6) ‘Payment Processor’ - To collect money for your products you will need a payment processor. Make sure that you accept credit cards because most transactions will be made with them. But you should also consider other options as well, like accepting checks and money orders. And you may want to use PayPal. The more ways you can collect money more sales you’ll make. And if you’re selling a digital product you may want to use ClickBank.

7) ‘Autoresponder’ - If you want to make your internet business easier, then you’ll want to automate as much as possible by using an autoresponder. You can automate a lot of your every day business tasks leaving more time for you to concentrate on more important things. Here are a few examples: send out email advertisements to everyone on your list at predetermined intervals. Automate delivery of several different mini courses all at once. Send out sequential emails automatically whenever someone buys one of your products. Have all of your digital products sent out automatically. And with an autoresponder you can collect names and email addresses and add them to your list of customers and much, much more.

8) ‘Free Advertising’ - This may be a good way to start out if you are limited on funds. But this will be slower than paid advertising and will take a lot more time. And time is money so figure out how much you’re worth and monitor your time. If you are spending a lot of time with free advertising and not getting results you like, then you may want to try something else. Keep in mind when using free advertising someone else may also place their ad with yours and this is not very professional. Also when you join these free advertising lists it usually means everyone on that list can send free advertising to you. So you may get a lot of unwanted emails.

9) ‘Paid Advertising’ - You may get better results with paid advertising. And at first you may think blasting your ad to as many people as possible will make you most money. But this really isn’t a good idea for a couple of reasons. First a lot of people won’t have an interest in your product so they’ll probably not even read your ad. And second you may be accused of spamming which is something you never want to do. So always try placing ads with your specific targeted group. And always test your results to make sure that its cost efficient.

10) ‘Collect a List’ - This gets 5 stars. Start collecting your list of names and email addresses as soon as possible, add to your list often, and cherish your list because it will make you money over and over again. Whenever you need extra money you can send an email promoting a product to your list. So you’ll want to collect names and emails addresses by offering free e-books or a mini course, by having them join your newsletter and of course whenever they buy your great product.

And remember to always invest in yourself. Invest your money for quality information that will help expand your business, and invest your time to thoroughly read information.

Copyright © Duane Marx

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Duane Marx For a list of internet marketing resources and other free marketing tips please visit: www.internet-checklist.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as bylines are included.

Chapter 2: Research Target Market

Research can be as in depth as actually phoning some of people in target market and conducting surveys, or it is often as simple as talking to your client about his experiences with past customers. Start with easiest action and survey your client. Here are some good questions to ask:

1. What do your top five customers have in common?

By this I mean, what do your top five customers' orders have in common. Do they all purchase a certain add on? Is there a service that none of them take advantage of? This will help tell you what a "good customer" actually is to that client.

2. What is most-often-stated benefit of your service?

Is it product? Is it service? Is it price? Ask them, they know and you need to know for obvious reasons.

3. What do they think is most beneficial part of their service to their customer?

Many companies have already done research, or have been doing it long enough to just give you information out right.

It is not always obvious what is going to be benefit that is going to pull most response. Use your three assets (Reasoning, Experience and Research) to get as close as possible. As time goes on you will build up your experience, but in beginning you will need to rely more heavily on your Reasoning and Research. And easiest and fastest thing you can do is to “BE” target market.

Now back to targeted family that we want to refinance their home. Pretend you are a family man or woman with a household income of $75k with revolving debt of $15K and you’ve got two kids! Kids can be pretty expensive. So, why would you like to refinance?

Chapter 3: You Want Customer to do WHAT?

Since you've now figured out what customer needs to hear to be interested, next you need to figure out what it is you want from them. What are you trying to accomplish? Sometimes it is as simple as getting them to go to your website for more information. Other times you are looking for them to pick up phone and actually place an order. Whatever it is that you want them to do you need to state it clearly on promo piece.

For example, if you want them to call and talk to a representative, card should very clearly say "Call today and speak to one of our representatives for more details." This simple statement tells customer exactly what you want them to do. It even tells them when to call - "today". Believe it or not, people like to be told exactly what to do in advertising. You should make it easy as possible to make requested action. The more your prospects have to think, less likely they are to actually act.

Another key part of call to action is supplying proper accompanying information along with request. In this case, phone number should be prominent and be closest element to your call to action. Common sense would seem to tell you that as long as phone number is somewhere on promo they will find it and give you a call. The reality is that if number isn't right there for them to see, your response rate will drop considerably.

Make sure that call to action is bold and easy to understand. And keep any important contact information in close proximity to call to action.

These are three most important steps that a graphic designer needs to take to make a piece that will be aesthetic and pull at same time. Pull = a call, a walk-in, a buy, a response – all for more money in their door. Which, by way, gets you remunerated for your services and is actually your exchange for a job well done. Their customers buying means your customers are pleased and wanting more of your services. And it’s a happier, prospering world.