You’re not alone. There are a mountain of see the future for building their own job from wherever they are on this globe by means of the internet. Internet store fronts offer a even playing field & appeal both to men & women of all ages as a prospective means of conducting business from the comfort of your home.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that walking a business through the net can often be less costly than a traditional business & you admittance to a worldwide market at any time of the day, the truth behind starting an business is that it can be as bothersome as any other business. How can you develop yourself for this obstacle?

Always wear your “game face”.

Move on. It is part of generating business & you will have to face these matters whether it is your first essay or even if you have been in the online business community for years. Changes happen fast on the net & that includes changes to businesses. One day you will be amazing yourself & the next day you will feel you’ve been beat.

It is a hard game to start an online business. You’re guaranteed to feel times when your self-confidence is agitated, you feel the task is beyond your & you exhaust yourself up for making errors.

Every business can benefit from online exposure.

The foremost solution to this is to anticipate it & plan to move on despite those feelings. 
Forget the hype.

The learning curve can be excessive & some people find it intimidating. The lovely thing to recall is that it is possible for someone to operate an business online no matter what their last experience. Be prepared to learn & have patience with your endeavors.

Regardless of if you have been in business for a long time or this is your first endeavour, business done through the net has it’s own methods & you best be ready to discover them if you want to make money.

It is easy to forget the want for a budget when you can expend money so easily online. Do not purchase into every last business opportunity or training curriculum. Visit on-line forums to get a feeling for the optimal arrangements available. Have supporters on these forums that will help you when you’re overtaken or requiring advice.

The only matter worse than getting out you made a error is finding out that it cost you money. Remember that every experience is a learning experience. Try to stay to a budget but do not allow yourself to harp on mistakes when they materialize. Learn & continue on.

Learn the essential paces to train you for the strain & rejection that all virgin business owners’ confront will enable you to build on that knowledge & generate a productive business. Another way is to search others who have paved the way for you. One of the best educational tools that we have recently found to avoid the pitfalls is discussed in the book The 60 Second Commute

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Review the Terms of Service Carefully

The terms of service provided by MySpace can provide the greatest insight into whether or not there are ways to promote your business through MySpace. Members of MySpace are asked to review the terms of service before becoming a member. Each member should carefully read through this entire agreement to come to a better understanding of which types of activities are allowed on MySpace as well as which types of activities are prohibited.

One of the stipulations of the MySpace reads as follows, “Non-commercial Use by Members. The MySpace Services are for the personal use of Members only and may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors except those that are specifically endorsed or approved by MySpace.com. Illegal and/or unauthorized use of the MySpace Services, including collecting usernames and/or email addresses of Members by electronic or other means for the purpose of sending unsolicited email or unauthorized framing of or linking to the MySpace Website is prohibited. Commercial advertisements, affiliate links, and other forms of solicitation may be removed from Member profiles without notice and may result in termination of Membership privileges. Appropriate legal action will be taken for any illegal or unauthorized use of the MySpace Services.”

This section of the terms of service stipulates that MySpace is created for non-commercial use unless Myspace.com has approved the use of a member’s website for commercial purposes. Therefore care should be taken when designing a MySpace website to ensure the website will not be deemed to be a commercial website by MySpace administrators.

When In Doubt, Ask Questions

Those who are unsure of whether or not their MySpace website, as they have designed it, will be considered a commercial website should consult with MySpace administrators. This step is not necessary unless the member is concerned their content will be perceived as being commercial. Reviewing the terms of use agreement can provide a great deal of information but some users may still be concerned with the possibility that their website will be penalized if the administrators deem it to be commercial in nature.

Contacting MySpace is a fairly simple process. Members can use the, “Contact MySpace” link from the MySpace.com homepage. The contact page enables members to select a subject and a subtopic and submit this information. Once this is done MySpace provides some preliminary information which may be relevant. If this information is not useful to the member they can email a detailed request to MySpace.

Avoid Spamming at All Costs

If you determine there is an opportunity for you to promote your business through MySpace, care should be taken to ensure the promotion does not cross the line into spam. Spamming is taken very seriously by the MySpace administrators and it may result in links or content being deleted or the privileges of membership may be revoked when a member is found to be guilty of spamming.

Links to your ecommerce website integrated into your MySpace website isn’t considered spamming. Depending on how it is used it may not even be considered advertising, and therefore prohibited, by MySpace administrators. However, visiting other MySpace websites and placing a link to your ecommerce website on each website you visit would be considered spam. These individuals may or may not be interested in the website you provide but even if they are interested sending these links to numerous websites unsolicited is often considered to be spam.

Jay C. Contreras

www.c5worldwide.com

www.jaycontreras.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jaycontreras

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There are, however, business and professional forums, which do not operate under the same rules and, more often than not, disallow any and all types of advertising or self-promotion. Forums that have been created to support the membership of a particular program are especially adamant on this topic and often demand that all members refrain from all types if advertising on their sites.

Still, even with all these hurdles, it is possible to successfully advertise in forums. In all cases a pre-requisite for success is developing a good reputation and a good relationship and maintaining both. So, while it is true that this a form of free advertising, it does require a certain amount of investment as far as time and energy are concerned, not to mention subtly and finesse.

To successfully market on any forum, the first requirement is to take a personal interest in the main topic of the forum. That means visiting it on a regular basis and developing a good relationship with the members and the moderators. It, also, means taking an active roll in the conversations and being willing to help others. Of course, it goes without saying that it means abiding by any and all rules that exist. In this way, one can develop a reputation, and business will just naturally develop because humans tend to work with people they trust.

Since the main purpose of a forum is the exchange of information and/or ideas, marketers must respect that objective and abide by it. Marketing forums, where everyone there has something to advertise and sell, usually have even more stringent rules.

Jay C. Contreras

www.c5worlwide.com

www.jaycontreras.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jaycontreras

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The very idea of unwanted advertising streaming through our Blackberries is abhorrent. Mobile devices are the ultimate opt-in medium and, therefore, a great way for marketers to connect with users…if that’s what the users want. “WANT” is the key word here. How should marketers approach the medium?

There are three main ways to achieve this. They are:

1. Offer exclusive content. Anyone can offer ring tones. It’s the unique content, such as exclusive mobile images of new brand concepts, that drives interest and calls them out in other media like e-mail campaigns, newsletters, websites, etc. So a wireless campaign is most effective when it offers exclusive content for wireless devices.

2. Make it useful and timely. Think about what would be handy and helpful to have on a mobile device. Last year, for example, Food Network enabled Sprint customers to download shopping lists for their Thanksgiving dinners. There was a lot of “Sprint-envy” going around among non-sprint customers.

3. Clearly define objectives. Usually, one of two business objectives drives successful mobile experiences: incremental revenue of brand intimacy. On the intimacy factor, a text message usually takes priority over almost any other form of communication. Why? Because we haven’t yet been saturated with mobile spam, and this is what causes us to prioritize wireless messaging over voice.

Mobile marketing has been out there for a while but we marketers have new territory to explore. Video offers fantastic opportunities for engagement. Consumers already bypass their filters for highly useful or entertaining content and will do so for rich exclusive, compelling content.

Jay C. Contreras

www.c5worldwide.com

www.jaycontreras.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jaycontreras

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This is one virtue a site must possess to lead the race in the ruthless competition in the Internet based business. With so many competition and rivalry going on, every method of marketing must be employed and utilized.

It doesn’t matter if you have a killer product or a fantastically designed website, if people don’t know that you exist, it doesn’t matter, and you are not going to make it big. Worse of all, you business could just get killed.

While there are so many methods and schemes used by so many e-commerce sites today, there are still some of those that can help you with an extra boost in the popularity ratings. One of these is the so called Viral Marketing.

While the term Viral easily depicts a virus, a word very much dreaded by all computer owners, it is not what it seems. You do not actually use a computer virus to spread your business; on the contrary it just might kill you. Everyone has had enough of all those pop up ads and spywares.

Viral Marketing Overview

Viral Marketing also known otherwise as Viral Advertising is a marketing technique used to build the public awareness of one’s product or company. They use many forms of media to reach out to the public without actually promoting the product by riding on in other forms of addictive means that could get a person hooked and be obliged or amused to actually pass it on, with the product or company advertisement along with it.

In a nutshell, companies ride on the idea that if people like the content of a media they will pass it on to their friends and family. They sponsor the certain media, such as a cool flash game, funny video, amusing story and such, which one may pass on to another with the company brand or logo or the products description or any other content to help promote the company or its product.

Viral marketing has become a popular means of advertising and marketing because they are relatively low cost. To avoid being tagged as spam mail, viral marketing counts on the eagerness of one person to pas on the product. If a person sees the name of the person they know as the sender, they won’t block it and open it as well.

Many companies offer incentives such as discounts and rebates when they help in spreading their viral marketing. They rely on the number of recipients a viral marketing gets from one person in determining the amount or number of incentive they can be attributed with.

Using Viral Marketing to your advantage

The main and foremost advantage of viral marketing is that you get a lot of publicity and public awareness about your site and your company. You get to generate a flow of traffic that are potential customers. With a little ingenuity and imagination, plus some incentives or prizes, you can reach out to a great number of people and announce your existence.

Most every site and companies are catching on to the effectivity of Viral Marketing and Advertising. Not using it could kill your business. Along with other schemes and methods in promoting your site, like Search Engine Optimization and such, viral marketing could easily push you ahead in the rating games.

Viral Marketing could be a sneaky way to get people to know about you and your company. You get them to pass your advertisement along. They are also very low cost that not investing in it could be downright a business suicide. All it takes is a great idea, a good addicting game, a funny story many ideas are still out there. Create a gossip or a buzz, many movies are promoted by using scandals and gossips to make them moiré popular. Remember the movie “The Blair Witch Project”?

Many big companies have tried viral marketing and have had many success stories with it. A classic example is Microsoft’s Hotmail. They were the first known big company to utilize the scheme and it has worked wonders for them.

Now it’s your turn to use viral marketing to work wonders for you. Act now and reap the benefits Viral Marketing will provide for you and your sales figures. 

 Jay C. Contreras

www.c5worldwide.com

www.jaycontreras.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jaycontreras

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Keep in mind, though, that when you are first starting out, it is critical that you focus on one aspect of your marketing campaign at a time and promote it to its fullest extent before moving on to the next. 

It is better to slowly become profitable by focusing on one issue at a time, than to barely be profitable because you are attacking all of the issues half-heartedly.  Diversify and spend small amounts on advertising at first. If you use a cautious approach, you will not be wiped out financially if an ad doesn’t generate the sales you were hoping for.  Just keep testing ads as your budget allows until you find the one that works best; then you can roll it out and be confident that you are going to make money rather than lose it!  If you have a lot of competition, state that you will honor all of your competitors’ coupons and/or discounts; use “their” advertising to your advantage.  An age-old problem in business is collecting final payment for services rendered.  As a business owner, you need to be prepared for “difficult” clients and “mooches” by doing such things as…

1. In your contract or sales agreements, state the interest rates and late fees that will be assessed if payment is not received within 30 days of completion. 
2. Write form letters to be used for collecting the balance. There should be three letters in total — one after the payment is ten days late, another after twenty days, and a third that lets the client know that you’ll be turning their account over to a collection agency (or taking them to small claims court).  The third letter should not be sent until 45 days after the payment is late.   And of course, never bluff.  If you say you will turn it over to a collection agency, do so. 
3. The best way to protect yourself is to take payment via credit card.  State to your client that you will bill their credit card one third of the total price as an initial down payment, another third just after you have passed the 50% completion point, and the final third on delivery. Or use the two-payment system — half at the initiation of the job and the remainder upon completion.

Jay C. Contreras

www.c5worldwide.com

www.jaycontreras.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jaycontreras

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Like it or not we are all salesmen.  Our lives are made up of a series of “sales presentations”, otherwise known as presenting one’s self in the best light possible. Whether we’re out for a job interview, trying for a raise, or just convincing our employees that a job must be accomplished – you are making a presentation.

To become masterful at it can be summed up in the acronym IPRESENT!  

• I- Involve Your Audience

Human nature is such that people support solutions that they help create, so involve them by allowing your audience to participate with questions or ideas. It goes without saying that to not involve key people is risky, because messages can be misunderstood.   Your plans may be derailed before they begin if sufficient “buy-in” is lacking.  Use lots of open-ended questions in your presentation to draw out the silent type.

• P-Prepare your Audience

Preparation is a key to success.  Prepare your listeners to what’s coming during or before your presentation.  Try these pre-meeting tactics:

• Assign task- related pre-work.  This could be pre-reading or study of a problem, and the preparations of possible solutions.  An example could be “go and visit three kinds of accounts before your meeting.” 
• Make pre-meeting contacts with those invited by email, phone, or in person.  You might want to try an informal survey to get people’s position on the issues at hand.

Remember support on key or controversial matters can be established ahead of time by lobbying, if you know where to lobby.

• R- research your arsenal

Do your research!  People who make it look easy and are effective presenters have a hidden arsenal.  This is an arsenal of up-to-date, organized material that can be accessed quickly in ready-to-use form when needed.  They have the stats to back up their ideas, and they have a mental arsenal of stories, examples, jokes, and ice-breakers to use when needed.

Your physical presentation could include tangible items relating to the issue such as recent articles clipped from newspapers or magazines, photographs, reports, and demonstration property.  To become masterful in this art learn to maintain resources you can access for just the right thing at the right time.

• E- Explain “Why?”

The next thing you must do is to explain “why?” The single most powerful thing you can do to convince your audience of something is to provide a convincing reason why they should do what you suggest or believe what you say.  People want and need a clear “WIIFM” – “what’s in it for me?” – to be able to react positively to what you want them to do.  It’s extremely important that you deliver a vision of benefits.  Hearing the “why” won’t automatically generate a “yes” to your proposition, but it’ll open the door for receptivity to your idea.

Knowing and accepting the “why” satisfies a basic need that we all have – to understand the purpose of our actions.  Use the words “because” or “so that” in your presentation and then finish the phrase.  When your subject matter is controversial or likely to generate emotions, it is essential that your “why’s” be tested in advance.  Ask some people you trust or that are on your “team” to play devil’s advocate to help you with your logic and arguments.

These are just the first four points for making successful presentations.  There are eight of them in total, and we’ll look at the other four in my column next week.  For now, let me leave you with this thought.

Life is a sales job from beginning to end. From the moment that we discern how to get approval as children, winning friends at school, getting our first beau, getting our first (and subsequent) job, getting engaged and married, achieving our goals, and anything else you can think of in between – we’re selling ourselves or our ideas all along the way.  Who said you weren’t a salesperson?

“S” stands for State (mental) Management. The mental state of the successful presenter must be congruent with the message.  If you don’t believe that, try giving a pep talk to your sales force when you’re depressed – it won’t work!  You must be aware of and manage your own mental state and that of your listeners or communication channels will not be open.  I don’t have space to elaborate on methods of doing this, but here are a few key hints.  First, “AAI” – act as if. Act the way you want to feel, it’s amazing how this works.  Use music to set the mood if necessary, dress the part, and reduce your anxiety by whatever method works for you.  Remember that you’re the one in charge, and presentation mastery isn’t about being perfect – it’s about achieving your objective.

“E” is for eliminating the unknowns.  Fear of public speaking ranks high on most people’s list of worst fears. You may find you’re unusually nervous, develop poor voice tone or negative body language, and be unable to respond to audience feedback.  Managing your anxiety permits you to focus on your audience and their needs.  The basic approach to do this is the asking ourselves a list of “what if?” questions.  Another way to overcome our fear is to take ownership of the situation.  Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Double check your notes, and prepare yourself.

“N” is fudging a little by using the second letter of the word “know” – as in kNow Your Audience.  Whether it is one person or many that you are presenting to you must do three basic things:  Meet their needs, reduce tension, and avoid mistakes.  A good knowledge of the listeners will give you a chance to tailor your objectives to meet their needs.  This also allows you to reduce the “audience-presenter” tension so they will focus on what you’re saying.  With a clear knowledge of your audience’s views you’ll be sensitive to potential “hot buttons”.

“T” stands for “Tailor Your Presentation Throughout”.  Boring listeners leads to missed objectives or total failure.  You must be flexible and responsive to your audience. To do this you need to use techniques that will give you audience feedback; you must diagnose the cause of the problem you’re addressing, and finally you must choose the solution to act upon.

When you’re presenting watch for non-verbal behavior such as clock-watching, foot-tapping, and cat-napping.  When any of these are present get some feedback with, “Is it too warm in here?” or “Should I pick up the pace?”  That breaks the attention or lack of, of the audience and brings them back to your talk.  One important thing to remember is that the mind can absorb no more than the seat can endure.  Sometimes a simple thing like taking a short stretch break will solve the problem.

The techniques for achieving your most desired outcomes are at your fingertips, when you remember that life is a series of presentations.

Jay C. Contreras

www.c5worldwide.com

www.jaycontreras.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jaycontreras

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You could run a contest.  The puzzle, game or task should be easy and straightforward so that you don’t frustrate the customer and you still get their email address in the end.

A great incentive to collect email addresses would be a free eBook.  People love getting free stuff, especially eBooks that interest them.  Remember, it doesn’t have to be 100 pages long; five to ten pages will work fine.

Surveying the customer is a great way to collect email addresses. You can find out what the customer likes/dislikes, and what they have problems with or need solutions for.

Advertise your opt-in offer in an e-zine or classified ad.  It actually doesn’t cost tons of money and if you find the right place to advertise, you could see dramatic results.

Email signatures, or electronic signatures, also referred to as a, sig file is a three to six line footer that you can add to the bottom of each email message you send out with your name, company and a free report with a link attached.  You will be surprised how many visitors you get this way.  Make sure you track where you are getting your traffic by the different links you send out.

If a customer is interested in downloading an article from your web site, they will definitely have no problem providing their name and email address.  They will love to receive more articles from you or have access to a members only area of your site with plenty of resources.

Offer your customers a free course or a free download to collect email addresses.  They will love to get something for free.  Customers who opt-in when something free is being offered think to themselves what have I got to lose.  It a great deal for both of you.

Jay C. Contreras

www.c5worldwide.com

www.jaycontreras.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jaycontreras

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The begs some questions for the Corporate housing Industry:

1. How does Sirva’s filing affect the Corporate Housing industry as a whole?
2. If you are a current supplier of corporate housing services for Sirva.  What impact does this have on your 2008 revenues?
3. Is this the first of many challenges for the relocation industry as a whole or is this simply an isolated incident?
4. What opportunities does this create for corporate housing providers to capitalize on?
5. What are you doing to diversify your business so that Sirva’s problems don’t affect you?

I would like to invite an comments.

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Basically, blogs were first introduced as weblogs that refer to a “server’s log file.” It was created when web logging hit the virtual market. Since its inception in the mid-1990s, web logging gradually saturated the virtual community making the Internet a viable source of greater information.

However, with web logging, you still need a web site and domain names, but with blogging, you do not need anything just an account with blog providers. In most cases, these kinds of blogs are free of charge.

With the onset of blogging in the industry, personal journaling had been a common ground for people who wish to be known all over the world. However, not literally famous as this is not a case on being popular or well-known personality.

Generally, blogs are created for personal use. Like a journal, people can write their daily adventures, sentiments, and whatever ideas they want to express online.

Nevertheless, with the advent of the online businesses, blogs had gradually taken the limelight in providing businesses a chance to boost their productivity online. This is where the business blogs have taken the limelight.

Business blogs are, basically, created to advertise the services or products of a certain web site or online business in order to increase online sales.

Moreover, business blogs are also one way of promoting the company so that the other readers will know that a certain company exists online. With blogs, entrepreneurs are able to establish a name in the virtual market through articles that can be very useful in the reader’s life.

From there, you can make money out of blogs by simply syndicating it to your business’ web site. This can be done through the RSS technology.

So, if you are thinking to create a blog, whether for business or for pleasure, you need to know some tips that could help you get through and make your blog one of the interesting blogs online.

Here’s how:

1. Consider your audience

Even if your blog is generally personal, still, it would be better to consider the minds of your readers. You have to think of something that would interest them.

After all, most of the reasons of people who write blogs are not at all confined to their own personal motives. Most of them would love to be “heard” (or read) and would love to be known, in some way or another, even for just a minute. Hence, it is very important to come with a write up that everybody can understand, not necessarily that these people can relate to it but they can understand it.

2. Pictures speaks a thousand words

To make your blogging worth the browsing effort of your readers, it would be extremely nice if you will put some pictures in it. It does not necessarily mean you have to place a picture of yourself. Any photographs will do as long as it does not pose danger or insult to anyone who will be reading your blog.

3. Make constructive and beneficial blogs

Even if you are free to write anything you wan to say to the world, still, it would be better to create some write-ups that would be beneficial to your readers.

After all, its information technology that you have there so better be inclined to provide information rather than sheer quirky entertainment.

4. Avoid making multifaceted and complicated blogs

In order to have an interesting blogs, try not to use some highly technical and highfalutin words. After all, it is not a science discourse or a debate that you are making, so better stick to simple facts and short blogs.

Bear in mind that most people who use the Internet usually do more scanning than scrutinizing each site word for word. Therefore, it would be better to come with blogs that will not bore your readers just because you have these lengthy articles.

5. Make it interactive

As much as possible and if your capacity will allow it, make your blog interactive. Yu can do this by placing some video or audio clips in your blog.

You can even place an area for comments or for some feedbacks. In this way, you can get some impressions or reactions of other people. Who knows, you might even gain some friends just by making them feel at home in your blog site.

Indeed, blogs are not created just for the mere fun of it. It also has its own purpose in the world of the Internet.
Therefore, for people who wish to harness their craft, as far as writing is concerned, blogs are the best way to do it.

As they say, blogging is the contemporary term of creative and commercial writing.

Jay C. Contreras

www.c5worldwide.com

www.jaycontreras.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jaycontreras

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