I remember the first time I noticed outsourcing. It was when Kodak decided to outsource all of their computer functions including the hardware, software and people running the operations. Kodak decided it would be cheaper to outsource all of their computer technology and operations to IBM.

Their reasoning was that if they could focus on cameras and film, they wouldn’t have to spend time acquiring and managing computer technology.

Many years later I had a chance to talk to the IBM person who sold that to Kodak, and a few years after that I talked to the Kodak attorney who put the deal together from the legal standpoint.

IBM essentially bought all of Kodak’s hardware from them and hired their staff, then began to perform all of the data processing Kodak needed.

This idea caught on and led to a lot of outsourcing among large corporations.

Does it make sense for a small company or an individual to outsource?

Maybe. If you do it right, then absolutely. If you do it poorly, then shame on you, you got what you deserved.

What areas of your online business can be outsourced?

Nearly every area. In fact, you may be outsourcing parts of your online business already, without even realizing it! For example:

Hosting
Most people wouldn’t consider buying their own T1, hosting system, routers, Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) or backup generator. The reason is the cost is prohibitive. It is much better to outsource that to professional hosting companies who already have everything that is needed, and will allow you to use it for a very small fee per month. Most people outsource their hosting, and many of them have never thought of it as outsourcing.

Autoresponders
While you can buy great autoresponder software and do that yourself, you would be foolish to do so. If it were just running software on a server, then fine. But the key to making an autoresponder work is deliverability. If you are running on your own hardware and you are accused of spam, it could kill your delivery. You would then have to identify all of the ISPs that banned you, and call each one to allow your emails again. Do you have the time and patience for this? Outsource it by using one of the professional autoresponder companies. Even our own NitroShoppingCart.com has autoresponder capabilities, and your delivery is high.

Pay Per Click
It is fairly straight forward to create and manage a pay per click (PPC) campaign. But the problem is it takes time and you have to stay on top of it because things change, new keywords come along, and old keywords quit being economical. Find someone to do this for you so you can focus on the high level marketing of your products.

Writing
Any kind of content writing – such as blog entries, articles, press releases, sales copy, web pages etc. can be done by someone who understands how to write effectively.

The question is, do you have the time, patience and inclination to study and improve your writing skills? Many of you are quite skilled at writing, and doing it yourself is perfectly fine. But most people are not, and it stops them from making progress in their online business.

Luckily, there are lots of talented writers eager to write for you. Just give them a little direction (and some money of course), and your content will be done before you know it.

Many Other Areas
Believe it or not, you can actually outsource everything needed to create a successful online business. This includes product creation, website creation, traffic generation, website optimization, technical issues, customer support and more. Take a look at what is slowing you down, or causing you to say “just as soon as I ____, I'll launch my site.” What is it that isn't getting done, or you are so bored doing yourself you keep postponing it?

Justification
There are many ways to justify spending money on outsourcing parts of your business. Most people first start by saying they can’t afford it. How do you know that? Have you ever really analyzed it? Or did you just blurt that out without really thinking about it, because you feel like you don't have any extra cash?

Most people I hear saying they can’t afford it always seem to be struggling with their business, whether it is online or offline. The reason is they don’t understand the value of their time. When you are a sole practitioner, or even if you have a few folks working for you, each one is wearing many hats. Each hat performs different tasks. Some tasks are worth $10 / hour, some $5/hour, some $100/hour or more. We frequently end up spending our whole day performing the low dollar value tasks, and postponing the high value tasks. There are lots of reasons I’ve heard or have used myself.

“Oh it will just a take a few minutes to knock out these little tasks first.”

“Someone has to do it, might as well be me.”

“I can do it on my off hours”

…yet it still consumes your high value time and is distracting.

One of my wealthy friends says he is wealthy because he focuses on $10,000 / hour valued tasks. Using this kind of thinking, he has created three different businesses that have grown to over $100 million in revenue, and is in the process of doing it again. In fact, he just raised $100 million in debt / capital to acquire nearly $1 billion in oil reserves…by doing $10,000 / hour or more tasks and outsourcing or delegating the rest.

Hindrances
It is easy to say you need to do it, because others won't do as good a job. This can be true, but who cares? It is a bottle neck to your growth…get over the perfectionism. I’m not suggesting turning out poor quality, but perfectionism is usually way beyond good or even great quality. Not only that, but in many cases you will find that others actually do a better job than you ever could. (because they are trained and skilled in that area)

Here's another excuse:

“I don’t have the time to find and train someone.”

Hmmm…maybe you don’t have the time NOT to hire and train someone. Think about it. If you give it a bit of extra effort for a short time, it can permanently remove the hours you currently spend doing that task. It is a small, short term sacrifice with great long term results.

“They always seem to get it wrong…”

This could be from poor instructions. People are eager to please, but they aren’t mind readers, so give them some clarity in your directions and expectations.

“Where do I find someone to outsource to?”

Here are a number of resources to use:

• Advertise on craigslist.com
• Post a request for help on guru.com, elance.com, scriptlance.com, and many other sites like them.
  Do a search in the search engines for the task you want outsourced, and find companies that do it.
• Search for the task you want outsourced and look for companies that do so
• Check with workaholicsforhire.com, they offer a wide variety of services. We plan to offer outsourced services soon.
• Also, the Nitro Blueprint System includes an Outsource Directory, which lists qualified companies and individuals you can outsource every part of your online business to.

You now have no excuse…outsource and begin to grow and expand like you have never experienced so far.

- Dan

home based business, internet marketing, outsourcing

In order to make money with your internet business, you first need to fill in your boxes.

Here's how to start an internet business in a nutshell:

1 - Research and choose a market
2 - Plan your business strategy and create your offers
3 - Create a front-end product
4 - Write a sales letter
5 - Create a website and sales system
6 - Launch your website and set up split testing
7 - Get traffic
8 - Market to your email list
9 - Get more traffic
10 - Create more products

If you've done all that, and you're still making little to no money online, then ask yourself these questions:

How much traffic are you getting?

If you have only gotten a few hundred or so visitors to your website, then your focus should be on getting more traffic - rather than on improving your sales message. If you're getting a decent amount of traffic, but still no sales, answer this:

Where is the traffic coming from?

If more than 500 people have visited your site and you haven't yet made a sale, it might be your sales copy. Or, it may be because you aren't getting targeted traffic. Targeted traffic means visitors who are looking for the solution you provide, which makes them very likely to buy what you are offering.

If you are getting targeted traffic, but no sales, then you know it's your sales copy that needs improving. So the next question is -

Do you have a powerful, compelling headline?

Your headline is the first thing visitors see when they hit your website, and will either convince them your site is worth reading, or will cause them to lose interest and leave. Improving your headline usually makes the biggest difference in how well your sales copy converts. In fact, many of the world's top copywriters say to spend 50% of the time you write your sales message on the headline alone.

Are you selling just one product on one page, or multiple products on the same page?

Unless you have an e-commerce store or something similar, you need to focus on selling just one product in your sales copy. Don't distract visitors from your sales message with other products and offers.

Is your price too low or too high?

Changing your price can make a dramatic different in your sales conversion. You may find that your conversion rate actually increases with a higher price! Even if the lowest price point wins, depending on the increase, you may actually make more money than if it was priced higher.

By following the 10 steps described at the beginning of this article, you will have an internet business with the potential to be very successful.

But how WELL you do those 10 steps will determine just how successful your internet business is. Think about it.

If you can't write good sales copy - you'll have a very hard time achieving online success. How do you expect to sell anything if you can't convince people to buy?

If you don't know how to properly research a market and determine what kind of information product to create, there's a good chance you'll end up creating a product no one wants. In fact, you may create several products no one wants, before finally stumbling on one that will sell. I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to succeed the first time around.

If you don't know how to get a decent amount of targeted traffic - then you can't possibly achieve success online, because the amount of money you make is limited by how many people you can reach.

It's really quite obvious when you think about it. Starting an internet business is one thing, making it successful is a whole different game.

With the Nitro Blueprint System, you'll have in-depth training and instructions for each of the 10 steps - as well as videos demonstrating to you exactly how to complete certain tasks, access to the members forum where Kevin, Matt, Dan and I answer your questions when you get stuck, and more. Get more information at http://www.nitroblueprint.com

~ Liz

home based business, internet marketing, start a home based internet business

It's been exciting to see the progress new Blueprint Members have been making since we released the course in December.

Here is an example from somebody who previously had bought a number of programs but up to now had not seen any results online.

(From "turbomike") I have been working the Nitro Blueprint System for 3 weeks. I have created a blog, gotten three articles published at ezine and articledashboard, and blog every single day. I have about 75% of an ebook written, and have learned tons! And I'm getting about 40 to 50 hits a day on my blog. Take care and I am very grateful I found you guys!!!!

There was one concept that we give you at the very beginning of the Nitro Blueprint System which has been very appreciated by members - the Starter Site.

One observation I have made with myself and the 1000's of people we have worked with over the years to have their own successful online business is that first step can be the toughest.

Picking the "perfect" business idea.

They sweat, pace, agonize and stress over the decision for days, then weeks, then months and it paralyzes them before even getting started and never do get started.

Like the baseball player - they feel like they have to hit a homerun their first time they step up to the plate. (Partly because that's what "guru's" sell us as the "truth" so we believe that's they way it should be.)

However the reality is, some times your first swing at the plate will be a strike out. Or a single, maybe a double. And every once awhile a homerun.

For myself, my first 3 sites online were complete failures. If you saw them now, you wouldn't be able to stop laughing and would NEVER have guessed I went on to become a huge online success.

But I did, despite having 3 strikeouts getting started.

Now I'm not saying you should expect to fail at your first attempts. If you are following a proven online success system like the Nitro Blueprint System, then your chance of success is increased, significantly.

However, if you have never swung the bat yet, then do yourself a BIG favor and don't put all the pressure on your first performance.

Instead, view it as a "Starter Site." Use it to go through the 10 steps of the Nitro Blueprint System and gain the experience of how to do it.

And sometimes that starter site will prove to also be your long-term successful business. Woo-Hoo!

But if it isn't, you still succeeded because you now know HOW to do it, made some money along the way, and while gaining that experience your eyes were opened to 100's of new ideas and opportunities. And now your second time can be that homerun. That second site will be significantly easier, faster, less hassle and much more successful.

Lesson for this post…

If you are having trouble getting started online, then tweak your perspective slightly and think of your first site as a "Starter Site".

~Kevin

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I recently ran across a great article on “4 Ways To Provide Customer Service That Outshines Your Competitors”. In this article Susan Ward outlines the 4 defining ways to put yourself and your company at the head of the game.

1) Determine what makes what you offer special.

2) Study the customer service ideas on your list and examine their feasibility.

3) Choose one or two of your shiny customer service ideas and implement them.

4) Stay proactive and keep gathering customer service ideas.

Susan delves into much deeper detail on each of the 4 areas in the full article. (link listed below)

http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/marketing/a/shinycustserv.htm

My favorite line from her article is: “Customers are tired of dealing with retailers that ignore customer service or only pretend to have it, and as always, they’re voting with their dollars. Shiny customer Service will draw customers to your product or service, rather than competitors', and bring them back in droves.”

After reading this article, take a good hard look at your operation and try to be objective. Make sure your customers are voting for you.

- Meredith

customer service skills, customer service tips, good customer service, how to give great customer service, keys to good customer service

Have you ever created an absolutely fantastic product, only to see it flop when you introduce it?

Every time you are thinking of a new product, evaluate your idea versus this checklist before you spend time and money on what might be a dog.

1 - Having a “writer” rather than a “user” focus. Let’s face it – it’s just plain more fun to write about what’s interesting to you than what’s interesting to others. Unless you’re planning to buy thousands of copies of your book yourself, however, you should keep your focus on what your users need when designing your product, your sales copy, and your traffic.

2 - Not researching the competition. Some markets have too much competition. No matter how good your product is, if you’ve chosen an oversaturated market, or one with extremely strong competition, the only way you are going to succeed is if you have the marketing knowledge to beat your way to the top.

Similarly, if you find a large market with no competition, chances are there’s a reason. The likelihood that nobody has tested that market is very low, and it may be a market that is nearly impossible to monetize. There’s a reason that Google currently has no advertisers for “Hinduism” despite the large search volume.

3 - Not researching the internet market. There are a number of great tools on the Internet for researching keyword volume and user interest in a topic. The internet works best for certain types of information, and it doesn’t always correlate to offline interest.

4 - Going too broad. Just because a market is huge, don’t assume that it’s going to be hugely profitable. In almost all cases, you can achieve better conversions and attain a higher price point by designing something specifically for a subpart of the market (market niche) rather than for the broad market. It’s easier to start with a niche and move the product to a broader market than to start with the broad market and move the product to a niche.

5 - Choosing a topic that requires constant updating. If you’re seeking to build a business, it’s unlikely that your best bet will be to focus it on a review of the Tax Reform Act of 1997. While it may be a hit for a little while, it’s unlikely to have a lot of searches by the time 2008 rolls around.

There is one important exception to this rule, which is when the topic is evergreen but the information that a user needs changes, like in search engine marketing. This is the perfect situation for a continuity program, where your users will pay you every month for current information. The product creation process is ongoing, but the revenues can justify the ongoing product creation needs.

6 - Not knowing what is and is not working. If you’re not tracking what advertising is working, what keywords are drawing the most profitable buyers, and what changes and tweaks to your page are increasing conversions, you’re probably wasting half or more of your marketing. Start off slowly by simply collecting data, and then grow your testing as the product justifies the time and expense.

7 - Choosing too low of a price point. When you create a truly outstanding product, charge an appropriate price for it. Most of us face a reluctance to price our products at a range that feels “too high” to us, but most of the people I know who have tested higher price points have raised their revenues dramatically. Raise your price!

8 - The best product in the world won’t do anyone any good if nobody ever sees it. At the end of the day, it’s not about the product, it’s about the marketing. If you chose a remote spot in the Nevada desert and opened the best sushi restaurant in the world, but did nothing to tell people about your restaurant, would you expect to be flooded with customers?

When you create something of value to people, you owe it to the world to do everything possible to tell people about it. The more traffic you can profitably generate, the better off everyone will be.

9 - Failing to get buyers to use your product. This concept is called consumption, and it’s all about encouraging people to use your product. They’ve spent money on it, but if you don’t help them use it, many of them will never take that next step.

The wonderful side benefit of encouraging consumption of your product is that it will create more loyal buyers. When you help them find the value of your product, they will be far more likely to tell others about it and to buy other things from you in the future.

10 - Not finding out what was good and what wasn’t in your product and sales process. Surveying your customers, whether through a web-based survey or simply spending some time on the phone, will quickly highlight the strengths and weaknesses in your product and your sales process. This is perhaps the easiest way to generate new ideas for improving your product or for new products.

Print out this list. Post it on the wall and use it every time you’re considering a new product launch until it’s a part of who you are. You will make more money and fail less often.

~ Mike

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Recently my husband began working with a company that required multiple International calls per week. We have service unlimited National calls through Verizon, but had a very limited International plan…which we realized after our first bill….OUCH!

I phoned Verizon, the wait time was minimal. “Brian” was very polite; he verified my information and asked why I was calling. Once I explained the situation, he immediately pulled up all the plans available. After doing an analysis of which counties were called the most and how often, he tailored a plan that would meet all of our needs, without paying for additional services we did not need.

He then asked if I minded if he reviewed my account for any additional savings he could offer. Turns out, we qualified for an even better plan than we were on before as we had been paying for options we never used. He then asked if we had Direct TV, when I said we did, he told me I could save 16.00 a month by using a combined service they offered.

He also noticed that 2 years previously I had requested to be notified when FIOS was available in our area…well guess what, they have begun installing the wiring in my area and it will be complete by the end of the year. He put me on a list to be notified as soon as it was available and with another bundle I will save an additional $20 to $30 per month verses the cable I currently use.

Wow, so Brian was knowledgeable about his products, helpful and efficient. In the 10 minutes we were on the call, he saved us between $50 to $60 per month once the FIOS kicks in. That is the kind of service that will keep clients coming back for more.

The key is to hire people like Brian, or if you are handling your support yourself, be sure that you are not burnt out and can offer your clients the attention that they want.

I will definitely be keeping Verizon around for a while, make sure your clients want to keep you too. :o)

-Meredith

customer loyalty, customer service tips

One of my favorite marketing tactics is "Holiday" or seasonal marketing.

Most people think "Holiday" marketing means getting ready for the big
Christmas push…and most of the time it does.  But savvy marketers like
yourself can easily increase their annual holiday profits by simply adding a few
extra dates to your holiday marketing calendar.

For example…most people don't realize it, but recent studies have shown
that the almost 40% of the Q4 online sales actually come after December 25th.

And, in fact, December 31st ranks as the 4th busiest online shopping day of
the year…that just goes to show that many common beliefs about online holiday
shopping are just plain wrong.

So here are 3 things you can do now (on February 1st) to maximize your
profits from the Holiday Marketing Cash Cow.

#1 - Get into the proper "Seasonal Mind-Set"

Many guru's recommend niche marketing.  I'm not going to dispute that. 
Finding and marketing to a highly-targeted group of people is a great way to
build a business.

But another way to produce a steady stream of income is to identify several
micro-niches that are only popular during a few months of the year.  So,
instead of finding just one topic that you work on day-after-day-after-day…instead
find series of 5 or 6 topics that you work extremely hard on for only 1-month at
a time (and then take the rest of the time off!!).

Examples of seasonal micro-niches that I've found profitable in the past are: 
Halloween Costumes, Christmas Lights, Valentines Treats, and Mothers Day Gifts

Once you've identified good seasonal micro-niches, then your marketing
process is similar to launching any other niche product or service. 

I've found the affiliate marketing business model to work extremely well for
seasonal micro-niches.  Taping into existing affiliate programs for
seasonal micro-niche products gives you the opportunity to focus all your time
on marketing…giving you the greatest return on the limited amount of time
invested in each micro-niche.

#2 - Create your Holiday Marketing Calendar

The key to effective seasonal marketing is planning ahead.  By looking
out over the next 12-months and identifying what seasons you want to focus on,
you can properly allocate your time to picking good micro-niches, finding great
seasonal keywords, building up a list and creating traffic.

Don't over look the importance of knowing exactly what seasons you want to
target and starting early enough to get great positioning in the marketplace. 

For example…if you have a Holiday Marketing Calendar then, while everyone else
is scrambling to get their last-minute Christmas promos together…you'll
already have dominated the XMas market and will be starting to get your Easter
campaigns in place.

#3 - Start looking for seasonal trends in your keywords, web-stats and
split-tests.

It's no secret that certain products and services sell better a different
times of the day, but did you know that some keywords are more popular a
different times of the year.  I mean, other than the obvious (like
"snow-blower" being more popular in the winter).

Many terms or phrases that have no rational reason for seasonality will have peak demand during certain specific times of the year.  You can review your web-stats and split-test
data from the past to help identify these trends.  You can also use
Google's Keyword Research tool to show the demand for each keyword on a
month-by-month basis over the past year. 

I'm not saying to dedicate a significant portion of your life to this type of
analysis…but if you can spend a couple hours once a quarter looking back at these
things then you're sure to find a few highly-profitable seasonal trends to take
advantage of.

So there you go.  There's a lot more to know about effective Holiday
marketing, but hopefully this helps you get moving in the right direction.

Enjoy!

Dearl Miller,
Trafficology.com

PS:  Stay-Tuned…in Part 2 of The Holiday Marketing Cash Cow I'll reveal 3 real-life
seasonal micro-niche opportunities that you can take advantage of right now!

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