Thursday, September 4, 2008

Easy Ways to Market Your Work from Home Business

Marketing your business is crucial if you want to work from home successfully. In fact, you will get nowhere with out it.

Marketing offline used to be the only way home business owners had to reach their target markets. They had to rely on flyers, business cards, and brochures, then actually hand them to people or leave them in places that people would find them.

These are still great ways to tell people about your business, but they're no longer the only ways. The Internet has given us many more ways to market our businesses, easily and affordably.

It seems like every month you read about another way to reach your target market or market your business. Learning all these techniques can be a challenge, but don’t give up before you start to learn. You may be surprised to learn how easy marketing your business actually is.

Here are a few of the many ways that you can market your business online. Most of these are free or low cost techniques that you can do with ease. If you can’t do these or don’t have the time, you can always outsource your marketing to a Virtual Assistant.

Social Media – This includes sites like Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn.


Article Marketing – Write articles about your area of expertise and submit them to article directories

Blogging – Start a blog and write about your business. You can also comment on other people's blogs.

Podcasting – You can start your own podcast, or be a guest on someone else's.

Newsletters – Get people to sign up for your newsletter by giving away a free ebook or report to subscribers.

Forum Marketing – Join a forum that your target market frequents.

Targeted Traffic Exchange Sites - You can join for free and drive targeted traffic to your site.

When you start to use a new marketing technique, you'll need to continue to use it month after month to see the growth in your business. One thing about online marketing is that growth takes time. You need to place yourself in front of others on a regular basis so they develop a relationship with you and they begin to trust you.

Don’t give up or stop something because you don’t think it's working. It takes time to build a successful business. Do something each day to market your business, and don’t give up!

Monday, September 1, 2008

Writing Press Releases for Your Work From Home Business

A press release is an important part of a publicity campaign for your work from home business. You can pay to have someone write one for you, or you can write one yourself. If you want to learn how to write one yourself, there are many free press release tutorials to help you. You can also use press release templates to help you out.

The most important thing to remember when writing a press release is that it must be newsworthy. It has to contain information that other people will find interesting. It might help to remember that press releases are also called "news releases."

When your press release is ready to send out, you can send it to everyone who might be interested in your story. Send it to your local TV stations, radio stations, newspapers and community magazines. You can contact them and ask if they prefer to receive releases by fax or email. Sometimes they'll prefer you fill out a form on their website with your information.

You can also submit your release to the online press release sites. This is a one way to get valuable links to your website. Many press release sites are free to submit too, but some of them charge a fee. One of the better paid press release site is PR Web. It's a very popular site and can bring you a lot of traffic.

You should also send your press release to your clients and your newsletter subscribers, to let them know what's new in your business.

If you have a marketing kit you send out to potential clients, include a copy of your press release in there.

Post your press release on your own business website as well, so new visitors to your website can learn about your business.

When you send out your press release, remember to include your contact information. You should include your full name, your phone number, your email address and your website URL in your release. A great story can't get you any attention if no one know how to contact you!