Business by the Astrological Signs

As both a graphic design consultant and an astrology hobbyist, in this month's column I thought it would be interesting to discuss what it's like to work with people of each of the 12 sun signs in the zodiac.

Your clients' sun signs can help you figure out the best way to work with them, as well as their likes and dislikes.

Disclaimer: Please note that astrology is much more complicated than just the 12 sun signs, so use this information as a general guide only.

Aries – WHAT’S NEXT? Aries are enthusiastic and have fiery reactions. They enjoy starting things and don’t always like to finish them, so do the project quickly and suggest new ideas before the current one is completed.

Taurus – Taurus’s don’t like change and love beauty, harmony, and money, so the bottom line is very important to them…how PROFITABLE will this website or ad be?

Gemini - RESTLESS and INTELECTUAL…I THINK I like the curly the font, the purple background, the wavy picture…the ocean photo…well, you get the picture…

Cancer – How does this make me FEEL? What is the emotional overtone of that design, what do people FEEL when they look at my project? (I can attest to this one, being a cancer chickee…)

Leo – Leo’s like being the center of attention and they adore being appreciated, so APPRECIATE their opinion and make sure you have the most flattering picture of them in their marketing materials.

Virgo – Virgo enjoys fixing things and being of service, so be prepared to make LOTS of changes to a project. But, when they are happy, you know your work must have gotten to the point of being FLAWLESS!

Libra – Libra’s like CHOICES…so make a couple different versions for them to choose from and they will ponder it over for a few days and get back to you. Give them the time and choices to choose.

Scorpio – INTENSITY…Scorpios will get a gut reaction to the project and will either love it or hate it and then go from there...

Sagittarius – HAPPY go LUCKY…freedom loving…just don’t tie them down to one choice or one way of doing things. Expect to go with the flow and make changes as you go along.

Capricorn – STATUS seeking – how will this benefit my image and help me climb the success ladder?

Aquarius – Wacky, UNUSUAL, shocking…they love the most off the wall ideas and will go with them just to get a reaction from other people. Use your strangest designs on them and they will love it!

Pisces – Mystery, INTUITION, and Creativity – when working with Pisces…they just KNOW. Encourage them to listen to their inner guidance when asking for feedback.

By Articles Directory

Brand Awareness and the Fundamentals of Brandcasting

For a company to become well known in the online world, you might think that they would have to spend a large amount of money. While marketing budgets of leading companies are extensive, many effective online branding strategies can easily be achieved with nothing more than creativity and determination.

You have a good brand if people can recall your product or service from memory. You want them to trust you and think of you and your website before they think about any competitors. Branding isn't just for big businesses; small businesses, especially those with an online presence, can't afford not to start some kind of brand awareness campaign.

There is no shortcut to branding success. If you take a look at some of the sales promises made today, you would think that all you need to do to make millions is to launch a website and use free search engine submission services. These kinds of tactics don't give you the whole truth.

Brand awareness, or brandcasting, is a strategy that will define a company, show how it is unique, while creating a comfort level in the potential customer. A large part of branding is being consistent in everything about your company. This includes the company's message and vision, the website, the employees, and even the packaging. Who are you and what are your values? All this takes time and vision.

Before even starting to get your brand out there, you should develop a winning slogan and logo. These will be the first things remembered by the public. If you hear the word McDonald's, you will see the Golden Arches in your mind; if you hear KFC, the Colonel will present himself, if MSN is mentioned, it is reasonable to see the fluttering of a butterfly. Defining a simple, two or three tone image that can be inexorably linked with your company can be extremely powerful.

While this is fundamental to both successful offline and online branding strategies, it is important not to forget the actual development of your brand. You might have an excellent logo, but consistent failure in delivery of customer service can take its toll. Your brand and your message should focus on your clients and not on you. Customer benefits that are consistent with your marketing message will get you increased sales.

Your website should be an integral part of your brand as well. It should incorporate the promise you are making to your customers. Remember that customers make their decisions to purchase based on friend and family recommendations,advertising and experience. Building a brand is like building a reputation. Companies interested in long-term success must invest in creating a targeted brand experience for their customers.

While providing great customer service will help your reputation, customer service does not always have to be in the form of responding well to queries. Be proactive; FAQs and well-targeted, well-researched help guides on your website are immensely powerful in garnering a strong reputation. Use article marketing to its fullest advantage to leverage your position as an expert in your field.

Beware of online gimmicks, though. Many companies have seen a surge in business through competitions and contests. But these numbers are impossible to maintain once the offer is over. Use them sparingly, and tie them in with press releases and long lasting deals.

Whether large or small, local or global, social networking can be your key to the successful implementation of online branding strategies. If you have something to say, be it a product launch or exciting development, put a teaser on your social page. People will take the bait.

In much the same way, you can create a blog for your company. Twitter can also be a great way to use a short, snappy sentence to announce a new online initiative.

Many companies have made the mistake of trying to differentiate between their online marketing campaigns, and their offline equivalents. This couldn't be more wrong. Your customers exist in the Real World. Use the reliable marketing double-hitter (where online and offline branding strategies are in complete unison). Indeed, offline advertising can drive your online commerce significantly, if tailored well.

Long before the economic crash of late 2008 hit us; competition in the world of e-commerce was becoming ever more ruthless. However, as a result of the global recession, many companies are looking to the net to not only push forward, but also to survive the storm. Online shopping is actually on the increase, as people rein themselves in and limit their impulse purchases. They do this by not visiting the malls, and keeping away from temptation. Take advantage of this by creating an online brandcasting strategy so you can see more traffic on your website.

By Enzo F. Cesario

7 Ways To Optimize Adsense Legally

Unleashing the secrets that make Adsense Pay

Thanks to adsense, blogs, rss feeds and their listings -- not to mention an arsenal of free types of advertising -- it's possible to make a very good income without spending a penny and with minimal effort.  The trick is to optimize for it.

PLEASE NOTE: Though adsense may have originated with Google's system, there are many other adsense-type programs available, all of which are as viable -- some even more so -- as theirs.  The information included here applies to most of them.

While everyone else is busy optimizing for search engines, by optimizing for adsense, a site can feasibly pull enough traffic that simply clicks on the ads to forget about other forms of sales.

However, bear in mind that most adsense TOS agreements prevent any unfair or "fraudulent" clicking, even so much as a note saying, "click here to support this site," which risks banishment by most adsense companies.  This, of course, is to protect those adwords customers who pay to have their ads displayed.  It is they who are robbed (not the companies) when an ad is clicked irresponsibly.  Furthermore Google, for one, can track clicks effectively enough to detect any artificial or irresponsible clicking will garner any income received this way.

With that in mind, by understanding how adsense-type programs work, one can optimize a page, legally, to create a substantial income.  And while guidelines are designed primarily focused on adsense, many of these strategies will increase a sites' general revenue as well.

1.  TOP SEARCHES
The first step is to design a site around the top searches.  There are various tools (keyword selectors and zeitgeist, for example) that help gather this information.  Of course, there is also the "niche marketing" school of thought, i.e., to find a smaller group that has less page-per-click competition.  In this case, the ideal is to find a large audience-small page ratio.  But after more than a year of marketers scouring the web for them, finding one is rare and searching for one can take a LOT of time.  Not hours or days, but weeks or months.

2.  HIGHEST PAYING KEYWORDS
Lists of these can be found simply by searching the internet.  Of course combining the highest paying adsense keywords with Top Searches may make a very strange mix.  Afterall, the top search (at the time of this writing) is Britney Spears while the top-paying words relate to mesothelioma and asbestos cancer.  So, unless Britney Spears speaks out on mesothelioma, there's little chance these could be combined legally*.  But, by looking down the lists there are more feasible combinations.  The main thing to understand is it's only a combination of the two (high-paying keywords & top searches) that will bring enough traffic to garner any measurable LEGAL income from adsense.

3.  PLACES, PLEASE
Placing the ads prominently on the site is a no-brainer, though some marketers still tend to hide them toward the bottom of the site.  Another TOS factor, too, is a content-to-ad ratio that adsense programs used to insist on, but seem to be slipping.  Generally the policy was no more than two banner ads per page though many sites that end up at the top of searches seem to flaunt this rule.  But who knows how long they last, too.  Traditionally, putting one banner across the top, just below the title, and one "skyscraper" down one side, with content in the middle is the best.

4.  MULTI-PAGE IT
One page allows for 2 ads, but more ads can be placed on each additional page on the site.  For those lacking ideas for additional pages, the simplest page would be a separate contact page, as well as an "about us" or testimonial page, all of which are viable additions.

Incidently, it's ironic that so many marketers create mile-long splash pages rather than a group of pages and never add one adsense ad to them.  As if, by doing this, it will garner more sales, when the truth is, they sacrifice as much as gain because these pages are rarely indexed and annoy visitors as many as they attract, simply because of their set up.  Understand this: adsense is a way to profit from EXIT traffic, something that WILL occur at one point or another, no matter how wonderful the page.  

5. HIGHLIGHT OR BLEND
Some prefer the adsense to blend into their site, almost hiding it from visitors.  But this diminishes its effectiveness.  Rather, by highlighting it, visitors will be more aware of it, allowing it to stand out.  Of course, we'd all prefer our visitors to stay at OUR site, buy OUR product, etc.  But the fact is, many won't.  Isn't it better to gain something from their departure?

6.  ADSEARCH
This feature is only available from some of the larger adsense programs.  If it is available, placing it at the bottom of a page offers the visitor the convenience of doing a search without having to first go to the SE.  Of course, many SEs and browsers offer toolbars that diminish the effectiveness of this.  But adding it will create another exit point that is to your advantage-- and seems like a service, too.

7.  AFRAID OF COMPETITION?
Some adsense programs offer a "block competition" option, one in which specific sites may be barred.  However, to believe it's possible to effectively block ALL your competition is naive.  Though it may at first seem outrageious to help advertise for the competition, again, at least one will gain from their advertisement (and, for those who need payback remember: the competition is paying you).

Each of these strategies increase a site's adsense revenue.  By using all of them, the adsense ads will create a steady revenue stream which will increase with the site's traffic stream.--mo

*Also, this combination uses Google's rates, which may vary in other adsense programs.

By Marige O'Brien

Affiliate Marketing - Which Products Do I Sell?

There are a lot of different affiliate products on today's market. How can I know whiich ones to sell? This article reveals the 1 principle to use in choosing your products.

There are literally millions of affiliate products available for you to represent. No matter how defined or targeted your niche is, you will have many products to choose from. How will you know which ones will make you money or which ones will be a total flop?

Today, I want to share with you one simple principle that you can use when choosing your affiliate products. If you adhere to this principle, your advertising and marketing will direct and encourage your customers to buy from you. If you neglect this principle, your marketing and advertising will not be as effective and your bottom line will be less than it could be.

What’s the principle? Let me describe it for you with a story…

Once upon a time (don’t all stories begin with “Once upon a time”?), long, long ago, in a not so far away place, lived a man named... Rob, and he loved to surf. This was long before the internet, and the surfing was done in the ocean, not on a computer! This was also before Rob was married and long before having children, back in the day when he actually had time for such activities... I’m sorry…I digress...

To support his surfing habit, Rob worked at night as a food server at a sit down (as opposed to drive through) Mexican restaurant. Rob made lots of money working as a food server, a.k.a. waiter, because of one thing...

Drum roll please...because here is the principle for you to remember...

Rob made lots of money as a waiter because he LOVED the food that he was selling. Yes, that’s right, he LOVED the food. He loved the food at this particular restaurant, for we all know that not all restaurants are created equal, so much, that the people he served would always buy more. They would buy more appetizers, more guacamole, more drinks, more desserts and even more food to take home – because Rob told them honestly how much they would like it. Bigger checks equaled bigger tips, which equaled more money for Rob to use to buy another surf board.

And so it is for us today. If you are really trying to market and advertise a particular product, you’ve got to like it yourself. And if you LOVE it, so much the better! It's easier to convince people to buy something when you truly believe they will benefit.

Of course, there are other reasons in picking which affiliate products to sell. Questions like... Is it selling for others? What percentage of sales are done with referrals? What is the commission? Do I like the sales page?

But we’ll save these for another training article!

Today’s main point is simply this...”Do I like the product myself?” Can I share this product with another person, looking them in the eye or not, and honestly tell them it is a good thing? If you can answer YES, you’ll be one step closer to closing your next sale.

Now get out there and market!

By Rob Richards

Guiding Principles of World Entrepreneurship Forum

On my way to the World Entrepreneurship Forum in Lyon, France (November 18-21) and our 2009 main topic is:

How can governments, at all levels, support the development of entrepreneurship?

We will also review the nine (9) recommendations we proposed during our 2008 Forum, aimed at enabling and fostering the development of the various forms of entrepreneurship. They are as follows:

World Entrepreneurship Forum Guiding Principles

1. Reform Regulations

To promote a truly entrepreneurship-centered business climate, reform tax and regulatory environments so as to make it easier, faster, and less costly for entrepreneurs to set up enterprises, grow them if they are successful, or close them if not; minimize the time they spend on licenses, tax procedures, litigation and other similar activities.

2. Create New “Entrepreneur-Friendly” Institutions

Introduce new-style entrepreneurship-friendly support institutions that provide technological knowledge, market information, business know-how, certification services, access to capital, and other essential business support.

3. Promote Proper Governance

Set forth a governance framework which unambiguously encourages risk-taking, while also ensuring that ethics lapses, corruption, and neglect of environmental sustainability carry a high cost to reputation.

4. Foster Positive Entrepreneurial Attitudes

Foster a cultural context where entrepreneurship has a positive image and where entrepreneurial success is publicly celebrated.

5. Create an Early Education Entrepreneurial Curricula

Include within schools a curricula that promotes the development of the skills and attitudes that are the hallmark of entrepreneurship, such as: Creating a vision, perseverance, creativity, spotting needs, empathy, leadership, dealing with ambiguity, risk-taking, and follow-through.

6. Develop Young Adult Entrepreneurial Curricula

Include within an education curricula practical elements of entrepreneurship and business development so as to increase the entrepreneurial IQ within the community.

7. Promote Lifelong Entrepreneurial Education

Provide entrepreneurs lifelong learning and development platforms for sharing of experience and best practices, coaching and mentoring, mutual support, and international networking, with the strong support of key stakeholders from business and civil society.

8. Empower Entrepreneurial Women, Minorities and the Disadvantaged

Support programs must also specifically target women, minorities, and the disadvantaged. Further, governments should implement laws and policies that ensure that entrepreneurs are sensitive to gender empowerment as well as diversity promotion.

9. Understand Entrepreneurship

Make it known that entrepreneurs are positive agents of social change, wealth creation, transparency, sustainability, and innovation.

Formal Guiding Principles can be found here.

I hope to have a chance to report out to you while in France but if I get too busy, which is very likely, I will wait until after I return to provide you with key takeaways. However, in the meantime, catch a LIVE broadcast of key moments here (http://www.world-entrepreneurship-forum.com).

By the way ... here's why I am a member of the World Entrepreneurship Forum.

Photo: World Entrepreneurship Forum -- members in 2008.