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Donna Gunter's Articles

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Ethical Bribes: 10 Most Effective Client Attraction Device Giveaways One of the quickest ways to build your email marketing list is by creating an ethical bribe, or a client attraction device. This free giveaway serves to entice visitors to your site to sign up for your email list because they want to access your solution to their problem proffered in your email list opt-in box. Here are 10 ideas that you can use to package your information into a valuable ethical bribe for your web site: Top 10 Firefox Browser Plugins I recently fired Internet Explorer as my primary browser and replaced it with the Firefox browser. The ability to customize Firefox with over 1500 plug-in extensions is what makes this open-source browser so special. However the large number of options makes it tough to know what's worth installing and what's will be a complete waste of your time. Out of these, here are my top 10 Firefox extensions: How to Use Your Ezine Thank You Page to Create a One Time Offer Many times, when you sign up for a free giveaway or purchase an item, you are taken to an OTO (One Time Offer) page, where you'll be given the opportunity to purchase a "never to be seen again, one time offer," which is a product that has been discounted for one time only during this one particular transaction. Here's how I decided to implement this strategy: Business Planning: 4 Steps to Creating Your Online Business Model Blueprint Your business model doesn't have to be at all complex, but should provide the guiding force for all that you do, like guiding you to the opportunities to accept, the joint ventures and strategic alliances to pursue, and the new ideas you should retain and develop. Here's are the 4 steps I'm following as I redesign the blueprint for my online business model: Top 8 Signs of ECommerce Fraud: How to Detect Fraudulent Credit Card Transactions Today, ecommerce credit card fraud is becoming the rule rather than the exception. Unfortunately, the credit card thieves are becoming smarter, making the fraud more difficult to detect. Here are the 8 clues that tipped me off to the possibility of ecommerce fraud on my web site: Twitter Marketing: 6 Steps to Creating a Viral Marketing Campaign with Twitter Hashtags Twitter helps you connect daily with a large number of your target market at no cost. How can you maximize other Twitter opportunities to help your market your business? The easiest way to do this is through a Twitter hashtag campaign. 5 Best Strategies to Develop a Responsive Email List Whether you have a 500-person list or a 5000-person list, the rate at which they respond to your offers ties directly in with how well they know, like and trust you and see you as the expert providing answers to the problems keeping them awake at night. Here are the 5 strategies you can employ to develop a responsive email list. 5 Secrets to Creating a Powerful Google Profile When I want to check out a prospective client or vendor, I Google the person's name and see how well-known they are online and what they have to say. I've discovered that their social media profiles show up high in the search results. Google has started giving these well-known social networking sites a run for their money by creating their own online profile option. 8 Secrets to Fill Your Business in 60 Days Filling your business with prospects eager to buy is a daunting task for any online business owner. However, there is an easy-to-replicate system that, when followed exactly, will help you fill your business in 60 days. Internet Security: 8 Proven Tactics to Eliminate Threats from Spam, Viruses, and Hackers Online business owners face treacherous Internet security risks daily. Viruses, hackers, and spam await you at every turn. There are a number of precautions you can take to make yourself, your business and the visitors to your site as safe as possible. Here are 8 tactics proven to enhance your Internet security: Social Networking: 7 Steps to More Traffic by Connecting and Repurposing Your Social Marketing As you become more heavily involved in social networking, you may quickly became frustrated with having to update your status at numerous sites, as well as trying to figure out how to introduce your blog, articles, and ezine to your social networking audiences. After much trial and error, here's how I connect and repurpose all of my social marketing strategies: Is It Time to Quit, or Are You Simply Afraid? As a business owner, you often want to give up on your business, especially when times get tough. When is the right time to quit, and when should you persevere? It's a matter of determining whether you're at a dead-end, or you're in a dip. Here's how you can make the distinction for yourself and decide upon your course of action. 10 Secrets to Using Twitter to Attract More Followers and Get More Clients Many small business owners create Twitter accounts solely for marketing their businesses., However, once they're signed up, they wonder, "What do I Twitter about? How do I market my business with this tool?" Here are 10 strategies that I use regularly to marketing my business and my expertise via Twitter: Facebook in 15 Minutes a Day Social networking can take up your entire day, if you allow it. How can you possibly get any work done in your business or for your clients at this rate? You can actually handle most of your Facebook tasks in as little as 15 minutes per day. Here's what I do when I log into my account each morning: My Top 7 Essential Twitter Tools The microblogging platform, Twitter, and how Twitter has taken the online marketing world by storm. While Twitter is pretty easy to use, there's an overwhelming amount of tools, plug-ins and applications being developed to support it. How can you determine which ones will best support you in your use of Twitter? I've tried to sort though all of the junk, and come up with my 7 essential Twitter tools: Client Attraction: 4 Deadly Mistakes to Avoid if You Want a Full Practice Many independent service professionals insist that they want additional clients, but haven't really put the groundwork in place to accommodate them. Even though many of you say that you are, your words may give one message, but your actions give a completely different message. Here are 4 deadly mistakes you want to avoid if you want a full and thriving practice. Elevator Pitch: 7 Steps to a Killer 30-Second Commercial That Works Every Time Even though your business may be completely Internet based, there are still numerous times when you need to give your elevator pitch (elevator speech), or your 30-second commercial that explains what you do and how you do it. Having a ready-made elevator pitch at your disposal continues to be an important online marketing tool that you need to continuously sharpen. How Perfectionism Kills the Online Entrepreneur How many times have you failed to take action on releasing a new product or service because it wasn't perfect? Probably more times than you care to admit. The need for perfection is simply another excuse to procrastinate and take no action. Inaction is safe because you're not putting yourself out there to the world to face possible criticism. Client Attraction: 6 Questions to Ask to Discover Your Brilliance Sometimes it pays to be a "jill of all trades" when you're a service business owner, but ultimately you probably discover that there are some things you like to do for clients better than others. Figuring out what you truly love to do in your work with your clients is key to your success -- and theirs. Your Article Writing Campaign Timeline How can you appear to be everywhere online? It's quite simple when you use this one proven strategy on a regular basis in your Internet marketing arsenal: article marketing. Here's how you can create an article marketing timeline to use every single time you create a new article. Social Networking: How to Make it Work for Your Business It's difficult to be online these days without being bombarded with information about some aspect of social networking -- Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Ryze, Fast Pitch...the list goes on and on. Social networking can either break your business by helping you waste large quantities of time, or can help your business immeasurably. Here's are 5 strategies to help make social networking a successful marketing strategy for your business. Your 7-Point Annual Website Tune-up In the same way that your mechanic conducts a regular inspection of your automobile, you need to conduct an annual checkup of your website. Here are 7 critical areas that need to be checked yearly on your site: Article Marketing: 15 Secrets to Repurposing Your Articles to Work for You Again and Again Turn your articles into a profit generating proposition by using these simple 15 steps. How to Write a Killer "How to" Article in 7 Easy Steps Writing and submitting articles to online article banks and directories is an effective strategy for growing your online presence and demonstrating your expertise. Use these 7 simple steps to get started! How to Double Your Opt-ins by Adding a Hover Ad to Your Site Increase your website opt-ins by creating a hover ad with a clear call to action using these simple steps. Increase Your Profits by Waiting for the Right Client Don't just "settle" for any client; have patience and wait for that client who sparks your passion! Master Time Management with One Question Use this simple queston to discern what's important and what's not! How to Use Your Website to Disqualify Your Prospects Decide who your target market is and go for it with these simple steps. Just Sit There and Do Nothing Relaxing can be tough for a Type A personality, even on vacation. Sometimes, just sitting there and doing nothing brings the best rewards for your life and business. How to Set Up an Online Affiliate Program to Sell Your Products and Services Generate sales with the magical efforts of an Affiliate Program for your products or service business. 10 Steps to Creating Your Online Business Disaster Plan Don't run the risk of being caught unprepared for disasters! Use these simple 10 steps to create a disaster plan for your business. 10 Key Questions to Ask to Unlock Your Expertise Many business owners wrestle with this notion of "expertise", feeling certain that they don't know enough to be looked upon by anyone as an expert.Your knowledge, likes and dislikes, and life experiences are all valuable keys to help you unlock your expertise. Here are 10 questions to ask yourself to help you assess your expertise: How to Grow Your List and Make More Sales with Your Signature Teleseminar Conducting teleseminars for other people releases you from the responsibilities of marketing and promotion and registration involved with sponsoring a teleseminar. You are able to present my expertise to my target market from the comfort of my own home office. How can you add a signature teleseminar to your marketing mix? Here's my 10-step process for creating and profiting from your own signature teleseminar: 7 Golden Rules of Online Customer Service Many times what we forget in this online world where so much of our customer service is automated is that, in the end, we're still doing business with other people. Do your customer service procedures create raving fans or send people away into the Internet black hole, never to be heard from again? To help you evaluate your online customer service, here are 7 standards you should consider: 7 Tips to Successfully Changing Your Email Newsletter Service Provider Switching your email newsletter list providers isn't easy, but sometimes it's the best move to make for your business. You'll create a smaller list of dedicated readers and open the door to add additional subscribers who are interested in what you have to offer. Here's 7 tips to make the changeover process easier for you: 2 Free Email Marketing Secrets That Will Drive Traffic to Your Site Using an email address that contains your domain name and appending an email signature to all of your email correspondence are two free, easy and effortless ways to promote yourself, your website, and your products or services. Here's how you can incorporate these strategies into your email marketing: 10 Questions to Ask Before Licensing Your Program Licensing your programs or products is a great way to get the word out about what you do, and have others (your licensees) pay you for the privilege of distributing your info around the globe. Here are 10 questions to consider as you determine your licensing strategy: 3 Real Estate Web Site Features That Convert Visitors Into Customers Real estate agents typically try and immediately convert their website visitors into a paying customer. Instead, initiate a relationship with your visitor. What's the secret to this relationship-building strategy? It's a simple process of including 3 must-have visitor conversion features on your website. 5 Tips to Starting a Successful Membership Website In the last few years, I have seen membership subscription websites take the Internet by storm. Most subscription sites offer their subscriptions for a fee and today, paying for information online has become the rule, rather than the exception. Here are 5 tips to consider if you want to start a membership website: 20 Must-Have Tools to Automate an Online Business With all the information online about tools and techniques available to help someone effective manage and run an online business, how do you ever decide which ones are truly useful to have in your business management toolkit? Here's my listing of the 20 indispensable tools that I cannot live without: 7 Web Search Tips for Online Business Owners Most online business owners are conducting fairly regular web searches for local and national competitors, keyword research, and searches for resources for a particular topic. Web research doesn't have to be a time-consuming task. You can find exactly the information you seek by using a few simple shortcuts to get the best results. How to Use Google Alerts to Boost Your Business Google Alerts are a handy little email notification service provided by Google to let you know when new information in which you might be interested has been posted somewhere online and spidered by the Google searchbot. It's a no-cost way for you to determine what's been written online about both you and your competition, as well as to track any number of other terms that will aid you in your market research efforts. Rocks, Stones and Sand What are the 'big rocks' in your life--your children; your loved ones; your education; your dreams? Learning how to decipher what's important in life is a major personal development lesson. The parable in this story shows you the important of putting the "big rocks" first. How to Generate More Leads With a Squeeze Page A squeeze page is a stand-alone page that is typically used as a lead generation or landing page for a special offer or marketing campaign. It offers the visitor access to some piece of information in exchange for the visitor's name and primary email address. Here's what you need to get started with your squeeze page: Create a Viral Marketing Strategy to Drive Traffic to Your Website Because many online distribution channels are free or low cost, viral marketing is possibly the most cost-effective Internet marketing technique out there. Once you've launched your viral marketing campaign, it has the capability grow and spread automatically for years. How can you create a viral marketing strategy to drive traffic to your website? Here's a step-by-step process: Ask One Question to Drive Traffic to Your Website Creating a value-added option like permitting your visitors to ask an important question is a very simple, inexpensive way to drive traffic to your site and help you sell products and services, develop relationships, and develop your expertise. Here are 7 steps you can follow to create your own one-page question website: How to Create Your First Blog Blogging has opened website creation to almost everyone, as it takes very little know-how to get a blog up and running. Every service business can benefit from blog technology. Few other marketing strategies provide the quick immediacy that blogging provides. Here are 10 simple steps you can follow to start blogging immediately: What's Your "Talking Domain Name"? Just because you might have a long business name or use your given name as your business name doesn't mean that you have to use either of those names when you tell others what you do. Pick a domain name that is shorter yet memorable that you can use with great success in your publicity efforts, or a "talking domain name". Below are 5 strategies for effectively picking out your "talking domain name". How to Find Your Niche, Determine Your Ideal Client, and Target Your Market The more focused you can become in defining what you do and in describing the group who needs what you do, the more effective your marketing becomes. Weeding out all those prospects who don't fit your niche, target market, or ideal client profile will leave you with a much better qualified pool of prospective clients. Here are 7 questions for you to consider in determining your niche, describing your ideal client, and finding your target market. How to Create and Profit from Your Own Article Directory The primary goal of Internet surfers is to find free valuable content that gives them a solution to a problem. An article directory is the perfect place to provide that relevant content, help you generate leads for your primary site, and make a few bucks from site advertising in the process. Here are the 10 steps you can follow to create your own article directory: 10 Ways to Re-purpose Your Content One way that you can work a bit easier in your online business is to re-purpose any articles or content you've written. This philosophy of "write once, use endlessly" has help me immeasurably over the years to expand my marketing reach further than I ever thought possible without having to create massive amounts of new content all the time. Below are 10 methods I successfully use to recycle my articles: Putting the "Authentic You" in Your Online Business Do your prospective clients get a true sense of you when they read your brochure, peruse your business card, stumble across your web site, read your blog, or listen to your podcast? As a service business owner, one of your most unique selling propositions is YOU. Here's how I learned to integrate my true self into my own online business. How to Create a Virtual Grand Opening Grand openings are held to generate good will and begin relationships with business colleagues, current clients, and prospective customers. Now, as the owner of a virtual business, you can foster that same good will by sponsoring a virtual grand opening for your new business or new website and get your new venture in gear. Below are some ideas to spice up your virtual grand opening/ribbon cutting: 12 Steps to Creating Your First Info Product The creation of your first info product is a huge first step toward implementing multiple streams of income in your business. It means that you have something to sell prospective customers to "size you up" as they consider purchasing your services. It means that you can sell something 24-7 from your website that demonstrates your expertise. It means that you're well on your way to creating a passive revenue stream for your business. How to Create Effective Autoresponders to Keep in Touch with Your Prospects Creating an effective series of autoresponders helps you begin to develop a relationship with prospective customers, showcase your expertise, and ultimately convert prospects into customers. The autoresponder enables you to send a personalized automated reply to customers via email 24/7 without any intervention on your part past the setup stage. Below I've listed the type of information you can include in your autoresponder series. How Effective Use of Pop-up Technology Can Help You Get More Clients Online Using pop-ups is an Internet marketing strategy that is incredibly effective. Some people report as much as a 50% increase of signups to their mailing list, for example, when they use a pop-up ad. This combination of new pop-up technology, along with a bit of Internet marketing savvy, can help you harness the power of your website to create a sure-fire strategy that will convert visitors into customers. How to Create an HTML Newsletter (Ezine) An HTML newsletter that is published regularly is a great "stay-in-touch" marketing mechanism. Publishing your own HTML newsletter is not as tough as you might think. OUtlined below are 10 easy steps to get you ont he road to publishing your own HTML newsletter. 5 Internet Marketing Mindsets Required for Online Business Success Over time, independent service professionals become tired of trading time for money. They want to turn their website into a money-making machine but aren't sure how. There are 5 Internet marketing mindsets that are prerequisites for success in an online business. 10 Secrets to Asking for Effective Client Testimonials for Your Website Getting testimonials from happy clients helps you become more trustworthy in the eyes of your visitors. By implementing a testimonial request system and incorporating testimonials into both your online and offline marketing efforts, you'll create a two-fold effect of establishing credibility with new customers and inspiriting loyalty in current ones. 10 Steps to Researching Your Competition Online Regardless of what business you're in, you have competition, or other businesses who are clamoring for the same consumer dollars as you. Creating your competitive intelligence helps you stay one step ahead of your competitors. It's essential to have an up-to-date picture of your closest competitors and what they are doing so that your company is remaining competitive and a major player in your industry.