When you’re starting an online business, you probably have no shortage of ideas, motivation, and grand plans for the future of your enterprise. But there is one notable area where you likely have a short supply: finances. Unless you have personal reserves or an already-set collection of investors, there’s a good chance that your ideas will have to initially be implemented with a tight budget in mind.

This budget extends to your marketing efforts. While it is important to advertise your business and work to gain exposure, it is impossible to take out large ad campaigns or to simply throw money at the situation. Instead, you need to find approaches that maximize the benefits while minimizing, as much as possible, the costs you need to occur for them to be realized.

Along those lines, here are a few tips for marketing your startup, working to gain some initial exposure, and for accomplishing this without paying a dime:

Use Social Media

This goes without saying, but social media can be an incredibly powerful tool for boosting your exposure without incurring any costs. To this end, create a Facebook page for your business and open a Twitter account. Post status updates and Facebook and try to accumulate “Likes” from among your colleagues, family members, and friends. Doing so will insure that a larger number of people see your business on their News Feeds.

Study The Competition

Even if you aren’t in a niche industry, your business likely has a specific focus that is closely matched by only a few internet competitors. Study these competitors to get an idea of how they market themselves –especially, how they market themselves for free. Do they post articles on forums or other sites? How do they utilize social media? Does it appear as though they have mailing lists and newsletters?

Communicate

A successful marketing campaign cannot simply be done behind a façade of internet anonymity. Instead, it is important to talk to people in the industry, whether on the phone, at conventions, or through email. Ask them advice but also ask them to spread the world. You may even get some helpful tips in the process.

Go Offline

While limitless, the internet still has its limits when it comes to marketing. This is especially true for a small startup that is looking to gain traction and exposure. If you operate in a niche industry or have a determinable customer base, you may have more success looking to reach this demographic offline in the early going. Does your target consumer group interact offline? Is there a place they go (ie a given retailer) or a way they communicate? If so, you may want to make yourself a part of that community.

These are just a few tips for increasing your exposure during the early days of a startup, when visibility is low and money is tight. The options available in this situation may not be as appealing as those you could find on a larger budget, but when done correctly they can return dividends nonetheless.

Author Bio: Sam Peters is a blogger who frequently writes for entrepreneurial and tech blogs covering topics from online marketing to the newest gadget and mobile web news.

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

Free Marketing Tips For Internet Startups

Technorati Tags: budget, low cost, start-up

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Free is good

In consequence, any charity must look at any supports that are available to help them to do their work more effectively.  If the gift horse is free it’s very tempting to not check the teeth too carefully.  However any of these gift horses must be fed since it takes up the time of staff and volunteers.  You must always be careful to monitor the benefits received versus the human effort involved in achieving those benefits.

One of the most effective operational supports by far and on which Google is investing major effort is only now becoming more visible.  That’s Google Docs and many charities are finding it a real boon.

If It Ain’t Broke …

Adopting a new way of doing things involves change. It’s very natural reaction to wish to avoid change, particularly if something seems to be working fine.  Why take the risk that something may go wrong.  Even if the new approach will be slightly better, why invest all the effort in learning a new system.

In this case, the new approach is not just slightly better: it’s dramatically better.  Of course many of us have invested huge amounts of time and money to have Microsoft operating systems and Office programme suites sitting inside our computers.  In many cases we are skilled in using them to achieve remarkable results.  How can much simpler systems allow us to achieve those same remarkable results?

Even if you know this must be wrong, I encourage you to keep an open mind while you try the new approach.  Luckily you don’t have to go through some long training program to get up to speed.  You don’t need to read the instructions.  Just muddle through and you’ll surprise yourself.  Simpler can be better.

Google Docs is Cloud Computing

If you have not heard the term before, Google Docs is an example of Cloud Computing.   All that any user of such a system needs is a simple computer that has access to the Internet.  That can even be a smart phone like an iPhone.  All the hard work is done on servers owned by the provider of the Cloud Computing system.

If you find this somewhat daunting, then remember this same approach is being used in some of the most under-developed regions of the globe.  Cloud computing works well in India.  Farmers may use the cheapest of cell phones to check the best way of managing their crops through software that is installed on the central government computers.

Any review of what is happening in India will quickly show that we are dealing here with something that will dramatically change the way organizations operate. The article, How Cloud Computing is Changing Corporate Strategy, spells out the huge potential of this technology.

Cloud Computing is Software As A Service

Another term you may hear is Software As A Service, often shortened to SAAS.  No longer do you need to buy costly software and install this on your own hard drive in your laptop or desktop computer.  You connect via the Internet with a computer owned and operated by the SAAS provider which runs the software.  If there are any updates of the software, that is done automatically on those distant servers.  There is no additional cost to the user to be using the latest version at all times.  Any output files you create are held within your secure storage area on the SAAS provider’s server.

What Google Docs Offers

In effect Google Docs gives you an Open Source version of software equivalent to what you might normally buy under the brand name of Microsoft Office.  It allows you to handle documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, images, etc. and the capabilities of the software are growing all the time.

In addition, Google Docs can  hold all files created in what it calls collections, which are equivalent to folders.  There are excellent search facilities for all files in these collections, as you might expect.  You can also upload files if you wish.  This means that you can create on the storage space allotted to your Google account (up to 1 Gb for free) a repository of all the important files that you might normally have scattered around your computer hard disk.

The beauty of this is that you can access your Google Docs account and work on your files from any computer with a browser.  You are not limited to your own desktop or laptop computer.

When working on a file wherever you may be, the file is automatically and frequently saved as you make revisions.  This does not mean that you lose earlier versions of your file since the complete history of all revisions you (or your collaborators) have made is readily to hand.

Sharing Google Docs

There are several advantages in working in Google Docs, rather than working on files held on your own computer’s hard disk.  Here we will discuss the single most important of these: sharing files with collaborators.

Remember the traditional way of working on files where you wish to involve other collaborators.  You prepare a Word file or an Excel file and then send an e-mail with the Word or Excel file as an attachment to all your collaborators.  In rare cases, this may be designated as spam to certain recipients and their spam filters may mean they are unaware that a message and file was sent to them.  If the file is large and they are using Office Outlook or Outlook Express, then this may tie up their computer some time while the file is downloaded.

If all goes well, each collaborator must review what was sent and react without knowing what the other collaborators may be thinking. If each sends back their comments on what is proposed, then these must all be combined.  A combined file must then be resent to all collaborators.

The alternative approach with Google Docs is that you prepare a single file in Google Docs and you provide a web link to that single file in an e-mail message to all your collaborators.  The file can be any of the allowable formats including equivalent files to Word or Excel files.

Each collaborator can be given the right to edit it or to merely view the document.  If they have the right to edit, they can also just add a comment if they wish at some point in the document.  They could also add highlighting to a section of the document, where they feel further thought may be appropriate.

At any given point in time there is only one file ‘in play’.  If two collaborators open the file at the same time, then each will be aware of any amendments the other is doing as they occur.  Any other collaborator who comes along later will have the benefit of seeing what these suggested amendments are.

Next Steps

If this overview has whetted your appetite, then you may wish to read an upcoming article that describes in greater detail the advantages of using Google Docs.

Post from: The Other Blokes Blog

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Telecommuting takes on a whole new meaning, thanks to my Telus Mobile Internet Stick and my iPhone.

What does my Telus Mobile Internet Stick give me – Freedom to work from whereever and whenever.  That is totally cool especially for this digital nomad!

Some of my peers escape to the mountains for hiking, mountain biking, rafting and other outdoor activities.  My perfect escape is chilling in the lounge of my favourite mountain park hotels and coffee shops – and yes it includes my laptop and cell phone.  I get my best work done when on the road travelling and being actually away from the day-to-day office distractions.

Some folks ideas of a mountain getaway includes their RV, Camping equipment or hiking boots. My Mountain escape equipment includes my hotel rewards card, MacBook and iPhone.  Having the freedom and the flexibility to escape the city is something I cherish as a Calgary Social Media Consultant and Search Engine Optimization professional.  Whenever the opportunity presents itself I pack up my MacBook, iPhone, Creative Juices and my mobile Internet and off to the Mountain Parks or Alberta badlands I go.

The mountain air is the perfect seed for creativity.

Having the tools to escape and remain connected provides this opportunity to get out of the city for the day.  I can enjoy time in the Mountains to plan and really strategize about the direction of our business and at the same time, keep in touch with my clients and continue to serve their needs when the need arises without them even knowing where I am.

What does it take to escape from the office on the perfect Canadian summer day?

Be open to an endless flow of ideas – Getting away from the rat race provides the perfect opportunity for you to escape the distractions of office life.  Leaving you completely free to focus on whatever you need to work on.  Need to tighten up your business plan, review last quarter’s sales figures or complete a project…getting away from the office facilitates the flow of great ideas and provides clarity.

Stop every once in while – Just stop and look out the window.  Be observant of everything going on around you.  Listen to the tourists speaking, the music playing in the background or the sounds of kids enjoying their family vacation.  You never know where your next great idea will come from.  Some times you need to get up and find a new spot or even just go for a walk.

Pack your own Telus Mobile Internet and Power – This is a must because you never know where you are going to set up camp.  Without your Internet  and your own power you may struggle to enjoy true freedom of working wherever you decide.  My mobile Internet stick and vehicle AC adapter provides the freedom to work from a picnic table, coffee shop or even the lobby of the hotel.  Whatever fits into your lifestyle. Don’t forget your power adapter and a spare battery as well.

What do I enjoy the most by having the ability to escape and my Telus Mobile Internet – FREEDOM!

Join David and I as we review “Producing Your Own YouTube Videos for Business” This Ulistic webinar will explore the compelling reasons why delaying an Internet marketing video strategy online may leave you in the dust on search results.

Our team from Ulistic will discuss some of the tools necessary to produce semi-professional video and how to do basic editing for the web. Finally we will review creation of your YouTube channel and how to post your new videos.  Tune in and invest an hour on how to step up your online marketing today.

Take ownership of your online video marketing. The trend of Internet delivered video is here, are you ready?

Then finally we will briefly discuss optimization of your Video to help it perform on the Worlds second most frequented search engine – Youtube.

Register online today – Producing Your Own YouTube Videos for Business webinar.  Live Noon Eastern/9 AM Pacific on July 12, 2010.

Sometimes you just gotta hit the delete key!

That is what I did today, I  dumped the my entire inbox into the Trash of my Google Mail account.

Boy, what a relief and a huge amount of stress taken is now gone.  Nothing like having a tonne of email first thing in the day to get the stress level up.

Have you declared email bankruptcy?

How did you feel the next time you opened your email to see nothing in your inbox?

Just stumbled on another recent announcement from Google.

“Similar” pages on results page
Here’s a new feature that makes it easier to discover the variety of choices available on the web. We’ve offered the “Similar” link on search results for a while now as a way to find new websites similar to ones you already use and like, but it hasn’t been too visible. Now, for queries where we think sites similar to the first search result might be helpful, a small block of similar sites will appear at the bottom of the results page. Clicking on the “Pages similar to” link at the start of the block will take you to the full list of similar pages.

What does this mean for your business?  Do this mean if I go out looking for a small business computer consultant or pick your company, is there a chance your competitor may just show up on your search results?

I did a search result for the IT company I worked for last year…check out the search results?  Notice anything?

Ever since I joined the Google blog I am just blown away with the amount of cool stuff these guys offer.  This week I was catching up on some of Google blog reading with I stumbled upon this cool new feature with Google search.

Are you looking for something and not sure which brand names you should turn to?  Not to worry, turn to Google to help point you in the right direction.

Here is a snippet from the Google announcement.

Brand refinements in search results
Sometimes when searching for product information on Google, you may not know some of the brand names relevant to your particular search. For example, if you’re taking on a new river-rafting hobby, it’s quite likely you don’t have a clue about kayak manufacturers just yet. So, we wanted to make it easier for you to find the brands other people consider useful for popular product searches. So this week we launched a search refinement that calls out brand names related to your query in a single line above the rest of the results. Determined algorithmically, these highlighted brand names may help you find what you’re looking for faster, and make your research and shopping experience all the more enjoyable.

Example searches: [wedding dress], [digital camera] and [stroller]

Pretty cool stuff…

Sure, many will argue that email, Facebook or Twitter maybe interacting with other humans and it is very easy to get sucked into sitting on your laptop 18 hours a day, typing and sending email after email, perhaps you are a supervisor who elects to bark electronic commands to those we lead and maybe you are in sales and would rather send out your quotes via email or some other electronic mechanism never to meet with a client/prospect face-to-face.

Yes, I understand that I am a web marketing consultant and our team at Ulistic understands the importance of having your business online, but aligned with your business requirements and objectives.  It must be balanced.  We have to sometimes get up from our keyboard and perhaps pick up a telephone, go for coffee or simply go for a walk and stop by to meet someone.

I also get lazy from time to time using the Internet, email and social networking to communicate and then think…what would happen if I simply pick up the phone and stop typing?

Ulistic has received a number of calls and emails lately from our clients asking us about an email they are receiving about ASIA and CHINESE domain names.  They are wondering how they should respond to this email they have received.  Simple answer, just delete it and forget about it.

The email claims to be from Chinese domain registration firms asserting that there is a potential conflict with your brand name or trademark.  Again, this is a SCAM and needs to be deleted immediately.  These firms want to have you register asian domain names (like yourbusiness.cn or yourbusiness.asia) which you don’t need to worry about and you don’t need PERIOD!

Here is what the SCAM letter looks like;

Dear Manager:
We are a Domain Name registration service company, which is a professional Internet Domain Name Registration and dispute resolution organization in China.On March,17th,2010, We received QIFA Investment company’s application that they are registering the name “YOURDOMAIN_OR_COMPANYNAME” as their Internet Trademark and “YOURDOMAINNAME.cn”,”perfectlydivinebody.com.cn” ,”YOURDOMAINNAME.asia”domain names etc.,It is China and ASIA domain names.But after auditing we found the brand name been used by your company. As the domain name registrar in China, it is our duty to notice you, so I am sending you this Email to check.According to the principle in China,your company is the owner of the trademark,In our auditing time we can keep the domain names safe for you firstly, but our audit period is limited, if you object the third-party application these domain names and need to protect the brand in china and Asia by yourself, please let the responsible officer contact us as soon as possible. Thank you!

Looking forward to your reply.

Kind regards
Angela
———————————–
Oversea marketing manager?Tel:+86(0)21 XXXXXXX50?Fax:+86(0)21 XXXXXX557 ?web:www.ygnXXXXXXrk.cn

The objective of the scammer is to have you register these domain names under their registrar account for stupid prices which are extremely overpriced.

Single registration fee:

(.cn/.com.cn/.net.cn/.org.cn) Domain name:160USD/ 5 Years Per Name
(.hk/.tw) Domain name: 405USD/ 5 Years Per Name
(.mobi) Domain name: 320USD/ 5 Years Per Name
(.cc) Domain name: 340USD/ 5 Years Per Name
(.asia) Domain name: 840USD/ 5 Years Per Name
.Internet brand keyword: 705EUR/ 5 Years Per Name

Domain name registrations typically cost between $9 and $22.00 depending on the extension you are registering. For example .com may cost more than .ca.

If indeed you would like to secure .CN or .ASIA domain name extensions, contact your current domain registrar or contact your Ulistic Internet Consultant for help.

I think I spend 18 hours or more each day online.  Since I work and own a vibrant Calgary Internet Marketing Consulting firm, well I should be online most of my day.  My word processor is online, my email sits in a data centre somewhere in the world and you want to catch up with what I am doing…tune into my online services.

My fellow Canadians are now tuning into YouTube and other online video sources to get their video entertainment, hurting the television advertising industry.  Canadians are shift their viewing to online media vs. cable television and of course fueling a heated debate about a so-called TV Tax we are facing here in Canada.  This unrest in the cable TV community and the traditional television networks such as Global, CBC or CTV are causing many Canadians to review the value of our modern-day television services.

What do you think?

Are you turning to online resources to watch video or even traditional television programs?

During CBC’s National, Peter Mansbridge reported about a family who has completely cancelled their cable service and switched completely to the Internet for their online television or video watching.  Bypassing the traditional advertisers and the parents actually claim they can even control the content being viewed in their home.

Social networking is consuming Canadians time, efforts and attention span.  We saw reports this week about Facebook, Twitter and other services are now part of people’s daily routine.  Social Media is woven into the fabric of almost every Canadians life, many checking Facebook first thing in the morning and just before they go to bed.

Why are we still trying to figure out if Social Media is something we need to get involved with?

Combine this with iPhones and other smart telephones and now…well the world is truly connected.