Most businesses hit a slump now and then. Sometimes when your in a slump it just takes a little extra push to get sales rolling in again. I have what I call a slump file. Inside I have a list several profit generating ideas that I keep handy to help boost sales when business is slow.

But first let's talk about preventative measures you can take to help keep your slump in sales from being so hard on your bottom line.

When your in business you know that follow up is equivalent to goose that laid golden egg. You must follow up with every customer who makes a purchase or your business is dead.

A good idea is to incorporate some slump preventing measures into your follow up process. It is very simple really. When you follow up with a customer who makes a purchase just include a customer satisfaction questionnaire. Ask a few basic questions like, Is product to your satisfaction? Did you find it easy to place your order? Did you have any trouble with delivery? You get idea!

This information will allow you to improve your sales copy, customer service and ordering process. Also include your recommendation for other complementing products or a plug for your favorite affiliate program this will increase your profits in long run.

It's a good idea to start your own slump file. To get you going use some of these simple techniques to help increase your sales. As you learn more tip's and tricks you can add them to file. Keep it handy and any time sales are low instead of just staring at your computer screen refer to list to rev things up.

- Offer to give a percentage of your profits to a worthy cause. Your customers will appreciate your willingness to give and it will also make them feel good about making a purchase and helping out at same time. It could be to a favorite charity, local school, church, to help environment or endangered animals depending on your personal preference and type of business your in.

If you are familiar with advertising on Internet, you will certainly have heard about so-called Viral Traffic Generators or Startpage Programs. What do these expressions mean ?

It is a very easy concept: It makes use of fact that you can set any website as your start page. So every time you open your browser, you will be automatically forwarded to your favorite web page, you don't have to enter anything.

How You View Other People's Websites

You can set a startpage program as your startpage and a script from this site delivers hits for you. Within a frame, you view other people's websites. With most programs, you have to click on a button to view next site. You have to stay 20-30 sec. at every site before your account gets credited.

If you sign up with such a service, you have to name a site to which people will be forwarded to, once you've earned credits by viewing other sites. Usually, this will be your main site or site where you want to sign up new referrals for programs you run.

It is important that you have a members area, where you can login to make some changes to your account e.g. setting another site as your main site.

Which Traffic Generators Should You Sign Up For ?

There are several points which have to be considered when signing up for such a service (in order of importance):

============================================= 1.) Which ratio does service offer ? =============================================

You should only join programs that give you at least a 3:1 ratio. This means, for every 3 websites you view, you'll get one hit to your own site. Anything less than that takes too long to deliver hits. It goes without saying that a 1:1 ratio is best you can get.

============================================= 2.) How fast does service deliver hits back to your site? =============================================

If you have to wait days or weeks before you get hits delivered which you've earned, it would not make any sense to join such a program. It should not take longer than a few hours to deliver hits to your site.

Be sure to check statistics of your website often to be able to recognize speed of startpage program or if they deliver any hits at all. You have to look in section "referrer" of your statistics.

============================================= 3.) How many credits do you get from new referrals ? =============================================

Viral Traffic means traffic from you AND from people who join under you. So, if you sign up other people, you get hits delivered from their surf-sessions as well (usually about 10% of hits they generate).

Multiple levels guarantee that you not only get credits from persons you personally signed up but you'll also get credits from people THEY sign up ! This can be, with some programs, up to 6 levels deep...