The Sell-Phone Revolution

Become A Profitable Home-based Freelancer

Teri Miller has four kids—three boys and a girl, ages 5 through 13. She is 34, works as a hairdresser in Sarasota, Fla., and recently vacationed in Las Vegas. Most important, she doesn't mind strangers knowing all this—even if they use it to sell her things. Simply by sending a text message to a number she saw on a Las Vegas billboard in February, Miller gave Adidas (ADDDY ) and a marketing outfit, MOVO, all the information they needed to hawk basketball shoes to her over the phone.
They knew Miller was in Vegas, since she responded to the billboard offering information about National Basketball Assn. All-Star game events nearby. Her phone number gave away her hometown, indicating an allegiance to the East Coast All-Star team. The payoff came when Adidas sent Miller a text message about the sale of 200 pairs of limited-edition All-Star basketball shoes. Tipped off, Miller lined up outside an Adidas store in Vegas with hundreds of others. "We got there really early with our big ol' cup of coffee," says Miller, "and of course the line was out the door." She bought two pair for her eldest boys.

Advertising is about to get very personal. Marketers are taking tools that they already use to track your Internet surfing and are preparing to combine that information with cell-phone customer data that include not just the area where you live but also the street you're standing on. The aim is to target the exact person who is most likely to buy a product at the precise moment they're most likely to buy it. It's the ad industry's dream come true: a perfect personalized pitch. For privacy advocates, though, this combination of behavioral and geographic targeting is an Orwellian nightmare.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Campaigns that combine Web data with location information to target ads from nearby businesses to individuals are just a couple of years away, mobile marketers say. Already, mobile services use area codes, Zip Codes, and even Global Positioning System (GPS) data to return results for nearby businesses in response to a search for, say, coffee shops. The next step is to serve an ad for a steaming cup of java on a mobile Web page just as the cell-phone Web surfer is passing a Starbucks (SBUX ). Within five years, online ad networks such as TACODA and Specific Media Inc. plan to apply behavioral techniques—using surfing data—to target ads to broadband-enabled digital television. It's not hard to imagine the day when multiple TVs tuned to the same channel in the same household will serve up different ads. "There is no question behavioral targeting will be a major component of television," says Dave Morgan, TACODA's founder and chairman.

Early efforts at such hypertargeting are modest for a good reason: Phone companies are wary of abusing customers' privacy, and major brands are waiting to see if Web-phone ads catch on. Marketers and phone services are also sorting out Federal Communications Commission rules limiting the use and release of customer data, including location information.

On Apr. 2, the FCC released an order requiring mobile marketers to obtain express consent from the customer before carriers release information. Traditionally, permission grants are part of the fine print, often overlooked, for activities such as casting a text message vote, receiving mobile updates such as sports scores, or downloading a GPS map program. FCC rules already require marketers to make it easy to "opt out," usually by replying to a text with "No" or "Stop."

'WALKING TIVOS'
Of course, similar rules apply to e-mail. And one look at the spam-strewn Internet landscape shows how quickly the phone situation could deteriorate, particularly as more services allow unlimited text messaging for a flat rate. A study by M:Metrics, released on Mar. 26, found that most people who receive a phone text message don't think they gave the company permission to contact them, even if they sent an "opt-in" message.

Still, marketers are starting to plumb the potential. Medio Systems Inc., a mobile marketing firm that provides the default search engine for phones served by Verizon (VZ ), T-Mobile, TELUS (TU ), and Amp'd Mobile, is using data from cell-phone Web searches and browsed pages to deliver ads to mobile sites. Carriers such as Sprint Nextel (S ) anticipate delivering ads based on users' near-exact location. "We have not yet gone with a GPS-specific advertisement, but I suspect we will eventually," says Alana Muller, Sprint's director of wireless data marketing.

The objective for advertisers, obviously, is to cut through the cacophony of sales pitches. By some estimates, the average plugged-in individual sees 3,000 to 5,000 ads of all types each day, depending on where he lives. Most of that gets tuned out. "I think people are becoming walking TiVos," says Omar Tawakol, chief advertising officer of Medio Systems. Early research on mobile-phone pitches indicates that about 5% of consumers who see targeted ads respond to them. That sounds small, but fewer than 1% of people click on conventional Web ads.

Phone targeting has one big advantage: Unlike TVs and computers shared by members of the household, most mobile phones have one user. Any mobile Web data that are collected help build a profile of a unique individual. Mobile carriers also can leverage data from service contracts and billing logs.

What's more, cellular networks are able to locate callers to within 50 to 300 meters by triangulating signals, something the fcc requires them to do for 911 calls. Providing the carrier has consumer permission, that could be matched up with, say, a hip fashion boutique that has purchased an ad for women ages 15 to 25 who have surfed the Style.com Web site in the past month.

All told, marketers will spend just $3 billion worldwide on mobile ads this year, according to an Apr. 10 report by ABI Research, an industry research group. But that's expected to grow to $19 billion by 2011 as more users surf the Web via handset. Many marketers eagerly await the day when carriers release location information to them.

Many citizens, of course, are hoping that the vault remains shut. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, says consumers expect privacy with their cell phone and won't react well to location-based marketing. "Any advertising that causes someone to flip open their cell phone and see an ad won't be a wondrous moment," says Rotenberg. Marketers such as Medio's Tawakol are quick to point out that most ads will appear on mobile Web pages and not as text messages. He also notes that marketers don't have, or even want, customers' names, because brands want to reach highly selective groups of consumers, not just Joe Schmo.

The bigger concern for many mobile users may be that advertisers will simply know their phone number. The industry is ostensibly developing guidelines that keep users from being barraged with messages—restricting, say, how often an advertiser may contact the same consumer in a month. But that cat may be out of the bag: Mobile-phone users who received unwanted messages already have filed lawsuits against marketers.

If you're feeling spammed, of course, the whole appeal of targeting is turned on its head. Now you're angry—and it's personal.
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Not that long ago, Cindy Goble could barely send an e-mail. Today, she spends a good part of her day peddling perfume and beauty products on the Internet, as the owner of web-based retailer Beautymark Corp.

Goble's online career started in early 2004. She'd spent the past 10 years as a stay-at-home mom in London, Ont., and she'd been itching to get into business. "I was yearning for some kind of presence in the business world," she says. But she was determined to still spend as she could with her two kids.

Then a friend told her about a skin-care product that was only available in the United States. "I thought, why not try to sell this cream—which was remarkable for stretch marks and also on wrinkles—in Canada?" After speaking with the manufacturer, Goble decided that the best way to land a Canadian distribution deal was by going online. "I didn't know the first thing about the web," says the 43-year-old, "so I was very uncomfortable at first."

She holed up at the family cottage with a stack of books on how to operate an online business. "I read and highlighted and took notes," she says. Then she hired a web designer to create a site and teach her to run it. "It's very easy to operate, so I can add and delete products myself," says Goble. "That put me at ease." The designer also set her up to accept payments through PayPal, so she didn't need to be able to handle secure credit card transactions on her site (though she does take credit card payment by phone). To keep shipping simple, Goble restricted sales to within Canada and U.S., using Canada Post for domestic shipments and UPS for those headed south of the border.

Beautymark Corp. launched in November, 2004. But a few months later, having only served a handful of customers, Goble knew two things had to happen for her business to work: she needed to find a way to stand out online, and she had to expand her product offering beyond skin care. "I would go for weeks without any sales," she says. "I began to realize that my site was nowhere to be found in the millions of Web sites out there."

In the spring of 2005, Goble (with her husband's help) began to submit her site to online directories like Yahoo and Best of the Web. The more directories that listed Goble's site, the more likely it was that Beautymark would appear in an online search. Then, to boost her product offering, she bought the inventory from a perfume retailer who specialized in hard-to-find scents and was looking to shut down her shop. Goble updated the Beautymark site just a few weeks before Christmas and held an open house for the perfume store's existing customers in her living room. "It was a big hit," she says.

Now, when Goble sumbitted her site to all those online directories, she could add much broader keywords like "perfume," "fragrance" and "hard-to-find scents."

It worked. Goble went from fewer than 20 customers in September, 2005, to 100-plus that December. A year later, her business continues to grow. She now has more than 200 perfumes (more than 500 bottles at any given time) and stacks of coordinating boxes, tissue and bags stored in her basement. "The longer you have your Web site and the more directories you submit to, the more your business will grow. It's a snowball effect."

Goble's new products are doing so well (she has added a line of bath and beauty products to her inventory), she dropped the skin scream that started it all—it wasn't doing much to boost her sales. Now she's planning to move to a bigger home, so she can set up a permanent showroom and hold open houses. "I don't pay rent, I had no construction costs, and it's a one-employee business," she says. "My costs are very low, which made starting my own business more attainable." Plus, she's home every day when her kids get home from school.

Go to source.
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10 Unconventional But Successful Online Homebusiness Ideas

Create a New Business From an Old Idea

http://www.hardtofindseminars.com

Michael Senoff has stumbled upon a perfect online home business opportunity – reselling old seminar materials. He was really impressed by Jay Abraham. The only problem was that it costs $20,000 to attend Jay’s workshops (no wonder the press called it, “the world's most expensive seminar"). So he did some digging and managed to find a guy from Northern California who had attended the seminar, asking to buy seminar materials off him. He bought the entire set for … 50 dollars. He later found out that Jay’s materials are being sold on eBay for several hundred dollars. He broke up the original package (that he got for $50) in several pieces and sold items for $1700. Thus, his perfect online homebusiness was born. Michael now resells old seminar materials for dozens of marketing gurus, easily profiting over $1000 a day. Read full story in Mike's own words.

http://www.hungrypod.com/

Catherine Keane, the owner of Hungry Pod, makes over $100,000 a year, uploading music to other people’s iPods. This online homebusiness idea came to her when an acquaintance offered her $500 to load his CD collection onto his iPod. Thanks in part to a small story in The New York Times, Keane's advertising efforts on Craigslist and word-of-mouth, HungryPod has expanded to three employees and four computers, and has annual sales that exceed $100,000. Read The New York Times article about Catherine and her business.

http://www.idonowidont.com/

Joshua Opperman has his ex-fiancee to thank for his thriving online home based business. After the breakup, he was stuck with the engagement ring he paid dearly for. He went back to the jeweler where he'd bought it three months earlier, but found he could only get 32 percent of its original cost. Josh didn’t like that one bit, so he set up a site, where people in the same situation can sell their engagement rights for a better price. See the full profile of this online homebusiness here.

http://www.pickydomains.com/

This is a great online home-based business idea that requires no money and that anyone can start. PickyDomains is a risk-free domain naming service that got a lot of publicity and ‘blogtalk’ in Europe lately. This is how it works. A customer deposits $50 dollars and describes what kind of domain he or she wants. Domain pickers then send in their suggestions of available domain names. If the customer likes one of the domain names and registers it, the service gets $50. Otherwise the money is refunded at the end of the month. Read full article about how you can make money naming domains here.

http://www.greekgear.com/

Reading a business magazine in the doctor's office inspired Joseph Tantillo to try his hand at online retailing. At the time, he and his wife were expecting their first child and wanted to work from home. An article about starting an online store jumped out at him, he recalls—and, as a member of a fraternity in college, he decided to sell personalized Greek apparel to that market. After setting up shop for just $79.95—the cost of a merchant account with Yahoo!— he began researching what kind of products his former fraternity brothers might like. Using the strong Greek network worked, as he's built GreekGear.com's yearly sales to $1.9 million. Read Joseph’s story here.

http://rickspicksnyc.com/

Rick Field, a Yale graduate and former TV producer for Bill Moyers, is a perfect example of how you can start successful home business out of a hobby. Field learned the art of pickling when he was growing up in Vermont. About eight years ago, gripped by a sense of nostalgia, he took up pickling again. In his tiny kitchen, Field made family recipes and then quickly began experimenting. People’s wildly enthusiastic response to his Windy City Wasabeans (soybeans in wasabi brine) and Slices of Life (sliced pickles in aromatic garlic brine) told him he was onto something. Read how Rick took his homebusiness online here.

http://www.militaryexits.com/

Karin Markley set her online business right out of home. Having 15 years of experience working in a civilian employment agency and knowing that companies value employees with military backgrounds, and she wanted to provide a one-stop link between the two. Karen contacted the Department of Defense for permission to use its seal on her Web site. It took months to get it, but MilitaryExits.com is now linked to all the military bases. Markley, who projects annual sales of $600,000, points to her biggest reward: "Helping the military. Getting the letters and phone calls from these people thanking me so much for what I'm doing for them."

http://www.hotsauceblog.com/

If I told you that you can make $200,000 blogging about hot sauces, you wouldn’t believe me. Yet, this is exactly what Nick Lindauer does. In 2001, while still in college, he launched his online homebusiness then called Sweat 'N Spice out of his Springfield (Ore.) apartment. He sold a few dozen types of hot sauces, packaged each order by hand, and shipped everything from his local post office, barely eking out a profit during his first year of operation. Today, Lindauer sells over a thousand products from some 300 manufacturers. In 2005, the business grossed around $130,000. He got $200,000 in 2006. One day, it’s going to be a cool $1000000. Full story.

http://amazingbutterflies.com/

Amazing Butterflies is really an amazing million dollar homebusiness idea success story. Jose Muniz's career began when a friend bet him $100 that he could not sell butterflies for a living. Now, seven years later, the former business consultant and his wife, Karen, own Amazing Butterflies, a live-butterfly distributor that generated $1 million in revenues in 2006. Though Muniz is still waiting for his $100, he says that he has backed his way into a job that he loves. "I could never go back to consulting," he says. "This is just too much fun." Full story.

http://www.laneigepurse.com/

What began as a solution to her chronic back and neck pain is now a line of purses for women who share Kristy Sobel's condition--or simply want a fashionable fanny pack. After three car accidents that resulted in extensive back and neck surgeries, the 35-year-old entrepreneur realized she couldn't do the traveling her then-job required. To ease the weight on her shoulders, Sobel searched for a fanny pack that would accommodate her condition, but realized fashionable ones were nonexistent. So she created one. Before long, family, friends and even strangers were requesting this one-of-a-kind purse. She approached boutiques with her design after successful test runs at her friends' shops, but the door-to-door routine eventually took a toll on her body. Sobel continued her venture from home, found a rep to promote her bags at a trade show and used her and her husband and co-founder Eric's savings to launch LaNeige Purse. Last year she made over $200,000 from her purses.

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Time Change Could Be Trouble

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The first change to Daylight Saving Time (DST) since 1987 is looming, and it could cause havoc in your business IT systems if you don't act now. DST starts almost a month SOONER this year (2nd Sunday in March instead of 1st Sunday in April) and lasts a week longer (ending 1st Sunday in Nov.) Trouble might include scheduling errors and confusion from errant desktop applications; billing disputes, incorrect time stamps and other interruptions. Small business time and attendance systems are particularly susceptible, especially the older timeclock/punchclock variety. If you are thinking of upgrading your systems, Business.com is a good place to shop and compare multiple vendors. Vince Zambo, a tech specialist with CDW Corp., recommends these steps:

• Inventory and isolate time-sensitive systems. These might include payroll, financial or medical databases and older timeclock/punchclock systems that are not upgradeable.
• Check in with tech vendors. Most hardware, software and web-based service vendors have establish websites or pages to help business owners and IT manager get ready for the DST shift.
• Start now. The shift is only a month away and it takes time to understand if and how your systems might be affected.

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Mompreneurs® Still Going Strong—10 Years and Counting

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February, 2007 - It was just over 10 years ago, in September of 1996, that authors Ellen Parlapiano and Patricia Cobe released their first Mompreneurs® book—catapulting work-at-home mothers into the spotlight, and coining and trademarking the catchy word “mompreneurs” to describe entrepreneurial moms. As work-at-home moms themselves (both were home-based writers/consultants raising young children), Parlapiano and Cobe decided to pen the book when they couldn’t find anything on the market addressing the special needs of mothers running businesses from home. “Wherever we went—whether to the playground or the supermarket—other moms would ask how we did it,” says Parlapiano. “So we decided to write our own how-to book about starting and running a business from a mother’s perspective.”

That first book, Mompreneurs®: A Mother’s Practical, Step-by-Step Guide to Work-at-Home Success (Perigee, 1996), caught the attention of the media, landing the authors on Oprah, Good Morning America and several other national shows. It also led to follow-up books and a five-year stint as featured Mompreneurs® experts on iVillage.com, where the authors dispensed home business advice.

Today, Cobe and Parlapiano offer support and advice at their own website, MompreneursOnline.com (www.mompreneursonline.com), which features message boards, articles, and a unique Mompreneurs® Marketplace showcasing mom-owned businesses. They are recognized by the media as the go-to experts when the topic is work-from-home moms. Last month, Parlapiano offered tips on The CBS Early Show’s three-part series about women entrepreneurs, which also highlighted two MompreneursOnline community members, Ester LaPollo of MamaAfrika (www.mamaafrika.com) and Kathie Papera of Lilypad Baby (www.lilypadbaby.com).

Mompreneur® Trends 2007

With their fingers on the pulse of the mompreneur® movement, the authors have noticed many exciting trends that will make it easier for today’s mothers to launch their own enterprises:

?Technology makes working from home easier than ever! “The Web provides a gateway to careers that were practically unheard of when we wrote our first book,” says Cobe, citing examples like e-tailing, personal coaching, online tutoring and virtual assistants (who provide office support services via the Web). Even lawyers, bankers, nurses, teachers and other professionals—who would have been hard-pressed to find work-at-home jobs in their specialties 10 years ago—are carving out all kinds of interesting career niches, without having to switch professions. Attorneys are running advocacy websites for special-ed students, travel specialists launch online agencies, former Spanish teachers help preschoolers become bilingual, and public policy experts run thriving consulting businesses. With high-tech tools like blogs and podcasts, mompreneurs are able to reach a wider audience without leaving the comfort of their homes.

?Mothers of invention are creating new niches. Today’s creative moms are inventing gadgets and safety products that solve problems they’ve discovered in their own family lives. For example, after running out of space to display her children’s artwork, Suzy Fanning, of Plymouth, Michigan, created MacKenzie Kids Art Files (www.mackenziekids.net), a smart storage and display system. The designer of the Stowers Swaddler swaddling blanket (www.stowersswaddler.com), was inspired by her own experience as a mom and a labor-delivery nurse to create a swaddling blanket with a pocket and Velcro closures. The Web makes it easy for enterprising moms to research patents, trademarks and other legalities with the click of a mouse.

?Moms want to make a difference. “We are seeing a big increase in cause-related companies—businesses with a social conscience,” says Parlapiano. For example, Mama Afrika (www.mamaafrika.com) is an online business that benefits African women and children. It was founded by Ester LaPollo, a Lompac, California mom who sells African crafts and specialties on her site, and donates a portion of her proceeds back to the African countries.

?Funding is easier to find. Though mompreneurs® still tend to rely on savings accounts and credit cards for start-up expenses, grants and low-interest loans are more accessible, if you know where to look. Great resources include: Count Me In (www.count-me-in.org) and Accion USA (www.accionusa.com). Also check local small business development centers and women’s networking groups to see if they can recommend potential lenders. The Make Mine a $Million Business® contest, sponsored by Count-Me-In and American Express Open helps moms grow their businesses through monetary support, mentoring, marketing and technology tools. (Enter at www.makemineamillion.org). One of the 2006 winners was Renee Wood, founder of The Comfort Company (www.thecomfortcompany.net), an online retailer of condolence gifts, and a charter member of MompreneursOnline.com. “It was so gratifying to watch Renee get the opportunity to take her business to that million dollar level,” says Cobe, who was in the audience cheering when Renee won.

?Work-from-home moms are now getting the respect they deserve! With about half a million moms running their own businesses, entrepreneurial mothers are finally being taken seriously by the “traditional” work world. Corporations often hire work-from-home moms as consultants, and mompreneurs® find they no longer have to keep motherhood a secret. Moms are on a mission to attain more family flexibility and have proven that they can successfully run a business and family under the same roof. They are confident and capable. “It’s not about opting out, it’s about creating new options,” says Parlapiano.

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Internet Marketing for 2007 - Affordable Efficiency

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If you pay attention to online marketing, you are constantly inundated with people who sell the so-called "secrets" to brand new marketing techniques on the Internet. Each and every day you are bombarded with new e-books, teleseminars and software alleging to hold the "secrets" of blog and ping, or the "secrets" of the death of Google Adsense or the "secrets" of content is king for Search Engines.

However, the truth of the matter in nearly all cases is that most of these products are expensive and endorsed solely by the gurus who get paid for every item they sell. Real testimonials are rare and the pressure you are under to purchase these products is enormous.

Let's make a two-fold pact for 2007:

One - We will not be swept away by all the hype on the Internet.

Two - We will primarily use tried and tested, successful Internet marketing techniques that won't cost us a fortune to use.

To help you off to the right start in launching your own cost-effective marketing strategy for 2007, I want to share some valuable ideas that I've used to grow my own business. These marketing concepts are genuinely affordable, truly simple to implement and have honestly helped me gain generous exposure, which has resulted in new clients and increased sales. My top fifteen favorite effective and inexpensive Internet marketing tactics are listed below:

1. Article submissions to online e-zines, directories and newsgroups, and off-line magazines and newspapers (don't worry about the duplicate content issues ... just get as many one-way links to your site as possible to boost your Search Engine ranking). Writing and submitting free reprint articles is a resourceful way to generate increased exposure and will drive traffic to your web site.

2. Create and market your own affiliate program using low cost tools on the Internet, which incidentally, there are numerous tools on the web that are very affordable. Offer affiliates your articles for reprint and allow them to use their affiliate link in your byline. But don't stop there ... submit your program to affiliate program directories so that prospects can find it readily.

3. Write and submit press releases to both paid and free press release sites. Let your target audience know about your company, new products and services you're offering and also about special company events or promotions. If you're concerned that perhaps your writing talents are a bit rough yet, hire a ghostwriter to draft your release for you. And yes, there are many talented, professional writers who work on a freelance basis and accept both one-time and ongoing projects at an affordable rate.

4. Register with and actively participate in forums that target your ideal client or customer. Check in at least once a week and offer helpful advice to other forum participants seeking assistance and information in your area of expertise. Be sure to craft and use a compelling signature that will get added to your posts. With just a small investment of your time, you can establish yourself as an expert within your industry, which can result in generous exposure.

5. Offer legitimate comments and articles to blog owners who cover your topic area and target your audience. Create solid and productive relationships, offering to make blog postings for them in return for a byline with a live link to your site. The fact that you're willing to offer blog owners something of value upfront will make them eager to reciprocate.

6. List your teleseminars, e-zines, live events and books on Craigslist in cities and sections that have appeal for your target audience. Sign-in and repost your listings on a regular basis to keep them current.

7. Research opportunities to be a guest on teleseminars, podcasts and webinars. You'll be pleasantly surprised at the number of opportunities available if you simply take the time to look for them. Keep a list of questions and potential topics ready for your pitch. Keep track of your guest appearances and promote them on your web site.

8. Actively participate in online social networks such as MySpace, Ryze and LinkedIn. Write compelling copy for your profile and be sure to have a good picture and logo to add where permitted. Including your photo allows people to feel a connection to you, simply because they can put a face to your name.

9. Join and participate in associations and non-profits that attract your perfect client. Find relevant associations by searching for your keyword + association in search engines and visit the American Society of Association Executives. Involvement in organizations such as this, as well as local civic organizations, offers valuable networking opportunities.

10. Place paid advertisements in e-zines that target your audience. If possible, purchase the advertisement when the publisher is running one of your articles in order to gain maximum exposure with this strategy. There are three types of common advertisements available in e-zines: classified, sponsor and solo. Chose the most inexpensive position with the greatest exposure.

11. Write or hire a ghostwriter to create a short e-course that you can give away so long as people provide you with their e-mail address. Make certain that your e-course is relevant to your target audience and not full of fluff and fillers. By offering solid value in your e-course, you can benefit from readers who take notice of your other work/articles and will often seek out additional work you've written. Be sure to include a privacy policy and notify those who give you their e-mail address that they will be subscribed to your e-zine.

12. Downloadable white papers are usually longer versions of articles and often include graphics and links to resources. As with your e-course require people who want the white paper to register for your e-zine. Encourage people to send the registration link to their colleagues, friends and family who share a similar interest.

13. Create your own blog, update at least every other day and include links to your web sites. Ping blog directories and Search Engines every time you make a post for verification that your blog is turning up results.

14. Sponsor contests and submit them to contest directories. Give away a book a month or an hour of your services and encourage people to register for your e-zine. If your business involves selling a product rather than a service, you can offer specific products for prizes with contest entry automatic when people signup for your e-zine. Be creative with your contests, but always make the winning prize something of value that is relevant to your business.

15. Testimonials and referrals can be obtained from the same people. Offer to include a picture with testimonials and a live link to your client's web site. This strategy is a win-win marketing tactic for both you and your client. No satisfied client would refuse such an opportunity! Instead of e-mailing referrals send a professionally written letter via postal mail with some of your most popular articles and invite recipients to call you for a free fifteen minute consultation.

There are dozens of free marketing techniques in the online and off-line world. These fifteen are not the only ones I use but they are my absolute favorites and have been used successfully by thousands of people, including Internet gurus. Don't fall for every new marketing scheme; instead, spend your money selectively on marketing products. If you are pressed for time hire a virtual assistant to handle the free and low cost marketing techniques listed here and carve out some time in your schedule every month to research and evaluate new techniques.

Happy Marketing!

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About the Author: Bonnie Jo Davis is an experienced and successful article marketer and author who built her entire business marketing with articles. Hire her to teach you how to exploit the power of article marketing or join her affiliate program by visiting http://www.WriteYourWayToProfit.com.

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KieAnn Brownell considers herself a serial entrepreneur, which means she’s always on the lookout for new business ideas. After running her family's wholesale floor-covering business, Columbine Carpet in Greenwood Village, Colo., she decided the time was right to transition from carpets to cakes. After learning that more than 700,000 people celebrate a birthday every single day, Brownell set up her latest venture, GoCakeGo.com, which allows customers to order distinctive birthday-cakes-in-a-box.

"My roots as an entrepreneur go way back to when I was nine. I used to check movies out of the library and charge my friends admission to watch them.

"I first started thinking about some kind of cake business back when I was in college at the University of Colorado. I knew that there was a market sending cakes to kids away at school, but this was way before the Internet, so I kind of just filed the idea away.

"Then, in 2004, it came back to me. I started doing some research and found out that something like 5,000 people search the Internet for birthday cakes every single day. I figured that was enough to qualify as a business opportunity. And while it’s not 100 percent recession-proof, you know everybody has a birthday every year and everyone from kids on up loves cake. And unlike cookies or flowers, a cake really does inspire a celebration.

"Once I realized how big the market was, I started looking for wholesale bakers. I was an accounting major and had no interest in doing the baking myself. So we lined up a few wholesalers who supply us with frozen cakes and then we ship them via FedEx within 24 hours to kids away at school, elderly aunts, and siblings that live in other cities. Our real market is with remote relatives. It really is a business that connects people, and not only the sender with the recipient. When someone receives one of our cakes, they can’t help but invite around them to share.

"Part of our goal is to build a brand with our distinctive lime-green boxes. Along with the cake, we include plates, napkins, forks, a cake server, candles, and confetti. It’s really a party in the box -- everything you need for a spontaneous celebration. We also have our 'Party Online' component, where you can invite people to email their best wishes for the birthday boy or girl for a virtual celebration. When the person opens their e-card, they get to enjoy all the messages their friends have written to them. It's just so much better than just getting a phone call.

"Our real turning point came in January when DailyCandy featured us. After that plug, our page views jumped from 600 to 62,000. Now we’re ramping up and delivering about 1,000 cakes a month, at a selling price of about $70.

"One day I hope someone will see a lime-green box in an office or a dorm room and say, 'Hey, whose birthday is it?' And, to try to build that brand, I wear lime-green clothing every day. It gives people in the Denver area something to chuckle about."

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The following is a guest post by Matthew Peschong of the Caffeine Marketing blog.

Creating an effective online presence begins with quality content. After you put your heart and soul everyday into your works online, you might start to wonder when traffic will start rolling into your website.

1. Free E-Books

2. Articles

3. Online Directories

4. Testimonials

5. Content Is King

6. Develop A Directory
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Skip special software when writing business plan

Put Your Focus on Startup

Many aspiring entrepreneurs turn to the latest business planning software when getting ready to start their businesses, but such tools create too many shortcuts that undermine the crucial process of business planning.

To construct an effective and more accurate business plan, it helps to understand how the experts — such as investors and bankers — evaluate business plans.

The first section of the plan read by most experts is the Executive Summary. This should be a one-page summary of all of the key points in the plan. It is not an outline or an introduction written to get the reader's attention.

For example, when addressing the financial aspects of the plan, summarize expected profits and revenues, and tell the specific amount of money you are seeking in loans and investments. Although it is the first section that is read, it should be the last section you write. A good approach is to capture in one sentence the main point of each section of the finished plan.

Experts next look at the consistency between the marketing plan and revenue forecasts.

Even though the marketing plan is usually toward the front of the plan and financial statements at the very end, these experts will go back and forth to make certain that your sales forecasts are consistent with the story you are telling in the marketing plan. The link between the marketing plan and revenue forecasts is the backbone of any business plan.

Developing a sound marketing plan starts with extensive research of the industry, the competitive environment, and your potential customers. Do your homework. Identify the key trends in the market. Understand the weaknesses and the strengths of your competitors.

Learn how your potential customers think. Use all of this information to develop a strong and compelling marketing plan to explain how you will engage your customers.

Show them the money

Next, shift your attention to forecasting revenues. The story the marketing plan tells in words should be the same story that the revenue forecast tells in numbers.

Take your time. This is probably the hardest step of writing a plan if you do it correctly. Revenues are the simple formula of "Price times Quantity." However, the price and quantity of your sales are the two most uncertain issues you will face in your planning.

Save the money you would have spent on the latest business planning software package and then treat yourself to dinner when you finish writing the plan the correct way.

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