I stumbled on a new tool today that should help anyone in the business of direct mail marketing (sending postcards and flyers to generate business). As always, the biggest issue with this kind of marketing is putting together a reliable mailing list. For that, I recommend CompactLists.com. Their search tools allow you to break down [...]

Metrics are an extremely important part of converting customers to sales. If you run a web site, it’s important that you’re looking at your web site statistics like overall traffic to you site. But what about traffic from individual links? What if I want to track the effectiveness of a link placed above the fold, [...]

You put a link to your website at the bottom of all your emails, right? If you don’t you should – it’s free publicity. Anywho, wouldn’t it be nice to know who’s checking you out from your emails? Use a link tracker like this one to let you know anytime someone goes to your website [...]

An economic downturn is a great time to buy, expand, and build if you have the reserves to do so. But if you don’t here’s what I suggest: Throw yourself into whatever you’ve already got going. If you had money you could hire cheap labor to help with this, but if you don’t then you [...]

I recently had to design an html style invoice for a shopping cart system that users could view in their browser and print out. I couldn’t find one that I liked for free online, so I made my own. To save you the trouble, I’ve posted my template below. It’s free to use except for [...]

If you’re anything like me, your in-person and on the phone sales often come to a close when the prospect signs off on your sales contract. From that point, you can get on with work and send a bill. But what’s the worst part of closing a sale with a sales contract? It’s the waiting. [...]

Loss leaders are an integral part of sales. McDonald’s sells a double cheeseburger for basically the same amount it costs them to make it, but they turn a profit when you get fries and a Coke to go with it! My business is consulting, which means my product is intellectual rather than physical. If I’m [...]

In person sales are a talent of mine. I’m not the most silver-tongued devil out there, but I’m not afraid to stand in front of another person, tell them about my product, and ask for their business. It’s immensely helpful that I genuinely believe my product has value and that I have a list of [...]

Here are ten things that directly impacted the success of my web design business: Build sales leads through face-to-face in person networking. Accept credit cards online. Require 50% payment in advance before starting a project. People will respect you more if you charge them what you’re worth. Spend equal amounts of time developing your own [...]

Email auto responders are responsible for approximately 30% of the online product sales from my information based web sites. My typical auto responder follow up happens like this: Prospect signs up for the mailing list and receives a thank you email that day. A second email is sent the next day with a follow up. [...]