Here are four effective free advertising methods that have been tried and tested and best of all, they truly work!

We do this naturally and we do it almost every single day. When you recommend a favourite work at home website, rave about a great marketing e-book, share a new business adventure or talk about a new product with such enthusiasm you are spreading the word. One friend will tell another and so on and so on. Word of mouth is still one of the best free advertising tools today.

Signature advertising is by far the single easiest methods available. Use it in forums (where it is permitted) and emails. A signature file or sig file is a text of information about your business that may include your name, your email address, telephone number and other pertinent information. The link is automatically appended to outgoing emails and internet postings (forums). Signature advertising creates one way back links to your business or website and drives targeted traffic to your website.

Writing articles have proven time and time again how powerful and effective it really is. It drives traffic to your website creating more exposure, you gain more incoming links and you get higher ranking in search engines. The more traffic you receive the more profits you make, but it’s only effective if you write quality articles rich in keywords and keyword phrases and provide useful information. Otherwise, no one will want to re-print them and your resource box like a signature file is null and pointless. You can submit your written articles to popular article directories, post them in the appropriate section of community forums, blogs, and more. There are many people who look for new content for their website/s every day so this will be beneficial to you.

From community forums to social networking sites such as Ryze, Facebook, MySpace, Adland Pro etc. networking groups is taking its place among the other great free advertising options. It’s a place to gather, meet, share, discuss, inform and learn about various businesses. The same can be said for networking marketing in the real world where you can meet in person at various venues.

There are many different avenues to explore and promote your business online or offline, but when it comes to free advertising these are the four methods that have proven to be on the top of the list for being successful and effective.

Of the many online advertising strategies such as display advertising, SEO, etc., pay per click advertising is found to be highly effective in driving quick sales. The conversion rate is usually slow with the techniques like SEO or display ads. Hence, this strategy is recommended for quick results. In this article, we will discuss about the benefits of pay per click advertising for auto businesses. Reaches wider audience: Like any other search engine marketing strategy, pay per click ads too reach billions of Internet users. These ads appear along with the organic search results when a person is looking for a specific keyword. You can also enhance your online visibility by placing your auto business’ PPC ads in the relevant websites like auto blogs, forums, auto news sites and other auto related websites. You can place your ads across any number of search engines or auto websites or both combined, to expand your visibility. Targets the right audience: PPC advertising allows you to have control over your audience. PPC can be both – generic (search network model) and focused (content network model) form of advertising. By opting for a search network model for your auto business’ PPC campaign, your ads will be seen along with the other results that appear for a specific keyword.

You can even make the search network model targeted demographically, by limiting your ads only to local search. On the other hand, in the content network model, these PPC ads appear only in the websites whose content matches with the keyword which was searched for, giving you an option of filtering your audience. Placing your ads in the popular auto websites, will generate good traffic for your business. Allows budget management: This is the most important characteristic feature of the PPC campaign. PPC campaign requires you to pay the advertisers only when any visitor clicks on your ad. This makes it easy to predetermine your budget and manage costs. Once your sales goals or number of leads are attained, you can stop your PPC campaigns. And you can resume them whenever you have new set of sales goals. Moreover, as every ad is specific to a keyword, the cost per click of the ad depends on the competitiveness of the keyword used. The more competitive the keyword is, the high the cost per click for that ad. Hence, you can manage your budget by choosing a less competitive keyword for your ad in case your budget is less or it can be reversed, in case you have high budget.

Cost effective: Unlike other advertising campaigns, you need not pay search engine or a website management for displaying your ad; instead you have to pay them only when your ads are clicked by the visitors. This is, hence, also called as cost per click campaign. On obtaining the required return on investment through sufficient sales, you can stop your PPC campaigns. As PPC is also a targeted means of advertising, the clicks have high potential of getting converted into sales, which avoids the need to pay money for useless clicks. This makes PPC highly cost effective and efficient. Can track results instantaneously: PPC ads are not only functional in advertising your auto business, but also help you in tracking the success of your ad campaign. Based on the number of clicks for the ads, you can determine the effectiveness of the keyword. On tracking the success of keyword, ad placement and the design, you can make the necessary changes immediately so as to make the PPC ads operate at maximum levels. Depending on the success of the campaign or the limit of your budget, you can pause/resume/run as many campaigns as necessary. Though SEO is highly preferred for top search results, it takes several months to produce results; whereas, the PPC is highly effective in driving immediate sales. Therefore, it is suggested to consider PPC advertising, till the SEO efforts begin to give results.

The biggest brand names did not get to where they are without working hard to promote their services. If you are a new business owner, one of the more important things you should consider is how to tell people about your firm. You may not have the budget that big organizations have, but it should not stop you from finding ways to growing your brand. The solution? Find advertising merchandise that give you much exposure without hurting your checkbook.

Highlighters, dry markers, and erasers are standard office supplies that are used frequently. Stamped with your logo, these promotional items are a sure way to get people to notice your brand.

By impressing the barrel of a highlighter with the URL of your corporate Website or blog, you can drive traffic and build up an online readership base. Brick-and-mortar brands can add their hotline in large print and bring in more prospects. Those who do not go online frequently can simply pick up the phone and call for inquiries.

These writing instruments are also inexpensive unlike other complimentary gifts like T-shirts or bags. One-color highlighters and markers start below fifty cents and can even go cheaper when you buy in bulk. Multicolor highlighters can be secured for at least seventy-five cents, with some marker-and-pen combos going slightly more than a dollar.

Custom-printed highlighters and dry markers are also fitting complimentary gifts for back-to-school promos as well as marketing projects that aim to build up your brand with students, office workers, and teachers. At trade shows and conferences, you can use them as a handout to entice people to give you their business cards or sign up for your newsletter.

With so many models of highlighters, dry markers, and erasers available online, one can easily be overwhelmed, but start small and see how response goes. You can be sure that this little investment will go a long way for your firm.

Network Marketers often ask “Whats Deductible and whats notin a Multi-Level marketing business?”

Having a Multi Level Marketing business is what I call the “#1 tax shelter for the little guy”. Whether you work the business part-time, or are a full-time networker, once you start your own business, you can take advantage of many deductions available only to business owners. You can deduct a portion of your cell phone, vehicle, household and other expenses that you would not otherwise be able to write-off your tax bill if you were not in network marketing.

The federal and state tax codes are full of deductions for businesses, and you are entitled to take them whether you work your business from home or from a fancy outside office. In effect, you are sharing expenses with Uncle Samand your state governor as well.

Before we begin, it pays for you to know, in general, how businesses are taxed. Big picture-wise, the government taxes a businesss profit or net incomeso the less you end up with after expenses, the less taxes you pay. What that means to you is this: youre not taxed on gross receipts or your top-line income. Your tax liability is based on your bottom line, or whats left after deducting expenses. So the more you can deduct from you top line income, the better!

The tricky part is this: some expenses are deductible this year, but other expenses must be spread out over several years. For example, you might be able to write off 100% of the cost of new computers and furniture this year (per IRS Code Section 179). But if you dont have a lot of income, a wise strategy might be to defer some of that deductible expense to future years (depreciation expense). Start up costs can also be tricky: you can a portion this year if its the first year of your MLM business, but youll have to spread the rest (“amortize”) over the next several years.

That being said, here is a partial list of deductible expenses. Many of these are overlooked by Network Marketing business owners:

Accounting and Legal FeesAdvertising / Website
Auto and Truck Bank Charges
Computer ExpenseDues and Subscriptions
Education and TrainingEquipment and Furniture
GiftsHome Office Expense
InsuranceInventory
Licenses and PermitsMeals and Entertainment
Postage and DeliveryPrinting
Rent (“room dues”)Repairs
Retirement SavingsStart Up Costs
Supplies and MaterialsTaxes
TelephoneTravel
Uniform Expense

IRS Publication 463 “Travel, Entertainment, Gift and Car Expenses” is a must-read if you are doing your own tax preparation. It definitely pays to know the (IRS) code rather than assuming something is deductible when it comes to these areas.

Consider hiring a tax professional to prepare your tax return. Youll usually save far more in taxes than youll spend in his or her fees. Tax accountants know the rules, prepare hundreds of returns each year, can lower your tax bill, and help you avoid mistakes that might otherwise lead to an IRS audit.

Dedicated to multiplying your after-tax income,
Jim Flauaus

For some time, factoring has been a prominent part of the business world. It is a way for companies who are strapped for cash to sell their invoices, also known as their accounts receivable, to another company called a factor. The factor then pays an average eighty percent of what the total invoices are worth, minus a factoring fee for assessing the credit risk involved with the owner of the invoice. Now, there are risks and advantages for both parties. For the seller, they stand to gain quick cash they may need to drive their business or make head way into a new realm. They may also risk giving up nearly thirty percent in total profits their company would be due if they held out for their money. For the buyer, they get to pick up a high amount of invoices for a substantially discounted rate. However, if those paying the invoices have a poor credit history and will not be able to pay, they then take the risk of losing their money and barely making money with a lot of work, merely breaking even, or just losing money all together. That being said, small business factoring can be a tumultuous realm.

That said, one needs to look into emboldening what they have.

If one is able to see the strengths of small business, chances are they will be able to operate more successfully than focusing on the chance of changing their flaws.

For example, big business has price discounts. Small business cannot afford it. Thus, small business tries to focus on consumer relationship. There is a foreseeable relationship behind that.

It mirrors the same relationship of buyer and seller in small business factoring. Where one person has a weakness another no doubt has a strength, it’s how you employ those sides against your competitors.

One must do their best to see the relationship at hand, and work alongside them, not go against the grain.

In fact, the only time a business should go against the grain is if they are willing to lose what they’ve begun. If that is a risk they can put on the table, then rub anyone you want the wrong way. If you have people relying on you and cannot make those risks, it is important to find a way to move differently in the same direction as competitors.

Last thing one should remember if they decide they are going to be entering into a small business idea, whether it is a reliable and established idea such as small business factoring or not, that it’s a rough climate right now. The economy is off to a slow uphill climb, but that climb is going to take years. One must be ready and willing to put their model against an age of Internet technologies, social media, and so on. There is a lot to adapt to, and one knows that small businesses are getting continually crunched these days. That being said, innovation is the key word of the game and that should not be forgotten.

Are you thinking of starting your own business, but concerned about the cost? A smart move that can save entrepreneurs money using the latest technology is working virtually-from the comfort of your home. When you think of starting your own home based business, the first thing that come to your mind will be saving time and money while spending lots of free time with your family and the flexibility of making your own schedule.

The rising cost of gas and environmental affect of commuting encouraged most people to start their own business. Along with it, modern amenities such as Internet, email, fax and phone also allows you to work from anywhere you want. With these improved technologies, working from home and telecommuting is becoming a reality in many peoples lives.

Though commuting is often a necessity, it takes many hours that could be used effectively. Therefore, many workers are attracted towards telecommuting as it saves both time and money. Telecommuting is becoming increasingly popular as workers try to reduce commuting time. With telecommuting, you can save car and fuel expenses as well as have a few extra hours per week that would have been spent driving on the road.

With gas price being so expensive, it is no surprise that you will save big bucks in this area starting your own business. It is a great way to stay green while improving efficiency and productivity in your work field.

According to a data released by U.S. Census Bureau, “Americans spend more than 100 hours commuting to work each year.” Working from home will not only save your time and money, but also help in increasing productivity. As a business owner, you will have more flexibility staying with your family; you have more hours in a day to get the work done.

Telecommuting saves time, money and fuel. It is an arrangement in which you can work from home or from anywhere or wherever you can use your mobile telecommunication technology. All you need to start your own business is a computer, a phone and some network connection. You can also give your business a wider perspective by creating a web presence.

Working from home means no need to purchase office space, no need to maintain the office building, no utilities cost, no commuting expenses. This means saving money, which you can spend in increasing productivity in your business.

With ever increasing household expenses and everyday bills, many families are struggling to make their dream into reality. If you are not commuting to your work everyday, you could save several hundred dollars each month just by having a home business.

Again, a home based business allows one or both parents to be at home to care their children while still earning income. This not only saves you financially, but also gives you a peace of mind to be with your children.

Starting your business from home in this era of cost cutting can save you a great amount of money with minimizing commuting expenses.

If you look around all over the internet, there has been really a lot of hype around the Max International business in the last year or so. However, is all the buzz and hype with it and MaxGXL really worth it and is this a legitimate opportunity or just a scam?

OK, so starting at the beginning, what is the Max International Business all about and

All of which sounds excellent, but lets take a closer look at the Max International product line and what they specifically sell. The main product is MaxGXL and that contains glutathione, which aides and improves energy levels, detoxifies your body, and boosts your natural immune system.

Now, take a look at the Max International compensation plan. Overall, it has nine key tiers of payout, to include: retail profits, preferred customer commissions, FastTrack commissions, team commissions, 7 level matching bonus, bonuses for ranks advancement, a global bonus pool, and a bonus car program. Overall, at the core though, it really looks like a pretty normal network marketing opportunity pay plan.

Is Max International really just a scam? No, not at all. It seems to be an up and coming company with a very distinct product line and a good payout plan for its distributors.

But, as is the case with any MLM opportunity, the real deal for the Max International business will be the marketing that its distributors do. That really is the way things become successful, even if they have the latest and greatest products and the best compensation plan.

If you are a Max International business builder, I highly suggest you learn how to effectively market either the business or product in order to be really successful. Learn something like pay per click marketing, electronic magazine ads, or video marketing. This is what creates prospects, leads and downlines.

If you would like to learn more about building your Max International business, read below and click on the link for more information.

According to “Fortune Magazine,” the third most admired company in world is Berkshire Hathaway. When we think of Berkshire Hathaway we think of its head one of the wealthiest man in the world Warren Buffett. What business principles we learn from Warren Buffett? What is his magic?

Strategic Approach

Warren is one of the best investors in the world. His approach is simple. He does not buy stocks as much as he buys businesses. He focuses on a companys value, its stock price and its risks. He looks for companies with strong brands, simple business models, a good return on equity with a lot of debt.

If the price of a firm is less than its value, Warren is interested. In doing his homework, he studies the firms competition, ignores what analysts have to say, and pays little attention to fluctuating market trends. In fact when the market is down, he believes that may the best time to buy.

Jim Collins’ Lens

Let’s start by looking at Warren from a perspective of what Jim Collins teaches in his seminal book “Good to Great.” The book was the result of Jim’s research, where he led a team in a five-year study in which they “scoured a list of 1,435 established companies to find every extraordinary case that made a leap from average results to great results.”

Jim describes the best leaders of the companies that became great as “level 5″leaders. They are ones who built “enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.” A level 5 leader is first and foremost ambitious for the cause.

Humble Style

Warrens humble style is refreshing. He has simple tastes. He doesnt wear expensive suites. He lives in the same home he bought in 1958. And, he drives his own car. Warren also is famous for how he makes fun of himself. One of his one-liners is, “I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.”

Professional Will

Warren is driven as demonstrated by his almost incomprehensible wealth. Warren looks not only for businesses that are a good deal, but he looks for leaderships who have long tenures of success in their business and who are deeply passionate for the business.

Back to Jim Collins – the Hedgehog Concept

Jim’s team came to simple but powerful conclusions. One important point they make is referred to as the “hedgehog” concept. A key to greatness is finding the intersection, referred to as the sweet spot, between your talent, passion,and economic opportunity.

When we look at Warren from the “hedgehog” framework, we find simple insights:

Passion: What are you deeply passion about?

Talent: What you can be the best in the world?

“I was wired at birth to allocate capital and lucky enough to have people around me early on-my parents and teachers and Susie [his late wife]-who helped me make the most of it,” Buffett told Carol Loomis of Fortune magazine in the June 25 issue.

Economics: What drives your economic engine?

Finding great companies and leaders and investing for the long-haul.

Warren found his passion and talent in life and focused. He became one of the most successful and richest investor in history.

Grace Evans a leading business entrepreneur has been involved in business coaching for many years and she is excellent in her coaching. Her duty is focused on helping people by training them on issues such like accountability and ensuring that they focus on their vision and passions so as to become successful in the future.

Grace Evans explains it and says that the way our lives are structured in ways where we create and realize what we have going for us now, however something more can be done to our lives that will enhance our abilities to do even more thus achieving greater and better things in life.

Business Coach: Coaching

Coaching is the extra step that one needs in order to maximize their potential and discover things beyond their vision. Grace Evans has done a lot of business coaching and she says that coaching enables one to have a clear perspective in life, business and evaluate how productive one is and whether they are achieving what they need to achieve in becoming great entrepreneurs

By having this notion in mind, Grave Evans and her team forged a Mentor Business Coaching program that is focused on equipping people with tools, knowledge and opportunities that are needed in helping you discover yourself more hence becoming more effective, focusing on your goals, formulating a powerful plan that will ensure that your plans become successful.

Mentor Business Coaching program ensures that you will achieve the following;

You will have strait focus on what matters most

Your vision will be more clear as you will learn how to perceive it and covet it

The period you will take when you embark on achieving the vision

You will learn how to be accountable

You will be issued with tools that will help you set powerful goals

The coaching will help accelerate achievement of goals

You will now be able to make and achieve better and more confident decisions

The coaching program is designed in ways where you will increase effectiveness and efficiency

You will have a clear conscience to set better strategies for both business and life success

Business Coach: Peer Coaching

Grace Evans and her team do believe that in-order for people to make it in life it is necessary they associate with other in similar fields to gather and exchange ideas so that they can enhance their chances on being successful.

Peer-to-peer coaching as Grave Evans puts it, is an important stage and step in the business life. Attending a coaching session will expose you to such coaching where people who are in the same level/business as you are in will offer advice as they share success stories that might help uplift your business.

If you are getting tired of working for someone else or would like to explore how to make more money and develop an alternative career that can free you from your current job … then please give this article a thorough read. It discusses how to take skills you may already possess and interest you may already have to help you start a brand new career or explore alternatives to what you are doing now.

Chances are that you are reading this article online or found it online and printed it out to read later. The internet has become a powerful and essential tool for many people for information, entertainment and education. But did you know that you can use a simple a tool as your web browser and internet access to make money from what you find online?

Yes, you can and this article will tell you how you can do it.

There are many industries that the concept we are going to discuss could be applied to but we are going to focus specifically on one: the Mergers & Acquisitions Industry (M&A).

The M&A business for many years was predominantly limited to insiders who had connections with each other (it was called, the old boys network). These insiders made millions of dollars by sharing information between themselves as to which companies were for sale and who wanted to buy them. As mergers and acquisitions matchmakers (also called finders), they brought the seller and buyer together and made their huge finders fees.

Now all that has changed; the Internet makes it possible for anyone using a computer to research and access business information that was previously hard to find and often available only to the ol boy insiders. And you can earn a finder or referral fee for introducing business buyers and sellers that result in a closed transaction.

Lets approach our discussion on this in the form of a Question & Answer session:

Is the Mergers and Acquisitions business really that profitable?

Absolutely. And being a finder for M&A deals can be a very lucrative home-based profession.

You can think of it like being a real estate broker, only you match buyers and sellers of businesses, instead of homes. As a real estate broker you can sell a house for $100,000 or you can sell a house for $1 million. The more expensive the house, the more commission you earn. M&A finder or referral fees can be a lot more, since businesses transactions can be quite larger than a residential real-estate transaction.

M&A Deal Finders do matchmaking with businesses that have at least $1 million in sales and go all the way up to $100 million in sales, on that basis alone; being a matchmaker in acquisitions and mergers is a much more profitable business than being a real estate broker.

You are an intelligent person, but you dont have an MBA degree or a law degree; will you be able to do Mergers and Acquisitions matchmaking?

To answer this question, lets take our example of being a real estate broker. You show a home for sale, the buyer either likes the home or they dont. If they dont like it, you take them to another home until they find the one they want. Mergers and Acquisitions works exactly the same way, only you use the power and information found on the internet to find what business buyers and investors are looking for and then find business owners and sellers that match what the buyers/investors are looking for and all of the research is done on the computer using the internet to find businesses. Obviously having specialized learning, education or training will be of help to you in any business but you do not have to be a lawyer, CPA or have an MBA in order to be a successful Finder.