The Benefits of Direct selling

Direct Selling Opportunities

According to wikipedia, “Direct selling is the marketing and selling of products directly to consumers away from a fixed retail location.” Annually, many men and women turn to direct selling as a way to generate an extra income to buy some much needed things for the home. Often, they sign on with companies like Amway, Tupperware, Pampered Chef, or one of hundreds of direct selling organizations available to them. They sell a little merchandise to a few relatives and close friends. Then they are through. (more…)

How to Write a Winning Sales Letter

A Winning Sales Letter

Regardless of what you’re trying to sell, you really can’t sell it without “talking” with your prospective buyer.  Your sales letter must make prospective buyers think you are talking to them in their language and this forces them to act upon your writing, or “talking” to them through your sales letter. (more…)

Positive Thinking Power and your mind

Positive thinking can have a profound effect on how you live your every day life.  How many times do you hear negative words, comments, or phrases on a daily basis? If you have children, just think about how many times you have told them no on a daily basis.

When we think we can’t do something, out lack of positive thinking controls our minds, and we psyche ourselves into believing we  can’t achieve our desired goal. However, once we set ourselves up to BELIEVE we can, we WILL.  It sounds simple enough, but, often, we are our own worst enemies when it comes to positive thinking.  Without positive thinking, many successful people would be complete failures.

My lack of positive thinking

My junior year of high school I played left tackle for our football team. During one particular game, on our first offensive series, I took one look at the behemoth I was supposed to block, and I knew I was never going to make any decent blocks against this guy. He was huge and his arms were bigger than my legs. I guess I don’t need to tell you that our quarterback was sacked three time by that guy, and was replaced at halftime. I had lost my positive thinking that day, and for a moment it cost me my position during the game. I vowed to never let negative thinking cloud my judgement ever again, and I was only going to use positive thinking from that moment on.

Positive thinking

It  got the little engine that could up the hill, right! Because through positive thinking, it though it could and it did!

In his book, Promptings Your inner Guide to Making a Difference, Kody Bateman founder of SendOutCards teaches you to employ and use “I am” thoughts: When we say things like “I can’t afford it” or “I’m not that talented.” we trick our minds into believing these statements we uttered and we immediately set ourselves up for failure. However, when you create the habit of using positive thinking words like “I am financially independent” or “I am the best left tackle to play the game,” we begin to BELIEVE these utterances and good things start to happen. I used to tell myself hundreds of times a day: “I am the best left tackle in the game.”  The lack of positive thinking found me on the bench; however, positive thinking got me back in the game!

Sometimes, simple affirmations are all we need to set our minds on the right track toward positive thinking. Write little notes to yourself proclaiming that you are the best _______________ (insert desired achievement here) do this on a daily basis and soon you WILL believe it’s true because it IS true. Positive thinking will take you where you want to go. Remember that if you “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
— John Quincy Adams

Some other great reads on the power of positive thinking.

David P. Schloss,  Don’t Tie Yourself Up in “Nots”

Great Motivation Secrets of Great Leaders

Here are some more techniques for success. Positive thinking will be your best success tool.

Build your email marketing list

Top 15 Ways to Build Your Email Marketing Subscriber List

Email marketing can be profitable for any business, no matter what kind of product or service you offer. It is significantly cheaper than other advertising methods and, if done right, helps build loyalty and trust with customers. As a result, you generate more sales and more profits!

The foundation for successful email marketing is a targeted, permission-based email list. Marketers call contact lists their ‘goldmine’ because it can generate much of their sales revenue. If you’ve built up a list of opt-in subscribers that are qualified and interested in what you have to offer, then you’ve completed the first step and are on your way. Now it’s time to ‘mine’ for gold!

Below you’ll find several list-building and retention ideas that will help you get the best results from all your email marketing activities:

1. Provide useful, relevant content. Your visitors will not give you their email addresses just because they can subscribe to your newsletter free of charge. You have to provide unique and valuable information that will be of interest or use to them.

2. Add an email marketing subscription form to every page on your website. Make sure it stands out so it is easy to find. If it doesn’t look cluttered, you may want to include more than one on some pages. For instance, if your opt-in form always appears in the top-left corner of your site, you may want to add one at the end of your most popular articles.

3. Add subscription forms to your social media pages. Make sure that you don’t waste this valuable source of revenue opportunities. Integrate your sign-up forms with Facebook and more!

4. Make it easy for readers to sign up. The more information you request, the fewer people will opt-in. In most cases, a name and an email address should suffice. If it’s not necessary, don’t include it here. You can always survey them once they’re customers! We do recommend that you provide a link to your Privacy Policy however.

5. Publish a Privacy Policy. Let your readers know that they can be confident you will not share their information with others. The easiest way to do this is to set up a Privacy Policy web page and provide the link to it below your opt-in form. (Note: If you don’t have one, put the words ‘privacy policy generator’ into a search engine and you should be able to find a suitable form to use.)

More email marketing strategies

6. Provide samples of your newsletters and Ezines. This lets potential subscribers review your materials before they sign up to determine if it’s something they’d be interested in.

7. Archive past newsletters and articles. An online library of past newsletters and articles is both appealing and useful to visitors and builds your credibility as an authority. In addition, if your articles are written with good SEO techniques in mind, they can increase traffic to your website through enhanced search engine positioning.

8. Give gifts subscribers can actually use. Offer an opt-in bonus for joining your subscriber list! Write an ebook or provide a PDF business report, or even hire a programmer to create downloadable or web-based software. But don’t limit yourself to offering gifts to opt-ins. Give them out when your readers fill out a survey, provide a testimonial, success story, or a great product idea. Let them know when they can expect the next gift offer. Everyone likes to get something for free! And if you pass out ‘goodies’ throughout the year, your subscribers will feel truly appreciated − and that’s good for business!

9. Ask your subscribers to pass it on. Word of mouth is a powerful viral technique that works great with email marketing. If your subscribers find your content interesting, amusing or informative, they’ll probably share it with their friends. This can be a great source of new customers, so make sure to remind them to ‘pass it on’.

10. Let others reprint your newsletter as long as the content is not modified. If you’re happy to share your content with the universe, then why not! Many webmasters and newsletter publishers are actively looking for high-quality content and, if they reprint your email marketing newsletter, you’ll get new subscribers, and more traffic and links pointing to your site.

11. Include a ‘Sign Up’ button in your newsletter. If you’re using plain text instead of HTML, be sure to provide a text link to your subscription page. You may feel that this is not required because the subscriber is already on your list, but remember that readers will forward your newsletters to others, or reprint them online. Make it easy for them to subscribe!

12. Add a squeeze page. A squeeze page has one goal − to acquire opt-ins and build your list. Think of it as a mini-sales letter to go along with your subscription or opt-in gift. It should feature a strong headline and a couple of powerful benefits that should make email marketing subscribers salivate to sign up! Once created, use a service such as WordTracker to find hundreds of targeted keywords, and promote your offer using pay-per-click advertising from Google, MSN and Yahoo. Now that should make a splash!

13. Include testimonials on your squeeze page. This is crucial. Put one or two strong testimonials from satisfied customers on your squeeze page. This can be in any format, but you may find that multimedia (audio or video) is more ‘believable’ and inspires more people to action. To further enhance believability, get permission to use actual customer names, locations and/or urls (Don’t use ‘Bob K, FL’). Add a note inviting others to participate. After all, it’s free publicity!

14. Blog religiously. Blogging is a great way to communicate with prospects and potential customers, and creates a nice synergy with your email marketing. Be sure to include your email marketing newsletter sign-up form on each page of your blog. You can start a free blog at Blogger or WordPress.

15. Post on other blogs. Post thoughtful comments and information on similar blogs with a link to your squeeze or opt-in pages. Also comment on others’ blogs through trackbacks. In most cases, your comments will be posted on their blogs with a link back to your site. This is an easy way to generate new traffic and subscribers, and get your brand out there!

Email marketing is a great way to promote your brand and connect with clients and customers.

Email Marketing increases profits  and S-M Enterprizes can show you how.

All images courtesy of

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Time management for successful entrepreneurs

Thank you to Julija Kiselova for providing this eye opening post. Read more of Her writings at her blog, Let’s Make Money!

When you are a businessman (even part-time), no one monitors your time, your schedule. No one determines what to do and when. From one side, it’s a big advantage and many people would call it “freedom”, but from another side this “freedom” can play a cruel joke with us, if we don’t know how to use it effectively.

Time is one of our main resources. Our success depends largely on how we use it. There are some techniques and secrets to take control over time.

Internet Marketing: Your Lack of Focus Could be your Downfall

If you suffer from multi-tasker disease, also known as but first syndrome, your internet marketing efforts may fail. It goes something like this. “I think I will start a load of laundry, but first, I’ll empty the dishwasher.” Notice how easily it is to get distracted and lose your focus. Imagine if but first syndrome kicked in every time you began a new task. You would never accomplish a single thing.

I am going to share with you my number one tip for success with Internet Marketing. Marketing your services on the internet does not have to be difficult. Simply follow a few proven techniques and you can be well on your way to financial freedom using the internet and your unique talents!
In my opinion-you can decide to agree with me or not, it’s up to you-there is ONE simple technique needed to find absolute success through Internet Marketing. Today, you are going to learn about focus.

Let’s look at a typical day of two completely different internet marketing professionals. We will call marketer A: Jim, and we will call marketer B: Frank.

Jim’s online day begins by checking his blog to see if it still looks like it did yesterday. He tweaks some posts and pages, adds some more promotional banners to his widget’s area, and since today is Tuesday, he will change his WordPress theme to something he thinks will get people to buy from him. Next, Jim logs in to some affiliate sites to check his referrals and commissions. Unfortunately, most of Jim’s sites produce neither referrals nor commissions; however, undeterred, Jim sets about creating some more splash pages with his promotional links in them.

Frank’s internet marketing day, however, begins with a strict 1/2 hour surfing for credits to get his sites viewed more. Next, he spends another strict half an hour reading e-mails. Now, he has credits to send his promotional e-mails. Frank sends out those e-mails. Once the e-mails have been sent, Frank sits down to write a welcome e-mail to his new list subscribers and sends them one of many no cost gifts. Finally, Frank returns phone calls, books appointments, shows and shares his business and continually sees decent growth.

My Internet Marketing Efforts Lacked Focus

I use these two examples because this is where my experience lies. I realized I was not focused; I was working a tiny bit on several different programs, trying to get them right, and I was seeing no real results! I was dead broke and finished with Internet Marketing. Don’t be a Jim!

It did not matter the internet marketing business I joined, and I joined a ton. What mattered was the commitment level I showed to the ONE program that I felt fit my needs and style. I am a self-confessed program hopper. I get distracted by the flashy websites and headlines that I joined so many programs and never really dedicated any significant time to any of them. I just had the mindset of throwing out referral links and naively thinking thousands of people would join. I was going to be rich! There are literally thousands of programs on the internet that make promises that they don’t deliver. You need to do the research, find the best program that fits your needs, and FOCUS on driving traffic to that website. Too many cooks in the kitchen.you know what I’m saying?

How to Instantly Create Focus in Internet Marketing

Focus means to put things into perspective or concentrate. If you are spending your day like I Was, you lack focus, and are not seeing the results you desire. You are now feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and ready to quit. After all, you are spending valuable time and money that is not paying you any dividends. Hence, you aren’t making any money.

Yes, to-do lists may be old school, but they help me. I prefer to complete my to-do list first thing in the morning. I use the moment just before retiring for the night to analyze my list and carry over things to the next day. The tasks that get carried over are on-going tasks that I will not cross off of my list until they are completely finished.

Microsoft’s OneNote is an application I have found to handle to-do lists using your Smartphone. Combine OneNote with Skydrive (an online storage system) and you have almost complete organization. Don’t have a Smartphone, no worries, old-school pen and paper works just as easily. I actually created a Word document of a basic outline that I can print and use to organize my tasks. Again, Microsoft has an outline template ready for you to download. Simply Google writing outline template.

When creating your to-do list, you want to be detailed, yet succinct. This is why an outline is handy. You can use fragmented sentences or one or two words to help you remember your tasks, and you do not have to worry about cramming a ton of information onto your to-do list. Just jot down the word or small phrase that will help you remember the task that needs finished. Organizing your internet marketing tasks is totally up to you and how you do it. Some people prefer to complete the most time consuming tasks first, leaving the fun stuff for last as a sort of reward. Some people organize their to-do list by difficulty of tasks, and others just write everything down and cross it off as they wrap up.

Eliminate But First Syndrome and bring your Internet Marketing efforts into Focus

If you want your internet marketing to pay off, make it a habit to create and use to-do lists. Whether you use your Smartphone or a pen and a piece of paper, eliminating but first syndrome is the first step needed to create focus and build success through internet marketing. It does not matter how great your business plan is, if you lack focus, you will lack business. Make sure you concentrate on the task at hand, and complete it; then, move on to the next task.

Once you bring everything into focus, your internet marketing will begin making you some money.