7 Tips for Running a Profitable Home Based Business

Running a home based business offers many advantages such as saving money on gas, tax breaks among other benefits.However, the success of a home based business is pegged on several important aspects.1.) Website – Invest in a domain name and website for your home business. A website is just like a physical location for your business. It lets people to access your business from around the world.2.) Target market – Carefully select a market for your products or services. The more targeted the audience the easier it will be to meet their specific needs. Besides, marketing to a very wide customer can be so overwhelming and ineffective.3.) Goals – Set realistic goals for your home based business. These goals should be based on what you can deliver without outsourcing. Once you determine your actual production capacity, you can always improve on the numbers gradually.4.) Marketing budget – Keep aside some cash for marketing. Every venture no matter how small requires a marketing budget. Determine the amount of money you are willing to spend on publicity materials such as business cards, flyers, classified ads and so on.5.) Tracking – Track all your marketing campaigns and keep a log of the techniques that produce the most paying clients. For instance, if your flyers produce more paying customers than classifieds, it will be wise to cut the cost of your classifieds to apply that money toward the flyers.6.) Search engine optimization (SEO) – SEO helps your website’s search engine ranking by associating it to keywords and links that will make the site easier to find online. Online shoppers searching for the products or services that you provide will see your website in the first pages of the website search. This has the potential to bring you more paying customers.7.) Offline marketing – In addition to online marketing campaigns, use offline marketing to reach potential clients. Attend workshops and other networking events in your neighbourhood with flyers and business cards.
 
If well managed, a home based business can give you immense profits while at the same time giving you the freedom to be your own boss.
 
However, you should be advised that running a business from home is not for the faint-hearted! A home business requires you to be very disciplined in terms of time and finance management and this is where many people go fail especially in their first home based business ventures.

A Simple Product Creation and Product Launching Formula

If you tried to think of people involved in product creation, who would come to mind? You may think of Edison, Franklin, or maybe Henry Ford. Would you ever think of yourself as someone who can create a quality product? Product creation is actually relatively easy and product launching is not that tough either! If you follow a few easy to understand steps, you could be starting the product creation and product launching process sooner than you think.

The first step in creating your information product is to know and understand your market. This can be very time-consuming, especially if you are unsure of what to do or where to look to know your market. Studying your niche market and understanding the buzz words and buying patterns can ease the process dramatically. Personally, I would recommend networking with someone who has had success in the niche market you are considering and learn from their results. If they are into product creation and not very business savvy expect some hesitation. If they only sell products and have nothing to do with product launching or product creation you may your first affiliate (sales person)! Something else you can use to find hot trends is with the Google Trends tool.

The second step is the product creation process. Take your niche market and brainstorm ideas and topics relating to it. There are a lot of product launching contests going on recently relating to a newly created internet marketing tool. There are so many aspects to the mentioned niche that literally, and unfortunately, anything can be considered an Internet Marketing tool. The reason that anyone can basically create an Internet Marketing tool is because of something called Private Label Rights products.

What I use private label rights products for, and highly recommend them in this specific manner, is to cure writer’s block especially when it is lingering. Many people base their entire product creation and product launching on a private label rights product. This is where you can start to shine and build a strong brand for yourself. If you set goals for yourself, short-term goals to be exact, you can see your product creation come into being much faster and there is a good chance with less revision needed. If you keep hitting time restraint road blocks; however there is nothing wrong with a slow and steady approach, you can consider outsourcing portions of your project. Outsourcing can be an extremely huge benefit or just as great of a disaster.

You can find someone to outsource work to at a freelance site such as Guru.com or eLance.com. When reviewing proposals it is almost mandatory you perform a background check on them as you are in essence hiring them. Doing a background check on freelancers is as easy as asking for samples of their work and reviewing feedback on the freelance site from previous customers. Depending on the size and requirements of your project this can add up to a decent sized investment, so caution is very important. One tip I always recommend to people looking to hire an individual is to ask them what they can provide you that no one else can. This simple question gives them a chance to “toot their own horn” and acknowledge where they feel most competent as far as their skill set.

The final portion of the product creation and product launching formula is the launch. This can literally make or break the effort, time, and maybe (if you invested) money you put in to your project. There are numerous aspects to product launching and although their relevance is debated in terms to their effect, experts agree all must be followed. The person in your field who you asked for product advice from can help you substantially if you have kept in touch. If not, the first thing you need to do is to create a visually appealing website with flawless design work.

I also mentioned outsourcing before, this is one aspect of product launching I have little strength in and I always outsource this portion. The website does not have to be large however the content (ad copy in Internet Marketing) must be stellar and as perfect as possible. This is where advertising knowledge or experience is beneficial. When the site is set up you now put a lead capture form on your website.

I put two lead capture pages on all products I create on the internet and is one of the best methods of getting a solid start when you are in the product launching stage. When you gain information from a prospect or someone looking to get paid for referring sales you are able to provide them updates or specials. Many people abuse their prospect or affiliate lists by in turn emailing them with a new product daily and I find the recommendations to be totally unrelated to their original need, problem, or interest.

Another stage in the product launching stage is creating a free report or demo version of your product to entice the product to sign up to your email list. Using proper follow up with this can help generate numerous sales for you. One thing you need to ensure is that your free product completely relates to your main product that you are looking to sell.

You are now ready to advertise your product launching to customers as well as the opportunity to sell for affiliates. This is the single aspect that many product creations and launches fail on. It is actually not entirely difficult. One thing you can do is write articles (and a good amount of them) on topics relating to your product. I am a huge advocate of giving a solution in forums. When you join a forum you are normally offered the opportunity to create a signature. In your signature, you should enter the link to your opt-in or lead capture page. When you respond to posts, you are advertising your opportunity.

It is not impossible to create a product and it does not have to take a long time. You need to setup a plan and stick to it. If you get stuck, look at similar and successful products to your own and try and see how they did it. When you sit down and brainstorm you will be surprised with what you can imagine.

10 Ugly Truths About MLM Home-Based Businesses

Open your email inbox and you will read dozens of email that promise fame and fortune today. Well maybe not fame but lots of fortune. No one will tell you the ugly truth about your MLM Home-based Business, until today. Here are the 10 ugly truths about MLM Home-Based Business.
You will not make money over night. There I said it. The secret is out. No matter what you hear from the hype on the Internet you can’t make serious money over night. Your income from sponsors or affiliate links is depended upon someone else buying the product just like you did. While you may have made the decision quickly most people don’t. Allow time for your business to grow. How much time depends on how much action you take.
You need to work harder than the average Joe. Lets face it if Internet marketing were easy than 97% of people doing it would succeed. But it is the opposite. You will need to work harder than 97% of the people out there doing their own MLM Home-Based Business. Fortunately for you that is not very hard since most people give up after 30 days.
Marketing training is the key to success. Joining your MLM business is not the end of your learning, but only the beginning. You must become a student of marketing and your business. You are marketing You, Inc. The better you do that the more success you will have. If you come from a marketing background you have a jump on everyone, if you don’t you will need to get to work.
Focus on one marketing strategy until mastered before trying another. There are some many marketing strategies that work on the Internet that you can lose your focus and begin to jump from one strategy to another. Pick one that appeals to you and focus on that strategy until you master it. You can continue learning about other strategies but keep you focus and marketing dollars on the one until you get at least 20 to 50 leads per day from it.
You will need to pick-up the telephone. Yes you will need to talk to people. You are building a team and you are the leader. You can’t lead from behind the curtain. You need to establish a relationship with your prospect. The better you are at talking to people on the phone the more success you will have.
Test your marketing and record the results. You need to constantly test your marketing copy and the results it brings. Keep good records so you can see how your marketing is doing. Use tracking codes and subdomains to track how well a particular copy does.
You must the right mindset. You need a winning mindset. You must be positive about your business so you can help others. Looking at the world of abundance will free your mind to think in terms of giving before receiving. You want to grow your business but that can only truly happen when you help others grow their business.
Have a marketing plan. You need a road map to your success and a marketing plan is that map. Layout what marketing strategy you will use, what copy, budget and expected results. Then monitor your plan and adjust it as needed until you get results.
You need a mentor. Everyone needs someone they can go to with questions or concerns about their business. Someone who has been in the trenches and can help you over the rough patches.
Never quit and you will always win. If you never quit then you will always win, timing is the only question. Consistent, persistent action everyday until you win. Not giving up when after 3 months or 6 months or 12 months. Working until you succeed.
You can’t start a MLM Home-Based Business and expect to have riches pour in the following week without taking massive action. Sorry, I purchase too many of those programs only to find out that I needed to learn a new marketing technique and implement my own plan. Whatever your MLM business is learn it backwards and forwards. Become an expert in it and market yourself as an expert that can help others in their business. Take these 10 ugly truths and make them a part of your business and you will succeed.