Customers As Your Viral Affiliates

Private customer sales are very effective ways to get viral marketing started for your own web site. All that you have to do is provide them with a special incentive for that they can use, but also send to their friends and family.

You do it by offering a discount on someone else�s products and not yours. You make money on someone else�s money.

The process is straightforward. You offer your customers a discount on a third party�s products. They get the discount by using a discount code that promotes your web site and encourages them to send that discount code to their family and friends so that they too can get the discount.

To get the discount when they want to buy something, they go to a page that promotes your company and further encourages them to send the discount coupon to their family and friends. When that happens, they are lead to your site and they are further encouraged to pass the discount offer on.

As this process moves forward, you gather opt in email addresses of people who are interested in special offers. Periodically they are sent email with a special offer that brings them right back into the circle of viral marketing.

You can see this process in action at http://www.qlbr.com/aff_master_page

Key to your success is:

the use of an affiliate program that uses discount codes instead of cookies, and

the use of an affiliate program that provides you a customized page that promotes your company.

Affiliate programs with discount codes are not that prevalent on the web because they are easy to set up and provide benefits to affiliates that many companies do not want to provide to affiliates. The biggest benefit that affiliates get is the ability to get long-term commissions and not to be affected by customers deleting cookies.

If you can�t find one to your liking, you can set one up yourself very easy and use it as part of your own viral marketing plan. The whole program is based on using a shopping cart into which you can insert a discount code. That you can get in many places. And you can even get one free at http://www.chamberofcommerce.pl/own_store

For a model, you can use the affiliate program at http://www.qlbr.com/aff_shoppoland_program . Use the concept and make your own marketing materials. Note that it just uses a simple free form for affiliate applications and the store that it promotes uses the free shopping cart mentioned in the paragraph above.

But back to the private sale and your customers as viral marketers.

There are many ways to get your customers started.

Email, of course, is of the first. Just send the information about a special offer to your mailing list. Email is fast, direct and you can generally predict a response rate.

A postcard is second. Postcards have legs. Unlike email that gets deleted, and web page addresses that are forgotten, postcards hang around. They get read, they get filed, they get put on refrigerators and they get results. They are particularly attractive when they make your customer feel important by telling the customer that this is a private sale. Customers respond.

The real money comes with the follow up email or postcard with a special offer for a unique and special item that is available only to people who are on your list.

As you develop your viral marketing business model, you will develop tactics and strategies that keep your customers telling others about the special deals that they are getting through you.

And you will find that your customers are the best viral marketers that you have.

Author : Gary Granai

SELECTING THE RIGHT BUSINESS NAME

Ask 500 people already in business how they decided upon their business name and you will get 500 different answers. Everyone has a story behind how they chose their own business name. Even if the business is named after their own birth name, there’s a reason why this was done.

When you open a business, in a sense, you are causing a new birth to begin. This new birth was created from an idea alone by you or your associates. It will have its own bank account, it’s own federal identification number, it’s own credit accounts, it’s own income and it’s own bills. On paper, it is another individual! Just as if you were choosing a name for your own unborn child, you need to spend considerable time in deciding upon your business name.

There are several reasons why a good business name is vitally important to your business. The first obvious reason is because it is the initial identification to your customers. No one would want to do business with someone if they didn’t have a company name yet. This makes you look like an amateur who is very unreliable. Even if you call your company 'Kevin’s Lawn Service,' a company name has been established and you are indeed a company. People will therefore feel more comfortable dealing with you.

Secondly, a business name normally is an indication as to the product or service you offer. 'Mary’s Typing Service,' 'Karate Club for Men,' 'Jim-Dandy Jack-of-all-Trades,' 'Laurie and Steve’s Laundry,' 'Misty’s Gift Boutique,' and 'Star 1 Publishers' are all examples of simple business names that immediately tell the customer what product you offer.

However, most people will choose the simple approach when naming their business. They use their name, their spouse’s name, their children’s names or a combination of these names when naming a business. The national hamburger-restaurant chain 'Wendy’s' was named after the owner’s daughter. However, research has proven that these 'cutesy' names are not the best names to use for a business. Many experts claim that it makes the business look too 'mom-and-pop-sie.' However, this depends on the business. If you are selling something that demands this mood or theme to appeal to your market, it’s best to use this approach.

Personally, I am inclined to name my businesses with catchy names that stick in people’s heads after we have initially made contact. Names like, 'Sensible Solutions,' 'Direct Defenders,' 'Moonlighters Ink,' 'Printer’s Friend,' 'Strictly Class,' 'Collections and Treasures,' and 'Starlight on Twilight' are all good examples of catchy names. These types of names relate to your product or service but serve as a type of slogan for your business. This is a big help when marketing.

A friend I know owns a business called 'Mint and Pepper.' He grows and sells his own line of raw seasonings to people in the local area. At a get-together for small businesses, he passed out his business card. The card had a peppermint candy glued on the back and the slogan read: 'Your business is worth a mint to us.' This marketing concept not only got my friend noticed and remembered, but brought in several large orders for the business.

When you name a child, you may not decide upon a definite name until after they are born. You do this because a name is sometimes associated with a type of personality. When you name a business you may need to wait until you have a product or service to sell and then decide upon a business name before going into the business itself because your business name should give some clue as to what product or service you are selling. A business named 'Joe’s Collections' normally wouldn’t sell car parts and a business named 'Charlie Horse' would not sell knitting supplies.

To generate ideas - begin looking at business signs everywhere you go. Notice which ones catch your eye and stick in your mind. Try and figure out 'why' they stuck in your mind. Naturally, the business 'Dominos Pizza' sticks in your mind because it is nationally known. These don’t count! Look around and notice the smaller businesses. Take your time. Within a few days you should be able to come up with a few potential business names.

Then, when you finally find a few names you really like - try reciting them to other people and get their opinion. It won’t be long until your business will have the proper name that will carry it through it’s life!


Content by http://www.ContentMart.com

BIG & RICH SUPPORT SAVE SARFUR COALITION PERFORMANCE

Big & Rich will perform at the Save Darfur: Rally to Stop Genocide on Sunday. The rally will be held in Washington, D.C. The Save Darfur Coalition is an alliance of 160-plus faith-based, humanitarian and human rights groups representing 130-million Americans. Big Kenny says it's going to take much more than the emergency supplemental funding requested by President Bush to provide relief in Africa. The singer adds, quote, "We urge our fellow country music entertainers and our fans to join us in this cause to stop this genocide." The goal of the campaign is to generate one million postcards urging President Bush to fulfill his pledge to support a stronger multi-national force to protect the Darfuri people.