Work Yourself Up!

Customer Service Makes Readers Feel Appreciated

It is incredible how a person's opinion can turn on the smallest thing. In online business, that would be customer service. It can set you apart from other businesses of a similar nature. It builds a trust-based relationship with your readers and potential customers.

What is Customer Service?

A reader signs up for newsletters or your affiliate program. Days go by before they receive a confirmation of your receipt of their request or they receive any information. That reader decides to withdraw their request because you have become "persona non grata."

It is important to follow through on the offers you make to readers and customers alike. That is why they came to you in the first place. Doing your part helps them make the decision to stay.

Just like in a store, no one wants to wander around aimlessly without support. If you have to ask for the helps to help you then the point has been missed. It is the job of the business owner to be available in case they are needed.

How to Provide Good Customer Service

Now, it would be unrealistic to think that you will sit at your computer 24/7 waiting for a reader to ask a question. What you can do is put processes in place so that someone or something is there 24/7 to be available for any eventuality.

Examples of these processes:

- Auto-responder messages
- Scheduled newsletter deliver
- FAQ page that is always updated
- User-friendly tabs, site map and links to get around the website with ease
- Answering service
- Virtual assistant

Even when you can't be available personally, you know that your readers and customers are taken care of. Example: If you have an affiliate program, include enough links and information for readers to understand what you are all about and how they can sign up. Sign up forms need only include pertinent information so they are as simple as possible to complete.

When you have time, go through your email messages for those whose question didn't fit one of the recorded categories on your "Contact Us" page. The auto-responder message for them gives you an additional 24 to get back to the reader with the information requested.

Prompt service tells people that you are concerned about their business. You value their input and want to keep them happy. Customer serviced is a big part of building a healthy long-lasting relationship with your readers.

4 Quick Tips for Running a Successful Home Business

The opportunity of running a successful home business is in reach now more than ever before. The Internet has brought forth many amazing opportunities that anyone with a little motivation can use to earn an income online.

Some great examples of home businesses include affiliate marketing, freelance services, ghostwriting, information product creation and more. Do your research to see what these options entail. Then, choose the model you’re interested in using for your own home business.

It can be a bit overwhelming and intimidating once you begin setting up shop. To help ease the fears and avoid common mistakes, here are 4 quick tips to help.

It’s a Business

Once you’ve decided what you’re going to do as your home business you need to treat it a business, not a hobby. When a person has a job and goes work, that person has a start time, time for breaks/lunch and an end time. That person would have a space of their own (an office or cubicle) to work in with minimal distractions. You should make the same concessions for your home business. You owe it to your business to treat it like one.

Create a schedule and stick to it. Let your family and friends know what days and hours you’ll be working. Be sure to let them know that you won’t be available while you’re building your business. If you’re working at home with little ones, you may have to create your schedule around theirs by getting up earlier or staying up later.

If you act like your business is a hobby then you’ll spend money on it. Treat your business as a business and you’ll make money for your efforts.

Stuff You Need

Like any other business you need “stuff” to be successful. The items in your workspace don’t need to be expensive, just functional. If your office ends up being at your kitchen table, that’s ok.  As long as you're treating your business like a business, that matters the most. The “stuff” we recommend just makes it easier.

You’ll need:

A space where you can work quietly
A comfy chair
A computer
A printer
Paper & Pens/Pencils
Phone and Fax (If necessary for your business)
Calendar

Spend enough money on a chair and workspace so that you are comfortable enough to work for your scheduled work day. If you develop a sore back, elbows, or wrists in your first month of working from home, you'll be sabotaging your own success.

Daily Routines

Two of the biggest problems you’ll find with working from home are managing your time and keeping your focus.

Remember the mantra? Your business is a business. But, there are daily tasks that need to be done which can become huge time warps if the reigns aren’t kept tight. These can sap your energy & creativity.

Email, forums, chat applications and social networking are necessary evils. If you don't keep a tight rein on your networking, it can easily become a matter of fitting your business in between your other Internet activities, instead of the other way around. Once you get your money making tasks out of the way each day, you can create time chunks to do the fun stuff.

When finances settle down, hire a VA or outsource the tasks that must be done but could be left to a helper to do.

There are so many ways you can manage your time effectively. You just need to find the way that works best for you whether its to-do lists, time chunking, daily activities or something else.

Keeping your focus is as important as managing your time. If you get distracted by your email, chat rooms, social network, phone calls or neighbors dropping by you aren’t likely to get your money making tasks completed.

Be sure to find the discipline to run your business. Since you’re the boss you are only accountable to yourself unless you have a partner. Look for someone in the same mentoring group or with a similar business to help keep you both focused on your daily, money making activities.

However, don’t be afraid to take breaks to refresh your mind. Remember, you’re the boss so you can call it an early day or a day off completely if necessary. Just don’t forget that along with free time & days off you need to fit in work time for your home business.

Take Action

You most likely already know enough to get started. However, a common mistake is to continue to learn, thinking that you need to know more and more and more – and not actually taking action. You don’t need to buy more books or courses to learn more stuff to get started. Get over your fear of success, put one foot in front of the other and get to doing. You can always revise or redo later. The important thing is to TAKE ACTION.

Make a deal with yourself to work with what you know NOW and don’t buy anything else until you actually make some money. That snazzy-sounding course is not going to put up your website, write your copy or create that product. Make a list of the money making action items you need to complete and do those first.

Having a successful home business is possible, but it takes hard work and dedication. There are many time wasters and time suckers out there that can and will stand in your way. Success will not happen overnight, but if you keep your focal point in mind and work hard, you will definitely reap the rewards.

Business Talk Radio

Those of you wanting to learn more about business might want to check out the KBZNZ Talk Radio Network.  While you're there, you can listen to my show on the music business, Music Business Radio.

What’s Your Customer Worth?

Do you know the economic value of each customer who buys from your site? If your answer is, $47 or $95 or the price of your product, then that’s the wrong answer! You just identified the value of the first purchase.

A more important number to know is the “lifetime value” of a customer.  Did you know that you’ll spend five to seven times more money and more effort to gain to a new customer than you would to get another order from a current customer? 

That’s a general rule. For some products, prospects may need even more contact and visits to your site before they click the order button. Nurturing your customers is an important way to increase your overall sales.

You’ve already built rapport with the customer so when you send a new product pitch, the customer wants to know what you have to offer. Finding quality products from trustworthy sellers can be a challenge, so buyers who received a good product in a timely manner backed by a solid guarantee are satisfied and they’re more likely to buy again.

To keep your customers buying, don’t flood them with just any offer. Make sure that you send product offers that match the customer’s prior purchase type and overall price range. Some customers like to download information products while others want to receive CDs or DVDs.

You need to know those preferences so that you offer what a customer is most likely to buy. The worst thing you can do is flood their email inbox with every type of offer. Before long, customers are deleting them without reading your messages.

You want a customer to see your email and say, “I want to see what’s new today!” That’s the kind of response that means a long term buying relationship. What sets you apart from other Internet marketers is in the way that you nurture connections with your customer.

Send out the occasional free item as a “customer appreciation” gift. You’ll really stand out if you send a free gift that’s not part of an order. This is another way to remind a customer to drop back into your site and see what’s new.

Let your customers market for you by offering a discount or bonus item when they recommend a friend who purchases your product. A loyal, repeat customer is gold – treat them as the valuable asset that they are to your online business.

A Customer Centered Business

An old adage in sales is that “the customer is always right.”  Over the years as retailer grew large, profit margins faded and experienced salespeople grew scarce, there seemed to be less interest in the customer.

People grudgingly accepted the lack of customer service as the price they paid for cheap products. They complained, but they bought anyway because that’s just the way it was. Online shopping, while distant, is more customer centered than many local retailers.

To develop a rapport with customers in a virtual environment, online marketers had to establish trust and they did it with money back guarantees plus fast delivery. This customer-centered approach not only created trust as planned, but also caused a surprising number of customers to ignore the local stores and shop at major retailers’ online sites.

As a developing Internet marketer, you can learn from this brief history.  You want to position your product as user friendly and open for refund. Granted, this is easier with downloads and information products than with shipped products.

But even shipped products that offer guaranteed, no questions asked refunds actually have fewer refunds because the consumer feels free to try to return it if they’re not satisfied. Before the sale, you want to provide ample information about the product - including several photo views if appropriate. 

Think about the questions a buyer might ask and have the answers ready before the question arrives.  An easy way to provide this information is with an expanded FAQ (frequently asked questions) page. Make sure there’s a link to the FAQ page from each product page.

If your product requires assembly after delivery, post an extra copy of how to assemble it. Even better is to post a video showing and telling how to do the assembly. Another great idea is to post videos showing alternative ways to use the product. This gives buyers options that they might not have considered.

To be consumer-centered means that you can be reached easily. Post your email (or that of your customer service center) and a phone number or SKYPE name. If you are the “Customer service center,” send those emails to a designated email box and answer them promptly.

If you can’t, at least set up an autoresponder saying that you received the customer’s email and are working on the solution. The more ways you can be contacted, the more the customer feels at ease that you aren’t hiding in some unreachable corner of cyberspace.  You can’t shake hands with your online customer, but you can create an ongoing buying relationship by demonstrating that you’re a customer-centered online marketer.

Information Product Dos and Don’ts

Information is a key element for Internet marketing, but never let this your passion for the topic get out of control.  The more you’re emotionally invested in your information product, the easier it is to make this mistake. 

If you create an amazing eBook on a topic that fascinates you, don’t assume it will sell. Unless you identify your market and know how to find that market, you’re wasting your time. Savvy Internet product marketers don’t even start writing an eBook or choosing an affiliate product until they find an interested market.

Have you ever encountered a struggling student trying to sell magazine subscriptions by going door to door? He has something to sell, but you aren’t interested.   So he spends hours searching for one customer at a time and missing the mark more often than making a sale. 

What if he took a different approach and went to doctors’ offices, businesses or auto repair shops to sell magazines to places where customers had to wait and needed entertainment? That’s targeting his market to willing buyers.

In online marketing, you can do this much easier with a few mouse clicks.     Start by listening into the conversation in your niche. The “conversation” is found in discussion forums and Web 2.0 sites that are dedicated to the niche topic.

What questions are they asking? What information is difficult to find? What new twist do you pick up on using a product or concept already on the market?  The answer to any of these questions can be the perfect start for identifying and developing an eBook.

Next, check out ClickBank eBook selections. Look in the section that best relates to your niche. What eBooks are offered that relate to this topic?  Did you find existing eBooks that answer     any of the questions you found from your conversation research?

If there’s an eBook that works, then consider using it as an affiliate product.  You can use this product in your initial campaign, and then develop your own eBook that expands on this information or takes the information in a different direction.

While you’re researching, check Amazon and eBay to see if there are comparable information products. And what does a Google search show? You’re likely to find other marketers who are using similar information products. 

Scan a dozen websites that use these products.  You might find other products on their sites and see how they are presented.  Copy these URLs for future reference to use in marketing your eBook directly to these sites.

If you just want to write about your obscure hobby, do it in a blog and a few people may read it. But if you want to sell information products, locate potential buyers and sample their interests before writing or marketing an eBook. That’s the way smart marketers use the power of the Internet to literally make money while they sleep.

Need Money for Your Online Business?

One of the big advantages of marketing your business online is that, compared to doing something offline, it doesn't take as much money.  You can do a lot with some time and effort.

But if helps if you have money.  You can outsource a lot of the work, get more done, and get where you want to be faster.

If you need money for your online business, you should take a look at Prosper.  It's perfect for the self-employed, because the money comes from people just like you...people who understand what you are doing through.

Take a look via the link below and let me know your results...

Are You Betting Everything on One Product or Income Stream?

My post a couple of days about about Amazon vs. Lightning Source got me thinking...  I see way too many entrepreneurs with a business based on one product or income stream.  This is the reason why it's such a big deal when Amazon drops Lightning Source.

How many people do you know who were making a killing with Google Adsense, only to have it all taken away when Google changed their search results, shut down the account, or changed how the game was played.

It happens all the time...  Ebay just changed its policy on selling products which are delivered online. No more ebooks, no more software, or anything which is instantly downloaded.

Makes me wonder what the people, like this guy, who were making a killing selling downloads, are going to do now that they can't do it anymore.  Sure, they can package everything up and mail it, which is probably a pretty smart idea, but will that hurt sales?

Bottom line, whether you're involved with Adsense, anything related to SEO, Ebay, or ANYTHING, you need to diversity.  You never know what will happen and it's a huge risk to put all your eggs in one basket.

Would you invest all your money in one stock?  Probably not.  But that's exactly what you're doing when you've only got one product or means of income.

Can a Guy with a Wife and Family Start a Business?

Is starting a business impossible when you've got a wife and kids?  Escape from Cubicle Nation asks the question and has some thoughts and suggestions for people trying to do it...

Agree with the advice.  And I can't speak from experience on this issue, but I'm going to chime in on the discussion anyway.

I'm a single guy.  I'm 35 and has had my own company since 1995.  I worked odd jobs for the first 2-3 years, including stints as a phone psychic, a UPS guy, the orderly at a mental institution, and various sales jobs.  I'd work a job, save up a few bucks, quit, try to do it on my own, and eventually have to go back to the job world, when I ran out of money.

I was miserable and this made it very difficult for me to be in a relationship.  In fact, the fact that I was so unhappy and difficult to deal with during this time was one of the main factors in killing off a relationship I'd been in for six years.

Eventually, it became time for me to make the move and do it for real.  My resume was a synonym for trouble.  People didn't want to hire me, because they knew I had no interest in sticking with them for any length of time.  So I walked out of my final job, knowing that I didn't have the option of going to get another.

I don't know that I would have been able to do it with a wife and family...especially in a situation where they were expecting me to bring in all the money.

And I don't know that I would have put other people into the situation that I was in.  Any of you who have started a business know that the very beginning, especially on your first business, isn't always the best of times when it comes to income, time, and relaxation. 

Can you really take the risks needed to start a successful business when you have others to worry about?  I'm interested in hearing your stories about your situation when you started things.

Now for something which I'm sure will piss a few people off...

I definitely wouldn't have been able to do what I did had I been married to somebody who expected me to bring in all the money, but didn't want to help me do it.

I know a lot of male entrepreneurs and am always amazed at the number of them which have stay-at-home wives that don't get that working for yourself if a two-sided coin and refuse to help with anything that is business related.  Yes, you can vacation any time of the year.  Yes, you have opportunities those with a job working for somebody else don't have.  But, unless you want to go broke, you've got to put in the effort when it's time to work.

This means answering the phone, fulfilling orders, creating products, doing marketing, etc. 

I see my friends, who feel stuck in their relationships, not wanting to choose between the work they love and the women they married.

is this a way to live? 

These guys are having trouble keeping an existing business going.  Can you imagine starting up something in a situation like this?

Things would be much improved, for both parties, if they'd work together.  Even somebody who doesn't "get" the business can answer phones to take messages or help with local deliveries, such as taking things to the post office.

The smallest things like this would cause a ripple effect, leading to more money and time for the husband...which I'm sure would come back to the family.

Again, curious to know how you started your business and what your situation was like.  And I'd like to know what your situation is like now.  How are you balancing work and home responsibilities?  Feel free to share below.

The Best Way to Make Money Online

Here's a recent inteview I did with Wendy Wallace of DesireToGrow.com.  In it, I talked about starting my online business in the early 90s, what I've learned about doing business since then, and how I've been able to not only maintain things for so long, but grow them.

Wendy asked me a lot of questions about the best way to get things going, especially when you're under the stress of money or similar situations.  I feel this is a very important aspect of being successful both online and offline, so take a listen if "money stress" is something that you deal with in your life.

After you're done listening, feel free to post any comments or questions below.

Want more?  A couple of things for you...

You can get more insight into my mindset within my new book, Ask, Believe, Receive - 7 Days to Increased Wealth, Better Relationships, and a Life You Love. If you're into self-development material such as "Think and Grow Rich" or similar books, you'll like this one.

For those of you who are interested in more of a "business" process, try my workbook, Quit Your Job (and Never Go Back) - How to Create, Start, & Market an Online Business for Under $500 in 30 Days or Less.