Archive for the ‘business’ Category

Newsletters and shopping carts are two of the most used services for websites today.  It seems like everybody has something they want to sell for their business whether it’s a physical product or a downloadable product so they turn to their websites to increase sales.

As a website owner you also want to keep your clients and customers informed with what’s going on in your business and portray yourself as the expert in your chosen field so you start a newsletter.

The most popular service for both a shopping cart and a newsletter is by far 1SC (1Shopping Cart). After all, spending $99/month to offer a newsletter, physical products and downloadable products seems like a steal considering how much you believe you will earn from your products.

The truth is it takes time to get a website found online and even when it does get found, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your visitors will purchase your products.  You have to have a superior product and portray that throughout your website.  Your newsletter has to have something of interest for it to get subscribers.

Depending on what you charge for your product, it could take you a long time to just break even when paying $99/month. What if there was an alternative to that costly monthly fee?

There is and it’s called Virtuemart and Acajoom. Virtuemart and Acajoom are made specifically for the CMS, Joomla and they are both free.

Virtuemart-

Virtuemart is a fully functional, high powered shopping cart made specifically for Joomla.  Some of the features it includes are:

• Shopper groups-this allows you to be able to offer discounts to customer A but not customer B.  This is a great feature so that you can offer discounts to repeat customers.
• Multiple currency
• Shipping address based tax calculation
• Unlimited number of products
• Online Catalog
• Featured products
• RSS feeds to update subscribers on new products
• Easily add and remove products
• Live credit card processing or pre-defined payment gateways like paypal, authorize.net and more

Acajoom-

• Unlimited subscribers
• Subscription through URL
• Create a default HTML template for each mailing
• Unlimited lists, you can have a list for marketing tips, a list for startup tips, a list for whatever you want and have different subscribers to each.

You may be saying it’s great that all this stuff is free but I already have a website so I don’t want to redo it.  That’s perfectly understandable.

It will cost you approximately $900 or less to get a full-featured shopping cart, newsletter manager, and easy to update website. With 1SC, you are STILL going to either have to put in a LOT of work to set it up, template it, configure it, load the products, etc. In fact, the SAME amount of work that is required for a Joomla site. And you’ll have to either do the work, or pay for it, at about the same rate.

The real comparison is not in setup fees – those are the same. The real comparison is in monthly. A Joomla/VM setup can be maintained for $35 or less per month, and with that, you can often get assistance and advice on how to actually EARN with the site. Compared to 1SC, that’s a significant savings.

Let’s do the math:

Shopping cart and newsletter using 1SC-$99/month
Joomla, Virtuemart and Acajoom-$35/month
1SC for 1 year-$1188
Joomla, Virtuemart, and Acajoom for 1 year-$420
That’s a difference of $768 for 1 year

The proof is in the math.

I understand change is tough. Especially when you have virtual assistants, coaches, marketers etc telling you to stick with 1SC but the truth is, you could really be costing your business a lot of unneeded money waste.

If you don’t mind wasting thousands of dollars to keep in touch with your clients and sell your products online because 1SC is the “norm,” then more power to you. But if you are looking for a cost-effective, long-term solution to your newsletter and shopping cart needs, give us a call and we can help you decide which solution is right for you.

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One of the best ways to get your name out there and get more clients is to hold a seminar either online or offline. When you hold a seminar, it shows that you are an expert in your field.  However, in order to hold a seminar that will actually help you, it has to be about something of interest to people.

For example, unless you are targeting other coaches, it is not enough to just hold a seminar about being a coach.  You have to hold a seminar that is more focused such as how to get ahead of the crowd in business, how to gain self-confidence, or how to handle the more difficult aspects of business.

Potential clients don’t care so much about what you do; just how you do it and it works. They want to know that if they implement your strategies and ideals, they will get where they want to be. Once they start implementing your teachings and they see that they work, you will start to get referrals to your business.

If you want to use a Seminar for promoting your services, then the promotion of the services should be only on the edges, not the central content. For example, announcing at the beginning, who you are, and what you do. And then a short suggestion at the end, that they can get more, and where. If you hold an offline seminar, then bring handouts that are branded to give your attendees more info on what you offer, and keep the sales pitches out of the content. The majority of the time you spend should be on TEACHING, not on promoting. This is especially important if you charge for the seminar.

If you do a seminar about your industry and not actually teach them anything, they will come away feeling as if they were cheated and feel as if they just paid to sit through one great big huge advertisement.

For offline seminars, bring your own branded pens, and prepare a printed handout. Put some useful tips on the handout – not your whole presentation, but some nice “ah-ha” bullet points or tips that are useful even if someone DIDN’T attend your seminar. Brand it at the bottom with your logo, contact info, and a short line about what you do. Leave the back blank – for note taking. This handout can serve two purposes – combined with the pens, you just handed people a way to take notes. Plus, you’ve given them a sharable info sheet – bring extras, and invite your audience to share them with friends. If you just hand out business cards or brochures, it won’t have nearly the power it does if you prepare something about the seminar and send them home with that.

The secret to a good seminar is giving your attendees the feeling of empowerment. They need to feel as if they have learned something.

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Recently I had a problem with Dish Network and their billing practices.  To make a long story short, I had three months worth of free HBO/Showtime coming to me from December 3, 2009 to March 3, 2010.  After March 3, 2010 they would bill me for the channels if I didn’t cancel them.  I got my bill for February service and they charged me for HBO/Showtime.  I questioned them and they told me there was a glitch in their system for the previous month and I received the three credits on that bill instead of them breaking it down to two credits last month and one credit this month so I have to eat that cost because I only paid what my bill from last month said I had to. During the whole ordeal that I faced with Dish Network they turned it around to make it seem as if it was my fault because I paid the amount my bill said last month. Needless to say, I was infuriated by this whole scheme. I felt as if I was being scammed and there was nothing I could do about it and I felt betrayed by a fellow business.

As a business owner, you have to take responsibility for your billing practices.  If that means that your billing system had some glitches in it and a client was under charged, then it is your responsibility to get in touch with that client and explain the situation.  Most of them will be very understanding.  They will appreciate the fact that you made the effort to inform them of your mistake so that they are not in for a shock when they get their next bill.

Those who get upset with you and refuse to pay it, then you may just have to eat that cost. After all, it was your mistake.  It is unethical to just spring an additional charge on a client without informing them because you made a mistake.  Sure the mistake may cost you a lot of money but I guarantee that mistake wouldn’t happen again.

A consumer has the RIGHT to expect that the charges their bill states are the correct charges.  It IS the responsibility of the consumer to make sure the bill is correct. But it is the responsibility of the business to make it right if errors are pointed out. Mistakes happen – we know that. But good businesses take the responsibility instead of trying to push it off onto the customer.

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Yesterday I was working with a software program that I have been working with for 6 months now and I felt pretty confident that I knew everything about it.  I found out there are always little things that surprise you. 
 
I was trying to change a color on the template I was making and couldn’t find the setting.  I finally tried a setting that according to it’s description had nothing to do with the color I was trying to change, and voila it worked.  Now I no longer had an awful green color or yellow color within a blue, purple and gray site.
 
Glad I was able to change it because the green looked just AWFUL and clashed really bad with the site.

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So many people want to get a piece of the business owner pie that they are willing to try anything to get it. The sad reality is that either they spread themselves too thin by taking on all the affiliates and MLMs that they can find just trying to make a buck or they get taken in by those companies that say “do this and you will receive a 6 figure income by tomorrow” or “help me sell my stuff by becoming an affiliate and you can start making a ton of money.”  They make it sound so good and so easy that you can hardly believe that you could be so lucky that you found it and you sign up for them.  Sorry to burst your bubble but if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs can be great if you believe in what they are selling.  Meaning, you have tried it and you fell in love with it immediately and you want to tell the world about it and make a couple bucks doing it. But don’t expect to get rich from them.

You have to promote your affiliates just like you would with any other business that you would have.  It’s not as simple as getting the links and putting them up on a website and getting people to purchase it through you.  You have to remember there are several other people that are also affiliates of that company who are also trying to get money by spreading the word not to mention the company themselves getting purchases.

I am an affiliate of an organization and I get $50 every time somebody becomes a member of it by clicking on the link on my website.  It’s great when I get an email stating that I just got $50 and I didn’t have to do anything.  However, in the three years that I have been a member and had my link up on my site, I have gotten a total of $200.  That’s not a lot in three years but I love what the organization does and I believe it is worth it so I graciously keep it on my website. I could definitely make more from it if I promoted it but I don’t because that is not my main business.  I do not want to focus on getting money through an affiliate I want to focus on getting clients for my main business.

MLMs

There are some that are legit but the majority of them are scams and/or illegal. They are the biggest offenders of “become a member of my team and you can earn a six figure income immediately” type advertising.

There are two types of MLM companies – those that are legit and have complied with the FTC and state regulations, and those that have not. If you cannot ask for and promptly receive financial information on the company that is promoting it, and statistical data on success rates of the participants, then it is ILLEGAL.

Even the legal ones are generally fraught with problems. The very structure limits your ability to earn, even though they tell you it increases earning potentials. Most MLM and Direct Sales companies (there really ISN’T a difference – MLM means Multi-Level Marketing, so any distributorship or consultancy that pays you a commission on downline sales IS in fact, MLM), have restrictive policies that limit your ability to sell or promote well. You still have to work it like a business, and it still takes time to build.

The REAL truth about MLM is that if you cannot sell the PRODUCT, you cannot earn at it solely by sponsoring. In fact, companies that say you can, are ILLEGAL (it is against FTC terms, as it classifies it as a pyramid [Ponzi] scheme). Any MLM company has to have a product that can sell well. Otherwise, it folds. Health Drinks and Supplements are VERY hard to sell, in spite of all of the companies telling you theirs is revolutionary and that they “sell themselves”. They don’t.

Purchase A Domain Name And Make Money

Some people believe that they can purchase a domain name and then make money off the ad revenue but the truth is, the payment received is so low that they will be paying more for the domain and hosting then they will make.

A website will not make money if there is no traffic to it and a website needs content to drive traffic to it.  If there is no content there is little to no traffic to the site-hence, little to no income.

You can be an affiliate; part of an MLM, purchase a domain name and try to make money from it and have a regular service/product type business and you still won’t make enough money to be successful.  The reason for this is that you are spreading yourself to thin.

You have to pick one maybe two things that you are definitely passionate about and focus on promoting and making that successful and let everything else simmer in the background.  If you spread yourself too thin, you end up frustrated because it has been months maybe even years that you have been a part of them all and you still aren’t making enough money to get by.

When you decide on a business, make sure you thoroughly enjoy that business and you aren’t just doing it because that’s all you know or because of the promise of great wealth quickly. Do it because you feel passionate about it from the heart.

The truth about business (any business) is you will not get rich overnight from it.  I have said this many times before; just hanging an open for business sign over your “door” will not get business.  You have to work at it and promote it.

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