The name Not-Work-Marketing.com was selected because we feel marketing should be fun, not work. When your customers can find your business with ease and the phone is ringing and your mailbox is filled with checks, you can really enjoy the work you do without worrying about the next job or sale. And, there's no better advertisement than word-of-mouth referrals from friends -- whether you make them online or off. That's Not-Work-Marketing.
Below are some quick ideas for you to improve your Not-Work-Marketing experience. Enjoy!
Become Master of Your Domain
If you are spending anytime online socializing in forums and chatrooms, that time can also be attracting new customers to you. How? Simple. People love to shop. You don't have to sell them anything. They love to buy, buy buy. And who do they love buying from? People they like, of course. So, whether you are chatting about knitting, or law of attraction, or movies, or anything else you are interested in, don't throw away the opportunity you have for your internet buddies to become your customers and clients.
The easiest way to do this is to own your own domain with matching email address. Use your AOL or free email addresses for your junk mail and your own domain for your business. If you are an affiliate marketer with a company provided web site, this tip is ESSENTIAL for you. Create a review site of your company's products on your own domain, and include a bio of yourself.
Always include your website URL in your Forum profile. Those who are interested in knowing more about you will be curious and click. By using an email address with your own domain when posting to Yahoo or Google Groups, the curious will visit your web site ... especially if your web site name evokes curiosity.
Global Domains International provides affordable, (just $10/month) advertising free, domain hosting. This includes registration of your domain, a graphic site builder for the technically challenged, and all the email accounts you could want. And, for those of you interested in attracting additional income streams, commissions from their referral program add up quickly!
Cheaper Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Once you have your own web page, you need a way to get potential customers to your page. Right? Of course, you have your web address in your email signature line, so every email you send includes it. You have it on your business cards and brochures. And you may have even placed your site on some Traffic Exchanges, or Link Exchanges (which is essentially what this site is). What else can you do? If you don't understand how to use Traffic Exchanges to create thousands of legitimate hits to your web site daily (and boost those rankings in the search engines!), download Mega-Traffic.
One of the easiest way to get visitors ... and only pay for the ones who actually visit your page ... is Pay-Per-Click Advertising, such as Google Ad Words. Pay-per-click advertising is getting increasingly more expensive as it's gotten increasingly popular. If you don't want to pay $10 per click, here's a quick tip: make sure you are advertising a page with lots of content. For even more tips on how to pay less for Google Ad Words than your competitors, and learn how to earn even more from your web site, read this eBook.
Advertisers who are advertising a lead capture page with very little content are getting dinged by Google with higher per click charges! This simple tip can save you hundreds of dollars in ad fees. Money you can spend on something more fun than marketing. Enjoy!
Low Cost Alternative to eBay
If you sell any products on eBay, you might have noticed that their fees have gotten higher while it's gotten increasingly more difficult to get your listing noticed. A wonderful woman in the U.K. named Michelle Wruk has decided to give eBay a little competition with a low-cost alternative: Easy Bid. When you're ready to sell, it's just $4.95/month for unlimited listings! And if you ever need support or help, Michelle is awesome. Enjoy!
Get Creative
Creativity can get you something most small business advertising budgets can't: FREE PRESS. Remember the guy who sold the entire contents of his apartment on eBay? Or the one who sold advertising space ... on his FOREHEAD? Or, what about the guy who traded-up from one red paperclip into a free home? If you don't have a lot of money for advertising, just get creative. Imagine the outcome you want, and let inspired action guide you.
Social Networking Becomes Second Paycheck
This is a fun story about a couple of buddies who decided to team up together to turn the power of MySpace into a second paycheck. Their membership site is called Bring Your Buddy, and it's a way to get some great tools for your business (such as an awesome auto-responder), network with your friends, and earn some extra income at the same time. Bring Your Buddy is just $10 per month, much less than you would spend on a professional auto-responder alone. Invite just 2 buddys and your membership is free. Then, when they invite their buddies to get free membership, you start to earn a little extra income. Imagine if you could pay all your current monthly business expenses, simply by using some great online marketing tools and referring 2 others to do the same? What if your social network (your friends + their friends + their friends and so on) in Bring Your Buddy got as large as your MySpace network? This is a fun way to play with the power of attraction and the power of networking to manifest additional income streams. And, heck, there's no risk. You get some great tools to market your existing business, and it doesn't take you any extra time. If you'd like to turn your network into extra monthly income, Be My Buddy and bring yours!
Practice Safe Surfing
Just a quick public service announcement. When you receive emails claiming to be from any financial institution (your bank or PayPal, etc.), never click any links or call any number provided in that email. Phishing has become Vishing as the PayPal Phishing scam now asks people to call and verify their account info. Don't fall for it. If you have any concerns about any of your financial accounts, always call the numbers on the back of your credit cards, or on your bank statements.
Keep the Vibrations Good
We all receive dozens if not hundreds of emails per day. And, while we're happy to hear from our friends, clients and colleagues, we're not so very happy when they forward chain letters or urban legends, no matter how good the intention. When it comes to these types of things, be the person to stop the chain. Be very selective about what you forward to others and who you forward it to. Make sure it is something they would want to receive from you. Also, if something sounds too weird or scary or too good to be true (like Bill Gates giving away millions), check Snopes.com and do a search with some of the key words. In most instances, you'll find it's an Urban Legend that needs to be put to rest. Finally, when you do see something that you just HAVE to forward to your friend, please be kind enough to strip out all the excess baggage (other people's emails, multiple email headers, etc), that got attached on its way to you. Better yet, write a personal note to let them know you were thinking of them and wanted to share. You'll not just reduce the amount of SPAM being generated, but your friends, family and business colleages will know that an email from you is one they don't want to miss. Have fun!
Free Advertising That Can Even Save You Money on Merchant Account Fees
Market America rewards its distributors and customers when they shop partner web sites in the form of product bonuses, and for distributors incentive bonus checks. Because of this, distributors just don't shop anywhere without first looking to see if they can "buy from themselves" through a partner business. The great news for businesses is that being included in this list doesn't cost you anything, doesn't increase your paperwork, can actually save you money on Merchant Account fees, and will bring you customers you don't have to pay to get! To find out if the M.A.P.P. program is for you, simply contact Gayanna Magcosta. She'll ask you for some information that the company needs, and someone will call you to see if the program will help you. There is no obligation for this service. Simply agree to talk to the M.A.P.P. coordinator so they can help you determine if the program is right for you.
What Would it Feel Like to Be a Millionaire?
Listen as 5 women describe how it feels to have achieved their financial dreams by helping others. Turn on your computer's speakers and listen while you work to achieve your dreams!
Some Things in Life Are Free
If you love to read, you should check out the Paperback Swap. Membership is free and so are the books! List 9 books and receive 3 credits so you can start exchanging books with other members. When you "buy" a book with your credits, the member sends you the book and pays the postage. You do the same when someone wants your books. Should you decide to join, please use gentlybe1@gmail.com as your referrer so Shira gets credit! Enjoy.
How-to Create Your Own Affiliate Program and Boost Your Web Site Sales
Do you have a book to sell? Do you have a membership site? Would you like to boost your site sales? Start your own affiliate program. The easiest way to do this (without technical expertise) is by using Click Bank. Click Bank has hundreds of thousands of affiliates. All with their own web sites and mailing lists, who are constantly on the lookout for good products and web sites to promote to their site visitors and list subscribers. They'll do the work of promoting your web site in exchange for a commission. Simply sign-up as a Click Bank reseller and follow the simple instructions. It doesn't get any easier and you don't have any affiliates you have to manage and/or train. They already know how to get you sales. If you have a product but do NOT have a web site, you should consider creating a small site that sells that one product. You can do this easily online with NO technical or graphic design expertise using the online site-builder available to you when you host your site at Global Domains International. This is also one of the most affordable web hosting solutions at just $10/month for hosting, email, etc.