Don't Kid Yourself- Everyone is Selfish

When running a business don't just assume that friends and family will automatically buy what you are selling. People are ultimately very selfish. If they are not in the market for your goods, then they will not be loyal supporters of your business. There are no free rides in life or business.

You may be one of the rare ones with a truly committed loved one who works tirelessly to help you reach you dreams. If you are, stop right now and go thank them. The rest of us though will not have a built in set of initial customers made up of friends and family. Do not count on your relationships substituting for demand for your product.

The good news is that you are free from having to push your products on family and friends who frankly just may not be that interested. Don't waste time convincing your personal network that they should support you in business. Focus your time on finding new people who are in the market for your product. You will save yourself a lot of time and frustration.

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What Do People Really Want?

Do you sell widgets and whatsits? Do you offer a service? What it is that you sell is not really what you sell. Huh?

People don't buy objects and services. They buy emotions and feelings. They buy the things that make them feel confident, smart, stylish, influential. They buy the things that bring them fame, compliments, a sense of accomplishments. They buy things that keep them from feeling discomfort, embarrassment and doubt. They buy things that save them work, time. They buy things that keep them safe and reduce risk.

As a business owner, you have to determine how to tap into what people really want. How is your widget or whatsit going to make people feel those strong, positive emotions? How is your service going to keep people from feeling the things that they are trying to avoid?

When you establish the real thing that you are selling beyond your product and you incorporate this into your advertising and marketing, your business will be on the fast track to success.

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Do you Squidoo?

Squidoo is a site that allows you to build a webpage, called a lens, for free. Squidoo is one of the hallmarks of free marketing. Google loves Squidoo, so if you create a lens and link back to your site you help your Google ranking, not to mention the potential customers that might follow that link.

There is a lot of competition to get a high rank for your lens. Make sure that you put some good content on you lens, fill out all sections completely and make it look attractive.

Here is the lens I just created. Click here. The red crown is the first image on my Squidoo lens.

Here's to your business,
Shelley Ewing Brownfield

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Copywriting Shortcuts

Copywriting is a skill that is developed over years. It is one of those things that we wish was not true. It would be so nice if we could just plop down words and without effort they would just draw people in.

Many of us can not stop what we are doing in our business to really study and build our skills in this area. Here are 2 shortcuts though that will help to improve your writing very easily without too much effort.

1. After you write something make sure it passes the "So What?" test. Read your copy and then ask yourself, "so what?" Do you have a good answer? If not, rewrite. You words should mean something to the reader. What you are saying should have some value and solve a problem for them.

2. Appeal to the pressure points that make people take action. Your words should appeal to a person's sense of fear, greed, guilt or anger offer them exclusivity, salvation or flattery. The list is not pretty, but it is effective.

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Exclusivity

It is so easy to water down your brand. You offer more and more free stuff, you lower your price and you practically beg to get yourself heard and to get customers.

Hey, I admit I have fallen into that trap. Quit it now, it is a method of doom. How cheap are you going to go? How many hoops will you jump through.

If you have a product worth something, then stand up for it. Be proud and wait for the right customers. It never hurts to give something away so that customers can test your product and test you as a business, but don't get caught giving away the keys to the city.

Think about creating a sense of exclusivity around your product. This is the reason high end products work. Don't market in the internet "dollar store." Make sure that what you are selling is worth being in an exclusive market and keep it there.


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Creating Expert Status

No matter what your business, your customers what to know that you are an expert. Truly though, how many of us can claim to be an expert in our field? The vast majority people are way to humble to consider themselves and expert, but that is exactly what you need to do!

I am not telling you to lie or make things up, just know more that your customers. Anyone can be an expert relative to someone else. As a science teacher, I would never have compared my knowledge and abilites to those in the scientific community. I knew a whole lot more than my students though. In that situation, I was the expert.

For your business, make sure you know more than your customers and then project that confidence. There will always be people in your industry that know more than you. You just make sure that you know more about your product or service than those you are selling to.

Helping your business grow,
Shelley Brownfield

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Blog Blog and Blog some more

If you are struggling to get your business or website off the ground, or wanting to pick up traffic for free or just wondering about how all this internet marketing stuff works...then get thyself a blog.

I am already seeing web crawlers hitting my brand new blogs after just a day or so.

It is free. It is therapeutic. Don't worry about what to say....just talk or write what comes to mind. If you are true to your own conversational style then people will enjoy reading your work.

I wish I had started this up seriously months ago. I thought that it was going to be just another task on the "to do" list. I find it quite enjoyable though.

If you are going to do it, then do it right. Make sure that you use Feedburner and go through their optimization section. It is just a few clicks, but it is worth it.

Get free sites to advertise your business, a copy of Free Traffic for Broke Marketers and a free trial of Proverbs 31 List! Click here