Instant-Income Idea #1:
A Holiday Windfall for Your Local Business

If you have a business with a local flair, or local clientele, this tip is a must read.

A client of mine owns a day spa here in Rhode Island, and with the holiday season approaching, she wanted to generate some fresh interest and new sales. But since her service is really of interest only to clients within driving distance of her spa, it's a bit tricky to locate new business via the world wide web.

So we decided a little out-of-the-box thinking was in order.

As most of you know, we Americans like to move about quite a bit. And there are lots of folks across the country who have relatives living in other states. With that bit of knowledge in mind, I did a but of keyword research. I quickly discovered that there were many people searching for gifts for their loved ones living here in Rhode Island.

In fact, using Overture's Keyword Suggestion Tool I found some 300+ people per month were searching for a Day Spa in our tiny state.

So at Overture.com I bid a dime a click on a few of those low-competition keywords. (Incidentally, I've found that Pay Per Click advertising works best for local businesses with tightly targeted prospects.) At ten cents per click my client's site went right to the top of Overture.com. And thanks to their partnerships the top two bidders from Overture appear at the top of the Yahoo.com search results as well. This brought in some immediate traffic.

With that targeted traffic flowing in, we took two final steps. First, we added a little holiday cheer to her Rhode Island Day Spa website, by putting up a festive snow flurry. (A cute little javascript trick I picked up at javascript.internet.com.)

Then a picture of her gift certificates went on the site, with a short description.

Finally, she tied it all together with this e-commerce solution so her potential customers could easily place orders via the web. She set up her order form in 15 minutes and put up a link to the order form at her site.

Bingo -- she was fully e-commerce enabled.

Two days later her first order came in from the other side of the country. Someone with a long lost relative back in R.I., bought a $150 gift certificate as a Christmas gift.

Don't you just love e-commerce?

How else could a small, local business earn $150 from someone 2000 miles away? Not only was a sale made, there is a good chance the gift certificate recipient will re-book and become a regular client.

It has now been three weeks since this idea was implemented and it has already yielded more than $1700 worth of gift certificate sales. And the sales continue to flow faster as the holidays approach. Not bad for an idea that took less than one hour to implement. ;-)

So, can you apply this idea to your business? Think out of the box and come up with an application that fits.

If gift certificates are not something people buy from your localized business, you can still use the web to gather new clients. Just consider what they would be searching for and search engine optimize your website for those specific keywords. Remember, if you business is local, include the most common geographic search term in your optimization plan.
 

Instant-Income Idea #2:
Have a Web-Based Year-End Clearance Sale

Do you have a product or service that is underselling? Maybe because your efforts are concentrated other places, or it is a high-ticket item you don't move as well?

I know in my case I sell very little advertising. The fact is, I like to use the small amount of ad space I have, to showcase my own products and services. That's why I don't pro-actively market my advertising. I just put a small blurb at the bottom of my newsletter and if advertisers come, that's fine. If they do not, that's fine too.

This presents a great opportunity from time to time, especially at the end of the year when I sometimes have a year-end clearance sale on advertising.

In fact, to show you this marketing idea in action, I'll use a my own site as an example, and present a REAL offer to my subscribers. The offer will not be repeated again for at least another 12 months, so if you have a business product or service to promote, feel free to take advantage of it. (Or, simply use this as an idea for your own site!)

Gazette Advertising Clearance Sale...

Ads in this BizWeb eGazette have been known to generate thousands of dollars in sales. But there is a problem for many small business owners -- the ads are not cheap. A sponsorship ad costs as much $675.

But from today until December 23, 2003 -- or until 12 spots are sold -- you can pre-book a sponsorship ad in the BizWeb eGazette, and save up to 45%.

There are two types of ads to choose from and all ads ordered will run in the beginning of 2004.

Top Sponsorship ad (At the very top of the newsletter)
Regular price $675
Minus 30% Year End Clearance Discount
= Total cost: $472

#2 Sponsorship ad (In the middle of my popular tip section)
Regular price $675
Minus 45% Year End Clearance Discount
= Total cost: $371

OK, so why such DEEP discounts?

Simple. As I mentioned earlier, since I don't normally promote my advertising, I'll sell a few more than normal with this one-time promotion. Plus, this allows me to pre-book the ads so I don't have to hassle with them for a few months. I take the orders, confirm them and place them.

So if these discounts interest you, reserve an ad today. There will be two gazette issues per month in 2004 and I'll stop taking orders when my ad space is filled through March. That means ad space in a total of six issues will be pre-sold, which is a total of 12 ads. The ads will be placed on a first-come first-served basis. The sooner you order, the sooner your ad will run.

Here's a link to the discount ad offer and special order forms. www.bizweb2000.com/addiscount.htm

OK, now did YOU get a Year-End Instant-Income idea from this example?

Do you have an opt-in list you can offer similar discounts to? Do you have another service or product that you want to move out?

If so, save yourself some time and generate a little income in the process. Year-end sales are just one more way to get some instant-income!

That's it for today's tip. See ya after the new year.

To your success,
Jim Daniels
http://www.make-a-living-online.com
(The Site that Explains How to Make a Living Online.)

P.S. At that just-updated guide you'll discover some of my deepest, darkest secrets about online business. If you are not having the success you expected online, I can help you personally, just like I've helped these folks.

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