How to Attract profitable customers?

This may be the most important question any business has to answer. But in my opinion it’s not enough, it’s important to have profitable customers. Some of you SEO for clients, some of those clients I am sure you wish you could fire? And if you had enough profitable clients, you probably would. I learned that lesson long time ago when I worked for a large company, but as a small business owner, it’s been hard for me to deal with. But, as I have fired a client or two, the key is to not worry about firing bad clients. It’s getting enough profitable customers, so you have a successful business. How do you do that? Well SEO is a great way, probably one of the best ways, so is Barter, but we are biased. As, we seek active buyers as SEO consultants. We never push via email or calling or bothering people, read the Barter article below, but here are my 5 points on attracting profitable clients:

1. Make sure you have more than enough clients, this will always help you price high, as you will never ever be desperate, easier said than done. But, SEO well, Design well, and sell, sell, sell, or advertise, advertise, advertise.

2. Charge a lot, be known as the best, always charge a lot, this will make sure you will make money, and take care of your clients.

3. SEO, well Duh, but SEO for specific keywords, research your keywords well maybe even do some Google Adwords SEM.

4. Get more customers through testimonials, provide information, join an online marketplace like eBay it almost requires you to get Testimonials, focus on one to many marketing not just one-on-one, this will drop your cost of sales.

5. Automate your selling process, join eBay, didn’t we already say that, well we like eBay! Not the other Seattle online marketplace, starts with an A–they are terrible and too expensive. These marketplaces will promote your products, Oh yeah blog on MyTypes.com and Blogger, oh on Wordpress.com too..Blogging as you know is the #1 key to online marketplaces right now, why, they all want to build communities, even FaceBook!

As some of you know that this small business blogs and blogging company recently partnered with ITEX, a Barter system. We are also helping to create an online marketplace for them/us to help small businesses sell and buy products on line. Well to my SEO surprise we got ranked #54 for online marketplace, in our first 2 weeks of focusing on this wonderful keyword, well maybe 3. I love the speed of our SEO, but I have been waiting for this for a while. Some times we have to be patient, as the results do come, especially with very competitive keywords. Our goal for the online marketplace is not just to help b2b companies but to help them create the best online marketplaces and sell more goods and services, in an easy and beautiful system. Well more on this online marketplace and small business community of ITEX later, here is the blog and an article on How a Barter System can help you attract more customers. It’s all about exposure isn’t it!

“Barter system can help attract new customers:”

I wrote a blog article earlier on how Barter can help you increase profitable sales. it got erased, we are moving servers and databases today. Upgrading for all the increased traffic that we have been getting. Increasing your profitable sales can happen, when you follow the secrets of the successful small businesses. They know that no matter what, they have to build a reputation that their customers adore and their friends recommend their small businesses. The article below shows how a professional Barter network can help you attract new customers. It’s an old article, but barter has been around for centuries, and it’s as old as business it self. By the way, the article mentions a Barter company called Bxi, you may be wondering what happened to Bxi, well Bxi is part of the ITEX barter company. The key to any barter network is the size of it’s business marketplace and the number of barter items available. If you check out our online marketplace by going to our new marketplace, you will love it. But, let’s get you to read the article on how to attract new customers first. We will discuss online marketplaces and barter items you can check by visiting our marketplace by clicking here.

Bartering system can help attract new customers - Pacific Business News Honolulu:

Small Business SBA blogging tips

from our My LIFE on a Pier blog series:

In case some of your are new to this series of blogs, we are comparing being on a pier to being out on a Limb (*where we are out on our own, taking risks, waiting for our ship to come in, trying to catch fishes, basically being an Entrepreneur). When I am out on a Pier, I am looking out, waiting to catch a boat, usually a fairy, I do live in Seattle:-). So this tip is about SEO blogs and Blogging, why do we do, how you can do it, and how to best promote your businesses. So here are top 10 reasons why all businesses should be blogging and must have blogs for SEO!

1. Blogging is a great way promote your message, and your businesses. Especially for SEO, as Search engines love blogs content as each post has a time stamp on it.

2. Blogging and blogs help you add content to your website easily, most blogs are very easy to use, and websites are very hard to add content too.

3. Blogging regularly adds up-to-date information about your products, your supplies, your customer testimonials, or whatever you want to communicate.

4. Blogs are the best way to create community around your store, your marketplace, and your customer base.

5. People can comment on your blogs, unlike your comments, and you can control your comments, which is better than forums.

6. Make it multi-media, most if not all blogging platforms all you to add photos to your blogs, and It’s very easy to add videos from YouTube etc.

7. Blogging platforms such as Wordpress, Typepad and Blogger all have the best Site Structure and follow W3c standards. As mentioned before many times, Site Structure is the most important first step for SEO.

8. Blogging tools have many many features to enhance the web experience for users, which most companies cannot develop on their own.

9. Blogging platforms such as Wordpress which are Open Source, usually have an amazing number of blog templates available for free and for purchase. We are talking thousands here folks, and the can help you personalize your website easily.

10. Blogging is like journaling and it’s fun, most people who blog often love it! The community of bloggers is an amazing force that is not only driving our businesses, but our political campaigns and decisions. The blogsphere and blogs are the #1 tool for most web 2.0 applications, and Social networks.

***As always this blog is sponsored by our small business community of ITEX, the Bartering System and b2bmarketplace. Also, Comfortzone Infrared Heaters which are better than most Eden Pure Heaters, and lastly Cross Jewelry by LoveRelic.com. And as always our true passion from small business blogs of MyTypes.com blogging platform.

Small Business Tip #3 by Vipin Singh of MyTypes.com

I write these small business blogs and inspirational blogs, I thought to promote on this blogging platform by Google. Why not right? I use the material from my main blogging site at MyTypes.com. We are also creating an amazing set of free small business tools at our online market place. Check it out and let us know how we are doing, enjoy the tip below:

My Life On A Pier: #1 Key to Success “being Nice” by Vipin Singh of MyTypes.com

January 22nd, 2008 at 03:25 pm by Admin in small business blogs

I wrote this blog yesterday, so this one is a little older, the one for today will come out tonight. I don’t know how to catalog these small business inspirational blogs, but I guess since we are the blogging people, we will figure this out.

My Life On A Pier: #1 Key to success–being Nice, by Vipin Singh of MyTypes.com

There is nothing worse than a whining looser, or an ungracious winner. While I love and appreciate the under dog, as I rooted for the Giants yesterday, I am always looking for a champion with gracious attitude. I do find that so many of the winners actually are nice and grateful people. In my experience of watching almost all championship matches, I have seen many more nice people than mean and selfish whiners I will call them.

Why is it important to be a nice person, that is being genuienly kind, rather than being a politically correct polite person. Some of you know that I live in Seattle, a place I call very polite, but not necessarily nice. People from other parts of the country, usually comment on this Seattle trait. Jill my wife and I were shocked at the lack of kindness, and often selfish/self centeredness of this rainy depressed city. We came from Minnesota, a place known for it’s compassion and kind nature. The Minnesota nice is actually a genuine caring kind, and a lot of people from Minnesota and Wisconsin have settled here, so there is plenty of kindness.

You see being nice does not mean being a push over at all. Some times being nice actually requires having courage enough to do the right thing, and be a little angry, but in a compassionate way. So be honest, be kind, conflict is ok, but try to be graceful and kind. Being nice means often to do the compassionate unselfish thing. I find that no great person ever succeeded alone, especially in business and politics. We need each other, especially if we are going to accomplish something significant. Usually successful people want to help others, and they are looking for the leaders of tomorrow to nurture and show the way. Being nice to all people is just One Of The Most Important Ways to get their attention.

Go ahead be nice on your way to the Top, you will make more friends on the way there, to party with!

**As always this small business blog is brought to you by the kind folks who choose to help us pay our bills, the cross rings folks of Designer Jewelry @LoveRelic.com, the Online Marketplace of the bartering system ITEX.com and lastly the folks at Comfortzone Infrared Heaters, which are significantly better than Edenpure Heaters.

Posted by Admin in small business blogs

SBA, stands for Small Business Administration

Small Business Administration @ Sba.gov is my favorite government website and in my opinion the best small business resource. If you need help growing your small business, you should definitely visit it, and see if you qualify for one of it's SBIC research grants. What are the three most important things you need to focus on to grow your small business?

Answers:

1. Grow Sales, what ever it takes you have to have sales, growing them to make enough profits to cover your cost is the key.

2. Keep Costs low, especially Cash Flow, conserve cash to pay your suppliers and make sure you not only have enough profit margins built in, but you conserve cash until your income keeps up with your costs.

3. Stay focused, have a great support team, even if they are contractors, and don't worry be happy. You need to have a great team supporting you, that means a local small business lawyer and a small business accountant, a part time book keeper and an admin are great to. Don't try to do every thing your self, paying someone to come in once a week to do your books is money well spent.

Lastly besides the above, what is the best thing you can do to grow your small business? You can and should join a professional barter network such as ITEX Barter. Why, it will help you sell your products and services in an active business community.