Steve Guttridge: aka Stay At Home Bum Marketer

by: Janice Jenkins
I often get this question from business owners, especially from those who are just starting: how do I sell my business? In particular, how can a business owner acquire the techniques to be better at selling what they have?

Many business owners, although they are very good at what they do, they often fall short in the selling category. In fact, many would rank selling as their weakest point in the many entrepreneurial skills they have. They might be great with coming up with ideas such as having brochure printing for their ads; and accomplishing the daily tasks involved in running a business. But all will agree that the marketing part is one of the most difficult things to do.

But for all those business owners feeling this way (whether you have a small food stall or a reputable brochure printing company), do not worry. There are millions of you out there. Take heart because even though marketing is truly difficult, it is not impossible. Selling your business to your target clients is very challenging indeed; but when you are able to harness the technique, you can very well sell anything even to the littlest thing available in your product line.

As selling and marketing is an art, there are many ways that can help you accomplish it and get the results you want. But you have to start at the very beginning when selling – concentrate on your image. This means having the reputation that you can be proud of. Your target clients need to have a positive impression of you and your business before you can even sell anything to them.

Many experts in fact highly recommend this one. If you want to be better at selling then, you need to focus your energies on providing your target clients with a good reputation. No amount of selling and marketing can help your business without a credible reputation in your niche. There is really no substitute to having a good name in the industry without any taint of disgrace and jaded customers.

However, having and keeping a good reputation entails hard work. It is not like you just have to sleep on it and tomorrow you will have one for your business. And it also does not mean that when you have a good reputation you can just sit back and relax. You need to really work on it.

So how do you gain credibility? There are 4 C’s you need to be aware of:

Competence

You need to know everything there is to know about your business. You need to be an expert in what you do. This is competence at the very core. By becoming an expert, you are most likely to gain clients as they would be looking for your solutions every time for their problems.

Confidence

As you know very well what your business can do, you will have confidence to market your product or services because you believe in them. The more confident you are, the more likely that your customers will think the same way you do.

Commitment

As a business owner, you got to have commitment as you are the first sales agent of your products and services. Who else would sell your business for you? Selling and marketing is a necessity to having a business. So it would be wise for you to be committed and stay that way to your business.

Character

If you want to stay in business for a very long time, you need to inculcate virtues that your customers would be looking for – honesty, integrity and a sense of fairness in all your transactions.

When you have all these C’s, it would be much easier for you to stand by your products and services which in turn, make it less stressful for you to sell and market your business.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit:
http://www.printplace.com/printing/brochure-printing.aspx

No Comments »

By Steve Guttridge

Creating an animated .gif file is pretty easy. You can do this with two free programs, the first being Paint.net and the second being unFREEz.

Download  Paint.net

Download Unfreeze

First open paint.net

In the upper left you will see a folder, click on it and find the file you want to work with.  Your file will appear in the center.

Paint.net lets you do many things to your photo, but for now we will resize and make it animated.

To re-size, go to Image, then click on re-size.

Re-size to 150×150

Next, go to file, then Save As…   make sure you save the file as a .GIF file extension.

(Save your files to the desktop)

Now you will see a configuration screen, click OK on the bottom right corner.

Repeat these steps for however many photos you want.

Next, open Unfreeze

Drag the files from your desktop and drop them into the frames window.

You can set the frame delay to any amount of time between frames that you want.

Once your .gif files are in the frame window, click on Make animated GIF and save the file to the desired directory.

That’s it!

No Comments »

By Steve Guttridge

Bum Marketer? I had a friend asked me that when she stumbled across my blog.

What exactly is bum marketing she asked?

Bum marketing is based on some simple methods used to generate an income. While it’s true you can earn online without much knowledge of marketing, like with any other business your going to want to maximize your efforts and invest in your education.

I want everyone to know the main purpose of this blog  is to teach people how to earn online and work from home.

I have never been more content since I’ve been able to work and do it from home. It’s been pretty cool!!
I created this blog to give me a place to connect with my readers and those on my contact lists on a higher level.

So, I’m a Draftsman by trade turned stay at home marketer. Working in affiliate promotions, creating digital products, and targeting offline businesses. Ranking high in the  search engines for highly searched keywords along with keeping up with the latest marketing trends.

Advertising results are directly proportionate to ones efforts and all it takes is some time, effort and following those who have already figured it out. I hope you Decide to stick around and check out some articles. The First couple posts will take you through article marketing and are the exact methods I used when first started marketing online.

As they say, “the proof is in the pudding” Below is a couple screen shots of a site I created that’s getting first page ranking’s using Bum marketing Techniques. Of course you will have to purchased the domain name and pay a monthly fee for hosting, But, if your looking to get serious about things, these minor necessities won’t be an issue. You can pick up a targeted domain name for around 10 bucks, and pay around the same per month to have your domain hosted.

Building Outdoor Storage is a domain I purchased for a client awhile back, http://buildingoutdoorstorage.com.  It’s a search phrase that Google says gets  2,900 searches/month. I was able to get a first page ranking in a very short  time. Currently bouncing around from 1st, 2nd and 3rd position.

When you see the adds on the right hand side of this screen shot, that means people are paying for the search phrase “building outdoor storage”, Actually Google says if you want that position you’ll have to pay up to $2.22/click. (this is how much you would have to pay each time someone clicks on your ad). The highlighted add on the left is called an organic listing and the ads on the right are paid google adwords listings. You can very well pay for your ad to be on the first page, but why do that when you can learn how to get there for free, over and over.

Creating residual income takes time. It does not matter what method it is you are using.

Do not enter into any business thinking that you put down $200 and within six months you will create a large long term income. You have to give it some time.

It is not your fault you probably think you can create a long term residual income quickly and easily with Internet Marketing. Internet Marketing is built on dreams and financial hopes.

You hear all the testimonials of people making huge amounts of money quickly with a company and you think it is easy and anyone can jump right in and do it. The truth is these testimonials are the exceptions and not the rule.

One thing true of marketing; Your results will be directly proportional to your advertising efforts. When you hear of people who make lots of money quickly you are hearing stories of exceptionally productive people and not your average mom or dad.

Marketing Business Facts – Do It the Bum Marketing Way

One of the quickest and easiest way to earn on the internet is the Bum Marketing way. Bum Marketing is based around some simple ideas; the main idea being you can make money online using  free methods.

In a nutshell, to get rolling, you get a free Blogger blog from Blogger, or a free Word Press blog from Word Press, and then you open an account at clickbank and find an e-book with high gravity to promote.

First open a free account at Clickbank.

Next, open a free account at Ezine Articles.

(upper right hand corner)

Now, write a 300-500 word article that has to do with the product you are promoting from Click Bank.

[ To give yourself the best chance at getting your articles read, P.A.W.S (Persuasive Article Writing Secrets). This is an easy to understand audio series and e-book. ]

Things will start clicking once you get going. Decide what blog platform you want to use (I use Word Press). Create your blog with totally different content than you use in any of your articles.

Ezine Articles have a resource box at the bottom of the page that will point to your blog address or domain name.

[ Learn the mechanics of article marketing at the website]   Make Money on the Internet

Search for a good title for your article by going to the site called Google AdWords keyword tool.

Next,  you will see a white box that say “Find keywords”

Get an idea by typing in the title phrase of the article you have in mind. Once you put your keywords in, it will give you a whole list of similar keywords along with the search volume.

(using Tinnitus Cure as an example)

You will want to find a keyword with low advertiser competition with at least 500 monthly global searches/mo, 1,000 or more if possible. Make sure your using the broad search option located under match type.

To make sure people are paying to for the keyword phrase you choose, go to the google search bar and type in your title (using tinnitus as an example).

Make sure you type in the phrase in quotes “tinnitus”. Once the page comes up, if you see ads on the right hand side, that means people are paying for that search phrase.

You can do many things to help promote your products better, but for the sake of Bum Marketing, you can get rolling for free with 3 free programs; WordPress, Clickbank, and Ezine Articles.

No Comments »

By Ghyslain Lefevbvre

Being able to brand yourself is extremely important for today’s entrepreneur. It is also very difficult to do. In order to be a successful online business owner, the branding part of your business could mean the difference between people choosing to do business with you or someone else. Think about it, if a prospect is thinking about starting a business and he/she has an option to see you and get to know you vs. the other option of not seeing or knowing anything about the other entrepreneur, which one will they choose!

There are many examples we could use to explain some of the branding out there but let’s use these. In the MLM world, you have a main name like Herbalife. Herbalife, for a MLM does a good job of branding and advertise themselves to the world. If you ask a soccer fan if they heard of Herbalife, they will answer immediately yes,” they are the sponsor for the L.A. Galaxy”. Looking at another MLM, we have Melaleuca, company with very good products but ask anyone you know and chances are they won’t know who they are because they are not out there doing anything to promote the brand.

In the restaurant industry, if you think of McDonald, you think hamburger, Denny’s you think breakfast, Starbucks, you think coffee, Wal-mart, you think save money. What all these companies have in common, they know who they are, they make sure they are very good at it and that is what they advertise and focus on. It took a trial an error period for each company but they figured out and now they are the leaders in their field.

Before you start branding yourself, you must remember this. Whatever you choose to do to brand about yourself, it will follow you for life. You may or may not remember Rich Jerk. His methods, at the time were very unorthodox but they worked. He was almost insulting people on his website if they weren’t going to buy his products. His methods were very successful but only for a short period of time. Now, for Rich jerk to rebrand himself, it would be very difficult and timely.

So how do you brand yourself in your online business? First let’s define Branding. “The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products”
So let’s start with this. Try this little exercise. Take a look at your promotional materials or services. Do they say things like?

* Best service
* in business since 1291 B.C.
* newest technology
* best trained
* fastest delivery
* friendly smiles
* we do it right the first time
* professional service

As you brand yourself to your online business customers, keep in mind all of this. These are just starter steps but extremely important to build a trust between you and your possible business partners.

So how do you decide on your Brand? Ask yourself these questions. Do you cater to a specific group of people? Are you expert in addressing a specific issue? Do you guarantee your work? Finally, there is one thing in your business that no one else can duplicate – YOU! So don’t be afraid to give your business or practice a little personality. If you are in a very competitive industry, it may difficult so you may need to plan your branding very cautiously and find something unique about you…

To conclude, branding is very important for the success of your business but it can also be very difficult. Take your time, because the difference between you and your competitors is YOU.

If you would like more info on how you could start and build your online business, please visit our website. To find a business opportunity, also visit our website.

Ghyslain Lefebvre is an expert online business entrepreneur who helps people start and achieve what they are worth. If you would like more info on how you could start and build your own business working from home, please visit or http://7figureincomethisyear.com/ or get what you are worth

Tags: Home based Business, make money, make money articles, make money fast, make money from home, make money newsletter, make money on the internet, make money online, make money working at home, work at home, “make money at home

No Comments »