Archive for June, 2010
June 30th, 2010 | 
Author: This article is actually an example of a simple yet, excellent marketing plan. Pay close attention to how I went out and found new business at a time of the year when things are normally slow, and not only did I make $1,148.00, my friend Franky also made $1,060.00.
Because I chose to keep myself out of the rat race of landscaping new homes, I went after a market that was more of an impulsive type market. New home landscaping is almost a necessity, since new homes don’t have any shrubs or grass. Not only that, many housing developments actually require people to have their landscaping done within a certain number of months from the time they move into their new homes. Therefore, when the house is done, people are anxious to get it landscaped.
Since I wasn’t in that market, and most impulsive gardening decisions are made in the spring, my business typically slowed down during the very hot summer months. So one year I decided to do a little test marketing, to see if I could muster up some work during the summer.
I decided to do a test mailing to 350 homeowners in an area where I knew the people could afford landscaping services, but were not extremely rich. I mailed a letter to these 350 homes, and the letter basically said I could help them with any landscaping project that needed done, and because my business was slow during the summer I could give them a really fair price.
Of the 350 people that received the letter 3 called me. I immediately sold two jobs, and the third job was still open for discussion. On one of the first two jobs I made about $350. and on the other I made about $700. That’s net profit. That’s how much I got to keep. Since the mailing cost less than $175., my immediate profit on the mailing was $875. Not bad at all considering this was only a part-time business for me. But don’t forget about that third caller. I had not even met this person yet.
The reason he called is because he happened to own a 60 unit apartment building in the Cleveland area, and he needed some trees or shrubs planted around the parking lot. The architect that he had been working with suggested Taxus Hicksi, which is an evergreen that is easily trimmed and maintained to a certain size. However, all the landscapers he had spoken with in Cleveland wanted about $44.00 each to install these plants. Although a fair price, that amounted to $4,664.00 because he needed 106 plants.
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Source: www.hazstore.info (( articles.hazstore.info ))
The Power Play Interviews: Markus Frind- $3 Million in 6 Months
This is the first in a series of Internet Success Stories that you will begin to see on the Power Play Blog. Hope you enjoy them!
Markus Frind, the creator of Plentyoffish.com is a success story worth noting, as he has managed to take a niche formerly ruled by giant corporations and give it his own brand of marketing savvy. A case of David vs. Goliath, where the little guy comes out on top in the end. Markus is the top “individual” adsense publisher in terms of pageviews. Lets find out what some of his secrets are as he shares some advice with our readers. Feel free to comment!
Markus, what is your experience in computer programming and how did it prepare you for becoming a webmaster?
The average pageviews a day is around 14 million for the last week. I’m getting another 80 million pageviews a day from users polling the site to see if they have new messages. Really intensive bandwidth wise!
When I go to your website, I notice that the ads are targeted to my region, yet I have not even registered- can you explain to our readers how you accomplish this feat?
I’m just using ip2location.com- Basically i take your IP, look it up in the database and it tells me what your city is. I then bring up a list of users in your city, nothing magical about it at all.
Are most of your visitors coming primarily from search engines (SERPS), or are you finding that they come from other avenues? Do you actively advertise in the media?
Search engines account for something like 2% of my traffic. The vast majority of my traffic, like any other site with over 5 million pageviews a day comes from word of mouth, and repeat visitors.
The services on your site seem to be offered at no cost to the registrants. Is there some advantage you have over your competitors that allows you to do this?
I’ve developed new algorithms that allow me to create a mega site for next to no cost. Several years ago I created algorithm that was thousands of times faster then the algorithm used in the 1990′s to find a string of 22 prime numbers. At the time a professor used several super computers and hundreds of regular computers over the course of several years to find a record. I did the same thing on 1 computer in 2 weeks.
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As an entrepreneur, you’re hardwired to enjoy a greater level of risk than the average person. But do you enjoy the thrill of business and investing so much that you’re willing to risk:
-Being hounded by creditors?
-Declaring bankruptcy?
-Being denied a mortgage?
-Paying more than your fair share of interest on your loans?
-Losing your house?
If you answered “no” to one or more of these questions, this may be the most important report you’ve read in a long time.
Because, if you’re like most entrepreneurs, investors, and business owners I’ve met over the past 28 years, you’re in danger of facing all of these horrific problems.
And it’s all because of your business.
You see, entrepreneurs typically make one or more financially devastating mistakes when financing the launch, operation and/or growth of their businesses. In most cases, they don’t realize that they’re making a mistake.
And to tell the truth, even when they do realize they’re making a mistake … they lull themselves into thinking that the consequences will be a minor annoyance.
Until, one day, they can’t qualify for a mortgage. Or they can’t get the to-die-for financing offered on the new car they’re buying. Or they’re hounded by creditors and eventually have to declare bankruptcy.
And it is all because they use their personal finances to fund the launch or expansion of their business. They then use personal credit cards to pay for business expenses. If you are in business or thinking about starting a business, business credit is a must.
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