Facebook is the number two site according to quantcast, while number one is Google. Having such a vast amount of traffic, it is obvious that any marketing plan to reach your target should include facebook. Additionally, FB has made it incredibly easy to create a campaign with their self serve advertising platform.

In it, you have the ability to micro-segment your target. For example, do you want to reach single women with a college degree between the ages of 25-35 that like to eat Krispy Kreme donuts-and its their birthday today? You can do that and a whole lot more.

The video that takes you step by step through the process. The most difficult part if you can call it that is creating the 110×80 banner. But in most cases, if you are a small business, simply use your logo or a specific picture and it will automatically re-size it for you.

In a nutshell:

• Decide who you want to target
• Write your ad (25 character title, 135 character body limit)
• Upload your image
• Select if you want to pay by CPM (views) or click (I suggest clicks initially, also its ok to go a lot lower than the recommended price)

Things to remember:

• Remember to test different ad copy, images, and targeting
• Once you do get an image with a high CTR (Click Through Rate), after a couple of months or even less if you are targeting a small segment, you may see performance drop. So be sure to switch it out
• Be sure to monitor your CTR ( Click Through Rate), because the higher it is, the less you will pay, especially when purchasing via clicks

That about covers the basics. Initially watch your campaign like a hawk, traffic can explode and your budget can deplete quickly, so be sure to set something you can afford. Mashable has a pretty good write up for those who aren’t to keen on watching videos.

PS. Just wanted to add a final note here on a misconception those unfamiliar with Facebook advertising have and that’s that you can send traffic to any URL, it does not have to be your Facebook page.

If you are launching a new business you will need to establish an identity for it. This not only involves thinking of a good name, logo and mission statement, and of course writing a solid business plan, but it also means acquiring services that will enable people to contact you. These include a telephone – possibly an ordinary landline, an 1800 number and a cell number, at least one email address, and a snail mail address.

Here I’m going to talk about mailing addresses and the various options you have for your business. Consider them all, and be sure to weigh up the advantages as they relate to you personally.

Why You Need a Mailing Address

While it is true that many people rely more on email messages than on physical paper mail sent through a post office or some other mail service, there are items that are still commonly mailed the good old snail mail way. For instance even with the technology that enables us to attach a secure digital signature, many (if not most) companies prefer to have real witnesses who verify the signature. And so original copies of contracts are often mailed (rather than emailed). The same applies to statements, although more and more companies do now ask customers how they would prefer to receive accounts. Banks will also post (or mail) checks to clients once a month, once they have been redeemed, as will most service companies that provide energy, water and so on.

But the reality is that while there really is a shift towards the paperless office, we still need to send and receive stuff. Apart from documents of various types, you cannot email parcels. And irrespective of the type of business you are running or planning to start, chances are you will inevitably want things sent to you in the mail that cannot be delivered in a “virtual” manner.

Mailing Services

Of course if you have a physical address, chances are that the US mail service will deliver to this address, whether it is where you live and/or where you work.

With an increasing number of people working from home, the only physical option is often a home address. Good reasons NOT to receive business mail at home are:

• to keep your home address private,
• to safeguard the privacy and ensure the security of important documents, small parcels and personal snail mail communications.

So what are your options, and where do you want to receive your mail?

US Mail Box

A US post office box is a popular option for business mail. Wherever you live in the USA, you can choose a convenient post office in your area. Better still, you can manage the account online.

US Mail offers five different sized mail boxes – though not every single post office in the country has every possible size. The one you choose will depend on the size of the mail items you regularly receive. The full choice is:

• X-Small, which will hold between 10 and 15 envelopes that fit the 3″ x 5½” x 14¾” dimensions of the box, OR two magazines rolled.
• Small, which also measures 5½” x 14¾”, but which is 5″ wide, and will accommodate as many as five rolled-up magazines (depending of course on how fat they are).
• Medium, which is the same height and depth as the two above, but is 11″ wide. It is big enough for large envelopes and magazines to be stacked into it flat.
• Large, which measures 11″ x 11″ x 14¾”, making it big enough for two standard size shoe boxes as well as 10 to 15 letter-type envelopes.
• X-large, which is ideal for parcels and flat-rate boxes. This mail box measures 22½” x 12″ x 14¾”.

The cost of boxes varies by size and location, from $13 per six months and upwards. In addition you will be required to pay a $3 deposit per key issued (this is usually refundable). If you lose keys or the lock on your box has to be replaced, there are additional fees.

All you need to get a PO Box with US Mail is proof of your ID and place of residency – which is standard for all mail box services.

Of course you can always pick up large parcels inside the post office if you don’t have an extra large mail box. But if you regularly receive high volumes of mail, you might want to consider US Mail’s business mail pickup service. It’s going to cost you at least $430 for six months, but you will be given regular timeslots when you can pick up mail from your local post office.

UPS Store Mail Box

United Parcel service (UPS) – which partners with US Mail to be able to offer faster service and good value – has a network of franchised stores, customer centers and drop boxes that will enable you to pack and ship just about anything of any size or shape … to most places in the world.

Many small business owners opt for a UPS Store mail box simply because of the network of resources UPS offers – specifically those related to packing and shipping, tracking and billing customers. While their focus is on sending, clearly clients also receive mail; and so it stands to reason that UPS also offers mailbox facilities. These boxes cost, on average, around $20 a month.

Even though you operate a mail box, with UPS your mailing address is to a street – the address of the store where your letters and packages are sent. But because you are allocated a box, you have 24-hour access, and can therefore retrieve you mail at any time of the day or night.

One of the top rated benefits of having a UPS mail box is that it works particularly well for people who travel a lot, and for those who tend to move a lot.

It stands to reason that if you move often or are continually travelling, you’re going to have to make arrangements for receiving mail at different or changed locations. With UPS, your local store will box up and mail your stuff to any given address, even to a hotel where you are staying.

Another well-received benefit is that you can call UPS to find out if you have received anything; or you can opt for an email notification at no extra charge. Mailbox holders at some stores may also receive free fax messages which they hold for you.

Mail Boxes Etc. (MBE)

MBE is a global retail chain of independently owned, franchised business centers that offers the same sort of facilities as UPS, including mailboxes. There are more than 1,270 MEB outlets throughout the world; about 100 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and the rest in about 30 other countries.

While UPS Store-branded centers are franchised by Mail Boxes Etc., Inc in the USA, soon all other MBE stores in the US will be required to re-brand as UPS Stores (the publicized deadline is 2012).

Postal Connections

Founded in 1985, Postal Connections is another US-based, franchised postal service. Like UPS, the company offers a mailbox service that provides a street address for your office (or for private use for that matter). They also offer mail forwarding and a holding service – as well as all the usual services this type of company offers. They post via US Mail and use authorized shipping agents for parcels, including DHL, UPS and FedEx.

This company has corporate offices in California, Florida and Texas.

How to Choose a Mailbox Provider

If you have no personal experience of outsourced mail boxes, talk to friends to see which they have found to be the most efficient. You could also read reviews that have been posted on the Internet.

If you’re keen to start an online business, and you have a way with words, consider starting a business creating content for other people’s web sites. You don’t have to be an award-winning writer to find clients, and it’s a particularly simple type of business to establish.

So what do you have to be able to do? And how do you find clients?

Skills and Opportunities

You do need to have good writing skills if your business is to succeed. While plenty of half illiterate non-English speakers seem to get jobs “writing” online content, this is not the caliber of writing we are talking about. To start and run a successful business as a writer, you need to be able to produce good quality work and maintain the quality consistently. Commitment, creativity, accuracy, and ability are all key.

Unless people head-hunt you (which does happen to some writers), you’re going to need to look for job opportunities.

While fulltime writing jobs – both traditional and online – are commonly advertised, freelance jobs generally aren’t. So in the simplest terms, you need to target clients and pitch to them.

But first you need to know, generically, who your potential clients are.

Identifying Potential Clients

First of all, your potential clients are the people or businesses that have a need for the kind of writing you specialize in. Maybe you don’t specialize, and consider yourself a well-rounded writer who can tackle anything. This may be true, but for those who don’t know you, “I do it all” will likely give the impression that you are a jack of all trades. This of course means you can do most things, but don’t excel in anything!

So identify what you do BEST. What interests you? What can you write about with ease? Usually if you can happily discuss an issue or topic without having to research it first, you’ll be able to write about it comfortably. Once a client has confidence in your writing, you can share your other interests and writing skills, and widen your interest-base once you are on board.

Next step is to decide what type of clients you want. Broadly speaking, there are at least five different types of client that have a need for online writing:

1. web sites that hire and pay writers to provide articles (often they will pay for some and not others so be sure to check out their terms)
2. web sites that allow writers to post articles, but don’t pay for them – ever
3. web sites that need,

a)      initial web content written and/or edited and rewritten

b)      blog posts written on an ongoing basis

c)       articles that are added to web sites to keep them fresh, interesting and up-to-date (usually to keep readers revisiting the site and improve their stakes with Google and other browsers)

1. marketing or SEO specialists who service clients who need articles and other content written according to their specifications, commonly to help promote these sites in some specific way
2. online businesses that offer a variety of ebooks free or for sale and require ghost writers to produce and/or write the books

The content possibilities of all of these, is as vast as all the world’s oceans put together.

While you might stumble across some possibilities by simply surfing the Internet, it helps to know what you are looking for – and what you can expect to find.

Web Sites that Pay Writers for Articles

In the good old days, mid-2000s, web sites like eHow and Associated Content offered easy pickings for writers.  But there were two fatal flaws.

1. Too many so-called writers submitted badly written rubbish.
2. These sites thought there would be market for selling the articles (well at least some of them did) – and this simply didn’t happen, probably because so much is available free.

While some sites do still pay for articles, the rules have changed quite radically, and you will need to familiarize yourself with the requirements of each site before you get started.

Associated Content, for instance (which was launched in 2005), was sold to Yahoo in 2010. But 19 months down the line, in December 2011, the Internet mogul announced a major reshuffle, total rebranding, and a bright new face: Yahoo! Voices. Criticism that the web site was offering “bad writing, uninformed commentary” and worse, had hit home to the powers at Yahoo. Now only content that meets the revised – and one hopes hugely upgraded – Submission Guidelines will be accepted and paid for according to their advertised terms. To become part of the Yahoo Contributor Network, you must be a citizen or legal resident of the United States, and you aren’t guaranteed any payment at all!

Early in 2010 eHow stopped accepting articles from professional writers (for which they had, in the past paid). To get work accepted on eHow, writers must now submit articles via Demand Studios, which is, in essence a content mill. Demand Studios submits writers articles to eHow and to several other top web sites including LIVESTRONG.COM, typeF, USA Today, salon,com and the Houston Chronicle. The company currently pays on average between $15 and $25 for articles, depending on length and the topic. One article might get used several times (after attracting a single fee). It is not known what financial arrangement Demand Studios has with their web site clients, and how much they recoup.

Then there are smaller operations and individual websites like the SitePress Design Festival site that is prepared to pay what they describe as “competitive rates”.

Another example is The Writer magazine, which, while a well-established printed publication, also publishes articles online.  They generally buy first rights, and if your articles are accepted, you can expect to be paid anything from $25 to $50 per article, depending on length and content.

Article Web Sites that Don’t Pay for Submissions

Why on earth would you want to write for a web site that doesn’t pay you?

Three common reasons are that:

1. Other people will pay you to write these articles for them – because they can be easily exploited as a means to promoting products, services and people.
2. You can use these sites as a vehicle to get people to link to your own web site.
3. Some (Hub Pages for example) will share ad revenue, and so while you don’t get paid for the words, you can expect some sort of passive income for your efforts.

Three of the best on-line article sites are Ezine, Hub Pages and Isnare. However they all operate differently. Isnare, for instance offers free registration and free article submission; but for a fee they will distribute your articles to other web sites, giving them wider exposure. Ezine offers perks to writers who pay a subscription fee.

Outsourcing Sites that Bring Clients to their Site to Find Writers

There are numerous outsourcing sites on the Internet including Elance, Guru, oDesk, PeoplePerHour, and freelancer.com. The way they work is that you register and then bid for jobs. While registration is free, most offer paid-for options that increase your potential and professional in various ways.

In short, when you are awarded a job, you communicate directly with the person who hired you, but get paid via the outsourcing web site, that takes a commission.

This is an excellent way to find writing jobs, and since most offer the security of Escrow payments, you will assured that you will be paid, even if your employers are faceless, and a million miles away.

While it’s difficult to assess exactly how much you will earn through this field, the potential is enormous. For instance, top Elance writers have earned more than $200,000 in just 12 months – though these people usually have a team of writers assisting. One of Guru’s top ghost writers has earned more than $58,000 in a year – on his own.  And this is not necessarily the only writing he does for a living.

Don’t bother with sites like online-writing-jobs.com that offer a compilation of possibilities because they’re likely not up to date, and it’s irritating having to pop in and out of a third-party site. Also this particular site lists mainly to craigslist.com which is essentially a classified advertising site.

Be Your Own Client

If you don’t like the idea of writing for clients, but still want to write online articles, you can always create your own web site (or buy an existing one) and generate online content that will:

• enable you to earn money through advertising (Google Adsense and/or paid adverts related to your content),
• promote products for other people for an agreed commission or kick-back (affiliate marketing),
• sell your own products online,
• promote your own writing talents.

It’s your choice.

Delegates attending a recent Site (Society of Incentive Travel Executives) Annual International Conference in South Africa get the opportunity to meet potential clients from different parts of the world during an evening function. Annual conferences are held in different parts of the world, giving Site members incredible opportunities to network and expand their business associates worldwide. Pic courtesy Janek Szymanowski.

Whether you are launching a new business, or running one that is established, you need clients and/or customers. While it is you who supplies the services and/or products, it is your client-base that will ensure you keep going and ultimately make a success of your business.

While it does sometimes happen that people start up businesses as a result of a particular organization, or even an individual, needing something specific, in this day and age it is rare to only have one client. Those who do are usually kept on a retainer and they have to fulfill certain requirements before regular remuneration is released. So it’s often more like having a full time job without the built-in perks of things like medical insurance and pension funds.

So where are your new clients and customers going to come from?

First and foremost you are going to have to identify the type of clients you need for your business to succeed. Then you can decide where and how to find them.

For the purposes of this discussion, let’s presume that you are going to offer a specialized administrative, management or accounting service that is relevant to the pharmaceutical industry. Whichever avenue you explore for clients, you can narrow it down to those who are interested and active in the kind of pharmaceuticals that meet your target market.

Networking

Networking is a form of interaction with people who have similar interests and/or operate in the same industry as you do. By regularly meeting with and talking to others, you can not only increase your knowledge and keep up to date with business trends, but you will find that you are continuously exposed to new opportunities – one of which could be a source of one or more new clients.

Most industries have societies and associations that are run to assist specific industries, and people in that industry are encouraged to join. Many hold regular meetings, conferences and social events for their members.

In the US there are dozens of pharmaceutical associations based in different parts of the country, and specializing in different areas (for instance geriatric or hospital pharmacies). In addition, you may want to join an association that is focused on the service you offer; an accounting association or an association that services the conference or exhibitions industry (depending of course on the specific service you offer).

Word of Mouth

This is one of the most powerful marketing tools, and one that you should always be aware of. However, most people do not rely solely on word of mouth referrals. Instead, by building up a solid reputation in business, many find that recommendations from satisfied existing clients and customers often do boost their client base and ultimately increase sales.

Meetup

There are Meetup Groups all over the world where you can get together with people who have common interests. This is also a form of networking, where you can learn more about specific issues and discuss them with similarly interested people.

You can easily find a local Meetup Group on the Internet, and decide what interests you most.

Here is a handful of examples of Meetup Groups that are interested in pharmaceutical issues:

• Pharmaceutical Sales Representative Meetup Group which supports members in the medical and biological sciences and is based in New York.
• The New York Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Meetup that meets to discuss topics relating to the growing pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.
• Sales People anonymous, another New York-based Meetup Group, but one that is focused in the field of sales and attracts professionals from a range of industries from pharmaceuticals to car sales.
• Bay Area Lifetech Group that meets regularly in San Francisco to discuss creating therapies that benefit the health of society at large.

The list goes on and on…

Conferences and Exhibitions

Attending conferences and visiting exhibitions (many of which are set up alongside specialized conferences) is another great way to network and meet or access your target audience. But first you need to be sure that people from your target market will be attending, particularly if you are going to be paying to either attend the conference or rent a booth at an exhibition, or even simply travel some distance to get there.

Often associations invite members to attend conferences, and often for a lesser fee than those that are organized on a more commercial basis. Also, some associations open their doors to non-members in an attempt to increase membership long term. You may want to take advantage of these offers.

If you do opt to attend conference, or in fact participate in any type of networking exercises, be sure to have decent business cards that you can give to potential clients. A scrap of paper with contact details isn’t going to cut it; you want them to remember you as well as know where to find you. Furthermore, people are more likely to keep well designed business cards than scraps of paper!

Also bear in mind that if you are offering products, rather than services, exhibitions are often the preferable option since you can display samples and even sell from a stand or booth.

Craiglist and other Classified Advertisements

You can use Craiglist and various other classified advertising facilities to find clients or advertise your products and services. Craiglist is a popular option which now has more than 700 local Internet sites based in 70 countries worldwide. According to their mother web site, users self-publish about 50-million new classified ads every month. Of course only a small percentage of these be geared to your particular interest or specialty, but the figures are awesome.

Search Campaigns

In this current day and age, just about everybody uses the Internet in some way or another. Perhaps the most popular tool is the search engine which practically all of us use to find everything and anything, from information, to people and products.

While many people still use the Internet as a kind of vast shop window, getting ideas and checking out products BEFORE they make a commitment, market research shows that more than half of businesses buying from other business use search engines to source initial information before they make their purchasing decisions.

You could search for suitable clients using one the top search engines (Google of course being the favorite), and then contact potential clients and tell them more about what you have to offer. But the more usual approach is to set up a good search campaign that will attract your clients – or buyers of your products – while you sleep! If you’ve never done this before, you might need some assistance getting it right.

Blogs

It’s up to you to gauge the type of blog posts that your potential customers and clients might want to read. Many people have set up blogs that cater specifically to their clients, maintaining continued interest and ensuring they stay loyal to the brand.

If you don’t have (or think you don’t have) writing talent, it is a simple matter to outsource the writing of blog posts to professional writers. You can also outsource management of the blog site if you need to.

Even big business has recognized the value of blogging.

Forums

There are forums all over the Internet, most specializing in different interest areas. If you don’t know where to start, go back to Craigslist. You will find that there are about 100 topical forums that more 120-million user post messages to.

But there are forums all over the Internet, and it’s an exceptionally good way to network online.

When you set up your business web site, consider the option of adding a forum. Get it right and you’ll find new customers showing up on a daily basis.

Social Networking Groups

Today the top social networking groups, particularly Facebook and Twitter, cater not only to “social” networking, but they also provide the opportunity for people to use their sites for active marketing of products and services. By creating interest on these sites, it is possible to boost your client base in a phenomenal way.

It works for some people, but not for others, but to make it work, you should be aware that consistency is key. For instance if people are following you on Twitter, and you don’t have a continual presence that offers something new and exciting on a regular basis, chances are that a whole lot of your “followers” will lose interest.

Joint Venture

Joint ventures are strategic plans that involve forming temporary partnerships with other individuals or businesses for a single project (rather than business as a whole).

Often people starting out in business like to establish joint ventures with those who have more experience than they do, to minimize the chance of failure. If you go this route you will share costs – and clients – but will also have to work with your “partner” and make decisions you both agree to.

Referral Incentives

There are many ways that you can use referral incentives to increase a client or customer base. One popular option used by companies doing business on the Internet is to get involved in affiliate programs. For example, you could decide to open an online book store on your web site, and recommend books that have something to do with pharmaceuticals or other medical issues. You recommend certain books, and then direct potential clients to Amazon.com or whichever site or sites you have signed up to do business with.

Alternatively you may prefer to get involved in more personal referral incentive schemes where you personally recommend the services of particular companies that have undertaken to pay you a commission on any sales made as a result of your recommendation. In this instance you will be face-to-face with people, which is often a much more persuasive option.

Of course you may also offer referral incentives to people to increase your own client or customer base.

If you’re new in business, you may not have considered the benefits of having an 1800 (or one-800) number. You may not have even considered the possibility of having any sort of toll free or free-call number.

Of course whether to or not – get a toll free number that is – will be determined partly by the type of business you have. If you’re selling something it’s a must. If you don’t want to encourage people to call you, then it’s probably not going to work as a business tool.

About Toll Free Numbers

Before you decide whether to go for an 1800 number, you need to know why people in business bother with toll free numbers at all.

First off, they’re nothing new, having been introduced to the UK and USA in the 1960s.

Essentially, all they are is a tool that makes it easy for customers and potential customers to get hold of you or your business. Instead of the caller footing the bill for the telephone call, the person who “owns” the telephone number pays the cost. This varies depending on the prefix of the number you are assigned, as well as the monthly fees and possible set-up costs that the different providers charge.

Initially the idea was to reduce the need for collect (or reverse-charge) calls which involved operators answering and relinking each call.

While the actual operation of toll free numbers has changed quite radically over the years, their usefulness has simply grown and improved over time. For instance, initially the numbers weren’t portable, which meant that if you switched providers, you had to get a new number.  Nowadays you get a number – and you keep it. This is hugely useful in the business context, maintaining continuity for your customers and clients. And that really IS important.

You will also find that calls can be forwarded to any number at all (including cell numbers, office telephones and PBX systems). Also, you get call logs, so you can keep track of the calls you get; and if you wish, voicemail messages can be converted to text and emailed to you.

Choosing a Prefix for your Toll Free Number

Having decided that you want a toll free number for your business, you are going to need to find a provider and decide which prefix you want.

Even though numbers are supposedly “international”, you’re going to find that toll free numbers are not created equal. First of all, 0800 numbers are found in many countries, while 1800 numbers are only valid in North America. Either way, there are only so many variables that can be used with 800, so what has happened is that additional numbers have been introduced for toll free calls. The main ones in the US are 866, 877 and 888 – which are generally supplied free.

But of course an 800 or 1800 number is considered by most people to be preferable (even if they settle for less)… and so there is usually a fee for these.

Where to Get your 1800 Number

There are quite a few providers around, and it’s important for you to shop around and establish how much the service is going to cost you. For instance there are different setup fees that are charged, and monthly fees differ. There will also be additional setup fees if you opt for a vanity number – that’s when you have a 1800 number that uses words. For instance, 1-800-687-7483 would translate to 1-800-OUR-SITE! These “vanity” numbers are much easier to remember, which is why they have become incredibly popular over the years.

As an aside, a disadvantage of vanity numbers is that not all phones have the letters indicated next to numbers. So if you don’t know what O and U and R are in numbers, you’re not going to even bother to try and phone the number. For this reason companies usually list the numerical number as well as the clever wordy one!

So now you’re convinced that it is a good idea which companies can supply the goodies?

• RingCentral is more expensive than most, and they do charge setup fees. But even if you get a vanity number, setup’s not going to set you back more than $45 in total. So even expensive is cheap at the price! They charge a monthly fee of just less than $10, but do offer an annual prepayment discount.
• Phone.com has smaller setup fees, but they charge a higher monthly fee.
• Virtual PBX is kind of on a par with RingCentral in terms of monthly fees, but they don’t do discounts and don’t charge setup fees, except for vanity numbers
• eVoice is cheaper than Phone.com monthly, but they charge for setup and and…
• One Suite is another option that has good write-ups like those before. Cheaper all round, but you’ll need to see if they have what you need.
• At&T has the most expensive monthly fee, but everything else seems to be free.
• If you’re not in the USA, TollFreeForwarding.com is a particularly good one to look at. They also offer true 800 numbers for businesses in the US of A.

One thing that IS certain, with a 1800 number, you’re going to be up there with the big boys and winning women! And since costs have decreased dramatically over the years, you’ll be incredibly surprised how affordable (if not cheap) your new number is going to cost you.

Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?

Sound familiar? If it does then chances are you are one of the many people in this world who find a way to constantly make excuses for their shortcomings, faults and weaknesses.

Some of these excuses are legendary, like: “Sorry darling I’ve got a headache”! Others are pathetic, like “I don’t have time to go to gym”, or “I’ll never get an executive position in the company because the boss doesn’t like me”. Worse still: “Oops, I forgot!”

So if you’re falling into the excuse trap now is the time get motivated and get a life!

"Sorry darling I've got a headache." Photograph by kozzi.com

What are Excuses and why do we make them?

Essentially excuses are explanations that we put forward to justify something that we either feel – or know – is wrong, or less than perfect. You could say it’s a reason we give ourselves for not dealing with an unpleasant truth, often to avoid doing something that we in fact don’t want to do. The way it usually works is when we aren’t achieving or simply don’t want to do something, we make an excuse.

If you think about it, it’s an easy out.

Let’s take three typical excuses and analyze why someone might need to use these excuses, and then look at the possible implications.

1. “So sorry I couldn’t meet my deadline, my computer hard drive died.”
2. “Apologies for being late for our meeting, my car broke down.”
3. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to make the company’s annual general meeting because I have to be at home with my children.”

As they say in the classics, sh*t happens. But if you are motivated, you’ll find a way to address and overcome any sort of problem.

Dead hard drive? Photograph by kozzi.com

Let’s say your hard drive really did die and you couldn’t meet your deadline. The first point is whether it is enough to simply offer an excuse.  It might seem the only way, but in real life, if you are going to be successful, you need to be thinking of quick solutions before you start making excuses. In today’s day and age, all half-decent computers have CD drives, so there is absolutely no excuse for not regularly backing up your hard drive. Then if your hard drive does die (and they do), at least you will have it all on disc. Sure you might lose some current work, but it won’t be half as bad as losing everything and you’ll have a chance to upload it to another computer and complete your job.

If you make an effort to complete the job close to deadline, you have a fighting chance of keeping the job or client. If you only offer an excuse, chances are you’ll be burning bridges, and may even be fired.

Much the same applies to the situation of a car breaking down. It’s all got to do with mechanical things and maybe you aren’t to blame – unless of course you’ve been making excuses about getting the car serviced or repaired, secretly knowing that it’s likely to break down one of these days. While there are other forms of transport (from buses and taxis to accommodating friends) IF you can’t make another plan and make the meeting on time, then at very least phone whoever it is you are due to meet and apologize without making irrelevant excuses.

Whether you are man or woman, if you have children, there are going to be times when their needs will come first. But unless your child is sick and/or cannot be cared for by someone else for a few hours, missing an important function could have serious repercussions for you later. Never lose sight of the fact that there are hidden opportunities at every turn, and the best way to pass these up is to make an excuse not to be where you might encounter them!

Even when excuses are dinkum, meaning they are based on total truth, people don’t often take kindly to them. On the other hand, if they can see you have made, or are making, a genuine attempt to solve the problems you have, most are likely to be considerably more understanding.

Feeble Excuses

Apart from hard core real life problems, like breakdowns and illness, an incredible number of people make stupid excuses throughout their lives. These relate equally to everything in life, from unsuccessful relationships, unfulfilled work experiences, inadequate social skills, to failed goals relating to anything from getting fit and losing weight, to adequately (and lovingly) disciplining your children.

How often have your heard people say they don’t have time to do something? But the reality is that unless you make the time, you will never succeed, be it in business, with a relationship or anything else. If you believe you are lacking the time to do something you claim to be important, spend a week or more noting the time you spend doing nothing constructive. You might surprise yourself.

Then there are those who ascertain they are unable to achieve a goal because they simply don’t have the skills to do so. If you really want to do something, you’ll get some guidance, learn the skills, and stop making stupid excuses for your lack of motivation.

Another universal excuse is not having the funds to do something. Undoubtedly having a budget shortfall is a challenge, but if you want something badly enough, you’ll find a way to raise the funds – even if it takes a few years to save, or means taking a loan or finding a partner.

There are millions of successful entrepreneurs out there who have achieved the impossible, having started out with absolutely nothing. Study their stories and be inspired. Instead of making excuses for your own inadequacies, learn from their success.

Whether you are at school or at college, or have been drifting around for a few years not knowing what to do with your future, there comes a time when you will need to find a purpose in life. Maybe you’ve completed your studies and have found a great job. Perhaps you’re an older person, who is perfectly satisfied with life. You have your own business, a wonderful family, and a bunch of really special friends.

So you’re happy; but what is your purpose in life right now?

The thing is that many of us don’t in fact have a purpose in life. We simply exist, following a given path that we have accepted as our own. That doesn’t mean you will necessarily be bored or unhappy, or even poor, you just won’t be motivated to improve your life or to do anything particularly purposeful.

Having a purpose in life is, quite simply, having a goal, or goals that you aim to achieve in some sort of timeframe. To quote Napoleon Hill, author of the mind-blowing Think and Grow Rich (first published in 1937), and one of the world’s first hugely successful motivational speakers:

“A goal is a dream with a deadline”.

Identifying Goals

A goal is something that you want or need to achieve, either for yourself or for others.

Examples of goals – which become ones purpose in life – include:

• achieving a specific qualification,
• entering a certain career,
• achieving a particular position within your job,
• starting and succeeding in your own business,
• finding a life partner,
• having a family and being happy,
•  earning sufficient money to be comfortable and ensure your children are well educated,
• owning your own home,
• decorating your house beautifully without professional help,
• creating a herb and vegetable garden so that you improve your self sufficiency stakes,
• travelling to other continents,
• being a nicer person than you are right now,
• helping others improve their lives.

There are millions of possibilities.

Just remember that having a purpose in life is more than a bucket list of things you want to do in your life. To have a purpose in life means taking a direction towards a specific destination that you have chosen, and then continuing to follow it until you achieve your goal.

If you’ve achieved everything that YOU want, perhaps it’s time for you to focus on others. Do something for those who have less than you have.

Here’s a lesson: For media mogul and legendary talk show host Oprah Winfrey, goals primarily meant money. Having been born into a life of poverty and abused as a child, she decided she would be a millionaire by the time she was 32. Having achieved this goal, she told the world in 1987 that her purpose in life was now to become the richest black woman in the USA. She achieved this too and was worth more than $1.4-billion by 2006. And she’s achieved a whole lot more, giving back to communities and less fortunate people all over the world – because she can.

Finding a Purpose in Life

If you’ve never considered what your purpose in life will be, it will help to consider yourself in a multi-faceted manner.

1. How are you physically? Are you fit and healthy? Is there something you want to do that involves physical training? Physical goals might range from improving your sex life to running a competitive marathon.
2. How is your mental being? I’m not asking if you’re sane or crazy, but rather whether you are stressed or mentally drained. It is very important that you are able to concentrate and focus on your goals if you are to succeed.
3. How do you rate emotionally? Here’s where we’re talking about happiness and our relationships with others. You won’t be able to avoid sadness and other so-called negative emotions, but if need be, you can improve your communication skills and concentrate on improving relationships at home, at work and in your social circle.
4. How do you rate spiritually? Even if you aren’t a religious person, your spiritual being is important because it includes everything that relates to your soul (or inner being) rather than your mind or body. Are you at peace with yourself? While one spiritual goal might be to attend church regularly, another might be to go to yoga and learn to meditate.

The ideal is to combine your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual goals with any other goals you might have. So if, like Oprah, you want to be wealthy, be sure to balance this purpose in life with the other more personal goals that will ensure you are also rich in mind and spirit.

Why it is Important to have a Purpose in Life

Quite simply, goals give us direction and make our lives meaningful. Accomplishing our goals brings a tremendous sense of achievement and acknowledgment of self worth.

It may not have occurred to you, but if you don’t have a purpose in life, what’s the point? On the other hand, if you do, and it is a significant and challenging goal, there is no doubt that your life will improve. After all, to be a well-rounded person, it is important to be happy and content.

Sadly, this is not the norm. I read somewhere that only about three percent of Americans set personal goals and then work on them. That’s a scary thought! Of course many more consider what they’d like to do, and a large percentage of these set bucket lists which they vaguely try to fulfill. But that is not having a true purpose in life.

Finding and Setting Goals

To find a purpose in life, you need to analyze yourself and your current achievements. You need to look inside and identify what you like about yourself and your life, and then see how you can improve. But remember, that to set a goal in life, you really need to WANT to achieve it. You need to identify what you want to do, otherwise your goal will already be destined to failure. As the leading life strategists and motivational speakers will tell you, anything you really want and believe in, you CAN achieve. Furthermore, you don’t have to limit your goals; the bigger and better your purpose in life is, and the more you want to achieve it, the more likely you are to do so.

But setting goals is not enough. Once you have identified what your purpose in life is – for now – you need to work out how you’re going to achieve it.

True goals need plans to achieve them, and once you have your plan, you have to work at it to make it happen. Furthermore, because goals are aims, you need the motivation to get there! It is not enough to simply believe that something will happen. YOU have to make it happen.

Just one word of caution: we often have to do things we dislike or would rather not do to achieve our goals and purpose in life. Furthermore with success comes failure, so inevitably you’ll need to overcome disappointments and shortcomings, and soldier on.

How to Achieve your Goals

To put it simply: whatever your purpose in life, you will achieve it one step at a time. It might take you months to get there; it might take you years. But even before you start, you first need to trace the path that you believe will take you to your goal.

If you can’t see this path clearly, find a mentor, or even just a willing friend you can rely on. Don’t ever be afraid to ask other for advice and assistance. And always go the extra mile to help others. Remember the old adage: “What goes around comes around”.

In your quest towards a new purpose in life, you may need to learn new skills. You may also have to muster finances to make each step possible. You may even need to bring other people on board to help you.

In many ways a plan to achieve certain goals is like a business plan. You draw it up as a guideline, and then you review the plan regularly, to see what you have achieved and how you may need to adapt. Be open to opportunity and constantly visualize yourself having achieved your purpose in life.

Take one step at a time, and you will eventually get there. And when you do, be sure to set new goals…

All images courtesy of www.kozzi.com

In a perfect world it should be possible to start a new business on deposits and advance payments for goods or services. After all the basic aim in business is to make a profit, and as long as you are bringing in more than you are spending, you’ ll be “A” for away. Debt-free from Day One; that’s the ideal.

While in theory this is possible – and some people are able to kick-start new small businesses this way – the reality is that even if you are living at home rent-free and fed, you are going to need some of that green stuff!

Take a “perfect world” scenario: A young entrepreneur decides to launch a business selling online while he is still living at home. He has a decent computer with all the bells and whistles. He has a cellphone and free Internet access.  He has good, basic computer training and is able to build his own web site, which he does. He has set up the business with savings, paying an accountant to do all the necessary registrations, including the name of his new business, taxes and so on. He has the domain name that works for the business, and a good reliable service provider. He has set up suppliers that he pays COD – and is selling goods that must be paid for “on order”.  He has built freight fees into his costs, and only pays these fees at 30 days.  He still has some savings left, but if ANYTHING should go wrong, until he has built up a nice buffer of profit in the bank, he’s not going to have anything to fall back on.

But he has done a good, solid business plan, and in the event of needing funding, he can update the financials (to include business done to date), and take it to the bank, or to a potential investor or other source.

For now he’s not in debt.

But relatively few people are in the same fortunate position as this young entrepreneur.  Most people have set-up costs that include spending money on both premises and equipment.

Legal and professional costs vary, but accountants and attorneys have a role to play early on in the business. As you get the business going, you might also find that you need assistance in a variety of fields, from bookkeeping to marketing.

You might also need working capital to keep you going until the business brings in a profit. Not everybody is able to demand money in advance; it depends on the type of sales or service you offer. But clearly the longer you can get suppliers to wait for their money, and the quicker you can get your customers and clients to pay you, the better your cash flow will be.

But it doesn’t stop at start-up. Once your business is making a profit, and it starts to grow or expand, you may need extra funds to make this possible.

So where will the money come from?

Personal Savings

Many people save to start their own businesses, just like our young entrepreneur did. Some even start saving “pocket money” while they are still in school, money earned from odd jobs, and gifts given in the form of cash.

Generally people who are already employed, and who decide to take the plunge and start their own businesses, will be a little older, and therefore need to be a little more careful. If you are married with a family, don’t go the route of using personal savings unless you already have a well established emergency fund that you can rely on if things go wrong – which they often do.

Banks

A quick and usually easy way to raise money is to take an overdraft with your bank. The catch when using an overdraft to start up a business is that you will normally have a new bank account – even if you are already a bank client. If you don’t have assets of any kind, you may be required to lodge some sort of surety; or have someone who has a good, well established financial record, to stand surety for you. This is not ideal; so if you decide this is a suitable source of finance, rather work on the financials in your business plan. If you have a strong balance sheet, and your financial projections are solid, you’ll probably get the money.

When you take an overdraft with any bank, read the small print – all of it. Invariably the bank retains the right to demand instant repayment for overdrafts. While this doesn’t happen frequently, it does happen. I’ve been there once, and it wasn’t fun!

Banks also offer various loans to customers. Investigate the possibilities, but unless you are operating as a sole proprietor, don’t take a personal loan that you will personally be responsible for.

Micro-loan Programs

Micro-loan programs offer relatively small, short-term loans to small businesses and people in small business. Generally people use this money to buy supplies and equipment, or as working capital.

There are some excellent micro-loan programs that offer relatively low interest rates. Generally most businesses qualify for this type of loan, although you, as the business owner, will need to have a decent credit score on your FICO Report.

If you decide to apply for a micro loan, you are strongly advised to include a detailed business plan that incorporates cash flow projections for at least the following 12 months.

Angel Investors

Angel investors are “high net-worth” people who are prepared to back new business ventures in return for an equity share of the business. If yours is a risky venture, you might find that an angel investor is your only option.

There are angel investors throughout the world, many of whom belong to support groups that don’t actually loan money, like the Angel Capital Association (ACA) in the USA, and the National Business Angels Network (NBAN) in the UK.

Angels are often former entrepreneurs who have made a lot of money and who want to give something back to their local communities. They also believe in entrepreneurship, knowing that a successful new, entrepreneurial business can provide an excellent return on investment. Most angels will exit the business once it has grown into a successful enterprise – which is when they get their investment back, along with the profits it has attracted.

According to the Center for Venture Research, angel investment topped $20-billion in 2010, which was $1-billion more than in 2008.

Venture Capital

Like angel investors, venture capitalists provide early-stage financial capital for high-risk startup companies that show a good potential of succeeding financially. These are usually larger businesses than those that attract angel investment, but have not been established as limited companies where shares can be sold.  At the same time, venture capitalists generally prefer to deal with well-structured companies, with a board of directors and all the other controls. In this case you will need to register a limited company anyway.

Instead of dealing with an individual or a small, informal group of people, in this instance the money comes from a venture capital fund. Generally those representing the fund will get significant control within the company along with a representative proportion of ownership (usually in the forms of shares) of the business.

Both individual and group angel investors and venture capitalists differ from more traditional debt financiers in terms of repayment of money borrowed. Generally angels and venture capitalists only get money back when they sell out; when the business is sold; when shares are sold; or if there is a merger.

Family and Friends

Asking friends or members of your family to lend you money to help kick start a new business is generally a really bad idea, even though some small business owners do so as a last resort. But if things go wrong, as they can and do, this is the very best way to ruin friendships and wreck marriages!

If you can’t raise the money you need to start up your own small business, go back to your business plan to see what seems to be the problem.  But don’t try and manipulate the truth. If the potential doesn’t shine for outsiders, chances are you’ve either written a rotten business plan, or the business is doomed to failure.

Rather go back to the drawing board and start again. Don’t EVER borrow money if there’s a chance you won’t be able to repay it.

If you are starting a new small business you need a good, viable idea; you need a solid plan of action; and you need a goal to work towards. But before you do anything; even before you write a business plan, open a business bank account or apply for a telephone, you need a name for your business.

But wait. While choosing a name is one of the key decisions you are going to have to make before launching your business, there’s a whole lot of paperwork that needs to be done first.

Apart from the fact that your business name needs to be meaningful and memorable, and should be the marketing link to whatever goods or services you plan to provide, there are certain legalities that may preclude you from using what you consider to be the perfect name.  So save yourself potential heartache, and be prepared.

Decisions before Choosing a Business Name  

Sure, many people come up with a business name (or a domain name if they are planning to do business on the Internet), and immediately swing into action. It’s really not that difficult. If you are going to operate as a sole proprietor you won’t have to register you business, and there’s minimal control from any administrative area.

This is true of most Western world countries. But in the US, there are many states that insist business operators who are sole proprietors, use their personal name as the business name, and that they register the name as a sole proprietorship. That can work if you’re a writer, like me, but if I was going to market handcrafted silver cutlery for a group of artists, it wouldn’t benefit the business.

Being forewarned, you’ll know that the workaround here is to formally file another name, known as your Doing Business As (DBA) – or in some countries, trading as (t/a) – trade name, fictitious name, or assumed name. Just check what is required in your state.

Most people who start off a business as a sole proprietorship really do start out small. If you want to minimize your risk of personal liability, look at all the other possibilities, because there are different legal, financial and tax considerations. These include nonprofit organizations as well as limited-liability companies (LLCs) and partnerships.

Like a sole proprietorship, a partnership name is that of the people who “own” the business – namely the partners whose names appear on the partnership agreement. For this reason a DBA is frequently registered.

For LLCs and other large corporations, the legal name of the business is that which is registered with the state government.  The name of the business is, in effect, the DBA.

Having decided which business type or form to register (or not register, as the case may be), it’s back to the business of choosing the best possible name for your new business.

Originality

Simple originality and ingenuity are two of any successful entrepreneur’s secret weapons. This is what will set you apart from the rest, both in terms of the business as a whole, and its name.  But while originality implies something bright and new, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Often a fresh, new look at something that is already established in the marketplace will enable a clever entrepreneur to “up the ante”, and take on competitors before they know what’s happening.

So where do you start? First and foremost, with the business; after all there is no point in having an original name that doesn’t relate directly to your new venture.

While you should always avoid embarrassing (if deliberate) spelling errors, sometimes “made up” words make excellent product and business names. If you plan to trademark the name, non-dictionary words often provide the originality that is required.

Make it Sound Good

People like to feel happy and to be amused. In business, they like to feel positivity and trust. If your business name is in any way negative, you’re going to be starting on the back foot. Bearing in mind that the name you opt for now should remain the same from Day One, make sure that the name you choose feels good and doesn’t elicit any feelings of antipathy or doubt, or have any other dubious connotations.

If you can’t think of a name that has a positive message or will put a smile on people’s faces, at very least aim for a name that is completely neutral.

It should also literally “sound” good and be easy to pronounce.  For this reason abbreviations and initials do not work well in business names.

Make it Easy to Remember

It stands to reason that if the name of your business is catchy, and/or very easy to remember, your customers and potential customers won’t have to think twice before calling you or visiting you, be it online or at a real-time premises.

Think of some of the names of businesses created by some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs: Larry Page’s Google, the late Steve Jobs’ Apple, Richard Branson’s Virgin, Jerry Yang’s Yahoo, and Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook. They are all short, easy-to-remember and, if you think about it, original too!

While it is generally considered unwise to use your own name or initials as a business name, there are times when it makes perfect sense to, for instance if your business Is promoting a product you have designed. There are many examples in the fashion world, including Ralph Lauren. Another is Dell Computers, the brainchild of 40-something year Michael Dell who is now reputedly worth more than $17-billion.

Once you have a name, design, or have a logo designed. A good logo makes it a lot easier to remember business names.

Consider Your Competitors

Before you decided on the type and form of your business, you should have analyzed your target market and identified your probable competitors. From this moment on you’re going to need to keep a close handle on both these factors. If you are not able to get your estimated market share of the business you are launching, chances are your success rate will fall short of your business plan (and yes you DO have to do one if you’re serious about this business).

It is a very rare few who enter the market with a completely new product. Rather, the entrepreneur will enter an existing market and simple do things better.

So if you haven’t already done so, go back and analyze not only obvious business strategies of competitors, but also look carefully at their names and logos. Compare them and ask yourself why some are more successful than others.

Ultimately, remember that you don’t want to copy competitors, you want to be different.

Choice and Availability of Names

It’s often a case of first-come first-served when it comes to business names, particularly when it comes to trademark (see next section below).  Quite simply, if another business has established a trademark, you cannot use that name – even if it isn’t registered. You also cannot choose a name that could be mistaken for a trademark name.  Furthermore you will find that in some states, if another business has already registered a name (irrespective of whether it’s trademarked) you won’t be able to use it. Sometimes it is allowed, but only if the two businesses are in different industries. For me, that spells two businesses with names that probably don’t do justice to either of them.

If you are going to operate via the Internet, you will (or perhaps already have) be registering a domain name. Here there is no allowable duplication of names, except of course in terms of the generic top level name (gTLN) including .com, .org,  .net. and the plethora of country-code top-level domains.

That’s simple enough, but the challenge is make sure that the business name you register and the domain name you register can work together. The ideal for many is to match the two, and branding should follow through on all levels. But trying to match a domain name to a business name can be a nightmare. Here’s where DBA can save the game yet again.

Avoid Trademark Issues

This issue of trademark is two-sided and it can work both for and against you. What a trademark does is to identify products and services that come from a “unique source” and distinguish them from your competitors’ products and services. If you really have a unique product or service then it probably is worth the time (it’s take a couple of years for registration to be completed) and cost (apart from trademark costs, an attorney will have to do the registration for you). But with a mere 300,000-odd registered in the entire USA in 2011, this is clearly not a priority for most small business owners.

Two other factors to consider are that trademark for small US businesses is only valid in the US, so if you’re setting up an Internet business you’ll have limited protection. And if you only have an unregistered mark (you may be waiting for registration) and somebody breaches your trademark, you may only be protected within a specific geographic area.

There are three marks:

™          an unregistered trademark for products (see the Google logo)

℠          an unregistered service trademark

®           a registered trademark (see the Yahoo logo)

When you start operating you business, make absolutely certain you aren’t in breach of someone else’s trademark. The penalties can be extremely high.

Ultimately, if you aim to be honest, unique and different, it’s very unlikely you will have any trademark issues. And with a good name behind you, the only way to look is forward.

The economy is in bad shape and this affects small business owners like yourself. You want to continue doing business but you need to save and cut costs whenever possible. You want to use any extra money you have to reinvest in your business to make it grow and make even more money. But you don’t have the money or time to spend in expensive marketing endeavors or materials but you still want to promote your business. Marketing is essential to any business, big or small. Since you can’t pay the big marketing bucks or hire marketing specialists you need to do it on your own. A newsletter is a great marketing tool to keep your existing customers and potential new customers interested in your products and services, and there is a way to do it efficiently and cheaply.

In this tutorial, I will show you how easy and quickly it is to put together a simple two page newsletter using Microsoft Word 2003 that you can mail or email to your customers. In the example that I provide I create a newsletter for a fictitious company that provides tutoring services called Eureka To Go!. And to make your life even simpler I am attaching the template at the end of this tutorial so you can download it and format it as you need it.

Please note that there are many template options within Microsoft and also available online, but since you don’t really have a lot of time, I have done the research for you and come up a simple two page newsletter template that you can print or email. There are many, many newsletter templates available but they usually have more than two pages and I know I wouldn’t read a four page or a six page newsletter either in hard copy or online. I don’t have time for that and your customers don’t have the time either, so the newsletter in this tutorial is just two pages with most of the useful information included in the first page. Now one page maybe two I can handle and so do most people. The one thing that turns people off is information overload and too much to read, so we are going to make their lives easier but at the same time provide them with a nice newsletter with useful information about their favorite products and services. So here we go:

Step 1: Open Microsoft Word 2003, click new document, go down to Newsletter and select “School Newsletter (2-col., 2-pp.)” – I know it’s called School Newsletter but the template is the easiest I found to work it and now in the next steps we are going to format it for our fictitious company.

Step 2: For this step, you need to have a couple of things ready and saved in your computer. You should have your company logo image saved and about three images that you want to add to the newsletter. Also you need to have your content already saved and ready to be inserted. I recommend you keep your images in an image folder and your content in another folder so it is easy to find and insert into your newsletter.

Next, click on the top name box and enter the name of your company with the appropriate color and logo. Delete the extra content in the “Issue Box” and add the date and issue number for your newsletter. Click on the red title box and change it to the color that you use for your company. As you can see in our example, I changed the title to “Eureka to Go! Tutoring services” and the red font was changed to orange throughout the newsletter because that is the color scheme for our fictitious company. I also changed the page outline box to black. It should look like this.

Step 3: Now to change the images in the newsletter, the fastest way is to double click on the already existing image, and it takes you to the “Format” menu, click on the “change picture” located in the upper left hand side, and it will let you search for the folder where you have the images saved. So find the folder, select the image and click OK, and your image will appear in the newsletter. Repeat this step for all other other images. Now for the titles, click on the title boxes and change the title of the articles, then select the article content box, delete the dummy text and insert your article contents. Then finally select the content article box and click on “Justify” so that all the content is nicely centered. In our example, I deleted some extra boxes that I did not need and added new titles that were appropriate for the fictitious company. My final newsletter for this company looks like this. However yours will be formatted according to your company’s needs.

Please feel free to download the template that we just created and change it as need be. Finally, a couple of pointers for your mailings. You can take your newsletter and save it to a pdf file and email it to your customers or potential customers if you have an email list. You can also print it and mail it to your customers, but I only recommend this if you have a small list because you need to pay for postage, but on the bright side, people like to get newsletters in the mail – it’s like receiving a magazine or something that they can read for leisure. As opposed to receiving a brochure which most people identify as marketing or advertising. Just make sure you print it in color and do front and back, and provide your contact information. I hope these templates and advise can help you continue marketing your products and services while keeping costs down but quality high.
Newsletter Template (29)

Would you consider making banking transactions that you couldn’t track later? Would you consider selling merchandise without a register that logs each of your sales and orders. So then why would you not want to track everything that is happening on your website?

Web analytics is a broad term used to describe software that tracks actions, sales, and behavior on your site. That is a simple definition but it pretty much covers it.

Google analytics-Let’s start with 800 lb gorilla in the room, Google analytics is the free web analytics tool from google. For it’s purposes, it is well rounded in terms of features and it is simple enough for any small business or website owner to use.

Google analytics has the ability to track conversions (goals), visitors and where they came from (traffic sources), top content on your site, and much more. If you don’t want to spend money and don’t have a real need to have a high performing web analytics system, then this one is for you.

Awstats

If you have ever hosted a site with a hosting company who had cpanel as the admin interface, chances are you also had Awstats. Awstats is a free open source tracking software, which is usually included in most hosting packages. It is basic and for a long time I have used it myself. It provides unique visitors, locations,

* Number of visits, and number of unique visitors,
* Visits duration and last visits,
* Days of week and rush hours (pages, hits, KB for each hour and day of week),
* Domains/countries of hosts visitors (pages, hits, KB, 269 domains/countries detected, GeoIp detection),
* Most viewed, entry and exit pages,
* Web compression statistics (for mod_gzip or mod_deflate),
* OS used (pages, hits, KB for each OS, 35 OS detected),
* Browsers used (pages, hits, KB for each browser, each version (Web, Wap, Media browsers: 97 browsers, more than 450 if using browsers_phone.pm library file),
* Search engines, keyphrases and keywords used to find your site ( like yahoo, google, altavista, etc…),
* Number of times your site is “added to favorites bookmarks”.

To install and use awstats, you don’t need it to be provided by your hosting company, you can add it yourself.

Getclicky Review

Of the same variety but a lot better and of course not free is getclicky. I have been using this real time web analytics for about a year and I absolutely love it. Aside from the regular features like visits and such. It offers a Spy option in which you can see real time who’s on your site and what they are looking at.

Also, they have a very robust reporting option, you can elect all sorts of options for your reports.

They even have an Iphone version, so that you are never far away from your stats. My favorite thing about getclicky is the simplicity of its layout.

They also have a very active forum for support and answers are very prompt to any queries you may have.

Here is a screenshot of how they’re interface appears.

Competitive Intelligence Analytics

If you are running performance or direct response campaigns, having a spy tool sometimes helps. I debated whether to include this as a web analytics tool, because it tells you what the competition is doing. However, since web analytics as a whole is meant to give you an edge. or to help you improve your campaign, then it makes sense to have such a tool and to classify it as such.

Compete.com

Personally, I’ve never used the paid version of compete so I can not speak to its effectiveness, I know many marketers that do though and their consensus is that while it can help, no tool is the end all be all.

Compete basically allows you to see and estimate what a competitor is bidding on for paid keywords, shows you it’s traffic source and also helps you with finding new keywords for SEO.

Adgooroo.com

A tool that I have used and find very thorough is Adgooroo. It is comprehensive in that it covers Paid Search Traffic, SEO, and Display. One of the main selling points of Adgooroo is the name it has behind it, Eric Ward. In case you didn’t know who he is, Eric Ward was doing SEO when many of us still thought getting 1000 hours free on an AOL CD was awesome.

Adgooroo Features

SEM- Track and gain insight into keywords that are being bid within your market
Trademark Insight- Do you want to see if someone is misusing your trademark name? This keeps track of the ads bidding on your trademark name, especially useful if you are running an affiliate program and want to keep affiliates from bidding on your trademark keywords.

Display insight- See what types of banners and where your competitors are running their campaigns.
Link insight- Learn to find the best potential link placements for your site. This tool helps you find quality over quantity when it comes to link building.
Industry insight- Have access to a database of 50k B2B leads.

User Behavior Analytics

Crazy egg

Allows you to see how your users are interacting with your site. Through heatmaps, you’ll see where a user clicks and how he moves around the site. Crazy egg is a great tool of you want to optimize an ecommerce store for example and want to figure out how to improve click through rates , etc.

Clicktale

Same as Crazy egg, but with more features.

Ad Serving and Analytics

Adserving works just as it sounds, it serves your ad. But obviously it does more, you can also optimize, track, run rich media campaigns, and more.

If you’re considering a large media buy, such as in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, I would strongly recommend going with an adserving company (actually you might consider an ad agency as well).

Doubleclick used to be it’s own company until google bought them. All in all it’s an OK ad serving platform, but it still needs some work in the usability of the interface category.

Mediamind- a main competitor in the adserving vertical, Mediamind is well ahead of Doubleclick in terms of usability and reporting capabilities. It’s graphs, charts and ease of use makes this my preference for adserving high end campaigns.

Other mentions in the adserving space include:
Zedo
Mediaplex
Atlas (microsofts adserver)

*note, adserving is usually charged by as a markup on the cpm or the cpc.

I hope this article has helped you decide which one you need to use. Web analytics is not a mutually exclusive process, many advertisers at one time or another use two even three of these services. For example, many small and medium sized sites use Getclicky or Google Analytics for daily montoring and comprehesive reporting of natural and some paid traffic, however, they will readily use mediamind or doublclick for adserving when executing a major campaign.