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As a business owner, you know that one of the keys to a successful year is promoting your business. No matter what size your business is, marketing and promotion need to be addressed. Marketing has become a daunting task with the increasing number of online start-up businesses.

And now, along with the traditional offline marketing methods, there are many online marketing tools and methods available.

Online Marketing is also known as Internet Advertising, web marketing, web advertising or e-marketing.

There are many benefits to marketing your business online. Here are a few.

Lowering Your Costs

A recent eMarketer article (http://www.emarketer.com/Article/aspx?R=1007064) sites that \”in the wake of the global economic downturn, marketers worldwide are shifting more of their budgets into cheaper, more-measurable categories. In most cases, that means online.\”

Your marketing budget is only so big and online marketing can stretch it even farther for you. TV and radio spots are expensive, printing costs for corporate and product brochures are expensive and traditional mailings cost not only in materials and postage, but deplete the environment as well. Why not direct potential customers to your website for information on products and services? Your website is your brochure, a marketing tool available 24 hours a day to prospective customers. Your revenue potential will increase while your costs diminish.

Offline marketing ads for newspapers, TV and radio are for a limited time and you pay for the time slot and space. In online marketing, your ads potentially can stay up longer and over time you end up paying less. Using article marketing, you could either write an article yourself or pay someone else to write it. When that article is distributed online, it stays on the Internet for many years. For a small cost, you’ve placed a marketing proposition that stays around indefinitely, pointing potential customers to your website and your products and services.

Compared to traditional marketing or telemarketing, email marketing costs very little. These targeted messages go directly into the homes and offices of your potential or existing customers.

Reaching a Larger Market and a Targeted Market

The Internet allows people from all over the world to do business with each other.

From another recent eMarketer article, (http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1006988) in 2009, more than 65% of Americans are Internet users. They’re not only checking e-mail and Twittering, they are shopping for products and services.

With traditional media, your ads are restricted to a specific location for a limited time. When you promote your business online, you reach a larger audience than you would ever be able to reach otherwise since your marketing activity is not restricted by location. More potential customers always equal more sales opportunities.

Online marketing allows you to target specific demographics such as age, location, gender and income levels and in many cases allows you to track the behaviors of these groups as they interact with your online marketing.

It can also bring a branding campaign to life in a new way. This unique consumer interaction with your brand can leverage emotional links to your brand. Instead of a brand talking to a customer, your customer can interact with and experience your brand. This is intelligent brand marketing. You can influence people at the perfect time - their time, right when they are looking for information, comparison shopping and possibly buying.

Flexibility and Tangible Tracking

Online marketing can include email, newsletters, blogs, microblogs, podcasts, video and social media sites. All of these outlets have the ability to be flexible. An ad placed in a magazine or newspaper can’t be changed until the next submission. With online marketing you’ll know very quickly if a campaign is working and you can change wording or graphics and adapt product information to match changing market conditions.

The Internet also removes any guesswork from measuring campaign results. Using web analytics, you can measure the number of visitors that a campaign brings to your website, how long they stay and the average number of pages they visit. This important information along with the flexibility, allows you to improve the conversion of your campaign and to increase your return on investment.

Instant Conversion Ability

Online marketing allows you to convert a shopper to a customer instantly. A potential customer reading a traditional newspaper ad does not have the ability to click a mouse and buy your product or service immediately. Offline marketing involves more time and money to convert a shopper into a sale.

Online ads allow direct response. Consumers can click to learn more about a product, sign up for a newsletter or RSS feed, or buy right then and there. This will in turn create a database for you, which, with email marketing, will allow you to reach people who have already expressed an interest in your product or service. And online marketing allows you to sell to anyone, anywhere and at any time. You’re not restricted by time, geography and location considerations.

Internet marketing includes strategies such as search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click marketing (PPC), article marketing, blog marketing, online brandcasting, social media marketing and many more interactive marketing services.

While these strategies may seem daunting at first, with a little research, you can use some of these tools to help you optimize your website and increase web traffic. Or, if you have it in your budget, there are companies that specialize in many SEO services.

There are many benefits to both online and offline marketing. A mix of the two might be just what your business needs to grow.

Taming the recessionary tiger is not as difficult as you think. Forget the old patterns of spending big bucks to buy advertising or blast postal mailings to thousands of possible buyers. The dollars aren’t there to spend in a broken economy. Today every penny has to count, and that happens only when you define your market exactingly and tailor a message that is meaningful to it.

We are in a world of specialization. People in every niche seek information both on and off line. You can be the person to whom they turn to find that information. There is a way to brand yourself as an expert and to make your business or professional office the place customers or clients think of first. When reporters need a quote or perhaps some background material for a story they’re working on, make sure they turn to you, not to one of your competitors.

Raising Your Reputation

It is almost axiomatic that your reputation rises to new heights when you write and publish a book. And in today’s world, for the first time it is easy, fast and inexpensive to turn your words into print.

New printing technology has give birth to a new generation of publishers. Publishing on Demand (POD) has swept through the industry, churning out thousands of books and boosting the reputations of their authors. With this process, books can be printed in any quantity you need to use as promotional tools. They can be rapid-reading booklets of 30 or 40 pages or they can be full blown books of anywhere from 75 to 200 or more pages.

Journalism today has moved strongly into specialization. You can send the book to members of the press and to broadcast journalists who write about topics related to your product. They may review your book or simply write a blurb about it, sending hundreds of readers to your web site, office or store.

Once recognized as a leader in your field, you may well be asked to speak at various functions, adding further to your reputation. All of these possibilities are part of the program of branding yourself…identifying yourself as an expert.

Getting Assistance

Perhaps you have a talented staff member who can write the book with you. Or even for you. You certainly have the option of turning to a professional writer to ghost write the book. It is done frequently. If you don’t require that degree of assistance, contact a Book Coach to help you over the occasional bumps.

It is highly likely that your business is already represented by a web site on the Internet. Add a page to the site about yourself and about your book. What a wonderful opportunity to sell your book from the site and not have to pay commissions.

You may want to piggy back on the book and write articles for distribution throughout the Web. Hundreds of thousands of people will see your piece and hopefully a percentage will respond. You can distribute these articles at no cost by using online article distributors.

Once your book has been written, you can take portions of it and either rewrite them or run them as excerpts. In either case, your workload is minimal because you are drawing on something you have already written.

Writing for Trade Journals

You undoubtedly read some of the trade journals published in your field. Editors of these publications are hungry for informative, meaningful articles. They care far less about your writing style or ability than they do about the content you can provide. Their staffs can polish what you write and turn it into quality pieces, but they must first rely on you to supply the content.

Every article you write offers a perfect opportunity to attract business. The article itself must be informative. It can’t be a press release or a selling tool for you or your product. But at the end, as you have seen so many times when you read, the bio box about the author becomes a free advertisement for you.

Fill the box with information that invites your reader to visit your web site or buy your product. Provide enough information to allow the reader to trust you because of your credentials. Never forget that trust is a major factor in attracting a potential and closing a sale.

By following this approach you quickly build confidence in your expertise and as a result in your product. Print and broadcast journalists today search the Web for likely stories and for experts who can be used in those stories. A few references to you or your business in print or on the air will raise your rate of sale to unexpected heights.

If you are running a practice or a business, you are a knowledgeable professional or an informed businessperson. Harness that unique background and turn it into one of the most inexpensive, but most effective methods of branding yourself as an expert and promoting your company as one of the leaders in its field. It is an ideal way to offset the depression blues.

There are a lot of signs that a relationship disaster is on the cards. How many are you currently seeing?

Body Language

What does your partner’s body language say? Do they avoid eye contact with you? Do they turn their body away from you when you’re talking? Do they roll their eyes and make other signs of contempt?

Gotta Go, Bye!

Are you having a hard time holding a phone conversation with your partner? Do they always seem to have a reason to hang up early? Are they leaving you high and dry when you text them?

Sex, What Sex?

A drop in sexual activity indicates that there is something wrong with your relationship. It means there’s a lack of intimacy - and what’s a relationship without intimacy? It can also indicate contempt - because who wants to have sex with someone they don’t respect anymore?

The Future… Doesn’t Exist

If your partner is hesitant to make any sort of commitment for future activities, it’s a sign that they don’t see you in their future. If they keep putting off buying plane tickets to your parents’ for Thanksgiving, it’s probably because the day after is going to be a very Black Friday for you, indeed.

Space

The \”I need some space\” line really does mean that you’re breaking up, no matter what the other person might tell you. They’re just looking to get far enough away so that when they really cut ties, they won’t be near the blast zone.

A Not-Quite-Hug

When you go to hug your sweetie, they pull that one-shoulder hug or the quickie-pat-on-the-back hug. If they’re not making full frontal contact, they’re trying to pull away from you.

You’re No Longer Mirroring Each Other

People who are in love mirror each other’s movements. If he takes a sip of his drink, she does too. They laugh at the same time. They reach for each other’s hands simultaneously. If you are about to be dumped, you’ll feel like you’re not synching up anymore.

You Get In Dumb, Dumb Fights

If you’re fighting over stupid things like whether the saltshaker goes in the spice cabinet or on top of the stove, you’re about to get dumped. Your partner may be pressing your buttons by doing all the things they know will annoy you in an attempt to get you to dump them first.

He’s Late… Again

If your partner has developed the habit of being late for everything, then it’s a sure sign that they’ve lost respect for you. If it happens once or twice, no problem. But if it’s happening nearly every time you’re supposed to meet up, you can be sure it’s intentional.

You Find A Secret Something

When my friend Arthur was going to dump his wife for a woman he met online, the first thing he did to prepare was to buy a pre-paid cell phone. Then his girlfriend could call him without his wife finding out her phone number on the monthly phone statement.

Whether it’s a phone or a bank account, if they’ve started something new without you, it’s a big sign that you’re about to be history.

They Dress Differently

Suddenly the girl who was content in jeans and t-shirts is wearing dresses and high heels. When people are looking for a change in their life, they often start with the areas that they can control like their physical appearance.

They may not have a new love in their life, but they’re dressing in a way to attract one!

Are You Doomed?

Don’t worry if you find one or two of these signs. They don’t always mean that your relationship is heading south.

Be sure to keep the lines of communication open with your partner - talking things out and being honest with each other will keep your relationship strong.

Starting a business is always a tremendous undertaking. It is the most stressful undertaking a person could ever attempt to do. Most new business owners fail to understand that running a business is a complex operation, which will require the business owner/manager to pull many hat tricks to stay afloat.

As the stress of the business grows, many new small business owners find themselves completely overwhelmed by all of the work required to keep their new business afloat.

Much of the strain of establishing and running a business is centered on successfully juggling the finances. When working as the head of a corporation or as a sole proprietor, every decision made will affect the future of the business. Having a means of relief in place in the event that a wrong decision is made can often mean the difference between success and failure of the business. When a bad financial decision creates a situation where payroll cannot be met on time, a business can quickly find itself without staff to continue operations.

Business Credit Cards For New Businesses

In many cases, start-up companies seek out a loan at the beginning of their business. For business owners who are not comfortable taking out a large loan, there are other options that can be considered as an alternative.

A credit card designed specifically for business is an option many companies will choose to pursue. This is just like a traditional credit card, but it also provides a variety of business directed incentives.

Credit card companies generally offer low interest rates to attract new business enterprises. While the credit history of the owner of a small business is going to be considered in factoring how much credit a company can receive, other factors are considered to carry greater significance.

The business plan and financial projections of a new company are going to be the most important categories available for banks to examine. Lenders and credit givers are fundamentally interested in learning about your projected financial expectations.

For companies that have been around for awhile, an in-depth look at its financial history and business projections are going to be the most vital pieces of information a credit card company will want to know.

A business credit card provider is going to be most concerned with the stability of the company. Some banks are so concerned about the stability of a business that they will not risk the investment of offering any type of credit to a start-up company, even if that company has a checking account at their bank, until the company has maintained their business checking account for at least one year.

This is by no means meant to discourage a business owner from pursuing business financing. Instead, it is simply an observation of the difficulties that many business owners face when trying to establish business credit. Each bank has their own policies on business credit cards, and some banks will prefer to be more cautious than other banks.

The Pitfalls and Advantages of Business Credit Cards

As with any credit card, the most common pitfall of owning a credit card is the potential to overspend. It is always best to limit the amount of money that is charged on a credit card, whether in personal finances or business finances. Business start-up costs can be astronomical. There are also times when a company needs a few extra dollars to keep their utilities from being disconnected. If someone is not careful, they can easily charge their way into a deep pit of debt that could ultimately destroy their business.

The truth is that cash flow is always a problem for new businesses. Small business credit cards can make it possible for a business owner to pay all of their bills on time. The danger, of using credit cards to maintain a business’ cash flow, is when the owner is in a state of denial about the true health of his or her company. Unfortunately, some business owners become dependant on their line of credit and use it to prop up a business cycle that cannot sustain itself, ultimately leading to financial disaster.

On the other hand, acquiring a business credit card could also be one of the best decisions an owner could make towards the long-term stability of his or her business. When a business owner has access to additional funds to float his or her business during a short window of cash flow problems, that extra money could be just enough to keep the business alive to continue operations. An example of such a situation could be when the company’s bank intends to hold a deposited check until after the next payroll date. It is one thing for an owner to decide they can wait a few more days to be paid, but it is quite another thing altogether to ask a company’s employees to wait five days to be paid their wages.

Being able to access the financial means to keep a business steady and on sure footing can provide a terrific sense of security to the business owner.

The time when a credit card becomes especially handy to the business owner is when tax time comes; a business credit card can be a true asset. No one is better at finding accounting flaws than our federal government, and almost every new business is going to be audited in their first year.

If a company’s transactions are all done with a business credit card, then the company will have a permanent record of all of their business transactions. Having documentation of all of your expenses is vital, when dealing with the IRS.

The most important thing that a small business credit card can do is to provide you with the means to establish a reputable credit history with banks and lending institutions, so the business can gain access to higher credit lines than what the typical start-up company is afforded.

Inspiring Examples

One of the most successful cases of a small business succeeding by the use of a business credit card can be found with Google. Some would argue that Google is the most successful search engine on the Internet. It has become such a phenomenon that the company name has morphed in to a verb for all online searches.

It is amazing to think that it all began in a dorm room. Its next home was in a garage. Eventually the founders of Google, Brin and Page, realized they needed larger equipment. They bought all of their new equipment on credit cards, because banks were not interested in lending money to a small dot-com company.

Over 380 million people in over 35 different languages regularly use Google to enhance their online experience. All of this success was made possible by the start-up funds provided to the Google founders by credit cards.

In Conclusion

Business credit cards can mean salvation for a fledgling company. Having the resources to maintain your companies financial stability can make any business owner more confident with in their decision.

A good line of credit for your business can also lead to countless openings for future growth. Establishing a strong and steady financial history can be the perfect asset in finding interested investors and development opportunities, when it is time to reach out for a bigger line of credit.

For those small business owners who know how to utilize the credit system to grow their business, the future may be greatly enhanced. For those business owners who start their journey with credit cards, the climb to greater credit availability is made that much easier.

You are tasked with looking for software and in your research you stumble upon ‘free’ software. Can this be? It sounds too good to be true! How can they do that? It is very tempting - most of us at least take a peak. After all, why would we buy something we can get for free?

Or perhaps you start out looking for a good solid solution that will meet all of your needs, but your budget is tight and you begin looking at trimmed down or free solutions that may be available. You think that it may be good enough to get you by for now, and you can just purchase something better at a later date when things improve.

While this is tempting, one must consider the hidden costs of ‘free’ software. In the end, you could be spending more for a ‘free’ version, than a reputable, well built affordable solution.

Here are a few considerations when considering free software:

1. Many ‘free’ software solutions are not actually free. Essential components needed to use the software are additional - sometimes the components are minutely priced, but when you plug in your volume needs the prices really add up.

2. Does it really fit your needs? - With ‘freeware’ there is no product specialist to guide you with your selection, so you are forced to figure out on your own if it will meet your needs. Often once implemented you may learn that it does not meet needs after all or that certain parts do not work the way you need them to. Time lost in business is money lost.

3. You are on your own - typically freeware does not include any implementation assistance, training or support. At best you may get a ‘guide’, but no one to answer questions or help you with your system environment.

4. No training is provided - how will your employees learn how to use the new software? There are no best practices to follow, and you are left to learn on your own. In addition to time lost, often mistakes are made along the way that are hard to correct because you have done so much already \”the wrong way\”. Again, time lost.

5. Is it cross user friendly? - Some companies may have an employee smart enough to ‘rig’ a freeware to meet their needs. Once this employee leaves or moves on new folks can’t figure out how to make it work the same way.

6. Will it grow with you? - What will you do when you outgrow your application or your needs change. Will you force your business tasks around the app, or be forced to start over? Many hours, weeks, months are spent implementing a \”free\” system, processes are built around it, training is conducted - much man hours and internal costs. Starting over can be very costly. All of the time spent and resources used are now wasted as you look for a solution to replace this \”free one\”.

So be on guard not to get caught up in the \”free\” hype, which in the end can cost much more. Take the time to do the due diligence now and select what you need for both now and for the future. Choose a provider that has a quality reputation, offers assistance, provides support, and a solutions that is scalable and can grow to meet your needs long term.

In my opinion, the best stories are those that are about the \”other guy.\” You know, the one who would never normally get the spotlight or have his story told if it were not for the main story line of a TV show, book or movie.

Some people might refer to this character as the underdog, but this is not always an accurate assessment. The \”other guy\” doesn’t always have an underdog quality. This about it like this: would anyone care about Apollo Creed’s story if it weren’t for Rocky? Would any want to know a lick about Chewbacca if it weren’t for the rest of the Star Wars gang?

This same principle could be applied to the witches of \”Wicked: The Musical,\” which tells the true story of the two witches from the classic movie \”The Wizard of Oz.\”

In the movie, who really cared about the witches in a deeper sense?

After all, the good witch was pretty and helped Dorothy on her merry way and the other witch, the one from the west, was an evil, evil woman with a leftover green spa pack left on her face for far too long. \”The Wizard of Oz\” was all about sweet little Dorothy and the mutt following her around here, there and everywhere.

Aaaah, but \”Wicked\” is all about the witches, my pretty. The show provides some very important background information on these women. It starts by telling us how Elphaba (I’d be wicked with a name like that, too) and Glinda, the good witch, struggle to maintain their friendship amidst completely different backgrounds, personalities and points-of-view.

Oh yeah, and of course they like the same guy.

I won’t spoil the entire plotline, but suffice to say, you understand by the end of the musical why the two take such separate paths in life. Mostly set before Dorothy steps on the scene fresh from her Kansas farm, there are several references in Wicked from The Wizard of Oz.

Thus far, Wicked has been a smash success playing to audiences around the world. Currently touring some of America’s biggest cities, audiences now have the opportunity to pick up Wicked the Musical Seattle tickets as well as Wicked San Francisco tickets. Even the Mile High City is getting a wicked piece of action with Wicked Denver tickets currently on sale.

And while most fans think that the touring show could never be as good as the original, this is most certainly not the case with this musical. The touring version of Wicked the Musical Broadway is every bit as good as the original production.

This has a lot to do with the fact that the show’s creators have taken care to maintain an eye on the various performances around the country, ensuring the same stage quality, high caliber of acting and overall amazing theatrical performance that audiences get when they take in a show in NYC.

Moreover, the fact that it has taken in $14 million on Broadway alone and at least $1.4 billion worldwide is certainly some level of testament to the show’s ability to dazzle audiences. Wicked is a theatrical delight for fans of the original book to those that loved the movie to those that simply want to know the story of the \”other guy.\”

Joshua Lionel Cowen of the now iconic Lionel Trains was born in 1877 to Jewish immigrants. With his family, Lionel landed in New York after the Civil War. This was a time of change for everyone, including Cowen, not just with emigrating to the United States, but it was the time of the industrial revolution. Edison had just created the electric light and trains signaled the progress of change. The west and east were finally connected in America via the Central and Union Pacific railroads, this led to a sense of expansion, optimism and exciting possibilities for some. Growing up amidst this revolution of change, it made sense that Cowen would be an inventor. He is credited with inventing the flashlight and just before the turn of the century, this college drop-out received his first patent for an instrument that was used to light the flash of a camera.