The Pros & Cons Of Marketing In Small Businesses

When speaking about marketing for a small business, there are many different methods in which we could use to drive sales. Each different method has its pros and cons as I'd like to share to you my experiences of running a small business.

I know that 'time' is the most valuable resource for small businesses, and money spent should be money earned at least three times in return, so therefore, I'd like to just quickly share my experiences in this list form below.

Ok then, enjoy and 'leaf' like a tree and grow :) Get it? hehe.. Just a little humor before we begin. :-)

Here it is..

MARKET RESEARCH - We must create the market before selling the product.

Methods:
1. Questionnaire:
Pros - Great for random opinions, & questions answered.
Cons - Waste of time & money if questions do not bring results for decision making.

2. FGDs (Focus Discussion Groups)
Pros - Great for understanding quickly how others perceive your product and competitors.
Cons - Participants vary in character and some might not truly show their honest opinion due to their characteristics (shy, going with the crowd, indecisive, etc).

PRODUCT- When there is a guaranteed market, then product development should take place.

Methods:
1) Outsourcing Production
Pros - Saves time as you can focus on managing the big picture.
Cons - Unreliable in deadliness and product quality.

2) Manufacture
Pros - Controlled quality and perfection.
Cons - Time consuming.

3) Reseller (Not our own product)
pros -Leaves us to focus on marketing.
Cons - If manufacturer's product not up to par with our marketing.

PRICING - Pricing determines profit margins.

Methods:
1) Low-End
Pros - Mass buyers.
Cons - Smaller profit margins.

2) Premium
Pros - Higher Standard, and smaller competition.
Cons - Not enough buyers.

DISTRIBUTION - If consumers do not see your product, how are they going to buy?

Methods:
1) Exclusive
Pros - Easier to manage, negotiate deal and monitor.
Cons - Depending on one 'source' of basket to handle our eggs.

2) Sub-Distributors
Pros - The ability to expand channels throughout the market.
Cons - profit margin battle and harder to manage.

3) Self Distribution (on-line or off-line)
Pros - Efficient, good for decision making.
Cons - More to manage and time consuming.

PROMOTION - Promo is the icing on the cake which either makes the cake (product) good or bad.

Methods:
1) Old Media - Radio, print media, television.
Pros - Easy to create buzz.
Cons - Expensive, limited channel capture.

2) New Media - Digital, hand phones, i-pods, etc.
Pros - Great for fast emotional bonding.
Cons - Fast shift in trend, and boredom.

2) Promo materials - banners, stickers, posters, etc
Pros - Fast attention grabbing.
Cons - Waste of money, as no one cares if low quality or low quality design.

3) Events
Pros - Great for tying experience with your product.
Cons - Expensive & Time consuming if unsuccessful.

4) Endorsement, Branding
Pros - Great at building quick trust.
Cons - If the endorse e turns into a negative image, your product will suffer.

5) On-line
Pros - Fast and efficient in creating buzz.
Cons - Fighting against other promotion on line as consumers have a 3 second attention span on- line.

Attitude Makes All The Difference.

Another Cool Website About Blogging

Just found another cool blog site here.

I've been trying to search the web looking for good info and websites about real people and how they make a real living from writing or blogging. I've been sick of seeing all these really long landing pages about how to make $20,000.00 a month by not doing anything or so called 'automated programs', where you could just sit back and relax and watch the money pile up. Even those writing websites that claim they have the program to earning you $5,000.00 by inputing words into documents; not really sure I how I could believe those programs.

I'm looking for real stories of ordinary people with real problems that are willing to share their real solutions. I want to know how they make money on a monthly basis through blogging.

One of the coolest websites I've found to be 'real' is blogpaysu.com. The writer shares many experiences from, Affiliate Programs, Blog Advertising, Blog Promotion, Building traffic, Money Making Services, Money Making Tips & Tricks, and Paid To Blog. I''ve just learned alot from this blog.

I advise you to check out this cool website at blogpaysu.com.

See you there!

My Easiest Source Of Income

I'd like to share to you all my easiest source of income.

One of my sources of income is PPC - Paid Per click (Google Adsense, Yahoo publisher, etc), where if someone browsing my website clicks on ads I put on my website, I get paid a small fraction of money. Well, this is a bit different as I'd like to introduce to you all, PTC - Paid To Click. Basically, by clicking our own ads, we get paid!!

Different than PPC where if we are caught clicking our own ads, we can be banned by the company that provides the service (ex.Adsense); where in PTC, we make money by clicking our own ads.

I make good money just by spending less than 5 minutes a day working on it, even without having to think. THIS IS TRULY THE EASIEST SOURCE OF INCOME FOR ME!

Believe it or not, coming from a 3rd world country, I'm actually making money while working on my activities or while I'm browsing the net. This is too easy.

I advise you to join me. I thought it was a scam at first, but since I've joined, I've made more money in my first week more than I made on my first week using Google Adsense or any other PPC website. And the best thing is, it is FREE to sign up. No spendings to begin with.

Please check it out below!! Sign up to all now and make money instantly.

1. Bux.to
2. Buxout
3. 10Bux
4. NeoBux
5. IsabelMarco
6. Clixsense

Number one Home Business For Asians !!

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Boost Up Your Energy

In speaking of achieving goals and success within your life, energy is needed for you to boost your drive to achieve the end and happiness in mind.

Lets define energy;

Energy means the capacity of doing work. The capacity to boost yourself to do work and end in achieving success and happiness.

Energy also means gasoline for cars, the sun for plants, electricity for the light bulb and supplements for athletes. Without energy there is no life as there is no growth nor development.

You need energy to persevere when the tough gets going when you feel like quiting; you need energy to think in pressure situations when the outcome of success and failure rides in the moment; you need energy when you blog to keep on writing great content; you need energy to fight through your grind of life as nothing comes easy in this world.

Basically, you need energy to live and liven up your life to success and happiness.

One way to boost that energy and liven up your life is with Maxxed Energy Pops. To make it more interesting, Maxxed Energy Pops is holding a contest where you can put a widget in your blog, myspace, or facebook account and have the opportunity to win the XBOX 360 Elite Bundle, $100 Gift Certificate and 12-pack of Maxxed Energy Pops.

You could click here to register and enter the contest to win great prizes. Hurry, because the contest ends in July 12th, 2008. Basically, you could help yourself or even help me give more energy to my level of blogging by clicking on my energy level at the picture above. The cool thing is you don't need to sign up to if you don't want to participate in the contest as there are sweepstakes that can still win you the XBOX 360 Bundle.

Please click through my energy meter and give me some energy!!

Remember to always boost your energy to reacher way higher than the stars.

Personal Quotes Collection

Here's one of my quotes collection at my Quotes & Wisdom blog at

http://quotesaccordingly.blogspot.com/


"Let it be told that you hold the power in your hands to make it happen."

Living The Dream With PayPerPost

Wow, just opened my Email and more good news!!!!! This blog has been approved by the number one "Sponsored Review" company of payperpost !!

I'm so excited as I would also like to give a great example of perseverance and determination by sticking to your belief that if denied or failed, to keep on pushing as there will be open opportunities for you in the future. Let me tell you that this blog was denied several times until today! Yeaaa!!!! Just really happy and would like to share my happiness to you all once again.

I wanted in my heart to signed up to payperpost because after researching around the net, I found out that www.payperpost.com pioneered the 'Sponsored Review' model for bloggers as it is considered the most credible and the most prestigious company in the world.

Payperpost also lets you add friends to your account in order for you to network and learn from one another. It is a great website that opens doors for bloggers and once again, I advise all of you bloggers out there to sign up.

You can earn and make good money if your are consistent with your writing. Also, if you build a good name for yourself, advertisers can come running to your blog for reviews. :) Wow, hope someday that will happen to this blog.. hehehe.. ("remembering to always have the happiness and not the end in mind..")

Its amazing how payperpost can create a wonderful opportunity for me as a 3rd world citizen to give way to live my passion into making a living from writing. I am grateful and I thank the Lord above for the blessings that has come down to me and my family. I pray that our dreams can all come true and live the lifestyle that we seek which does not allow it to be driven by other factors.

This is a beginning of a new life for me and my family. Lets live, be happy and reach way higher than the stars. :)

On a further note, if I do make a good living from payperpost and earn good money from my writing, I will definitely take it upon to upgrade my family's quality of life, reconstruct my lifestyle, give back to those in need, as well as give my daughter the best education she can possibly have by enrolling her to the most prestigious schools in Indonesia.

Remember!! Keep on pushing it as things do happen for a reason. Follow your heart and let it lead you to wherever you'd like to be.

Perspective Of Success

Lets take a look at what you have in life in order for you to make something of yourself.

Let me ask you some things.. Lets see, are you in a state of depression currently? Are you feeling a huge burden of all your financial worries? Are you feeling you are losing control of your life? Are you in a state of near to death experience right now? Or you just perceiving your life in a negative way that leads you to your postponed success? I'm quite sure that all of your problems can be answered to your own perspective of your own situation.

There have been so many examples throughout history and man-kind of how diversity have had an impact in one's life and just changing the perspective in one's life can create happiness and success.

Remember, its not what you have or don't have, its how you handle it that makes a difference.

Success and failure is how you look at it. :)

SocialSpark & I

Being a 3rd world citizen, one of the biggest challenges in life is to do what you love, love what you do and make a good living out of it. Approx 90% of us residing in the 3rd world do not have this option as we must be creative in being able to balance out our lives of dream-chasing and chasing that 'buck' to sustain life.

One of my daily 'life-homework' is to constantly improve my writing for the sake of my blog, my readers and most definitely for the sake of my family. Knowing that you have a family to feed and a little girl to parent, we must constantly stay on our toes to make our value higher to accomplish the bottom line; and that is, putting food on the table. At the end of the day, it is about giving time and giving money to the ones we love. Thats all it matters.. Period.

In speaking of the ones we love, being happy is contagious as being happy and organized are keys to success and enhancing ones level to the next. My personal belief is that writing and socializing can be defined as being a big part of self help, personal development, success, and happiness.

This is what I would like to share to you all on today's post.

I'd like to share to you all my happiness of being approved to one of the hippest social blogging networks in the world of SocialSpark, as it integrates writing, socializing, advertising and creating money making opportunities for us bloggers especially those residing in third world countries.

SocialSpark does not only benefit bloggers and advertisers alone, but it also benefits those residing in country's where writing or blogging itself is considered lame and dangerous (such as mine), as it also bonds the world into equality by the interactive experience and the concept of no boundaries in which SocialSpark campaigns.

I was introduced to socialspark.com by an email that was sent from payperpost and directly took action after receiving the email.

I browsed through the website and directly said, "Wowzers.., Cool place.." You can socialize, help one another in blogging, advertise, network, write, make some cash, participating in volunteering for a win-win situation and even browse through the different sponsorship options. It is a complete integration of maximizing the bond between advertisers and publishers. SocialSpark is part of the parent company of IZEA which does not need to be questioned its credibility as it runs powerful websites such as payperpost.com.

I recommend if you're a blogger looking to earn money or an advertiser looking to promote on blogs, directly sign up to http://www.socialspark.com as I just did.

Before browsing the website you must understand SocialSparks Code of Ethics which are:

100% Audit-able In-Post Disclosure:
Each sponsored post must include a badge at the end of every post sponsored by SocialSpark.

100% Transparency:
Profiles of bloggers and advertisers who are working with each other are open to the public.

100% Real Opinions:
You are recommended to take on posts that you like with negative or positive reviews.

100% Search Engine Friendly:
Search engines will not penalize you for your sponsored post.


On a further note; to open the website, you need to have the updated version of FireFox or the updated browser of Internet Explorer.

I already envision happiness and joy because having the passion of writing as well as being able to put food on the table can all be accomplished at SocialSpark. Not only that, but socializing, networking, building contacts for the future with other bloggers & advertisers just puts the icing on the cake.

Check us out on SocialSpark

How To Live A Stress-Free Lifestyle

Do you feel harassed? A goal-oriented person is prone to stress.

Goal-oriented persons are mostly engaged in activities marked by high expectations, almost impossible deadlines, and pressure build-ups. Most self-help books advice readers to have goals. However, unrealistic goals bring about stress. Make your goals realistic; and likewise, allot a realistic time frame.

Don’t stay depressed. An effective antidote against a depressive mood is exercise. Do you have a fat belly?

You have a fast metabolism because your body easily burns and digests the food you eat.

Heavy drinking, smoking, and high caffeine consumption can take its toll to your body. Smoking promotes high level of cortisol, resulting to layers of abdominal fat. Yes, it is possible to live a stress-free lifestyle.

Re-introducing things..

As I was going through my daily routine of writing new material for this blog, I noticed something completely obvious on the internet about material on personal development.

I noticed that many of the writers on the net speak about the same issues, problems, and give solutions very much similar to others. They are just repeating words what others have said in a completely different perception and format.

I wanted to take a whole new look into what I call, the "Simple Personal Development Style", and that is todevelop yourself in every form and shape possible through as much simplicity as possible that you live life without any regrets, and bitterness. I want to clearly give the most simple and yet practical lessons that you as a reader do not have to digest so much material within your day that you eventually forget what you've read.

I also don't want you to have to think so deeply about taking action that you end up reading for pleasure and not really using what you have read to improve your actual actions.

I see that in many of these writers, it takes ages for them to get a point across that they end up losing readers easily just after receiving an sms on their cell phone (one example is me - I read a recent article that took so long to absorb that I ended up absorbing something else).

So I want to make it easy for you to grasp my material and take action right away.

I wanted to recommend all of you to also be in tuned with my other blog located at http://myquotesandwisdom.blogspot.com/, which gives you your daily dosis of quotes and wisdom.

How I suggest you take on slipping in your own time with my sites is to open my blogs first thingin the morning when you are fresh and ready to be enlighten. I suggest you open http://myquotesandwisdom.blogspot.com/, first, to catch the quote and wisdom of the day, then to read my latest post on http://mypersonaldevelopmentblog.blogspot.com

I routinely update these two blogs as I am completely passionate about the subject of developing ourselves into a greater being.

It is the hope that at your death bed, you will feel relieved that you've lived a great life and you would trade anything to do it again. That is the purpose how I want to go about taking my blog posts. To take life within our own hands and be able to ride it to the end. We don't live forever, remember.

Ok then, to make things simple.. I will break down my topics based on achieving wealth in your consciousness & awareness, your personal effectiveness, your physical, mental, financial/business, social growth,and as well as achieving peace through your spirituality.

Lets continue what we've started..

Just another real life lesson..

Heres a a real life lesson you all might consider:

"Do what you love, but make sure it is profitable."

If you do work you love, but it doesn’t generate income, your work & business will eventually fail. If you do work you hate, but it generates income, your health will eventually fail.

If you can’t do what you love and make it profitable, you’ve either got a hobby or a headache, not something sustainable.

Don’t settle for anything less than passion and profit.

Finding your passion in your work

I wanted to bring up the simple topic of finding your true passion within your line of work or job.

There is only one question to find out if you are truly passionate about your work. The question would be... "If you did not receive any money from your current line of work or job, would you still keep going?" Would you continue to do your line of work?

Is it for the money, experience or the love?

Respect Yourself !

Why is it that many of us seek respect from others when the most respect we need is to just respect ourselves.

We as humans always need to feel important in one way or another as one of the ways we satisfy the feeling of importance is to seek it by working hard for others to respect us. We'll never receive respect if we're chasing to be respected. Just do what you do and love it ,as respect will come on its own. You will frequently feel misarable once you work so hard to earn respect from others, as others do not respect you in how you want them to. I feel it is just a matter of perception where you have all control of earning respect from others.

Just follow your heart, love what you're doing, have confidence in yourself, edit the negative stimulus that puts you down and walaaaa....
you're on your road of respecting yourself as automatically people will respect you in what you do and what you stand for.

The fastest way to success..

Have you ever wondered how do some people climb faster to success than others. I've heard the saying from Robert Kiyosaki as he states that the 5 people around you are going to determine what you will become of yourself.

If the 5 closest people don't push themselves and are already satisfied where they are, then how do you plan on excelling yourself into greater heights.

His point is, "The fastest way to success is to have a sparring partner that will get you there."

So find your sparring partner right now!!