Archive for Online Business
Productivity: It’s taking too long!
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When you work for yourself you recognize that there is a lot to do. You also know that it’s a challenge getting it all done, whether you’re full-time or part-time in your business.
That’s why doing things in the most efficient manner possible so important. Here are three tools to help you work faster.
Procedures - You probably thought immediately of a big Procedures Manual. But a procedure can be as simple as 3 steps jotted on a yellow sticky.
Of course, I don’t recommend the yellow sticky approach! Instead take the extra five minutes it will take to type those steps.
Then either file it in a Procedures folder on your hard drive or Read More→
What Is Your Time Worth?
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Whether you’re setting a value on your time for a sales letter – or trying to figure out how much a personal project is “costing you” it’s important to know what your time is worth.
Now we’d all like to just plug our name into a magic calculator, along with our related experience and education, and have the machine tell us “Your Time is worth this amount.” But since that’s not going to happen, let’s consider alternatives.
Method 1: What You’re Paid
If you’re still working a job, it’s a fairly easy calculation to see what you’re paid per hour. Just take your annual salary and divide by 2000. That’s the average work hours per year.
Sure, that’s not really what you’re worth, because you’re being underpaid. But it will give you something to work with.
Method 2: Annual Income
If you’re self-employed, take your gross income for the year and divide by 2000. That’s your hourly earnings.
You can also rely on your “billing rate” for consulting. But for every hour you are paid Read More→
Are You Ready For An Affiliate Program?
Posted by: | CommentsYou have a product for sale – and now you’re anxious to launch your affiliate program. After all, affiliates send traffic your way. They refer new prospects who become customers – and then affiliates.
But are you ready to offer an affiliate program?
Here are three signs that that you’re ready.
1. Your site is selling well. You have created a sales letter that closes at a dependable rate. You can share that sales conversion rate with your potential affiliates. You can let them know Read More→
How To Add Google Analytics To Your Blog
Posted by: | CommentsIn a related article, I talked about why you want to add Google Analytics to your blog. Now you need to know the HOW.
It’s a relatively easy process.
First you need an analytics account. Read More→
Add Google Analytics to your Blog
Posted by: | CommentsGoogle Analytics is a handy tool you can add to your blog absolutely free. It provides information to help you fine-tune your website and your business.
Take a look at some of the information Google Analytics offers and how you can use this information to your advantage.
A Google analytics report breaks down the information into a multiple sections. These sections include: Read More→
How To Raise Your Prices
Posted by: | CommentsHave you ever noticed that products in your niche are priced at varying levels – from $7 to $2,000?
If you are selling the $7 product, you may be asking yourself how anyone could sell a $2,000 product. On the other hand, if you are selling the $2,000 product, you are probably asking how anyone can afford to sell a $7 product.
There is no magic formula that says “if you have 6 videos and 3 PDFs, charge this amount.” Instead you need to set your price based on the value you deliver. And to judge that value, you need to look at it from your point of view, as well as your customer’s perspective.
Pricing is a matter of comfort and expectations. If you are selling at the lower end of the price range, you probably also buy in that same price range. It is what you are used to. You have a hard time convincing yourself that any product could be worth $2,000. As long as you continue to buy less expensive products, you will have a difficult time raising your prices beyond your personal comfort level.
Price is about perception. In our society, higher prices indicate better quality, more value, more expertise.
Does price guarantee any of these things? Not necessarily. You can buy a car for $8,000 or $80,000. Will both of them get you to your destination? Yes. Do both of them sell? Yes. Is there 10 times the quality, the value, and the expertise in the higher priced car? Maybe.
The point is price doesn’t guarantee anything, other than that you will pay more. But most people assume a higher price means a better product.
One other factor that you want to consider in raising your prices is customer service. When asked, virtually all information publishers agree that the higher the price point on your product, the fewer complaints and customer support issues you have. That single consideration is a strong recommendation for raising prices.
So, how do you raise your prices? Just do it. Announce the price increase if you want a flurry of last minute sales and give a specific deadline. Or just raise the price.
As you raise your prices you need to start raising your expectations as well. It is hard to sell someone a $197 product if you are not willing to pay that much for product yourself.
Raising prices is both a smart move and one that involves a change in your personal habits. If you cannot believe your product or any product is worth that amount, you will not be able to sell it at the higher price regardless of the sales copy that you write.
Change your personal buying habits and raise your price.
So what do YOU think? Can you sell a higher priced-product when you aren’t willing to pay the higher price yourself? Let me hear your opinion in the comments below.
Writer Needs A Niche
Posted by: | CommentsQ: I’m a writer and struggling with finding my online niche. Do you have any suggestions on how to do this?
A: The world is wide open to you as a writer! You don’t need to find a niche – you have one already. Writing. You can sell your services at writing sites, you can freelance. You can write a set of articles in a specific niche that fascinates you (and that you want to learn more about) and sell those articles as “PLR articles.”
If you DO want to find a niche you have a couple of choices. You can choose a niche you want to learn about and write articles, ebooks, reports, etc on that topic.
OR you can choose to write for people within a specific niche. For example, if you love gardening, you can specialize in writing articles for marketers in the gardening niche. Again, you can do these on a custom basis – or write generic articles that you sell to people in that niche.
You could create a “do it yourself” ready-made newsletter. So each month you would create a set of 15 articles. Then each subscriber to your service could choose the 10 articles they want in their newsletter and you could assemble and deliver it to them, ready to distribute. It would be customized for them and their business.
As I said, with writing skills you have unlimited possibilities. Just get your mind working – and forget that you “need a niche.” You just need to figure out what you enjoy doing – and make money with that!
And if you can’t decide, then at least put up a website advertising your writing – and make money while you’re waiting for inspiration.
