Product Marketing for Internet Based Home BusinessesWritten by Paul Jesse
Copyright 2005 Paul JesseAll small business owners, especially those internet based, are concerned about product marketing and how to increase traffic to their web pages in order to increase sales. In addition, most want to not only market their products and increase traffic, but they want to do it affordable or free if at all possible. Fortunately, this is an option for home businesses, and all it takes is a little creativity combined with dedication. Also, for those businesses with advertising budgets, there are even more advertising options available. The following suggestions should help your product marketing plan significantly. Use ezines and newsletters to get your web page noticed. This might not sound like something you would be skilled at doing, but it can easily be done with a couple hours and some commitment. First, you need to find some ezines and newsletters that target your niche market. Then, write an article that can be submitted to a variety of ezines and online newsletters, just make sure you retain copyright. At end of your article create a resource box that contains your URL and some brief information about your company. Doing this will get your web page out in public quickly and will result in many hits and free product marketing. Another way to market your products is to create a forum on your web page. By doing this, you are getting individuals to talk about products and services offered by your company as well as competitors and other relevant topics. This alone will help your product assuming you are offering top notch quality and customer service. If not, then a forum might not be best idea for you. However, for those that are committed to their customers, forums generally create repeat traffic which is important to making sales. This is important because it has been proven that more than 70% of sales are made after third, fourth or fifth contact. A forum keeps individuals coming back for more and more contact, which means you will sell more products.
| | Reselling - Money On The SideWritten by Anthony Vita
Copyright 2005 Anthony VitaThe other night I had dinner with a friend who mentioned knowing quite a few people needing websites for their local businesses. Despite being a software engineer, my friend is not a web designer nor does he know enough about servers to actually host (store) websites. On other hand, he suspected there was a way to translate contacts into some money on side. That's when I told him about reselling. Reselling is basically business of selling web space that is already established by a web space provider (known as a host). A host sells you their space and, in turn, you sell it to your client. This arrangement is like buying at wholesale and selling at retail prices. It's also like subletting an apartment for more than your own rent. In terms of websites, ideal reseller scenario is one where you buy web space at a low enough rate so you can sell it to your client at your own price and make a profit. More specifically, if you purchase a web hosting plan for $5 per month and sell it to your client for $15 per month, you are making a 200% profit instantly each month. Who wouldn't like spending $5 in order to make $10 profit? Ten such arrangements bring in around $100 per month or $1,200 per year. Sounds like easy money on side. But what exactly is required of a reseller? This article isn't meant to provide quick ways to simply make money off your friends and business contacts. It's a legitimate way to provide them with something they need for a fair price. While you need to have a basic knowledge of what a host does, you won't have all of answers, not a first. This is where experience and professionalism of your host comes into play. For instance, if your client has questions about setting up an email account, you need to respond in a timely manner with answer. If you don’t know answer to a support issue raised by a client, this is where you host can assist you. I have seen roles of resellers vary depending on host. One host may have direct contact with your clients and answer all their questions. This could be dangerous for you (the reseller) as one day your clients may wind up a direct client of host and leave you out of arrangement completely. More commonly, web host has no dealings with your clients at all. The host bills and supports you (the reseller) and, in turn, you bill and support your clients. If your clients have a problem you can either handle it directly with them or, if you're not sure of solution, you can ask host who will take care of it for you. Once you have been reselling for a while you will likely notice two things. First, you will find that clients ask most questions early on. Once your clients have been setup and their site is running smoothly, you probably won’t hear from them much. Secondly, after you field some of more common support questions from clients and see how your host handles them, you will soon be resolving many issues on your own.
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