The WAHM Shack Blog

by Mark A Briody

Every website owner wants to believe that their site is unique, but for the most part there are hundreds of sites selling the same products or services with very little uniqueness between them. The key to uniqueness is in your internet marketing campaign. You must not only tell your potential customers what you have to offer that’s unique from others, you must also offer something they need to change a personal situation. All of this begins by first getting traffic to your website. Every website achieves this in their own way. Here are 15 ways to bring traffic to your website:

1. Submit to the search engines - There are many big search engines including Google, MSN, Yahoo, Ask, AltaVista, Alexa, and more. You can either submit manually or you can use a paid service. Don’t multi-submit the same site in a short period of time, as this could get your site blocked.

2. Submit to Google Reader - Submit your site’s RSS to Google reader and it will quickly be crawled by the Google Blog Search.

3. Use My Yahoo Service - Here you can submit your website’s RSS feed on My Yahoo to assist your website in quickly getting indexed.

4. Submission to web directories - Submit to the top web directories like Yahoo Directory, or dmoz. There are other directories, so hunt them out.

5. Use pinging services - Use a pinging service such as ping-o-matic each time you add new content to your site. This will give you more visibility and extra links for your website.

6. RSS submission - Add your blog or website to the many RSS submission directories and search engines. You might not be able to submit to all, but you should be able to submit to plenty. Use one of the directories as a tool.

7. PPC programs - Pay per click is a form of advertising that can get great results for your site. When you use PPC, your site gets listed in the sponsored sections on the search engines. All of the search engines such as MSN, Yahoo, or Google offer this type of advertising.

8. Comments on blogs and forums - Making comments on the other blogs and websites of others is a nice niche that allows you get some very valuable one way links to your website. These comments need to be of value or you can expect webmasters to quickly remove them. Not only should your comments add value, they should be unique and not spam. In other words, don’t write something like “nice site.” Good comments bode well for your site, as other visitors will read these comments.

9. Article submission - this is one of the fastest grown components of bringing traffic to a website. It brings in one way links too. Articles are submitted to article banks and when others find the information informative, they are likely to use the link at the bottom leading to your website. Goarticles, findarticles, ezinearticles, and articlecity are just a few of the sites available.

10. Squidoo and Hubpages - You can go to these sites to create your hubs and lens. In under a half hour you can get this up and running.

11. E-mail signature - Linking back to your website using an email signature. You can use this signature on all your outgoing email. It’s a great way to create a traffic flow to your site and it’s completely free.

12. Social Media Marketing - This is one of the fastest growing forms of internet marketing. Sites like Digg, Facebook, Reddit, My Space, and Newsvine all offer great opportunities for your website.

13. Press Releases - Are free and a great tool for building traffic to your site and branding your name, as well as what you offer. If you think this has to be complex, you’d be wrong. You simply have to be able to write good copy that gets printed.

14. Traffic Exchange Programs - There are all kinds of traffic exchange programs on the net. All you have to do is a quick search on one of the search engines and you’ll have a long list. It’s a good way to get traffic to your site.

15. Yahoo Answer Services - Answerbag and Allexperts are question answer systems. You can go through the posted questions and when you provide an answer, you get a link. This is a terrific internet marketing tool.

There you have it - 15 ways to bring traffic to your website - an important part of your internet marketing.

If you’re consistently confused and need a little guidance with internet marketing. Take note: As a prominent internet marketer from Australia I’ve developed a totally free internet marketing course for struggling online marketers which can be found at The Free Internet Marketing Guide. This course was developed with the beginner in mind and as the author I am always contactable to help.

Article Source: The WAHM Shack Article Directory

THIS ARTICLE is Free for reprint only if it remains unchanged and in its entirety, the Author’s Resource Box AND our Article Source Credit URL are included, and ALL links are made active.

by Michelle Howe

Just the other day I had to go grocery shopping and I met a young lady outside the store entrance who was a representative of a nonprofit collecting food for a local food bank. I noticed that she already had food items filling two shopping carts. She asked me if I would consider buying some food items for the non-profit organization while I was doing my own grocery shopping today, as she handed me a bright blue plastic bag with a flier about the organization.

She appeared startled when I reacted in such an excited and buoyant manner. “Why, your current idea and actual actions are absolutely admirable,” I remarked. “It was brilliant!” She did not ask me for money, she asked instead for just what she needed (food) and made herself available at a place where she can be sure that I can deliver.

It was easy to decide and donate to her; she made it almost a “no-brainer.” The only thing I had to do was do my own shopping and fill my bright blue bag with groceries as well, then hand her the blue bag as I exited the store. I didn’t need someone to come to my house for a pick up, or have to drive to another location or call a phone number. I went in, I came out, and I was finished.

The story is a proof that you don’t have to make marketing complex or tough. These techniques are really simple, and if you break them down into simple steps, anyone can use it to create effective online marketing.

Know Where Your Audience Is

Like the grocery store example, people who come there normally have the money and already prepared to buy food. If your target audience has the money and desire to buy, where do they turn?

It is always easier to make a sale after people have already reached the stage of making a decision to buy, and are now selecting the kind of products they need, as opposed to whether to buy it or not. Right after you have made the sale, you have an opportunity to make another, but most people don’t realize it.

Do not complete your sale with only a page saying “Thank-you;” instead offer them a chance to make another purchase. In all probability their credit card is still out of their pocket when you show them a page which shows a product or products related to the one they just bought. It’s the very old line that consistently works well, “Now that you have purchased this, what else can I sell you?” — similar to “Would you like fries with that?”

Backup your offer

People want to know and feel that they are going to make a right decision. Noticing that other people were profiting from the product, made it an easy sell to others. Seeing that other people have already donated food made me confident that I am doing the right thing when the representative of the nonprofit approached me outside of the grocery store.

Your sales through your website will increase if you have a forum for buyers to post their reviews of your products. You will also improve your credibility with your potential customer. The very fact that you are ready to publish all reviews irrespective of whether they are good or bad, will give your customers the confidence to deal with your company, and your product.

Yet another way is to create a short demo video in which a successful person can endorse your product. For most people that are visually induced to learn, to have them see how a product works is an excellent way to market your idea or product.

Make it Easy for Your Customer to Deal with You

If you don’t make it difficult, most people would want to do business with you online. Examine how many steps it takes for you to make a purchase off of the site. You will probably lose customers if it takes more than three clicks to complete a purchase.

Potential online customers are looking for a streamlined ordering process. If you make it easy for the customer, they will be more likely to buy. The moment she gave the blue plastic bag to me, I knew just what to do and how to go about doing it. For the two of us it was a good result.

Conclusion

Marketing information should not sound like a sales pitch. Even though it’s product information your audience asks for, their real need is to be able to trust that they are making their purchase from a reliable source, and that they are right in making that decision.

Michelle Howe, MBA, president of Internet Word Magic, specializes in writing irresistible copy for websites. Transform the way you do business. Visit her website at www.InternetWordMagic.com for a FREE chapter download of her new book “Turn Browsers into Buyers”.

Article Source: The WAHM Shack Article Directory

THIS ARTICLE is Free for reprint only if it remains unchanged and in its entirety, the Author’s Resource Box AND our Article Source Credit URL are included, and ALL links are made active.

by Bill Miller

Every blog needs readers to remain profitable. You need people laying eyes on your blog to make sales. But many blog readers prefer to read your blog through RSS. These readers may never see your blog, but crafty bloggers know how to make RSS subscribers come to their blog. So don’t ignore RSS subscribers, they can be the difference between a profitable blog and a ho-hum blog.

Here are 7 tricks to increase your RSS subscribers:

Start a contest for RSS Subscribers only. Many bloggers have used this technique very successfully. People will want to take part in the contest and sign up so they can participate.

Publish RSS Subscriber only posts. Other bloggers have used this baiting technique to get people to sign up to their RSS feeds. All you do is every once in a while, publish a list or a list of tips only to your RSS subscribers. Make sure you post about these “special tips” to your regular readers on your blog. This will make them sign up so they don’t miss out on the special tips.

Submit your RSS feed to RSS directories. There are many RSS directories out there. You need to submit your RSS feed to each of them. To find them, just go to Google and type in ‘list of RSS directories’. It will be time consuming, but well worth it!

Use those RSS Subscription icons. Yes, they do help! These icons make it very easy for readers to your blog to sign up under their favorite RSS reader. If you make your readers work to get signed up to your RSS feed, many won’t go to the trouble.

Publish your feed count. If you have over one hundred RSS subscribers, show the feed count. Other bloggers seeing that other people have signed up to your feed feel that they should also. It’s a funny thing, the more RSS subscribers you have, the easier it is to get them.

Use Full RSS feeds. If you make your RSS subscribers click on a “more” link to finish reading your blog post, many will unsubscribe. Make it easy for them to read your entire blog post by publishing full RSS feeds.

Use FeedBurner and sign up email subscribers. I use FeedBurner so that my readers can sign up with their email. Some just prefer to read the post in their email, so I make it easy for them. It only takes a second to put a sign up form on your blog.

RSS subscribers are a very profitable part of any blog. Learn how to increase your RSS subscribers and watch your profits go up. Don’t let these people get away!

The website AffiliateWatcher.Com brings you these traffic tips. He reviews affiliate programs and other money making ventures that helps beginners get started in Affiliate Marketing. You may also enjoy his popular article on how to make quick cash online in a week!

Article Source: The WAHM Shack Article Directory

THIS ARTICLE is Free for reprint only if it remains unchanged and in its entirety, the Author’s Resource Box AND our Article Source Credit URL are included, and ALL links are made active.

If you’ve been working from home using the Internet for any length of time, then you’ve likely heard about information products. Perhaps you’ve even purchased some, or maybe you’ve even thought about creating your own.

The reason information products are so popular, is because it means that you only have to do the work once and you can continually make money from that same product over and over again. Once you have it set up, it’s basically hands-off.

Your shopping cart system will take care of all the orders automatically, even if it’s 2am. That means you have more free time to do the things you enjoy, without sacrificing your income. I mean, no matter what type of business you have, whether you sell products, services, or are an affiliate marketer, adding information products to your business is a great way to create passive income.

Unfortunately, it can take a lot of time and money to create your own product, and if you’re currently running a business, then you may not feel as though you have what it takes to pull it off.

However, there is a way that you can sell information products without investing a lot of time and money. You may have even heard of it . . . PLR eBooks are a great way to sell a ready-made product. But I can tell you from experience, there aren’t a lot of good membership programs out there. Most of it is rehashed garbage that you don’t want your name on, and the ebooks are on a wide variety of topics, like rock climbing and how to breed small dogs.

If your target market is moms, then the chance that you’ll actually be able to sell those types of ebooks to your current market is slim to none. I’ve never come across a tightly niched PLR eBook membership, until now!

Wendy Wood has taken over the very first PLR eBook Membership for work at home moms. Her membership is designed specifically for wahms who market to moms. That means that every eBook is on a topic of interest to moms, which makes it super easy for you to sell these eBooks to the market you already have.

Whether you sell products or services, you can use this PLR eBook membership to create a stream a passive income without spending a lot of time or money. Each month you’ll have access to a quality PLR e-book, sales page, graphics, ecourse to promote your e-book, and so much more! CLICK HERE to learn more about MomPLReBooks.com.

by Henriette Martel

Have your product sales slowed down?

Do you want to give a new lease of life to one of your digital or small-ticket products?

At home, I’ve earned the title of ‘Queen of the left-overs’. Did you know that left-over spaghetti sauce can be recycled? Add a bit of cumin and chili, it becomes taco sauce; mixed with a bit of white sauce, you have a lasagna sauce; add a few veggies, wrap the lot in puff pastry and you get a pastie, etc.

Using the same principles, you can recycle a product and market it using a different mix: change your promotion, sell it elsewhere, use it to barter, bundle it with another product, etc.

Start recycling a product using one of the following strategies:

1 - Auction your product on eBay or another auction site. How much are customers prepared to pay for your product? Use this strategy to research your market and to experiment with a new selling outlet. Who knows, people in their bidding frenzy may pay more than you ever imagined!

2 - Reposition your product. Review your promotional and pricing strategies and give your product a new image. Change your sales letter (including words and graphics), add testimonials, increase or lower the price, etc. Now sell your ‘new’ product.

3 - Offer your product as a bonus with the purchase of another product. Sell the bundle as ‘this month’s special’, ‘buy one get one free’ or ‘value pack’. The bonus should boost your sales especially if you point out the dollar value of the bonus e.g. ‘valued at…’ and add a sense of urgency ‘limited time offer till (date)’.

4 - Give to get. Ask visitors on your website to complete a survey and reward their effort with a gift, your product. Provided your product is relevant to the type of information you are seeking, this should yield a list of qualified leads and supply you with new ideas to create products and boost your business.

5 - Sell your product as a promotional item. This is a strategy I have used very successfully. I’ve bundled signed copies of my book from my first printing batch into packs of ten. Businesses bought them at volume discount price and gave them as gifts to their loyal customers.

6 - Increase your database by giving away your product for free as an incentive to join your mailing list. Your offer can be advertised for free on the online free stuff sites. When visitors are picking up their freebies, capture their email addresses and you will gain a valuable mailing list. (Note: this database building strategy will only work with digital products or else you will be out of pocket if you have to pay shipping costs.)

7 - Swap your product for things you need for your own business e.g. exchange your ebook for a software or another ebook. Your savings will make up for your profit loss. At a conference, I swapped my book for books from my colleagues.

8 - Organize an online contest and offer your product as the winning prize. This a cheap price to pay for free advertising for your product through online contest directories.

9 - Donate your product for an attendance or raffle prize at non-profit associations’ events. In return, the organization usually promotes your business by giving you an advertising space on their website or promotional flyers.

10 - Approach businesses with complimentary products and find out if they would be interested in bundling their product with yours. Build on each other’s equity and share promotional costs and profits.Left-overs are delicious. Recycle your product for a new lease of life.

Henriette Martel is a website strategist, author of 200 Marketing Ideas for Your Website and director of the Australian Training Guide, Australia’s A to Z Training Database and Resources for Speakers, Trainers & Coaches.

Article Source: The WAHM Shack Article Directory

THIS ARTICLE is Free for reprint only if it remains unchanged and in its entirety, the Author’s Resource Box AND our Article Source Credit URL are included, and ALL links are made active.

by Danni Vickers
As a work at home mom myself, I know when I started my business the funding for advertising was not available. I began to look for ways I could promote my business online and offline without spending any money or ways I could market my business cheaply.

After I used many free and cheap marketing ideas, I was able to build my business enough that I could afford to spend money on advertising! Here are the best ways I have found to market your business that actual work.

1: Join Forums- Forums offer a great opportunity to market your business. Now, joining forums just to promote yourself will only get you banned, so you must advertise your business tactfully. When you join a forum, introduce yourself and participate in discussions. Make sure you set up your signature to display with all of your posts. You do not have to sit and post all day, but posting to a few threads will get that signature on several different areas of the forum! Not only will the forum members be interested and check our your website, search engines also index forums and that offers extra exposure!

2: Moderate a chat room or group- Offering to help moderate a chat room or online chat group is another way I have found to work very well! Because you are a moderator, people see you as being an example, which opens a new door to another prospect for your business!

3: Get a website- If you want to run your business online, a website is vital! Once you have a website, you can submit it to search engines for free. If your company does not offer websites, I would highly recommend having a professional build you one. If you are going to market online, you might as well do it right…with a professional looking website.

4: Email signatures- These are very powerful! Set up a signature and attach it to every email you send! Include your name, business name, and website url, even if you email a website about an order or email someone just to ask a question! That puts your website and information in front of another new prospect.

5: Write articles- Take some time and write some articles on a topic that is of interest to you. Many websites use articles for content for their visitors to read and several webmasters use articles in ezines. When you write an article, you can add an author bio, which can include any info you want to add. This area can have your name, business description, website link, and contact info. Just think–if you write 5 articles, 10 websites display the amount of exposure you will have for your business!

Danni is a proud work at home mom of 3 that enjoys teaching other work at home moms how to run successful home based businesses! Let Danni teach you how you can make a great income at home! Visit http://www.homebaseddream.com for more info on a business that offers a great income opportunity for moms!

Article Source: The WAHM Shack Article Directory

THIS ARTICLE is Free for reprint only if it remains in its entirety, the Author’s Resource Box AND our Article Source Credit Url are included, and ALL links remain intact.

by: Debbie LaChusa

One of the biggest challenges work at home mom’s face is time management. Finding the time to get it all done, with the demands of business and family, can be a big challenge.This is especially true when it comes to marketing. In fact, marketing is usually the first thing to get put on the back burner, when a work at home mom gets busy.

Is Lack of Time Making it Difficult to Market Your WAHM Business?

After all, if you’re swamped with sales and clients, marketing isn’t usually your top priority, right?

Well, actually, marketing should always be your top priority. It belongs right up there with servicing your clients.

Because if there are two things that will make your business successful for the long run, it’s happy satisfied clients (they buy more and they refer their friends) AND a marketing system that continuously fills your business with new prospects.

So how do you stay on track with your marketing, when you get bogged down with running your business and tending to the needs of your family?

Here are 3 Tips to Help You Stay On Track With Your Marketing

Tip #1: Make sure you have a Marketing Plan.

When you have a marketing plan, you don’t have to re-invent the wheel every time you need to implement a new marketing activity. All of the “heavy lifting” is done when you create your plan. This makes implementation much more efficient.

Tip #2: Create a Marketing Calendar

In my 10stepmarketing System, we create a marketing calendar where we map out all of our marketing activities for the year. This calendar becomes the roadmap for the year and is an easy way to stay on top of the marketing you’ve committed to. It effectively becomes your marketing “to do” list.

Tip #3 : Schedule Time for Marketing Activities

Schedule time in your calendar, day-timer or PDA for all of your marketing activities, just like you schedule time to meet clients, pay bills, and pick up your kids from school.

By scheduling time, you make your marketing a priority and eventually doing your marketing activities will become a part of the way you do business.
Consistent Marketing Equals a Successful WAHM Business

Has your busy schedule as a work at home mom made it difficult to stay on track with your marketing? If so, it’s only a matter of time before your lack of marketing starts to have a negative impact on your business.

Take some time this week to create a marketing calendar. Then schedule time for your marketing activities, just like you schedule time for everything else in your business and family life.

Abide by that schedule and I think you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to stay on track. By the way, you can use this system to better organize your family duties as well!

© Copyright 2007 Debbie LaChusa
Debbie LaChusa feels blessed to be a work at home mom who gets to spend time with her family, do work she loves and earn a great living. She founded 10stepmarketing and 6FigureWorkAtHomeMom to help other working moms do the same. To see a free “Tribute to Work At Home Moms” video and register for free WAHM tips, visit http://www.6FigureWorkAtHomeMom.com.

Article Source: The WAHM Shack Article Directory

THIS ARTICLE is Free for reprint only if it remains in its entirety, the Author’s Resource Box AND our Article Source Credit Url are included, and ALL links remain intact.

Are you a work-at-home-MOM? If you work at home (or want to) and you are a MOM (even if the kids are all grown or moved out) or a GRANDMA, The WAHM Shack is for you!

The WAHM Shack is a gathering place Exclusively for Work At Home MOMS and Grandmas to get together to discuss their family and business by sharing information, tips, support and encouragement. We offer WAHMs Free and Low Cost Advertising, Exclusive Direct Sales Directory Listings, Online Vendor Party Info, Article Directory with FREE Reprint Articles, Resources, Message Board, Link Exchange Directory and more.

Our Article Directory is a Free Reprint Article Library with a variety of subjects for your reading pleasure, as well as for the use of authors, publishers and website owners. And, if you write articles, we invite you to submit them for free to our directory as well.

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