THOUGHTS ON CREATING A POSITIVE BRAND IMAGE

Written by Steven Presar


Continued from page 1

The first step is to determine what qualities you wish to project -- do you want to focus onrepparttar reliability ofrepparttar 101186 product, orrepparttar 101187 speed, orrepparttar 101188 money possibilities?

Once you have made this basic, vital decision, then you need to look for words, descriptions, and graphics that will project these same qualities. If you look atrepparttar 101189 naming of car models, you can see some good examples of this -- A Dakota, for instance, creates an association of wild ruggedness, while a Mustang projectsrepparttar 101190 image of spirit and speed.

Remember that there are also many other factors that will also indirectly affect how your company and product are branded.

The way that you interact with your customers is one ofrepparttar 101191 most important of these. Make sure that your company reflectsrepparttar 101192 same qualities that you want to have associated with your product or service.

Otherwise, you may be sending your customers conflicting messages. For instance,repparttar 101193 name of your product might be CHEETAH, but if it takes three weeks for you to respond to emails, your brand will probably NOT be associated with speed!

Branding your product or service can be a difficult process. Often, it will take many repetitions of a message before a brand becomes recognized. It is therefore very important that you put thought intorepparttar 101194 process before you start selling your image.

Steven Presar provides news and articles regarding starting or maintaining a small business at http://www.Agora-Business-Center.com And works with individuals and small business owners who would like to grow their business on the Internet at the following site: http://www.Alliance-Internet-Marketing.com


How and Where to Advertise Your Small Business Online

Written by Jim Daniels


Continued from page 1

Rating: Poor

4. Banner Advertising

This is an "old school" advertising strategy that I have been testing again now that prices are lower. And early indications are that there is a solid reason forrepparttar still-declining prices of banner advertising. My own click-through rates been less that 1% so far, with a few exceptions. But I do have some decent size banner ad runs planned forrepparttar 101185 coming months at some busy, targeted sites. Time will tell if I'll continue with this strategy. If you DO want to try banner advertising, askrepparttar 101186 site you plan to advertise at whatrepparttar 101187 average click-through rates are and what banners perform best. That may get you up to two or three percent. If that will take you into profit, give it a whirl. But most small and home businesses may be better served using one ofrepparttar 101188 five advertising methods remaining.

Rating: Fair

5. Opt-in list rental

There are plenty of companies that will rent you email addresses that have opted in to receive commercial email. And ifrepparttar 101189 recipients are not being paid to readrepparttar 101190 messages, that is they are genuinely interested inrepparttar 101191 offers they signed up to receive, this strategy can be profitable. The problem is you'll pay from ten to twenty cents per address and mailing to a list large enough to get results from can be quite expensive. But if your budget can handle it, you can generate some great trageted traffic.

Rating: Good

6. Paid Search Engines Submissions

While I highly suggest submitting to allrepparttar 101192 major search engines that are still free (AltaVista, Lycos, Google, HotBot, DMOZ and Direct Hit) this article is about "paying" for advertising. And there are two paid search engine services I have had very good luck with...

a. Inktomi's Search/Submit at $30 a year, which gets your URL into AOL, iWon, MSN andrepparttar 101193 Looksmart directory within 48 hours.

b. Yahoo! Business Express and sponsored site listings. The business express service costs $199 for non-adult sites, and gets you Yahoo! consideration. While $199 is a little pricey for some small business owners, a good listing at Yahoo! brings quite a bit of extra traffic. Once you are listed, consider taking advantage ofrepparttar 101194 "sponsored site" offering for an additional monthly fee. I am sampling this currently and it paid for itself withinrepparttar 101195 first few weeks. My results may decline as more sites are added intorepparttar 101196 sponsored sites area but I'll keep an eye on things.

Rating: Good

7. Pay per click search engines

This advertising model offers a way for you to bid on search terms and pay only when someone clicks through to your site. I've been advertising with www.goto.com and findwhat.com using this method and have had decent results. It's easy to control costs and your visitors are targeted precisely.

If you are not in a super-competitive keyword arena you can do well with pay per click engines. For example, if you sell web hosting, good luck getting traffic for less than a few bucks a click. But if you have a smaller niche, this strategy represents a great opportunity and is worth trying.

And if you DO find that this model works well for you, more than 75 additional "Pay per Click" search engines can be found at Alan Gardyne's super-duper directory... http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com

Rating: Good

8. Personalized Email Series

Here's one that many marketers don't talk about much. It's actually a secret weapon among many ofrepparttar 101197 big name marketers. You offer a freebie at your site and when your visitors claim it you are not only added to your opt-in list they are added to a series of personalized follow-up messages that you pre-program. If you write a powerful and effective series this marketing strategy can be one of your top sales producers.

Rating: Excellent

9. Ezine Advertising

Stillrepparttar 101198 one. Some people think I recommend ezine advertising because I have an ezine and I'm trying to sell my own ad space. Onrepparttar 101199 contrary, I've been trying NOT to sell my ad space forrepparttar 101200 last few years. That's why my own rates are so high! I can run my own offers or affiliate offers and make much more than I can sellingrepparttar 101201 ad space. Many other ezine editors are findingrepparttar 101202 same thing. While this has resulted in rising ezine ad costs overrepparttar 101203 last few years, one fact remains... ezine advertising is still one ofrepparttar 101204 most effective ways to get targeted traffic -- cheap. Just visit an ezine directory and search for ezines in your niche market. Subscribe to a bunch and start reading them. Look for larger circulation ezines that have a good following. If you likerepparttar 101205 content thenrepparttar 101206 thousands of other readers probably do too. Place an ad and you'll make a profit, nearly every time. Top sponsorships work best if you can swing it.

Rating: Excellent

Article by Jim Daniels of http://www.bizweb2000.com If you're interested in starting or growing a business on the Internet, Jim's sites will help you save time and money. He's been making a living online since 1996 and knows the ropes. Visit Jim and get your free help!


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