What Are Intelligent Numbers

Writen by Kieron James

Marketing Numbers UK

Marketing numbers, already prolific in the United States, are quickly gaining popularity in the UK. They are emerging as a powerful business tool that many organisations should not be without. These are special telephone numbers which may be used to eliminate geographical barriers, generate revenue and strengthen brand presence.

The major advantage for businesses of marketing numbers is that they are generally supplied with powerful number translation services such as voice and fax to email, time of day routing, call and fax broadcast, follow me or hunt group facilities and other valuable call handling functionality. Information about inbound calls (date, time, geographical area, duration) provides valuable marketing information to the business.

Freephone Numbers

Freephone numbers - typically with the 0800 prefix - are free of charge to callers within UK and to callers on some mobile networks. The charges of the call are borne by the organisation using the phone number, but can be as little as 2p per minute. Research has demonstrated that 61% of UK callers are more likely to call these numbers than standard charge numbers. 0800 marketing numbers offer an excellent opportunity for businesses to dramatically improve lead generation.

0845 Numbers

These have been described as local rate, but were actually introduced as ""LoCall"" numbers. Customers can call them from anywhere in the UK for just 3.95p per minute during the day and 1p per minute in the evenings and at weekends. Though some operators charge the business for inbound calls received on its 0845 marketing number, Numberstore offers 0845 marketing numbers with no ongoing line rental or call charges – a compelling reason for Internet Service Providers and companies to make themselves more accessible to their subscribers and customers throughout the UK.

0870 Numbers

0870 marketing numbers, historically referred to as ""national rate numbers"", offer all the advantages of 0845 numbers, though calls are charged at slightly higher rates. This means that businesses may also share in the revenue earned by the operators from their inbound calls.

Premium Rate Numbers

While these are not necessarily marketing numbers, premium rate numbers (090), are an excellent option for technical support, chat lines, phone-ins and competitions. The market for these services alone is valued at around £2 billion in the UK. Here the charges for the call are borne totally by the caller while the revenue generated from the call is split between the telephone operator and the business receiving the phone calls.

Alpha-numeric Numbers

Any of the ranges described above may be used to generate memorable alpha-numeric numbers – eg 0905 057 HELP for a business support number or 0905 057 CHAT for a chatline.

To find out more about marketing numbers, visit www.numberstore.com which offers a wide range of tariffs and numbers, instant set up and online number routing services.

I write articles for http://www.numberstore.com Numberstore is a trading name of Zimo Communications Limited, a UK digital communications company established with quality of service as its principal objective.

Advertising Your Home Business On A Budget

Writen by Stone Evans

When you are starting out in a new home business and no one knows who you are, one of the greatest challenges you will face is how to drum up new business.

If there were not people in your community or marketplace that you knew who needed your products or services, you probably would not have started your business to begin with. But, once you have talked to those who you personally knew who needed your what you offer, then your next task is to find others who will help keep your doors open.

Many people know that they must turn to advertising at some point in the future, but they hope that day will be long down the road. For some, this utopian concept will come to fruition. But for the rest of us in the real world, we must come up with creative solutions for meeting our home business advertising needs while working within our budget.

Most people have a misconception about having to spend lots of money in order to advertise their home business. When you start out, you honestly will not have much money available for advertising, and if you do, you should still spend it wisely.

Before you jump headfirst into the world of advertising, let me share some of the lessons I have learned concerning this most important topic.

LESSON #1

It does not have to cost an arm and a leg to advertise your home business, unless you fail to plan and fail to test.

As much as is possible, you should always test your advertising. If you jump in and start dumping tons of money in to advertising without first testing your advertising, you might find yourself broke and without sales at the end of the road. Most people who commit this error write off their failure on the home business they chose or the economy or any of a hundred other excuses. But, if they are unwilling to take responsibility for their mistake, they will never learn from their mistake. Don't let this be you.

LESSON #2

All testing should be done in blocks. If you begin to advertise simultaneously in newspapers, radio and television, how will you know which advertising is bringing people to your cash register? You won't. All you will know that something might be working, but you will not know what is actually doing the trick.

Even if you tell people in your advertising to tell you how they found you, my experience shows that fewer than 10% of the people ever will tell you anything --- and those people who do may not even get the facts straight! You cannot rely on your customers to tell you what advertising is working for your home business. You must put in the extra effort to know for yourself.

LESSON #3

Only when you have a proven and solid advertising portfolio should you venture to drop big bucks in an advertising campaign. Even then, you should be careful to keep further measurements to determine how much the maximum advantage of an ad would be. Sometimes you might be able to reach ten times as many people, but depending on the kind of media and other factors, the additional exposure will only generate twice as many sales. Keep your eye attuned to situations like this to get the most from your advertising dollars.

LESSON #4

As Lesson #3 illustrates, sometimes your best advertising investment may actually cost you less money. When you are first starting out, whether you are running a home business or a business outside of your home, you need to be able to get people talking and thinking about your business.

If you are busy testing ads in media's such as the newspaper, magazines, radio, and television, you need to learn ways of promoting your business that do not require large cash expenditures. A few examples are:

· Word of Mouth
· Business Cards
· Press Releases
· Non-Primetime Ads on Radio and Television

Here is more information about each type of low-cost advertising:

WORD OF MOUTH

This of course is the cheapest kind of advertising on the planet --- it does not cost you anything. Ask your customers if they know anyone who could also use your products or services. When they are happy with your offerings and service, they will be willing to tell you whom you can contact, and they will pass the word for you.

BUSINESS CARDS

You can usually pick up 500 business cards for about $20. When you do, hand them out. Do not give more than a couple of cards to each person. If they need more cards from you, they will ask.

Some people are known to network with others on a regular basis. Some of these people are also known to be always looking for an extra few bucks. With these people, you can suggest to them that if they write their name on the back of one of your business cards and the card is presented to you, then you will pay a referral fee to them. You do not have to offer much --- sometimes one dollar is enough. Look at your home business and your offerings and decide how much would be a good referral fee.

PRESS RELEASES

Press Releases are a good source for generating news about your home business. The business editor at your local newspaper is always on the lookout for a good business story to fill the business news section of the newspaper.

Of course, the business editor understands the economics of running a paper and is more inclined to run your story if you buy advertising in his/her publication, but will still print stories for special events and openings.

The important thing to remember about Press Releases is that it must be constructed in the form of a news story. Even if you are a sole proprietorship, quotes from you should be written in a third person format: John Doe said, "Your quote here."

A Press Release should pack the most important information at the beginning of the copy, and leave extra details towards the end.

You should always provide the reporter who gets the task a simple and easy way for him/her to contact you directly. Often the reporter will want to contact you to get details that will enhance their take on your story.

To learn more about creating Press Releases, you may check out Rusty Cawley's site: http://www.PRrainmaker.com/

NON-PRIMETIME ADS ON RADIO AND TELEVISION

Believe it or not, some of the best rates for radio and television are on the overnight and non-primetime venues. These target times are not a total waste as they can easily keep the infomercial people in business.

These off-hours are just less populated than the primetime hours.

Don't be afraid to check your local radio and television rates for non-primetime hours to see what bargains may exist. With television, primetime is 7pm to 10pm. With radio, primetime is 8am to 5pm. This sure leaves a whole lot of hours available to advertise your home business at discount rates!

IN CONCLUSION

When it comes down to it, there is a lot to understand about advertising, but when you have the basic knowledge down pat, everything will fall into place and bring more dollars to your bank account.

Copyright 2004 Stone Evans

Stone Evans Will Personally Build A Money Making Website Just For You That's 100% Ready To Take Orders And Pull In Massive Residual Profits. Get Details And Signup Today At: http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com

Why Ticket Design Matters

Writen by Joshua Francis

Ticket design is often overlooked. Event planners and organizers plan how many tickets they will need for a given event and how to distribute those tickets, but stop short of putting much thought into the ticket design itself. From a branding perspective this is a lost opportunity. Branding is, after all, managing all of the different touch points that an organization has with the public and your tickets are one touch point that all of your customers will come in contact with.

I have kept several tickets from events that I attended including one from the 2002 Winter Olympics and four from the 2003 Notre Dame vs. Navy football game. I, like most people, keep tickets from events that meant something to me, but there is another factor in determining whether or not I keep the ticket: what the ticket looks like.

The Salt Lake Olympic Committee (SLOC) went so far as to produce two tickets for each seat, one that would get you into the door and another that was just for souvenir purposes. While the Olympics have a budget that dwarfs most other events, it shows that they have realized that tickets themselves have value. Check out the season tickets for any professional or college sports team and you will see that someone has made a conscious effort to create value through the design of that ticket. An attractive ticket sells for more than a generic ticket because people associate value with the look and feel.

Cost is probably the biggest factor when choosing a generic ticket. Attractive tickets do cost more than generic ones. They usually run $0.03-0.08 cents more per ticket than a generic ticket does. However, if you charge 25 cents more per ticket (and you easily can), that becomes a profit of 17 cents per ticket ($170 for each thousand tickets that you sell). That profit is on top of the marketing and advertising benefits that you gain from having an attractive ticket. If people like the tickets to your event they are more likely to show that ticket to their friends (this is starting to sound like free, and viral, advertising). Most of the marketing classes that I have taken, focused on getting the most results from the smallest budget possible, if that is your goal, then making money with your tickets and getting marketing value is as good as it gets.

The bottom line is that the time, effort and money spent designing tickets generally pays for itself. It may not be cost effective to hire a full time graphic designer to create tickets for you, but it does deserve your attention as you plan your future events.

Josh Francis, Business Development, http://www.TicketPrinting.com Josh spent three years working at Brigham Young University's Ticket Office before recieving an MBA in Marketing and Technology at the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business. While at Notre Dame, Josh won the McClosley Business Plan Competition with FlashSeats, a company that is revolutionizing lifecycle management of tickets to events. Josh currently works for TicketPrinting.com located in Bozeman, Montana.

More Wasted Online Real Estate

Writen by John Reese

In a very recent newsletter (two days ago) I wrote to tell you about maximizing the income from your web sites by making sure you use every available piece of "online real estate".

It's time to tell you about another "place" that you can use right now to make more profit from the traffic you are already receiving.

Unless you've been living under an Internet Marketing rock, you've integrated email into your marketing. You have an opt-in list, send emails to your customers, send automated messages -- such as email receipts when someone orders a product from you, etc.

Email messages that you already send to prospects and customers on a regular basis are GOLDMINES for producing additional profit.

Here's how...

It's simple. At the top of many of these emails you can simply add a little text "box" that has a small ad promoting another list, one of your other products, or an affiliate product.

That's right, you can put an AD in many of the emails you already send as a part of your business.

Just create a little box and say, "Today's Sponsor" and create a little ezine-like sponsor ad.

That's all there is to it. You'll INSTANTLY produce more opt-ins for other lists you want to promote, sales of your other products, or affiliate commissions.

Here are some specific types of emails that you can easily ad this "sponsor ad" to:

- "Thank You" emails. Such as confirmation emails you send to all the people that subscribe to your ezine or opt-in list.

- Email receipts. If you aren't already sending an email receipt everytime someone orders from you, you need to. This is the perfect place to promote something else.

- "Unsubscribe" emails. Do you send an email to confirm that someone has been unsubscribed after their request? Why not use that email to hit them with one last offer as they are "on their way out"? :-)

You don't always have to use a blatant "sponsor ad" type of ad. You can also include creative endorsements. Here's an example...

Let's say you have an ezine about copywriting. In the email you send to new subscribers to confirm their subscription request you could include something like this...

"Thank you for subscribing to the 'Copywriting Tips' ezine. You will be receiving your next issue very soon. In the meantime, if you're interested in studying some copywriting techniques, I highly recommend you grab a copy of Yanik Silver's 'Web Copy Secrets' ."

It's just that easy! This is a very powerful and effective technique especially for ezine subscription confirmation emails. People subscribe to ezines to learn more about a specific topic. This is the perfect opportunity to give them some "recommended reading" resources -- i.e. affiliate links. :-)

My good friend, Stephen Pierce, is a fantastic marketer that uses the "Recommended Reading" technique really well anytime he promotes affiliate products. This technique works just as well in emails as it does on web pages.

If you don't yet have a copy of Stephen's incredibly popular ebook, "The Whole Truth", you can get your own copy here: http://www.the-whole-truth.com

----------------------------------------- John Reese is an Internet Marketing pioneer that has been actively marketing online since 1990. John has sold millions of dollars worth of products and services online and his network of Web Sites have received over 1.4 BILLION Web Site visitors since their inception. You can learn more about John, his home study courses, and subscribe to his free ezine by visiting: http://www.marketingsecrets.com (c)2003 MarketingSecrets.com. All rights reserved.

How To Build Your Party Plan Business Online

Writen by Jeanine Byers

Are you like me?

You've joined a party plan business but you'd really like to build it online? If you'd rather concentrate most of your efforts on the Internet, there are a lot of resources available and strategies that will help you succeed.

Here are some ways to automate meeting your monthly minimum purchase requirements, finding partners to join you in the business and attracting customers to your website…

(1) Use online parties to build your business--this is a great way to invite people from all over the country. Here are a few tips for a successful online party…

Set a date and invite your guests, but leave enough time to send each one a catalog and a couple of email reminders.

Plan some games that they can do online by exploring the corporate website or your own personalized one. Customers can race each other to find out whether or not you have a cucumber melon shower gel or how many different gourmet soups you offer. You can even offer a prize to the person who answers the most questions right.

Here is a website that offers free online parties… http://networkwahms.com

(2) Join groups or clubs to take care of monthly minimums. These are groups where consultants agree to buy from each other to help each other build their businesses.

Some switch months and everyone buys from the "consultant of the month", and some are designed so that each person has her own group of people buying from her each month.

Here is one example… http://hometown.aol.com/shopperscorners/

(3) Join coops or leads groups to build your team online--networking groups can work really well offline and now, this same principle is being used online.

These coops are created so that when someone comes into the system, she indicates what she is looking for and gets referred to the appropriate person in the coop.

For more information on referral coops, go to http://tinyurl.com/6dguh

(4) Generate curiosity and provide information to bring more people to your website. One great way to attract people to your website is to create online quizzes that makes them curious about the results. You capture their email addresses, send them the results and make recommendations based on them.

For example, if you sell skin care and cosmetics, you could create a quiz that helps them identify what their skin type is. Then, you can recommend the appropriate skin care system. You can even offer a free consultation, in case they have any questions.

If you're interested in quiz-making software that is reasonably priced, try the Assessment Generator, at http://www.profcs.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=176939&u=www.assessmentgenerator.com

Another good way to get your name out there and bring people to your website is to write articles. You can make them related to your business, or not.

Similar subjects that support using your products may help, but you'll be putting contact information at the end of whatever you write, and as long as they like it, and find it helpful, they'll want to know more about you and what you do.

Here are a couple of websites that accept article submissions (find more by doing a search on Yahoo or Google)…

http://www.ideamarketers.com

http://www.wahmarticles.com

About The Author Jeanine Byers is an elemental home style consultant and a certified healing coach who helps women create homes for their souls. Take her elemental home style assessment and sign up for her free 7-day e-course so that you can create a warm, welcoming, nurturing sanctuary and retreat. Go to http://www.createsanctuary.com She is also a founding presenter with Northern Lights at Home, building her business online with the methods described above. Visit that website at http://www.candleconsultant.biz Reprint with Resource Box intact healerintuitive@yahoo.com

How To Match Web Site Content To Visitors Decision Making Stage

Writen by Bobette Kyle

An important question to answer when creating or revising a Web site is "What are my visitors' needs?" The answer will drive your site design and marketing decisions.

Customer Decision Making Process

One way to understand visitor needs is to think in terms of the customer decision-making process. Visitor needs vary depending upon their stage in the decision making process.

Karon Thackston, copywriter and proprietor at Marketing Words (http://www.MarketingWords.com) explains by breaking the customer decision making process (i.e. buying process) into at least four stages: Need/Want Recognition, Information Search, Evaluation, and Purchase.

If a visitor has already made the decision to purchase a product or service, for example, she needs easy ordering options. If the customer is early in the decision making process, however, she needs more general information.

Information or Sales Oriented Content?

Dee Kreidel, owner of Dax Development Corporation, recommends identifying a site as either an information site (for early decision stages) or a sales site (for late decision stages), but not both:

"Our experience with our clients demonstrates that most people will not shop at a site if they see it as an informational site because their state of mind/focus is different when they are there -- they aren't necessarily looking to shop, they are wanting information."

Attracting the Right Visitors

By understanding your site visitors' decision-making process and providing them with the right information, you can convert more visitors to purchase. Attracting more of the right visitors can improve conversions as well.

Managing a Sales Site

If you own a sales site, those early in the decision process are not likely to buy from you. Logically, attracting visitors who are late in the decision making process will increase conversion rates.

One way to do this is to have a presence on information sites that attract visitors in your target customer groups. On the information sites, visitors are gathering information and evaluating options. In other words, they are preparing to make a purchase.

Michelle Horstman, owner of Choice Promotional Products ( http://www.choicepromotionalproducts.com) says, "I do get hits from advertising on 'informative' sites such as www.barmitzvahfindit.com, where they have a vendor area."

For those on a limited budget, Michelle suggests purchasing advertising on sites that participate in pay-per-click programs like Overture or Google AdWords.

"When you list with Google and others on your own, you may have to pay more than your ROI would justify." She explains. "However, when you advertise with an informational site, that site can afford to pay more for the clicks, since they are supported by multiple vendors/advertisers. Ask the site if they'll offer a trial period so you can see how much traffic it is producing."

Managing an Information Site

If you run an information site, the majority of your visitors will be too early in the decision process to purchase. So how can you both attract visitors in the early decision stages and earn revenue?

You can attract information seekers by structuring each page in your site so it gives information on a specific topic. This expands the list of key words through which searchers can find your site.

Other ways to earn revenue from an information site:

- Participate in a few select affiliate programs, which you can promote on topic-specific pages in your Web site.

- Join a targeted advertising network such as Google's AdSense.

- Sell your own advertising space.

In any case, coordinating your Web site marketing and site content to match visitors' stage in the decision making process creates a win-win situation. Your visitors find the information they need and you profit -- through sales, advertising, or affiliate revenue -- by meeting those needs.

About the Author Bobette Kyle draws upon 12+ years of Marketing/Executive experience, Marketing MBA, and online marketing research in her writing. Bobette is proprietor of the Web Site Marketing Plan Network, http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.com, and author of the marketing plan and Web promotion book "How Much For Just the Spider? Strategic Website Marketing For Small Budget Business." ( HowMuchForSpider.com/TOC.htm ) Copyright 2003,2004 Bobette Kyle. All rights reserved.

How Do You Find Niches Online And Make Money With Them

Writen by Gary A J Martin

The internet is a huge place with so many web sites on a hugely varied amount of subjects.

FInding good niches with lots of interest is more difficult because of the massive variety.

So, where is the best place to find profitable niches?

A site you may have heard of before. Ebay.

Yes. That site

It has so many different categories and an almost infinite number of sub categories.

All the research on the various popular categories, and sub categories has been done for you.

So what you do is look up a category you are interested in, or just browse topics until one catches your eye.

What you will see is the main category and a list of all the sub categories within that niche.

What you could do from here is develop a group of sites on this topic all linked together. Thereby, any visitors from one of your sites in the network most likely will visit other sites, since you will have links to all your sites within that niche networkon each web site.

Next, each site needs to be monetized. Here you can use Adsense, affiliate programs, and links to your own products you are selling.

Naturally, you will be trying to capture the name and email address of every visitor to each of your sites.

Since they have shown an interest in one of your minor niches, all lists you gain from here can be cross promoted. For example, a major topic is cat supplies, which has a series of sub categories, such as, cat collars, cat toys, litter boxes, and so on. All related to cats in some way. So all people interested in one of these sub niches likely have cats and will find value in the other sites you have put up in your cat network of sites.

Finding content for your sites is not difficult either. Staying with the cat theme, hire a ghost writer to research and write content for you on each topic. Or you could interview an expert on cats and give them credit for the information. Likely by doing this, they would be happy to give the interview for free. Everybody loves free publicity.

Do this on ten main topics and within 6 months to a year, you would have a full time internet income.

It really is as simple as this. Obviously work would be required. But no success comes before work, right?

So, how many niche network group of sites do you want to build?

Copyright Gary Martin 2006 All Rights Reserved

Gary Martin, an expert in Internet Marketing, shares a wealth of information on his website www.multiplewebincomestreams.com If you want to learn how to make money online and pick up free resources visit http://www.multiplewebincomestreams.com">this site today.