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Keeping In Touch With My Online Family
Helping you build your successful, home-based
business one step at a time.
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Issue #55
Date: July 16th, 2002
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The significant challenges that we face today cannot be
resolved by the same level of thinking that created them.
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KIT is by subscription only. Unsubscribe details at the end
of this ezine.
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Top Sponsor Ad
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"Secret Weapons to Write More Persuasive Letters, Ads, and News
Releases!"
This book used to be out of print -- but now you can get your
hands on it.
Click here for immediate access:
http://www.roibot.com/r_slts.cgi?R16044_060702affila
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In This Issue
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=> Publisher's Corner
=> Feature Article
=> Review: Products or Services
=> Inspiration
=> Special Feature
=> Hot Tip
=> Ezine ADventure
=> Reader's Corner
=> Give It A Try
=> Success Links
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Publisher's Corner
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Hi {FIRSTNAME} and welcome to today's issue of Keeping in Touch.
A big, warm 'hello' to all our new subscribers.
One of the most difficult tasks we all come across in an online
business is determining who we are trying to reach. Of course
we want to reach out to everyone. That approach is neither
realistic nor will you be able to accomplish it. If you do a
search for a term as basic as 'home-based business' or 'internet
marketing', you will get a hefty return of sites. You will need
to narrow down your focus to a much smaller group. In turn,
they will be more targeted and ready to take a look at what you
have to offer.
Try figuring out who your target market is by listing several
words and phrases that can be included in the copy on your
site. Be choosey about these words because you'll add them to
the keywords in your meta tags. The narrower your focus, the
better ranking you will receive, provided the keywords are
relevant. If you can, use these keywords in your headers as
well.
Bob Leduc gives you five important steps to follow in How To
Successfully Launch a New Business. Following these five
steps will take the guesswork out of launching a new product
if you follow this tried and true marketing strategy.
Our Special Feature was submitted by one of our own, Melissa
Ritchey. How To Write A Profitable Ezine Article takes you
through the process of writing your own ezine article even if
you don't think you have something to write about at the
moment. Ezine articles are also a good way to start getting
your name out there and establishing your reputation.
I'm experimenting a bit today. For those of you using AOL,
could you please let me know if the links come through as
clickable using this format. Just send a note to:
<a href="mailto:lois@home4success.com?Subject=AOL_Can_Click" Click here</a>
and let me know whether it's working or not. Thanks.
And I'd like to wish my sister, Sandy, (who is a subscriber)
a very Happy Birthday! How is she spending her 'big day' -
she is moving. Don't work too hard.
Have a great day {FIRSTNAME} and keep on smiling.
Lois M. Jeary
Publisher, KIT and KIT Klassifieds
mailto:lois@home4success.com
http://www.home4success.com
<a href="http://www.home4success.com"> Click here</a>
KIT Archives can be found here:
<a href="http://www.home4success.com/resources/kitarchives.html"> Click here</a>
Tools to help you in your business:
<a href="http://www.home4success.com/resources/tools.html"> Click here</a>
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Feature Article
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HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCH A NEW BUSINESS
Copyright 2002 By Bob Leduc
Every week I talk with business owners who tell me how
excited they are about their new product, service or
business opportunity. Usually, their comments include
something like, "Everybody needs it. I know I'm going to
make a lot of money with this."
They sincerely believe it will be easy to generate hordes of
customers standing in line to spend money. I really hate
bursting their bubble. But, it's not going to happen that
way.
Building a successful business is hard work. Most of that
work will be devoted to finding customers. Finding customers
will be your toughest job. You need a detailed strategy to
attract the number of paying customers required to meet your
financial goals.
By trial and error over many years, I've developed a 5 step
marketing strategy that enables me to launch a new product
or service profitably every time. You can copy this system
to launch your own new enterprise or to revive a floundering
business.
STEP 1: Identify Your Target Market
The first step in developing your strategy is to isolate the
best target market for your product or service. Your sales
efforts will be most effective if you focus on a group of
prospects with common characteristics and similar problems.
Start by defining on paper your ideal customer or client.
List all of the characteristics you expect to find in good
customers or clients. Be sure to include characteristics
that make your product or service valuable to them. Then,
use this list to identify a target market. Define your
target market in writing.
STEP 2: Find Your Most Appealing Customer Benefit
Exactly what is the most compelling problem you can solve
for prospects in your target market? Why is your product or
service the best solution to their problem? Your answers to
these 2 questions reveal the customer benefit(s) to stress
in your sales approach.
STEP 3: Develop A Few Motivating Offers
Develop 2 or 3 offers that motivate prospects to take buying
action immediately. For example, can you use a special
discounted price offer with a deadline? Are there bonuses
you can add if prospects order or sign up before the
deadline? Can you combine both into a "special price plus
bonus" offer?
Decide which offer on your list is the most powerful and use
it in your sales material and/or your selling presentation.
IMPORTANT: A special offer providing obvious value always
increases your sales volume. It's a proven way to overcome
buyer resistance and procrastination. A special offer also
provides a logical reason in the buyer's mind to justify
what may actually be an impulsive decision to buy now.
STEP 4: Decide How To Publicize Your Business
How will you introduce yourself to prospects in this market?
Will you use classified or display ads in print publications
or on the Internet? Will you use direct mail? Is broadcast
media such as radio or TV appropriate and cost-effective?
What networking can you participate in locally or on the
Internet to draw attention to your business? What other
methods of promotion can you use?
Prioritize each method on your list and develop an action
plan with deadlines for implementing them.
STEP 5: Establish A Plan To Promote Customer Loyalty
Decide what you will do to cultivate customers so they
continue to do business with you and give you referrals. For
example, write or call your customers or clients immediately
after a transaction and thank them for their business. Ask
them if they're pleased with what they received. Most will
express their satisfaction. That's the ideal time for you to
follow up with a request for referrals.
Don't be afraid to uncover an unhappy customer. When you do,
take whatever action you must to leave them feeling good
about you, even if your only recourse is issuing a prompt
refund. Most dissatisfied customers won't take the trouble
to contact you about their problem. They'll just take their
business elsewhere and tell other people about their
negative experience with you. That will cost you a lot of
future business.
I've used this 5 step process successfully many times. It
reduces risk by replacing guesswork with a proven strategy
that gets results. You can follow this system to
successfully launch a new enterprise or to revive an
existing business that isn't growing.
Bob Leduc is a Sales Consultant with 30 years experience in
generating low-cost leads. He recently wrote a manual for
small business owners, "How to Build Your Small Business
Fast With Simple Postcards", and several other publications
to help small businesses grow and prosper. For more info:
Email: BobLeduc@aol.com
Subject: "Postcards"
Phone: 702-658-1707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV
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Product Review
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Virus protection is a must. You really can't function in an
effective manner on today's Internet without protecting your
computer from malicious attacks from others.
Firewall protection for those running a 24/7 (24 hours per day/
seven days per week) connection is an absolute necessity.
A couple of years ago you might have been able to get by with
only the basics in virus protection. Today, you can't take
that chance. These viruses come in all shapes and sizes and
some of them can do real harm to your system as well as those
you pass the virus along to in your next e-mail message.
You can pick up Norton Anti-Virus or McAfee Anti-Virus at your
local software store. You can even purchase and download them
online. Norton can be found at http://www.symantec.com
and
McAfee is http://www.mcafee.com.
There are some free programs you can try. One that I have used
in the past and told you about before is HouseCall. You can do
a free online scan here:
http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_pcc.asp
Even while running other anti-virus protection, PC-cillin always
managed to catch something the other program missed. It
usually involved a trojan of some kind. I just purchased the
program PC-cillin a couple of weeks ago and am still getting
used to it. You'll be surprised at just how many sites want
to add stuff to your computer and they would prefer you didn't
know about it before they do it.
Whatever you choose to do, please DO something about protecting
your computer and those you share information with. Go to a
search engine like Google and do a search for anti-virus
protection and see what choices you come up with. Just please
do something -- for your sake as well as ours.
NOTE: I just received this notice as I was preparing to send
out KIT. Here's another nasty virus to watch out for.
Symantec sent the following information:
W32.Frethem.K@mm, a variant of W32.Frethem.B@mm, is a mass-
mailing worm. W32.Frethem.K@mm sends itself to email addresses
it finds in the Microsoft Windows Address Book, as well as any
email addresses found in files ending with the following
extensions:
.dbx, .wab, .mbx, .eml, and .mdb
The email includes the following:
Subject: Re: Your password!
Attachments: Decrypt-password.exe and Password.txt
Message:
ATTENTION!
You can access very important information by this password
DO NOT SAVE password to disk use your mind
now press cancel
After sleeping for several hours, the worm also copies itself to
C:\Windows\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\Setup.exe so it
is executed each time Windows is started.
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Inspiration
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"I am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the
number of times I succeed; and the number of times I succeed is
in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail and keep
on trying."
Tom Hopkins
~~~~~~~~~~
"The world is full of abundance and opportunity, but
far too many people come to the fountain of life
with a sieve instead of a tank car... a teaspoon
instead of a steam shovel. They expect little and
as a result they get little."
Ben Sweetland, author
~~~~~~~~~~
"You can't expect to prevent negative feelings altogether.
And you can't expect to experience positive feelings all
the time. The Law of Emotional Choice directs us to
acknowledge our feelings but also to refuse to get stuck
in the negative ones."
Greg Anderson, American Author
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Special Feature
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HOW TO WRITE A PROFITABLE EZINE ARTICLE
Copyright © 2002 Melissa Ritchey
New to online marketing?
Got a new product or service you want to promote quickly?
Need more website traffic?
In other words, short on time but big on need?
Submitting your own ezine articles is one of the quickest
and most profitable form of driving TARGETED traffic to
your site, not to mention building your credibility on the Web.
WHAT! ME WRITE AN ARTICLE!?
Don’t worry, this is really a no-brainer.
The best articles are written from your own experience.
Write in a conversational tone and pretend you are talking
with a friend. That usually helps the thoughts flow a little
easier. And remember, add a piece of your own personality!
Can’t think of something to write about?
Take out a blank sheet of paper and jot down your interests.
Do some brainstorming here. Any tips you can share about
your own business experience? What about a news article
discussing current Internet trends and your feelings about this?
How about writing eBook reviews? Or how to write grabbing auto
responder messages? You see, the list can be endless! You can
also choose to write about some of your frustrations as a new
Internet marketer. Now, THAT's a topic we all could relate to!
You can also subscribe to ezines in your interest group and
see what other people are writing about. But make your
article stand out from the rest. There’s so much to learn
and write about using the Web as your world-wide library.
I can almost guarantee that EVERYONE can write an article
that is worthy of publication. And who knows? Your articles may
develop into sellable eBooks.
EZINE ARTICLE SUBMISSION “DOs.”
Create an article that:
· Contains interesting and informative content.
· Is written in a conversational tone.
· Uses sub-headings to break up ideas.
· Uses bullets or lists where appropriate.
· Is “timeless in content.”
· Includes your “signature,” a resource box that contains
your REAL name, URL, and a brief bio of who you are and
what you do. You could also weave in a selling sentence
about your business.
· State the article word size.
· Contains no spelling or grammatical errors. Proof read!
Before you submit an article:
· Learn the name of the ezine publisher and use it in the
subject line.
· Format the email to 65 characters a line as a text, not
as an HTML file.
· Write a brief intro in the body of the email, then PASTE
your article below. Never send it as an attachment.
· You can also ask to be informed by email when your
article runs.
Be considerate—submit an article only once or twice a month,
unless invited. And, send in one article at a time.
Submit only your best work, and in time you will build your
credibility as well as an online following. People will get to
trust you. And that will lead to increased website traffic AND
more sales!
________________________________
Copyright © 2002 Melissa Ritchey
Author of eBook Quick Tips, a mini-eBook about getting your
own eBook written and published. She is also the Webmaster
of The Free eLibrary, which offers all types of informational
products and marketing tips to jumpstart your business.
http://informationalsystems.com/free-eBooks
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Hot Tip
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Tutorial .... "Save to Disk - What's That?"
==============================================
You're about to download a file from a web site, when you see
a dialog box (window) appear with a couple of options:
1. Open from current location.
2. Save to disk.
What do you do? Open from current location, right? Sounds
reasonable. The file is at its current location, so open it.
Not so fast!
If you want to download the file to your computer at home or
work or wherever you are, then you'll want to use the option
that's selected by default ... the one that's checked off to
begin with. "Save to disk".
Disk doesn't always mean "floppy disk". What it really means
is that you will save the file to a disk. Most likely this
will be, and should be, your hard drive. Otherwise known as
your (C:) drive. Though it could be your (D:) drive, or any
other letter drive as long as it's not your A:, B: or the
drive you associated with your CD player.
Nope. You can't download to a CD! But you can burn a CD.
That is, copy programs and stuff onto a CD, which is called
"burning" a CD.
So, next time you get ready to download, just leave the "Save
to disk" option checked off. Technically, since the selector is
a "radio button" it can't be checked. It is selected.
And why is it called a radio button? Because it's round, and
it's kind of like those old radios that had the buttons you
could punch in, only one at a time. These computer radio buttons
can only be selected one at a time, which is different from
a check box, which allows multiple simultaneous selections.
Okay, I see your eyes starting to roll back in your head. So
let's dismiss this class! Just "Save to disk" then copy to
a floppy or some other larger storage device later, AFTER
you've downloaded.
If you want to study, or even print out, our excellent step-by-
step Downloading tutorial with pictures, you can do so here:
http://newbieclub.com/download/
Compliments of The Newbie Club
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Ezine ADventure
*~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~*
ATTN: Networkers/MLMers
No Hype, No "BS"....here's the facts: Only $30 to start,
Comes with a 90 day "No questions asked" guarantee,
Working with serious money-earners addicted to success!
http://retired-boomers.com/hawthorne/
An EzineADventure AD. Click Below - Get Your FREE Ads NOW!
http://www.ezineadventure.com/Default.asp?id=2985
*~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~*
Reader's Corner
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Free subscriber ads can be submitted to this link only:
mailto:lois@home4success.com?Subject=KIT_K_July_20th,_2002
Reminder: One ad/per subscriber - First 20 are in
5 lines, 60 characters per line
If you need help to format an ad, please use this great little
program:
http://www.jbmckee.com/formatit/reformatit.html
<a href="http://www.jbmckee.com/formatit/reformatit.html"> Click here</a>
To submit an Article:
Please format your articles as well. (65 characters per line max)
mailto:lois@home4success.com?Subject=KIT_Article_Submit
To share Tools or Tips:
mailto:lois@home4success.com?Subject=KIT_Tips_Tools
To make comments or suggestions:
mailto:lois@home4success.com?Subject=I_Have_A_Comment
==============================================
ARE YOU IMPRESSED WITH THIS EZINE ???
If you are then you have the opportunity to nominate this
ezine instantly with ONE click:
http://itsaworld.net/cgi-bin/letzvote/vote.pl?id=40
After voting you will be able to check out the Top25 ezines
on ItsaWorld EzVote !
----------------------------------------------------------------
ItsaWorld - http://www.itsaworld.com
<a href="http://www.itsaworld.com"> Click here</a>
==============================================
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Have You Read?
*~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~*
All Around Good Stuff is a wonderful, inspirational read.
Perfect way to keep you focused on reality.
To subscribe to All Around GOOD STUFF:
mailto:subscribe@themastercourse.com
~~~~~~~~~~
Success Steps
A publication of Success Synergies
Personal & Business Coaching
http://www.success-synergies.com
**You can even sign up for two free coaching sessions. Just
tell Monty I sent you over.
*~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~*
Give It A Try
*~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~*
'E-Board'
If you don't really want to create an entire website,
but do have some information you want to share, this
is a great solution. You get your own 'virtual corkboard'
to post info, photos, or whatever else. People can add
their notes to your stuff as well.
View their demo and see what we mean. This is a
great resource that you can use to make your
website visitor's interact with you.
http://www.resource-a-day.net/resources/e-board/
<a href=http://www.resource-a-day.net/resources/e-board/> AOL users click here </a>
*~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~*
Success Links
*~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~*
Capitalize on the Extreme Traffic Generating Power of the Four
Most Powerful and Proven Search Engine Tools Ever Created and
Dominate the Top-10 Search Listings in Any Industry.
http://www.marketingchallenge.com/cgi-bin/t.cgi/113640/semax
<a href="http://www.marketingchallenge.com/cgi-bin/t.cgi/113640/semax"> Click here</a>
*~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~*
QUESTION: What simple sales tool can literally QUADRUPLE your
sales overnight. Click the link to find out more!
http://home4success.com/go/to.cgi?l=ARP
<a href="http://home4success.com/go/to.cgi?l=ARP"> Click here</a>
*~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~*
Why re-invent the wheel? Web Marketing Pros SPILL The BEANS!
http://home4success.com/go/to.cgi?l=imckit
<a href="http://home4success.com/go/to.cgi?l=imckit"> Click here</a>
*~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~*
Need a Web Host? Check out JGP TopHOST. Several plans
available to meet your needs - and he's a nice guy to boot.
http://www.jgptophost.com/hop=loismj.jgptophost
<a href="http://www.jgptophost.com/hop=loismj.jgptophost"> Click here</a>
*~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~*
Advertise BIG for a Little. Put your ads in front of more than
a million subscribers. Packages start as low as $10.00.
http://www.ezineking.com.com/cgi-bin/aff_scripts/affiliate.pl?id=128
<a href="http://www.ezineking.com.com/cgi-bin/aff_scripts/affiliate.pl?id=128"> Click here</a>
<> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <>
KIT Memberships include:
~ Honorary membership in C.O.B.R.A.
Council of Online Business Relations Advocates
http://www.homesourcearena.com/cobra.htm
<a href="http://www.homesourcearena.com/cobra.htm"> Click here</a>
~ Ezine Publishers Association International
http://www.EzinePublisher.org
<a href="http://www.EzinePublisher.org"> Click here</a>
<> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <>
*~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~*
Disclaimer
*~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~*
All advertising in KIT is accepted in good faith and is offered
as a service to our readers. Publication of the ad should not
be construed as an endorsement of the product, business
opportunity or service being offered. Please refer to the
contact details in the ad for more information about product
or service offered. Use due diligence for all offers.
Free At Last Enterprises reserves the right to exclude any ad
pertaining to hate, race, discrimination or deemed inappropriate
for all readers.
*~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~*
Keeping in Touch With My Online Family is published by:
Free At Last Enterprises
Lois M. Jeary, Publisher
P. O. Box 88, Elie, Manitoba R0H 0H0 Canada
Phone: (204) 353-4096
Fax: (204) 353-2248
E-Mail: mailto:lois@home4success.com
Website: http://www.home4success.com
<a href="http://www.home4success.com"> Click here</a>
*~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~**~~~*
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