When you market a new or existing business, you have to be creative in your marketing tactics. You can’t simply throw up a website, submit it to a few spam directories and then sit back and wait for floods of traffic or people to buy your product or service offering. You have to actually use creative marketing strategies – ones that put your site in front of targeted clients day in and day out. And, how do you go about this? You think outside the box.

1. Don’t just write articles – create viral reports. Just about anyone can create a properly search optimized article but not everyone can create a viral report. One that will be read by one person and then passed on or at the very least, talked about for years and years to come. Therefore, focus your efforts on creating reports that last not articles that are long forgotten.
2. Give them something to talk about – reader interaction should be your primary goal with any site you create. You must encourage interaction between your readers and inspire them to participate in blog posts and forums. Not only will this keep them coming back but it too will create a viral effect.
3. Don’t BS – be honest with your readers and they’ll be loyal to you. Don’t give them false expectations on fast riches if you know that it will take them years to build a similar income as yours. Instead, be honest about the amount of work that will be required, type of additional products they’ll need to succeed, whatever – just be honest. For instance, one of our readers owns a popular international pen pals matching service and although he provides members with the platform to meet someone special, he doesn’t blatantly state “you will find the love of your life if you sign up for our pen pal service.” As a result, his members sign up with realistic expectations – they will meet new people and form meaningful friendships when they become a pen pal. They don’t sign up thinking they will meet the love of their lives guaranteed.
4. Give more than you get – when you market you should always give more than you get. Everyone likes free stuff and the more you give away, the more you will get. This includes free samples, books, reports, whatever you can give. By doing this, your site can definitely go viral.

In conclusion, marketing a new or existing business takes creativity. You have to write viral reports, give readers something to talk about, don’t BD and give more than you get. When you do this, you will succeed and your creative marketing strategies will pay off handsomely!

Do you have an online presence? Are your customers’ internet-savvy? If yes, then social media marketing will help your business grow. However, there are other factors you must consider before you fund an all-out social media marketing strategy.

Even if your customers are familiar with the internet, do they connect to any social website? Or do they just use the internet to work and send work?  Even if you know they are not into the socials of being online, you could get them started. Don’t assume that just because most of customers don’t have a Facebook or Twitter account, they can’t get one.

Thus, to make your business grow by using social media marketing, develop your online company profile so it is appealing. It can also boost your trust level ratings and awareness of your business. Social media marketing can be done subtly or in-your-face. An expert in social media marketing can advise you on your approach.

It is also an important marketing strategy because you can reach a bigger market since you have access to not just your corner of the world, but all 4 corners of the globe! Needless to say, a sustained campaign works far better than a once on/ once off kind of marketing campaign. People need to see your company name or products regularly to start believing that your business is not the proverbial ship passing at night.

Did you know that your customers will be more than happy to contact you through your online presence? In fact more than 80% would prefer the quicker internet access than having to call or send snail mail. If you can set up your business to respond quickly, you increase your credibility and goodwill by a huge percent.

If you need responses and feedback on a product you are launching or you want to inform your market of your new promo, using social media marketing can make your campaign go viral. People will “like” what you post, and it passes on to their friends and network. Even those who have no need for your product would suddenly become aware that your product and company exists. For instance, let’s say you own a site teaching people how to unlock iphone. Well, you could add a bunch of tutorials on how to unlock the phone and post videos on Youtube. Next, you could include plugins so that people can “like your post/video” so that they go viral.

Keep in mind that there is more than one social media outlet so you can double or triple your success rate by the number of social networks you allow the social media marketing specialist to use. To answer the question about importance of social media marketing, in business it’s impossible to succeed on a top scale without it.

If you need just one tip on what to look for in a social media marketing specialist, let it be someone who is trustworthy. Knowledge can be learned, experience can be gained but integrity and honesty cannot be improvised or faked. You need to be able to find someone you can trust and partner with as you share your thoughts on growth and marketing ideas. Even new products may leak to your competitors is you’re not careful.

Here are some other tips you will find useful when hiring a social media marketing specialist:

Have an excellent product

Make sure you have something of quality offer. Your world will expand to an international market with discerning taste and a possible encounter with customers who either love to enthuse about a product or put it down for being worthless. As you develop your online presence, you will also be creating a brand name and reputation.

Your product or service will carry the feedback of customers for a long time, so it would be a good idea to get it right the first time around. And a social media marketing specialist should be able to advice you on what may need a little tweaking.  Your product does not have to be perfect, but it has to have value. For instance, let’s say you own a hotel comparison site. Well, you would want to make sure that your site is in order and able to compare hotels before you begin promoting it.

Make sure there’s passion

A social media marketing specialist must have passion for the job. Time won’t matter, only results.

The Marketing Specialist must be driven to learn daily

The internet is a constantly evolving medium. Those in the internet business need to stay on top all the time. They need to know new marketing approaches and updates; they also need to know what doesn’t work anymore. Furthermore, it’s not just about strategies but new technical skills that could make the job easier and quicker. In short, don’t hire someone who relies on one strategy alone.

The Specialist must be approachable and easy to get along with

Unless you are the company and you have no employees, then there shouldn’t be a problem. However, if you have staff, this “new guy” must be able to get along with them so as to make the job easier.  But at the same time, the “new guy” shouldn’t be a push-over but be able to gain the respect of you and your staff.

She/he must be reactive and quick on the draw

There will be times when you need to react fast, and your marketing specialist should be able to come up with solutions and new ideas to deal with the fast-changing pace of the internet. For instance, I once found a client at the internet marketing forum australia and we used a variety of creative marketing strategies (Twitter and Facebook) to get her site the exposure it needed to be successful!

In conclusion, hiring a social media marketing specialist isn’t hard but it does take a bit of patience to find someone suitable. Simply follow the above tips and you too will find a great social media marketing to spearhead your campaign and get you noticed too!

Hello everyone!

Today is January 23, 2012 and it just hit me – tax time will be rolling around pretty quickly. So, its now time to get motivated – to take action and get prepared for tax day. So, before you panic – here are a few tips that I plan on implementing in the next few weeks/month. Tips to make your tax planning easier. Are you ready? Let’s get started.

1. Purchase tax software. If you’re a do-it-yourself tax preparer, it would be a very good idea to use tax software.  I personally use Turbo Tax and have used it for over 5 years now. I’ve also heard some amazing things about H & R Block’s tax software as well. One thing I absolutely love about Turbo Tax is that it is relatively inexpensive and provides you with guidance throughout the process. Plus, you can see your estimated tax refund or obligation as you go, which is very motivating indeed.

2. Gather those receipts. Make sure that you gather all your receipts before you get started. This includes 1099s, mortgage statements, utility bills, web hosting receipts, office supply receipts, and all that jazz. By having all this information before you start, you’ll save yourself a ton of time and energy when you’re preparing your taxes.

3. Get professional help. Although I love doing things my own way, I’ve found that hiring a professional tax preparer is extremely important in making sure that you have not made any errors. For instance, my friend owns an online invoicing software business and he always hires a tax preparer to go over his numbers and last year his prepared saved him over $1,000 bucks. He was then able to take that money and put it back into his business.

4. Give yourself time. Don’t wait until the last minute. Get started with your taxes as soon as you can. In fact, I typically wait until April 14th to get started (just kidding). I usually start in February and since I’m self employed, it typically takes me about a month to get everything together. By starting early, I can get finished way before the deadline and still have time to get professional tax help.

In conclusion, tax time is approaching rapidly but you can get started now. I certainly plan on doing so. How about you?

A few years ago, web 2.0 properties were hot. After all, there was something really incredible about writing posts, putting them on there, getting immediate traffic and making sales without having to search engine optimize or drive traffic to them. OK, you had to do a little of this but not a lot. In essence, these sites stood on their own. They had traffic, were well favored within Google and seemed to make everyone money. Then, something happened, Panda hit and these Web 2.0 properties fell from Big G’s good graces.

In essence, all of my favorite Web 2.0 blog properties tanked and so did my income. In one swoop I lost 50% of my income. For instance,  I used to make $xxxxs per month from one site and now I make only xx. per month. So, you may be wondering, if you should even bother with Web 2.0 properties any longer.

My answer is, it depends on you and what you want to accomplish. If you are using them to generate income, you may want to out the same effort into promoting your own site/blog instead. This way you can monetize them any way you like and can make changes if your income tanks. In contrast, if you’re looking to simply build quality links then keep web 2.0ing it all you like as they still provide quality backlinks that can help push your sites up the ranks.

As for me, I’m going to use Web 2.0 properties for backlinking only while I continue to build up my own sites. Only then will I remain completely in control and being in control is what I love.