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><channel><title>Small Business Advice &#187; Uncategorized</title> <atom:link href="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/category/uncategorized/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /><link>http://www.marketing-ideas.org</link> <description>Tips, techniques and methods to help you grow your small business</description> <lastBuildDate>Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:49:16 +0000</lastBuildDate> <generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1</generator> <language>en</language> <sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> <atom:link rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com"/><atom:link rel="hub" href="http://superfeedr.com/hubbub"/> <item><title>Internet advertising &#8211; How to profit with Facebook ads</title><link>http://www.marketing-ideas.org/internet-advertising-how-to-profit-with-facebook-ads-464</link> <comments>http://www.marketing-ideas.org/internet-advertising-how-to-profit-with-facebook-ads-464#comments</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:18:20 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Guest Blogger</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Internet Marketing Success]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category> <category><![CDATA[2c]]></category> <category><![CDATA[A6]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Ads]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Advertising Campaign]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Affiliate Info]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Age Group]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Campaigns]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Cost Per Click]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Cpc]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Extra]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Fitness]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Goff]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Internet Advertising]]></category> <category><![CDATA[internet advertising articles]]></category> <category><![CDATA[internet advertising costs]]></category> <category><![CDATA[internet advertising growth]]></category> <category><![CDATA[internet advertising prices]]></category> <category><![CDATA[internet advertising statistics]]></category> <category><![CDATA[internet advertising trends]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Internet Marketing]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Making Money]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Maximum Money]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Nuts And Bolts]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Page Justin]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Profits]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Shoemoney]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Target Market]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Targets]]></category> <category><![CDATA[types of internet advertising]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Upload]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://www.marketing-ideas.org/?p=464</guid> <description><![CDATA[There's no reason for you to struggle with internet advertising. If you're ready to profit with Facebook ads now, you might want to grab these Internet advertising tips, techniques and methods.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div
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/> </a></div><p>I stumbled upon a nifty post by Justin Goff describing a start-to-finish example of a profitable Facebook internet advertising campaign.</p><p>This campaign took him a week or so to become profitable, but he's now got it tweaked and you could actually just copy this and start making money as an affiliate.</p><p><em>Here’s the nuts and bolts of it…</em></p><p><strong>The Product</strong>: <a
href="http://www.31dayfatlosscure.com/">The 31 Day Fat Loss Cure</a> (this is his own product on Clickbank, <a
href="http://www.31dayfatlosscure.com/affiliates">affiliate info is here if you’re interested</a>)</p><p><strong>Landing Page</strong>: Justin linked directly to his sales video which is at <a
href="http://www.31dayfatlosscure.com/abs">31DayFatLossCure.com/abs</a> (if you’ve never seen a video like this, the add to cart button pops up at the end of the video so they can order…its pretty cool).</p><p>Next, he started making making some Facebook ads…</p><p><img
title="Facebook ads" src="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/artwork/Facebook-Ads.gif" alt="Facebook ads" width="435" height="223" /></p><p>When he does this, he usually makes up to 30 different ads (mostly testing the pictures in the ads).</p><p>Justin found that a great picture gives you the biggest change in click thru rates (CTR). So out of the 30 or so ads he tested, these were the top 3 converting ads.</p><p>Just by improving your CTR you can get a much better Cost Per Click (CPC) and your profits are going to go through the roof. If you have a few extra bucks to spend, Justin highly recommendd picking up the <a
href="http://www.4houraffiliate.com/facebook-ads-manager">FB Ads Manager</a>. This thing literally saves him 20-25 hours each week. Justin simply uploads all of the ads, targets the market he wants and let's it run while he's sleeping.</p><p>And by the way here’s a big tip that he got from Jeremy Schoemaker (aka Shoemoney):</p><p>Set up your campaign so that in Clickbank each ad has a different sub ID on the end (much easier to do than it sounds). This way you can track the EXACT ads that are sending you the sales.</p><p><img
title="Facebook ClickBank" src="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/artwork/Facebook-ClickBank.gif" alt="Facebook ClickBank" width="402" height="88" /></p><p>Of the ads pictured at the top of this post, Justin actually found that the middle ad generated the most sales (even though it didn't have the best CTR).</p><p>Once you have some ads ready, you MUST narrow down and calculate your target market…</p><h3><strong>Narrowing Your Market For Maximum Money Making<br
/> </strong></h3><p>If you’ve ever done any campaigns for fitness/fat loss products, you know that the best market for these products is in the 35-65 year old age group.</p><p>Justin targeted each of these ads specifically to women in the 35-55 year old range on Facebook. He didn’t target any specific keywords with these ads, just women in general. Here are the exact settings Justin used:</p><ul><li>Female, 35-55</li><li>United States</li><li>CPC (bidding around .30 per click)</li></ul><p>That’s a pretty broad market, but it was still profitable. Since then he's gotten more into niching down by smaller groups of years and also by time zones in the U.S.</p><p>Justin thinks there’s also a lot of money to be made targeting keywords. For example, you could target people who like “The Biggest Loser” which is over 1 million people on Facebook &#8212; he hasn’t tried this yet, but he's confident it would convert pretty well.</p><h3>The Profits</h3><p>Overall on this campaign, Justin invested a total of $493.76 and brought in $621.19 in revenue. So the overall profit for the campaign was $127.43. Now you might not think that’s much money, but here’s how he's going to scale it out&#8230;</p><p>&#8230; During this test campaign, Justin was capping his ad spend each day to $50. Now since this campaign is profitable, all he needs to do is increase his ad spend to $300 or so dollars per day, and within a few days this will easily turn into a $100 profit each and everyday. That’s an average of $36,500+ per year.</p><p>Not to mention, Justin hasn’t even started targeting this campaign to men.</p><p>Now a question most people usually have is “what’s better, CPC or CPM?”</p><h3>CPC vs. CPM</h3><p>This campaign was all run on CPC, but he's been playing around with CPM lately.</p><p>Here’s the deal though&#8230;</p><p>&#8230; Facebook recently changed its algorithm, and they are trying to push direct response marketers over to CPC. In simple speak, the days of dirt cheap CPM clicks are pretty much over.</p><p>But that’s ok, because even a campaign like this you could still easily make $20k-$30k a year as an affiliate just by direct linking.</p><p>On a campaign like this your goal should be to get as many people to the landing page as possible – for as cheap as possible. If you can find cheap .10 cent clicks this Facebook campaign would be an absolute gold mine.</p><p>Now that leads to the next big tip, which is improving your click through rate!</p><h3>How To Increase Your CTR on Facebook Ads</h3><p>One of the keys to making a bunch of money on Facebook is to keep your CTR high.</p><p>Now the big problem with this (unlike with Adwords) is that the same people are seeing your ad everyday they login to Facebook. So after about 7-10 days your ad is going to lose its good CTR, and you’re going to need a new ad.</p><p>If you have a picture that’s converting well, you can do something simple like adding a colored border or circle around the image.</p><p>If that doesn’t work it’s time to test 20-30 new pictures, and then you can simply bring your old one back in a few weeks.</p><p><i>Justin Goff is the owner of <a
href="http://www.31dayfatlosscure.com/">The 31 Day Fat Loss Cure</a></i>.</p><div
id="crp_related"><h3>Related Posts:</h3><ul><li><a
href="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/facebook-marketing-ideas-to-find-new-buyers-with-facebook-394" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Facebook marketing ideas to find new buyers with Facebook</a></li><li><a
href="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/broadcast-email-marketing-7-tips-to-get-your-email-opened-210" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Broadcast Email Marketing &#8211; 7 tips to get your email opened</a></li><li><a
href="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/aweber-spam-has-aweber-been-compromised-by-spammers-28" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">AWeber Spam &#8211; Has AWeber been compromised by spammers</a></li><li><a
href="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/online-website-promotion-10-fast-website-tips-revealed-230" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Online Website Promotion &#8211; 10 fast website tips revealed</a></li><li><a
href="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/book-publish-how-to-self-publish-for-fun-and-profit-184" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Book Publish &#8211; How to self publish for fun and profit</a></li></ul></div>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.marketing-ideas.org/internet-advertising-how-to-profit-with-facebook-ads-464/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Direct Mail Letters &#8211; 12 tips to increase letter readership</title><link>http://www.marketing-ideas.org/direct-mail-letters-12-tips-to-increase-letter-readership-278</link> <comments>http://www.marketing-ideas.org/direct-mail-letters-12-tips-to-increase-letter-readership-278#comments</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:34:57 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>JeffreyDobkin</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Blank Sheet Of Paper]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Customers Place]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Dear Colleagues]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Direct Mail Marketing]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Dog Owners]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Familiarity]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Grandma]]></category> <category><![CDATA[High Risk]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Hot Spot]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Jeffrey Dobkin]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Loyalty]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Mail Letter]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Mail Letters]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Marketing Tips]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Motorcycle Enthusiasts]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Pet Lovers]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Phone Call]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Phone Calls]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Readership]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Risk Area]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Salutation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Write Mail]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://www.marketing-ideas.org/?p=278</guid> <description><![CDATA[There's no reason for you to struggle with writing letters. If you're ready to get more precisely-qualified leads to your business now, you might want to grab these tips, techniques and methods to write effective direct mail letters.]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div
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/> </a></div><p>Start by writing your objective in the upper right hand corner of a blank sheet of paper.  Then write your direct mail marketing letter to achieve this objective.</p><p>Is your objective to generate further interest in your product or service?  Generate a phone call?  Have customers place orders by direct mail or phone?  Generate phone calls for inquiries or product sales?  Fill in the BRE for a follow up sales call?  In store visit?  Whatever your objectives, state them in writing &#8211; then draft your letter to fulfill those objectives.</p><p>Marketing Tip #1. Include copy in the Johnson Box.  This is the hot spot to begin your direct mail letter.  This small are is 2” x 3” above the salutation but across the page on the right hand side.  Include one or two lines flush right &#8211; to highlight your offer, pitch your best benefit, or for teaser copy to make the reader read the rest of the letter.</p><p>2. The salutation: salutation should be as personal as possible without the danger of turning anyone away.  This is a high risk area, if it’s too far off readers won’t identify with it.  So better safe than sorry here.  Be as personal as you can but don’t take chances.</p><p>Examples would be “Dear Motorcycle Enthusiasts”  “Dear Colleagues” “Dear Pet Lovers”.</p><p>Also, adding “and Friends” can increase familiarity and loyalty.  “Dear Neighbors and Friends”  “Dear Dog Owners and Friends”</p><p>3. Write benefit-packed direct mail marketing letter copy.  Show your best stuff first &#8211; why wait till you lose them?  Then immediately expand on the biggest and best benefit.</p><p>Marketing Tip #4. Don't try to write your direct mail letter in a few minutes.  Don’t forget &#8211; this really isn’t a letter &#8211; it’s a highly stylized ad designed to look like a letter.</p><p>Like any good ad, a polished letter takes hours to create &#8211; both write and design.  You can’t dash it off like the letter you write to grandma every Thanksgiving to make sure she remembers you at Christmas or Hanukkah.</p><p>It takes me 5 to 8 hours to write and design a clean, crisp one page direct mail letter; more if I’m hung over.  If it takes you less, let’s compare notes.  No, no TV on, either &#8211; even if it is on only in the background.</p><p>5. Make it look like a real letter — the personal medium that it really is.  Use typewriter style type (Courier).  Include a personal salutation.  Use an informal writing style.  Short words &#8211; like you’re writing to a friend.  You are.  Sentence fragments are OK.  This isn’t English class, and the only grade you receive is by readers placing orders… or not placing orders.  Your choice.</p><p>Marketing Tip #6. Design your direct mail advertising letter to look easy to read, even if it isn’t.  A well designed direct mail letter increases readership and response. Use lots of white space and direct the eye flow of the reader, don’t leave it to chance or let your computer design it for you.</p><p>Use a short one or two line opening paragraph.</p><p>Like this.</p><p>See how it commands attention.</p><p>Indent the first line of all paragraphs.  No paragraph over 7 lines.  Vary paragraph length.  FLRR, never ever justify the type.  Bullet list in the center. Foreshortened paragraph in the body for added visual interest.</p><p>7. Accent words you want readers to read, and what you want them to do. Use sparingly: bold, italics, underscore, caps, marginal words. Accent action words always pointing at the phone number and asking readers to call now.</p><p>Marketing Tip #8. A bulleted list of benefits in the center paragraph gets high readership.  Visually stimulating letters work best, and everyone reads a short bulleted list.  It can’t hurt to have the last bullet-point ask for the order, or for readers to call right now.</p><p>Best Marketing Tip #9. Call to action early… and often.  Soft sell of the product, show the benefits, and sell the phone call hard &#8211; this is the secret for success in direct mail marketing.  Ask for the order and the call several times &#8211; if you don’t get a call, nothing else matters.  If a person calls, your letter is a complete success.  It did everything you asked it to do.  Then it’s YOUR turn to persuade the caller to become a customer.</p><p>10. Sign legibly. This adds credibility.</p><p>Marketing Tip #11. Include a PS.  Busy people know the best parts of the offer are often repeated in the PS &#8211; make this last shot a response-generator, call-getting, order clincher.  Give your best feature and biggest benefit then make your offer sound irresistible. And ask for readers to call you again.  Give the phone number again, too. Yes, right there in the text of the PS.  Yes, I know it’s in the masthead.</p><p>Sure, people know it’s not a personal letter.  But if it’s done well, they’ll somehow overlook that and let you into their hearts and minds. If you’re really good, they’ll also follow by letting you into their wallets.  If your direct mail letter shows them some hard hitting benefits that strike home it will show up here: your telephone will ring.  It’s easy to tell when your letter is successful in direct mail marketing: your phone rings.</p><p>Now here’s the 12th marketing tip: it’s the Jeff Dobkin $1 idea. Dobkin’s best copywriting trick of all time, and the best copywriting trick you’ve ever learned in your entire life!</p><p>Go back go back and cross out your first sentence.  No, don’t pay me for this idea now, just send me $1 every time you use this.  Having a bad day?  Go back and cross out your first paragraph.  Still… a bargain at just $1!  Better letters = greater response = more revenue, make yours a winner.</p><p>Only in direct marketing can you send a personal note to 10,000 or 10,000,000 of your closest friends.  Show them reasons why they should order from you, and they will.</p><p>There's no reason for you to struggle with making money with AdSense. If you're ready to get more AdSense income now, you might want to grab these make money with AdSense tips, techniques and methods.</p><p>If you're struggling with poor response — get help by reading these <a
title="direct mail letter tips" href="http://www.dobkin.com/Alert.php">practical marketing tips</a> by business-to-business author <a
title="Jeffrey Dobkin" href="http://www.danielleadams.com">Jeffrey Dobkin</a>.</p><div
id="crp_related"><h3>Related Posts:</h3><ul><li><a
href="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/direct-mail-tips-6-tips-for-gaining-new-customers-71" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Direct Mail Tips &#8211; 6 tips for gaining new customers</a></li><li><a
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href="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/customer-satisfaction-surveys-tips-to-create-the-best-surveys-131" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Customer Satisfaction Surveys &#8211; Tips to create the best surveys</a></li><li><a
href="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/postcard-mailers-how-to-get-new-customers-with-a-postcard-59" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Postcard Mailers &#8211; How to get new customers with a postcard</a></li><li><a
href="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/direct-mail-postcards-fast-tips-to-get-your-mail-read-93" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Direct Mail Postcards &#8211; Fast tips to get your mail read</a></li></ul></div>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.marketing-ideas.org/direct-mail-letters-12-tips-to-increase-letter-readership-278/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Blog Comments &#8211; Does it really pay to turn on blog commenting</title><link>http://www.marketing-ideas.org/blog-comments-does-it-really-pay-to-turn-on-blog-commenting-48</link> <comments>http://www.marketing-ideas.org/blog-comments-does-it-really-pay-to-turn-on-blog-commenting-48#comments</comments> <pubDate>Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:55:54 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>markus</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Business]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Weblogs]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Business Building]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Censorship]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Cracks]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Dilution]]></category> <category><![CDATA[False Accusation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Heck]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Internet Marketer]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Jeal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Lonely Life]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Marketing Ideas]]></category> <category><![CDATA[New Marketing]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Precious Minutes]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Prevelance]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Pros And Cons]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Search Engine Optimization]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Search Engines]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Spam Prevention]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Thin Air]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Thinking Out Of The Box]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Zeros]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://www.marketing-ideas.org/?p=48</guid> <description><![CDATA[
Most blog comment software allows you to turn on or off blog comments.And if you're blogging to grow your business, you might be asking yourself this&#8230; does allowing blog comments on your blog add more zeros to your bank account?I don't think it does and I outline my reasons why below.As a thinking-out-of-the-box internet marketer [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div
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/> </a></div><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">Most blog comment software allows you to turn on or off blog comments.</p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">And if you're blogging to grow your business, you might be asking yourself this&#8230; does allowing blog comments on your blog add more zeros to your bank account?</p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">I don't think it does and I outline my reasons why below.</p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">As a thinking-out-of-the-box internet marketer and host of a weekly <a
href="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/Stump-Markus.php"><span
style="color: #1a1aff; text-decoration: underline;">business building talkcast</span></a>, I THRIVE on getting feedback about what I say or write. My inbox gets a steady parade of new marketing ideas, critiques and suggestions on how to help with my broadcast. And I love it. Life without feedback would be a very lonely life.</p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;"><em>But after analyzing the pros and cons of blog commenting, I've decided to block comments on my blog&#8230; here's why:</em></p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;"><strong>Spam</strong></p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">Most comments come from spammers&#8230; either flat out spam, or spam thinly disguised as a legitimate comment. Either way, the vast majority of blog comments are worthless to my visitor.</p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">With the prevelance of blog comment spam, you're going to need to install spam prevention software. And that's great. Programs like Aksimet are great at stopping blog comment spam. But some spam falls through the cracks and you're going to invest time determining if the comment is legit or not.</p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;"><strong>Time</strong></p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">Keep in mind that every 10 minutes you spend playing cop with your blog comments is 10 precious minutes you lose writing for your blog. And writing content for your blog is going to attract a heck of a lot more visitors to your website than moderating your blog comments.</p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;"><strong>Dilution of SEO</strong></p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">While it's true that blog comments give your post an added chance of getting featured in the search engines, I find most people who comment instead dilute the search engine optimization of my blog posts.</p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;"><strong>False Accusation</strong></p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">This is a tough one for me. Because I HATE censorship and love to comment on other blogs to warn others of a scam. However, competitors have been known to make up falsehoods out of thin air. And the last thing I need is a jealous competitor posting false accusations on my blog (and dealing with replying to it).</p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;"><strong>Legal Issues</strong></p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">Yes, there are laws to protect website owners of malicious and slanderous comments on a blog, but who wants to be hassled with a lawsuit? I don't. That's another HUGE and massive waste of precious time&#8230; time I'd rather use to grow my business.</p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;"><strong>Setup to Fail</strong></p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">Now I love to help people. It's my achilles heel at times.  And when someone asks me a question, I'm thrilled to reply with an answer. I've never once backed down from the toughest questions.</p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">With that said, allowing blog comments is a surefire way to suck a ton of time away from you &#8212; giving you less time to work on your marketing.</p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">In most cases, answers to questions require large blocks of time (no matter how hard you try to keep it brief).</p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">But here's the biggest issue for me&#8230; the followup comment. More often than not, answering one question opens the floodgates to multiple followup questions. On one hand, you don't want to be perceived as a jerk and ignore the followup question, but it's unfair to your business to reply over and over again.</p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">It's for these reasons I'm confident that I'm making the right choice in closing blog commenting. I'd ask you to weigh in and give me your thoughts on the pros and cons of blog comments, but obviously my comments are closed. How ironic is that?</p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">With that said, I do offer a direct way for people to contact me (via email and support ticket). I find this significantly slashes the time I choose to invest helping readers of my blog.</p><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px;"><p
style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial;">There's no reason for you to struggle with whether or not to have blog comments. If you're ready to get serious about using your blog to make more money, you might want to grab these <a
href="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/Internet-Marketing-Secrets.php"><span
style="color: #1a1aff; text-decoration: underline;">internet marketing secrets</span></a>, tips, techniques and methods.</p><div
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href="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/corporate-gift-policy-the-hard-truth-about-accepting-a-gift-24" rel="bookmark" class="crp_title">Corporate Gift Policy &#8211; The hard truth about accepting a gift</a></li></ul></div>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://www.marketing-ideas.org/blog-comments-does-it-really-pay-to-turn-on-blog-commenting-48/feed</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item><title>Corporate Gift Policy &#8211; The hard truth about accepting a gift</title><link>http://www.marketing-ideas.org/corporate-gift-policy-the-hard-truth-about-accepting-a-gift-24</link> <comments>http://www.marketing-ideas.org/corporate-gift-policy-the-hard-truth-about-accepting-a-gift-24#comments</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 19 Dec 2009 14:46:08 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>Markus Allen</dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Broadcast]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Business Building]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Gift Policy]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Good Experience]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Gratitude]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Hard Truth]]></category> <category><![CDATA[People]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Token Of Appreciation]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Truth About]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Webpage]]></category><guid
isPermaLink="false">http://www.marketing-ideas.org/?p=24</guid> <description><![CDATA[
Call me unlucky, but I've never had a good experience getting gifts&#8230; so now I've created a corporate gift policy.
Over the last year or so, I've been on the receiving end of quite a few unannounced gifting&#8230; a token of gratitude for offering my business building tips on my weekly business-building broadcast.
This is awesome. It's really [...]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div
class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;"> <a
href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marketing-ideas.org%2Fcorporate-gift-policy-the-hard-truth-about-accepting-a-gift-24"><br
/> <img
src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marketing-ideas.org%2Fcorporate-gift-policy-the-hard-truth-about-accepting-a-gift-24&amp;source=IMSecretTips&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly" height="61" width="50" /><br
/> </a></div><p
style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 12px; font-family: Georgia, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 20px; padding: 0px;"><span>Call me unlucky, but I've never had a good experience getting gifts&#8230; so now I've created a corporate gift policy.</span></p><p
style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 12px; font-family: Georgia, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 20px; padding: 0px;"><span>Over the last year or so, I've been on the receiving end of quite a few unannounced gifting&#8230; a token of gratitude for offering my business building tips on my weekly <a
style="color: gray;" href="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/Stump-Markus.php" target="mainFrame">business-building broadcast</a>.</span></p><p
style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 12px; font-family: Georgia, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 20px; padding: 0px;"><span>This is awesome. It's really cool to know that people appreciate the hard work. And as the economy continues to plunge, it would seem an unannounced gift is a welcome token of appreciation.</span></p><p
style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 12px; font-family: Georgia, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 20px; padding: 0px;">But accepting gifts has been more of a liability than a delight for me lately&#8230; so I wrote about my problems at this <a
title="Corporate Gift Policy" href="http://www.marketing-ideas.org/Corporate-Gift-Policy.php">corporate gift policy</a> webpage.</p><div
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