10 Ways Small Business Marketers Can Crush Big Competitors

As a small business, it can seem difficult to compete with the big guys of the world. After all, you don’t have the same financial resources, or the manpower, to engage in a great deal of high-priced marketing. The good news is that the Internet can act as a great equalizer. You can attract more notice, and you can build a following for yourself, competing with the bigger companies—and even winning.

If you are looking for ways to distinguish your small business from the bigger competition, we have 10 ways you can put yourself forward:

1. Focus on the High Quality and Uniqueness of Your Product

Your first move is to offer a high quality product that your audience wants. Even if your product is similar to what someone else is offering, you can distinguish it in some way. Is it made using the finest materials? Do you have some sort of handmade product that is unique? Focus on the way that your product is different, and show how it offers something above and beyond. Discerning customers will appreciate the quality of your offering.

2. Offer Superior Customer Service

Word gets around when you offer superior customer service. A big company can lose site of individual customers. However, as a small business, you have a chance to connect on a more personal level with your clientele. Provide customer service that is accessible, and high quality. Work to make your customers happy, and they will not only remain loyal to you, but they will become fans that share you product with friends and family.

3. Create a Strategy for SEO

When writing content for your blog, or when writing descriptions of products and services, consider your SEO strategy. The major keywords might all be hogged by the big companies, but there are ways to focus your efforts. Use a keyword tool to help you identify successful keywords. Also, focus on phrases, rather than single words, and don’t underestimate the power of long-tail, organic results. Pay attention to the long-term, and keep your SEO strategy in mind, and you will be more likely to find success.

4. Strategize with PPC

Yes, PPC advertising costs money. However, it might be worth to you if getting in on high-revenue keywords is too difficult. Carefully evaluate your keywords, and what you want to happen with your keywords. Then, target a few high-yield keywords for PPC advertising. You can pay for the ads, and you likely find good results. However, research is essential, since you don’t want to waste your money. It’s about putting your money where it will do the most good.

5. Create a Social Media Profile

Interaction with others is essential for success on the Internet. As a result, it is vital that you set up a social media profile. A social media profile that allows you to use keywords (social media profiles are increasingly searchable), and allows you to share your insights on relevant topics, can draw more people to your web site—and even result in more sales. Your social media profile should be consistent across web sites so that visitors can readily identify your brand.

You don’t need to join every social media site, but you can benefit from identifying the sites your audience is most likely to visit. Establish a presence, sharing useful information (don’t just push your products), and interacting with customers, and you will build a loyal following that rivals the big companies.

6. Pay Attention to Inbound Analytics

Use analytics to tweak your approach to marketing your products and services. Pay attention to where traffic is coming from (what sites refer visitors), as well as what times of day the traffic is heaviest. You can also use inbound analytics to see which keywords and keyphrases are most popular for driving traffic to your web site. Use this information to adjust when you post new content to your blog, as well as to focus on different keywords. With the right analytics information, you will be able to direct your resources more profitably.

7. Use the Right Technology

Determine what technology is likely to help your business grow. As a small business owner, it can be difficult to do everything all at once. The right technology can help you automate some tasks, such as sending out emails, submitting to social bookmarking web sites, and generating coupon codes. Figure out which technology is likely to help you the most, and then use that technology. You will free up more of your time for building your business, and spend less time fretting about smaller housekeeping tasks that can become time consuming and tedious.

8. Build Your List

Invest some time and effort into building a solid opt-in list. Your list should include leads that can be used to improve your business. You will need to encourage people to sign up, so that means spending time creating attractive landing pages, and encouraging people to find you on Facebook. Offer premium content, or insider deals. Think of ways that being on your list could be seen as a benefit. More customers will opt-in, and you will see more repeat business and better success as you reach out to leads through your list.

9. Be Flexible

One of the advantages to owning a small business is that you have a certain amount of agility that the big guys don’t always have. Remain flexible in your business. Be willing to change your approach if something isn’t working. Quickly react to industry news, and adjust to the demands of your market. Your ability to be flexible can give you an edge as you work to expand your business.

10. Hire Good People

Even a small business occasionally needs to make hires. Before you hire someone, though, you need to make sure that you will be filling a need. Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. Acknowledge areas that need improvement, and then hire someone to fill that need. You should find someone who is knowledgeable about something you don’t understand as well. Hire good people who can help you navigate the waters, and provide you with expertise that you need.

It is possible to compete with the big guys as a small business. While you may not end up with billions in revenue, you can still do quite well—no matter how small your business is. With the right planning, and with a little ingenuity, you can hold your own, and grow your company.

This guest post was written by Lior Levin, a marketing consultant for a large neon open sign company that provides various custom made neon signs.

Main Street Marketing Machines Fusion Is Coming

As you know, Jill and I run a successful business in Houston helping local companies with their online presence. Well, Mike Koenigs is one of the most knowledgeable people I know in the area of marketing for local businesses and has a proven system called Main Street Marketing Machines. Jill and I are members of Main Street Marketing Machines and really like the product (especially the access to Traffic Geyser).

Anyway, Mike is offering a free video course on marketing for local small businesses and if that is something that interests you then you should go ahead and check it out.

All you have to do is enter your email for instant and immediate access.

Sign up now for instant access by clicking here
http://mainstreetmarketingmachines.com/cmd.php?af=32477

If you have any questions about the previous version of the program please leave your questions below. Also, feel free to let me know what you think of the training after you go through it.

Tune in to Women in Business Radio 1/17

Hey everybody, just a quick note to let you know that I’m being interviewed on Women in Business Radio tomorrow. Tune in and follow by Twitter to ask questions. Then stop back by here and leave comments with your thoughts— and accolades

Business Success Secrets From Will Smith

Just found this video where actor/singer/song writer, Will Smith, shares his secrets of business success. The only thing I would add that Will left out is to ask for guidance from the Almighty. Otherwise, it’s excellent advice.

Starting a website? Things to consider.

Many readers of Can I Make Big Money Online have the technical chops to create their own website. But what if you don’t? What if you have to hire, gulp, a web designer? Here are a few things you’ll want to consider. You’ll need to make some choices about your domain, hosting and hiring a website designer.

When you’re choosing a domain, there are a few directions you can go. You can choose a domain to brand your business, to appeal to the search engines or sometimes you can combine the two. George wrote a pretty extensive article on choosing a domain some time ago, and there’s not much I can add to what he already said.

However, here’s one thing that wasn’t included in his original article. When choosing an extension, opt for a top level domain versus a .info domain name, if it is available. While most people search for domain names typing in a .com extension, you can also be quite successful with a .net or a .org extension. It’s not uncommon for website owners to buy several versions of their domain name with different extensions. If multiple extensions are available, consider buying them to keep competitors from buying them later and benefiting from your success.

No matter what domain you choose, always have it hosted by your own hosting server. This bears repeating. Use your own hosting. Preferably paid hosting, not on a friend’s server in his Mom’s basement. You think you’re saving money by going this route, but in the long run the potential headaches are not worth the less than $100 per year you’re going to save.

Some people try another “cheap” route for hosting. “Free” website builders that offer free hosting. Usually this means you will not have your own domain name. For example, if you were with Freewebs.com, it would be freewebs.com/andyourname here. This domain name does not look professional and it is too hard for your potential customers to remember (plus you’re advertising someone else’s company every time you advertise your website). If you’re looking to save money, take advantage of the free domain name registration that some web hosting packages offer.

If you’re looking for great, reliable hosting at a reasonable rate, we always recommend Hostgator. Yes, that’s an affiliate link. Throughout the years, we’ve had our sites hosted through several different companies. Hostgator is far and away our favorite.

One more note about domains— make sure your domain is registered in YOUR name, not in your website designer’s name, not in your hosting company’s name. Even if your hosting company offers to register your domain for you, make sure that you will be listed as the technical contact. You may want to register it yourself if you have any doubts about how the registration will be handled, even if it means passing up on a “free” offer. If you ever want to change hosts or designers, you’ll be glad you spent the ten minutes and $20, vs. the hassle and potential expense of trying to reclaim a domain if it wasn’t registered in your name.

Finally, if you’re not comfortable designing the site yourself, you’ll need to find a website designer. Of course, we’re partial to MantyWeb Designs, but no matter who you choose, make sure that you ask to see some examples of the designer’s work. You may want to even find some websites you like and see who the designer of that site is.

Talk to the company before hiring someone. In fact, talk to them a couple of times. Make sure they explain things in a way you understand, that you feel comfortable talking to them and that they return messages in a timely manner. If you have an idea of the technical requirements of your website (like you know you want a blog), make sure that the company has experience with that type of site. Different designers have different areas of expertise. Just because a company makes really pretty sites doesn’t mean you want them designing your ecommerce site.

While you may be tempted to immediately go with the cheapest designer, don’t. Make sure to choose someone who can complete the project in a timely manner and who will not disappear before the project is complete. This happens ALL the time! Having to start over with a new designer just wastes your time and money.

So, those are the basics. Choose a good domain, pick hosting that fits your website’s needs and find a website designer you enjoy working with. Now, I’d like to hear from you below. Have you gone through the web design process? How was your experience? Any additional tips?

Online Stores – 5 Common Mistakes That Can Kill Your Business

So, you’ve just opened the figurative doors to your online store, and you’re waiting for the money to start rolling in. After all, you’ve got great products, so it’s just a matter of time until customers start flinging open their wallets, right?

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

If you’re making any of the following 5 mistakes, your online business may never get off the ground:

Doing what you want instead of what your target audience wants

On the internet, your target audience is everything. You have to address their needs, desires, and questions. If you get caught up in what YOU like, instead of what your target audience likes, your store will never succeed.

Annoying visitors with too much flash

Sure, you want to catch people’s attention, but unless you’re selling used Pinto’s, skip the bright red letters and flashing graphics. You do not want to miss out on profits because people find your website obnoxious.

There are plenty of ecommerce templates out there that can help you design your layout. Stick to the basics – prices, product descriptions, product photos, related items, and your online shopping cart. Avoid templates that offer too much, or else you’ll turn people off.

Having too many categories

Unless you’re selling millions of items, keep the categories to a minimum. Having too many categories can be overwhelming. For example, instead of having “White Baseball Caps”, “Black Baseball Caps”, and “Gray Baseball Caps”, just have one category – “Baseball Caps”.

Having a checkout process that can only be deciphered by rocket scientists

When people are giving you their hard-earned money, make it easy on them. If you ask too many questions, or lead them through too many checkout pages, they are much more likely to get frustrated and just scrap the whole purchase.

Expecting customers to remember a long domain name

If you want return business, avoid domain names like “BestComputerPartsInTheWholeWideWorld.com”. If customers can’t remember the name of your site, they can’t come back and spend more money!

Guest post by Kirsty LaVier—Editor for Shopping Cart Reviews, the leading shopping cart information website.

Why I Still Love Network Marketing

When I first started my online business back in 2003 it was with a network marketing company. At the time I didn’t know anything about internet marketing or network marketing but my sponsor in that particular company helped me along until I figured it out for myself. Had it not been for her I probably would have quit after a few months like most people do.

Anyway, I joined several more network marketing programs in the first few years of building my business. Some were great, some were alright, and some flat out sucked. Some didn’t last long and some are still around today. I did really well in a few of them and not very good in others depending on how well the program was set up and how much effort I put into promoting it.

There are plenty of bad apples out there but for the most part network marketing is a solid way to start your own business. You can earn an incredible living from it if you do it right. But for whatever reason as I got better and better at internet marketing and my online business became more successful, I strayed away from network marketing. I mostly stopped promoting the programs I was still in and quit joining new ones. There were even times when I advised people not to get into network marketing for various reasons. I guess you could say I forgot where I came from.

Now, it has been over 7 years since I joined that first opportunity that started it all. My online business has been doing incredibly well for a long time and I owe a lot of my success to some of those network marketing opportunities that I joined so long ago, especially the first one.

You might be wondering why all of the sudden I once again love network marketing? The reason is simple…

I sat back recently to take a long look at my successes and failures in my business up to this point, and re-evaluate the direction I want to take it in. When I did that I realized that I was still getting paid every month from network marketing programs I joined back in the early days of my internet business, even though I had all but forgotten about them. Obviously I always knew the money was coming in every month, but I didn’t really take notice of where it was coming from anymore.

I’m still a member of that very first opportunity I started with and have been paid by them every month since I earned my first payment almost 7 years ago. And that’s not the only one I still get paid from monthly for work I did several years ago. That’s what you call true residual income!

Not to mention the fact that I made a lot of friends from some of those programs that I remain in contact with to this day. I have even partnered up with some of them on other business ventures in the years since we met.

Network marketing often has a negative association attached to it that makes many people run away as soon as you start to talk about it. And in some cases there is good reason for that. However, it can also be great and very positive. With the right opportunity and honest effort on your part, you can earn a lot of money and meet a lot of great people.

Basically what I am trying to say, in not so many words, is to have an open mind about network marketing and don’t write it off before you even give it a chance. There are plenty of great opportunities out there and earning a residual income is definitely a real possibility.

Dedicated to your success,
Trent Brownrigg

P.S. – If you want to know the network marketing opportunity that I most highly recommend right now and am more excited about than any other one I have ever seen, you can find it here… Get Paid to Travel! It’s the only program I have joined in a long time but I evaluated it from every angle and came to the conclusion that I had to get in right away.

10 Deadly Business Mistakes

My good friend Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips has just released a new free ebook in preparation for the re-opening of his Online Profits course. Last year, I had the pleasure of interviewing Daniel about his program and you can read that interview by clicking here.

Daniel’s new ebook is called, “Ten Deadly Business Mistakes” and it’s both a very good and a pretty quick read. You can download it by clicking here and following the directions on his site.

Mistakes number 2 and 8 in his book are the biggest mistakes I have made in the past that really held back my business. Go read the ebook and let me know your biggest mistakes.

PS. Yes, Daniel is a friend, and yes most of the links in this post are my affiliate links that will pay me money if you sign up for his course.

How I Went From Disgruntled Chef To Freelance Superstar

I do admit the title of this post is a little on the ‘heavy side’ but I’ve chosen it for a good reason. Today (4 November 2009) is the day I’m launching my first ever paid-for info product Freelance Superstar.

Freelance Superstar is a step by step guide for newbie freelance writers or those existing entrepreneurs who currently struggle in their business. It is a labor of love and seasoned with plenty of hardship as everything I had to learn in order to run my own successful business is contained within. Basically, the Freelance Superstar guide will save you weeks of frustrations – guaranteed.

My early days:

When I first got started as a wannabe writer I had one thing going for me – passion to reach success once and for all or face another 20+ years in a job I absolutely hated. This drive was pushing me to work long hours and sacrifice many weekends in order to succeed.

In hindsight I have to say that every single tear I shed, every dollar I spent and every ‘not so lady-like word’ I ushered was worth it.

I got my first long term client while answering an online ad for a paid blogger job. By the time I saw it it had early been published 6 weeks and I figured ‘oh well, what have I got to lose by applying for it.’ So I did. Interestingly enough I got the job!

And guess who my first client was – yep, it is no other than my current partner in crime for the Freelance Superstar product – infamous online ‘guru’ Gobala Krishnan. Gobala employed me as a staff blogger on one of his sites which later lead to being the editor in charge on a couple of his blogs. Plus it also brought me several big name marketers as new clients.

The rest as they say is history – I wish.

My seven months journey to freedom and success:

From that very first job I landed with Gobala it took seven months for me to earn a full time income. Those seven months were perhaps the toughest ever for me because I spend hours online in order to brand my name and my business with my blog and social media. It was extremely time consuming but also very rewarding because by the time I quit my offline job for good (January 2008) I never had to look back.

In fact, from January 08 until March/April 09 I was fully booked at all times without having to seek one single client. You could call this the honeymoon period I guess. Life was perfect.
The suddenly I realized…

... that I had priced myself out of the market. When things started to slow down in those early months of 2009 I didn’t know yet that the GFC had already crowded my style. Only when I got an increased ‘lack of replies’ to my quotes I figured something was seriously wrong. My business was still rolling nicely but the cracks were slowly starting to show due to having bigger gaps in my schedule.

It was time to take action once again:

The first thing I did was to take down my rates and customize them for every single client. This has worked a treat for me ever since. Only later did I make the connection between this sudden loss of bookings and the global recession.

Luckily for me I did act on it immediately and only had to experience two slowish months.

I also realized that unless I got into the info product market I could keep writing forever and never achieve true time freedom. So I wrote Freelance Superstar to help newbies find their feet in the industry.

The supercharge formula:

A lot has happened since and while I normally never talk about my income I can proudly say that I had my first $700 day late last month. Naturally not all days are this crazy but my income has doubled from September to October this year already and things are looking good for the future.

My personal supercharge formula can be accredited to the power of outsourcing. Outsourcing is the way to go in this industry and I will talk about this in detail if you head over to my new site Writing Pod. That site is dedicated to take a freelance writing business to the next level and only my list subscribers will find out how I did this because it isn’t for the faint-hearted or the person scrambling for their last dollar.

What it takes to reach success in business:

If you want to be widely successful in your own business you need to be dedicated to your success. Expect late nights, weekend work, last minute orders from clients and a whole heap of time consuming tasks.

You also need to be passionate about what you do, otherwise it will never work out for you. The magic word is to take massive action day in and day out. Even after you reach acceptable success levels you have to keep on pushing. I’m happy to say though that it beats the alternatives for me every single day.

I LOVE my business, I LOVE my clients and best of all, I really LOVE my life. Do you have it within you to be the next Freelance Superstar?

In success
Monika Mundell

To Start A Successful Online Business Your Mind Has To Change First

Before you can start an online business, your mind has to change.

I don’t mean “change your mind”. I mean your mind has to change. Online business as a freelance entrepreneur is an example of thinking outside the box. Your personal “box” may take the form of…

• “I can’t make money in any way except a job.”


• “I’ve never tried anything like this before.”


• “I don’t know what I’m doing.”


• “This is a dumb idea.”

Maybe one or more of these apply to you, and these sorts of thoughts have to go. But before I repeat the cliche’ of “thinking outside the box”, how about a real-life example?

For a few months now, I’d been sick of turning on my television set with nothing ever being on, especially given what I paid for cable. Several hundred channels of programming, and it was all miserable. So, I did something that most people wouldn’t even consider: I canceled cable without replacing it. I no longer receive television of any sort.

Now, television tends to be a household staple even if it’s pointless. So this would be my own personal example of “thinking outside the box”. I’m saving a boatload of money, and it’s not as though I’m without distraction or entertainment with cable gone. In other words, net gain for me.

It was a benefit to me to do something most people would not consider, or at least not consider seriously. Online business is the same way. It’s a world of opportunity waiting that most would not even give thought, but it could wind up benefiting you greatly. This is what I mean when I say “First, your mind has to change”. If you don’t seriously believe you can make money online, you’re not going to get anywhere attempting it.

3 Things You Must Know To Be Successful Online

We’re all looking for the best, most effective way to make more money, get more customers, or even gain a following on Twitter or Facebook. With the advent of all this technology, and the amazing opportunity we have online, there’s always some underlying aspects that allow us to truly get where we want to go.

What I’ve down is outlined below some quick yet simple things that you can do to become more successful in your daily online efforts. Now, I’m not saying these are easy, in fact anything you do online or offline for that matter, is going to take some effort.

So with knowing that, let’s get to the 3 things that you must know to be successful online…

#1: Just Be You

This is a very big mistake I see, especially in the online world. People pretend they’re someone who they’re not and expect to make all this money and be uberly successful. It doesn’t work that way…

Sometimes it leads to people claiming “guru” or “expert” status, claiming that you know more and do better than you actually do, and in some unfortunate cases, posing as a famous internet marketer or business person and trying to cash in on their credibility.

Look: You may not be the greatest, most knowledgeable, absolutely amazing person in the world and none of that matters. People want to see you and your personality. Keep learning and educating yourself while taking consistent action, what REALLY gets you results, and never stray from who you really are, deep down inside, past all the materialistic things.

Others will appreciate that and it will allow them to create a stronger bond with you, and a much deeper relationship if you just be you.

#2: Give Great Value Or Go On Home

By value, I mean content. Chances are you may have a blog and if you don’t, get one as soon as possible. Blogs are really an extension of who we are and what we’re all about. We live in a society where people want information and it’s this information that is at the premier front of the gate. When people see how valuable something is, it grabs their attention. When they are attentive, they build an interest and a desire which leads to subscribers, followers, or even customers.

The great part is, you don’t even have to setup an extravagant blog that’s totally customized. As long as the content is good, you’re already making some significant leaps in your day-to-day online business. As well, if you have other websites, focus on giving out free ebooks, reports, case studies, etc.

Moving the freeline as some like to call it, has been proven highly effective for quite some time now. People respond well to it and it’s a great way to build some serious and massive value that shows others a little about who you are. Here’s the kicker…

When people see how valuable your FREE content is, they think to themselves, “Wow! If his/her free is this good, I can’t imagine how good their products or services are!”.

And guess what happens when they find out that you’re selling something or providing a service? They remember how much value you gave them beforehand so they’re influenced to snatch up your product or get your service.

#3: Content Is King But Relationships Are Queen

In this space, you always hear about how content is king. For starters, it is extremely important to your overall success, but it’s not all. Many times I see aspiring business owners throw up some sites, push out a bunch of content, and then wonder why no one is listening. It’s because A) They haven’t talked to enough people or B) They haven’t talked with enough people.

Relationships are very important to your overall success. To be honest, I wouldn’t go so far to say that it’s one of the most important things to your success, aside from having and giving value. With the creation of social media and sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube, it’s easier than ever to build relationships with people.

You should be building some sort of relationships through your sites or blogs, and by engaging and interacting with others using social media, you take relationship building to a whole other level.

Stay tuned for the next post where I dive into where we left off and talk about using social media in the most effective way possible.

Sneak Peak At Our Houston Based Web Marketing Company

Life has a funny way of forcing your hand. I’ve been playing around at this online thing for several years now and have made some decent money at it, but never really committed to it. I’ve talked about doing it full time. I’ve dreamed about doing it full time. But I haven’t been DOING it full time. Then a month ago I was laid off from my job as a JAVA developer. I spent some time putting together a resume and talking to recruiters before realizing I didn’t really want another job working for someone else. I wanted to work for myself. Full time.

So, after a series of events unfolded (which could be the focus of a later post), my wife and I decided to take the plunge and start our own business. So, I am very pleased to introduce MantyWeb Designs (www.mantywebdesigns.com), a full service web promotion and web design company. We will be specializing in helping local businesses with underperforming websites turn their websites into a valuable part of their marketing plan. I’ll be focusing on helping people increase traffic and improving conversion rates. My wife will be concentrating on sales.

While we are based in Houston, we’re available to help people all over the U.S. So, if you’re in need of assistance, contact me. You can leave all well wishes in the comment section.

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