Small Business UnMarketing

Article Writing and Marketing

Writing short articles is a simple way to attract more clients and prospects into your business. You can write an article of between 250 and 400 words and submit it to one of the free article directories. The largest one is Ezine Articles. For a list of about 50 article directories click here. In your article you will give your readers some information about how they can solve a problem or do something more easily that is related to your area of expertise.

A 7 tips article is very popular. You write a short, one paragraph introduction and then give a list of 7 tips about what they need to do in a specific area. Then write a concluding paragraph and you will have your first article.

The resource box is where you will give them a link to come back to your website or blog to get more information. Make them a compelling offer for more tips or a special report and they will have motivation to find out more about you and what you do.

Rinse and Repeat

Shampoo. Rinse and repeat. Those few words doubled the sales of Proctor and Gamble's hair care products overnight during the 1960's. The truth is that you don't actually need to wash your hair two times for it to be clean, healthy and shiny. If you do shampoo two times it only does one thing - uses up your shampoo twice as fast.

What could you do in your own business to double sales overnight? Think about this and see what you can come up with. If it worked for shampoo, the same concept will work for other types of businesses, regardless of the product or service.

Working from home on the Internet - More Benefits

There is a post over at Iowa Biz by Shirley Poertner that discusses problems with employees and employees with problems. This is one of the main reasons that I began working from home two years ago. I was tired of dealing with negative people who were late, did not show up at all, or simply did not care about doing a good job.

Now that I work in the virtual world it is a different story. If someone I am working with has a problem or situation unrelated to our work, I usually do not hear about it. Working online gives people space to deal with family matters, health concerns, and even bad hair days withour affecting others in the workplace. I still enjoy being a team player and comraderie but check the drama at the front door, thank you very much.

Branding Your Business With Your Domain Name

Should you choose a domain name that is keyword rich or one that brands your business? That is the question addressed by Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger. Even though my business name is Greenhouse, a play on the fact that my name is Connie Ragen Green, I tend to choose keyword rich domain names. My current project that I am so passionate about is called Ebook Writing and Marketing Secrets. I justify this by the fact that the overwhelming majority of my clients find me through keyword searches of one kind or another.

There is also something to be said of branding yourself and your business. Ruth Klein, a branding and productivity expert, teaches her clients how to brand themselves to stand out from the crowd. You can sign up for her mini-course and then decide for yourself.