business cards

It’s gotten way too confusing to order business cards online. How do you choose a business card printer when there seem to be millions of them competing for your business?Shopping for business card printing online is like shopping for any other product – your goal is to find what you what, for a reasonable price, from a reputable dealer. The problem when buying business cards online is making sure you’re comparing apples to apples, as the saying goes.Finding the Business Cards You WantYour first task is to find an online business card printer who carries the type of business card you want. Most online business card printers offer full-color business cards in a standard size (3″ by 2.5″), so a simple search for “business cards” or “business card printing” will find those.You will need to decide whether to use custom artwork for your business card or one of the pre-designed backgrounds or templates offered by many business card printers. Again, many online business card printers allow you to order business cards either way.Don’t be put off by the idea of using backgrounds that are available to everyone else; odds are slim that any of your direct competitors will find and use the same background. And these are professionally done designs that flat-out make you look good to prospects. (Much better than a homemade business card!)If you need different cards, such as die-cut business cards or embossed (raised print) business cards, those are also easy to find using your favorite search engine. Many business card printers offer more than one type of card – raised print, one-color or full-color, for example. Some even offer magnetic cards, sticker cards and more.For the purposes of this article, we’ll assume you’re looking for full color business cards.Paying a Reasonable Price for Business CardsBusiness cards are the bargain buy of the marketing world, but comparison-shopping for business cards can be a nightmare. It’s not enough to compare style and price of business cards between printers (say, 1000 full-color cards, printed on one side – 4/0).Besides the style and price, you also should compare:

the thickness of the card stock (a 14pt card is sturdier than a 10pt card);

whether or not a protective coating is included in the price (and which type – a card can be “glossy” without having the protection of UV coating, and UV coating is generally considered more desirable than aqueous coating);

whether or not there are extra charges, such as a fee to upload your own images;

how many (or how few) business cards you can order at a time;

shipping costs; and, last but not least;

the reputation of the business card printing company.
Finding a Reputable Business Card PrinterOnline business card printers who’ve made it to the top of the search engines, and stayed there, are generally okay – but not necessarily.In fact, one popular, high-ranking business card printer online has such a pattern of complaints that they’ve received an “Unsatisfactory” rating from the Better Business Bureau. (This company’s cards are also of substandard size, although it’s hard to tell unless you directly compare them with another business card.)So one guideline is to look for a designation such as Better Business Bureau approval or Bizrate certification. If a company has won such a designation, they’ll probably mention it somewhere on their website. Testimonials are another clue – but it isn’t hard to find a dozen happy people out of thousands of customers, so read them with a grain of salt.Another way to assess a business card printer is to request samples of their business cards – not only will you get to examine actual cards, but you’ll get a feel for their customer service as well.One Last ComplicationDid you know that many, if not most, of the business card printers on the web are dealers for two or three huge wholesale business card printing companies? That’s right – you spend all that time shopping for the right business card printer and you probably don’t realize you’re comparing identical cards.(You usually can’t tell until you reach the section of the website where you actually choose and edit a business card template or background – the URL will change.)Now there’s nothing wrong with these online business card dealers, many of whom add value by educating people about business cards, just as I do, and nothing wrong with the business cards. But knowing that many business card printers online offer the exact same cards should save you some comparison time!Given the affordability, portability and versatility of business cards, it is certainly worth taking time to shop around for the right business card printer for your business. And now that you understand some of the differences, you’ll make a more informed decision when you next go looking for a business card printer on the Internet.

Now that you have established an online presence, another important step required, is to promote your business online. Internet Marketing, Website or Blog Promotion, Traffic Building or whatever else you want to call it, are all but just a form of advertising. To make money, you need traffic. To get traffic, you need to promote, period.

When we promote our business online, we are in a way advertising our website, its contents, ourselves (the company/author/blogger) and our products or services. Promoting, is not an easy task, is time consuming and requires a lot of effort from our part. In certain occasions, a small financial investment may be required, although, there are numerous methods that are at our disposal which does not require any but an Investment of our time. Taking advantage of these free methods are strongly recommended as they are effective means of promoting your online business.

Following below is a list of things that we should do in order to promote our online business (not necessarily in this order):

First and foremost: Get your website Indexed on all major search engines. You can do this manually or use the several services available from free search engine site submitters. Needless to say what organic traffic can do for your online business. It is a free service and can generate massive traffic to a website. When people land on your front page, normally they already know what they are looking for. Keep your front page neat, free of errors and uncluttered. If you need to find out more about website construction, you can read an article about how to make a good home page.

Continuing on search engines, another suggestion is to get your website listed on vertical search engines. Vertical search engine are also known as specific search engines. Say, for example that you are selling “Real Estate Property” in Boston. You should list your website on specific directories that is only related to Real Estate.

Free Online Classified Ads: List whatever it is you are promoting. Use local online classified ads if your business is specific to a certain area or location. A restoration or remodelling services offered in Los angeles, is an example.

Blog: Seriously consider on having a blog (if you still don’t have one). Blogging is an excellent opportunity for generating buzz to your online business. They are excellent communication platforms, educational resources and sources of entertainment. It is also a way which you can provide you potential customers to interact with you and take advantage of this to use it as a promotional tool.

Article Marketing: Writing articles and submitting them to article directories gives you exposure and popularity. There are many article directories and submission is free. Some will give you quality backlinks. Just be sure to leave your business card (URL) at the resource or bio box, to let people know where to find you. One good site to write articles and get quality backlinks is EZine.

Social Networking + Bookmarking: I am sure you are all familiar with this. My advice is to join the most popular ones (Technorati, Stumble Upon, Digg and Facebook) and choose one or two social networks and give everything you have to stand out. I do not understand why there are still many out there that underestimate the power of Social Networking.

Forums: – Participate, learn what other people are saying in your niche, help them out if you can and direct them to your website for more. If you have a blog, it is also a good source for writing your next article.

Directories: – Submit, submit, submit. Nothing more to say if you have a blog. Use blog directories as most of them are free and have been proven reliable.

Sponsorship (Contest): There are several bloggers who will recommend for you to hold contests as a means of generating traffic. If you are in to this, yes, it is definitely another way of generating traffic. If you are not, you can offer something to bloggers who like doing this. You can for example, search for sites that promotes contests and send them an email, offering an ad spot on your website or a product which you can give give for free to the winner. If they like what you have to offer, they will take it, mention you as one of their sponsors, and link to your site. This can go viral depending on how it is done.

Feed Syndication and RSS Aggregators: Feedburner, Bloglines and RSS Directories. “Publicize” for free.

Commenting: Make it a point to comment on other blogs as often as you can, specially in areas within your niche. Leave meaningful comments and people who like it (even the owner of the blog) will most likely visit your website. One important issue is when you leave your links in the commenting area. If the owner permits, leave always your name and URL. If you use blogger.com for example, do not use your Google account or openID. What is the use of getting a backlink to your profile anyway? You want that backlink (specially if it is a dofollow blog), to point at your website.

Banner Exchange: Entrecard, 125X125, Spott, Nuacco, etc., are good forms of promoting your site, specially in the beginning of your journey. Before you use this method, consider if this will not hurt your online business (depends really) as it can be seen as unprofessional. If your online business offers services such as Website Building or Graphics Design, maybe.

Twitter: And the buzz goes on. Right now, it is probably one of the best forms of promoting your online business. Follow people with the same interest as you and remember to be polite when using it. There are numerous tutorials and tips about using Twitter online. Use it.

PPC: If you have a little money to spare, PPC is one form of promotion. Adwords, Bidvertiser, etc. are examples of this. You can create your own campaign and set your budget in accordance with your objectives.

SEO: Use of several techniques to optimize your site can be a source of massive traffic. As you all know, SEO is a whole subject in itself and for this reason, I will leave this suggestion as is. Just remember that the higher you rank on search engines, the better.

These are just some suggestions on how to promote your online business. Act on it, as it is absolutely useless if no action is taken on your part. Success.

Here are four proven methods to market your small business online. Getting more visible online means more sales and more customers. Learn how to market or pay someone to do it – unless you plan to fail!

What you would want is to have your online marketing fulfill all of your goals you have set in maximizing your business. There is just no doubt to the fact that if you are marketing your business online, you have a better chance of making good money for your business and marketing your products and services over to people who are actually interested in buying or using them. You would be really helpful to your business organization if you just have a vision of expanding your business and pursue this vision by marketing it online.

In order to market your small business online, you need to set up precise goals for yourself which you want to accomplish in the long run by going through with the advertising campaign. Internet marketing can prove very much effective both in costs and outcome when compared to other conventional methods of marketing, such as the newspapers, radio and television. You would wonder why that is so, but if you would look at just the simple fact that internet marketing can capture the audience would put an end to all your wonder.

In order to effectively market your small business online, you would want to take an online course in internet marketing. However, before you choose on something, let us look over the most important elements that your online course should have.

1. It should tell you how to effectively use the other forms of marketing to derive traffic to your internet website, where you are marketing your products and services.

2. Teaching you how to effectively use the methods of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in order to derive more and more traffic to your website. SEO plays an important role in adding up the traffic to your website so that your products are viewed by more and more people, so that you would have a greater chance of making prospective customer leads.

3. Adding your website to Google AdSense and AdWords is a thing that the training program should teach you. This is absolutely necessary for your internet marketing campaign.

4. It should also teach you the ways and methods to effectively market your products on the social sites, like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. These sites are visited by millions of users’ everyday, and in this way you would be able to maximize your business.

If your business is using the Internet to its fullest extent, promoting your business online shouldn’t be a difficult task.

It can expand your reach, keep your business presence on the cutting edge of your industry, and save you advertising dollars. In some cases, a website – and the way it’s used – can actually make or break a business in the first couple of years.

Having a fully-exposed presence online also has a few very crucial advantages over more traditional advertising methods. When properly optimized, a website can help you:

1. Reach a global audience, or target a local market

Promoting your business online puts you in front of millions of potential prospects. Marketing online in the right networks allows you to solidify brand recognition on a much larger scale that, in the past, has never been possible.

But if your business model is aimed only at local customers, you can instead use a highly targeted message to reach your best prospects. By leveraging certain local-specialized classified advertising companies you can create awareness in your local area.

2. Make real-time content updates

When you promote your business online, you have the option of updating your website’s content as often as you wish. If you already have a website presence, adding a blog to it would do the trick.

Businesses will adapt faster to today’s always-changing environment – and there’s much less risk that your content will become obsolete over time. Many businesses these days are utilizing blogs to always have up-to-date information on their site.

3. Save promotion dollars

Online marketing can be very cost-effective, when compared to other “traditional” initiatives such as direct mail and print advertising.

Also, a single website can say a lot more about your company, products and services than dozens of direct-mail pieces.

4. Get valuable customer data

Finally, promoting your business online can give you access to valuable client and prospect information. Most websites that are used primarily for business purposes often gather statistical information about their visitors.

When properly applied, this information can help you create an even more effective, more targeted message.

These are some of the primary benefits you can expect when you promote your business online. Many businesses rely heavily on their online presence to drive new leads every single day. Some business, for example, have completely done away with having a physical office location!

The Internet has certainly changed the way most people do business and chances are it will continue to evolve greatly in the next few decades.

Doing business online becomes the hot and passionate subject of many people. What are the best ideas for doing business online? Let us see some basic models here.

Online Advertising

You can earn money through online advertising. You can start niche websites or blogs and monetize it programs like Google AdSense, ClickBank, Commission Junction, Azoogle, Adbrite, Chitika, Widget Bucks, Linkshare, Kontera and amazon. These are the popular advertising platforms which are most useful ways of earning for publishers who publish niche websites and blogs.

Online Marketing

You can provide internet marketing services to clients like how to start a blog, how to install blog, a service that makes blog comments in various blogs, SEO services, link building services, traffic generation services, pay per click campaign management services and many more. You can specialize in any of these skills and provide your valuable services in the freelance market places like odesk.com, elance.com, guru.com and more.

Online Research

If you are web savvy and know how to find the hard to find information in the world wide web, you can setup your internet researcher business from home. You can do general internet research or specialized services like B2B Marketing leads research, recruitment research or real estate bird dogging services. This can be started with low start up cost and operated from home.

Online Trading

If you have funds to invest, you can start a day trading business from home.You have to read the latest market news, get yourself familiarized with fundamental analysis and technical analysis. Read a basic investing website like investopedia and learn all the jargon and techniques before jumping into the foray.

Online Stores

If you have merchandise like furniture, information products, pc consumables, electronics, jewellery, toys, home furnishings, you can sell these items by setting up your own store or you can start selling in online stores like eBay, cafe press and amazon.com. If you want to learn more about doing business online, you can join a coaching club and learn the tips and tricks.

If your late payments have broken your credit history and no credit institution is giving you loans nowadays, you can get some money with personal finance loans. These loans are easy to get and you normally don’t have to wait a lot. The cause for this is the fact that personal finance loans are smaller than common loans because they are destined for individual use. With these loans you can improve your residence, restore your car, go on vacation, buy things, etc. To get a personal finance loan you don’t want to have something to safe it. In fact, most people who get this kind of loan get the unsecured one. This one is easier to get, but also has greater interest rates. However, for a modest amount of money these interest rates are not that big. The excellent issue about this mortgage is the simple fact that the financial institution doesn’t need to know what you are heading to do with it. All their concern is the truth that you really should pay it on time.

The repayment of your loan can get one month to a few months, relying on the amount you borrowed. You ought to strive repaying it on time because you will be able to improve your credit rating, but also stay away from a lot more penalties or interest charges. The longer you wait, the much more you will have to pay.

You can select for the unsecured type of loan if you want lower interest rates and if you have something that will serve this function, like a car, a house or other property. But the same guidelines apply to unsecured loans, you will need to pay them on time and make certain that you don’t have penalties that can decrease your credit score and make items more difficult. However, there are some positive aspects to unsecured loans due to the fact you don’t have to stress about having your assets taken if a thing happens and you don’t pay. You can use debt settlement or other debt relief choices to handle your debt.

When applying for an individual finance loan you will need to meet some specifications: you have to be a citizen of the state that gives you the loan, you will need to be employed and occasionally make at least $1000 dollars a month, and you will need to have a financial institution account. Even though some companies may not need a certain salary a month, they do require you to be employed. Also, the excellent thing about these loans is the reality that they are authorized really fast. This is mostly because the amount of money is not really big and the risk of clients finding a large mortgage and not spending back is really reduced.

So, if you need a fast approved personal finance loan to pay for your monthly expenses, groceries and even buy home equipment for your apartment, you can easily get one. Don’t go for the first deal that you locate, make confident that you search the market for the greatest possible prices. This way you can conserve some money on the interest rates.

In my last article I talked about using Google AdWords and Bing Ads pay-per-click to drive customers to your website. One of the biggest complaints I get about Internet leads: Customers not having the money to fix their car.

A recent “call shops as a customer” study found:

- Around 65% of transmission shops are quoting at least a ballpark price for rebuilds on the phone.

- Around 80% of general repair shops are quoting ballpark prices for a reman or used unit installation.

- Around 40% of transmission repair shops offer no form of financing options.

The price range for a transmission rebuild or replacement is not a mystery to the Internet shopper. There are websites that give approximate cost information for used, rebuild and reman pricing online. Simply search “transmission repair cost” for an example. $1,800 to $3,500 is what shows up immediately.

An estimated 60K-80K visitors or more in the U.S. see this pricing on a monthly basis, based on search engine estimates. So the Internet shopper already knows, before they call around, what it is going to take to fix or replace a transmission.

When a customer knows up-front they cannot afford repairs using cash or a credit card, and you do not offer financing options on that initial phone call or on your website, they more than likely are going to keep shopping until they find someone who does. A customer without cash or available credit is going to consider used transmissions options or trade-ins if there are no transmission shops available to finance them.

Consider a $2,400 transmission repair: That amount can be tough for many to come up with (cash or available credit). They may call you, they may even set an appointment, but they may not show up for that appointment if a competitor offers financing.

In 2015 there are multiple options for financing, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. In our 2015 Marketing Survey that went out in January, we asked you who you were using for financing. These are the main financing companies used by transmission repair shops today in 2015:

- Synchrony Financial/CarCareOne

- Springleaf

- Cross-Check

- Easypay

- Globalcheck / ARC90

- Secure Payment Systems

- Local Title Loan

- In-House

Any financing program will have its various approval rates and details–but by having at least one or two financing options to mention on the initial phone call will result in more appointment show-ups and more completed vehicles.

As a manager, you should be familiar with the financing options, mention them to every customer, and make it as easy as possible for customers to get financed. If a customer mentions money troubles, you should get them processed and approved right away-before that customer starts thinking about other options.

By earning an online masters of art, science, or management you can put yourself in a much better situation both financially and professionally. Some of the top online masters degrees are mentioned below.

Online Master of Arts (M.A):
An online M.A is a postgraduate academic master’s degree awarded by universities world over. M.A is normally studied for in Social Science, Humanities and Fine Art. Generally speaking, M.A can be entirely research based, entirely course-based or a combination of both research and course.

Online Master of Education (M.Ed.):
An online M.Ed is quite a good option for teachers who are interested in enhancing their skills and want to move up the ladder with regards to the salary front. Online learners would require 36-48 credit hours to complete an online M.Ed degree program.

Online Master of Science in Nursing (M.S.N.):
Master of Science in Nursing is an advanced nursing degree, which gives registered nurse an opportunity to become certified as a nurse practitioner. As compared to Bachelor of Science in Nursing, the pay scale for Master of Science in Nursing is quite a bit more.

Online Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.):
Master of Business Administration is an advanced degree in business management. Online M.B.A degrees can turn out to be quite useful for individuals who are interested in the acquisition of a leadership role in the corporate industry. Your pay scale will increase appreciably when you successfully complete your online M.B.A. degree program.

Organizational management, marketing, finance, accounting and quantitative analysis are some of the core topics in an online M.B.A. program. If you already have five or six years of management experience then instead of doing traditional M.B.A, you should go for an Executive MBA. When you do this, you increase your chances of promotion in the organization.

MBA in IT Management:
As evident from the name itself, this program is specifically designed for experienced IT professionals that are interested in mid-to-upper level positions in their organization.

MBA in International Business:
If you are one of those who like the concept of global economy then the acquisition of an MBA in International Business via eLearning is the way to go.

MBA in Project Management:
MBA in Project Management is an online degree program, which is tailor made for mid-to-upper level management positions in various projects.

MBA in Organizational Psychology:
With the help of an online MBA in Organizational Psychology, you can get a top-level job in the management of a company.

MBA in Marketing:
Marketing is the most popular field in the corporate world at this moment of time. If the marketing strategy of a business firm is not up to the mark, the firm is not going to succeed in the long run. By successfully completing an online MBA in Marketing you can become the marketing head of an organization, which is quite a vital position in any business firm.

MBA in Accounting and Finance:
Completing MBA in Accounting and Finance is not that easy, as this online degree program is quite technical in nature. Until and unless your theoretical concepts are clear you will not be able to implement accounting and financial aspects. Similar to marketing, there is a separate department for accounting and finance in business firms. By successfully completing your online MBA in accounting and Finance from an accredited online college or university you can attain a top-level position in a firm.