1) You Do Not Need To Spend Money In Order To Make Money.
Nowadays, there are hundreds of places to market your business for zero-cost. In fact, I have utilized over 200 different free marketing platforms! The best news is that many of these free marketing platforms work better than paid marketing platforms. So, take heart in the fact that you can truly market your business for no-cost and reap huge rewards in the process.

2) Create Your Brand.
You and your business need to stand out from the crowd; ultimately, you want to be unforgettable. That being said, it is vital that you “create your brand.” You must take the time to create a memorable name, tagline, and logo for your business. Then, showcase your “brand” EVERYWHERE! As an example, I am Jessica Swanson, “The Shoestring Marketer.” I use this tagline in all of my social networks, emails, reports, press releases, ebooks, signatures, websites, business cards, etc. Whenever I have a chance to showcase my “brand,” I seize the opportunity!

3) Set Up Your Business Foundation.
Every business needs a solid foundation before marketing begins. Without question you should have a landing page with an opt-in form, business website, email autoresponder campaign, professional picture of yourself, testimonials and free samples (i.e. a special report, ebook, e-course, audio class, etc). It is vital that all of your marketing efforts point back to a solid business foundation.

4) Determine Your Niche.
If you are going to be highly successful, it is important to find a niche within your industry. For example, “marketing” is a huge industry with intense competition. It would be next to impossible for a new business owner to break into the general marketing industry. In my case, I found a niche within the marketing industry that was underdeveloped and needed exposure: free marketing. In most cases, the smaller the niche, the more successful you will be.

5) Declare Your Expertise.
No matter what business you are in, you must become an expert within your niche. Remember that when people make a purchase or request a service from you, they are interested in solving a problem. If you can effectively communicate to your customer or client that you are an expert who can help them solve their problem, they will be much more likely to do business with you and your company. So, flaunt your expertise and show your clients that you truly can help them!

6) Tap Into 5 Marketing Platforms (at first).
When you first launch your marketing campaign, you may be tempted to join dozens of social networking sites, utilize several different free classified sites, and traffic exchanges, while juggling press releases, articles and blogs. Always remember that if you become a “Jack of All Trades, Master of None,” you will be overwhelmed and ineffective. Instead, pick five marketing platforms that resonate with you and become an expert marketer using these. (I suggest Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube and Article Marketing.) As your business (and profits) grows bigger, you can add more. However, rest assured that you can achieve a great deal of success utilizing nothing more than five powerful platforms.

7) Be Consistent and Patient!
This is the most important piece of advice for anyone launching a marketing campaign. Good marketing doesn’t happen overnight. In order for marketing to be effective, your prospective customers must see your offer again and again. So, make a promise to yourself that you will be patient and consistent in your marketing efforts. Those that do, realize huge rewards in their business!

Again, all seven steps are crucial to your business success. If you understand and effectively implement these shoestring marketing secrets, your business will quickly rise to the top!

Are you currently using or plan on using any of the methods mentioned in this article? Do you feel these tips can be beneficial to your success? Please feel free to leave your comments below.

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Jessica Swanson, “The Shoestring Marketer,” has helped entrepreneurs, all over the world, explode their businesses using cutting-edge, proven, NO-COST internet marketing strategies. To receive your FREE Marketing Kit, which has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you, learn the exact techniques for marketing their businesses for NO-COST, visit: Shoestring Marketing Kit

The Top Ten
By Tony Germana
www.MarketersProfitHub.com

Have you ever thought, “boy, would I love to get about 10 of these Gurus around my dining room table for coffee to pick their brains for a couple of hours?” I sure have.

I’m gonna save you the trouble of trying to get them all together. Through a lot of research, I’ve found what I consider to be some of the very best blog posts on Internet Marketing for 2009 and 2010. I call them the “Top 10″ and you’ll find them below They are posts that are brimming with top flight information, tips, and ideas. Pure gold for any serious Internet Marketer or wannabee. You’ll recognize some of the authors and some you won’t but they all deserve to be praised for the gems they’ve offered in their content! Don’t stop here, break out your pick ax and dig into this goldmine.


20 Must-Follow Blogs For Internet Marketing And Affiliate Marketing In 2010
By Doug Champigny
http://dougchampigny.com/20-must-follow-blogs-for-internet-marketing-and-affiliate-marketing-in-2010/

Guaranteed Internet Business Tips For High Conversion
By Evan Gould
http://www.internetincomeformula.com/internet-business-tips/

How To Generate Sales Leads-21 Lead Generation Ideas You Can Execute Today
By Igor Kheifets
http://www.igorhelpsyousucceed.com/2009/12/how-to-generate-sales-leads-21-lead-generation-ideas-you-can-execute-today/

Starting A Free Online Business, Step by Step
By Lynn Terry
http://www.clicknewz.com/1679/starting-a-free-online-business/

5 Success Tips Especially For “Newbie” Affiliates
By Robert Barry
http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/successful-affiliate-marketing

Do You Have What it Takes to Be an Internet Marketer?
By EJ Cooksey
http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/make-money-online-with-ej-cooksey

The Road To Affiliate Marketing Success
By Tony Germana
http://marketersprofithub.com/2010/02/the-road-to-affiliate-marketing-success/

How To Get (Free) Instant Website Traffic
By Stuart Stirling (a.k.a. “Stu Sensei”)
http://stuartstirling.com/how-to-get-free-instant-website-traffic/

3 Ideal Business Models
By Jason Parker
http://proimer.com/1879/21-million-in-2009/

3 Keys To Kick-Start Your Biz In 24 Hours
Posted by Jimmy D Brown
http://www.jimmybrown.com/3-keys-to-kick-start-your-business-in-24-hours/

I hope you found some of these articles as useful and informative as I have. As always, your comments and feedback are welcome.

Many people who are first starting out, sometimes have difficulty finding all the time they need for learning all the various things you’ll need to know. Most people like to try this out on a part-time basis and see how things work out before making a commitment. One of the things you’ll quickly discover is that you’ll need to learn SEO (search engine optimization). Knowledge of SEO will become critical to your success. You will need to find the best ways to drive traffic to your blog and get good rankings with the search engines. If you’re serious about making this work for you and you can’t find the time, you may need to consider hiring someone to do it for you.

When time becomes an issue, many people outsource some of their work, especially when the goal is to make a decent income. Not only do people hire those who can help with SEO but they also hire writers to help with their content. These people can write articles for your blog and also post comments on other relevant blogs which in turn gives a link back to yours.

If you do outsource any of your work, be sure to keep track of who is doing each task. The best way to do that is by using a simple spreadsheet. You should decide how often each task needs to be done and who is doing it for each of your blogs. By utilizing a spreadsheet, it will help you prioritize and keep you organized.

Just as in any other business, blog marketing requires lots of hard work, dedication and perseverance. How much effort you put into it is what you’ll get out of it. If you only put in a part-time effort or a few hours per week, don’t expect to make a full-time income from it. If you take your business seriously and put in as much effort as you possibly can, your results in the long run will pay off. One of the greatest feelings in the world is having your own business and being your own boss.

When first starting out, remember to take it one step at a time and don’t overwhelm yourself. By staying focused and working hard, you can make your dreams of having a successful home based business come true. Your hard work will pay off eventually if you are patient and persistent.

Are you currently utilizing your blog as a marketing vehicle? If so, how about sharing some of your results, techniques, strategies, etc.

The greatest benefits of working from home as an affiliate marketer is being your own boss and having the ability to manage your time. Additionally, there is no long commute to work, you set the hours when you want to work, spend more quality time with your family and set your own earning goals.

I don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression and lead you to believe that working from home as an affiliate marketer is a walk in the park. Yes, there are many benefits but running your own affiliate business from home requires lots of discipline and organizational skills. As most of you are aware, there can be many distractions at home and you need to be certain that you do what’s required every day in order to grow your business and earn a decent income.

In this article, there are 5 basic tips you should follow. This advice should help you manage your time and get organized most effectively and allow you to grow your business as well as earn the income you are seeking.

1. Working Environment
Ideally, you should have a place in your home that you can use as an office to work with no interruptions. It is recommended that you have your own office so you can work with peace and quiet and have the ability to organize your work. Yes, you can work in your PJ’s if that’s your preference. If you want to be productive, it is extremely important that you have a suitable work environment.

2.Time Commitment
Being an affiliate marketer requires lots of work especially when you’re first starting out and trying to build your business. You need to come up with a schedule of which hours you are going to work and adhere to it. Make certain that you allow a sufficient number of hours each day to work on growing your business. As you know, any number of things can arise while you’re working at home so it’s very important that you are disciplined and don’t allow yourself to get sidetracked and ignore your business.

3. Tools Of The Trade
If you want to work from home as an online marketer and be successful, there are certain tools that are necessary. The most obvious tools you will need are; a computer, preferably a fast internet connection and a printer. Those are the absolute minimum tools to get started. Once you achieve some success, you can reinvest some of your earnings in additional tools and resources. Run your business as a professional and you’ll find it easier to become successful.

4. Interact
Always try to interact with like minded people. If you can find a mentor to work with, that would be ideal. It is highly recommended that you stay on top of all new developments and strategies in your market. By interacting with other affiliate marketers, you can obtain some great advice and business tips. There are many marketing forums and discussion groups you can participate in. There is also an abundance of free resources available on the Internet. This business is constantly evolving so it pays to continually learn all you can.

5. Practice Good Health
As online marketers, we want results as quickly as possible. That usually means putting in long hours working day and night. We all want to see some success and those big commission checks. However, it’s more important that you don’t neglect your health. Don’t overdo it. Take breaks during the day, exercise regularly and be sure to get enough sleep. Your health is the most important thing you have so take care of it.

Hopefully, these few tips will put you on the right track towards building a successful affiliate marketing business. If some of you more experienced affiliates have some additional advice, please feel free to share it in your comments.

1. Passion/Inspiration
A goal must inspire you to action. You need to be very passionate about your goal and sincerely believe that you can achieve whatever you set as your goal. Your passion should continually motivate and inspire. After all, isn’t life without passion merely existing?

2. Be Realistic
Always set realistic goals. What would be the point of having an unrealistic goal such as: I’ll be a millionaire in 30 days. I’m not saying that it’s impossible but if you don’t truly believe you can do it, don’t make it a goal. Many great people have set goals that others thought would be impossible. So, don’t let what others think, have an impact on your goal. If you truly believe that you can achieve a specific goal, go for it!

3. Be Specific
Any goal you set must be specific. Setting a goal of something like “I want to be wealthy” is meaningless. Your goal must state what wealthy means to you. The same thing applies to “I want to be happy”. Your happiness needs to be defined the same way wealth does. If you don’t have a specific goal, how will you know when you achieve it?

4. Visualize Your Goal
If you can’t imagine your goal as reality, it probably will not happen. If it exists in your imagination and it’s a part of your life, it will become an achievable goal. As an example, take a pro basketball player. When the most successful players take a shot, they see the ball going into the basket even before they release it. Visualize your goal and you have a much better chance of it becoming a reality.

5. Affirmations
You need to constantly tell yourself that your goal is achievable. Having those self-talks each and every day is one of the most important things you can do. Not only must you have those affirmations but you need to tell others what your goal is. By telling others, you’ll get them to believe in what you’re trying to accomplish and they may even contribute to your success. Telling yourself and others is something that must constantly be done because you will not only convince yourself of your goal, but others as well.

6. Adaptability
Always remain focused on the best possible method to achieving your goal. As certain elements change in your life, you should be able to adapt and apply new methods to achieve your goal. The original methods you thought would fulfill your goal may not always be the best methods. Make changes as necessity dictates.

7. Write It Down
This is probably one of the most important steps you need to take when setting a goal. It’s a proven fact that nearly everyone who puts a goal in writing is far more likely to achieve that goal. If your goal is only in your head, it will more than likely become wishful thinking. Write it down and put it in a place where you can see it often.

8. Precision Timing
Almost as important as writing down your goal is being time specific. You must have a target date of when you feel you’ll achieve your goal. By merely stating that “someday I’ll be financially secure” or “someday I’ll own my own home”, it probably won’t happen. If you are serious about achieving a goal, you must put a specific date when you’ll achieve that goal. By stating that you will achieve your goal on September 15th, you are more likely to attain it.

9. Originals Are Worth More Than Copies
The goals you set must be your own. I’m not saying you can’t have a goal that is similar to another person’s but many people will set a goal that is inherited or influenced by a colleague, teacher, parent or even society. Your goal will have much more meaning if it’s your own. The reason you set a goal in the first place, with the desire to achieve it, is not just to have it but to be fulfilled and happy in making the accomplishment. If the goal isn’t your own original one and you do manage to achieve it, it probably will mean very little to you. Why would you waste all your precious time on something that won’t mean much to you?

10. Do It Now
As Brian Tracy stated “The most important key to achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and launch, get started, take action, move.” Well, what are you waiting for? Now that you know how to set a goal, go do it. There’s no time like the present.

I’m sure many of you have set goals for yourself and have some words of wisdom to share. Do you feel it’s important to set goals?

As the current year comes to a close and the new year is upon us, I would like to give you something that will hopefully inspire you. No matter what you are seeking in life, I hope this article will motivate you to become successful in everything you do.

Now more than ever, people are searching for the “secret to success”. They are looking for the secret to becoming wealthy, the secret to success in their occupation, the secret to better relationships, etc. Many people believe there are secrets out there that will drive them towards success. If that were true, wouldn’t it mean that success could only be achieved by those few individuals who have access to these great and mysterious secrets?

If you happen to be one of those people who are searching for these secrets, allow me to save you some valuable time. This is the bottom line: there are no secrets to success. There aren’t any shortcuts, there aren’t any magic formulas to follow and your chances are slim to none that you’ll purchase the winning lottery ticket. Those who are winners know what it takes. It takes; commitment, hard work, practice, focus, passion, determination and patience. All you need to do is look around and you’ll see there are no secrets to accomplishing any of those things.

A great example of becoming successful would be Chester Carlson. Chester Carlson became a very wealthy and successful man as the inventor of an electrostatic paper copying process that ultimately went on to become the Xerox Corporation. He had to go through being rejected by twenty different corporations. It took him seven years of determination and persistence before he found a small company that was willing to buy his invention.

Another great example of success is Julia Child. She was given a contract to write a French cookbook. Julia worked for five years with two colleagues and produced a manuscript that got rejected by the publisher. She continued working on it for another year only to be rejected once again. Julia Child was not the type of person who would give up. Finally, after eight years and her second publisher, Julia’s book sold over a million copies.

If you want to be a winner at whatever you are doing, don’t waste your time looking for a “secret” that will bring you the success you desire. All you really need to do is turn your sights inward and you will find everything you need. You are the secret to your success. If you are one of those people who thinks you don’t have what it takes, think again.

Just visit any volunteer organization, craft fair, hobbyist, or Internet blog. Note all the athletes, musicians, artists, poets and even hackers, spammers and graffiti artists. Determination, persistence, initiative and hard work will manifest itself in many ways and in many places, some will be very positive endeavors and some not so positive. But they all contain the same ingredients and they’re inside you just waiting to be tapped.

There are people who will work on writing a new novel after coming home from a hard day’s work. There are those who develop a product in their garage or basement and then figure out how to get it manufactured and marketed. There are also people who are willing to coach their child’s soccer team or organize a community food drive. These are all people who put their energy into their passions and interests. They continue on regardless of any hardships, set backs or disappointments and they demonstrate that they have what it takes by their actions.

So, stop wasting time looking for the secrets to success and begin to realize that you are the best kept secret you have. As the famous French actor, director and playwright Moliere stated: “The heart can do anything. Find your heart in your work and you can do anything too”. Another favorite quote by Jim Rohn: “Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”

Here’s to your great success in 2010!

What are some of the things you are doing now or plan on doing that you feel will lead to your success in the coming year?