New advertising ideas and techniques most always get the quick attention of the optimistic small business owner.

The first time you hear about something new to use or adapt, your mind races to fast forward, especially if the testimonials are realistic and seem to relate to what you are doing.

To illustrate, picture that ad salesperson standing right there in your business. Temptation is staring you in the face. "It’s a great deal," they tell you.
Do you go for it or not?

Here are three sets of realistic questions to ask yourself as you evaluate the proposal:
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1. Take a step to the side and consider this. Is your current advertising already covering the basics? Is this new temptation part of your basic advertising plan or does it fall in the "next level" category? Remember that you’ve got to do the basics first, just as you have to open a showroom before you can decorate it. So make sure you are doing the basics well before you move to the next level.
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2. Will the new idea or technique stand on its own as a profit generator? Can the new idea or technique be integrated into your basic advertising thrust so it can compliment what you are already doing? Will it contribute to building a cumulative advertising effect?
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3. Can you afford it? Is your advertising budget already strained? Will this advertising method pay for itself? Or will it break the bank?
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Background: The informed small business owner keeps good records of all promotions and advertising. You want to develop enough information to figure out what works and what doesn’t. It’s called learning from your experiences of being in the trenches.

Temptation stares you in the face at the least expected times.
Temptation can come from hearing or reading about super results others have gotten with their advertising.

Often it appears when a salesperson tells you about the "great deal" they are offering.
Temptation can come from looking forward to how great it would be if you could get similar results. It always sounds so easy.

Is temptation worth listening to? By giving yourself honest answers to the three questions above, you’ll know if it’s time to move ahead to the next level and succumb to your latest advertising temptations.

© 2006 Jon Sinish

This article may be reprinted and redistributed as long as the resource box remains intact.

Jon Sinish is a 30-year champion of advertising for small businesses, whose clients range from international corporations to private professional practices.

Now, at his web site, you can discover more exciting articles that reveal practical tips, tactics and strategies to help the small businessperson manage and improve their advertising and marketing programs. Please visit http://www.advertising-for-small-businesses.com

Business cards with nothing on the back are wasted opportunities to sell.

Use the back of your card to expand and reaffirm your selling sentence (which should be prominent on the front of your card).

If your Selling Sentence is "Where You Save 20% on Power Tools Everyday", use the space on the back to list the brands on sale every day. Another solid impression about you and your business.

You can use the back of your card to explain the high points of your business, quote happy customers or list the products you offer. If you quote, be sure to get permission. Implied permission is when you use a sentence with quotes around it and no attribution.

No need to fill the back edge to edge, but put something there that will work for you. Judicious use of white space front and back is the mark of a professional. Ever notice the isles in an expensive store are wider than Wal-Mart?

Find a way to work your name into what you put on the back. The back is an ad for you, a mobile marketing piece. Without your name there, the close is lost. Don’t repeat anything else from the front, but be sure your name is on both sides.

You can offer a quiz (or checklist) that will stimulate thinking and prompt a call to you.

Some folks put valuable information on the back (police, fire, hospital phone numbers, a calendar, or a football schedule). Some cards use handy tips or conversion tables or charts.

Turn the back of your card into a coupon. When they redeem the coupon, give them another card.

Another clever idea is to print the back of the card with enough space for you to give your prospect your direct number or your private 800 number by hand writing it in the space on the back.

"Here, let me give you my PRIVATE number" indicates in not so subtle tones not everyone gets that number or you would have printed it on there for all to see. The chance of that card making it back to the prospect’s desk are 10 times better than a ho hum card.

If you use color on the front, the back can be done in black and white. Information is usually presented in black and white. Nice physiological touch, and less expensive, too.

Dig out that pile of cards you have saved from meetings, conventions and networking. Few utilize the back for anything, let alone planned marketing.

For more about business cards, get my article "What’s on Your Business Card?" MailTo:BizCardOn@BigIdeasGroup.com

You stand out from the crowd when your business card is a professional marketing piece, both sides.

©2005 BIG Mike McDaniel All Rights Reserved

Mike@BIGIdeasGroup.com BIG Mike is a Professional Speaker and Small Business Consultant with over 30 years experience, http://BIGIdeasGroup.com

Subscribe to "BIG Mike’s BIG Ideas" Newsletter subscribe-956603364@ezinedirector.net

When you go to trade shows you probably pick up brochures.

What do you do with them?

In the majority of cases I’m willing to bet you either leave them to fester in the lovingly designed show carrier bag or you scan some of them and then throw them away.

Do you read any of the brochures you get through the post or left by sales people?

If you don’t read brochures why do you think your prospects will?

If your brochure is all about you and very little about your customer it wont get read. If it’s not read it can’t sell anything. That means you’ve just lost another prospect because your brochure didn’t do its job right.

What A Brochure Isn’t

Designing a brochure is not simply the managing director, marketing director or Mr Average Copywriter simply dumping everything they can think of about your company and its products into a four page 4 colour brochure.

Explaining how your business has grown from strength to strength over the last 5 years, or how the new widget is now also available in puce and lemon is boring.

In fact most brochures are deeply boring. Maybe not to you as the business owner - but to the most important people you know.

Your customers and prospects.

Neither are brochures an art gallery for your in-house or external graphic design team to show off their brilliance with well produced photos, line art and consistent house style.

After all winning awards for your brochure is not as important as winning sales. Is it?

Have you found salespeople who are unwilling to give customers your brochures? That’s because good sale staff instinctively know whether your brochure helps or hinders sales.

So What Is A Brochure?

It’s purely and simply just another sales tool. It’s part of your marketing tool set. Please treat it that way.

Use Sizzling Copy To Hit People Between The Eyes.

Don’t take up the space on the front, or back, covers with your logo, managing directors head shot or a stock photo of a forklift truck or someone attractive sat gazing transfixed at a computer screen.

Smash Through Buyer Inertia With A Captivating Headline

Instead use a great headline to encourage people to open and investigate what you’ve got to say.

You could use any of the following headlines:

If you’re in the car hire business you could say "7 Reasons Why Car Hire Is Costing You Too Much". Then explain why in your copy inside and further explain how you can make sure the prospect avoids those costs.

Perhaps you’re in IT or software services? Your headline could be "How To Sell More to Your Old Customers". Then you explain how implementing a customer relationship management system gives the ability to follow-up properly.

But whatever company you’re in tell your customer something you know they want to know.

Write Copy That Tells And Sells

When you’re writing the copy inside your brochure make it interesting, arresting and intriguing.

Give your prospects some interesting facts they don’t know.

Stir in some great customer testimonials. If you don’t have testimonials start talking to your customer to get some.

You’re writing the copy to sell your product or service. So the writing is vitally important. Next you need to make sure that you’ve got necessary line art, photos or other graphics at appropriate points in the brochure. Whatever you do remember graphics are there purely to support the copy.

Any graphics you’ve got make sure that you have a caption so that people don’t get distracted and keep wondering what it’s about.

Make sure that your brochure has all the ways your customer can get hold of you and order. That includes having an order or enquiry form they can fax to you.

Finally, one of the most important elements in the brochure: The Offer and action.

You need to offer your customer something for doing business with you.

You could offer any of:

- free bonus reports
- audio CDs
- DVDs
- Different payment options
- Strong guarantees
- Bundled with other products or services

Whatever you do make sure you’ve a call to action with a deadline for your offer. Your brochure needs to make clear the next step for your customer.

How Do You use Your Brochure?

Don’t leave it lying around like yesterdays newspaper. You’ve paid good money to produce it. Treat your brochures with respect and give them or send them to people you want to do business with.

At trade shows a good approach is to suggest that you’ll send a brochure to your prospect. That way you can keep following them up with further offers.

Jay Abraham is the world’s highest paid marketing guru at $5,000 per hour. He notes that sending a brochure to a prospect without a well-written and interesting covering letter reduces response.

Stapling an envelope with an interesting headline, such as "5 Ways To Slash The Cash That Drains From Your Web Site" gets people interested.

They’re going to read that letter.

The letter needs to spell out what the major benefits are and where they are in your brochure.

Proof of effectiveness of adding a letter is given by Troy White, writing in Duct tape Marketing, he says:

"…Info USA who sells direct mail database lists started testing this (sales letter,Ed) with their catalogs and saw an immediate 300% improvement in orders. All with a simple letter attached to it!"

Similarly use direct mail and send them out to the companies you’d love to do business with. Make sure you’ve a personalised selling letter with every brochure you put out there.

Write and design your brochure as if you were standing in your customers and prospects shoes.

Do it right and you’ll deliver a brochure that gets read from cover to cover and prospects find informative and buy from.

Remember if you’re not willing to invest up front in producing a brochure that sells you can’t expect anyone to take action from it and you’ve completely wasted the money to produce it.

Get more free tips from the Marketing Magician’s Blog go straight to http://www.acornservice.blogspot.com and sign up for a regular email feed. (The blog currently has over 12 months of solid postings so you’re going to find a gem you can use.

Get a free copy of Jim’s book for SME’s called "How To Leap Ahead Of Your Competitors by emailing him at web@acornservice.com with "ezine" in the subject line.

Check out Acornservice’s site to opt in to Jim’s free and no obligation seminar series on profit-driven business growth.

Business cards are the most underutilized and misunderstood marketing tool in business. Many people spend the bucks for cards and don’t make an effort to get them into the hands of those who can hire them or buy from them.

Everyday people throw away stacks of undelivered business cards. Money down the dumper.

Your goal is to design and use a memorable card and get so many delivered you have to re-order. Forget about those clever articles about what to do with stacks of leftover cards.

The only time you should have cards still in the box is when something on the card becomes outdated or obsolete.

If you designed your cards as a marketing tool and planned your distribution, tossing unused cards in the trash should become the exception rather than the rule. If one item on your card changes the cards are obsolete and should be pitched.

Car dealers are famous for finding ways to save money on business card expense. With the revolving door turnover of salespeople, many dealers stopped ordering individual cards for new hires. They print a master card with color dealer logo and phone numbers and leave a big space in the middle for the new salesperson’s name to be penciled in. That way, when the would-be fast talking, glad handing flannel mouth doesn’t work out, no new cards need be printed.

A swell image: handwritten business cards.

It would be interesting to run the numbers on how much money was saved at the printers versus how much business went somewhere where the salespeople appeared more professional. With car dealer margins, one sale would buy a lot of business cards.

Worse is using a business card with a black or blue marker blotting out a line of type and a new name,address or phone number written (or typed) above the black line. Ugh!

Some people painstakingly cut itty bitty strips of computer labels printed with the new information and stick them over the old just to save a few bucks. Calculate what your time is worth and the savings turn into an expense, not to mention what the "corrected" card does to future business.

Dig out that stack of business cards you have been collecting for years and flip through them, you will see at least one with a correction.

If you are in any business and venture outside your cubby-hole for any reason, you should carry business cards at all times. You should be able to "whip one out" without diggout out your wallet and digging thru pics of the kids, or plunging to the bottom of your purse past the hair spray.

You card says a lot about you. And you say even more about you when you offer your card.

Say it in business-like, professional style.

For more about buiness cards, get my article "What Does the BACK of Your Business Card Say?"

©2005 BIG Mike McDaniel All Rights Reserved Mike@BIGIdeasGroup.com BIG Mike is a Professional Speaker and Small Business Consultant with over 30 years experience, http://BIGIdeasGroup.com

eMail: BizCardBack@BigIdeasGroup.com

Subscribe to "BIG Mike’s BIG Ideas" Newsletter subscribe-956603364@ezinedirector.net

One of the most common questions people ask me is: “Where should I spend my advertising dollars?” Their experience can typically be summed up as follows:

I recently opened my business as an interior designer. I was so excited. But now – two months later – I’m getting frustrated. I believe that my services are valuable, and I thought there would be a market for them, but I’m having the hardest time finding clients. I’ve spent a couple hundred dollars already on advertising, but I’ve gotten virtually no response from it. Can you tell me where I should put my advertising dollars to have the most impact?

My advice? Consider spending your hard-earned money on avenues other than advertising to reach your target market.

While it is true that advertising in the right publication (that is, a publication that is read by your target market) may be beneficial, advertising is NOT the most effective way for a new small business owner to reach her target market.

These days, consumers are savvy. They do not respond to an ad for a new product, service or company. Instead, consumers want to feel “comfortable” with a company before hiring them or buying from them. Consumers may get “comfortable” with a company in different ways. For example, a consumer may meet the owner or employee and begin a relationship with that person – establishing rapport and trust. Alternatively, a consumer may feel “comfortable” with a company after seeing an advertising at least 7 or 8 times. Why? Because, be it right or be it wrong, the consumer associates an investment in repetitive advertising with a company that can be trusted (in other words, a company that will stand the test of time).

As you may have already learned, advertising is expensive! A display ad can easily be several hundred dollars. And a classified ad – while less expensive – is less likely to be seen by a reader than a display ad.

So what is the alternative to advertising? Getting out in your community and securing exposure for yourself and your business. You can do this by:

* submitting press releases to local newspapers and other publications, announcing your launch or other newsworthy event;
* networking with other business owners in your community;
* teaching a decorating- or design-related class at a local high school or college;
* sponsoring a decorating-related event – either alone or with another business owner – in your community; and
* offering complimentary consultations.

One other suggestion: if you haven’t already decided on your niche, you need to do that now. What is a niche? A niche is your area of specialization (e.g., kitchen and bath design, one-of-a-kind window treatment design, etc.) Indeed, the 21st century is the age of specialization. Consumers today are savvy and desire to hire true experts – not generalists.

Having a niche does not only mean that you’ve identified your area of specialization. It also means that you’ve identified – as specifically as possible – who your target market is. That is, who is your ideal client? What is their income level? Age? Stage in life (e.g., baby boomers, newlyweds, retired individuals, etc.)? Occupation? Hobbies and interests? Once you’ve identified, with particularity, who you ideal client is, you will be able to draft your marketing message specifically to them, making your marketing message compelling to your ideal client. Bottom line: your marketing will be more effective, which will result in more business!

To learn more about “Jump Starting” your business, register to receive our 14-day Jump Start your Design Business E-course at www.ShowHouseMarketing.com/interior_design_resources.htm. The E-course is FREE, but the information it contains will be invaluable to you as you work toward building your company into a super-successful business! In particular, several installments contain step-by-step “instructions” for effective and low-cost marketing activities. Good luck!

Judy May is the President of Show House Marketing, a business development and marketing firm catering exclusively to design industry professionals. She can be reached at 610.324.5240 or judy@ShowHouseMarketing.com. For FREE Resources, including the Weekly $uccess Secrets Newsletter and the New! 14-day Jump Start your Design Business E-Course, visit them online at: http://www.ShowHouseMarketing.com.

Ms. May is also the founder of the DesignPreneur FORUM, an inspiring and informative community where design professionals learn how to become super-successful DesignPreneurs. 3 Membership Levels available to fit every budget. To learn more, visit them online at http://www.DesignPreneurFORUM.com.

Quality Care Options is an established company advocating for the right of all seniors to receive excellent service and product. The organization recommends Certified Senior Approved Services to its elderly clientele.

Through its highly visible web sites and monthly ezines, Quality Care Options (QCO) attracts both the senior and the businesses that serve the senior population.

Barbara Mascio, Founder of QCO, has been inundated with requests from healthcare businesses for recommendations towards resources that would further promote an elder or healthcare related business.

These requests include; ‘Who should I call for the best liability insurance coverage?’ ‘Who do you recommend as a resource for market analysis?’ ‘How do I start an elder care business?’ and even ‘Who can handle our maintenance and lawn care?’

“Every business serving our senior population needs resources towards recruitment, security checks, lead generation and advice on marketing how-to’s and so we’ve provided a very affordable method for businesses offering these products, services and resources to reach our web site visitors”, states Barbara.

Not all advertising will be accepted. You must first submit your banner or text by following the guidelines found on http://www.qualityeldercare.com/advertising

Speakers and professional networking groups are offered special low rates of just $10 per month for an ad with a hyperlink to their web. Businesses to Business advertising can be purchased for as little as $20 a month. “We’re not trying to make a living from advertising revenue, that’s not what this is all about, states Barbara. We simply want to cover the administrative costs and provide our web visitors the resources they need to further grow their business.”

For businesses marketing directly to the senior citizen, please see http://www.qualityeldercare.com/providers to review how to apply for Senior Approved Certification as no advertising is accepted for this segment of our business.

Advertising on the Internet can be a crapshoot. You should do your homework before spending any amount of money. Does the web site have enough unique visitors each day interested in the service you offer? One site to check traffic stats on line is http://www.alexa.com Simply enter the url address of any web site to review certified traffic results. Obviously, you want a site to have higher web traffic than your own, or at the very least, equal to your traffic.

Barbara Mascio is the founder of http://www.qualityeldercare.com and of http://www.seniorsapprove.com

Here is a question my clients pose regularly:

I’ve been in business for several months and things are moving in the right direction; however, I want more business. I’ve thought about advertising but it seems so expensive. Do you have any advice on where to advertise and how much to spend?

Many design professionals equate advertising with marketing. This is not, in fact, the case. While advertising may be a component of an effective marketing strategy, the terms “advertising” and “marketing” are NOT synonymous.

Advertising is, in most cases, expensive and – without repeated ad appearances – fails to provide the new business you hoped for. As a result, I highly recommend focusing your efforts on other marketing strategies that are more effective, such as speaking and writing.

But, to the extent your budget is large enough to support an advertising campaign (as opposed to haphazard occasional placement of “an ad here and another ad there” – otherwise known as “shotgun advertising” which is NOT at all effective), I have a few things you should keep in mind:

• Advertising budget. The Small Business Administration suggests that 5% of your gross sales should be budgeted for advertising. As an example, if you project $50,000 in gross revenues, the SBA recommends that your annual advertising budget be $2,500 (or just over $200/month). While you can use this as a “rule of thumb,” don’t fret if your available funds do not support this kind of expenditure. Instead of investing hundreds of DOLLARS per month in traditional advertising, spend your TIME & EFFORTS seeking to “get in front of” your target market as much as possible (by, for example, speaking, writing or networking).

• Before placing an ad, do your homework. Contact the publication to ascertain demographics related to their subscribers and readers. Indeed, you need to confirm that your target market reads the publication you seek to advertise in.

• There is no correlation between the amount of money spent and the resulting new business. This conclusion was reached in a recent study at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. So if the money spent does not necessarily indicate the success of an ad, what does?

• The message is the most important aspect of an ad. Often, the message is in the headline, which is the first – and, often, the only – part of the ad readers will see. The headline needs to be simple, compelling and, ideally, appeal to the reader’s emotions. If the headline delivers in this way, the reader will likely be drawn in to read the rest of the ad.

• Think “out of the box” when creating your ad. If you want your ad to be read, you should strive to make it unique – ensure that it “stands out” from the rest. Let’s take your local Yellow Pages as an example. If you would peruse your Yellow Pages, I’m confident you would see that most are of the same format – what is called an “institutional” ad. That is where the logo and/or company name are “front and center”, along with their contact information. Rather than “leaping off the page with an attention-grabbing headline, many ads “look like all the rest”, which often results in a less-than-expected return on investment. So, instead of creating a “cookie cutter” ad, take the time to focus on your target market – choosing a problem they struggle with (e.g., putting a space together to look cohesive and attractive) – and try to come up with a headline that promises a solution to that problem.

Here’s an example: Instead of saying: “Specializing in One Day Room Makeovers”, try this: “Come home to a beautiful like-new space . . . completed in just one day”. Do you now see the difference?

• Repetition is key. As mentioned earlier, you cannot expect to get results from one ad placed one time in on publication. Likewise, placing an ad in one publication one month, then placing that same ad in another publication the following month, etc. will not get you the response you seek. To the contrary, the key to success in advertising is multiple appearances in the same publication so that readers begin to recognize you, get to know you, trust you, etc. The average reader will NOT contact you after seeing your ad once. In fact, most people will contact a business only after seeing the ad 8 or more times. As a result, before investing in advertising, realize that your investment will pay for itself only if you engage in a true advertising “campaign”.

Judy May is the President of Show House Marketing, a business development and marketing firm catering exclusively to design industry professionals. She can be reached at 610.324.5240 or judy@ShowHouseMarketing.com. For FREE Resources, including the Weekly $uccess Secrets Newsletter and the New! 14-day Jump Start your Design Business E-Course, visit them online at: http://www.ShowHouseMarketing.com.

Do you remember how proud you were the first time you saw your name in print?

Most entrepreneurs feel that same flush of pride when they gaze on their new business cards. That small piece of paper represents years of planning and effort and hard work and dreams. The thrill of seeing "your name in print" on a business card is hard to beat.

Unfortunately, other people couldn’t care less. Your business card, the one you’re so proud of, is just another advertisement ? another piece of clutter to file. It’s no more or less important than any of the many business cards that cross a prospect’s desk at any given point in time.

So how do you make sure that your card is one of the few that attracts attention, gets kept, filed, and actually used when your prospect needs your product or service?

It pays to think about the reasons people keep cards to begin with. Often, it’s not for the reason you expect. Understanding this critical concept can dramatically affect the design and ultimate effectiveness of your card.

Let’s say that you install and maintain swimming pools. You meet Nancy Newcomer and have a great conversation about landscaping around in-ground pools. You’re eager to conclude the conversation by giving her your business card because she certainly displays a lot of interest in your service. She’s a "hot prospect" for sure!

Not necessarily.

Nancy could just as easily be asking because her neighbor has a pool, or because her mom had a bad experience when they installed their pool, or because she’s always liked to swim and loves plants too, or because she collects business cards and doesn’t have one with a pool on it, or because she’s new in town and you’re the only friendly person she met today.

In fact, according to Dr. Lynella Grant, author of "The Business Card Book", there are eight reasons that someone may decide to keep your business card.

1. As a link to a potential customer or client

Let’s say you’re in network marketing, and John Johnson mentions that his wife used to be in MLM, too. She liked the business model but just wasn’t happy with the company. Odds are you’ll keep John’s card because it’s a means of contacting John’s wife about your own business opportunity.

2. As a link to a resource or a supplier

If you’re in the construction business and meet someone who sells hard-to-find lighting and fixtures, you’ll probably keep their business card.

3. As a link to a colleague

Many business people keep business cards of colleagues and competitors. Perhaps you refer business to each other during busy periods, or work together as members of an industry association.

4. For social, non-business reasons

Maybe you couldn’t care less that Kelly sells car insurance. She’s awfully cute, though…

5. For referring business - it may be passed on to someone else

If your neighbor has had a hard time finding someone who washes windows, and you meet someone who’s just started a residential window washing service, you’ll probably accept their business card and pass it on to your neighbor.

6. To update information they already have

Maybe they have an old card of yours with your old phone number on it, or without your website address.

7. "Just in case"

Some people have a hard time parting with anything because they might need it someday.

8. Finally, a business card may be kept because of something likable, unusual or useful about the person or their card

I kept the business card of a police officer named "Sarah Justice" just because I think she’s got a great name for her line of work (it’s called an "aptronym"). Other people keep business cards that contain useful information such as amortization schedules or lists of emergency phone numbers.

Keep these reasons in mind when designing your card. Make it clear what you do and who you do it for. Your card may be passed on to someone else, or the recipient may be trying to remember you later after a long day of meeting people at a convention.

More strategies:

Stuck with boring or generic company-designed cards? Create your own online and choose from thousands of business card templates for a truly unique design.

About The Author

Diana Ratliff of GreatFX Business Cards helps business people get great business results through effective business card marketing. You can get more free articles and order business cards online at the company website, http://www.greatfxbusinesscards.com.

info@greatfxbusinesscards.com

So far, you may have bought website traffic, paid for clicks in PPCs, been in traffic exchanges. But what do you notice? Its that everytime you tend to slack off the traffic quickly disappears. So how do those other people get long term traffic, or "sticky" traffic? Well the asnwer isn’t a big "Secret" or some other crap like that. Its simply your content.

Subject does NOT matter

It doesn’t matter if your site is a personal site, a business site, a art and crafts site. You need to have good quality content. The big mistake that most businesses make is that they just put their product up for "order" and not much else.

Say for example you baby cribs, dont just put up a few pictures of baby cribs, a logo and just a order button. Write a few articles on lets say techniques to quieting a baby or good ways to put the baby to sleep (you can also hire people to write articles, just make sure that they dont use duplicate content or copied content). So the basic idea is that no matter what the subject of your site is, you should always have articles or other content related to that subject for your potential and existing customers to explore freely. This is almost always the biggest "sticky" factor.

Submit your Content

Although having good quality relevant content is important to have on your site, it is even more important to make sure that your content is doing what it can to its full potential. You can unleash this potential by exposing your content to more people. How?

Article submission.

Article submission sites will gladly accept your material if you’ve truly put effort into writing it. Once accepted, many more people will be able to access your content and many times when people read content that they think is useful or good they visit the authors site to see more of it (include your URL in your articles or in the bio after the article). So whats the moral? Make sure that your content gets exposed to other people instead of just your current visitors, this will really thicken the stream of quality traffic to your site.

Do not "Set and Forget"

The content I said that you should write can’t be a one time thing. Old content is just as bad as duplicate content. This section isn’t going to be a long lecture because its simple, keep updating your content to give your visitors something to come back to.

Other cool ways to get some good traffic

Content, however important it may be, is just one dimension of creating a steady quality traffic flow to your site. There are other techniques such as contests and awards. Let me explain a bit more.

Contests:

Viral marketing. Ever heard of it? (You should otherwise you’ve been living under a rock). Well incase you haven’t, its marketing that spreads by itself with people telling other people about you (and not just yourself bragging about your site). Contests, like weekly drawings etc. can be really effective. Lets say your website sells LCD screens. Have a contest about lets say a month long where people enter to win a 17" LCD monitor (Yes I know this item is kind of expensive, but who said marketing was free?). If you post this on forums (maybe gaming forums, tech forums or computer forums) you’ll be sure to get a lot of participants (which can be converted into sales). Experiment with contests, think of creative prizes, its a great way to strengthen the flow of traffic to your site.

Web Awards

Website design awards from your site is more a SEO technique than anything else, but the fact is that it still works. How does it work? Simple. You give out "awards" to "lucky" webmasters that you say have nicely desinged webpages. Then you give them code to put into their site to "display" their award, this is where you sneak in a anchor to your site. What this does is, one, give you a portion of the "winners" traffic, and two, it increases your link popularity and therefor search engine ranking.

Also when giving out your awards, you should select sites that are mostly relevant to the subject of your site so that the links that they might eventually have to your site are of high quality. I know this sounds sneaky and evil, but what works works.

Thats basically it, follow those guidelines to have a kickass flood of visitors to your site.

Pradip Patil is just a guy with no life and advice to give. Yep. Pretty much the best bio youve seen eh? Well I do have a site, its called http://www.freeforyou.mobstop.com/ Make my hit counter spin.

Aggressive business card marketing isn’t about handing your business cards out to everyone you see.

The card itself must have a new use, an innovative design, or something other than the usual contact information printed on it. To make your little card stand out, try these other ideas.

Print something other than a business card on biz card-sized cardstock.

You may have seen loyalty cards for "buy 10 get one free" offers; why not print one of your own? Print a frequent buyer card or other promotional offer on your card. The whole card can be a coupon for a free consultation, a discount, or a free gift with purchase. Remember include an expiration date on them! Then hand them out to all your customers.

Print a short survey on a card.

Offer an incentive for people to return the card to you with the survey answered–they can get a free gift or a discount just for answering a few simple questions. Then give them a new card with your contact information on it.

Other things you might print on this size cardstock include:

• Hangtags
• Nametags
• Tickets to an event; or
• Tiny greeting cards you might attach to a gift basket or other gift.

It’s always nice to handwrite a personal note when using them as greeting cards. A quick "thank you" or "best wishes" goes a long way. Or, announce a special event and enclose the cards with all your outgoing correspondence.

Make your business card a referral card for your organization or club.

That will make it easy to invite a prospect to your next meeting or to introduce the organization to them. On the front, print a form to fill in the date, time and location. On the back, include a brief overview of the club. Let members hand them out to potential recruits.

Turn them into appointment cards.

On one side, you can print your name, address, phone, fax and email plus your business name and logo. On the other side, leave room to fill in the date and time of your customer’s next appointment. They will keep it in their wallet or planner and always have your information at their fingertips. You could also print a map of your location on the back or directions on how to reach your store or office.

Whatever you choose to do, remember that a little card can have a big impact on your marketing if you employ some creativity.

Do your business cards work as hard as you do to gain new contacts? If not, you need cards that will grab attention and spur curiousity.

Choose from thousands of free business card templates and have professional cards delivered to your doorstep in days.

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