For many direct sales consultants and other home business owners, September marks the start of their busy season. For some it may be the time to gear up for holiday sales and for others it’s simply a time to refocus and work harder after a more laid-back summer. Whatever the reason, here are some tips to help you handle a more hectic season:

1. Make a plan. A good plan is the basis of a successful busy season. It helps you prepare for the sudden increase in customers and orders and gives you a concrete system to follow when things seem overwhelming. Think back to previous years to incorporate what worked and improve on what didn’t work.

2. Consider hiring help. Small business owners are sometimes reluctant to hire help because it cuts into profit. But often, it has the opposite effect. When you can get more done you can make more sales.

3. Use all your available resources. If possible, let your direct sales company or wholesale distributor drop ship to your customers. If you’re packing and shipping yourself, use online shipping services and have the packaged picked up to save time driving the post office or shipping store and standing in line. Even fifteen minutes saved here and there can be a big help.

4. Don’t be afraid to say no. You may have to turn away some customers. It’s better to be honest and turn away orders that you won’t be able to fulfill than to take orders and not deliver. Make sure you cut off holiday orders early enough to get them all shipped and delivered in plenty of time.

5. Keep communicating with your customers. Even though business may be hectic, customer service should continue to be a priority. Be sure to address the needs of all your customers. If you have problems fulfilling an order or it’s delayed, notify your customer right away and offer an alternative. Customers will understand that problems occur and are much more likely to be forgiving when you communicate openly with them.

Your busy season is an exciting and hectic time that can also be very stressful. With a good plan system in place, you can make it through relatively calmly and profitably.

by Ben Johnson

Once upon a time your sales were good and you were very happy with your website, but then things changed and for some unknown reason your sales declined. Even though you are still getting traffic from search engines through the same keywords, but still your bounce rate is increasing and conversion rate is decreasing.

Well, it’s about time you revamp your website.

Long gone are the days when people actually tried to dig and find the required information. Now, people want things fast. They need access to the required information and products fast. So, you need to design your website accordingly and make it fast.

Recently Designed Your Website?

Even if you have recently designed your website, if it’s too crowded with hundreds of links and pictures and unorganized content, then you need to revamp your website as well.

Here is the Big Question:

Now, the question is: How to revamp your website to get the desired results?

There are several factors that make a website successful. Let’s discuss them here now:

Your Business Website Must Depict Your Business Model:

Let’s say you are searching for electronic equipment and you Google some keywords to find relevant websites. You then click on a few links. You then come across a website with pink color and pictures of clowns. Your instant reaction will be that you have visited an irrelevant site. The same thing will happen to you if you fail to convey your business model via your web design. Don’t make your visitors pause and think, “Ok…So, where have I come?”

Keep in View the Mood / Tone of Your Business when You Design Your Website:

There should be a clear difference between a site selling toys and a site selling surgical equipment. Hence, you need to evaluate your business and your target market first and then create your web design accordingly.

Don’t Make Your Visitors Wonder How You Have Organized All the Information or Products:

Your website navigation should be easy to use and it should look clean as well. Having links everywhere will only make your visitors wonder what to do and where to go. They may also have trouble finding the desired information. So, prevent them from getting a headache by providing easy and user-friendly navigation. This will also decrease your bounce rate.19

Create a Powerful Business Identity:

Make sure you create a professional and attractive logo design to create your business identity in an effective manner. Without a logo, your business will be faceless and your website will be incomplete. So, make sure that you hire a professional logo designer to build your business image.

So, folks, these are some powerful tips that will allow you to revamp your website in a professional way.

Article by ben
Ben Johnson is the Alliance Manager at Logoinn, a custom logo design company. He writes about the effect of design on marketing and brand identity and helps small businesses find design solutions for effective marketing.

by Ben Johnson

Different people may have different ways of answering this question that how a perfect business website can be defined. Is it a website that is helping you make a living from home? Is it a website that is not only helping you, but also helping dozens of your employees earn bread and butter? There is no need to debate here. However, one thing is for sure that you have to have a realistic plan when you launch your website.

What do I mean by realistic plan? If you are launching your small business, then in the beginning you should focus on establishing it and making enough money to make a living. Once you achieve this, you should move on and grow your business even further. So, we can say that a perfect business website grows smoothly.

Now, there should be some characteristics of a perfect business website that will actually make it perfect and help you make a living from home or your personal office. Without powerful characteristics, your website won’t perform well.

So, let’s discuss what these characteristics are that will make your website a perfect business website:

Your Website Must Be Visually Appealing:

How will people determine your taste for quality? Well, they will check out your website and conclude whether you are a true professional or not. Your website represents you. Your website tells your audience why you should be chosen over your competitors. Your website tells your market you believe in providing quality information, products or services. However, to achieve all this, you need to have a visually appealing website.

Your Website Must Present All the Benefits Concisely:

Your market won’t buy from you if they don’t know why they should buy from you. Thus, you must write benefit-oriented content to convert visitors into customers. You should clearly discuss the benefits that your products and services offer. You should also explain what unique quality you have and why your business is perfect for them. It’s advisable to hire a professional copywriter to write your web copy, because it’s the content that converts.

Your Website Must Be User-Friendly:

Your website navigation either retains your visitors or makes them go away. If your visitors are unable to acquire the desired information easily, then they won’t waste their time on your website, they will go straight to one of your competitors. Website navigation is one of the most vital elements of successful websites. Also, it should be similar on all pages.

Your Website Must Engage Your Visitors:

Communicate with your visitors instead of providing information in dry manner. You won’t be able to engage your visitors and make them stay on your website if you don’t write compelling content. Talk to your visitors and tell them what they should do.

So…These are just some of the elements you must consider when you design your website to make it a perfect business website. Each element plays a powerful role and you can’t afford to neglect them.

Article by ben
Ben Johnson is the Alliance Manager at Logoinn, a custom logo design company. He writes about the effect of design on marketing and brand identity and helps small businesses find design solutions for effective marketing.

Image courtesy of Search Engine People Blog.

We all know people for whom success just seems to come easy. We might think they have a special skill or talent that makes success come easy for them. Or perhaps they’re just lucky. In reality, success is not an accident; it takes work to achieve it. But there are traits or characteristics that many successful people seem to have in common. Some of these key traits are:

1. Goal oriented. Successful people are able to look forward to their goals, even when they are hit by setbacks. They know where they going and continue to work to get there.
2. Persistence. It’s not that successful people don’t fail, it’s that they don’t give up when they fail. They keep going and keep trying until they make it.
3. Self-awareness. To be successful, you need to know what you’re good at and what your weaknesses are. That way you can exploit your positives and overcome your weaknesses.
4. Positive thinking. If we fill our minds with positive thought, we eventually start thinking more positively. Believing you are good at what you’re doing and can accomplish your goals, you’re going to try harder and longer to get them.
5. Creative thinking. In order to make yourself known, you have to do something different. That will require you to be creative – through product and service ideas, marketing, customer support, or even in how you organize your office.

You may be thinking that you don’t have most of these traits. That doesn’t mean you can’t become successful. The good news is that you can change and develop these traits in yourself. As George Sheehan (author and physician) said, “Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.”

I usually don’t complain about it. I have good systems in place to deal with it. But the other day I tweeted about being tired of it.

 
Spam!

It’s costly, annoying, time-consuming, and frustrating. It can shut down a website or email server. And it doesn’t appear it’s going to go away any time soon.

In our brief Twitter conversation about it, one of my friends suggested that we should all report spammers.

 
Shelly and I often agree on things, but in this case, I have to disagree. Reporting spammers is just not worth my time and energy. In most cases, I don’t believe that reporting it will result in any real action against the spammer, so I don’t bother.

I came across a blog post today that clarified some things about the spam comments I’m getting (they aren’t spambots; real people come by and post them), explains some of the reasons why they’ll continue, and confirms some of my reasons for not taking time to report it. Take a couple minutes to read it and you’ll see why I feel that way: Why blog and comment spam isn’t going away.

Steve’s research uncovered something I’ve always suspected. It can be very lucrative for the people who actually place the spam comments or circulate the email. And many of those people are outside the jurisdiction of any “officials” who would be in the position to do anything about it. Again, that’s one of the main reasons I don’t report.

So what do I do about spam? I use tools to combat it and I try not to use up much time and energy on the spam that gets through. Delete works much faster than trying to track down the source to report it.

For comment spam I use the standard WordPress plugins, Akismet and Bad Behavior, and they do a very good job of blocking and moderating spam comments. If you need more help, you might want to try the plugins mentioned in, How to Stop Blog Comment Spam

These articles contain my recommendations for tools to help combat email spam:

• Stop Wasting Time on Spam
• Will Bontrager on Email, Spam, and Mailing Lists
• Stop Wasting Your Time
• SpamStopping.com

There are some instances where I would take the time to report. One is if the spam is originating from one of my sites because it’s been hacked. And the other is if I’m bombarded with spam coming from one source. In both cases swift action is necessary to save my business.

Of course for some people, reporting spam is in itself gratifying. If it eases your frustration and gives you a sense that you’re doing something about it, then by all means, report away. Please just be careful to report spam and not inadvertently report legitimate email and comments. Being falsely accused can be quite damaging too.

How about you? Please leave your comments on this post. Report or not? If you report, have you seen any results from reporting? How do you combat blog comment spam?

Here are answers to questions you, our blog readers have asked about our blog theme, features, and practices.

Is the blog theme your own design?

It’s a free theme from WooThemes that we customized by adding our own header and colors and tweaking a few other things to our liking.
 

What hosting company do you use?

This site is hosted at LiquidWeb (affiliate link). I also recommend MomWebs (affiliate link).
 

How did you add the social bookmarking links to your posts?

It’s a plugin called Sociable.
 

Can I subscribe to your posts by email?

Yes you can click here to subscribe by email. The RSS feed can be found here.
 

Will you print my articles on your blog?

We welcome guest posts on topics specifically related to direct sales party plans and topics that clearly apply to that industry, even if they don’t specifically address it. We ask that submitted articles are original articles that have not been posted elsewhere (after we publish them you can submit them elsewhere).

We also use free content from time to time so if you write on the topic of direct sales party plans you can send me the link to your articles in an online directory and I’ll take a look to see if I can use any of them.
 

Can I use your article (or part of it) on my blog?

Most of the articles posted on our blog are not available for reprint. Please feel free to contact us to request a specific article and we’ll be happy to consider giving permission when possible. (Please do not request reprints through a blog comment. Use our contact page.)

Here are Linda’s articles that are available for reprint:

If you care to comment on, criticize, or debate something we’ve posted here by writing about it in your own blog, we welcome the discussion. In that case, of course we don’t mind if you quote a sentence or two from our post, as long as you give us credit. And a link back to the original post is appreciated. If your post and blog is relevant we’re happy to have the trackback added to our post.
 
 
Feel free to ask your questions by posting a comment or by contacting us and we’ll be happy to answer them.
 
Note: From time to time we add questions and answers to this post so please check back from time to time for new information. Last updated June 21, 2010.

A common comment that we receive at MomWebs.com is this “Why I would want to pay for hosting when I can get a free blog?”

We normally answer that question with a question of our own “What is the difference between renting and owning your home?”

Whether you’re blogging for fun or profit – or both, you’ll be pouring time and love into your creation. Do you want to own your blog and everything on it? Or would you rather just rent it and let someone else control how it’s treated, how long it stays online, and what kinds of limitations are placed upon you?

Me? I want to own my blog. I want to have 100% rights to my creation – whether it’s a personal blog with pictures of my puppies or whether it’s a blog that I’ve set up to make money.

Can you imagine owning a house and having someone come by and say “Ma’am… you can’t paint your bathroom that color. And, we can’t allow you to have a Tupperware party, either. Oh, and by the way, we’ll be moving your home in the next 24 hours and all of your addresses will need to be changed.”

You’d be thinking “No WAY!”

While that’s a long list of “What if’s” – all of those things can happen when you are using a free service. I certainly would not recommend that anyone build a business on a free blog.

Now, I’m sure you’re thinking that’s all well and good, but how the heck does it work? And, that’s where a good web host like MomWebs.com comes in to save the day. Not only do they offer email support, but you can pick up the phone and leave a message day or night and they’ll call you back.

Just go to MomWebs and look for the link that says “Blog Installation”. They’ll set up your blog for you and you’ll be set to go with a blog that you own today, tomorrow, and in 10 years for your kids to look at.

All you need is an idea and the desire to blog for fun or profit or both. We wish you the best – with whatever you decide.

Nicole Dean & Kelly McCausey love helping moms to earn money online without struggling and making mistakes like they did. Both women have been mentoring potential online business owners in the work at home mom community for many years. MomWebs.com was created to help work at home moms to overcome the technical hurdles that may be preventing them from sharing themselves with the online world. Check out the free training at MomWebs.com

All links in this post are affiliate links (Why tell?)

The Business Opportunity Connection launched five years ago today, February 19th.
To celebrate, I have a few gifts for you. (Sorry, the gifts are no longer available.)

The very first post on this blog was simply a welcome and introduction and then several days later the first direct sales tip was posted – a tip that still applies today.

Welcome to iRepNetwork’s Business Opportunity Connection
Posted on February 19, 2005 by Linda Stacy

The Business Opportunity Connection will provide news and information about home based business opportunities and tips on building your network marketing team.

iRepNetwork’s communication service provides a unique way to connect with potential team members online. We’d like to go a step further and help you build on that connection by becoming an information source to help business owners build a better team and help business seekers make a better choice.

Please check back regularly and feel free to add your comments so we can get some good discussions going.

Enjoy,
~ Linda

Shared goals make good teams
Posted on February 25, 2005 by Linda Stacy

When looking for a network marketing sponsor, look for someone who shares your goals. She doesn’t have to already be where you want to go, but if she’s moving in the same direction she can share her successes and failures with you to help you get there. If you have a common goal it will be easier to work together and stay motivated.

And find out what your sponsor does to help her downline meet their goals. Does she provide any special training or hold team meetings? Ask about her team & how many other people has she sponsored; how many are still active; how many have reached higher sales levels or build their own teams?

Finding a mentor who shares your goals will help keep you motivated and successful.

This is what the blog looked like back then. I remember being so proud that I had figured out how to change the color of the default WordPress theme.

I had been online for about 3 years before launching the Business Opportunity Connection. Before blogging, I frequented message boards and chat rooms for Work at Home Moms and belonged to a couple of Yahoo Groups where we discussed business via email. Twitter was basically unheard of and Facebook was still just for college students.

Things have changed quite a bit in five years, but there’s one thing I work really hard to keep the same – I always do my best to offer quality tips and resources to help you choose your direct sales business and market it online.

Let’s celebrate! Here are your gifts:

March 1, 2010 – Sorry… the gifts are no longer available. Please click here to find our special reports, including some free reports.

I look forward to connecting with you for another 5 years!

Image courtesy of petesimon.

All kinds of products and services come with a guarantee, but some guarantees aren’t really what they seem. Adrian Jock exposes “the truth about guaranteed hits” in his article below. It’s the kind of examination we should all do before making a buying decision based on a guarantee. And it got me thinking about other guarantees.

I won’t even go into the madness of guaranteed income for online business opportunities. That’s a whole article in and of itself and hopefully by now we all understand the impossibility of that guarantee.

Another common guarantee that many online business owners come across is guaranteed uptime for website hosting. The guarantee makes it sound like a promise that your website will be available 99.5% or even 99.9% of the time. But the hosting company is really guaranteeing is that they’ll credit or refund part of your hosting fees if they don’t maintain that level of service. Personally, I stand to lose more than a few dollars if my site is down for any length of time, so I look for actual uptime statistics rather than guarantees.

When making purchase decisions of any kind, a guarantee may be an important feature. Just be sure you understand what it means. Read Adrian’s article to understand guaranteed hits and please leave your comments and questions.

Email Marketing – The Truth About Guaranteed Hits
By Adrian Jock

Since no traffic equals no sales, hits to his website is the goal of any email marketer. However, many email marketing campaigns fail by delivering few clicks. The reason is simple: this type of marketing is not that easy. You need an attention grabbing subject line, a good ad copy and more. What if someone guarantees you hits?

All hard work is simply skipped. The prospects land on your salesletter without you wasting your time on copywriting and testing. Doesn’t sound great? Yes, it would be nice, but… how true (and effective) are those guaranteed clicks on your link?

Let’s see. So what actually means to get guaranteed hits? Well… No matter how bad my subject line is, no matter what I write in the ad copy, no matter anything, someone (let’s call it from now on the seller) will make his opt-in subscribers click on my link. Wonderful! But how can the seller “force” his subscribers click on my link?

Maybe his subscribers are all dumb. Maybe they don’t do anything all day long but wait for the seller to send emails so that to click on the links from the emails and make happy the seller and the advertisers. How does this sound? Quite unreal, right?

Then… if the subscribers are not dumb but they still click on links no matter how bad and not attractive is an ad copy, then it means that there is something the advertiser doesn’t know… What can it be? An incentive for subscribers! Something to make them click on links, no matter the content of the email. In comparison with the first assumption, this one looks very possible, right?

What if behind the seller’s mailing list there is actually a get paid to read emails program? What if there is a credit based safelist, or a similar program, or a combination of such programs? Wow! That’s it, right? This sounds very real and it seems that we found out how can someone guarantee hits. OK, but this is not what it was advertised when I placed my order, right? Not so nice practice, but… at least is it effective?

Let’s see… Who are those people clicking on my link? Hungry buyers? Hmm… I doubt… a) they waste their time clicking on links because they cannot afford a serious and professional promotion way (or they are freebies hunters) and b) they are looking for credits in order to blast their own ads – they are sellers, not hungry buyers.

Will they at least take a look at my salesletter? No one can tell exactly what other people will do, but… we can estimate their actions by asking ourselves “Why did they land on my page?”. Because they were interested in my very bad subject line? Because they were interested in my ad copy that they did NOT read? Nope! They landed on my page in order to get credits (Most of them are wasting their time, but that’s another story) and right after that will close my page and go to the next email to continue their job. To be honest, if I’m lucky, maybe some of them will take a look at my page, but… hey, did I say lucky? Is this email marketing or gambling?

What is the conclusion? Hmm… No further comments from my part. You know my opinion and actually you know my conclusion. It’s your turn… Be wise!

To Your Online Success!
Adrian Jock

P.S. If you want to read more internet marketing tips, you’re invited to subscribe free to the Worst Newsletter in the World. Why would someone call his own newsletter “the worst”? The mystery is revealed here: http://www.adsmarket.biz/internet-marketing-tips-news.html.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adrian_Jock
http://EzineArticles.com/?Email-Marketing—The-Truth-About-Guaranteed-Hits&id=3763160

UPDATE: The contest ended and the winners have been announced. Congratulations Marie and Ponn!

There’s a fun contest going on at MomWebs Hosting which inspired me to do something I don’t normally do, and that I’m not all that good at. I entered the contest with my video creation. I had a great time making the video, but more importantly, it’s great practice for me in the art of being less than perfect.

I’ve always been a bit of a perfectionist – in school, on the job, as a parent, and as a business owner. But guess what… I’m not perfect! There, I said it; I’m human and I just can’t be good at everything. Often, less than perfect is absolutely great!

Many of us tend to build our own obstacles, some of which can be paralyzing. Perfectionism is a huge obstacle. Waiting until a website or video is perfect before releasing it pretty much guarantees it will never get launched. A website is a work in progress that will never be complete, never mind perfect. And agonizing over every detail of a video will produce lots of self-doubt. There’s always something else that can be added or changed.

Does that mean that I think it’s okay to throw together a mess and put it out there? Of course not. Websites, marketing materials, and products should be well thought out, of good quality, and professional. Just don’t let fear stop you from trying. Less than perfect is definitely good enough.

And so, I’ve produced this great, less than perfect video. Enjoy!

The contest is closed, but voting is open. Check it out and pick your favorite… maybe me? Please! Vote at:
http://www.momwebs.com/vote-for-your-favorite-mom-webs-promo-video/

Thanks!

The contest deadline is tonight, but if you hurry, you can still practice the art of less than perfect and enter your own creation. Click: video promotion contest details.

Affiliate link (Why tell?)