Misrelate

The interview is meant to be a conversation in which you largely do the responding - But, you can do some of the questioning. The organisation interviewing you will want to find out whether you are suitable to the position and you will want to find out if the organisation and placement is right for you. So, do your research and gather the data you need to satisfy yourself that this post is where you want to be working for the next few years. Work out the answer to the following questions:

• What will be my obligations?
• How will I fit into the unit?
• To whom should I report?
• Where does he/she fit in the structure?
• Who am I responsible for?
• How experienced are they?
• What do you expect me to do in the first 6 months?
• How will you measure my performance?
• Who are your customers?
• What is the direction of travel for the organization?
• What are the job advancement prospects? What would be a reasonable timescale in which to expect this?
• What is the nature of the payment system here? [Do not bring this up too early in the interview - wait until they are sold on you.]
• What are the travel requirements for this placement?
• Will relocation be required now or in the future?
• What kind of training is there?
• When will you decide on the appointment?
• What is the next step?

For more information on interview advice

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If you are aiming to increase your sales, expose your business and increase traffic to your website, a well-written press release can help you achieve that.

What is a press release? A press release is a condensed article that is written in a journalistic style. It is not a sales document or an advertisement.

What is the purpose of a press release? Press releases provide the publicity and traffic any online business needs. A well-prepared press release focuses on what is newsworthy and exciting about your company or product. The main objective in writing an effective press release is to get it read and published. Consequently, the press release must be written in a crisp, clear and engaging style.

Now, let’s look at the critical things to consider in order to write an effective press release that will help you get free publicity and drive traffic to your online business.

- Is your news ‘news-worthy’? Do you have something news-worthy to write about your company or product? Your press release must be informative on the ‘5 Ws’ of your organization, program, product or service - providing answers for the questions: who, what, where, when and why. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes - will someone else find your story interesting?

- Have a strong and captivating introduction. The heading of the press release should capture the attention of the journalist and the media. The title of the press release should be short and snappy, and hopefully grab the attention of the journalist and audience, impressing them enough to make them read on.

- Target your audience. In order to be effective, your press release must target a specific audience. Provide the audience with the information that is intended for them and tell them why they should continue to read it. The more focused and targeted your press release is, the more effective it is.

- Be factual and provide the facts about your news. Avoid making fluffy and exaggerated statements. ‘Too good to be true’ statements in your news reduces your credibility. Avoid hype and jargon, provide the facts in plain and ordinary language. Additionally, avoid using the exclamation point (!) where it is not necessary. If you must use an exclamation point, use one. Avoid doing this!!!

- Be economic with your words . Use only enough words to tell your story. Avoid using unnecessary adjectives, flowery language, or redundant expressions. Keep your news release concise and make each word count.

- Provide some illustrations. It is important to use some real life examples about how your company or organization solved a problem. This helps increase the credibility of your news release. Provide examples of how your service or product fulfills needs or satisfies desires. What benefits can be expected or what remarkable benefit did one get from using your product?

- Select an interesting angle. It is important to make your press release timely, and relate it to a news-worthy development or event. If possible, try to link your news to current events or social issues, to ensure that your release has a ‘good news’ element.

- Keep your release simple and short. Press releases are not meant to tell the whole story behind your news. They are meant to give the journalist an idea of what’s happening in your business that readers need to know about.

- Provide your contact information. Provide full contact information with your press release, namely a contact name, address, web site address and e-mail address.

- Decide where and how to send your press release. Compile a list of the media in the geographic range you want to cover. Your choice will depend on the resources of the organization, time frame of the news item and the segment under which your press release falls.

Press releases have several advantages, namely, they are low cost, they increase visibility for your company, they provide added credibility for your organization and most importantly they provide free publicity which can easily convert to more sales. Use these tips and tap on the potential for news releases to give your online business a dramatic boost through increased exposure, traffic and sales.

Copyright 2006 N N Mhlanga

To find the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home visit
http://www.Smart-HomeBiz.com

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Nothing gets people buying products or programs like a special promotion in your e-zine. Now, I know right now you’re thinking, “I can’t have a sale on my products or services. That’s sooo cheesy!”

Au contraire, mon frere. It’s all how you position it. Here are 13 ideas to consider. Choose one that would work for your business and give it a try.

IMPORTANT: You’ll need to put some type of time limit on the offer to encourage folks to buy now and not later. It’s also better if you explain to your readers WHY you’re having the sale. You’re not Wal-Mart and you can’t just drop prices whenever you feel like it. Instead, give your prospects a reason. (Even a funny one — see tip 13!)

1. Close-out sale. Have inventory you want to get rid of? Making room for other products or new versions of products? Then offer the current version at a significant discount.

2. “Scratch and dent” sale. Have any books, tapes, or CDs that were returned to you by customers? Offer them at a hearty discount for people who don’t mind if they’re a bit worn.

3. Half price sale. Lop 50 percent off all your goods, or select just one.

4. Coupon sale. Allow customers to enter a coupon or promo code to get a discount. (If you have a decent shopping cart program you should be able to set this up in seconds.)

5. Free shipping sale. Offer free shipping for a limited time. Or, upgrade folks to express shipping at no extra cost.

6. “We’ll finance it” sale. Offer a payment plan - this works great for higher priced items and programs. (Again, if you have a decent shopping cart program, you should be able to set up timed, automatic billing.)

7. Free 30-day trial. Get their credit card information at the time of order, but don’t charge them until the month is up. Another variation is the 30 day trial for $1.

8. Pre-publication sale. Start taking orders before your product is even ready. (Seeing orders come in is also a great incentive for you to finally finish creating that product!)

9. VIP discount. Give a special offer to a certain group. Show your e-zine subscribers, your clients, your speaking audiences, etc. that they’re special.

10. Buy one get one free! Yes, this can even work for information products and services. The purchaser can give the extra copy to a colleague as a gift, or two people can split the cost and essentially get your product or service at half price.

11. Special bonus. Give something extra if people purchase before a certain date. (This is a great strategy to up your sales without cutting your prices.)

12. Package discount. Offer a big discount if they order all your products/services or a select combination thereof.

13. Birthday sale. Or any fun occasion… Valentine’s day, your anniversary, groundhog day, your dog just had puppies, your kid just lost his first tooth — have fun with it!

BONUS TIP: Many of these options for coupons, discounts, cutoff dates, etc. can easily be set up with a good shopping cart system. QueenCart.com links you to the one I use and recommend.

Now that you have a reason for your sale, you need to know how to write a promotion that SELLS. My program “E-mail Promotions That Sell” gives you the simple, step-by-step formula. (www.ezinequeen.com/emailpromo.htm)

© 2004 Alexandria K. Brown

Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, “The E-zine Queen,” is creator of the award-winning ‘Boost Business With Your Own E-zine’ system. To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for her FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, visit http://www.EzineQueen.com

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Remember the baseball cards kids traded while chewing their way through kilos of noxious bubblegum, all for about a nickle a pack?

No? Then ask your Dad.

Are you familiar with the latest digital CD Cardz that look like traditional sports trading cards and play interactive video, triva, bios, stats, music, as well as desktop goodies?

No? Then ask your kid.

Seriously, my point is that times are changing and you no longer have to feel that you are either a stereotypical blue collar worker or a red necked Luddite. The truth is, you too can jump on the multimedia gravy train - (just ask for 1st class compartment Serious) and utilize these cool mediums within your corporate environment.

Over a career year, you probably hand out small forests of business cards with merely your contact information printed on them right? So what if you were to hand out a business card-sized CD-Rom instead, that not only had your contact information on it, but held your company website or a pertinent presentation, video, music, a free corporate screen saver etc, all hyperlinking to your on line site too?

So we are talking a talking business card and there are two routes to take. If you want professional help in creating the all singing and dancing marketing tool, come to us at http://www.serious.com, where we will hold your hand and do the work for you. However in truth this is only viable for larger orders of cardz and you might well be a small business or a freelancer with no need for huge quantities, but yet still want to make a lastingimpression. If this is the case, then you can buy our transparent blank 50 MB CD-R cardz from us and create your own! These come in starter packs of 10, with a label applicator, label and presentation software, including web site templates and there are also refill packs available.

So come join us in the fast lane. Learn more at http://www.serious.com and let’s Get Serious!

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It was only a matter of time before an effective tactic was developed to gain widespread competitive advantage from the increasing reliance placed upon links and link text by the major search engines.

Simplicity itself, the technique involves using a version of arelis ( http://www.arelis.org/ ) in a radically new and different way.

The technique currently sweeping the market has gained proven competitor advantage and with the utlilization of existing technology in a clever and unique way, takes only minutes to perform. The danger lies in that its use may become so widespread that websites will no longer be obtaining a tactical advantage, they will require its use to exist in the world of free search engine traffic.

Arelis allows users to download pages of links, categorise these links, automatically produce link pages based upon them and provide webmasters with the contact address for each site on the link page.

This combination of features allows webmasters to download pages from link exchanges sites. The sites contained on these pages have already indicated their willingness to trade links by joining these link exchange sites.

Arelis automatically obtains link text and can easily be formatted to incorporate the look and feel of the site in question. Thus, in a few simple actions link pages are complete for the webmaster’s site.

The webmaster then uses the templates built into the system to mail the webmasters of the other sites. The mail is typically personalised to incorporate the webmaster name and the sites which are proposed to link. Again, the system inputs these details into the draft mail for you.

The mails are then sent. Some webmasters have reported huge increases in their acceptance rate within a week. Those sites that accept will thus have a reciprocal link in place without any further work required. The process takes minutes for potentially hundreds of reciprocal links and can be used time and again on the same or different sites.

In this way the wise webmasters are generating hundreds of reciprocal links within minutes.

Is the age of links dead? Not yet, the age of the reciprocal link delivering competitive advantage is still here, but soon it will be an essential weapon just to exist.

A free download version and detailed reciew of Arelis and other tools are available at Arelis

Paul is the resident expert at Affiliate Marketing City, at Affiliate Marketing City , a site dedicated to the automation of website optimisation and marketing.

More useful articles, tips and tools are available at www.affiliate-marketing-city.com/

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You’ve done your research, written a business plan and created a web site. Now it’s time to market your web business.

Internet Marketing

There are many ways to market a web site. One of the best ways is through search engines and directories. Search engines ensure pre-qualified traffic, meaning that if someone finds your site through a search engine, there is a good chance they are looking for the widgets you are selling. You just have to do you homework on keywords, optimize your site and submit it to search engines correctly.

Organic

There are several types of search engines and directories. A spider search engine uses programs called spiders to go around the web and collect data and bring it back to the engine. The data is then analyzed using various mathematical algorithms and your site appears in various listings. Of course, you want to get to the top of the listings, but that subject is beyond the scope of this article.

PPC

Then there are pay-per-click search engines, which require the site owner to pay for every click received from a list of search terms the site owner provides. Traffic can cost anywhere from a cent to a few dollars per click on pay per click engines. This is a good way to get immediate traffic to your site.

Directories

Then there are the directories, such as Yahoo. These directors have reviewers that check submissions for quality and categorize them in folder-like branches of information. Directories such as Yahoo require a payment for listing, whereas other directories, such as DMOZ, do not. Some directories use a combination of human and spider review as well.

Trading Links

Another way to get traffic to your site is by trading links with other sites. A banner or text link is placed on your site to another relevant site, then you kindly request that a link to your site be placed on the site you have linked to. Link trading has a side benefit, to wit, the more you trade the higher you will appear in organic search engine results.

Brick n’ Mortar

Other methods of web promotion include web rings, banner exchanges, print advertising, banner advertising, TV and radio advertising and good old networking. Far to often, web businesses fail to pursue regular old marketing methods. Don’t make this mistake.

Now that you have a good plan, done some research, provided your service or product for all to see with a web site, and marketed your site to no end, there is nothing left to do but sit back and rake in the cash. Until, of course, your competitors start moving in on your customers and you have to start the cycle all over again.

Halstatt Pires is an Internet marketing consultant with http://www.marketingtitan.com - an Internet marketing firm in San Diego offering automated web site systems through http://www.businesscreatorpro.com

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With the New Year right around the corner, we often resolve to improve our behavior, health, or personal relationships. Let me tell you, you’re wasting your time. I’m OK, you’re OK. It’s our Web marketing that’s a mess.

We’ve got out-of-shape Web sites, directionless Web marketing, and we’re lost at the search engines. It’s time to stop worrying about self-improvement and start worrying about Web marketing-improvement!

While every business has different goals and needs, please consider these twelve items in creating your own Web marketing plan for next year. Rearrange the order to fit your own schedule in 2006.

January: Set up a Web marketing budget. I know, this is your favorite part: the budget. However, once you’ve decided how much money you plan on spending quarterly or monthly, deciding what to spend your marketing dollar on becomes much easier. You’ll also want to carve out some time for your Web marketing endeavors. After all, a lot of the following to-do’s are more about time than money.

February: Audit your Web site (beginner.) Often we’re surprised or dismayed at the material that’s on our Web site: bios of ex-employees, links to sites that no longer exist, a 2001 pricelist. Spend some time reviewing the content on your Web site and get rid of anything that’s out-of-date or no longer expresses who you are. Nothing turns off prospects faster than a neglected Web site.

March: Audit your Web site (advanced.) Review your traffic reports and decide if your navigation needs to be updated. Maybe certain parts of your site are getting a lot of traffic and should be further promoted on the home page. If other sections or pages are being ignored they may need to be removed…or promoted. Fill out all the Web forms (contact, search, etc.,) and read the “hidden text” that appears on landing pages. Rewrite the copy that seems dated or incorrect.

April: Start reading blogs in your industry. Download a newsreader (I recommend NetNewsWire for Mac users) or set up a free account at Bloglines. To find blogs in your industry you can do searches at Technorati or check out BlogCatalog among others. Make sure you’re reading the blogs of your competition and your clients.

May: Start your own blog. You knew that was coming, right? Blogs are becoming an important, perhaps essential, part of business communications. No matter the size of your organization, a blog can be a great way to connect with your clients…and your clients-to-be.

June: Subscribe to your competitors’ email newsletters. This is a fantastic (usually) free resource of advice that is targeted towards your clients. Shouldn’t you know what your competition is recommending? Maybe they know something you don’t!

You probably know many of your competitors already and can visit their Web site to see if they offer an email newsletter. However, you can Google “your industry + email newsletter” to find some ezines that are new to you. (You should also be reading your clients’ newsletters as well; you can’t know too much about their business.)

July: Start your own email newsletter or jumpstart your subscriber rate. If you’re not publishing an email newsletter you’re missing out on one of the most cost-effective Web marketing tools at your disposal. Use an Email Service Provider (ESP) to manage your subscriber list and publish an ezine regularly.

If you’re already publishing an email newsletter try some new ideas to increase your subscriber base . Offer a free article for new subscribers, raffle off a prize to one subscriber each month, or advertise on a complementary newsletter.

August: Troll discussion boards in your industry. There are discussion boards on every topic under the sun, and certainly a few in your industry (or your target audience’s industry.) By reading posts at these discussion boards you can get an understanding of what prospects are looking for and create products or services that meet their needs.

By posting responses you can quickly establish yourself as an expert and create links that drive traffic to your Web site while improving your site’s ranking at the search engines!

September: Start listening to podcasts. The New Oxford American Dictionary named “podcast” its 2005 word of the year, so maybe you shouldn’t wait until September before you tune in.

Whether podcasting ever becomes a part of your Web marketing, it’s important to understand how podcasting works and how other companies (including your competition) use it. Visit the iTunes Music Store or a podcast directory like Podcast Alley and start sampling some podcasts. Not sure where to start? Adam Curry’s PodFinder show (available at the iTunes Music Store) highlights new podcasts each episode.

October: Consider starting your own podcast. I can’t recommend podcasting for every business, or even most businesses. I still believe there are more effective ways to communicate with prospects and clients. However, some businesses will benefit from offering a podcast. Keep in mind your target audience, and whether they will be downloading audio to their computer or mp3 player.

November: Submit some of your articles to article directories. A great way to increase your “findability” at the search engines is to have a lot of quality incoming links. One proven method to do this is to have articles you’ve written appear on other Web sites that link to yours. To get your articles posted at other Web sites check out article directories such as The Phantom Writers and iSnare.

December: Add share this page functionality to some or all of your Web site. As people suffer from information overload, they rely more heavily on the recommendations of friends and family. Make this word-of-mouth advertising easier by allowing site visitors to quickly “share this page” with a friend or colleague. You can even include your own marketing message embedded in the email that arrives at the friends’ mailbox.

Rich Brooks is president of flyte new media (www.flyte.biz) a Web design and Internet marketing firm. He writes an an email newsletter and blogs regularly at www.flyteblog.com on Web marketing. His podcast, flyte: Web strategies for small business, is available at www.flytecast.com.

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