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Why Suppliers Should Use B2B Exchanges
By Nowshade Kabir Business to business e-commerce is on the rise! Worldwide B2B e-commerce revenues are estimated to reach around US$ 2 trillion in 2004. This is a significant leap from last year’s US$ 1.4 trillion. However, according to a recent survey, although, more than 70% of companies have already used Internet as a purchasing channel, a mere ten percent of their overall spending is directed via the Internet! Contrary to popular believe, this means, B2B e-commerce has still large potential to grow. Internet has the capacity of changing the conventional way of doing business. Today, you can not only buy and sell your products and services on the Internet, you can, virtually, shift all your business processes to online solutions as well. If you take advantages of new Internet based technologies, the outcome would be tremendously beneficial to your business. How to do this without spending a fortune and not putting a huge pressure on scarce corporate resources? The possible answer could be B2B exchanges! [Read More!]
Posted on 12/22/04 at 10:48:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Marketing Lessons from Santa
Marketing Lessons from Santaby Catherine FranzIf a nonexistent man can change the world and millions of people with a message of joy then his marketing plan surely works. Right? Then what has Santa been doing right all these years that we can learn from? Santa’s message is short--joy. His target market-- children and the young at heart. When you think of name Santa, you automatically associate it with giving, kindness, thoughtfulness, joy, magic, and usually a lighter heart. Yet, his campaign began long ago in another country with a different brand. There have been songs about him, plays, movies, and more TV shows than any other brand. Let’s examine how Santa markets. Afterwards, let take a few minutes and see how it compares to you. It is natural to feel intimidated being compared to Santa, everyone feels that way at first. First, kick the intimidation in the "ass"ets. You can't compete and you don't want to. [Read More!]
Posted on 12/21/04 at 14:25:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Improve Web Sales Figures Forever And Ever Amen!
Improve Web Sales Figures Forever And Ever Amen!
By Steve Jackson “How do I improve web site sales figures?” The CEO roared at the web developer. The web developer looked at his boss a little confused and mumbled something about it not being his core competence with him being a programmer and all. So next the CEO went to his marketing department and bellowed “How do I improve our web site sales conversion rates?” A few mouths opened as if to speak but nothing came out until finally exasperated the CEO tearing at his hair in frustration turned to a guy painting the wall and said, “Can you answer this question? How do I increase my web site sales figures?” The painter smiled knowingly, winked, dipped his brush into his paint tin, before evenly applying more paint to the wall in calm considered strokes. Then without looking away from his work he continued, “When you asked me to paint this wall, you knew why you wanted it painted. Yes, I told you what it was going to cost you and I told you why it was going to cost you what it’s costing you. But you knew what the problem was, you knew you had a crack appearing in the paint. What I would do is calm down, take a few deep breaths and ask yourself the same questions. First you need to know exactly what it is that isn’t working, find the cracks in your wall.” [Read More!]
Posted on 12/21/04 at 10:15:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Daily Changing Content - Hands Free
Daily Changing Content - Hands Freeby Pamela HeywoodThe benefits of providing your site visitors with something new & different on a regular basis should be obvious. If folk come to expect frequently fresh content from you, then they are much more likely to keep calling back. As also keeps being proven time and again through the use of newsletters, blogs, rss feeds and other regularly updating information, the same can be said for search engine robots. They, likewise, will keep returning and re-indexing your site if they find that your content is kept fresh and new. But, even with a blog it is difficult for a "staff of one" to be on hand, 365 days a year to update content when you have other tasks to perform. You might like to take weekends off, holidays, vacations, sickness, or take time to sleep. [Read More!]
Posted on 12/20/04 at 16:24:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Give Your Website A Chance
Give Your Website A Chance
by Elizabeth McGee I often wonder how serious people are when it comes to their websites. I thought that most everyone knew that the phrase "Build it and they will come" no longer applies on the internet but I'm not sure how many people really believe it. I look at sites everyday as part of my sales strategy and I can't tell you how many of them violate the obvious elements of good website design and submission. What even amazes me more is that they can't figure out why they don't get sales or visitors. Do yourself a favor and attempt to apply the following tactics to your site. They won't cost you a thing except a little time and effort to apply them. ** About Page ** [Read More!]
Posted on 12/20/04 at 10:34:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Weekly Interview Featuring Suzette Flemming
Hello Online Marketers! This week's featured guest here on Kick The Email Habit is Suzette Flemming and her business Financial Business Solutions. This is the perfect time of year to be reading about Suzette's business because tax season is right after our holiday season - ugh!
Suzette has some great suggestions and can be of help to anyone wanting needing help in this area. KB: Suzette Flemming, thank you for
taking the time to participate in this interview for our readers. To set the stage for this interview, would you please tell us a bit about
yourself? SF: I have been assisting service corporations, e-commerce
start-ups and non-profits in untangling their finances and providing clear
financial direction since 1994. My passion is helping businesses thrive
and prosper as well as educating business owners about how to best manage their
finances. I keep all of my clients informed about the latest tax laws,
financial strategies and new technology to ensure my clients benefit from the
latest developments in accounting, tax laws and finance. KB: What a great business Suzette,
especially since most of us don’t know all we could or maybe even should about
these very things. Okay, give us your elevator speech, or
30-second spiel, about what you do, about your business: SF: Every successful business owner
knows personal and financial success means dedication, hard work and long hours.
It also means knowing when you need to find help to attend to the hundreds of
details that it takes to run your business on a daily basis. In addition, at FBS, we make it our
business to learn everything we can about your business, so that we can manage
your finances and provide you with financial advice and direction about best
practices, tax benefits and big picture analysis with your specific business
goals in mind. Whether you have a staff of one or 1,000, Flemming Business
Services provides the financial framework to guide your business to the next
level. KB: That is worth its weight in gold Suzette! How long have you been in business for yourself? [Read More!]
Posted on 12/19/04 at 21:10:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Featured Weekly Interview - 0 comments - [Link to this item] 7 Ways to Stop "Selling" & Start Building Relationships
7 Ways to Stop "Selling" & Start Building Relationshipsby Ari GalperSometimes we can all use a friendly reminder to keep us from backsliding into old ways of thinking about selling that lead us down the wrong path with potential clients. I was inspired to write this article after a few coaching sessions with a client named Michael, who sells a technology solution. Michael had been struggling with a mental block about how to detach from the traditional sales thinking he had learned from old-school sales "gurus". You know who they are. You may even have some of their books or tapes. And you know their sales messages too: "Always be closing," "Think positive, and you'll overcome all your cold calling fears," "All you need to boost your sales is a few new sales techniques." [Read More!]
Posted on 12/19/04 at 16:20:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Aim At The Bullseye And Your Online Home Business Will Prosper
Aim At The Bullseye And Your Online Home Business Will Prosperby Kirk BannermanTraffic is one thing, but targeted traffic is everything. You have no doubt seen dozens of offers similar to "10,000 hits per hour driven to your website!". This type of website traffic is completely untargeted and will undoubtedly result in a very low conversion ratio. It's basically "throw it up against the wall and hope something sticks". The big incoming numbers give the illusion of progress, but you will achieve better results with a lower volume of highly targeted traffic. I speak from experience because in the early days of developing my home business, I went for the big numbers instead of focusing on targeting prospects. It took me a while to appreciate the importance of targeting (quality) instead of just going for the big numbers, but it was a lesson well learned. [Read More!]
Posted on 12/19/04 at 10:24:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Screen Scraping Your Way Into RSS
Screen Scraping Your Way Into RSSby Dennis PallettScreen scraping your way into RSS Introduction RSS is one the hottest technologies at the moment, and even big web publishers (such as the New York Times) are getting into RSS as well. However, there are still a lot of websites that do not have RSS feeds. If you still want to be able to check those websites in your favourite aggregator, you need to create your own RSS feed for those websites. This can be done automatically with PHP, using a method called screen scrapping. Screen scrapping is usually frowned upon, as it's mostly used to steal content from other websites. I personally believe that in this case, to automatically generate a RSS feed, screen scrapping is not a bad thing. Now, on to the code! [Read More!]
Posted on 12/18/04 at 16:11:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Climbing Mount Profit (Starting From The Top)
Climbing Mount Profit (Starting From The Top)
by John Reese I have been an entrepreneur for most of my life. I started my journey as an entrepreneur at age 11. Ironically, it was running a BBS (bulletin board system) with a computer, a 300 baud modem, and a phone line in 1981. (BBSs essentially became the Internet that we know today.) It would take me nearly 15 long years of being an entrepreneur before I would really make much money. And by that I mean more than $6,500 in a single YEAR which didn't happen until almost 15 years later. I have made every mistake in the book and invented several new ones when it comes to being an entrepreneur. I was in nearly $100,000 of debt by age 22 -- mainly from trying every business possible. I practically ruined my health by age 25 and it almost killed me. [Read More!]
Posted on 12/18/04 at 10:37:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Most Linked By Bloggers: Jon Stewart
Most Linked By Bloggers: Jon Stewart
--Ross Fadner © 2004 MediaPost Communications. All rights reserved. 16 W. 19th Street, 9th floor New York, NY 10011 phone: 212-204-2000 fax: 212-204-2038 feedback@mediapost.com
Posted on 12/17/04 at 17:24:21 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: News And Headlines - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Buzz-Informed Predictions for 2005
Buzz-Informed Predictions for 2005
BY Pete Blackshaw When not writing this column, I'm usually analyzing and interpreting lots and lots of buzz; buzz on forums, buzz on blogs, buzz around the water cooler. Marketers actually pay for this analysis because it shines a light on how consumers think and feel. That, in turn, informs better assumptions about what's coming. This always comes in handy when spending money, planning a marketing campaign, or dodging an attack. This year brought a great deal of attention and visibility to the practice of monitoring buzz and word of mouth. We saw the explosion of blogs, establishment of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), and a New York Times Magazine cover story on buzz marketing. There were spirited and continual debates over word-of-mouth ethics and a slew of research reports on this topic, including a recent Pew study noting nearly a third of all Internet consumers contribute online opinions, reviews, or ratings. So with buzz as a backdrop, I couldn't resist the temptation to wrap
up the year with a few predictions for 2005 about marketing and
advertising, informed by both consumer and industry buzz. If I'm wrong,
forgive me. If I'm right, please don't shoot the messenger. To read this news item in its entirety CLICK HERE
Posted on 12/17/04 at 16:24:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: News And Headlines - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Great! So Now Your Web Site *Sounds* Like Crap
Great! So Now Your Web Site *Sounds* Like Crap
by John Reese Unless you've been living under a rock, you've noticed that Armand Morin's AudioGenerator service is taking the industry by storm. It's not just because it allows you to add audio to your web pages. Heck, there are some much cheaper ways to do that. It's because he's made it brain-dead-simple to do it. You call a phone number, record your message, and get code you paste to your site. Whamo! You've got audio on your site. For people that don't want to mess with all the techie stuff involved with adding audio to web pages, his service has made it really simple... http://www.marketingsecrets.com/audio.html BUT THERE'S A MAJOR PROBLEM NOW... [Read More!]
Posted on 12/17/04 at 10:23:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] If an RSS feed is the Yahoo Backdoor, is a Blog Google's?
If an RSS feed is the Yahoo Backdoor, is a Blog Google's?
By Tinu Abayomi-Paul Though the answer is in a book I wrote this July, the question is still asked of me repeatedly. Why does it work for some sites and not others? And how come some blogs get indexed in a day and then are dropped, and others stay in Google indefinitely? Well, let’s take one question at a time. The answer to whether you can blog your way into Google search results is yes, sometimes in six weeks, often in 24 hours. Yes, you read right, in less than 24 hours. Under certain conditions, the search engines actually want you to succeed at this. I’m aware that these statements may cause some controversy, but that won’t make them any less factual. Since September, Google has been set up to show you proof of this, which we’ll go over in part two. My new blog has been spidered and indexed daily since it was created. [Read More!]
Posted on 12/16/04 at 11:10:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Planning and Evaluating Marketing Programs
Planning and Evaluating Marketing Programs
by Bobbette Kyle Measuring and understanding your Website's success is a critical process that is sometimes overlooked. Many times, marketing efforts stop at getting traffic to the site. The next step is to evaluate results. By "connecting the dots" between your marketing programs and end results, you can improve performance. Ultimately, site success depends on how well your site performs with respect to your goals. Measuring actual results against those goals tells you how well your site is succeeding. Improving results means not only measuring the results themselves but also measuring, understanding, and adjusting the events that lead to those results. Further, having a marketing plan that identifies general strategies and specific programs for meeting your site goals will give you a higher baseline performance to work with when improving upon your site's success. Have a Plan[Read More!]
Posted on 12/16/04 at 10:15:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Marketing with Blogs and RSS Feeds
Marketing with Blogs and RSS Feeds
By Hong Brandon Perhaps you still don't realize or fully understand the power of RSS Feeds as a marketing tool. After all, email works fine, doesn't it? Unfortunately, the truth is: 1. It's getting harder to send e-mails to the prospect's inbox because of SPAM filters 2. People are getting numbed by the amount of e-mails they receive everyday 3. People are not reading their e-mails 4. It's getting harder to get people to opt-in or subscribe to your newsletter or content. With RSS feeds, this changes the playing field: [Read More!]
Posted on 12/15/04 at 11:16:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Tips on How to Earn Money with a Home Business
Tips on How to Earn Money with a Home Businessby Jim NoelEveryone wants tips on how to earn money with a home based business. It never seems to amaze me that a lot of people with a work at home business are not earning some money. When I got to question a few of these people about why they are not earning any money, I found out why! People, you have to do something to earn something! Just because you have joined a MLM or affiliate program, don’t think just by sitting back you will earn some money. NOT TRUE!!! So I have tried to make it easy on these people by coming up with the necessary things you need to do to earn money from home. [Read More!]
Posted on 12/15/04 at 10:00:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Monthly IVWCC Women's eBusiness Roundtable
Monthly IVWCC Women's
eBusiness Roundtable The International Virtual Women's Chamber of Commerce will hold a 24 hour Women's eBusiness Roundtable on Thursday, December 16. Getting your business ready for 2005 will be the overall theme of our December roundable. We will discuss how to perk up your business plan; prep your books for the upcoming tax season; what business tactics worked and didn't work for you in 2004; networking strategies to reach the women in business market; and much much more. A one hour live discussion will be held in IVWCC's VOIP conference at 8:30 p.m. eastern. Guests will be able to ask questions and network. Mics are not required. The roundtable will be conducted on a private ListServ. Guests are given a complimentary pass to attend one roundtable. After that, the fee is $10 to participate in future roundtables unless they join the IVWCC. Subscribe to our private Women's eBusiness Roundtable ListServ by visiting lists.ivwcc.org/listinfo.cgi/womensroundtable-ivwcc.org. Your subscription request will have to be approved before you can participate. Jerrilynn B. Thomas Tell Jerrilynn you found out about this event on Kick The Email Habit RSS Channel with Cathy Carlton and Kim Bloomer - thank you!
Posted on 12/14/04 at 22:28:39 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Announcements - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Phil Leigh of Inside Digital Media Spotlights Encouraging Enterprises, Inc., a New Source for Free Audio
Phil Leigh of Inside Digital Media Spotlights Encouraging Enterprises, Inc., a New Source for Free AudioPhil Leigh, of Inside Digital Media, interviews Penny Haynes, CEO of Encouraging Entertainment, Inc., about her multi-media publishing house for the everyday man. (PRWEB) December 5, 2004 -- Phil Leigh, the expert on digital media, spotlighted a new multi-media company, Encouraging Enterprises, Inc., this week.According to Phil, "Penny's company provides a number of Digital Media functions for consumers. For example, she has a website for downloadable audio books, some of which are free. Another website provides audio-downloadable magazines which she calls audiozines. Encouraging Enterprises also provides online tutorials to teach people how to create their own audio books and other multimedia content. She focuses on making all of this available at low cost." [Read More!]
Posted on 12/14/04 at 11:10:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: News And Headlines - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Top 10 Tips for Developing A Newsworthy PR Pitch
Top 10 Tips for Developing A Newsworthy PR Pitchby Barbara K. Mednick“Public sentiment is everything. With it nothing can fail. Without it nothing can succeed.” — Abraham Lincoln These days, the media plays a much larger role in our lives than it did in Abraham Lincoln’s time. The need to gain public sentiment, however, has not changed, causing public relations to be more important today than ever. Continued growth of the Internet also has increased the influence of public relations. LOW COST, HIGH CREDIBILITY It used to be that advertising was king, but not anymore. The rise of branding has shifted the priority of the elements that constitute an integrated branding campaign, which also now includes websites, public relations, marketing and other strategies, according to an article in IABC’s September 2004 CW Bulletin. [Read More!]
Posted on 12/14/04 at 10:45:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Livewire: News and Info Junkies Take New Look at RSS
Livewire: News and Info Junkies Take New Look at RSS
By Lisa Baertlein SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - News and information junkies are taking a new look at RSS, a technology that helps them feed their habit without getting overwhelmed in the clutter of the information age. News organizations and Web log commentators constantly update hot stories, and RSS technology can help people stay abreast of the latest developments. But RSS is about more than the latest news. Some online shoppers use it to keep an eye out for rare items that come up for bid on eBay. Users say the simple utility of RSS is its greatest strength.
Popular demand, together with higher-capacity networks and a crop of
RSS-related readers that make it easier to keep track of massive
amounts of incoming information, have lately caught the eye of venture
capitalists. To read this news article in its entirety
Posted on 12/13/04 at 20:17:26 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: News And Headlines - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Worn Out Brochure Design Is Keeping Small Business Owners Down
Worn Out Brochure Design Is Keeping Small Business Owners Downby John JantschI got another one of those calls the other day...Can you make me a brochure?" Many business owners have been sold on the notion that they need a tri-fold brochure or they are not in business. Forget it...everybody's got one and no one uses it. Your potential clients need an education. They need to know how you are different. (The typical tri-fold brochure simply confirms that you are the same.) Every small business should create the following pieces of information and format them in a way that allows them be printed inexpensively and updated often. I like to call this approach, the Marketing Kit. Your marketing kit starts with several professionally printed pieces that are the framework for up to 10 or 12 different educational documents. The core components are: 1. A pocket folder - A multi-use workhorse, this piece alone, if designed well, can send the message that you are in business to stay. (This one will cost a little but it has many uses) [Read More!]
Posted on 12/13/04 at 10:43:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Weekly Interview Featuring Linda Miller
Hello Online Marketers! This week's featured guest is Linda Miller. Linda is a Life Coach. She is straight forward and to the point. I think you'll enjoy her interview.
KB:
Linda Miller, thank you for taking the time to participate in this
interview for our readers. To set the stage for this interview, would you
please tell us a bit about yourself? LM: I’m from NC, now living in MI with my husband, whom I met on the Internet 7 years ago and married 6 months later. We consider it a miracle that we met and we continue to grow together in our spiritual awareness and desire to help others.
LM: I am a Spiritual Entrepreneur and an Internet Marketer. My passion is providing tools and resources to help others learn more about spiritual principles that can empower them to manifest prosperity and abundance in their lives. KB: What an interesting business Linda. How long have you been in business for yourself? [Read More!]
Posted on 12/12/04 at 20:39:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Featured Weekly Interview - 0 comments - [Link to this item] How to Write A Blog... And Survive
How to Write A Blog... And Survive
by Priya Shah Copyright © 2004 Priya Shah The question of the day is "Should you start a Blog?" People all over the planet are blogging. Companies, CEOs, lawyers, journalists, stewardesses. Even dogs and babies. Why? Because they can. It's that simple. Blogging requires little or no learning curve. If you can type, speak into a phone, bark, chew, record a holiday movie, you can blog. Blogs have taken publishing out of the domain of those who know HTML and designing, to make this powerful tool available to the rest of us. [Read More!]
Posted on 12/12/04 at 10:24:00 by Kick the Email Habit
Category: Articles - 0 comments - [Link to this item] Shopping Cart Abandonment – Discover 5 Things you can do to Lower Cart Abandonment
Shopping Cart Abandonment – Discover 5 Things you can do to Lower Cart Abandonment By Joe Duchesne A common frustration among merchants who sell online via a shopping cart is the percentage of people who abandon their cart and leave the site never to return. This is known as the shopping cart abandonment rate. It is not unheard of for companies to experience as high as a 99% abandonment rate. Getting the abandonment rate under control can go a long way towards increasing the income your company earns from their online venture. 1. Don't make them register until they have to A common complaint amoung web shoppers is the irritation and invasion of privacy they feel when they have to register for a new account before they can even use the shopping cart. If people have to share their personal information with you before they even know if they want to buy from you, they'll often click away never to return. Whenever possible, get them to register after they know how much something will cost them including shipping. This will help them to feel |