Selling and Advertising Articles

Local broadcasters scale back as advertising fades.
The withering economy and a decline in advertising are forcing Boston”s TV stations to readjust their 2009 budgets, scale back programming, and eliminate employees.

Comcast Corp. will lay off at least 50 people and close the Brookline-based operations of the CN8 Network in New England early next month, according to paperwork filed with the state”s Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Comcast spokesman Tim Fitzpatrick said a final headcount hasn”t been determined. The layoffs are part of a larger move to consolidate network operations in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., he said.

At WCVB-TV Channel 5, officials have been quietly reducing their payroll, mostly through attrition, said Bill Fine, the station”s president and general manager. He did not disclose how many people and jobs have been affected but a small number of off-air employees have been offered buyouts or early retirement.more

There has been a lot of talk about “turnkey internet business” turnkey websites and what they can do for you; however, much care should be taken before spending your hard earned cash into these programs.

While it is advised that you do your due diligence, and thoroughly research a business opportunity before jumping in, many people fall for the emotional element that some of these sites use to lure you in.

This could be influenced by the flashy banners and graphics, authentic sounding video and audio presentations, or the persuasive way a professional copywriter craft a sales page. However, there are still some basic guidelines and precautions that you as a consumer can take to avoid being “taken to the cleaners”, so to speak.

Always look at these programs objectively. Put yourself in the prospect’s shoe and do a simple analysis through question and answer. Remember, if you’re going to be marketing this product, you need to get a first hand view of the impression your prospects will have, when they visit that page.

To get the best results from this exercise, write down your questions first and make notes while viewing the website.

On visiting the sales page, what is your first impression? Can you easily identify the message that the site is projecting, or do you have to wade through a lot of clutter to get it?

We are all busy people and most times we will make a decision within 5 to 10 seconds of visiting a site; therefore, simplicity and straightforwardness is very important here.

Is the information presented in a natural way, or do you have to wade through a barrage of fluff and hype to get the message?

Many website sales pages try to have you meandering around in circles, using a lot of fluff and hype to portray their product as being the answer to all of your problems. The sites most guilty of these practices are the ones who have an inferior product, so they have to play on the desperation and “neediness” of their prospects in order to make a sale.

As an aspiring entrepreneur, you must understand that there is no “one” product that will provide all the solutions to building a successful internet business. You might purchase one product just to get one tip or method that you can apply to your business.

Building a successful internet business is an ongoing process, and over time you will have to purchase many such products or services to provide you with the skills required.

Another very important factor that you need to pay close attention to with these turnkey internet business is the effectiveness of the message. Is the sales page targeting a general audience, or is it more focused on a specific niche, or part of that market?

In order to get maximum results from your marketing efforts you will have to target a small specific niche within your market. So you want to make sure that your turnkey internet business sales page is talking to your visitors personally; that it’s addressing their needs instead of everybody else.

Other very important factors that should be noted are, do the owners or operators display their contact information prominently on the site? Are there privacy policy, disclaimer, terms of use etc., there for easy reference? How about legitimate testimonials from satisfied customers?

Finally, does this turnkey internet business provide the capacity to grow with you? In starting out you’re looking for simplicity, but as you learn more you might want to add or incorporate other features on your turnkey website, so you need a flexible system that can grow with you.

Purchasing a turnkey internet business can be a good place to start your online business adventure; however, do your research and make sure you’re not buying into a “get-rich-quick” scheme that turns out to be a disaster later on.

Thanks for reading.

Godfrey Thaxter is an internet & network marketing expert who writes informative and energizing articles to assist fellow marketers. He works from home fulltime and uses the power of attraction marketing to sponsor new recruits daily. Click below now to see how you too can sponsor 10 to 20 new reps monthly - 100% Guaranteed! http://www.ResidualWealthPortal.com

Will the Recession Kill Web 2.0?.
The growth of these advertising-supported ‘Web 2.0′ companies has propelled online advertising sales to $21 billion from $6 billion between 2002 and 2007. But the last recession pricked the bubble in 2001. What will happen to this crop of Internet companies?

The broader economic recession has not spared the Internet sector. Online display advertising is projected to be flat to down by RBC Capital in 2009. It is hard enough for internet startups at the best of times. Which companies will come out of this recession the best?

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Break Media Expects Major Ad Revenue Growth for Q1 2009.
Mr. Budkofsky said the company”s advertising base remains in entertainment and gaming, categories that haven”t been hit as hard by the economic downturn as auto or financial advertising. Also, Break has increased the number of unique visitors it delivers from 15 million at the start of the year to 50 million now, via acquisitions and launching new sites such as Holytaco.com and Chickipedia.com. Break targets men 18 to 34.

TV ratings are down and sellout levels are high on TV, so advertisers are turning to online more to reach their demos,’ he said.

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Ad Cuts, Mass Market, Click Fraud and Couponing.
Advertising cuts will be come in various flavors this year. Some will simply cut across the board, some will cut based on gut, and some based on internal politics. The winners in 2009 will cut those online ads that do not deliver on awareness, opinion or demonstrable results in a measurable way and invest more in those communication channels that measurably deliver results, ‘ -according to Jim Sterne, founder of eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit.

‘The media landscape is changing rapidly before our eyes. The march to a fragmented, niche audience and markets happened over 25 years. We are now seeing a reversal of this trend that could result in a return to a mass market. Choices will become more limited. This includes our cable viewing choices, our toothpaste choices and certainly our auto choices.more

There is probably nothing more powerful when it comes to selling your home business opportunity than personal testimonials. It is always reassuring for a prospect to hear from other successful people how great your business is.

But what do you do if you do not have any testimonials? This has to be the case for everybody who starts a new home business. Here are three possible things you could do!

1. Make some up. I am kidding, and this is something you never should do. I think we have all been on websites where we see testimonials followed by a first initial and last name. To meet those do not look very credible and actually do look like they were made up.

2. Do not use testimonials until you have several created. This is probably not a good idea either, but you should always be asking for testimonials that you can use as soon as possible.

3. Use testimonials from the home business that you represent. There is a pretty good chance that the product you are representing has satisfied customers.

If you do affiliate marketing there probably are testimonials available that you can copy and use it as your own until you create your own.

I think it is a good idea to use testimonials in some form even if you do not have any of your own yet. The important thing is that you be honest and that the testimonials you use are real.

One way to do that is to include a URL to the website of the person offering the testimonial. You do not have to hyperlink this or make it live, but if someone really wants to check it out they can always copy and paste it into their browser.

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Full impact of crisis likely after CNY, say retailers.
The group plans to increase its advertising expenditure to 15% of turnover next year from 10% currently to ensure that its brands are ?more noticeable? than others during these trying times.

?We feel that this is the best time to position our brand as the market will be less ?crowded? when industry players cut back on their advertising expenditure to support their businesses,? he tells StarBizWeek.

The group, which manufactures and markets reasonably-priced apparels under its own brands such as Antioni, Bontton and Diesel, aims to seek ways to eliminate wastage.

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The horror stories I read on a daily basis from people who have had their businesses literally torn to shreds because of hackers is enough to make me sick. The number of people out there who are hell bent on making your life miserable number in the millions. Yes, it’s a dangerous world we live in. Well, if you have your own business, you need to protect yourself. I can’t get into every possible way to do this, but this article is going to give you a few sound tips on how to protect from hackers that you may or may not have thought of.

Very first thing I do is install anti virus and firewall software. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, for hackers to access your computer. The most dangerous things are trojans and key tracking software that they will install on your PC. These things will lift your password info, credit card info and just about anything else you can think of. Anti virus and firewall software will help prevent this from happening.

Next on the agenda is your browser. You have to type in passwords to access many of your sites. In the case where a key tracking program makes its way onto your computer, it is probably best to use something like Roboform to store your passwords and access your sites. This way there are no key strokes to log and it makes it very difficult for hackers to access your passwords. Roboform is not expensive and will give you a lot of peace of mind.

Finally, when it comes to your sites, you will probably, over the course of time, install many scripts such as Wordpress, Amember, OSTicket and so on. Unfortunately, these scripts are vulnerable to being hacked. In order to keep this from happening, you want to make sure that you always have the latest version of the script, especially when they come out with an update that is specifically a security update. These are absolutely critical to install.

There is no 100% sure way to protect your business. This is just a fact of life on the Internet. However, if you take these precautions, you will greatly reduce the chances of you becoming a victim of one of these vicious attacks.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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Skip the visit to in-laws, blame the economy.
One friend of mine (who”s successful in advertising and sales) came up with even more variations of the Excuse: A first date is now a lunch instead of dinner. And why get married this year, honey? It”s too expensive - to say nothing of having a kid, which is just irresponsible in times like these. In fact, you don”t have to get a job - ‘You can be a loser longer; it”s a bad economy,’ he said. You don”t have to leave college, ever. ‘Because who”s hiring?’ he asked.

And ‘you can get out of the big expensive New Year”s dinner this year,’ he said. ‘Oh, I like that one.’

But many are unwilling to fess up to benefiting from one of the great silver linings in recent memory, or as one Canadian blogger, Anne Kingston, put it: ‘How many people are covertly exploiting the financial downturn to sever relationships, professional or personal, is unknowable.’

Still, she quoted an unnamed woman who begged off visiting her parents in a nursing home during the holidays (’It”s depressing as hell’) after her wealthy brother canceled for ‘financial reasons.’

‘If the son who works for a big corporation can blame the economy,’ the woman reasoned, ‘why can”t the self-employed daughter?’

It”s a good question.more

Happy Holidays from the Post Advertising Dept..
An English major in college, Grace Hiney first applied to the Post in 1971. When asked if she could write a restaurant review, she replied, “I guess so.” She has been the Post restaurant editor and account executive ever since. An avid home cook and 43-year resident of the Palisades, she has two children and five grandchildren.

Long-time Palisades resident Jeff Ridgway has been at the Post for nearly four years and enjoys starting every morning with a cup of espresso. He grew up in Sacramento and attended UC Davis, where he majored in English. His latest obsession is Sudoku on the New York Times Web site.

A native of Tennessee, Kendy Veazie lives in the Palisades and has worked for the Post for six years. She volunteers for various charities and enjoys traveling, yoga and independent cinema.more