How to build website for Adsense?

To create your own website to make money with Adsense you need to: Buy a Domain name. Take Hosting Account. Build the website content. Apply for Adsense. Integrate Adsense code into your website content. First of all, you need a domain name to put your website on. First this you need to buy a domain name that describes the topic you are building your website for from any of the domain registrars such as GoDaddy. Domain names usually costs you less than $10 for a full year. Once you have a domain name, you need a place on the web to put your content. For this you need to buy a web site hosting service. For this you tipically spend around $6 to $8 per month. Once you have the hosting, you then have to actually build the content and upload the content to the hosting server. The content you thus uploaded to the hosting server can then be viewed on web using your domain name. To build content, you should either know HTML (and a web programming language such as ASP or PHP for dynamic sites) or if know nothing about web languages you may buy a website building tool such as XSitePro. XSitePro is a very good content development tool that has made the process of building a website so easy and is streaks ahead of all the other tools on the market. Within two to three hours you will have worked your way through the tutorial and will be in the position to build your own successful money vehicle. It's literally built to facilitate what this website is talking about and even has an insertion facility for Adsense. You then have to learn about the basics of how to use Adsense in your site. For the complete newbie to Adsense, AdsenseHowTo.net has it's limitations as it doesn't go into the very basic stuff of how to get the code, how you change the variables etc. The site focuses on what actually makes money with Adsense and this is down to building the right websites, integrating Adsense correctly and bringing traffic to that website. Therefore you are going to need another source so that you can get to grips with the basics. There are two that I would recommend: (i) The Google Adsense Help Center - From the people who made the program this is a good tour de force of Adsense and how to use it. They also have some good "heat maps" which give you ad placement ideas depending on the type of website you are building. (ii) Adsense Forums - Digital Point and Webmaster World both have good Adsense forums if you're the type that can happily sit and sift through thousands of posts.

Earn Money Online by Writing Articles

If you have an hour or two a day and you can write at the eighth grade level (most newspapers are written at that level) you can turn your writing into cash online.

There are sites that pay for content. Most of the sites require that you post your article first and wait for a buyer to come by and purchase the articles. Other sites share the revenue they earn from ads when someone clicks on an ad after reading your article. Some freelance sites let you choose the articles you would like to write, but don't pay until the article has been reviewed and accepted.

AssociatedContent buys the article from you. The pay is minimal from $3 to $5per 500 word article. However there are occasions where AssociatedContent has paid up to $50 per article. The articles can be submitted on an exclusive basis, meaning they aren't and won't be posted anywhere else, or nonexclusive, which means you've used the article elsewhere. If the article has been used elsewhere it must have your name on it as the author.

It takes a day or two for AssociatedContent to review the article and make the offer. You are not required to accept the offer and can withdraw the article. It takes another two days for the article to be published and then two or three days for AssociatedContent to make the payment to you.

Articles on popular subjects usually make the most money, whether you're selling the article itself or just earning ad revenues. Scan article directories to see which subjects have the most articles. Go to Google trends for up to the minute keyword phrases that are the most popular.

Use keyword phrases in the title of your article, once in the first paragraph and once in the last paragraph. This method will make sure your articles show up higher in the search engine rankings. And that means people are more likely to find them.

Write the article in a friendly tone, as if you were answering a question from a friend. A good length for articles is between 400 and 500 words. Long enough to be interesting but not so long the reader loses interest.

Sitting and staring at a blank computer screen while you struggle to get started on your article can be frustrating. Here are three methods that work.

1. Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell Them. Tell them what you told them. In the first paragraph state what the article is going to be about. Make a list of 3 bullet points that will be covered in the article. Write a paragraph to explain each bullet point and why it's important. The final paragraph is a summary of what has been covered in the bullet points.

2. State the problem. State why the problem is important to the reader. Provide a general solution. Provide a specific solution.

3. Introduction of the problem. 3 or 4 tips to solve the problem. Conclusion

After the article has been written check it for correct spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. You don't have to be a great writer to earn money online by writing but well written articles will earn you more than poorly written articles.

Earn Money Online With These Two Successful Business Models

There are so many empty promises and scams in the online money making world, that sometimes it is hard to believe that there are really any opportunities out there that can actually make you money. Don't worry though, there are a few opportunities that are legit and can earn you some good money online. They boil down to two online business models: Selling Information and Affiliate Marketing.

1) Selling Information

Offline, you either need to own a magazine or convince a book publisher to publish your book, in order to make some steady money off of information you write. Online is a whole different story. You can easily write a book and disseminate it, either for free or you can charge people for it. This is called an "e-book" and is generally a .pdf file.

You can setup a 1-page website that describes your book and you can place a Paypal or credit card processor link at the bottom, where people can pay you to receive your e-book. If there's a physical book about information you know, then writing an e-book for that same topic can be profitable.

Another key reason this is a successful business model is the low overhead costs. Unlike a book that needs to be published using physical paper, an e-book doesn't require continual printing. That leads to more money for you in the long run.

Another way to sell your information is by having a membership site. This is where people pay you either a one-time fee or on a monthly basis to have access to the information you write. If you provide quality information, people won't mind paying you each month for that information.

2) Affiliate Marketing

This is one of the top ways for people to make money online. There are people literally making thousands, hundreds of thousands, and in some cases, millions, each year, just by doing affiliate marketing.

Essentially, other companies pay you to promote their products, usually on a per-sale basis. So, for each sale you make, you make money. They happily pay people, because they usually end up making a lot more for each sale than they pay you. But, being the affiliate has it's perks too. You don't have to worry about a warehouse, shipping, or dreaded customer service. You just get people to buy and be done with it once you get paid.

You just need to learn how to drive traffic to websites, and you can either create a website that promote the affiliate product, or simply drive people to the program/product that you're an affiliate for, and you can start making some money. With many free ways to drive traffic to a website, you can make money with very little costs to you. Then you can just sit back and start cashing those affiliate checks.

Either model can be very profitable for you, just be sure you learn what it takes to succeed in each category. And understand you won't be making millions overnight, but you can make a decent income online.

Article Source:Ezinearticles.com

Earn Money Online Without a Website!

Statistics show that eBay auctions generate around $86 million everyday, coming from its 2 million users that visit the website in a span of 24 short hours. These eBay users either buy products from online stores because they can't find these items in local stores, or sell items that they do not need anymore.

Of these 2 million eBay users, 430,00 of them do not own real shops. Instead, they run their part time or full time eBay business right from the comfort of their own home. What's more, there are even people who actually sell huge deals on eBay, like computers, cars, and even real estate. You, too, can be this person. You can setup your own eBay business from home, and you can start by selling various items that you don't need anymore.

Success in an eBay business starts with a few basic things that you must first learn about. First of all, the products that you are going to sell should be something of interest to you and your target market. Also, you need to consider where you are going to get your supplies, and that is through finding a legitimate wholesale supplier. You also need to know how to setup your own eBay store. These three things are the basic stuff that you need to know to maximize your business profits.

Contrary to what most people believe, you don't have to have a very large capital in order to start your eBay store. You also don't need to have lots of storage space in your home. Now that there are already dropshipping companies, you don't really have to find a spot in your house where you can store your stocks. For example, you have set up an auction in your eBay store. When the auction ends and you already have your winning bidder, you can just ask the wholesaler to ship the item directly to the winning bidder. That is how dropshipping works. You save both time and effort, since the only thing that you need to think about is how to promote your store. All the other stuff is the responsibility of your dropshipper.

You must know however that not all dropshippers can be trusted. Just like any other business venture, you have to be cautious in dealing with other people in the business. Beware of unreliable dropshippers, because not only will your profits suffer, you reputation as a seller might receive a blow as well. Remember, dropshippers are not supposed to middlemen, and anyone who claims otherwise is a scam. Don't be fooled by companies saying that dropshippers should share your profits. True, they have fees, but those fees are just small ones. Examples of good wholesale directories that you can try are Salehoo and The Ultimate eBay Dropship Power Park.

Article Source:Ezinearticles.com

Fastest Way To Get Top 10 In The Search Engines Of Web Business

This is an article to show you the fastest way to get top 10 in the search engines for your own website. This method always work, especially for keywords with low competition. But there are some factors you need to consider before using it.

Ok, here is the method in summary:

Simply use the keywords that you want to rank for as the domain name of your website.

For example, if you want to get top 10 rank for “migraine headache relief”, you can name your website as one of the followings:

migraineheadacherelief (.com, .net or .org)
migraine-headache-relief (.com, .net or .org)

If those domain names are not available, you can add a prefix or suffix such as my, site, guide etc. For example,

mymigraineheadacherelief.com
migraineheadachereliefsite.com
migraineheadachereliefguide.com

The idea is to include the keywords in your domain name.

Before using this strategy, there are some issues you should consider:

1) It’s not a loophole

This method works for competitive keywords. If you don’t believe, search for ‘acne’ and see which website ranks top.

But this method is NOT a loophole.

You still need to build links into your homepage.

The only difference is you need lesser links compared to websites without the keywords in the domain names.

This brings us to the next important point - keyword research.

2) Keyword research

The more competitive the keywords, the more links you need and the longer time it takes for you to get top rank for that keywords.

As a start, it would be a better idea to aim for less competitive keywords.

How do you know if a keyword phrase is competitive?

Simple. Below are my personal checklist:

i) Google search result for that keyword phrase should have less than 500,000 results.

ii) Some of the webpages in the top 10 results should have a PR less than 3.

iii) Some of the webpages in the top 10 results are internal pages of Squidoo.com, Hubpages.com, Blogger.com, Ezinearticles.com and/or Buzzle.com.

If I found a keyword phrase that satisfies all the 3 criteria, plus the keyword phrase has a good demand, I know that I’ve found another gold.

3) Branding

If you think domain name such as migraineheadacherelief.com looks ugly, you are absolutely right!

But if I am creating an affiliate site or Adsense site, I don’t really care whether my domain name looks professional.

If I’m creating a website that requires some form of branding, I may have to give this trick a pass. Alternatively, I will try to include as many keywords as possible while making sure that the domain name looks professional.

Free Tools

Welcome to Web Business Tips page. We have compiled a group of really helpful websites that offer free management tools and resources for your small business. There are lots of free e-books, business templates, checklists, business forms, white papers, free pdf files, and worksheets to choose from.

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Business Owner’s Toolkit - A large collection of free business forms, free tools, business templates and checklists that includes a variety of topics ranging from employee management, safety, asset protection, marketing, recruiting and hiring, IRS tax forms, compensation and benefits, government contracting forms and so much more. They also have a business card exchange where you can network with others in your industry.

QuickBooks Simple Start 2009 FREE - Manage your small business better with Intuit’s free 2009 edition of accounting software for Windows. Keep all of your small business accounting records organized including tracking taxes, sales, expenses and customer information and will import data from prior versions of Simple Start. You can create professional-looking invoices & estimates, record cash and credit card expenses, write and print checks and more.

Free Small Business eBooks- A simple, free registration will give you access to nearly 200 free small business ebooks. Some examples of topics covered in the free white papers and free documents are maximizing conversion rates, getting website traffic, internet marketing, increasing profits and improving customer satisfaction. There’s something here for everyone including an internet beginner’s business guide and how to get a million visitors to your website.

Free Trade Magazines- Anita Campbell, Founder of Small Business Trends, offers an extensive list of free small business magazine subscriptions, eGuides, downloads, podcasts and white papers. Browse through a multitude of listings and search for titles that match your topics of interest such as small business management, franchising, marketing and entrepreneurship. Publications include eWeek, Website Magazine and many more.

Tools From Inc.com - A free membership to Inc.com allows you to access over 100 free small business tools that includes categories such as doing business online, financial management, finding capital, hiring and recruiting, managing employees, marketing, performance management, personnel administration, termination and workplace safety. Inc.com offers help for every area of business and is the “daily resource for entrepreneurs.”

SME Toolkit - This collection of free small business tools and resources consists of free training, calculators, small business forms and how-to articles. Topics range from accounting, franchising, payroll, insurance, marketing and technology. Browse the categories to locate the information you need and be sure to enroll in the My Own Business computer training course for those of you who want to start your own business. The course is free.

FormNet- Use this free business forms download service available on Entrepreneur.com. Save yourself time and expense by using these free business form templates and documents available in Microsoft Word, Excel or Adobe pdf. Categories include accounting, credit and collections, insurance, inventory, human resources, leasing, marketing, management, sales, shipping and starting your own small business. No more creating documents from scratch!

Small Business Resource Guide - The Internal Revenue Service is offering up to 5 copies of this Small Business Resource Guide CD-ROM for free. This free CD provides small business tax information including forms and instructions. The CD also contains various website links to government agencies designed to help small businesses comply with tax laws and provides useful information from government agencies, non-profit organizations, and educational institutions.

Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2009 FREE- This free software download is designed to help you and your small business organize data, track employees and process payroll all while saving you time. Designed for US and UK based small businesses and works with other Office applications you may already know. Features include exporting reports to Excel, writing checks, Paypal invoices, payroll, customizable reports and create eBay listings in Office Accounting.

Professional Documents- At Docstoc you can search and share free small business forms, business templates and small business documents. Samples of small business plans, market research and business contracts are available to download free of charge and categories include everything from arts, fashion, educational, technology, finance, legal, real estate and more. Looking for documents and don’t know where to begin? This is the place.

Free Templates and Forms - The Fresh Focus blog has put together a list of free small business templates and forms to improve productivity. These tools are all organized in one place for ease of downloading. Come on over and browse around. Custom templates are also available that include notepads, weekly, monthly and yearly calendars, agendas, expense reports, to-do lists, graph paper, phone logs and more.

Free eBooks, Guides, Manuals and Legal Documents- Publish and share your small business documents FREE at Scribd. You can upload and store your business documents or explore their extensive library of available free tools and resources. You will find an array of free ebooks, guides, manuals and legal documents for your use. Embed your documents anywhere on the web. All major formats accepted with unlimited storage.

Free Small Business Guides and Government Forms - Business.gov is your gateway to official U.S. Government federal forms and business guides. Topics that are covered range from taxes, loans and market research. State and local information is available for small businesses in each and every state. Find out information on what is involved in registering a business, applying for a license, paying taxes and file forms.

Free Small Business Tools and Research Resources - Free access to helpful business information tools and resources designed for any business type and size. Topics range from starting a small business to growing, managing and maturing your business. Locate free resources not easily found through any other means, learn how to become a better business manager, organize with free templates, and manage human resources.

Free Productivity, Collaboration and Business Applications - A centralized collection of tons of free spreadsheets, presentation tools, management software and much, much more. There is even a new section of apps for your small business needs. Everything you could possibly need for operating a more productive business. Login for your free access and active forum discussions on the latest hot topics in Zoho applications.

Free Copy of “The Edge of Success: 9 Building Blocks to Double Your Sales“ - If you are looking to reach a completely new level of success for your small business, download your free copy of this ebook to take you and your business to the “next level”. Systemize and simplify your business operations while doubling your sales with the 9 proven techniques revealed within this free copy of the downloadable book.

Free Business and Entrepreneurship Courses - Take advantage of this large list of 100 Ivy League business and entrepreneurship courses that are completely free for you to attend! These top university courses are seperated into topic categories that include accounting and finance, economics, communication, management, leadership, marketing and advertising, product developmant and launch, technology and law.

HP Creative Studio - Hewlett-Packard has compiled an extensive collection of business tools and business marketing materials available for your use. Resources & templates found under the “DIY Free” level are obviously free for your use. There are lots of free designs, document and signage templates, presentation materials, business forms, website and blog templates and much, much more to choose from.

Free Tools & Forms - Winmark Business Solutions provides access to useful free small business tools such as business plans, official government forms, financial spreadsheets, checklists, legal forms and business templates. These ready-to-use business resources with help you work more efficiently and faster. Take advantage of the wealth of resources available to you here all at no cost to you.

Free Spreadsheet Download Library - JaxWorks.com has hundreds of Excel spreadsheets available on their site for downloading at no cost to you. These free offerings cover a number of financial, accounting and sales functions at all skill levels. Browse the selections and save any number of these for future reference. The free downloads are available for Windows Excel, Apple Macintosh Excel and Apple iWorks Numbers.

Free Quick Reference Training Guides - CustomGuide offers free downloadable quick reference computer training guides. These free pdf files are downloadable and printable for your office needs. Employees can quickly refer to these guides for general operating information on Microsoft, Mac, and Adobe software programs. You could also easily incorporate these free guides into new employee training handbooks.

Free Small Business Letters and Forms - Freebusinessforms.com provides a large selection of free small business letters and forms. You have unlimited access to printable invoice forms, receipts, debt collection letters, contracts, legal forms and more. There is also a section of reports, e-books, and employment information available for download. Sign up for their email updates to be notified when new forms are added.

300+ Completely Free Twitter “Follow Me” Buttons and Icons

By now you’ve probably started trying your hand at Twitter. Everyone’s trying it, so why not you? If your business is new to Twitter, you’re probably working on gathering followers. One great way to make sure your customers can follow you is by adding a Twitter “follow me” icon onto your blog or website.

There are a lot of good Twitter graphics to choose from online. I’ve put together a list of sites that offer the best “follow me” buttons absolutely free of charge. Between all of these sites there are over 300 “follow me” icons to choose from.

Web Design by mts - This site offers 10 Twitter follow me icons for free download. There are 5 designs which come in both a white backround and a transparent version. The site is not in English but the download is pretty self explanatory.

Randa Clay Design - Randa has 18 free follow me graphics for you to download, post to your site and link to your Twitter account.

My Social Buttons - For a very different version of the follow me button, take a look at these 5 hand sketched Twitter buttons.

Limeshot Design - Ema Hoffmann shares 36 awesome follow me buttons. Each badge is very colorful and some even have retro backround designs.

Twit Buttons - This website offers 44 follow me button choices to choose from. You can enter your Twitter id to generate copy and paste code to quickly add the icons to your own site or blog.

Siah Designs - Josiah Jost’s list of over 40 free follow me buttons includes a few that are animated. For a small fee (only $10), Josiah will personalize one with your own name.

G34 Media - There are 5 very different Twitter icons on this site. Each one would make a fun and colorful addition to your site.

U Stand Out - Diana Freedman has 48 Twitter badge designs for you to choose from. A great selection of options with some basic, more professional versions also. The icon pictured above is from this website.

Blog Marketing Web 2.0 - Although this site is not written in English, the 31 colorful Twitter badges are. If you’re looking for something fun, this is the site to see.

Tab Folder - This site has 3 really cute buttons with a very whimsical looking Twitter bird on them. A different look but still very professional.

Twitter Buttons - Depending on your brand image, you may find these free buttons a bit too juvenile for your business. Over 80 cute and colorful designs to choose from. This site makes it a breeze by providing copy & paste HTML code for you.

The Design Superhero - This free icon file download gives you three designs in 5 different resolutions. The collection is centered around their version of the blue Twitter bird but this one has very large eyes.

Once you’ve built up your followers with the use of these free icons, you can start using some of the Free Twitter Applications For Small Business.

5 Free Tools to Boost Your Online Marketing Results

The 2009 business world is competitive, and consumer expectations are high. As costs rise and marketing budgets shrink, small businesses are looking for ways to improve their ROI with every dollar spent.

While many businesses have realized search engine marketing is a smart way to grow a business, some launch a website, start-up a PPC campaign, or invest in professional SEO, and neglect to spend time optimizing their efforts, leading to low conversion rates to less than stellar search engine rankings.

The good news? A variety of tools are available to help you boost your online marketing results. Here is a breakdown of five of the best to help you get started. All tools reviewed in this article are either free to use or available as a free trial.

1. Twitter

The microblogging service has taken the online world by storm, but there are many small and large businesses out there that aren’t quite sure how to use it. Figuring out just what it means to ‘tweet’ may seem daunting at first, but taking the time to understand the Twitter phenomenon can reap huge rewards for your business. From growing your customer base to establishing your brand and building rewarding partnerships, Twitter has a myriad of uses and all it takes to get going is patience and an open mind. The best thing about Twitter? It can help you achieve calculable sales and marketing goals in a fraction of the time it would take to do achieve the same goals using only traditional means. For a list of small businesses and small business resources on Twitter, check out The Ultimate Small Business Twitter List.

2. Google Analytics

A robust tool with enterprise-level features, Google Analytics helps you gather data about your advertising and website and make improvements to improve your bottom line. Use the tool to determine the sources of your website traffic, the value of content on individual pages on your site, which keywords produce the most conversions, and how different elements of your marketing mix compare in terms of ROI. It can take more time to get comfortable with Google Analytics than it takes to get going with other tools on this list, but once you paste the Google Analytics code onto each page of your site, you can begin to classify sources of traffic, create unique links to track online and offline advertising campaigns, and import AdWords data to analyze PPC performance. For more information and help getting started, watch the Google Analytics product tour.

3. Site-Perf

It happens all the time. People hire a graphic designer, build a stunning website, pay a programmer to make things run seamlessly, and then forget to address one important thing: site loading speed. While Site-Perf isn’t nearly as sexy as the other tools on this list, it is invaluable for determining how users experience your website. Failing to address user experience can lead to disappointing marketing results, and low conversions, but with Site-Perf you can spot and correct problems, test the effect of design changes on loading speed, and balance elements like CSS, images and links to achieve the ideal visitor experience. Other useful features include the ability to test the speed of your admin area by creating a Site-Perf login, gauge the experience of users who visit your site from anywhere in the world, and test the effect of moving your domain to a new server before you make the switch.

4. ClickTale

Easy to set-up and understand, ClickTale lets you start learning more about how your visitors interact with your site in just minutes. With ClickTale, you can record ‘movies’ of your visitor’s browsing sessions, view heatmaps that detail visitor scrolling behavior, and analyze how visitors interact with buttons, links, and fields to identify where users hesitate, click, and abandon pages and forms. Use the data you collect to improve site usability, increase form conversions, reduce abandons, and establish empirical best practices regarding what works for your site.

5. CrazyEgg

Similar to ClickTale but with fewer features, CrazyEgg is another tool focused on site usability. Although it doesn’t record movies like ClickTale, CrazyEgg is great for those who want a quick overview of how users interact with their site and don’t need a detailed analysis on abandons, hover time, and scrolling behavior. Particularly useful for testing content and layout performance when optimizing landing pages, CrazyEgg makes it easy to determine which content on your site is getting the most attention, which call-to-action is generating more clicks, and how design changes affect conversions. CrazyEgg can be used in connection with Google Analytics to analyze clicks at-a-glance and optimize landing pages based on a streamlined set of data.

Customer surveys: Writing a customer satisfaction survey

Measuring customer satisfaction is a great way to focus your business development on the areas that will really make a difference to your customers. So how do you go about writing a customer satisfaction survey?

Here are some established customer satisfaction survey methods used by professional surveyors.

Number based scales

Numerical scales are useful in a customer satisfaction survey because you can work out averages and use these to track whether customer satisfaction is going up or down over time. Make sure you define the end points of the scale: lowest = very dissatisfied, highest = very satisfied. People generally think in low to high ways, so it is better to do scales from low to high.

Ten point scale

A scale out of 10 is useful when you want your customers to think in terms of percentages, because they can easily convert the number. Eg: 5/10 = 50%.

This can also be helpful when you are comparing two ways of asking about an aspect of your business, such as importance and satisfaction. Eg: if importance is 8/10 and satisfaction is 6/10, you can easily tell the percentage difference is 2/10 = 20%.

However, there are some disadvantages to using such a long scale, discussed next.

Seven point scale

Long scales can look a bit overwhelming for customer satisfaction survey participants, resulting in a limited range of responses. Because of this, they can be misleading.

For example, 7.5 out of 10 might sound like a good result, but most people will only range between 6 and 9 unless they feel very strongly about the issue. This is unlikely in a customer feedback survey. Taking this into account, a rating of 6 actually indicates they are somewhat dissatisfied, 9 is satisfied, and the mid point of 7.5 is only neutral. Not so good.

So if you don’t need the percentage information provided by a 10 point scale, then a scale from 1 to 7 could be a better choice. The mid point of 4 is clearly visible and you get more differentiation than a 5 point scale, which can be too short to be useful.

Word based scales

An alternative to numerical scales is to provide verbal response options. Rather than looking at the average, you compare the percentage of responses in each category. For example:

very dissatisfied | dissatisfied | neutral | satisfied | very satisfied

You can remove the neutral option from your customer surveys if you want to prevent your participants from sitting on the fence. Just make sure the scale is balanced.

If you are looking to improve customer satisfaction over time, focus on the top and bottom categories - aim to increase the percentage of “very satisfied” responses and decrease the percentage of “very dissatisfied” responses.

An alternative to rating scales

Maybe you had problems with rating scales because everyone rated your services so similarly that you couldn’t differentiate between them. Here are two alternatives.

Best and worst selection

One alternative is to list the range of services or other business aspects and ask your customers to choose their top three and bottom three, or just the best and worst if it is a short list. This will establish both the areas your customers approve of and those they feel you need to work on improving.

Ranking from highest to lowest

Another option is to ask participants to rank the aspects from highest to lowest satisfaction. This approach should not be used with very long lists as it can get too confusing.

A final word of advice: be consistent!

Regardless of the customer satisfaction measure you choose when writing customer surveys, the most important thing is to be consistent so you can track how customer satisfaction changes over time.

How To Overcome Fear Of Selling

When I started out in business I had a real fear of selling. I thought salespeople weren't to be trusted, and I never wanted to hear 'no' from a prospect.

Here are three main reasons I realised I had to get over this fear of selling - and fast:

1. If you don't sell, your business suffers – that's obvious.

2. If you don't sell, your confidence suffers – that's obvious, too.

3. If you don't sell, you can’t help as many people. Obvious, but not always remembered.

If you've got a 'I don't-want-to-be-a-slimey-salesperson' fear of selling, then there's never been a better time to knock that block on its head. You don't need that self-imposed handicap in the middle of an alleged economic downturn!

I asked myself “why do I feel resistance to selling?” This is what I discovered - it may be familiar to you.

I love to buy, but I hate being 'sold' to

Have you ever had that sleazy car salesman experience where the subtext is – they don’t care about me – they just want my money? It's awful! Like a dog sniffing a skunk, you can smell 'desperate and self-focused' a million miles away.

I believe all salespeople have a touch of 'snake oil' deceit about them

Somewhere along the line, from my parents, friends, school, or daily life, I linked salespeople with some pretty unflattering notions: insincere, dishonest, just out for themselves and so on. No one wonder I didn't want to be one myself!

I have a fear of being rejected

I'm afraid of people saying ‘no’. It's the cold, sharp knife of rejection. I associated a 'no' to my offer with a 'no' to me as a human being.

If you feel as I did, then it's likely you’ve got some limiting beliefs about selling and what you have to offer.

This is how I 'cured' myself of the fear of selling, and you can too.

1.You need to reframe your concept of 'selling'. Selling is an exchange of value. For example, if I give you something, you give me something in return of equal value. I give you two cows, you give me three bushels of hay. I give you my product or service, then you give me a certain amount of money. There's giving AND receiving in any sales process.

2. You need to believe in your product or service heart and soul regardless of whether people buy it or not. You would rave about it even if you weren’t selling it. This is called the 'raving fan syndrome'.

If you don’t have the 'raving fan syndrome' about your product or service, here are some questions to consider:

• How do you feel about the price of the product/service? Is it a no-brainer/sensible investment?
• Do you use it or have used it before yourself?
• If you weren’t selling it, would you still use it or rave about it?

Unless you answer yes to each of these questions you will have an ‘out of integrity experience’ in your selling and you will give off that shonky used-car-salesman vibe.

3. Practice this mantra: “The customer is more important than the sale”. You may not make the sale this time, but if you focus on offering value and helping people with their needs, rather than serving your own, you will build a lifetime fan. And that will mean more sales over the long run.

Happy selling!

The Essentials Of Good Business Writing

Good business writing is at the heart of successful marketing. Without it you will be at best, misunderstood, at worst, totally ignored. Follow these simple guidelines to ensure your business writing hits the spot.

Write readable sentences by writing the way you talk

There is a misconception that good business writing is complex and flowery. It is simply not true. The only people who can ignore this advice are lawyers by virtue of the fact that it is their intention to make everything more complex than it need be, especially as they are paid by the hour to explain to you what they have written!

Use ordinary words

Don’t try to be too clever; don’t use a long word where a short one will do.

Variety

Vary your punctuation and sentence length to add life and movement to your writing.

Use the personal pronoun

Use "I" or "we" wherever you can.

Make your point

Make your main point early and make it easy to find. Don't introduce new ideas until you have thoroughly explained the first.

Intention

Make your purpose for writing clear. Say what you have found, address the issue or problem and make a recommendation or provide a solution. Tell the reader very clearly what you want them to do. Never make the assumption that the reader will make the mental leap between the information and what you want them to do about it.

Structure

Help your reader get to the point by revealing the structure of the document. Allow them to have control over what they discover and when.

White space

Leave plenty of white space. This can be created by using headings, lists, bullet points and short paragraphs.

Use font types wisely

If in doubt stick to the classic fonts. Don't litter your writing with bold, italics CAPITALS or underline; it makes the text harder to read.

Wherever possible, remember:

• Use the active voice
• Use ordinary words
• Construct clear, simple sentences
• Concrete not abstract – use examples, metaphors and details
• Personal
• Informal, conversational style
• Make every word count or get rid of it
• Use just enough punctuation to assist the reader
• Watch your grammar – don’t switch tense.
• Say what you mean and mean what you say
• Don't use jargon - if you have to, explain it the first time you use it
• Strive to express yourself clearly

• Get to the point fast, or at least allow the reader the option to if they choose to

But most of all have fun with it. Never be afraid to reflect your own personality in your writing and it's okay to break a few rules now and again!

Five tips for naming your business

Naming your business is one of the first steps in flying solo, although it is often not an easy task and there are many factors to consider. Here are some practical tips to help you with the process of naming your business.

Your business name needs to be original, legally available and it must be able to represent you and what you do for many years to come. Although you also need to consider other factors when naming your business such as trade marks, registering your business name and branding, here we are going to focus on five things to consider when brainstorming your business name.

1. Don't choose a name that limits your business

Are you starting your business with the intention of selling it down the track? Lots of soloists name their business after themselves but if you plan to sell, it is better to come up with a more generic name.

Another reason for using a generic name is that although you probably have a good idea what your business intends to do in its first year. My experience of dealing with businesses is that what they start doing and what they end up doing may be totally different.

2. Choose a name with passion

If you have a passion or an inspiration from somewhere else, use it. Explaining why you chose your name can attract people to your business and to your enthusiasm. For example Dotty Dalmatians, Queens Corgis’, Miniature Poodles and Ruff are all great names for someone who likes dogs.

3. Emphasis qualities you want to promote

Using words such as bi-lo, discount, cheap and affordable when naming your business ensures customers know about your prices. Likewise you could emphasise high quality or another aspect of your business that you want to promote.

You may want to emphasis the suburb, city, or state you reside in and encourage the community to shop locally, or you may be targeting a more global audience. Either decision may be appropriate for your circumstances, but make sure your business name reflects this decision.

4. Make your name easy to spell and pronounce

If someone hears it on the radio can they Google the name and find you?

5. Set yourself apart

Before you decide on a name, Google it. Are there other businesses with similar names or is it too general, such as ‘Exotic Cars’, and so it will bring up too many listings on search engines?

Make a list of all of your competitors. Do you want to sound like them or do you want to be distinguished from them? Sounding too much like a competitor can have consequences.

For example, a client of mine ran a well-known business in a county of England and then a business with a similar sounding name started up nearby. Apart from the name, the two businesses were very different. My client would often receive purchase orders on his fax machine that were intended for the other company. He would then source the equipment and sell it to them making a tidy and easy profit!

What next? Get out the whiteboard and markers and start brainstorming using these practical tips. Play with the words and make a shortlist of suitable candidates. Try them out on colleagues and friends that you trust.

Your business name is just waiting for you to discover it!