You Can't Afford to Overlook Email Marketing
Source: http://freelanceswitch.com
With an average return on investment (ROI) of a whopping $45.05 US for every dollar spent, you can't afford to overlook email marketing. But, list building, at least initially, is a stumbling point for many a marketer. With a little planning, it need not be. Start with your friends, clients and colleagues in your address book. Send out an email announcing your newsletter, why it's the bee's knees and what benefits they'll get by subscribing. Be sure to include a line asking them to forward the announcement to their friends and associates.

Best Buy Optimization Is A Big Stupid Annoying Waste Of Money
Source: http://consumerist.com
Would you pay $39.99 to improve your computer's processor speed by 200%? What about software updates that would take you two days to perform on your own? Or how about services that take an "incomplete" computer and make it more useful? Good deals, right? Just one problem: None of these claims - made by real Best Buy sales clerks about the company's Geek Squad optimization services - is true.

Ask for the Sale When They Are Most Interested In You
Source: http://www.damniwish.com
Lots of websites use articles, blogs, and other content to attract visitors. It's a fine strategy. But the challenge is converting those visitors to buyers. The Spice House in Chicago does an amazing job by putting a shopping cart right inside their recipes. You read the recipe you like and add the products to your cart with one click. Can you remove a layer between the content and the buying?

Web Analytics 2.0: A Book for Those Serious about Website Results
Source: http://smallbiztrends.com
Website owners who conduct retail online or rely on websites to engage customers can ill afford to not understand online behavior that contributes to business results. A recap for those who do not know what web analytics is (and its significance): Web analytics is the measurement of website visitor behavior. It measures such things as number of visitors, time on site, and bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who leave a site in 3 seconds or less - equivalent to entering a store, realizing you don't want to be there, and leaving immediately). Web analytics data is used to help improve a website for users.

The Led Zeppelin Guide to Creative World Domination
Source: http://lateralaction.com
There has never been a bigger, badder or better rock band than Led Zeppelin. And there never will be. Now we've got that straight, let's take a look at how they did it - and what you can learn from their example.

Google Helps you 'Socialize' Your Blog Content
Source: http://smallbiztrends.com
If you're a small business owner who also tweets, Google's got a new service you may be interested in to help you simplify the process and to give you more data about its results. Who doesn't love more data? And Twitter!

AppMakr Makes iPhone App Creation for Your Business a Snap
Source: http://mashable.com
AppMakr is a streamlined system that creates a native iPhone application out of your existing RSS feeds. You can customize elements of the app and the artwork and then submit it directly to the App Store. You can even embed ads from places like AdMob directly into the app. It makes creating your own iPhone app simple and inexpensive.

700+ iPhone Apps Reviewed by Category
Source: http://mashable.com
From social media, to business tools, to just plain cool, the iPhone does it best with these App Store standouts.

$72,000 in E-Books in a Week - 8 Lessons I Learned
Source: http://www.problogger.net
Over the last 11 days I've been on a massive learning curve. This post is a number of the scattered lessons I've been learning - mainly from the launch of my Portraits E-book over at Digital Photography School.

5 Steps to Turning a Service Into a Product - So You Can Sell Your Business
Source: http://www.openforum.com
If you dream of cashing out someday to fund your retirement, or achieve financial independence, or just try something new - listen up. Start working now to transform your business by "productizing" your services. To productize a service means to turn your services into product offerings. In other words, you position your services to resemble products as much as possible. That will build value that an acquirer might be willing to pay for.

Three Best Ways to Make Sure Customers Pay
Source: http://online.wsj.com
Don't get stiffed. When it comes to collecting money, there are new tools available to help.

Time To Divorce Problem Customers?
Source: http://online.wsj.com
By eliminating 5% of her clientele this year, Kishau Rogers' Web-site development firm is saving 20% more of her time while 2009 revenue is on track to rise 10%. "It was the best decision I've made, because it really reduced the level of frustration that I was experiencing," Ms. Rogers says. "It freed me up to the clients that are loyal and pay on time."

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