Several months ago I went on the cruise from hell. It wasn't advertised as a cruise from hell, but instead as an opportunity to check out a networking club, to have fun, to see what this particular group had to offer . . . but make no mistake, it was the cruise from hell. A THREE HOUR CRUISE . . . A client of mine insisted I go on this evening cruise as her guest. She'd been talking about this group, and about how I should come to a meeting and sign up, about how much it would benefit me. She was insistent, and not easily dissuaded....

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I was writing the final chapter of my book on website marketing a few weeks ago and was wondering how far I'd progressed with it so I ran a word count. 44559 words. And you know what this told me? Precisely nothing. Nothing of the tips and advice contained in the book or its likelihood of becoming the next global Bestseller. Last week I looked in the mirror at the 30 year old staring back at me and thought: "30? What does this number actually mean though?" Precisely nothing. Hey Numb Nuts! Do You Know The Number Of Numbers That Are Numbing Your Thinking?...

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There are many people every day jumping into the online world. With more and more people using the internet the floodgates of internet users are opening wider everyday. But how, as a home business owner, can you expect to compete with the "big dogs" of the internet and dip your cup into the profits as well? There are a ton of tips and tricks that people will tell you are the "best" way to advertise your home business??. But do them incorrectly or choose the wrong methods and all you'll really end up doing is increasing your frustration, not your traffic or your sales....

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Yes folks, there is a way of making absolutely certain-sure that you have developed a winning product. Do you want to know how to do this? You do? Well, it's quite simple: You allow the punters to tell you whether or not they want your product. The punters will pretty soon tell you whether or not they want to buy or not. Either you will get lots of orders, or you will just about break-even, or you will hardly get any orders at all. You just wont know until you test! Now, do you want to know the single most powerful piece of information in the product development and/or direct marketing business?...

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I recently posted an article titled "Internet Marketing and Public Speaking: Ten Tips for When the Twain Shall Meet." One of the tips concerned a means to practice your sales presentation with a "Murder Board." I received several emails requesting a fuller explanation of this practice method. I decided to write two explanatory articles, so vital is this method to improve one's public speaking, specifically in preparing a presentation aimed at selling off-line your on-line product....

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The most basic question any Internet business owner will have to answer at one point or another?"what should I sell?". After the settling down of the dot-com bubble, sanity checks have brought realistic expectations to the fore. Initially, a backlash was seen, forecasting the doom of the Internet. Finally, merits have made the Internet gain its rightful place. In breakthroughs that show the promise of e-commerce wasn't all smoke and mirrors, four dot-coms recently reported their first quarterly profits....

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Article marketing is the latest buzzword for marketers looking to promote their sites and products online. But how do you measure the success of your article marketing campaign? It probably depends on what you expect your article to achieve for you - better branding, more sales, or more publicity. One way to measure article performance is to check how many times your article has been picked up and reproduced on various sites. To do that, just copy and paste the article title in quotes into a search engine like Google, and you'll see how many sites it's been reprinted on....

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Direct marketing is built on four things. The other way to look at it is that when you think direct marketing is not working only one of four things can be wrong. Let's look at each. 1. The Target - This is who you are sending your marketing to. The target is your list and the list is your market. These are the people most interested in what you have to say, what you have to offer and what you have to sell. These are interested prospects, hopefully, that will want what you have to sell. If this group does not want or need what you have then your target needs changed....

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When marketing themselves to leads and prospects there are five common mistakes people make, all which can be easily avoided by finding the right balance to maintain your personal and professional integrity in all pursuits. Five common mistakes many people make are; 1. Talking too much. Enthusiasm sells! But don't talk too much about yourself - focus on your prospects needs and wants and how you can solve their problems. 2. Not listening. All good marketers have exceptional listening skills....

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As a business professional, you probably realize the value of writing articles for print publications to telegraph your expertise. Have you considered that writing articles for online publications can build even more buzz for your business? Some professionals dismiss online articles because they lack the prestige of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Yet online articles have a distinct advantage in that they are searchable by keywords. This means prospects using keywords matching your area of expertise can be taken to your website within seconds....

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Cat Fancy magazine, ESPN, and the Oxygen website each target a specific segment of the market: cat lovers, sports enthusiasts, and women, respectively. Next, we narrow the target audience further into niche or specialty markets. Harley Davidson, Barbie, and Macintosh computers each appeal to a specialty area of the market. The bottom of the funnel is the customized or one-to-one area of the funnel. The consumer being on a first-name basis with the product or service provider often characterizes these markets....

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Have you ever studied your best donors and wished you could clone them all? Maybe you can, with a bit of creative thinking. 1. Friends of current supporters The first place to look is friends, family and colleagues of your current supporters. The odds are good that your most generous and faithful donors have friends or co-workers or family members who will want to support your cause as well. 2. Clients Another source of new donors is your clients, the people that your organization serves. Naturally, if your clients are homeless or poor, they are not prospects for donor appeal letters....

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You can love it or you can hate it but there is no escaping trade shows in a business environment. If you happen to be in the Sales and Marketing division in an industry where trade shows are a part of the marketing plan, it is more than likely than not that you will be involved in them sooner or later. Trade shows have been an excellent forum for generating awareness of the products and services of a company as well as generating leads in the short run. If you are an entrepreneur or a sales professional entrusted with the task of participating in a trade show, you should consider two major points while choosing the perfect trade show booth: Location and neighbourhood....

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