The Colors of Success

Did you know that certain colors can help foster your success? Different colors can affect a person's mood and ultimately if they decide to buy or not to buy on your website or from your catalog.

Colors can trigger certain memories and ultimately trigger emotional responses. Research on the effect certain colors have on an individual's mood has been conducted for a long time and the results of the research are used by many manufacturer's to determine how they will design their products packaging and promotional items.

Learn about how to use colors in your marketing plans to increase your chances of receiving the response you want from a potential customer (ie. make a sale, subscribe to a newsletter). Bear in mind that different cultures may have different responses to certain colors so the following color chart and their meanings are just a basic guideline:

Color Chart:

Black:	Black symbolizes death and despair. Great if you are selling coffins and tombstones. It can also invoke feelings of evil and treachery.
Blue:	Blue is associated with trust and represents trust, calmness, and acceptance. Blue also tends to be an all around color of choice.
Gold:	Gold is also associated with wealth and prosperity. It can add value to invoke feelings of excellence. A small touch of metallic gold to a promotional item can provide it with a rich looking finish.
Green:	Green often reflects life and nature which is good if you are focusing on selling an item that is “green” or natural products. Green also conveys freshness and is popularly used to market organic products. Green also symbolizes money.
Grey:	Grey reflects mourning. While grey can be a sophisticated color (ex: a power business suit), it can cause negative feelings. Lighter grey can be used in place of white in some instances. Use it wisely.
Purple:	Purple is most often associated with royalty and can cause feelings of wealth, power and influence.
Red:	Red can invoke an array of emotions: power, excitement, passion, energy and even danger and violence. This color should be used carefully.
White:	White most commonly symbolizes purity, innocence and honesty. Perhaps this is why websites that have a solid white background where the text appears statistically perform better. This doesn’t mean you can’t use other colors. White should be the basic color and other colors should highlight.
Yellow:	Yellow can stimulate the memory and feelings of joy but is difficult to sometimes look at so a pale yellow is recommended if you are going to use it. Just be aware that when mixed with other colors, it can cause feelings of slothfulness and criticism.

A Sad Day

This Is A Sad Day In Hollywood...

I can't believe both Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett are both dead. I can't believe it. I don't know what to say. I had been having this feeling like someone famous would die soon over the past few days but didn't think it would be Michael Jackson. Of course, he's not immortal and his health failing is probably due to some of the horrible things he's done to his body...but still. I feel for the Jackson family. I feel for both families. I just hope both he and Farrah got to know Jesus Christ as their Savior before they breathed their last...

Helpful Business Resources

I am a firm believer in sharing information with others that has been helpful to me in my home business. That's why I've been tracking my most helpful resources and am now offering them to you. Below you'll find a collection of resource links, grouped by category that can significantly help you build your home business. I will periodically add to this list as I encounter more helpful business resources so check back regularly.

I hope you get as much use out of these resources as I have and still am from some.

Organizational/Time Management:

Spring Cleaning - Get organized and profitable with a free planning calendar and tools
Spring Cleaning Coaching Program - Coaching to identify and make the most of what’s working in your business and planning for long-term success

Website/Blog Related/SEO:

Copywriting Sweetie Course - Improve your online communication and get more satisfied repeat customers
Content Outsourcing - Trial to get help with content for your blog or website
Free Copywriting Tips - Learn How to Write Sales - Producing Copy that Creates More Satisfied Customers
Site Build It! - Start an e-business complete with website builder, hosting, tools and support
The Cutest Blog on the Block - Free blog backgrounds, website templates and more
My Live Signature - Create a free personal signature to post to your blog or website
StoresOnline - website builder, hosting, and other solutions for entrepreneurs
WhenWe SEO - Extensive list of high page rank directories to submit your website to
ShopIt! - Set up a free basic online store (note: can't choose your own domain name)

Supplies/Stationery/Promotional:

VistaPrint - Economical Business cards and stationary
Print Globe - Logo imprinted items - Table Runners, banners, shopping bags
Elements, Bath and Body - Wholesale, supplies, recipes, packaging and accessories for bath, body, craft businesses
Nashville Wraps - Eco friendly retail, food and gift basket supplies
Creative Gift Packaging - Wholesale gift basket supplies, organza bags and more
Half Price Banners - Discount quality vinyl banners and more

Online Advertising:

7 Search.com
Google Adwords
Bidvertiser
Miva
ABC Search
MSN Adcenter
Yahoo Search Marketing
Google Base - Post it free on Base, Find it on Google.

Radio, Print, Tv Advertising:

Hype Media Global - Community radio, affordable media packages
Penny Saver (online also available)
Journal News - Advertising in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties

Article Publishing:

eHow - Publish short articles establishing your authority and giving your free promotion
ArticlesBase - Submit articles for distribution, publication and promotion
EzineArticles - Get free exposure by submitting your articles for online publishing

Affiliate Programs:

Clickbank - Find digital products to promote online
Linkshare - Promote or advertise

Distributor Programs:

Young Living - Sell therapeutic grade essential oils and alternative health products. Use sponsor # 1066504 to sign up
Vitamark - Sell natural health products that promote wellness - Use distributor #140789 to sign up

Social Networks:

Ning - hundreds of niche specific online social networks
Wahm Addicts - Shopping resources network
Twitter
Facebook
Linked In

*Note: Check out each offer to ensure it is a fit for your home business

Sell More from Your Website

It seems like everywhere you go online where people are talking about sales copy and copywriting, there's just so much hype. People talk about being able to "sell sand to a man in the desert" because they're so persuasive in their copy.

Come on. What value is there in that? For me, I want customers who actually need my product and will be satisfied with what I have to offer.

There's one copywriting teacher I've always turned to for great advice on how to sell better, but how to also ensure I have satisfied customers who will buy from me over and over again. That teacher is Alice Seba - a one-time copywriter for hire, turned Internet marketing teacher.

She's released a great training package that I know you'll love. Here's to integrity in effective online selling!

Find out more:

Marketing Your Home Business with Facebook

Next on our social networking radar is Facebook. I haven't been the biggest fan of Facebook lately because it seems as if I've been targeted by old HS classmates for reunions. While that's a good thing to reconnect with people from your past, it's not what I went on Facebook to do.

So, how do you market your home business on Facebook? Well, initially I was going to just type some of my general experience but I recently read an article written by Online Business Coach Donna Gunter that details ten tips to find your target market in Facebook so I thought I'd share it here (I condensed it a bit for the sake of space):

1. Before sending a friend request make sure that your profile is up-to-date with an accurate description of what you do, your interests, and your contact info, including your web site URLs. If you have multiple businesses, invite people in your appropriate target market to become fans of your niche-specific fan page.
   
2. Follow leaders in your field/industry and "friend" them. Include a personal note, as that will improve the likelihood that they will accept your request. Once they have accepted your invitation, make comments about their status updates to help you get on their radar and in front of their networks.
   
3. Take a look at the people in the network of your industry leaders, as they are probably part of your target market as well, and send friend requests to those of interest to you. Send a personal note as well, like "I discovered your profile in 's network and would like to get to know you better by adding you to my network."


4. Look for groups that may contain your target market by searching with keywords that describe your niche, your industry, your geographic area, the interests of your target market, or whatever other terms you might use to find members of your target market. Join and begin to participate in the group so that they get to know you. Look through the member lists for good prospects. Since you won't be able to view the profiles of the group members because they aren't in your network, much of your decision-making about whom to friend may be based upon appearance or how you might be connected to them via other friends in your network.


5. Friend people that you already know from your high school, college, alumni associations, and places of employment IF they fall within your target market definition.


6. Use Facebook's recommended friend list and add them to your network.
   
7. Do a people search by job title, industry, geographic location, or interest. Those people with those terms in their profile will show up in your search, and you can request to add them based on common interests.


8. Once you friend someone, begin building a relationship with them by posting a quick "thank you" note on their wall, as well as a comment about something on their profile that interests you or in which you have in common. Watch for their status updates, as well, and comment on these when appropriate.
   
9. Create a group for your target maret once you've got about 500 followers. Provide the group with useful content and and ask questions to stimulate discussion. You can post articles, links to blog posts, or videos you have created. Invite group members to any free virtual or face-to-face events you're hosting.
   
10. Consistently implement your marketing strategy over time. As a newbie to Facebook, you might want to spend as much as 60 minutes per day researching friends and participating in groups. As your network grows, you many spend only 15 minutes 3 times per week on Facebook. The key to success is to put this strategy on your calendar and make it a routine part of your ongoing Internet marketing tasks.

About Donna Gunter:

Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online retirement businesses by demystifying the steps needed to successfully market a baby boomer business online. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to improve your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketíng Toolkit, at ==> OnlineBizU.com

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The Mall Crawl starts Friday June 12th and ends Friday June 19th.
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Marketing Your Home Business and Twitter

Twitter is becoming increasingly more popular as THE way to get a quick marketing message to many people. Twitter can be a great resource for your home business. However, while Twitter has it's advantages, it also has some disadvantages.

Let's take a quick look at some of the advantages of using Twitter:

• You can post a link to your website in your Tweets that can potentially reach thousands of people, resulting in increased traffic to your website


• An open terrain to contain advertise your products or services to a large audience


• You can make quick announcements about sales and promotions that reach many as opposed to creating a long email to send to your opt in list


• You can get your message across without the worries of if your email will be seen as spam


• Your tweets are in real time so whoever is logged in will see your message right away

Here are some disadvantages of using Twitter:

• It can be difficult to build a faithful group of followers


• You are subject to empty twitters from people you follow at times (you do want to return some of your follows or you may be perceived as a stuck up lone ranger!)

As you can see, there are more advantages than disadvantages to using Twitter to market your home business. If you are going to successfully use Twitter to market your home business, find your niche, use Twitter as a means of connecting with your customer by offering your benefits, not your features and last of all...Do not just send robotic like messages that repeat over and over again. It's just like spam. Now get to Tweeting!

Networking For Success

Did you know that a big part of your business success comes from networking with other business owners?

Being a lone ranger never helped anyone succeed. There are sure to be people out there who know more than you do and you can tap into their vast knowledge and connections through networking.

How Do You Network?

Networking doesn't have to be difficult but there are some hard and fast rules to follow:

• Join social networks as well as attend offline networking events where you can network with individuals in a similar field of business as yours
  
  
• When speaking with other entrepreneurs and business owners, put your agenda and ulterior motives on hold. Learn to genuinely listen to what others have to say. You'll get your chance to speak about your business and when you do, be direct, polite and passionate about what you have to offer.
  
  
• Always see if there is a way you can help the person you are conversing with. By that, I don't mean just asking how you can help. I mean listening to what it is they are looking to do in business and searching your own mental database to see if there is something you can contribute to help them achieve. If there is, then offer up your advice, help or service.
  
  
• Always exchange business cards. An even better idea is to have a brochure about your business. Sometimes your business card gets lost in the shuffle but a brochure will stand out from the rest.
  
  
• Follow up with those you have met. Even if you are not planning to do business with them, it's a good idea to keep lines of communication open. You never know when someone they may know may be interested in a product or service you have to offer. If you follow up, you may meet new contacts.
  

Taking the time out to network with others is not only extremely helpful for growing your business but it's also a great way to make friends and socialize outside of your normal circle of friends and family. For the next few postings I'll talk a little about some popular social networking sites.

Be Yourself and Sell More Product

When you have your own business you have a great big advantage over large businesses. That's the ability to connect with your customers. The fact of the matter is that big businesses just don't have the time to make a real personal connection. Besides, they really don't have to. Big businesses have very deep pockets and can afford to pay for national and as well as international attention. Not so for us small business owners.

So, here's a great big tip to help you be more successful and sell more product...BE YOURSELF. First of all, if you are being phony just to sell someone, eventually that phoniness will show through. Sure, you may get a sale here and there but don't you want repeat buyers? Don't you want referrals? If you just be your good ole, nice self and be honest (hopefully, that's a part of who you really are!), then customers will eventually begin to draw to you like a magnet. Of course, I know that you should be professional and there are certain technical things you have to do to position your home business for success. That goes without saying. What I'm talking about is the human element of making a sale - To Connect with Your Customers

If you are selling a product or service for your home business, take the time to familiarize yourself with the product/service. Remember, just because you are trying to make money, your commitment should be towards helping people. Don't just sell for the sake of selling. You can only be passionate and real about something you have experience with and truly believe in.

When customer see that you are just trying to help them and you are passionate about a product or service you offer, you will more than likely make that personal connection and close the sale.