Cathy Stucker - The Idea Lady

Attract Customers and Make Yourself Famous

Success Strategies for the Home Based Business

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This is a guest post from Bethany North of www.thecoffeebump.com.

There is nothing more wonderful than being your own boss and working at home, but there is also a measure of risk involved since you will be taking a personal financial hit if you don’t succeed.

Since failing is not an option, here are some ideas to get you started to guarantee your success in a home-based business!

  • Focus: Even though you will be your own boss, you do have to work your way up the ladder by doing a number of different tasks until your business begins to succeed. It is also important to keep your mind away from your household chores, like doing laundry or running errands, which will eat into your work time. Even though you are working at home, you need to treat it as an actual job.
  • Put Forth Effort: If you are not willing to put forth the blood, sweat, and tears (hopefully, not literally!), then you can’t expect to receive anything in return. Many people fail in their home-based businesses because they don’t have the focus, commitment, or determination to continue to work at it even if they aren’t seeing results.
  • Market Constantly: No one else is going to do this work for you, and you are making a mistake if you feel like you can start to slack off after getting a few sales. If you are not continually marketing, your customers may go to another website for the same product, so there is no guarantee that you will get repeat sales. You need to continue to market yourself, even if you are getting a few sales, to guarantee that your sales will increase and grow as time goes on.
  • Focus on Your Strengths: If you are working alone, you may need to do everything for your business for it to succeed. However, if you are working with a spouse or partner, then you can identify your strengths and weaknesses to maximize how far that your business will go. If you are excellent at writing and creativity, you may want to use those strengths to increase the appeal of your webpage, get links back to your website through article marketing, and write creative ads online so that people will visit your website.
  • Ask for Help: In the same way, if you are aware of your weaknesses, you need to know when to ask for help. If you don’t have the faintest idea about how to increase your search engine rankings, then you need to either begin to do your homework, or ask a professional company to help you. If you are not asking for help, you could be missing a serious blind spot in your overall business plan that could be detrimental in the long run.

These simple tips will make a difference in guaranteeing your success as a home business owner! Working at home is a risk in itself, but it will pay off in the long run in allowing you to live your dreams and be passionate about your work.

For a great selection of all things coffee, check out Bethany North’s website, www.thecoffeebump.com.

Facebook Ads vs Google Ads – Which is Better?

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This is a guest post from Mark Baartse, founder of .Shopping Cart Reviews..

Did you know that Facebook is the most popular site on the web? It beat Google to the top spot in 2009. Yet, despite its popularity, when you talk about advertising, most of the talk is still about Google.

In competitive industries such as insurance, when you click on an ad in Google it can cost the company up to $20 for just one click – no wonder your insurance premiums as so high! Yet, while insurance companies are handing over millions to Google, Facebook is sitting in the corner quietly waiting for some attention – and offering a lot less than $20 a click.

So what’s the difference between Google and Facebook? They are quite different. People searching on Google generally have a lot more intention – they are more interested in buying. If you go to Google and type in “home insurance”, then there’s a fair chance you are interested in home insurance.

In Facebook ads are targeted based on interest. When you create an ad you show them to people who have expressed an interest in that area. You sell gardening supplies? Facebook ads allows you to target people who have expressed an interest in gardening. If it’s a local business, no problem, just target people in your city.

A big catch with Facebook ads is creatives – the actual ad you see. Usually you make an ad, and then you run it for the duration of the campaign. More sophisticated advertisers will create several versions and swap them to see which performs best. With Facebook, people get bored. Quickly. Have you been annoyed by Facebook ads that keep showing up? If you want to get lots of clicks boredom is your enemy so you need to change your ad constantly, perhaps as often as every 1 or 2 days! Just changing the picture is a good start.

As Facebook users typically have less intention than a Google user, they are less likely to buy (although I’ve seen some successful direct sales campaigns on Facebook). A good strategy is making a Facebook fan page and sending your visitors there instead of your website. By doing this, if they add you (or “like” you in current Facebook-speak), you get to have an ongoing connection with them and engage them in your company. In addition, their friends see that “like” in their news feed and some of them will then also “like” you. I know of people who got 5 users by seeing “like” in their news feed for every one they paid for.

Facebook advertising is likely to explode soon, so my advice is to get in now, beat the rush before it’s too late!

Mark Baartse is founder of Shopping Cart Reviews, an ecommerce resource site covering some of the latest shopping cart innovations such as Prestashop and OpenCart.

Big PR For Your Small Business

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This is a guest post from L. Drew Gerber, CEO of www.PublicityResults.com

When it comes to small businesses, PR is in everything you do. If you’re interacting with the public then you’re doing PR. How you answer the phone, how you respond to emails, the design and message of your website, your advertising — everything you do that the public can see is a promotion of your small business. 

The best way to promote your business is to give people something valuable for free. If you own a coffee shop, I’m not saying that you should give away free coffee. Though I’m sure that would grab people’s attention and would bring people into your business. But when it comes to building a strong customer base, there’s a fine line between providing something of value that engages your customer base and straight-up buying them or bribing them to patronize your business. Giving away free coffee is a bribe and won’t necessarily create repeat customers. (Though I do like the idea of those coffee cards where you buy 10 and the eleventh is free.)

Now think about it. If you’re a small business owner, what can you provide for free that is valuable and engaging? A great example would be a small coffee shop providing an after-hours class on how to make professional-style lattes, cappuccinos, espressos — you name it — to anyone interested. What’s great about something like that is the owner and staff would be able to interact with the community, provide value and really engage them. They would be able to talk to their customers, show them how it’s done, receive feedback and even learn from them. It can even be video taped, uploaded to video portals and be a feature on the coffee shop’s website.

The most important thing a small business should focus on is how it can serve rather than what it can get. List all the places and platforms where your company interacts with the public. Look to see what impressions you’re leaving people with. How are you portraying yourself to the public? Are there opportunities you’re missing where you can engage people?

Start with your website. You should definitely have more than your mission statement and contact information. Use your website as a platform to engage people. Tell them what you’re up to, show your personality, post how-to videos on your site, create a newsletter — anything that provides value.  The small business is a great vehicle for creating a motivated community. It will give your business a higher purpose, will be more rewarding for you and your customers, and the most fun part will be when the media picks up on the story, covers it, and peaks the interest of others who didn’t have any idea what you were up to. Now that’s big PR for your small business.



L. Drew Gerber is CEO of www.PublicityResults.com and creator of www.PitchRate.com, a free media tool that connects journalists and the highest rated experts. Gerber’s business practices and staffing innovations have been revered by PR Week, Good Morning America and the Christian Science Monitor. His companies handle international PR campaigns and his staff develops online press kits for authors, speakers and companies with Online PressKit 24/7, a technology he developed (www.PressKit247.com). Contact L. Drew Gerber at: or call him at 828-749-3548.

Why Should Small Businesses Have a Social Media Friendly Website?

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This is a guest post from Phyllis Zimbler Miller of http://www.millermosaicpowerof3.com.

According to a webinar I attended, approximately half the small businesses in the U.S. do not have a website for their businesses.

Believe it or not, this could be good news for these businesses.  Why do I say this if I believe every business should have a website?

Because many, many businesses – whether they’ve had a website for some time or have a new website – have an “old-fashioned” website that is not social media friendly. 

What is an “old-fashioned” website?  It’s one that doesn’t offer potential customers/clientele a connection with the business owners – one that doesn’t offer people the opportunity to interact on Twitter or a Facebook (business) page or a blog with the real people (by name) of a business.

What does your website home page say?

Imagine a website whose home page touts its products or services without any information about the people behind the products or services.  And when you go to the ABOUT page all you read is how long the company has been in business.  Maybe there are the names of people in the business or maybe just the “we have been in business.” And certainly no blog, no Twitter or Facebook page links.

Now imagine a website whose home page introduces you to the people behind the products or services that the business offers.  The Twitter and Facebook page links are prominently displayed “above the fold” (before you have to scroll down).  There’s a photo of the business owner with an email more personal than info@company name.  And there’s a blog that enables people to leave comments about the blog posts.

If you were considering buying a specific kind of product or service, which website would be more likely to engage you?  And I’m not even mentioning that the second website probably has an email optin box to capture your emails and stay in contact with you.

Now you may be thinking: 

What’s the big deal about potential customers/clientele being able to interact with me/my business on the Internet?  They should just buy my products/services.

Wrong!  They shouldn’t just buy your products or services.  Thanks to Facebook, Twitter and a host of other social media sites, today people expect to have a relationship with the person whose products or services they are buying.  They want to know whose reputation stands behind the company’s offerings.  What are the company people like?  Do they truly understand the potential buyer’s needs?

Think of your own buying habits

Do you frequent a neighborhood restaurant not just for the food but for the feeling of connection with the restaurant owners?  I know I do.  I love it when the waiters at the family-owned restaurant Al Gelato in Los Angeles automatically put a lemon in my husband’s water. 

We are social creatures – and social creatures like connections with others.  Thus when I come to a “cold” website that doesn’t seem to have real people behind it, I’m unlikely to feel welcome.  Yet when I come to a “warm” website with the company personality up close and personal on the home page, I’m much more likely to stick around and see if the site has information/products/services for me.

What is the ideal for your business website?

The ideal is, first, have a website.  If you don’t have one already, get one.  This will serve as your home base for connecting with potential customers/clientele on the web.  (And, yes, this is equally important for both online and offline businesses.)

Second, make sure your website is social media friendly.  If it isn’t, make changes right now: 

When people land on your site’s home page they should immediately know your name (and your photo) and that you are the site’s owner. 

Then make sure you have an active Twitter account and a Facebook (business) page and encourage people to interact with you on those two sites. 

Plus, if you can commit to publishing new blog posts approximately three times a week (by you or by guest bloggers), definitely consider having a blog.  It’s a great way to interact with your potential customers/clientele.

If you want more convincing that social media works, watch this short video by Chuck Hendershot of Exit Realty Group NJ: http://budurl.com/socialmediapraise

Phyllis Zimbler Miller has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing.  Get her FREE report “Twitter, Facebook, and Your Website: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3 for Your Business” at http://www.millermosaicpowerof3.com

Creative and Cost-Effective Internet Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

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This is a guest post from L. Drew Gerber, CEO of www.PublicityResults.com.

Marketing your small or home-based business should be a fun endeavor, but most importantly it needs to be cost-effective.

When you use the Internet as your platform, the possibilities are endless. Increasing your customer base is all about getting the word out. Awareness is key and all you have to do is pick up the megaphone! Here are a few tips you can use:

Free media leads

Free services such as http://www.PitchRate.com can help you get valuable media coverage. This is a great way to find the media and build relationships with them. Experts and small business owners who have signed on with PitchRate have had great results pitching journalists and getting their expertise out to the world. It offers an amazing opportunity to gain free publicity for you or your business. Sign up and you will receive free daily opportunities via email to speak with the media about topics and trends related to your business or expertise.

Article Portals

Free article portals allow you to post expert articles on the Web to promote your business. They offer a great opportunity for you to implement your SEO marketing plan by writing articles with specific keywords that will drive more traffic to your Web site.

Free press release distribution

Free press release distribution sites like http://www.1888pressrelease.com allow you to post press releases on the Web related to your business and its happenings. They offer another great opportunity to implement your SEO marketing plan and build your business’s Internet presence. One of the hardest things about PR is getting the information out there and read by potential customers. Sites like these provide an effective platform to help increase your Web site traffic.

Social Networking

Free social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, offer companies endless possibilities to publicize their products and services. Social networking connects you with potential customers, existing customers and partners to build your business. It allows you to get a feel for what is happening in your market and to provide excellent customer service. Create a fan page for your business on Facebook and offer special promotions just for your fans. Before you know it, the word will be spread throughout the network. Do the same with Twitter.

Video Portals

Post videos to free portals like YouTube and Metacafe to increase your Web site traffic. Many of these portals will allow you to link to your site as well as offer a cool platform to market your business. Have fun and be creative with it. You never know; it may go viral.

What’s most important about these free marketing opportunities is the ability to test the waters. You are investing your time, but it’s a great chance to take some risks, be creative and have fun with your marketing plan. When it’s time to invest your money — if you even have to — you’ll have realistic expectations and a good idea what your target market is interested in.

L. Drew Gerber is CEO of www.PublicityResults.com and creator of www.PitchRate.com, a free media tool that connects journalists and the highest rated experts. Gerber’s business practices and staffing innovations have been revered by PR Week, Good Morning America and the Christian Science Monitor. His companies handle international PR campaigns and his staff develops online press kits for authors, speakers and companies with Online PressKit 24/7, a technology he developed (www.PressKit247.com). Contact L. Drew Gerber at: or call him at 828-749-3182.