Brainstorming Apps for Your Business

    Creating your own apps is not as hard as you might think. You can find apps that are already created that you can resell as your own, or you can hire a coder to create an app for you. But first you need to figure out what apps make sense to add on to your business. To do this, take some time to brainstorm apps for your business.

    1. Know Your Audience – A deep understanding of your audience is an important factor in brainstorming a new app for your business. Who are they? What do they want? What do they need? What are their deepest desires (in context of your niche)?

    2. Understand Your Niche – Remember that your app should focus on solving a problem that your audience has that’s within your niche. If you go outside of that niche it will confuse your audience and you’d have to find a new audience to buy the app. Instead, stay focused on your audience and solving their problems.

    3. Determine Your Budget – Your budget to creating the app will be determined by a few factors such as whether or not you have the skill set to create the app, whether you have to hire someone, or whether or not you’ll be able to find a reseller app to sell for a good price.

    4. Search for Apps Using Search Engines – A good way to find out a budget is to search for the apps on search engines. Regardless of whether you find a reseller app or a regular app like one you want, you can get a lot of information about pricing and your competition. But don’t worry, even if there are apps like yours and no resellers you can still make the app and sell it to your audience.

    5. Find a Coder – Once you have an idea, if you cannot locate a reseller then you need to find a coder. You can find them on oDesk.com and Elance.com and other freelance websites that have coders. Be sure to have your entire proposal ready before going to a job board so that you can be very specific about what you want. The fewer changes you make later, the less expensive the cost will be.

    6. Market Your App – Once your app is completed and even before, you can start marketing the app. You can mention the exciting project you’re working on and give them hints, and you can set up an email autoresponder series and more to get your audience educated and ready to purchase the app.

    7. Repeat – Honestly; you can do this several times, and create many different apps for your audience. If your first app sales went well and you were profitable, then you should do it again. Identify another problem, solve it, and sell that app.

    Adding an app (or two) to your product funnel will increase your income, as well as expand the view of others that you’re an expert in your field. You will boost your credentials, and offer something awesome for your audience to use that helps them with one of their problems. What a great way to add value to your business offerings.

    Categories: Run a Home Business, Technology Tags: Tags:

    Best Tools to Use for Analyzing 

    Any business has to engage in some form of analyzing to ensure that the business is up to par. Online businesses are no different, and in many cases it is easier to analyze how well an online business is working compared to a traditional brick and mortar. Here are eight tried and true tools that will work to help you with analyzing your business.

    1. Google Analytics – Most people know about GA; they use it on their blog or website to get some insight in how well their websites are doing. If you can figure out how to use it effectively, it has a lot to offer. You might need a professional to help you make use of it at more than a basic level. However, it’s a great tool that most online businesses should use since Google is still the number one search engine.

    Link – http://www.google.com/analytics/

    2. Spring Metrics – This analytics tool is focused on turning leads into customers. This system helps you capture email addresses as well as break down your visitors by location, source, and more. It’s amazing software that can take your business to levels never before considered. However, it is pricy and will require a personalized demo and quote.

    Link – http://www.springmetrics.com/

    3. Accounting Software – QuickBooks is essentially the standard for accounting software for small businesses, and this business tool will help you analyze your business. This takes printing reports to a whole new level.

    Link – http://www.sleeter.com/blog/2014/02/quickbooks-business-analytics-biztools/

    4. Woopra – If you need real-time customer activity monitoring, this is the app for you. You can tell what your visitors are doing the moment they get to your site and where they’re from, even before they subscribe.

    Link – https://www.woopra.com/

    5. Clicky – You can use this free on one site to see real-time traffic on your website and get reports for historical data, too. Upgrade to the pro version for more features and more websites. You do have to install it on your website to make it work, but visitors will not see it.

    Link – http://clicky.com/

    6. KISSmetrics – Use these analytics along with Google to optimize your marketing efforts to get more sales and conversions for any website or blog. They have price points for almost every size business.

    Link – https://www.kissmetrics.com/

    7. Hostanalytics – Accounting is very important and the finances of your business are essential to making it last and work. This is for a larger business, but as you grow you should consider keeping a close eye on finances to ensure continued success.

    Link – http://www.hostanalytics.com/

    8. Qlik – This analytics tool is different in that it’s a desktop Windows app that allows you to see interactive data as it’s starting. You can even use it free. It has many interesting features that are very intuitive to use to help you take your business to the next level.

    http://www.qlik.com/

    Also, remember that many applications that you use for your business offer internal business intelligence solutions. Check them out to see if they give you the insights that you need to know to make your business run effectively. Staying ahead of the numbers is necessary to notice trends and to help push sales higher or avoid a problem.

    Categories: Run a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    Basic Components of Service Provider Business Contracts

    When you enter into a working relationship with others, it’s very important to have a contract. Each contract will vary greatly depending on the type of services you provide, but in general every contract needs these basic components.

    Detailed Description of the Services You Will Provide

    It’s essential to very clearly describe the services that will be provided. The more detail you can put in this part of the contract, the fewer misunderstandings will occur. This is very important, especially if you are charging on a per-project basis instead of only hourly. You don’t want scope creep to ruin any profit-making potential.

    Complete Description of the Relationship between Both Parties

    This is the area where you mention the nature of the business relationship, in terms of whether or not you are an independent contractor or an employee. Spelling it out here will protect both parties from IRS issues later. However, keep in mind that acting like an employee/employer, no matter what this section states, is what the IRS really cares about.

    Responsibilities of the Service Provider

    Spell out in great detail which dates you’ll have the work completed by, and what your responsibilities are to the client in regard to getting the work done. How will it be submitted to the client? What constitutes finished work? Be very specific in this area. It will help protect you as well as help you feel done each day when you know what constitutes “finished.”

    Responsibilities of the Client

    Spell out what the client must do so that you can do your job. For example, state that the client must get you the information you need by a certain date each month, and say how the client should contact you when they have questions. Be very specific and exact in this section so there is no mistake about what the client needs to do to ensure that you can do your work in a timely manner.

    Important Due Dates

    Restate the important due dates for both sides of the client/service provider equation. The reason you want to state this again is that it’s an essential component in being able to work together cohesively without issues. These dates will ensure that it all happens without a lot of back and forth or problems.

    How Payment Will Be Processed

    State how and when you will bill the client and how and when you expect the client to pay you. If you want to be paid via PayPal then you should say so, otherwise they may not be prepared to pay you this way – which can cause delays. Spell out all the terms, the amount and how and when it all happens.

    Terms for Termination

    Tell the client how they can terminate your agreement, and state how you can terminate the agreement. If there is an end date to this contract, state that here too. If there is going to be a rate increase at any point (if it’s an endless contract), state it here as well. This way the client is aware of what will happen in the future, giving them the opportunity to leave the contract if they want to.

    Non-Disclosure Agreement

    This is something that is good for both parties – you agree not to tell people you work for the client and the client agrees not to state what they pay you to people they recommend to work with you. Whatever you both want in this agreement to protect both parties in terms of non-disclosure goes here.

    Ownership of the Deliverables

    State in this section who owns the deliverables. Usually you will put words to the effect that deliverables are owned by the client once payment has been processed. This will help prevent non-payment or claims of ownership of the work when payment has not yet been submitted. This is the best way to protect your hard work and their intellectual property.

    Legalities

    It’s super important to include any legalities that are required by your state or country. It also is good for the service provider to include a line that states any court proceedings and all laws will be determined by your state, city and county. That way if a problem happens you won’t have to travel for court.

    Finally, always ensure that both of your names, business names, addresses, phone numbers, and emails and if applicable tax ID numbers such as your EIN (this is an employer ID number, although you do not need employees to have one). This is preferable to use than your social security number.

    Categories: Legal, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    Ten Ways to Promote Other People’s Products and Make Money

    When you promote other people’s products and make a commission from the sales, that is considered affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is a great way to make another income, and can quickly become a full-time income if you play your cards right. Some affiliate marketers are making high six figures, and you can too. Here are ten ways to promote other people’s products and earn money in the process.

    1. Start a Blog – Blogging about a topic is a great way to promote other people’s products. You can approach a blog from many directions… from creating product reviews, to providing general education, to more directly promoting a certain product or solution.

    2. Social Media Marketing – The best way to get the word out about affiliate products is to talk about them on social media. You can share blog posts, write new posts, and even run ads right on social media about the product you want to promote.

    3. Write an EBook – It might seem strange, but you can actually promote affiliate products within an eBook, including a Kindle book. Just think creatively and get a specialized domain name that will be easy for people to remember.

    4. Facebook Ads – One of the simplest forms of advertising today are Facebook ads. You can differentiate your audience down to the nitty-gritty and its super simple to use. There are many courses you can take to ensure that you make money with Facebook ads.

    5. Google PPC Ads – Another great avenue for generating revenue from other people’s products is to promote them via Google pay-per-click advertisements. You’ll need to do a lot of research about keywords and do a lot of testing to finally hit on what works for your products.

    6. Banner Advertising – While most people like contextual ads, you can still make money and purchase banner advertising from Google and other websites and advertising networks. Using banners is a great way to get a lot of information to your consumers in a short amount of time and space.

    7. Email Marketing – Setting up an autoresponder so that you can market to your audience via email is a great way to promote multiple affiliate products to them. If you have identified several solutions for your audience, this is a great way to ensure that they will learn all about them.

    8. Craigslist Ads – If you offer solutions for people, whether digital or not, you can market them via Craigslist. You just have to do it under the right category and in the right way. But you can find a lot of leads via Craigslist.

    9. Press Release – Sending out a good old-fashioned press release is a great way to promote any product or service. You simply have to find the story angle and know how to present it to so that you can get widespread views on your press release.

    10. Video Marketing – YouTube is a great way to start selling affiliate products. Do informative videos, product unpacking, and reviews via YouTube and you’ll soon be able to earn a full-time living; not just by selling the product, but due to the shared ad revenue on YouTube.

    Using these methods to promote the affiliate products you want to sell can be very lucrative. The real trick is to pick two or three and perfect them. Don’t add anything to the mix until you’ve exhausted all possibilities with what you chose.

    Categories: Run a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    Ten Tips to Successful Affiliate Marketing

    Being a successful affiliate marketer can be very lucrative. You will make a percentage of sales for each item that you convince someone to buy. This means that you don’t have to create a product, or even make a web page. You can use many methods to promote the products, such as pay per click and social media.

    Here are ten tips to help you succeed.

    1. Promote Only Products You Believe In – It’s so much easier telling people about products or services that you truly love and believe in. You’ll have much more to say about them if you like them. You’ll be able to explain the benefits so much better if you are passionate about the products.

    2. Learn Traffic-Building Strategies – It’s important to learn as much as you can about search engine optimization and other traffic-building strategies. You want to push and pull as much traffic to your products as possible. It doesn’t matter if it’s to a sales page, or to a website with more information; you will need to build traffic using every means available to you.

    3. Know Your Audience – In order to best provide good products, you’ll need to ensure that you know who your audience is. If you know them well, you will know what they want in a product or service. You’ll know what their problems are and find a way to offer them products that solve them.

    4. Provide Value to Your Audience – Anything you offer your audience, whether free or paid, should provide value above all else. If the things you offer don’t make the audience feel like they’re getting more than they paid for, they’re going to be unhappy.

    5. Follow the Rules and Laws – Disclose that you have an affiliate relationship with the items that you promote and that you’ll earn a small percentage of sales. It’s the law first of all, and secondly, it’s just a nice thing to do. People will not be upset about it if you let them know up front.

    6. Test Different Designs and Copy – When you come up with copy, sales pages or ad designs for your promotions, make sure to test them out to find out which kind works better for your audience. Change one small thing at a time to find out which version does better.

    7. Work with the Affiliate Manager – If you are promoting products that have an affiliate program and they have an affiliate manager, this is a great sign of a wonderful product. The great thing is you can work with the affiliate manager to ensure you have the marketing collateral you want to use to promote.

    8. Not a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme – One thing to keep in mind as you move forward with your new affiliate marketing career is that it’s not going to happen overnight that you go from zero dollars to six figures. You can make unlimited profit, but it will take some time.

    9. Get Good at Review Writing – One way to promote affiliate products is to write great product reviews. Write them for your own content purposes, but also write them on other platforms where the product lives.

    10. Be Yourself – The best thing you can give your audience is a glimpse into who you are. That’s what makes you unique and special. Your audience will appreciate getting to know you, and that will make them trust you more.

    You can be very successful at affiliate marketing and make a lot of money. The amount of money you can make is truly unlimited. All you have to do is make a plan to promote the products to the right people at the right time.

    Categories: work with others Tags: Tags:

    Ten Reasons to Start an Affiliate Program

    Starting an affiliate program is the best way to increase your income and build a bigger business fast. You have a whole army of fans promoting your product, pushing your website up on search engine results, and talking about your product. There are so many reasons to have an affiliate program that you should just almost stop reading now and get to work on starting one. But, if you’re not convinced yet, keep reading.

    1. Low Startup Costs – There is hardly any business that you can start that has a lower startup cost. Depending upon what type of software you want to use and the functionality you want, you can start your affiliate program for just five bucks through E-junkie.com, or for about 50 bucks via ClickBank.com, or a little more by using software like aMember.com.

    2. Low Cost Marketing – Face it; marketing isn’t cheap. But, when you have an affiliate program you get other people to foot the bill for a lot of it. You will need to create marketing materials for your affiliates, but they will often pay for ads and PPC campaigns if your payout is high enough for them to do so.

    3. Winning Business Model – When you consider the business model, it really is just hiring sales people who work on commission only. This means your labor force is very cheap and essentially free unless they make a sale. Sales people have always been around and will always be around. Just because you’re good at making your product doesn’t make you a good sales person, but hopefully you can attract good sales people via your affiliate program.

    4. Easily Scale Your Business – When you have a practically free sales force, that means you can scale your business easily. Once you have enough affiliates you can close or open the program as you wish. You can start focusing on building products instead of selling, and still keep growing your business.

    5. Increases Your Streams of Income – If you already sell products of your own as well as other people’s, then you know what it means to have multiple streams of income. Having many ways to bring money into your household keeps you from having financial problems, because you’re not reliant on just one source of income.

    6. A Key to Higher Profit Margins – Getting other people to do work for you is a huge key to making more profits in your business. Once you get your affiliate program going, and your affiliates are promoting and selling your products, your main job will be to create new products and marketing materials and then let them go for it.

    7. Word-of-Mouth Marketing at Its Best – In many cases affiliates are also users of the product or service. In fact, you can make that a criterion for promoting it if you want. Then you can take advantage of the idea of word-of-mouth marketing with a boost. Affiliate marketing is like word-of-mouth marketing on steroids.

    8. Improves Traffic to Your Website – When you have multiple people sending traffic to your sales page, this is automatically going to create links outside of your website. Many of these will be considered authoritative in nature, which Google Search likes.

    9. It’s Team Building That Gets Results – When you have an army of affiliates working for you, you can get them together and work on team building, even offer them training to help them sell your products better.

    10. Helps Expand Your Entire Business – When you start and run a successful affiliate program, it will shift the emphasis of your business drastically. You’ll be able to hire customer support, outsource more (maybe even product creation) and focus on running your business instead of working in your business.

    An affiliate program is not hard to start, and it’s something that you should definitely consider doing if you sell products and even services (especially if you outsource). Give your affiliates a lot of incentives, awesome products to promote, great promotional materials and you will be successful.

    Categories: work with others Tags: Tags:

    Software to Help You Start an Affiliate Program

    One thing you need to run your affiliate program is the right software. The best way to pick the right software is to make a list of the features that you want the software to have. Plus, set a budget for the software so that you can rule out some. But, don’t be too cheap either. If you want your business to grow, you need to pick the right software to avoid too much changing, as affiliates get tired of too many system changes.

    * PostAffiliatePro.com – This affiliate program software can work in the cloud or as a download that you upload and run from your own server. There are different levels that you can purchase for the SaaS program that are affordable. What’s great is that in this case you own your affiliates even though it is a cloud-based service.

    * aMember.com – This is a plugin that works with WordPress and other website software. You can even set up a membership website with this software. It’s a one-time purchase with yearly upgrades and excellent customer care.

    * AffiliateWiz.com – This is software you’ll purchase and put on your server yourself in order to run your affiliate program. It offers all the typical bells and whistles, allowing people to sign up for the program, grab code, as well as other marketing collateral that your affiliates will need. Plus it offers a way to pay out your affiliates via PayPal Mass Pay.

    * E-Junkie.com – This is a simple cloud-based affiliate software that starts at only $5.00 per month. This program doesn’t have many of the features that you may want such as allowing subscriptions, but it does offer many other features such as easy payouts and hosting of products, images and other marketing collateral.

    * ClickBank.com – This is a very popular affiliate network that you can join that will help you run your program in a professional manner. The one drawback is that you don’t own your affiliates, and you will need to ask them to sign up for a separate list or something that enables you to give them more marketing materials to use.

    * JVZoo.com – This is free software that you can use in the cloud to promote your products and run an affiliate program. It has all the bells and whistles, plus you will be part of their marketplace which will enable super affiliates to find you.

    Figure out what features you want in your affiliate software, test out many different systems before picking, and then try to stick to particular software so that you don’t run off the affiliates you do attract. But, if you choose right you’re not going to want to switch. Don’t be afraid to find an experienced affiliate manager to help you set up your affiliate program to get started fast on the right foot.

    Categories: work with others Tags: Tags:

    Putting Your Best Foot Forward

    When you join a membership such as an “inner circle,” “mastermind group” or a local business club, it’s important to learn how to put your best foot forward. Not only do first impressions matter, so do repeat impressions. You know how a person has to see an advertisement seven times before they choose to purchase? Well, it’s not much different when it comes to building relationships and getting to know people via memberships.

    * Be Prepared – Don’t go to meetings disorganized, dropping paperwork, letting your phone ring, and that type of thing. You need to be fully present at every meeting instead of worried about what’s going on outside of it.

    * Don’t Sell Anything – The worst thing you can do at any membership meetings, or any social gathering at all, is to try to treat it as a sales meeting. You shouldn’t sell anyone anything at these events. Instead, just be yourself, and get to know people and let them get to know you.

    * Dress Appropriately – Each membership has a different personality so you’ll have to base how you dress on the membership. But, you want to show your personality too. Don’t show up in your PJs and looking dirty, but do be yourself and dress right for the membership.

    * Offer Your Hand First – The person who walks up to someone and introduces him or herself is the power person in the group. You need to go up to people, introduce yourself, and offer to shake hands. Look them in the eye, and tell them your name clearly, and ask theirs. Then listen.

    * Get Professional Business Cards Made – Always have cards with you when you leave your office or home. It’s very important because it’s the best way to meet with others after the event. You’ll never remember everyone, so using the card they give you and jotting down on the back something to help you remember them is a great thing to do. It’s something they might do too.

    * Get to Know People – Your entire job at any event is to get to know people. The more you get to know people and they get to know you, the more likely they are to recommend you to others, as well as hire you if they need what you offer.

    * Ask a Lot of Questions – Remember to always put the other person first, and learn as much as you can about them. The more people get to tell you about themselves, the better impression they get of you.

    * Show Up – It’s important to show up to the meetings, events, and luncheons when the membership you choose to join has them. Don’t just sign up and never show up. Showing up is the best thing you can do for your business.

    Whether you have a home business or a bricks and mortar business, it’s important to always practice putting your best foot forward. What that constitutes is different for each type of business and business owner, depending on their audience and niche.

    Categories: organizations, work with others Tags: Tags:

    How to Choose the Right Products to Promote as an Affiliate

    A major step in becoming a profitable affiliate marketer is to choose the right products to promote. You want to be sure that you choose something your audience needs, that has a good reputation behind it, and is made by someone you trust. After all, if people buy it due to your recommendation, it needs to be good so that you can maintain the trust of your audience.

    * Understand Your Audience – The more you know about your audience, the more you can be sure that you are finding products that they need and want. If you don’t know who you’re marketing to, it will be very difficult to choose the right products.

    * Solve Problems for Your Audience – You want to find products that solve problems for your audience. If you’re not solving a problem, you may be creating one. Find two or three pain points your audience has. Then search for products to see if you can find solutions for your audience for these pain points.

    * Try the Product – It’s probably better (at least at first) that you do not promote products you have not tried yourself. Consider the expense to be part of the cost of doing business, but also as an insurance policy against complaints. If you truly love a product, you’ll feel better about promoting it.

    * Check Conversion Rates – Any product that is worth selling should give affiliates some idea of how high their sales pages conversion rate is. This can help you know whether or not it’s worth it for you to spend time and perhaps money promoting the product.

    * Know How Much Your Commission Is – Always understand up front how much your commission is. Remember to subtract any fees you’re charged via the payment processing center that you use. Read the information on ClickBank so you know what it takes to actually collect there (or any other affiliate network for that matter).

    * Know the Payout Procedures – Every affiliate program out there has a different payout procedure. Some pay out monthly, some make you wait until you have a certain number of sales, and others have even more confusing rules. Read all the rules, and understand when and how you’ll be paid.

    * Stay Digital – The best affiliate products are digital over physical. The reason is that people will buy them faster and get their products sooner. Plus, you’re likely to earn more money per item when promoting digital items.

    * Trends Are Nice – Don’t be afraid to jump on a trend bandwagon if it fits. But, don’t force it. If you can find a way that the trend fits in with your audience, you can capitalize on it in a big way. If you can’t, just let it go.

    Being an affiliate marketer can be a tremendous career. Your income-earning potential is truly unlimited. Only your imagination can stop you from making a good income via affiliate marketing. But, you want to be sure to pick the right products at the right time for maximum impact.

    Categories: work with others Tags: Tags:

    How to Attract Super Affiliates

    Every brand wants to attract super affiliates to their program. The fact is that one super affiliate can generate a full-time income for a brand. That’s why they want them so badly. You too can attract a super affiliate or two to your products if you plan for it and are ready for it.

    * Create an Excellent Product – Let your products speak for themselves. The more value you offer the audience, the better. Be sure that your product over delivers and offers additional value over what you state on your sales pages. This will ensure that affiliate want to promote such a phenomenal product.

    * Develop Fabulous Customer Care – Don’t skimp on customer care, because affiliates do not want to deal with a lot of returns and problems for the products they’ve worked hard to promote. Be clear about how consumers can access customer service and back up all your products with an ironclad guarantee.

    * Offer High Commission Rates – Super affiliates aren’t going to work hard for a dollar here and there; they want high commissions on high value products. If you can offer that for at least one or two products, your other products will also benefit.

    * Create Full-Fledged Marketing Materials – Super affiliates don’t want to create marketing materials. It is likely they will improve on what you do offer, due to their experience, but they’re not going to start from scratch. Create content, email messages, sales pages, brochures, graphics and more where appropriate.

    * Offer High Converting Sales Pages – Test out numerous sales pages until you get it right so that you can offer high converting sales pages to your affiliates. If your sales page doesn’t convert then there will be no point in having super affiliates or any affiliates sending people to the page.

    * Offer a Bonus for Their First Sale – Super affiliates like making money and winning prizes. Offer a bonus right away for their first sale and then additional bonuses and prize opportunities for more sales.

    * Give Them the Product Free in Exchange for Promoting It – Many super affiliates need to see and use the product before they will promote it. If you do your research and choose a few affiliates who are known from being awesome, and who promote products to your niche, you can approach them with an offer.

    * Join an Affiliate Network – Even if you offer an excellent affiliate program on your own, keep in mind that many super affiliates want to join known affiliate networks that they know have rules, and will pay out on time.

    * Pay On Time – Don’t make affiliates wait to earn money or have silly and arbitrary requirements to sell 100 dollars’ worth of product before you pay out. It’s reasonable to wait for returns but outside of that, making people wait for money they earned is just frustrating.

    * Allow Bidding on Your Brand Keywords – Many brands make a huge mistake not allowing affiliates to bid on keywords. Affiliates do a lot of keyword research on the products they promote; if you hold them back you will lose out on them.

    * Treat Them as Valued Partners in Your Business – Affiliates aren’t employees; they are independent contractors who are helping you earn a living. They are more partners in your business than they are employees, and should be treated as such. They can make suggestions, give ideas about new products, and rate the products you have so that you can improve.

    * Don’t Change Things Too Often – When you get a lot of affiliates and especially super affiliates, don’t change the links to the sales page or other things too fast. Affiliates do a lot of research on your behalf and promote your products to their audience, so you don’t want to make them have more work.

    Attracting super affiliates to your program can be exciting and life changing. Business will be awesome with even just one good super affiliate. The way that you attract them is the same way you should use to attract any affiliate or customer. By being the best.

    Categories: work with others Tags: Tags: