When a small business decides to take their business online there are usually several mistakes that they do. This is partially due to lack of experience and often lack of knowledge. There seems to be a trend that small businesses think of their website as an online business card instead of a marketing tool. That is where the majority of them go wrong. So let’s take a look at some of the most common mistakes done when a small business takes their business online.1. Order of linksSo many times you visit a small business website and they proudly flag the “about us” link as their first link. This is called the pride link because they often think that telling people about the company is the most important thing. The links should be in order of importance. Not in the order of the business owners EGO! If you use a website designer and he does consult you on the order of links, chances are you should be using someone else or at least make sure you educate yourself about online marketing because your website designer sure hasn’t!2. No focusMost small business websites lack focus. When you enter you are not sure where to go next which makes it hard for the user to understand exactly what he is supposed to do. The website should flow and the user should be able to make sense of the site within a few seconds of opening it up.3. No sale / No lead setupMany small businesses do not use their website to increase sales directly or capture leads. It is nothing more than an online brochure or business card. Sometimes the information is more confusing than it is helpful. If you competitors site is easier to navigate and captures either the sale or lead, you just lost a client. A small business websites needs to be even more on top of catching leads than a corporate website because every client lost counts more!4. No analyticsMost small business websites have no clue what people do when they enter their site. No clue what users are really looking at and where they are losing their potential sale or lead. If customers just walked in and out of their place of work eyebrows would be raised and something would be done. Shouldn’t the same thought process apply to the site? You need to know what is going on with your small business website and what users are doing.5. No marketing purposeThis is the biggest “Whammy” of them all. Small business websites tend to fail seeing the potential of using the website as a complete marketing tool. The fundamental reason to take a business online would be to do marketing. The lack of marketing vision explains the mistakes from above. If just this single piece was in place when a small business builds their website, many of the other things would be solved because they would educate themselves about what it means to have a marketing tool!6. No results!This is no surprise considering everything above. If there is no purpose, no focus, no vision and no marketing thought behind the site then there are probably no results from the site either. What is even worse is that most small business websites do not even measure results or understand how to measure results from their site. Once again it is a lack of understanding more than anything!So what can a small business do when they are ready to take their business online and setup their small business website? The most important thing is to educate themselves in a few areas. The most important ones being, what you need to consider before building or having someone build your website. How to use the website as a marketing tool and it would be extremely beneficial to you if you at least had some understanding of what SEO is and how it works. What is the difference between a website designer, website developer and an online marketing company? All of them do different things and have a different understanding of how to use the internet; the question is what purpose is your website supposed to serve? For most it should be a marketing tool, because the internet is the most effective marketing tool available!
7 Ways to Ensure Success With an Online Education Degree
The ability to obtain an online education degree has opened the educational doors for many students who cannot afford to attend school on campus as a full-time student. Distance learning courses definitely provide some advantages over the traditional college education. But, because of the methods of delivering and receiving the material, students must consider the 7 things necessary in approaching an online education successfully.
1. Choosing the best education online institution – Make sure the institute for higher education chosen has adequate resources and accreditation recognized by the proper authorities. Unless authenticity can be verified, find another school. Sadly, unscrupulous degree mills offer degrees with short-term or no real education. Thus, the diplomas are bogus and absolutely worthless. Find a school that provides solid education, ample student support, and the facilities necessary to succeed in your distance learning.
2. Check the cost vs. benefit – Many students don’t check the cost-benefit factor before enrolling into an online education degree college. We are all aware that acquiring an education requires huge amounts of money. But a smart move is to first compare with what the future earning potential of your profession will be once you earn the degree. Once you figure this out, only then would you determine if it makes sense to acquire an online education degree.
3. Degree validation by employers – No wonder many employers are wary of online degrees. With bogus institutions literally selling degrees, employers have good reason to be doubtful and cautious. Therefore, immediately alleviate any potential misgivings by your prospective employer by offering verification of accreditation through an agency sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Education and CHEA.
4. Discipline, determination, and time – First time distance learning students are often surprised by the amount of discipline necessary to stay on task and complete the online assignment. It takes unfaltering determination to achieve an online education. In addition, without regularly scheduled classes, it is essential to exercise good time management skills. To keep focused, without the physical presence of educator and peers, it is important to establish communication with other students to have another push toward success in your education degree online
5. Utilize all the facilities provided by your college – Many education degree online courses provide online lectures and email access to facilitate communication among students, lecturers and administration staff. It’s important to take full advantage of these services as they keep you “connected” with your accredited online college. It helps further your motivation in your studies when you make use of these facilities to stay in touch.
6. Make use of credit transfers – Many online education degree colleges allow students to transfer their credits from courses they took in previous colleges, whether online or traditional. By doing this, it means students don’t have to repeat courses they learnt before. For this to be effected, it’s important for a student who intends to pursue an education online to make sure they get transcripts and results from their previous universities or colleges and make them available to their accredited online college so they can be passed as transfer credits.
7. Take advantage of technology to complete your class work – Another factor for online education degree success is the opportunity to take advantage of all the conveniences that technology provides. Many accredited online colleges provide students with online digital libraries, databases and resources that a student can use to complete their course work and assignments. In most instances the cost of these facilities is already included in the tuition fees. Thus it makes good sense to make full use of these resources to your advantage.
10 Ugly Truths About MLM Home-Based Businesses
Open your email inbox and you will read dozens of email that promise fame and fortune today. Well maybe not fame but lots of fortune. No one will tell you the ugly truth about your MLM Home-based Business, until today. Here are the 10 ugly truths about MLM Home-Based Business.
You will not make money over night. There I said it. The secret is out. No matter what you hear from the hype on the Internet you can’t make serious money over night. Your income from sponsors or affiliate links is depended upon someone else buying the product just like you did. While you may have made the decision quickly most people don’t. Allow time for your business to grow. How much time depends on how much action you take.
You need to work harder than the average Joe. Lets face it if Internet marketing were easy than 97% of people doing it would succeed. But it is the opposite. You will need to work harder than 97% of the people out there doing their own MLM Home-Based Business. Fortunately for you that is not very hard since most people give up after 30 days.
Marketing training is the key to success. Joining your MLM business is not the end of your learning, but only the beginning. You must become a student of marketing and your business. You are marketing You, Inc. The better you do that the more success you will have. If you come from a marketing background you have a jump on everyone, if you don’t you will need to get to work.
Focus on one marketing strategy until mastered before trying another. There are some many marketing strategies that work on the Internet that you can lose your focus and begin to jump from one strategy to another. Pick one that appeals to you and focus on that strategy until you master it. You can continue learning about other strategies but keep you focus and marketing dollars on the one until you get at least 20 to 50 leads per day from it.
You will need to pick-up the telephone. Yes you will need to talk to people. You are building a team and you are the leader. You can’t lead from behind the curtain. You need to establish a relationship with your prospect. The better you are at talking to people on the phone the more success you will have.
Test your marketing and record the results. You need to constantly test your marketing copy and the results it brings. Keep good records so you can see how your marketing is doing. Use tracking codes and subdomains to track how well a particular copy does.
You must the right mindset. You need a winning mindset. You must be positive about your business so you can help others. Looking at the world of abundance will free your mind to think in terms of giving before receiving. You want to grow your business but that can only truly happen when you help others grow their business.
Have a marketing plan. You need a road map to your success and a marketing plan is that map. Layout what marketing strategy you will use, what copy, budget and expected results. Then monitor your plan and adjust it as needed until you get results.
You need a mentor. Everyone needs someone they can go to with questions or concerns about their business. Someone who has been in the trenches and can help you over the rough patches.
Never quit and you will always win. If you never quit then you will always win, timing is the only question. Consistent, persistent action everyday until you win. Not giving up when after 3 months or 6 months or 12 months. Working until you succeed.
You can’t start a MLM Home-Based Business and expect to have riches pour in the following week without taking massive action. Sorry, I purchase too many of those programs only to find out that I needed to learn a new marketing technique and implement my own plan. Whatever your MLM business is learn it backwards and forwards. Become an expert in it and market yourself as an expert that can help others in their business. Take these 10 ugly truths and make them a part of your business and you will succeed.