show event. Displaying your Direct Sales products at craft shows is a great way to obtain host & recruit leads and to generate additional sales for your Direct Sales business.

My good friend Chris Carroll has agreed to share some of her wisdom on craft shows this week with all of our blog readers.

Thank you Chris!

————————————-

Want to put on your own craft show? Here are some tips to get you going~

Planning an Awesome Craft Show

Are you living in an area that has limited craft and vendor shows? Have you ever thought about developing your own but wasn’t sure how to go about it? Well here is the low down on how to grow your show into a well attended event.

Prep work for an event takes place months in advance. One of the first things you need to know is what type of event are you wanting to hold. Do you want retail items or a mix of crafts and arts? Think about your target market. What type of event would they want to attend and what type of items do they want to see and to purchase? Having a Direct Sales business, we may tend to want to only have Direct Sales people there as well as retail type items. But in order to grow your event and have good attendance and interest, a good balance should be the goal. Here is a secret that I learned. Most arts and craft vendors that make their own products do not like having too many Retail items at shows. It discounts the value of their hand made goods and they cannot compete price wise with something coming out of China. That is a good rule of thumb to keep in the back of your mind when planning your show.

Next on your list of things to do is find a great venue. The location plays a big part in how many vendors you can have as well as how many customers you will attract. Parking is a big part as well and having a place for the vendors to load and unload.

Advertising is huge! When figuring your costs, make sure you take into effect some advertising costs. A lot you can do free such as signs and press releases. But sometimes an inclusion into the Classifieds is not a bad idea. Don’t forget online posting in craft show listings as well.

Finding your vendors should not be too hard to do. Attending other shows with your application and show information in hand and personally asking people to attend is a great way to grow your attendees. Mind your location and map out your spacing so you do not over invite.

Think about food booths and drink booths. Many shows I attend do not allow other beverages sold as the sponsor of the show sells those. Adding a food or beverage booth will depend on your hours, location, attendance and availability to support these types of booths. If you are planning events that say a church or non profit is hosting, most of the time that group sells the food and drinks as a fundraiser.

Use your good customer service with your vendors. Showing them that you care and want to make this experience a great day for them is very important. Remember the vendors are there to make money and that should be tops on your list. Take care of them and they will take care of you!

Another tidbit regarding your vendors would be to make sure that you do not place competing products next to each other. Place them as far a part as possible. Remember that each vendor is its own store. A retailer would not build a jewelry store next to a jewelry store so be mindful of your placement of your vendors; ie. Your customer.

Work on your next show right way. Invite your vendors to the next year’s show and ask for feedback to help you plan and make it a better function. Growing your show each year will mean a better event for everyone! Good luck and Have Fun!!!

———————

Copyright Chris Carroll All Rights Reserved

Chris Carroll is a sales professional that has made direct sales her business of choice and enjoys sharing with others. You can sign up for tips on managing and increasing your business at her site http://DirectSalesTalk.com .Y ou can also find her at her business site http://ShopOnYourSeat.com .

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.

If you are looking for a site that will do product reviews for small 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.

Proper Online Networking Skills…

I have been networking my home business online since 1997 and I have been working from home since 1989…so I have been networking for a long time.

It never ceases to amaze me how poorly home business professionals act online in regards to networking on forum boards and on social networking groups.

Let me just say this…when it comes to networking, first impression is everything!

When you are networking on forum boards and social networking sites (facebook, twitter, ning, myspace, linkedin, etc) you need to remember to act appropriately on these groups.

Way too often I see folks only join these groups to just spam advertisements and then they leave. They come back and spam another ad and it becomes routine to them.

Networking is not about spamming your business ads 24/7 to those you meet online. Networking is about building quality business relationships with others who are also running and promoting a home business.

To build a quality relationship, you need to communicate effectively, participate in non-business and business discussions and more importantly, limit the ‘in your face’ advertisements.

~ Shelly ~

Marketing Tip: Test Your Advertising Methods

Many people keep asking what are the best advertising methods and I can list a bunch of them that work for me, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for you and vice versa.

It’s important to test all your advertising methods. Don’t just give it a few days, but give it at least a month or more. Keep in mind as well if one marketing method works today, it may not work tomorrow or three months down the road and what doesn’t work today doesn’t mean it won’t work in the future.

To track your advertising campaigns, you can use ad trackers, Google Analytics, email or simply add a special coding to the URL

Email Example: mailto:you@yourdomain.com?subject=ad1
URL Example: http://www.yourdomain.com/ad1

Ad Trackers
Adminder
HyperTracker
Link Counter

Some of the best advertising methods include:
Signature Advertising
Article Marketing
Word-of-Mouth
Blogging
Social Networking
Paid Advertising
Pay-Per-Click

What has worked for you?

~Sophia

Next Page »