Use LinkedIn to Promote Your Business For Free

By Fred Lotgering

LinkedIn has been from the beginning promoted as the online social network for business professionals and entrepreneurs. That is different from other social networks which appeal and are promoted to the masses. It is a made clear understanding that people are joining the LinkedIn community with the goal of expanding their business in some way.

LinkedIn was founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003. Early 2011 it reached it reached 100 million users. LinkedIn has become your online business card. You, as a business owner, better get an account to assure people you do exist.

With LinkedIn it is not necessary to hide your business intent as you are expected to do in other social media
like Facebook and Twitter. Professionals are interacting on LinkedIn with the explicit intention of making business connections. LinkedIn is also very strong represented internationally. More the 50% of its users are outside the USA.

As with all other social network, setting up and completing your profile is very important. A sloppy, incomplete profile will not reflect you or your business in a positive way. The headline section of your profile must be strategically written. It is a short summary to simply define yourself and your current business. Don't forget to use proper amount of specific keywords. Yes, Google is indexing your LinkedIn profile!
There is a difference between your Public Profile and your Private Profile. Certain segments of your profile can be restricted from public view from non-members. Make sure you customize your LinkedIn URL.

Status updates and announcements from your personal LinkedIn network are posted to the Network Activity portion on your Home Page. Similar to other networks you can use Like, Comment or Send a Message to the listed updates. This is a great way to start a communication. You can broadcast your own messages using the conversation box.

There are several applications to enhance your community. There is an applications for a Twitter utility, an events applications and even a way to tag your posts onto WordPress blogs.

After you setup your account you need to get contacts. You can import existing contacts, search or search for contacts. LinkedIn uses a hierarchy of connections and is primarily structured in three levels. All the contacts of your first level are made visible to you. Joining groups allows you further to target your business contacts.

LinkedIn allows you to present yourself or your business as a leader or expert in your market.

Success!

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Fred Lotgering is a professional Internet Marketing consultant working from multiple locations around the world. He is dedicated to help to grow small and medium sized businesses by offering a variety of Internet Marketing tools! He is the owner of LotCon. ("LotCon" comes from Lotgering Consultancy). LotCon is registered in the Netherlands, soon also in Brazil). For more products suitable for "YOUR" business please go to: LotCon Biz Solutions Blog

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Some Points About Opening a New Business

By Alexander Drake

Starting your own business can be a terrifying and overwhelming thought yet it can also be an adventurous and successful experience. Opening your own business can provide the individual with a sense of freedom, independence, and faith in ones own abilities. People start their own businesses for many reasons; some are made redundant and decide to try and start their own business, others may just want to convert their hobby or the thing that interests them the most into a business. Whatever the reason, one this is certain, it will be a lot of work and does require patience, courage, fortitude, and faith. An individual who is planning on starting their own business should be aware of a few things before taking the dive into independence.

First the potential business owner should consider on the location for the new venture. Will the business need a physical location or is an Internet presence sufficient? Do I need to rent a real store, or an online one? Depending on the type of business and the clientele, the business owner will need to decide what type of location is best for the business.

The new owner will need to look at outside services such as an accountant or lawyer. Having your own business entails great responsibility. You will need to take care of all the financial and legal obligations of the business. This includes filing specific tax documents for businesses, charters, and other governmental issues. It is best to take care of all these before starting the business as the owner may become overwhelmed once the business takes off. Also one should clarify any regulations that may inhibit the business owner from opening and running a certain type of business. For example, opening an architecture business will require certain proof of capability and education.

Another issue is the small aspects that will ensure the business keeps running. One small bit is the software needed. A new business owner is most likely going to need financial or accounting software to keep track of the daily business transactions. If the potential business will maintain a lot of documents then the proper backup software will be needed to ensure customers' records and other important business documents are properly stored and safe from possible downtime.

The next notion a potential business owner should think of is forms of advertising. A new business has the problem of not being known to its potential customers. The main question is how will customers purchase your products or services if they cant find you. Depending on the product or service offered the right marketing media is a must. Some forms include Internet, newspaper, or TV adds. Each form does have its own price and the business owner will need to consider which one fits to the budget.

Another issue of a new business is the time. It does take time to really get a good kick off start. Some businesses may take a year to even break-even. Therefore, the owner may need to decide how the business will be maintained over the long haul.

Having your own business is an interesting and exciting event, but it should not be taken lightly as there are many issues to consider when starting a new business venture.

Alexander is a writer for hyper-v backup and backup software for server.

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Making Small Businesses Look Bigger

By Lily Faden

With the help of all the technology tools we have today, small businesses don't seem that "small" anymore. We can actually make them look big enough for the audience to take notice of them.

Our number one tool for business marketing is the Internet. With the ever-growing popularity of social media and other online marketing tools, we can reach a bigger audience for our small business. It does not matter if you own a retail shop, salon or a restaurant. It also doesn't matter if you're a start up building business, when you use the vast amount of Internet tools available efficiently, you can draw in more customers.

Gone are the days when small businesses rely solely on radio, TV and newspapers to market their goods and services. Even though tri-media can still help reach local audience, the Internet reaches a far greater number of people.

Consider the following tips on advertising your business online. This will save you a lot of money for advertising while reaching into a wider audience.

• Create a website - Having your own website will help you reach more people to check out your products and services. Keep it simple and user-friendly, depending on what your type of business is. Include as many information you want to share as possible about your trade so that visitors will be informed. Make sure to constantly update the content, including your latest products and services, any upcoming sale or events to inform your target audience. Updating your website regularly will help boost your website popularity. This will also help your audience stay updated about what's going on in your establishment.
• Email address - Create a business email address. Do not use your personal email address to communicate business-related transactions. Register a new domain for your business so that your correspondence will look more professional. Ninety percent of the people who uses the Internet communicate via email address while customers can easily contact you electronically. Email is the most convenient way to respond to inquiries without having to talk to the customer on voice.
• Create Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts - Almost everybody has their Facebook and Twitter accounts nowadays. Social media is a great way to reach your target audience. Connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts to your website so that each time you update, it will be posted on your social networking pages. You'll be surprised at how much audience you can reach just by using Facebook and Twitter.

The advent of the Internet and social media helped bridged the boundaries between large companies and small business start ups as far as marketing is concerned. Online marketing is the norm and businesses who don't have an online presence are left grasping in the dark.

Need funding for your business? Check out Entrust Cash Advance

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Small Business Marketing Strategies - 3 Simple Ways To Get Your Marketing Done For Free

By William U Pena

Marketing is essential for your small business. Without it, you have no business. But marketing takes a lot of time and dedication to really start producing results. So, if you are finding it hard to put the time into marketing your business - the obvious choice will be to pay for it.

But if cash is tight, and you don't have the time - what can you do? Or what if you are starting a new business, and you are bootstrapping it? Well, I want to share with you a couple of ways to get customers, using very little of your time - and without spending a dime on marketing.

1. Ask your marketing company to give you their services for free.

If you need to market your services, other people need it too. Negotiate with your marketing company to give you free services if you refer them a certain number of customers. Then start referring like crazy...and get your marketing for free.

I got a free website, following this particular strategy.

2. Get your customers to pay for your marketing.

Like I said, other people need marketing too. Find a quality marketing company that offers their services dirt cheap (you may have to go to another state or country). Then double the price and sell it as an added service to your customers or the public. You only have to sell it to one customer - and your marketing will be paid for.

If you sell it to more people, you will have an additional stream of income. I got all my SEO, email marketing, video marketing, and social media marketing free following this strategy. I also started my own SEO business, and created a nice stream of income for myself.

3. Hire a virtual assistant and have your customers or business partners pay for it.

Virtual assistants are the Swiss army knives of the business world. They can do just about anything - and do it inexpensively. If you pool some people together who need a virtual assistant to do their marketing, make your compensation that the VA does your marketing for free.

I mean the VA is doing it anyway...This is the easiest of all of these, and it works really well. So these are just a few of the many ideas that you can use to get all your marketing done for free. And like I said, they work. I haven't paid for my marketing in months.

Will Pena, MBA is the founder of a small business consulting company, Sapient Business Solutions Inc - specializing in helping small businesses to get more customers, close more sales and make more money in as little as 30 days.

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Go Green, Get Green - It's a Virtual Thing

By Patty Juan

Going green--everyone should have it as a New Year's resolution this year, especially we business owners who rely on energy-hungry products and practices to run our businesses on a daily basis. There have been so many great articles and blogs on the topic, and they have all been extremely informative and inspiring.

But it's a new year again. And that's a great reason to start thinking and implementing ways to live and work greener, which is why this topic will be popping up once again here and there, I am sure, through many channels. This really is an important topic, and it really is a big deal in more ways than just one.

For the most part, a good number of business owners have already implemented ways of going green--without even realizing it! We've done so in part because we have all felt the impact of a bad economy in some way or another. Office supplies are more expensive, the price of gasoline makes us cringe, and even the cost of postage has jumped on the bandwagon. And added salt in that wound, customers just aren't spending as much on our products or services as they once were. This has left many business owners desperately looking for ways to save some green.

We've started saving money by refilling our ink cartridges, and we're cutting down on our paper cost by printing (when we have to) on both sides of the paper. These practices not only help us save some green, but they are green practices--wow, win-win!

But did you know that partnering with a virtual assistant can get your company on its way to going even greener?

As I mentioned, I have read many great articles recently on going green, and to my absolute delight, many of these mention the impact virtual assistants are having on green efforts worldwide. We've all heard how electronic communications and electronic file management can help the environment by saving paper. Virtual business support specialists are by profession, just that, virtual. There is little or no paper involved in the work we provide to our clients--fantástico!

However, I'm not sure everyone has heard of the following two key, important points that I came across, which truly did surprise me and which prompted me to write about "the virtual thing."

Taryn Merrick of Merrick Management and Media Services wrote that virtual assistants do not drive to work everyday. You see, virtual assistants typically work out of their homes. Fewer cars on the road reduce pollutants and emissions, not to mention gas consumption. And less gas consumption translates into less fossil fuel consumption. Bravo!

I would have never thought of this one--the virtual assistant's attire. Because virtual assistants work out of their homes, as noted in a blog posted by Michelle Murphy of Murphy Assistants, they are generally dressed casually. So there's less need to have those fancy business clothes dry cleaned so often. This translates into less dry-cleaning solvents being flushed into the wastewater. What a great point to bring to our attention. 

Thank you, Michelle! Bravo, bravo!

And finally, have you considered the fact that virtual assistants use less energy than a conventional assistant?

Having been on "both sides of the coin," it is my opinion that virtual assistants complete a project for their clients much more efficiently than conventional, in-house assistants. Why? Virtual assistants don't have the distractions of an office setting and don't have unproductive "gossip" time.

As a virtual assistant, when I am working on a project for a client, the focus is generally solely on that project with little or no distractions. The best part is that there are never those "gossip" times, lunch hours, or breaks when computers and equipment are left running in your office--and let us not forget about the air conditioner or the heater. Bravissimo!

Bottom line here is that we all should be thinking of ways to save our planet. And what's so fascinating, is that it can really be so simple when it comes to our business practices. In most cases, not only will you be contributing to making our planet greener, but your company will benefit by keeping some of that green where it belongs--with you!

If you would like more information on going green during work or play, please visit the Go Green Initiative at http://www.gogreeninitiative.org and World Watch Institute at http://www.worldwatch.org.

Patty Juan
eXPERT Business Support Services

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As A Small Business Owner You Should See Your New Website As An Investment!

By Richard Taylor

When you are looking to employ a web designer for your new website, you need to consider several factors. Don't just choose a web designer based on cost alone, like most small business owners do. You may not have a huge budget to spend on having a website designed for your business, but think of it as an investment and not simply as a cost.

Instead think of it in these terms, the additional sales you make as a result of your new web site should more than pay for your investment. What you should therefore be asking your prospective designer is how many visitors they think you can expect to receive to your site in your specific niche.

If they can't tell you then simply don't use them!

With some quick keyword research, a good web designer will be able to give you fairly accurate estimates as to the number of visitors you will likely receive. From these estimates you should be able to get a good feel for how much your site is likely to make you each year in additional sales.

Don't fall in to the trap of choosing a designer simply because they produce fancy logos and clever spinning graphics. Logos and graphics don't sell your products or services, all they do in reality is they make the designer money!

What you really need is a designer who understands online marketing and who can deliver a web site that ranks well in the search engines and delivers lots of visitors. It's the content on the your web site that will convert visitors in to customers, not the logos and graphics.

Your designer needs to know what keyword phrases your potential customers are typing in to the search engines so that they can be included in your site content to help your website rank well and attract as many free visitors as possible. A good designer will know how to optimize your site for keyword phrases.

A designer who understands online marketing will also know that your content needs to be focused on your customer needs rather on your actual products and services to help your site convert more sales. They will also understand that lead generation and the capture of contact details are hugely important if you are to maximize the sales potential of your investment. If they don't recognize these key requirements of a small business web design, again don't use them.

A good small business website should be customer focused, simple to navigate and be strongly optimized to attract free search engine traffic, if it is not, then you are not realizing the full return on your investment and are literally leaving cash on the table!

If you would like a web site designer for your small business, contact Small Business Web Design today for an extremely competitive quotation. We specialise in small business marketing, simple web design and search enginer optimisation to ensure your sales receive a boost! Visit http://www.vantagemarketingsolutions.co.uk now.

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