The Consultants Blog

For your business to succeed, it’s helpful to prepare an effective written business plan. It is also important that you identify and take advantage of all available resources in order for your business to grow optimally. Among these are technical and Internet resources. There are also those intangible resources which go to the very nature of the business and relate to how the owner views the business, employees, customers and suppliers .

1.Technical Resources

Of course, you cannot build an online business without basic Internet resources such as a computer and Internet Service Provider. The computer is one of the essential tools you’ll need to build and maintain an online presence. Through your computer, you will be able to create and store important files and information you need for your business, and particularly to analyze the marketing strategies used.

However, your computer will not be very useful if tour company isn’t online. If you want to create a business website, you need to have constant Internet access. For this, an Internet Service Provider a critical component. There are many ISPs to choose from, and you may be able to package this service with others involving communication.

Another Internet resource you will need is application software, because it will enable you to add different necessary functions, such as online forms, autoresponders, shopping carts, and much more. Depending upon the nature of your business, you may want to include some sophisticated programs as well.

2. Internet Resources

As soon as you get online, you can take advantage of an extensive variety of business tools and Internet resources available. Whether using the paid or free versions, Internet resources will be helpful in making your business more profitable and efficient. Among these are:

a. Search engines
You may not realize it, but there is more to Google and other search engines than simply their search function. Google has created a large suite of useful resources. By using Google, you will be able to gain access to a wide range of incredible tools and resources that you can use to maintain or improve your business. Besides free e-mail accounts, Google offers site statistics, PPC affiliate programs and advertising such as Adwords, a free blogging platform, VoIP, payment processing, and much more.

b. Discussion forums
Participating in an Internet marketing forum will be helpful because the members will be business oriented, tend to have knowledge of Internet resources and can provide you with the training and knowledge necessary to grow your business. You’ll be exposed to strategies and useful tips from successful Internet marketers and online business people. Questions can be posted to the forum and more experienced members will provide you with answers that are usually based on their experiences.

c. Article Directories
Article directories are a great resource. These directories contain thousands of articles that may be useful in helping you to create content for your own site. If you think you are knowledgeable enough to write an interesting piece, you can submit your own publications to these directories. This is a good way to drive traffic to your site.

d. Membership Sites
These sites tend to have lots of tools and resources for their members. Aside from providing basic information, they also offer helpful bonuses such as articles, e-books, software, and reports. It’s also a place to connect with others having he same interests.

e. Social Networking Sites
Social networking has exploded over the last two years, and is a very big avenue for making money online. Savvy advertisers are now looking to Facebook fan pages and Twitter to acquire customers. These sites allow you to meet hundreds or thousands of people that can help you to get the word out about your business. Some of them may end up being your customers or leads, while others can help by sharing their expertise.

3. Intangible Resources

Aside from the obvious tangible business strategies, an Internet entrepreneur also needs intangible resources to make an Internet business successful. One of these is a good reputation. If your business is reputable, it will be easier to succeed. Your good reputation will help you gain the support that you need from your customers, vendors, employees.

You also need to manage your business and its assets well. Those you work with must be competent, qualified workers with the appropriate training to be capable of doing whatever tasks are required.

It seems obvious that in order to work efficiently, we should tackle the most urgent tasks first. But sometimes it isn’t easy to know what the most urgent task is. Remember the 80/20 – that 20 percent of your time will be spent creating 80 percent of the income. Concentrate on what will produce cash flow, and delegate or leave secondary tasks for later.

Automate whenever possible. There are a wide range of Internet resources that help you to do just that. The tricky part is determining which ones work, and which are a waste of money and time. That’s one of the many things we well be mentioning on this blog. Not only will we review and analyze products and services, but we will even describe how to use them.

Procrastination often occurs because we’re uncertain or don’t know what to do. There are times when having too many choices creates confusion. By understanding the benefits and features of Internet resources, it’s easier to select the most appropriate choice for your situation.

As new products come on the market, the nature of Internet marketing changes, and changes quickly. Keep up to date by checking back frequently for news of Internet resources that will increase productivity as well as your profits.

I imagine that everyone has that feeling at one time or another. Where has the time gone? It’s easy to start the day with a plan but then, little by little, find yourself off track. Distractions are commonplace in a busy work environment.

But there are useful Internet resources to help you monitor your time and get the most out of your day. Time keeper software such as Time-Tracker or WorkTime lets you see how your time is actually spent. Once you have a clear picture, it’s easier to make those changes that could have an impact on your productivity.

It’s also helpful to prepare a written daily and weekly schedule of priorities. This could be a detailed ‘to do’ list or a project outline broken into tasks. Whatever you decide to use, create an action plan to follow by taking advantage of the splendid resources the Internet offers.

Having access to and using the right Internet resources and tools can make the difference between success and failure for a business. Imagine being able to automate tasks (especially repetitive tasks), easily contact clients and customers, analyze data, attend meetings without leaving your office, and so much more. Saving time also means saving money.

In the coming posts, we’re going to show you how to use Internet resources to increase productivity and improve profits. With all the tools and information available online today, trying to sort through and make sense of the choices can become overwhelming. We’ll name the best products and services available, with emphasis on those that are free or inexpensive.

By taking advantage of the wide range of Internet resources available, your projects can be more easily managed, tracked, completed on time, and within budget. The faster you can automate key activities, the more momentum you can generate. And the more you’ll get done.

There is a bewildering array of tools available on the Internet to help you manage and run your business more effectively. The big question then becomes how do you know which ones to use? Which resources will work extraordinarily well, and which are a waste of time? The answer to that question depends upon your business activities and what you’re trying to do.

The first thing you might want to consider is which tasks can be automated easily. By doing this, you’ve eliminated a lot of repetitive effort. Find a device that can do the work for you, set it, and move on to the next activity. An obvious example is using an autoresponder. If you have a series of e-mails to send to a group of people, this is the way to go.

There are more online tools than you can imagine which will help you stay organized. You’ll find calendars, maps, notepads, programs designed to let you share information, programs that make it easy to communicate, and the list goes on. Just select the ones with the features you need. I have my own favorites, which include VoIP.

In fact, there are so many online resources that you may find yourself buying things you don’t actually need or buying where there is a free item that’s as good as the paid version. We have compiled a document that contains this information, so you can find the best of the best described in one place – a real time saver.

Consider why you want to use specific tools, and whether they are user friendly. If it’s going to take you weeks or months to learn how to use something, perhaps that’s a task that would be better (and less expensively) outsourced. There’s nothing wrong with learning to use tools that will advance your business, but it’s smart to assess the most effective approach to take. It might be a better use of your time to delegate something of this sort to another member of your staff while you work on business strategies, or activities that only you can do.

Use resources that will save you time. Busy people need to get things done quickly. This includes scheduling meetings, attending meetings, sharing information and collaborating with associates. Save time, and you’ve saved yourself money since you’ll be able to get more accomplished and grow your business more quickly.

Today I want to briefly touch on a few Internet marketing techniques you can use to generate increased profits for your business. There’s nothing tricky about this, and the goal is to generate targeted organic traffic for a product or service your visitor is looking for, as opposed to using pay-per-click or some other paid activity.

The first thing you’ll need is a web site (with your own domain name), a blog, or both. If you’re going to sell an individual product, choose a name that contains your keywords, if possible. Search engines give a higher ranking to those sites that contain your specific keywords. For example, if you’re selling green giblets, try to get that phrase in your domain name. It’s not always available, however.

Whether it’s your own product or an affiliate item or service, having your own site allows you to build a relationship with your target market. You’ll want to have a way for people who visit to opt-in to your mailing list, so you can continue to send them information about your products or services. Your e-mails should provide the reader with value, and not simply constant promotion. If you’re always selling, you’ll wind up with a very small list.

You may find someone with a complementary product or service, and determine that mailing to each other’s lists is quite profitable. This gives you the opportunity to get in front of a whole new group of visitors. Joint venturing allows you to leverage a list you don’t own and profit from it. This is a great way to communicate with those who have expressed interest in your site.

Along with this, webinars are a popular way to connect with your audience. These are simply online seminars on almost any topic, and are effective because you can host a free webinar for your subscribers that demonstrate how you’ll provide value to them. This is where you can go into detail about the benefits of your offer rather than just concentrating on features.

You won’t want to overlook article marketing. Compose some interesting content and submit it to the leading article directories. A resource box with a link to your site is an important part of this process. With this, those who read your article will know who wrote it and know where to find additional information.

The same can be done with videos and podcasts. Create interesting content and get it out so it can be found. This also positions you as an expert when you are found on lots of places online. This also creates the all important backlinks to increase your ranking in the search engines.

So whatever it is you’re promoting online, if you put some effort into Internet marketing, and follow the steps mentioned above, remembering to optimize your pages for keywords, this will go a long way to getting the results you’re looking for. There’s certainly much more to be done to create good page rankings, but with experience, it’s possible to get good results.

Instead of writing about general business practices today, I wanted to take a few minutes to discuss a particularly useful tool I access constantly. Many probably wouldn’t think of this as a ‘tool’ per se, but it enhances communication in so many ways. Perhaps you’ve already guessed that I’m referring to Voice over Internet Protocol, or as it’s usually known, VoIP.

VoIP is an advanced way of communicating, with voices travelling over Internet lines. It’s most popularly used in conjunction with your computer or digital phone. In fact, there are even phones made specifically for VoIP. But all you really need is a good microphone and speakers. Newer computers have these features built in, to make it easy to take advantage of this popular technology.

A good example of this technology is Skype, one of the most widely used programs. Google has also come up with its own version, dubbed Google Talk. Then there’s Gizmo, I Connect Here, and a range of similar programs. Many go beyond the voice segment, and provide instant messaging, video, and related capabilities.

One of the big drawbacks to VoIP, and perhaps the only one for most people, is that most companies won’t provide access for emergency assistance numbers. So some people drop their land line to the most basic level, or have a cell phone for just those situations, and eliminate their land line altogether. Using VoIP is usually significantly cheaper than a traditional phone line.

The other concern is that if your power goes out, your VoIP is also gone. So a ‘back up’ phone is really a necessity, but again, it can be a cell phone or traditional land line with the most basic service.

Some services are free when both parties are using the same provider. And some services allow for conferencing and sending files, making it easy and quick to exchange information. The proper use of this technology could be a real savings to any business.

The last post mentioned five ways to generate targeted Internet traffic for your web site. Today I’m going to concentrate on article marketing. This is one of the best ways to advertise because it gets your site visibility while branding you as an expert in your field. If you can’t write or don’t have the time, you can easily outsource this task.

Article marketing is straightforward and relatively simple. You write an article in the niche you’re working in, and then distribute it to article directories. How does this get you noticed? Well, if your content is really good and you have enough of it online, you’ll have visibility. People crave content, and sites with content most relevant content to what is being searched for get the highest ratings, particularly if they have lots of back links from ‘authority’ sites.

Two of the best places to post are Ezine Articles and Go Articles. Ezine Articles has an excellent reputation for posting quality content, and although it may take a few days to show up in their system, it’s worth the extra time and effort.
They also present ‘expert’ status to those writers who consistently turn in good writing, and these articles are posted much more quickly. Using Go Articles, you can appear in their directory within minutes. By concentrating your writing in one subject area, you can seem to be an authority reasonably quickly.

Have a product or service in mind to promote. Perhaps you’re doing affiliate marketing and selling someone else’s product or service (if you don’t have one of your own). Create a blog, either using WordPress or one of the free blogging services available, such as Blogger. With the free service, you won’t even need to pay for hosting. Can’t get easier — or cheaper –than that.

Write a product review with a link to whatever it is you’re promoting. That way, your readers can find it and determine whether it’s something they may want. Make your copy interesting and thoughtful, and write with integrity. Then pen an article about the problem that product or service will solve, and include the resource box. The resource box should be brief, but contain a few words about the author and a link for the site where the product was reviewed.

Tha, in a nutshell, is all you need to do. You can modify this process to suit the specific needs of a particular situation. But the ‘game plan’ is to create articles with links to your site and then distribute these among the top article directories. The more you write, the more links you’ll have — and the greater the chance of being found and read.

As you can see, this is a relatively inexpensive way to get visitors. You can write an article fairly quickly or outsource it for a few dollars. Remember to put your keywords in the title and in at least the first paragraph. However, don’t get carried away — you don’t want to be ‘keyword stuffing’, which will have a negative impact.

Think about the purpose behind what you’re doing and write to that. By writing consistently, you’ll soon build up a collection of work that will get you noticed and will generate ‘organic’ traffic without having to buy it.

There is one hard and fast rule in generating income for your site — a steady flow of web traffic. If no one goes to your site, it hardly stands a chance of generating an income. Many sites have tried and failed to do this, which leads to the sorry end of that site. It takes some money and resources to maintain an income generating site.  But it also takes money to make money.

However, it doesn’t take a whole truckload of cash to generate traffic for your site. Ever wonder how the “big boys” drive traffic to their sites?  Most of them are spending tons of money to do this, investing in advertising campaigns including pay per click, article marketing, and related forms of marketing. This is all worthwhile because if it wasn’t they wouldn’t be doing it.  And they are definitely making money.

Unless you have the resources, you shouldn’t be doing this. There are other ways to generate low cost website traffic without having to spend what you don’t have or can’t afford. Many people have banked on high cost methods and have ended up losing their shirts. I’ve presented a few ways to generate low cost web traffic that could help your site gain traction. Even if your conversion numbers are low,  this will still be useful in driving targeted traffic.

• Exchange Links

This is a sure and proven method. Rarely would you see a site where there is no link to another site. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with one another to produce more awareness about their sites. You’ll soon see and feel the sudden upsurge of the traffic coming in to your site from other sites. A major prerequisite in exchanging links with other sites is having a similar niche or content as the site you want to exchange with. They should share a common subject so that there is continuity in the providing of service and information to what interests your target traffic.

Exchanging links also boosts your chances of getting a high ranking in search engine results. It is common knowledge that search engines ranks high sites that have inbound and outbound theme-related links. With a good ranking position in the search engines, you will generate more traffic on your website without the high costs.

• Traffic Exchange

This is like link exchange, but on a higher level. This may cost a bit more than exchanging or trading links but could be made cheaper because you get to earn credits. You can use those credits when viewing others traffic, while you earn credits when someone views yours. Traffic exchange services involve the viewing of another site or domain. This can be done mutually, where a site will use your sites’ contents with the understanding that an exchange can be made. You both benefit from each others’ efforts to generate traffic. The other site’s visitors can go to your pages and find out more about your site as well as theirs. Once again, the public awareness of your site’s existence is boosted.

• Write and Submit Articles

There are many e-zines and online encyclopedias throughout the Internet which provides free space for articles to be submitted. In fact, they welcome content.  To save money, write the article yourself.  If that’s too difficult, there are a number freelance writers who will write the articles for you for a small fee. Write articles that are themed to the niche of your site. Write something that you have expertise in so that anyone reading it can feel your knowledge about the subject and will be anxious to visit your site.  Articles that contain tips and guidelines on the subject or niche your site has may be popular. Include a resource box at the end of your article linking to your site. Write a brief bio and site summary. If you provide a light, information-packed, interesting article, they will go to your site for more.

• Prepare a Newsletter

This may sound like hard work because of all the articles you may need to gather or write to build a newsletter.  However, there are many writers and sites that are willing to provide free articles as long as they can get their name in on your newsletter. This will also provide free advertising for them as well. As your newsletter gets pass around, you can widen awareness about your site and build an opt-in list of regular visitors.

• Join Online Communities and Forums

This only requires your time and nothing else. You can share your knowledge and expertise with several online communities as well as subtly promote your website. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche as your site. Share your two cents and let them see how knowledgeable you are about your subject. As your build your reputation, you also build the reputation of your site, giving your visitors the feeling that you’re running an honest business that can be frequented and trusted. These principles have been used to great effect on <a href=”http://www.ebooks-in-abundance.com/”>this ebook website</a>. Start using these principles today and you, too, will generate low cost website traffic.

A customer walks into the store, browses through products and shelves, picks up items, inspects, considers the prices, chooses a product and takes it to the cash register to pay.  If your looking to do any online selling, however, then your site must be enabled for e-commerce.  This means having the following features if you want to give your visitors an enjoyable shopping experience:

• You need to provide plenty of content and product description, such as sizes, dimensions, colors and comparisons with similar products. This will allow the customer to choose a product, get accurate pricing and shipping costs, complete the transaction and get an order number, and/or invoice confirmation via email. Allow your customer to choose a shipping method.
• You must tell the customer if the item is in stock or delivered against order. Ideally, you should have an email contact or live help to answer any customer questions.  Most importantly — you must respond quickly.   If you want to provide your own live chat and help desk services on your website, specialized software is available.
• Be sure your ‘customer service’ links are large and clearly marked, so your client does not have to dig around to find information.
• Provide an ‘about us’ section or a section about your policies. If you have privacy statements and customer satisfaction policies, your customer will feel better about shopping in your store.
• You probably want to have testimonials from customers on the storefront page, to let your prospective clients know that others are pleased with your service.
• Provide a FAQ section with information about your return policies, guarantees, shipping prices and insurance charges, if any.
• You can offer a print catalogue if some of your customers prefer to order from one and shop in the privacy of their homes.
• Do not annoy your customers by presenting products that are marked ‘sold’ or pages that say ‘under construction’ or ‘coming soon’.
• Add new content frequently, so your returning customers will not be bored by seeing the same products they saw four months ago.
• If your site has got a date tag or has current references, be careful to change these references frequently so you don’t give the perception that nobody is attending or reading your site.

If your visitors find browsing your Website a pleasant and uncomplicated experience they will come back time and again.  Repeat visitors results in repeat purchases which will ultimately give you higher profits.