Avoiding Dangerous Traps

In all the things that we go about doing each and every day in business, family or social life, being able to think realistically on our feet is perhaps one of the most important. Failure to do so will result in detrimental effects to the outcome of what we intend to achieve.

Being realistic means that we are focused not only what we are aiming to achieve but also taking into consideration our own abilities and the resources available for us to complete the task at hand. Most people disappoint themselves when they fail at their goals without knowing that they have in the first place subject themselves to completing their targets irrationally. As managers or senior executives in the corporate world, it's imperative that we give our subordinates a chance to develop and grow by being truthful and honest with them when it comes to job performance reviews, instead of being the naive with the goody-old-shoes character.

Another important area which most people fall prey to is timing, due to its complexity in understanding it. Motivational and leadership guru Dr. John C Maxwell sums up timing in the following way. The wrong action at the wrong time equals disaster; the wrong action at the right time equals a mistake; the right action at the wrong time equals resistance, and the right action at the right time equals success.

Whether it be setting up a business, managing a small conference or just planning a family holiday, it is absolutely essential to know the right way, know-how and skills to execute it to achieve your targets.

Product and Service Test-Marketing

Launching a new product or service can be a heart-wrenching chore when you do not make the necessary preparations before the start of your project and conduct proper test-marketing. There are a number of ways in which you can find out if people are really going to buy or use your particular service or product.
First, get a prototype or a sample of the product which you intend to market. Whether it be a service or product, let people touch it, feel it, see it and get an opinion on it. Get your close friends to critique on its usage, standards or even possible short-comings which they foresee with your invention. Similarly, you can even show your creation to potential buyers. After giving your invention a 'test-drive' they would probably be the ones to give you a frank opinion of how your product or service fit into their needs.
Next in line when you do your test-marketing is to determine the prices and delivery dates from your suppliers. You don't want to mess this part up as it will show your inadequacies in fulfilling your customers' demands. A good way to do this is again to get your buyer's opinion on pricing. You might want to check out your competitors' prices and quality build with yours before you attempt to set a particular price or rate for your product or service. At what price would you be willing to pay for a product or service of this quality? The person who will be making the buying decision would be able to give you an answer, so always call on your prospective buyers for an opinion.
Thirdly, do an extensive comparison of your invention with your competitors in the marketplace. Test it on build, quality, ease of usage, convenience etc. Would someone buy from you or from another competitor with a similar product or service range? You might also want to test your product out with a local store and see if they can carry a limited stock for you. From there, you will be able to see how your customers respond to your creation.
One of the most effective ways to do a test-market is to bring your product or service to a trade-show and have your idea displayed to thousands of prospective buyers. There are many sophisticated buyers during these trade shows, most of whom are industry players themselves, and they would be the ones to tell you if you have a winner.
What are some of the things which you can do immediately?
1. Have a product or service prototype created and show it to as many potential buyers as possible, and have them give you their opinion and feedback on it.
2. Check out all your major competitors in the marketplace and answer for yourself why someone would buy from you rather than continue with their local retailer.

The Key to Long Term Success

Countless books, articles, studies and research has been conducted, written and detailed carefully over the centuries on how and why certain groups of people become a great success in life as well as being financially independent during the course of their working lives. Some of the various factors involved include family lifestyle and background, education history, intelligence, influential contacts etc. As we dwelve deeper into all the aspects of personal success development, it would finally dawn upon us that the single most important key is the attitude - more so the attitude of the individual's mind.

Famous Harvard sociologist, Dr Edward Banfield termed this all-important factor "long term perspective". By this he means that the particular successful individual took the pains during the course of his early years to develop a well-planned and systematic layout of what he intends his future would look like. The more detailed he his and the more thought-out his plan of execution, the more successful he will be. In simple terms, the successful person takes the future into consideration with every decision he makes in the present.

Take a look at the legal and medical profession, for instance. The years of gruelling hard work and study, assignments, practical work, apprenticeship has groomed the individual to a level of competence where he is capable of earning a very good living on his own. This long-term perspective has been ingrained in them consciously or unconsciously and has made these sets of professionals one of the most respected in any society today.

How does one start to create such "long-term perspectives"? A simple and sure-fire way is to have a solid set of priorities in your daily life, be it for work, family or social circles. Will what you are doing right now have a significant impact on your life in the future? There is a co-relation when it comes to priorities and success, and it is simply measured by the actions and activities which you are doing in the present. Take for instance, an employee who takes extra night classes on her own to improve her personal confidence in speaking is acting on a long-term perspective. A husband who comes home after a long hard day at work, sits down, chats with his wife and plays with his children is placing a lot of emphasis on family life. He views the importance of quality family time for a rewarding future.

Having a long-term perspective on success also requires one to follow a strict set of guidelines on personal discipline, particularly delayed gratification. With a mind-set of having a little less of enjoyment at the present moment, you will be rewarded in the long run with personal satisfaction and greater success.

Which Internet Business Model is the Right One?

There is a story of a man who was walking down a side alley and fell into a deep uncovered man-hole. As he struggled to get out, he yelled out, "Hey out there, help me get out of here!" A man passing by heard his plea, looked down, and threw him a long stick and left. As the man continued to struggle, a woman passed by and threw him a rope, but still didn't manage to get him out.
A few moments later, his friend walked past and was surprised that he landed up in the man-hole. His friend, Mark, immediately jumped into the dark hole and asked, "What are you doing here? It's dark and difficult to get out. I've been here before, and I can show you the way to get out."
In many ways, starting your online business is like being in the dark hole if you first did not know the facts, do the research, and choose the proper business model to start with. A lot of people, most out of mere sincerity, will be giving you lots of ideas for your business. As there are many profitable business models to choose from, let us explore some of the most popular, tried and tested formulas in the internet marketing industry.
The first business model is the catalog or retailer model. Here, your website functions as an internet or online store where you market items on a particular theme. It will feature product photos, anything ranging from either books, CDs, automotive tools, household items etc. with their descriptions and prices. Your role here is primarily that of a retailer.
The next business model and a highly popular one is the affiliate model. In this model, you become an associate or affiliate selling other people's products, and getting a commission out of every sale. A lot of new internet marketers use this path to gain momentum in their online quest. An example of an affiliate site is Amazon.com where you will be able to source for tons of products to market and profit from. Representing good quality products with a rewarding program and an amazing sales letter on the principal's website is the key and will provide you with good reach for success in this area. This is a highly competitive model and hundreds, if not thousands of marketers are marketing the exact same product as you are.
Becoming an e-Bay seller is the next popular option for a lot of online marketers. As e-Bay is the most trafficked auction site on the Internet today, there are opportunities to do very well here, if your product is highly sought after and very unique. it can be anything from personally written poems to torn and worn jeans to lego sets. The list is endless and is only limited by your imagination.
Perhaps the most used model of all is the Killer Sales Letter model. This requires you to set up a single landing page where you feature your single product with a long,persuasive and compelling sales letter enticing the reader to click on your 'Buy Now' button while they are at your site. As you can imagine, the most important task here is to have an exceptionally well-written sales copy, because this will literally make or break your sale. Killer copywriting skills is indeed very crucial for you to taste any success in this Internet Business Model.
This next Internet Business Model focuses on YOU, as I call it the Expert Model. Basically you will be selling your services as a professional in your particular field, be it in the training, medical, legal, chiropractic, dental, photography or other professional area. Well-written articles on your field of expertise with continuous updates on your newsletters and discussion forums on your website will entice your visitors to seek your consultation and services. As you cannot be at two places at one time, you will then be able to source out other professionals in the same field to become your Associates whereby they can partner you in servicing your clients, thus creating more profits for you.
There are more than ten other effective Internet Business Models which are available and very profitable; however, the models listed above are the ones which has proven very effective for me in my internet business venture. I highly recommend all new and current internet marketers to get a copy of Low-Cost High Profit Internet Business Models as it contains all the top business models available today, as well as providing the pros and cons of each, how to market each particular model and a step-by-step guide to creating your own unique internet marketing campaign.

Online Customer Service

The radio industry took 38 years to gain an audience of 50 million listeners, the television industry reached that figure in half the time, and guess what, the Internet took just a mere four years to surpass that mark! Absolutely incredible. So what has this got to do with Customer Service? Everything, especially so if you are in the online business or your company has a huge web presence. As internet use is almost doubling every 100 days, the opportunity for you to utilize the web to boost and enhance sales and service to your customers is both astounding and unprecedented. So how can you ensure that your online sales and service are web-wise and customer-friendly?
1. Make it easy for customers to find you online. Visibility online takes the form of directory listings, search engine listings, backlinks or links that point people to your site, and several other forms of online marketing. Do you have your company website address on your name card? It's a form of offline advertising and incredible effective in getting traffic to your site.
2. Keep your site navigation simple and clear. A page which takes 2 minutes to load the flash and graphics will turn away lots of potential customers. The web is about speed and convenience, so you want to take full advantage of them having clicked your link and making it easy for them to get the information they want in the shortest time possible.
3. Give reasons for customers to visit your site. Offer tips through newsletters or email, create some resource sites where your customers can connect with companies which compliment their business, publish articles providing the type of information which your customers would be interested in, have a FAQ (frequently asked questions) section where they can access to, a 'Contact Us' form for complaints or suggestions, create a chat or forum for your customers to interact with each other, or set up a teleconference call on a subject of interst to your customers.
4. Answer all your emails promptly and professionally. Nothing is more annoying than posting a support question online to the help center and never receiving a confirmation receipt email from them; worst still when the entire query goes unreplied after two to three weeks. Take note that answering customer emails promptly and professionally is as important as picking up your company phone within three rings.
The time-tested principles that apply to traditional methods of serving customers face-to-face and by phone are just as relevant to the electronic media of email and e-commerce. Being user-friendly, offering quality products and services, standing behind what you sell, and being responsive to customer inquiries and problems are very critical in providing excellent service online.

Starting An Online Business

Ever since some fifteen years back when the internet revolution was just about to go into full swing, many people then still doubted its power. Today, when you mention any of these words - online, internet, website, html, Yahoo, Google, blogging etc, you are more often than not going to receive a reply like - oh yes, it sure is an in-thing nowadays isn't it? Even more and more businesses are resorting to going online to boost their market presence. In fact, it's extremely difficult to discount the hard reality that the internet is indeed a powerful and versatile tool for any business.

If you are one who is a complete stranger to internet marketing, a good idea would be to first source for information on the web about starting a business online. Key in the Google search bar for the keyword you are looking for, e.g. starting a photography business. Your search results will reveal all the sites currently doing photography business. Click on some of the links and view how they promote their products and services. Write down what your goals are if you were to start a business online. What are the key areas which interests you, your hobbies, current work etc. The most successful business is one which you are absolutely passionate and confident about. Then set-up a draft of how your site is going to look like, what are the items you would like to include, for eg. current articles or promotions, newsletters etc. If all these sound too much work for you, there are many other options available. Some of them are joining affiliate programs, blogging for profit, be an eBay or Amazon affiliate, be a reseller of niche products, etc.

There are dozens of internet marketing professionals (be wary of some so-called gurus who haven't even made a decent sale online) each specializing in their own fields, and many of them offers seminars and workshops for newbies who are keen to venture into the lucrative bandwagon. Though you might learn a lot during these sessions, my advice is to tread slowly but surely, and conduct your own thorough research on your desired product or service which you are contemplating on building online. Seek advice from those who have gone the online path, and hear out their techniques on how to prevent mistakes as well as getting the most out of your online marketing campaigns.

Before I started my online business, I was just as stumped with the amount of information available out there. With so many ideas popping in and out of my mind, thanks to the barage of articles, sources, seminars, books, more teleseminars and even more advice from friends, I became totally lost and confused. After months of rubbing my Aladdin's lamp for my genie, I stumbled upon an encyclopedia which I found not only an incredible source of information, but also inspiration, tips and tricks of the trade! Besides presenting you with detailed information about the most popular and tested business models available, it also points out the pros and cons of each option, the ways in which you can market your product or service, the techniques involved, and many others!

Within a week of acquiring all the information in the encyclopedia, I started out my profitable venture in 3 days flat! Yes, you read me right - 3 days. How? My option came with an automated website, fully customizable, loaded with autoresponders, an incredible 24-hour support system with online training and marketing tools. That's not all. I was also able to keep track of my visitors and correspond with each of them personally. There's plenty more bonuses for me in fact, but this is just to give you an idea of how I started my internet business, successfully.

Two things you can do right now:

1. Decide what's right for you. Write down all the possibilities and ideas that come to your mind. Start with your own interests and hobbies and work from there on.

2. Browse through my Internet Business Encyclopedia for more solid ideas and have a look at what excites you.

So, get to work and brainstorm for ideas, NOW.

Expect success and it will come to you!