I have saved all the business cards I’ve been handed. Great networking is done by having business cards of other businesses to hand out.  By doing so I have become more efficient at networking with my contacts.  When someone asks me, if I know of someone who has a product or service. I have a stack to pull from. The process of spreading the word of other businesses, in your card stack,  you yourself become more knowledgeable. You learn what others are doing with their businesses. Your learn the business concentrations people have selected to focus on. You learn what’s hot in the market place, the new  business trends, and what people are the most in need of for services.

Your card stack is a sampling of the business types and the demographics of your community.  Which in itself may get you thinking. What type of businesses are missing in your area? Can you fill a hole or niche which is needed in your area?

Saving and recycling the cards,  to others is key.

As you may have already guessed, I have a passion for networking.  Many of my friends are very creative business people with great products.  The key here is they are very creative and business people.  One often over rides the other, the creativity time over takes the time to run a business. Often what happens, the time needed for the creative juices  to flow, takes away time for running a business.  So they have a website, Great products and No customers.  AH, that’s were the networking comes in.  Networking doesn’t have to be dull, so use your creativity on the networking part as well.

Networking Wahm

By DeAnna Troupe

Online networking is an awesome way to get new clients. However, it can be difficult to handle all of the invitations and manage all of the connections. Here are some steps to help you streamline the online networking process.

1. Use templates whenever possible.
There are many tasks that you do over and over again. You send invitations, thank you notes, and updates. You can save yourself time if you create a template letter in word or notepad. This way instead of having to think of what you want to write, you can just copy and paste the letter.

2. Outsource the tasks.
You can also save yourself time in your online networking by outsourcing your online networking tasks. There are virtual assistants that specialize in contact management. Since you have created templates, you can just email these files to your virtual assistant and have her send those emails out.

3. Designate a certain amount of time to spend on online networking.
Another way to save time networking is to only allot a certain amount of time per day to network. Only do your networking tasks once or twice per day.

4. Set up a separate email account that you use just for online networking.
If you belong to a lot of online networks the amount of email messages that you get can get overwhelming. I have a different email account set up that I only use for networking. This way my invitations don’t get lost among other email messages.

Online networking is a great free way to get new clients. Use the steps I mentioned above to streamline your online networking efforts.

DeAnna Troupe is a virtual assistant. Claim your free ecourse on traffic generation today by going to http://www.deannaspencer.com/list.html

7 Ways to Build Strong Networking Relationships

By Kim Isley
1) Go out of your way to welcome new members and visitors

We all know how difficult it can be to walk into a room full of people we don’t know, and we all know how comforting it can be to have a friendly person welcome us right away and put us at ease. Remember that as a member of a networking group you are not only representing yourself, but you are also representing the group. It benefits all of us to promote the group in a positive way and attract new members. If you make an extra effort to welcome new members and visitors you will be encouraging new membership, creating goodwill, and making a special connection with a person who will probably remember you for being so kind when they joined.

2) Come early and stay late

When you plan some time before and after a meeting to mingle and visit, you open space up for good things to happen and deep conversations to take place. Conversely, when you feel rushed people will sense your stress and will be less likely to approach you. The 20 minutes before and after a meeting is the perfect time to further build relationships with people you already know, and make new connections with people you don’t.

3) Support other members’ events and workshops

A lot of time and energy goes into planning an event or workshop, and supporting other members by attending one is sure to build your relationship with them. Many events like open houses and seasonal parties are free, and some members are willing to trade for the admission to their workshops that have a fee. When you go out of your way to attend the events and workshops of other members, it gives you a better understanding of what that member offers, gives you an opportunity to meet new people, and the member giving the event or workshop will be more likely to support you in the same way in the future.

4) Make coffee dates

Inviting a group member to coffee is the perfect opportunity to build a new relationship. Approach the date with the goal of finding out a lot about them rather than just promoting yourself and your business. You never know what you will discover about someone, and chances are you will find some way you can help each other in your business or personal lives.

5) Refer, refer, refer

Each of us has an extensive network of friends, family, co-workers, business associates, and community members we know and talk with on a regular basis. Chances are, during any given day one of those people in your network needs something a group member offers. When you are talking to people, always carry your mental rolodex of members with you, and think of that list first when you sense the opportunity to make a referral.

6) When in doubt, ask questions

Networking with strangers often feels difficult and awkward for many people. When you feel weird about approaching someone new at a networking meeting, a really great way to build a relationship almost instantly is to ask questions about the person you are approaching. People generally like to talk about themselves, and they will think of you in a positive light because you expressed interest in them first. And, often you will find out something interesting that can help you continue the conversation.

7)Volunteer

Networking groups are sometimes member supported and member run, creating a need for many jobs to be filled by volunteers. Volunteering for a board position or greeter at a meeting not only supports the group as a whole and makes you more visible to other members, it also creates a bond between you and the other members who donate their time.

Kim Isley is the founder and director of Trees for a Change an organization that plants trees as gifts in U.S. National Forests that have been destroyed by wildfire. Find out more about Kim by clicking here.

The response to our previous blog post about 26 Ways to Use eBooks to Boost Your Business has just been awesome. So awesome that I’ve been inspired to think of even more ways to use eBooks – 10, in fact.

But before I get into that, let me just remind you that you don’t have to write these eBooks yourself. If your business is related to Mommyhood, check out Mom PLR eBooks. With your monthly membership, you’ll get private label rights (PLR) to an eBook, articles, blog posts and everything else you need for marketing.

1. Use content from the eBook to post meaningful and valuable comments in blog posts related to your niche.

2. Write a blog post about each topic in the eBook’s table of contents. Use on your own blog or as guest posts in related blogs.

3. Use the eBook as the basis of an online survey, to help you learn more about your market such as what type of information they want.

4. Create a FAQ page or special report with links to your site and/or affiliate links. Then make it go viral.

5. Distill the key points of an eBook into a poster – to give away or sell.

6. Use information in the eBook to create high-quality landing pages for your Pay Per Click campaigns.

7. Based on the eBook contents, develop a set of comics you can give away to build your list.

8. Pre-load a USB flash drive with several related eBooks and sell at a premium.

9. If you have a membership site, offer the eBook as an unannounced bonus.

10. Organize a webinar around the eBook. Record the webinar, have it transcribed, and you’ve got a brand-new product to either sell or give away.

Whew! With our previous blog post, that’s a total of 36 ways you can use eBooks to build your business. If I’ve missed any, please feel free to let me know by posting a comment below.

There’s so much you can do with content, but it takes time, effort and money to create it. When you have access to high-quality PLR content for a specific market, such as Mom PLR eBooks, then you’ll have plenty of time and energy to get maximum profits from the content. If you want to try out Mom PLR eBooks, use coupon code “ebookboost” (without the quotation marks) to get your first month for only $5. After that, it’s $29 every month and money well spent. I’ve been a member for over a year.

Click here to try Mom PLR eBooks for only $5 (with coupon code “ebookboost”.

I have given you so many ideas for building your biz with eBooks – which one will you do first?

eBooks are one of the most popular forms of content on the Internet today. They’re easy to publish, eco-friendly, and virtually free to distribute.

Done-for-you private label rights (PLR) packages like Mom PLR eBooks make publishing and marketing them easier than ever. No wonder, many Internet marketers are making fortunes from selling eBooks.

But did you know that an eBook can boost your business in so many ways, other than by selling it as an eBook?

Here are 26 ways one eBook can boost your business:

1. Break up the eBook into blog posts or articles for your site. Publishing fresh content frequently is a good way to build up traffic.

2. Use content from the eBook to respond to questions in Yahoo! Answers and discussion forums in your market. Of course, add a link to your site.

3. Turn the eBook into a training tool for your affiliates. Good affiliates are essential to your business.

4. Pull out content from the eBook to create a Squidoo lens, Hub Page and Google Knol. These Web 2.0 platforms are excellent sources of back links to your site.

5. Rewrite parts of the eBook into unique articles and submit to Ezine Articles, Lady Pens, Associated Content, Go Articles, and other article directories. More quality back links for your money pages.

6. Break up the eBook into an e-course. You can either sell or give away the e-course.

7. Take parts of the eBook and use them in your email newsletter or Ezine.

8. Give away the eBook to build up a mailing list. Readers will gladly give their email addresses for an eBook that addresses their problems.

9. Offer the eBook as a bonus for a paid product. Increase the value of your product.

10. Give the eBook away as an unannounced bonus to your customers. They’ll love you for it and will be happy to buy from you again.

11. Take the most actionable parts of the eBook and create a printed promotional postcard, flyer or newsletter.

12. Rewrite the eBook for a more specific niche, such as “stay at home Moms,” “Moms of multiples,” “Moms of teens,” “homeschooling Moms,” etc. Create a new stream of income from another market.

13. Sell the eBook as a printed book through Lulu.com. Be where few Internet marketers are.

14. Expand the eBook into a self-study course, by creating mindmaps, cheatsheets and step-by-step guides.

15. Break up the eBook into an audio or teleseminar series, which you either sell or give away.

16. Transform each chapter of the eBook into a podcast via iTunes. Podcasts increase your authority, drive traffic to your site, and warm up listeners to your offer.

17. Use the eBook to create a slideshow or screen capture video. Use the video to market your product or service on video sharing sites like YouTube.

18. Read the eBook to create an audio product. Sell it as a digital product, or a preloaded mp3 player. You’ll stand out from your competition.

19. Translate the eBook into another language, and sell it in other countries.

20. When preparing for a media interview, get content from the eBook to build your key messages.

21. Distill the eBook into a special report to either sell or give away.

22. Get the best nuggets of content from the eBook and turn them into Twitter tweets. Add a link to your site or squeeze page.

23. Use the eBook as a reference material when writing a press release.

24. Transform the eBook into a white paper, which explains your product or service to your target market.

25. Bundle the eBook with other eBooks about related topics, to create a comprehensive home study course.

26. Break the eBook content down into group coaching sessions you give through teleconference, teleseminar or webinar format. Charge for the group coaching, or give free access to build your list.

As you can see, an eBook can boost your business in so many ways. If you’ve only been using an eBook as an eBook, you’re missing out. That eBook can be repurposed, transformed, re-targeted and monetized in so many ways. Even a single eBook can do so much for your business.

If you don’t want to write your own eBook or hire a ghostwriter to do it for you, then using PLR content is your answer. PLR is the most affordable and fastest way to get an eBook and other content for your biz.

If you’re in the Mommy market, then you have to check out Mom PLR eBooks. Your monthly subscription gets you one brand-new, professionally written eBook every month, along with everything you need to market it:

- a special report to give away
- a sales letter to sell the eBook
- 5 articles
- 5 blog posts
- 1 squeeze page to build your list of readers interested in the eBook topic
- 6 emails to follow up and promote to your list
- eCovers for the special report and eBook
- 6 promotional banners
- list of affiliate programs related to the topic of the month
- checklists and other guides to help you make the most of your PLR package

Because you have PLR on everything, you can edit, rewrite and transform the content any way you like – and even put your name on it. All the graphics are in PSD format, so you could easily edit those as well.

Can’t wait to try it out? I don’t blame you. Use coupon code “ebookboost” and get your first month membership for only $5. Use it to join Mom PLR eBooks now.

It isn’t long after you start your business before you hear people begin to tell you, it’s a good idea to get a blog started. Unfortunately, some times people don’t tell you why or are only able to give you a sketchy idea why. How is blogging why. How is blogging helpful to your business, particularly if the business is offline or when you are a service provider, like a belly dancer who belly dancer who performs at private functions for example.

Here are some ways having a blog could help generate more interest, leads or bookings.

It Exhibits Your Expertise

It is alright to put up videos and pictures on web pages to show others what yo to show others what you can do for them, but I’ll bet you have more and newer videos and snap shots. Also, some orders are unique. These are all good reasons to show off and what better way than to use blog because it is so easy to update. A belly dancer can display videos where a client has requested something unique which forced her to think outside the box and come up with some creative choreography.

It Can Demonstrate How You Will Solve Client Problems

You know the old saying, people buy solutions, not productons, not products or services. You can explain this on a regular web page but on a blog, it all becomes more believable, more tangible.

It Shows You Are Actively Using Your Skills

If you are currently working with clients, any post you make about your job is a good testimonial. It shows that there are people who already trust you to do what you claim you will do. Better still if your customer can contribute to your blog or allow you to quote them.

You Can Get To Know Your Prospects And They Get To Know You

This is true particularly when you offer a service because people usually want to work with others whom they can get along with. Because a blog is interactive, through the comments people can begin to experience you and get a feel of how the company handles their customers.

It Can Help Increase Website Traffic

When you write good, content that is relevant and also promote it, people will take notice. When they do, they are more likely to share it on their own blog and their social networks and even decide to email it to their newsletter subscribers. All good ways to get fresh traffic.

It Can Reduce The Need To Answer Questions Over And Over

There are questions in every business that people tend to ask again and again. Whenever you answer these questions on your blog, you help your prospects out by giving them the information they are seeking, you plant the seed of trust, you add fresh content to your website, stuff that search engines and people alike love. And finally, you reduce your work because now you don’t have to type your answer again and again.

Blogging can be a quite rewarding. The down side is, starting one can be somewhat of a big learning curve if you are pretty new to web publishing or feel you will fare better with technical stuff when you have some help. True, you can hire someone. At the same time, knowing the basics isn’t such a bad thing because it reduces your reliance on others when you need something simple done. You don’t have to go at it alone. There are resources you might want to check out, like the Blogging Starter Pack.
It is like having a tutor to guide you step by step getting your blog up and running.

I firmly believe in the power of networking as I have seen first hand how this has helped me grow professionally and personally. You need to be consistent with your networking efforts and this holds true for both online and offline networking.

There are a few basic tips you should remember when it comes to networking and they are as follows:

1. Networking is not about selling your business or products to everyone you meet.

2. Don’t come on too strong the first time you meet new people.

3. Share about yourself, not just your business. “People do business with people they trust and people they have gotten to know.”

4. Ask people what they do and invite them to share about themselves and their business.

5. Listen more than you talk and ask questions that will get people talking — not just a yes or no answer.

6. Make notes on things people have that might be useful to yourself or others.
*tip* I keep index cards on business contacts in a file box. I will write down information about this business contact on the index cards.

7. Find common ground with the person you’re getting to know. “People do business with people just like them.”

8. If asked what you do don’t give someone a long sales pitch. Keep it short and informative. If they want to know more they will ask.

9. Always tell the person you were talking with it was a pleasure meeting them and ask if it is ok if you add them to your contact
list.

10. Ask for their business card — that way you can be sure that there will be follow up. You can exchange cards if you wish but always get their card or if online, their email or IM name. Ask permission to contact them again.

Shelly Hill ~ Tupperware Manager
Contact Shelly at Ravish30@my.tupperware.com
Web: http://my.tupperware.com/Ravish30
Recipe Blog: http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com

Experienced business owners value the importance of their customers.  They will tell you that customers are the lifeblood of their business.  Because of that, many business owners believe that the key to success is to constantly find new customers.  But this is not the case at all.

Smart business owners know that the real key to success is to develop long-standing business relationships with their clients and keep them coming back for reorders and new products or services.

This has many benefits.  First of all, when a business owner has clients coming back for repeat purchases, the business owner will not need to spend as much time on finding new customers.  This gives you more time to focus on the business itself instead of more marketing.

The business’ income will not suffer, as new work will be coming to the business, instead of the business constantly chasing new work down.

Not only will this save time and resources, it is also a more cost-effective way to do business.  The business owner won’t need to invest as much in their marketing and advertising campaigns.  Putting together new ad campaigns can be a serious drain on time and money.

Happy customers are also more likely to send referrals to a business.  If a satisfied customer runs into a friend or colleague needing the type of services and products you offer, they will give that person your contact information.  This results in even more work coming into the business without the business owner chasing after it.

If you like the sound of enjoying repeat business with your current customers while spending less time and money attracting new clients, you may be wondering how to put this into action.  Here are some tips on how to keep your customers happy and coming back.

* Offer quality products and/or services

While it is hard to say which of the following tips is the most important, this one is extremely important.  Without a quality product or service, there is not much reason for your customers to come back.

* Practice effective communication

This is important whenever a business owner is dealing with a customer or client, but it really comes into play for service providers.  It can be very difficult for a business owner to turn over a piece of their business to someone else, especially someone who does not live close by.

But that is exactly what happens whenever a business owner hires a virtual assistant, ghostwriter, web designer, or other service provider.

Service providers can keep their clients happy and at ease by providing regular updates on project statuses and asking questions whenever they are in doubt about something.

Also remember that this is a business relationship and keep that communication professional.

* Provide good customer service

In the above tip, we talked about effective communication skills, but that is just one part of a good customer service plan.  You have probably received poor customer service from a business in the past.  How did that make you feel about the business, and did it change your mind about doing business with them again in the future?

A general rule of thumb is to always treat your customers the way you would like to be treated.  That simple statement will ensure you will have customers coming back time and time again.