1. Post flyers in grocery stores, post offices, libraries, banks and anywhere else that has a public bulletin board.

2. Leave brochures or catalogs with order forms in medical buildings or offices, (doctors, dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, etc.), and in hospital waiting rooms and patient rooms.

3. Ask if you can post a flyer in the window of local businesses.

4. If you have a favorite hairdresser’s, talk to the owner about setting up a table or leaving business cards there for his/her customers to take.

5. When you travel, leave behind a brochure or catalogue in your hotel room with order forms, or leave behind samples as a tip for the maids.

6. Create small care packages to give away at events and include a flyer, business card, catalogue, order form, or coupon.

7. Fill a small plastic bag with a few goodies like suckers, stickers or pencils and include a flyer and coupon. Staple your business card to the outside. Hand them out to people or leave them wherever you go.

8. Host an open house in your home to introduce people to your product. Offer free coffee and desserts. Give guests a discount coupon to use on their first order. Have a drawing for free products.

9. Cold call on people introducing your product. Offer a discount off their first order.

10. Talk to schools, day cares, nursery schools and other organizations about doing fundraisers. Offer them a percentage from each sale.

11. Make flyers with a tear-off discount coupon and have the Post Office put them in PO boxes and mailboxes.

12. Place an ad in local newspapers and newsletters.

13. Put an ad your local phone book under the appropriate category.

14. Set up a table at your county fair or other local event and show samples of your products. Provide brochures or catalogues. Hold a drawing for a free products or services. Hand out flyers with a discount coupon off the first order.

15. Run a local radio ad. Or take your local DJ a plate of brownies in appreciation. Let them know your business name. Often they’ll mention you on air – at no cost.

16. Place an ad in a local city magazine.

17. Hire someone to do cold calling and selling for you. Pay them hourly or by commission only.

18. Hire a student to deliver flyers, brochures or catalogs door-to-door.

19. Promote your product/services by giving away items such as caps, fridge magnets, mugs, coupons, samples, frequent user cards, etc.

20. Be prepared for the unexpected and compile a marketing kit so that you always have business materials on hand. A good place to keep these kits is in your car so that you can easily distribute them while you are out, and you can avoid missing out on a new customer because you didn’t have a catalog or business card to give those who ask.

Include any or all of the following promotional materials:
• Balloons
• Brochures
• Bumper Stickers
• Business Cards
• Buttons
• Catalog
• Coupons
• Fax Cover Pages
• Flyers
• Goodie packs
• Lollipops with tags
• Magnets
• Mugs
• Newsletter
• Pens/pencils
• Press Release
• Stickers
• Window Clings

Using these and other offline marketing methods will help you kick start your business or bring added growth to an existing business. Pick the ones that will work for you and start promoting your business offline today!

I just posted an article today that will help you Use article marketing to increase website traffic. I invite you to check it out and see if this is something you could use.

Hope to see you there!

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You just visit the InboxDollars website and look over their list of tasks you can complete for cash. This might be identifying the content in a photograph, translating specific phrases, completing descriptions for products or services and more. Each task includes the number of opportunities you have to complete and the amount you can earn after completion.

You earn the cash the same day you complete the task, so there’s no waiting. And there’s no qualifying. If you’re a member of InboxDollars, you’re eligible for every task they offer.

Some tasks do require have multiple activities, and all of them must be completed to earn the cash but there’s no limit on the number of tasks or activities you can complete.

So check it out if you’re in need of some easy cash, and leave your comments here so others know how it works for you!

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It does take some study and some work. You will not become a millionaire overnight. Now that we have that cleared up let me reiterate that you can make money blogging. It might not be the same type of blogging that you are thinking of right now. How serious are you about making money blogging? You might have to adjust your thinking, your habits, and your schedule, but you can make a profit.

Here’s some ways to start a blog that won’t work very well. the willy-nilly-slap-something-up approach, the kiss-up-to companies approach, the controversial approach to get attention, the fake-it-till-you-make-it approach, and the guilt-my-family-and-friends-into-reading approach.

Go ahead if you want to try them. You might see a flare-up of popularity before everything goes down the drain. If you do try them you will learn some good lessons, but you will also waste some valuable time.

While you are working on building traffic to your blog you can add affiliate links and become an affiliate marketer. You don’t have to have your own product to sell; you can sell an already finished product for a commission. You can also use your sidebar as a place for an ad network. They find the advertisers; you wait for the profit.

Just because anyone can start a blog for free does not mean that there isn’t a necessary skill set. The good news is that the necessary skills can be learned and developed by anyone with the will to learn. There are profitable bloggers of all age levels from middle school to senior citizens; and of all skill sets from drop-outs to college grads. Blogging is a good thing to know. Most websites have them and the skill of blogging is a marketable asset in and of itself.

Just doing what you can and hoping for the best will only get you so far. If you want your blog to make a profit then you need to study and learn the best way to do just that.

If you want to learn more about blogging, gaining more exposure in the blogosphere, building great relationships and incorporating new profit points into your content be sure to sign up for the Smart Blogging Skills 10 week course.

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So, what are your business plans, goals, dreams and desires for 2011?

Consider some of these…

• to sell more
• to enjoy my business more
• to procrastinate about marketing and business tasks less
• to write articles to promote my business
• to create products to sell and use as promotional giveaways
• to become better at running my business
• to encourage another home-based business owner
• to help other home-based business owners do all of the things above

I’m sure there are many other goals you can come up with. Leave a comment here and share them with others!

And I pray that 2011 is your BEST year yet… that you are blessed by God’s goodness and grace, and that all of your business dreams are fulfilled!

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I’ve been working online since 1998, and I’ve seen SFI advertised, literally, for years. But I never joined the program until recently, and then only because one of my ghostwriting clients is a member and he wanted me to write an article about the program. What I discovered was surprising, to say the least.

Like other affiliate programs, SFI does have a sponsorship program where you get credit for referring other members who join the affiliate program. But they have so much than that! Things I wasn’t aware of at all.

For instance, one of the things that appeals to me, personally, is TripleClicks. When you sign up as an SFI affiliate, you get your own TripleClicks website. What this is really is an online store stocked with hundreds, maybe thousands, of products ranging from stick-on name tags for a few dollars each to horizontal mailboxes for an office that go for over a thousand—and everything in between.

There are new items, used items, downloadable products, penny auctions (which are addictive!) and more. If you’re looking for a no-cost business online, I can’t recommend TripleClicks strongly enough. Truly! This aspect of SFI alone is amazing.

And there are so many ways to promote SFI. You can promote the SFI affiliate opportunity, or the TripleClicks opportunity. You can even promote individual products on the site, daily specials or more.

SFI also has another program called EyeEarn which is a global advertising program that is so simple anyone can use it. And by taking part, you are guaranteed to earn a referral every month you’re a member.

There are many other aspects of SFI that I’m just beginning to discover. But what I want to stress is that if you’re looking for just one program to join, and one online business to promote… you will not go wrong by choosing this one. The earning potential is tremendous and the program itself is like nothing else you’ve ever seen.

Give SFI a try. It’s totally free to join and you have absolutely nothing to lose with the possibility of everything you’ve dreamed of to gain.

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Article marketing is exciting and it can do wonders for building your business online! But not knowing where to submit your articles for publication can dampen anyone’s excitement. No worries! Here are some great places to begin marketing with articles and you’re sure to find more as you gain experience and popularity.

Amazines is another article directory that has been around for years. They, too, offer thousands of free articles so it’s a good place to get noticed. In addition, Amazines’ article feed allows webmasters to automatically add regularly updated content to a website in minutes, which means your article could potentially reach numerous readers without any added effort.

Article Alley focuses their marketing on the offer of free content, which is why article marketing works. Their slogan is “free content for your website or blog.” As such, they provide dozens of article categories for you to choose from in almost any topic area you can think of.

Articles Base has the a high Alexa ranking and boasts millions of articles. They include Editor’s Picks front page articles as well as a “Latest Free Articles” section that gives additional exposure. You can also find writing tips on their site, or be chosen for the Author Spotlight if your articles are good enough.

Article Dashboard offers free software that can be added to your own website to create a free article directory, so you can find this one all over the web. The original site is one of the largest article directories online with thousands of free articles.

Article Rich has been around since 2005 and claims hundreds of thousands of free articles in dozens of categories. Your article can be featured on the front page or you can be chosen as a featured author for more exposure on their site.

Article Snatch has a large selection of categories for your articles with some of them being less common, which is nice. If you write for a niche other than business, this would be a good place for you to start, though they offer business topics as well.

Ezine Articles is definitely the biggest, most popular article directory online. That’s probably because it’s one of the oldest directories attracting millions of site visitors every month. This is the first site most publishers will search when looking for free content.

Go Articles is another long-time directory claiming over two million articles since it was established in 1993. This site belongs to the Jayde Online Network, and bills itself as “The Web’s Largest Free Content Article Directory.” It’s certainly a site where you want to use in your article marketing.

IdeaMarketers cares more about quality than other article directories, offering a professional layout that other sites don’t offer. They also feature a Bid-For-Promotion system where writers can pay for better article placement. This can be a huge benefit to having your articles picked up for publication.

Search Warp is the last of the top ten article directories, but shouldn’t be left out. This site differs in the fact that they don’t allow what they consider “high-SPAM topics” that include gambling, casinos, pharmaceuticals, prescriptions drugs, and others. But they’re an excellent location for marketing general articles and those on solid business topics.

If you search for “article directories” online you’ll find there are literally thousands, but using just these few is a great place to start and can bring in a generous amount of added traffic to your site, not to mention branding you as an expert in your chosen field of writing.

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Dee, thanks again for allowing WAHM-Articles to stop and visit your blog. We hope this post will help your readers get started with article marketing. We just came from Tammy’s blog, so make sure you click here to read how we helped her readers. Also, make sure you click here to visit the WAHM-Articles blog on Thursday for the conclusion to the blog tour.

While you certainly want your booth to look professional, you also want to give it a warm, inviting appeal. For instance, when you create the design for your vinyl banners, keep in mind that fonts speak almost as loudly as words in print.

Choose simple fonts like Arial or Times New Roman rather than those with curly letters that speak Old English formality. Doing so for your trade show display will make visitors feel much more welcome at your booth.

Also consider how many things are laid out on your table. While you want to offer brochures, and maybe have some samples, or a fish bowl for business cards (with a prize drawing, of course), don’t fill the table with so many items that there’s no way a visitor could see them all easily. Instead, use vertical brochure stands or small shelves to create a “taller” booth and let some of the table show through. This gives visitors the assurance they can see what you have to offer and not feel overwhelmed by too much “stuff.”

Any business can use trade shows and conventions to attract new customers and to brand their name in the public. Learning to do it well can make all the difference between a successful trade show and one that wasn’t worth the time to attend.

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Believe it or not, there is a way to market yourself online without paying hundreds a month for SEO. Thanks to the Internet, you don’t necessarily have to have money to make money. Markets are now trending more than ever to customer bases that have a relationship with you.

Don’t worry, I’m not about to tell you to exploit your friends, you just need to get out there and make relationships online. That’s right, it’s time to network.

The first places to start are right where your teenagers are: Facebook and Twitter. You’ll want to check out these statistics on how many people are using Facebook. The long and short of it means that there are way more people on Facebook than just high school kids. Businesses are using Facebook constantly, which means that the more businesses get on Facebook, the more customers go looking for them there.

Twitter is a great place to get promos out in the open. Start picking up followers by following other people in your business community. Stay on top of the latest in the industry, and build relationships with the people there (yes, you can play nicely in the sandbox together). As you gain more followers, offer specials (in 140 characters are less) like the following: ,”50% off coupon for every follower who retweets this message!” or “FREE couch/bed cleaning for new followers today!” Get creative then watch your momentum build.

While you get people from the community to jump aboard, you don’t want to leave the search engines out. SEO would be smart, but until you can afford that kind of work, get a blog. When you put a blog on your site, you invite visitors to come back time and again to check the latest on backpacking in Colorado, cooking, provo carpet cleaning, electronics, anything related to carpentry in Atlanta, etc. Everyone has something to say about their business. Post at least a couple of times per week.

Speaking of blogs, don’t be afraid to guest post. Guest posts help out the blog you’re posting on, they give you links back to your website (those help a lot in search engines, too), and it keeps you active in your community.

The Internet is your friend and your new business model. It takes time to build your business online, but what you put into it is what you get out.

Happy marketing!

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It can be a tense time when you are going about designing a website for your business. In some cases, the entire profitability of your company will rely on how it presents itself online. Should you be scared? Quite the contrary: you should consider it an opportunity to take your vision to the world with the best site possible. You’ll need a pro to get it done, but it’s not as hard as you think. Whether you are handling the job on your own or having someone design your business website, think about the answer to these questions.

1. How much of the business concept relies on web traffic? You might believe that everything relies on web traffic these days, and in some cases you are right. However, there are still a number of concepts that are so unique that a website is almost a hindrance. In these instances, the subtler and more subdued the concept, the more you will get out of it. Dazzling visuals might actually interfere with the exchange of information.

2. What are you selling? What exactly is the goal of the website? Are you trying to intrigue people more than deliver something concrete? If so, the vaguer and more ethereal you can go, the more effective it will be. If you are selling products that are quite real, you’ll want your concept to hit them from the first glace and carry them all the way to the checkout. Looking at a website like eBay’s, you’ll see how difficult this task can be. Even that giant marketplace website is not even close to a good concept.

3. Who is going to be looking? Are your clients going to be looking themselves or will it be handled by proxy? It might sound like a strange question, but there are a few concepts that will clear it up. If you are selling medical alert devices, you will generally be dealing with the children of elderly parents. If you are marketing a car service, you will generally be dealing with personal assistants and/or secretaries. It isn’t always the target audience to whom you are directly sending your message.

4. How much do you want to spend? The amount of money you want to spend is no small factor. If you decide you have a small budget and cannot really afford a top designer, your job is to find the best of the hungry set. It isn’t impossible, but it will take you some extra time. All the experts say that it is better to wait and go live at full strength than to rush and compromise because you couldn’t get the money together.

5. How deep into content do you want to go? Do you like reading on the computer? How does your clientele feel about it? Thinking about the amount of content you should put on a website will bring up a lot of issues. You don’t want to bore and/or confuse people who arrive on your site. If you do have a lot of content, make sure it is always well written and well edited.

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This article was written by Mona Pennypacker of Acorn Creative Studio who specializes in web site design in Colorado.

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