With a plan for gifting as part of cost of product you will never come up short in November or offend someone by getting a gift for one employee but not another. Gifting in terms of employees can even be figured as a part of income, like a benefit. You can even state that to your employees if it traslates into giving bonuses or extra days off with pay. But bottom line is that gifting needs to be planned, budgeted, and scheduled. When handled this way gift giving stress evaporates.

1. Why are you going to give gifts?

a.) to ensure customer loyalty b.) to build relationships c.) to create an image d.) to reward important customers e.) as a marketing strategy f.) to reduce employee turnover g.) to reward employee performance h.) to say thank you i.) insure good service by vendors j.) congratulations k.) to create goodwill

Establish what each of these areas might mean in terms of frequency. How often would you reward employees, how often would you give a gift to a vendor?

Do not confuse discounts with gifting. They are not same thing! Unless you have a product that you know recipient really wants, don't give your products as gifts. It is seen as advertising not as a gift!

Never use promotional products as gifts! These are viewed on an even lower scale! People see them as left overs from a trade show...that is NOT a good thing!

3 solid rules for gifts!

1. Do not give perishables! Apples and popcorn will be gone and forgotten in a matter of days! A beautiful picture frame will be on someones desk for years to come, Reminding them of your thoughtfulness!

What's wrong with using a web site in your online business? Why would anyone want to have a blog in their business anyway?

You can definitely continue using a website in your online business.

Combining a website and a Blog however offer a number of superior advantages in terms of traffic generation, marketing and efficiency which a stand-alone website cannot do.

(a) Automatic push-button publishing.

Blogs are easiest and cheapest way to have an online presence. For example, if you’re using Blogger, your Blog is hosted free by Blogger. Blogs allow you to publish your website without need to know about any technical or programming issues such as HTML, FrontPage, FTP and so on.

Blogs provide a simple editorial interface. All you need to do is write your content, and publish it just by clicking ‘publish’ button in most cases, and you’re done.

(b) Fosters relationship building, trust and ‘stickyness’

Unlike websites, which are static, Blogs allows interaction between you and your readers. Blogs have a commenting function, and if turned on, it allows readers and visitors to post their comments, thoughts or opinions to a particular article you have written.

Constant interaction with your readers builds a feeling of community and ‘stickyness’ factor. You can then recommend products more easily to them, and they would be more ready and willing to accept your product or services.

(c) Increase search engine ranking

Almost every major search engine has a software program called a ‘bot’ that searches or ‘spiders’ websites online to find new content which it can then bring back to update search engine databases.