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Social networking is a great way to grow your business, but there are down sides to it as well. If you do it right you can be successful at it, but what happens if you don’t do it right? Well if you don’t do it right, you will not grow. There are other things that can happen as well.

Let’s review a few of the cons that are associated with social networking and your business:

1. If not done correctly, you will not grow.

2. If you post too much about your business you can be hit with SPAM titles.

3. You may see scams out there that may sound real and convincing.

4. You may receive junk DM’s that can take up a lot of time.

5. You may receive inquiries about your business that are not real.

6. Social networking sites can be addictive and you may spend too much time on the sites and not enough time working your business.

7. You can get yourself roped into buying things you don’t want or need.

8. You could find yourself joining companies that are not good for your time or current business.

These are just a few of the many problems that you can run into with social networking online. There are many tricks to learn when it comes to social networking. If you don’t learn these tips and tricks you could find yourself spending way to much time doing something that isn’t working.

Sites like Facebook and Twitter are great social networking sites, but they can be very addictive. If you don’t use them properly you could find yourself losing countless hours in your day to them. This defeats the purpose of using them to your business advantage.

It is important to restrict your time that you spend on these sites and learn all you can about them before you start spending too much time on them. While it’s nice to have friends and people you can talk to on a regular basis, you need to earn money in your business. When you spend several hours a day gossiping and chit chatting with others you are not making money. So spend your time wisely and use these sites for business when you are working.

Tags: Marketing, Tips by Carrie Wilkerson
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Social networking is a great way to grow your business. There are so many sites you can use and so many different ways you can grow your business through these sites.

Social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are great for business if you use them correctly. You can use tools like Ping.fm and TweetLater to make the most of your time online.

There are many pros when it comes to social networking which makes it difficult to decide which are the best. Some of the best are listed below:

1. Find your target market and help them with problems and solutions

2. Find other businesses that you can use when it comes to your own business needs

3. Find the experts in your field and learn from them

4. Market your business so that your target market knows your specials and promotions available

5. Market your blog posts through these sites

6. You can post your articles on your social networking sites

7. Grow your E-zine/newsletter list

8. Increase your income through affiliate marketing posts

Social networking sites that are online are a great way to network with people that are in different locations than you. It’s really no different than attending a face to face networking program. The only difference is you won’t be able to shake hands with the people you meet.

You have the ability to gather information the same and you will still be able to refer others to the people you meet. The people you meet online will do the same for you.

To have success with social networking you need to develop relationships with the people you meet online. You want to help them in whatever way you can to grow their business. When you do this, they will remember you and they will be willing to help you grow your business.

Social networking is a free way to market your business online. It’s a way to get the word out about the things you do. It’s also a great way to meet others and build friendships. You might be surprised at the things that will happen when you network online.

Tags: Marketing by Carrie Wilkerson
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Joint Ventures are great for anyone. They can save you time and money can provide a  great experience  and  can be fun to do. There are many pros and cons to a joint venture.

Let’s talk about the pros first. There are so many of them that we could go on for days with it, but now worries, I will only provide a few.

1. Spend less time working on the project

2. Spend less money creating the project

3. Spend less money working the project each month

4. Spend less time working the project each month

5. Gain knowledge from your partner

6. Can still be able to create the project even though there are steps you don’t know how to do. Your partner may know more about it.

7. Create more projects than you thought possible.

8. Increase your income.

Now let’s talk about the cons that come with a joint venture project. They all have them, but don’t let these things scare you away from them. These tips will help you overcome or avoid problems that you may encounter with a joint venture.

1. You may have to do parts of the project you don’t like to do.

2. You have to share the income that your project generates.

3. You have to create a contract for your project.

4. You may not know how to do certain things and will need to ask others.

5. You may have to outsource some of the work if you don’t have time to do it yourself which means more money out of your pocket.

6. You may have to deal with problems that arise if your partner doesn’t finish the project according to the due date.

As you can see there are a lot of pros and cons to consider before you jump into a joint venture with someone. Don’t let the cons stop you from doing one. Almost everything in life has both and we don’t let that stop us from doing those things. If you feel comfortable with the cons, go for it.

Tags: Marketing by Carrie Wilkerson
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We spoke about creating the ‘perfect’ product for you.  Now we will discuss some ways to successfully launch your new product.  When you create a new product whether it’s an informational product or something people can physically use, launching it is a huge thing. This is how you show people your new product and why they should purchase it. You can also show your enthusiasm with this product.

There are quite a few ways to launch your new product.

• launch it on your website
• perhaps launching offline is best for you,  consider a grand opening or open house

Let focus on launching it through your website, since it is a great way to reach people all over the world. Below you will see several ways to launch your product online.

• Contests - Everyone loves contests. To launch your new product with a contest is a great way to drive traffic to your site and increase your sales. You can market your contest through word of mouth, ads on other sites, social media posts, and newsletters.

• Chats – consider a  chat that introduces your new product and you can share all the details with the people that attend. Giving away one or two of your products is a great way to bring even more people to your chat. You can also offer a discount to those that attend. If you are active on Twitter, this is a great to promote your product as well and get others involved in the chat to continue the promotion.

• Cross promotion- If you know of other business owners that offer different products than you, but have the same target market, you should consider offering to promote one of their products in exchange for them promoting your newly launched product.

• Blog Carnival -  are a great way for you to drive more traffic to your blog and help others at the same time. What you do is write up a post about your new product for people to place on their blog and then you blog about the new product and tell them to visit a certain blog for more details about your new product. Each post that is written by someone else  will need to be different.

A successful launch for you new product will come when you share it in as many ways as you can think of and use as many tools as you have available. Use article submissions linked to your product page, write blog posts, use the tips above, and tell anyone and everyone. Your enthusiasm will show people you are excited and they need to check out what you have to offer.

Tags: Marketing, Tips by Carrie Wilkerson
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Some people may tell you that there is no such thing as the perfect product. There are things that everyone needs to have or use like water and electricity, but those have already been created. I want to tell you that those people are wrong. If you create your product with your target market in mind, then you have created the perfect product for them.

Creating a product is time consuming and it can be a challenge for some people. Don’t let this stop you from creating it. Someone out there needs what you want to create. If you don’t create it then they will either get it some other way or they will never get it.

You can have all the ideas in the world, but if you don’t put them together and create the thing you have ideas for, it will never become a reality. There are several ways you can put this together.

Brainstorming is one of the best ways to get everything out of your head and on paper. When you do a brainstorming exercise you will like have more ideas than you ever knew you had. The reason for this is when you write down ideas others will be triggered from those. You can also include others in your brainstorming exercise for even more ideas.

After the brainstorming session start by putting things together and creating your product. The whole time you are creating your product make sure you keep yourself focused on your target market, since they are the main reason for creating it in the first place. If you lose track of that, you will create a product that may not work for them.

Without our target market in mind we will be creating a product that may not work for them. The purpose behind our product is two-fold. We want to help others and we want to make money. If you focus strictly on the money you will not be successful and you will not have the product that everyone must have. So make sure you stay focused on your target market and the purpose behind your product and you will have the perfect product that everyone wants and needs.

Tags: Marketing, Tips by Carrie Wilkerson
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As business owners we have all these thoughts, tasks, and ideas racing through our heads. We want to be efficient and have great time management so we can continue to grow and prosper. Sometimes that can be difficult and hard to deal with. There are ways around it, but do you know what they are and how to do it?

One way is to use mind mapping. Mind mapping is described as a technique that helps you improve or enhance the way you take notes or keep track of things.

In business, we have things that we may outsource to others or we may have several people on our team that work with us with certain tasks. When this happens, we may forget who is doing what, so we write things down. After many changes and deadlines are met, our paper may look like a bunch of scribbling. This is not good because you might overlook something that could make or break the task being complete.

Mind mapping will help prevent this from happening. You can easily add and remove, as well as change things on your map. A mind map is basically a picture with words on it. You list your main task in the middle and circle it and then you branch off with detailed information that will help you achieve your goal or main task. There are so many styles of mind maps to work with. You need to decide what works best for your needs.

Mind maps work well with all types of tasks. Some examples would be article writing, projects, goals, and joint ventures. These can be done with any business and any task. You can hand write them or you can use computer software. If you are going to be sharing these with others, it might be a good idea to use the software so you can easily send them to others to review and edit.

Mind mapping is a great way to organize your business goals and objectives with ease. They are easy to read, easy to make, and great to use. They replace the old style lists and notes. They are perfect for business as well as your personal needs.  Consider mind mapping in your business it will keep you focused and on track, it truly works.

Tags: Tips by Carrie Wilkerson
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Business owners must be organized or they will spend their days searching for things or wondering what they should be working on. It doesn’t matter if you are in direct sales, if you are a coach, or if you are a virtual assistant, you need to be organized to be successful.

There are many ways to be organized with any business. Some organizational tips are geared to specific businesses while others are generic enough that any business owner can use them.

Email

Email is one of the most unorganized tasks that a business owner has. They receive so much junk email that it can be stressful. Most email programs have filters that you can set up that will help with junk email.

You should also create folders based on your needs that you can either move emails to or you can set up filters that will automatically move them to that folder. If you use the filters you will need to set up a system that will remind you to check that folder often so you don’t forget about something you need to do.

Computer files

Depending on the type of business you have, you may require files on your computer. These can become a problem if you have too many, so it’s a good idea to create folders for each customer or client or type of file you create. This will save you time searching for it later.

Paper copies

If you have copies of papers that you need to keep, you should consider file folders. This will keep your papers nice, neat, and organized. Figure out a labeling system that works for your needs and create folders based on this information. To stay organized and feel less stress, you should file on a daily or weekly basis. This will keep your stacks of paper to a minimum and it will take you less time.

There are many different organization tips that you can use to create an organized business. Take a few minutes to look at your business and your office to see what you can do to organize everything so you can work efficiently and effectively. When you take these steps, you will feel great about working each day and you will increase the time you have to work your business and not feel guilty when you want to take some time for yourself.

Of course, keeping your papers organized is one thing, but keeping your mind organized is another.  I will share some methods to keep your mind organized in the next post, so be sure to come back for more valuable information.

Tags: Tips by Carrie Wilkerson
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Tags: Communication by Carrie Wilkerson
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Marketing your website is the most important thing you can do to grow your business. There are so many different ways to do this. You can use paid ads, blogs, social media, email campaigns, and offline methods, but have you ever considered marketing with videos?

We’ve all watched a video on Youtube or other video sites, but have you ever considered creating your own? Video marketing is becoming more and more popular and it might be time for you to jump on the band wagon and give it a try.

Youtube watchers have the ability to create an account and then set it up to where they receive notification every time a particular account airs a new video. With that said, you could put yourself in front of literally thousands of people each time you create a new video.

If you think about this marketing method, it’s no different than a blog feed. People sign up to receive your blog feed updates via their Google Reader or email. Marketing through videos works the same way.

You can create videos about anything and everything that has to do with your business. For example, if you are in direct sales, you could create a short three to four minute video that talks about a product you offer. If you are a coach, you could create a five to six minute video explaining a situation that you frequently are asked about and give a tip or two on how to resolve it. In both instances you will want to make sure you give your contact information at the end, but make sure you don’t say it a thousand times during your short video.

People love to sit on the computer and watch videos during their free time. When you create videos that will help them solve a problem or prevent a problem from occurring, you will have an advantage and a new way to grow your business. Video marketing is the new craze and a unique way to market your business.

To get some ideas, you may want to watch a few videos that are aimed at your specific target market.  Once you see how easy it is you can begin creating videos of your own.  Take a peek at some of my videos here: The Barefoot Channel

Tags: Marketing by Carrie Wilkerson
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