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. [...]

Someone sent this video tutorial to me the other day, and it’s not bad. Some of the techniques the narrator describes are tedious, but worthwhile. I think he leans a little more toward the game theory of search engine marketing as opposed to the larger picture, but that’s OK. I’m actually a lot more interested [...]

From the business.gov web site: Online Advertising Law An old cartoon in the New Yorker showed two dogs in front of a computer, and had the caption “On the Internet, Nobody Knows You’re a Dog.” The inherent anonymity of the Internet has fostered a number of shady advertising and marketing practices, such as unsolicited e-mail [...]

Some choice bits on marketing from the SBA web site. 100+ Marketing Ideas Marketing is all about satisfying customer needs. The following represents a comprehensive list of marketing ideas; use it to help better understand customer needs and ways to satisfy those needs. Never let a day pass without engaging in at least one marketing [...]

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is generally a waste of time in my opinion.  There are a few legitimate firms, but for the most part, it’s a group of individuals trying to game search engines, or worse just take your money. Here’s what I do for SEO: I include all the page elements that are important [...]