Embrace your competition!

If you have competition - that likely means you've got a market for your product or services. That's good news!

Healthy competition can push you to do your absolute best. Take a look at your competitors often and ask yourself how you can do better. What could you give to your website visitors or your customers to sweeten the deal? Where are your strong points and weak points?

At the same time, consider finding ways to partner or network with your competition. Get out of scarcity mind and realize that there is enough business to go around and then some! Having friends in your niche means that you have trusted sources you can refer overflow work to or receive overflow work from!

You might also find ways to cross promote with your competition that is mutually beneficial. This can be as simple as linking to eachother's websites or something greater like creating an info product together.

Appreciate and learn from your competition. Good role models help us to achieve our business dreams!

Ways to promote your website or business opportunity...

Sometimes I get inquiries from women who want to know why their advertising isn't effective. I wrote some thoughts about this in a recent newsletter that you can read here.

What I'd like to focus on in this tip is ways beyond advertising that you can promote your website or business opportunity.

Many of you are using the same website as the rest of the members of your team. I think it's well worth considering building your own website. I also have written about this in the past so won't repeat myself here.

You are told to participate in forums and have the bizop in your signature... also to place ads. Here are some thoughts I have on that.

Article distribution is a super way to increase traffic to your site. I have a list you can use to get started submitting your articles - but it hasn't been updated in awhile. Sorry about that...

Here's a hint with article distribution... Take an article that you have written and rewrite parts of it a few times. You will essentially have three or four versions of the same article. Change your bio in each as well using different keyword terms in your link to your website.

This will help your article to rank better in the search engines. If you want more information about that check out this free report from Jason Potash.

I think the most important thing is networking. Start a new folder in your browser favorites for blogs. Research blogs where your target market likely hangs out. Make comments on the blog. There is always a place to leave your website address there.

Just make sure your comments are meaningful or they won't be posted by the blogger - and also because you simply won't peak the interest of blog readers to come check out your site.

Here's another thought... start a blog of your own! You can do it easily and free using either wordpress.com or blogger.com.

If you have a blog be sure to come over to our brand new FreelanceMom Blog Network and join in the fun :-) It's just a baby project so get in on it in the begining and help me out!

Virtual Assistants - Use a Timer!

Working from home doesn't mean we don't have business expenses! Make sure to set aside some of your profits to re-invest into your business.

As a Virtual Assistant, I can't do without the latest technologies, software upgrades, etc. It's just critical to be on the leading edge in my field. I feel the more seriously we take our business, the more confident and trustworthy we will come across to our clients and potential clients.

For example, if you are a VA and don't use a timer, how can you accurately record your time? I'm willing to bet that if you don't use a timer, you likely under charge your clients. If you're like me, you will always estimate low. Don't estimate, be exact. Your time is valuable. The way I figure it -- every moment I am working is time away from my children. One good and inexpensive little timer is Project Timer Lite.

Free Directories

Don't forget directory submissions as a terrific source of inbound links to your website! Here are some free ones you can submit to:

http://www.itzalist.com/
http://www.0pn.com/
http://www.123hitlinks.info/submit.php
http://www.123kidzarea.com/
http://www.bigall.com/
http://www.businessplexus.com/submit.php?c=399
http://www.1800miti.com/
http://www.businessseek.biz/page.php?page=link-submit-options
http://www.1americamall.com/free-business-listing.html
http://www.thomasnet.com/browsecategories
http://www.1stw.com/Submit.aspx?CategoryId=0
http://www.dmoz.org/
http://www.findhound.com/add/2796/76.php
http://www.hedir.com/login/login-signup.php
http://business.2gogo.co.uk/index.php
http://2locals.com/index.php
http://www.websitedebut.com/
http://www.daredirectory.info/submit.php
http://www.yourowncorner.com/sug_url.php?cat_id=50
http://www.niche-listings.com/
http://www.linkdiary.info/suggest-link.php?id=5
http://www.bitwide.com/submit.php
http://www.2space.net/
http://www.2-surf.net/
http://www.viesearch.com/submit.html
http://www.fairwebdirectory.com/submit-3-Business
http://www.gimpsy.com/
http://juicytail.com/index.php?mwa=parent_id:
13&mwst=page:subm http://www.pblake.com/submit.php
http://schwoitdirectory.com/submit.php
http://www.indianlinkbuilder.com/submit.php
http://www.jayde.com/
http://www.joeant.com/hill/myanthill.php
http://www.lifestyle.co.uk/advertisers/default.aspx
411Find.com
http://www.pharos-search.com/guidelines.php
http://www.businessseek.biz/link_submit.php
http://com.4-every-1.ws/
http://www.4-fun.biz/directory/newlink1.php?type=premium
http://www.4ppl.com/directory/
4yourneed.com
http://www.smallerbizz.com/
http://www.spheri.com/d/
http://www.tekguide.net/
http://directory.google.com/
http://dir.ukwizz.com/
https://www0.galaxy.com/view/submit.gst?r=0&c=0
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/directory.shtml
http://www.kellysearch.com/MyKellysearch/EmailLead.aspx
http://www.surfandbiz.com/web/suggestion-site/
http://www.webworldindex.com/
http://www.worldsiteindex.com/
https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit
http://www.71k.net/submit.php
http://www.777media.com/
http://www.allthewebsites.org/
http://www.999viva.com/submit.php
http://www.a-free-directory.info/
http://www.alistdirectory.com/
http://www.daredirectory.info/

Advice to Small Business Advertisers

Advertising is an art and a science. How effective your ad campaign is depends on several factors. Here are some questions to ask yourself before launching an ad campaign.

1. Does the website reach my target market? If you are advertising something that has nothing to do with the website you are advertising on -- you might want to rethink placing an ad there.

2. How much traffic does the website (and the page my ad will be on) receive? Webmasters should share their traffic stats openly. If they don't, there is reason to hesitate advertising with them. Another quick test is to search on keyword terms you feel your target market would search on. Does the site you plan to advertise on rank in the search engines for these terms?

3. How effective is my ad? Does your ad catch the eye? Does it have a hook -- something irresistible that will convert an ad view to a click? Is it original? If you are advertising a business opportunity, are you using the same ad as everyone else? Invest some thought and money into a decent ad design.

These are all obviously critical elements to a successful ad campaign. Two other benefits of advertising that don't necessarily include click thrus are branding and seo.

Building trust in your brand, getting your company name and logo out there to your target market to see can be worth the ad fees alone. Choose website's that you can see work to please their visitors. If the website has loyal traffic that trusts them, that creates a warm lead for you.

SEO, or search engine optimization involves many factors. Having links from other website's coming to yours enhances your SEO strategy. Search engines consider links to your website a 'vote' for your site. Building many quality links to your website will result in better search engine results for your website.

I hope that's helpful information! Remember to test all these factors. If one ad doesn't work on a site, another might. Don't be afraid to ask a webmaster to change your graphic or ad text if you decide something else will be more effective.

Do you need help writing Sales Letters?

Have you heard of Marlon Sanders? He's one of the webs top Internet Marketers. I used to work for him as a virtual assistant some time ago and I can tell you first hand that he really knows how to sell products!

He has created a product called Push Button Letters that helps you write a really powerful pitch. If you have a product or ebook that you need to promote... check this out.

It's software that lets you fill-in-the-blanks, click a button and poof! You have an instant sales letter for your product or service.

You get a sales letter nicely formatted on a web page with a fully customized design when you're finished.

You can check it out at here.