Curious about Video Marketing?

Marketing is essential to the success of your company, be it an established bricks and mortar company or if you are contemplating starting an online business.

Promoting products and services can be a time-consuming headache if you don’t know how to accomplish it. A large assortment of tools are available; however, which tools are right for you? Which promotional method provides you with the most benefits, the greatest market saturation, and the means to grow your brand online?

While any number of combinations can provide some benefits, video marketing is one of the most effective methods to promote your product or service.

What is video marketing, you ask?

It is merely the process of advertising your product through the use of video. These videos are hosted online, through a video sharing website, your own website, and even through blogs. You tube is a well known location for hosting your videos but there are a ton more.

Why does video marketing constitute such an enormous advantage? There are a gazillion reasons; however, online videos are very effective at putting your offering in front of millions of people, give them an dynamic message, and connect with your target base on a personal level.

The usual promotional methods, such as TV commercials, print media, and even static online advertising cannot begin to approach the power offered by video marketing. These traditional media also can be much more expensive than online video.

For more information on video marketing and on online marketing in general, click here.

To market effectively with this method, you’ll need to know how to create the videos, how to host them, and how to begin promoting through them. A few simple tools allow you to increase your online presence, boost your sales and create a much wider target audience.

How to Pick a Name for Your Online Business

Starting an Online Business

Whether your company is a sole proprietorship or a mega-corporation, it
will all start with a name and a concept. So what’s in a name?

The answer is - quite a bit! The name you choose for your company will
assist you in building a brand and image in the marketplace. Therefore it should
be memorable, relevant and simple for your potential customers to remember.

For example, let’s look at Google. At 1st glance, this is a
nonsensical name, but when you look a little deeper - it all makes
good sense. Google (actually googolplex) does have a meaning - it means numbers without end
and impossible to count.

It’s an ideal name for a search engine – an endless number of searchers
using their engine. So the name fits the business, making it relevant.
It’s memorable, because everyone remembers a funny sounding name like
that, even if most of us may not know exactly what it means. It’s simple
and easy to spell. This has enabled Google to quickly make the
name familiar and profitable.

As seen by this example, your name is critical and you
should take some time to choose the right name for your company. It
should be easily brandable.

Registering your name may not always be done online, since businesses come
and go - but you will register your domain name. It’s good to
secure your name with a DBA (Doing Business As license).

Here’s how it’s done:

1. Brainstorm some appropriate names for
your business. Make at least ten and then prioritize them.
The names should project your USP (Unique Selling Proposition).

2. Go to www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm - the US Patent
and Trademark Office. You can do this in your own country
if you do not live in the US. Run a search to check the name isn’t taken, if it is move on to the next name on the list.

3. Repeat the search on the website of your state’s or province’s
authority for establishing corporations (usually the Secretary
of State). You can locate this in Google. Be sure to be especially diligent for Nevada, if you are setting up a corporation or LLC there.

Inspect both the LLC and corporation databases. Never have a
similar name to another business. You may seriously harm
your credibility and you may be forced to stop using the
name if the other business can prove you are infringing on its
trademark.

4. Do another search on your local DBA listings (fictitious
names). You would use a DBA if you want your company to be
known as something other than its legal name. For example, the
legal name associated with Empowerism is Life, Education And
Prosperity, Inc. The DBA is Empowerism.  You will register at
your local city hall. This costs a little bit but it’s worth it,
as it will give you exclusive rights to your business name.

5. Now move on to your domain name. I prefer to include my “money” keywords in the domain name URL. This helps in achieving a higher search engine ranking for those keywords and you can still use your name on the page for branding.

6 Now choose a good logo and slogan to match your
name. This helps you brand your company.

All that being said, the most important thing is to focus on finding your first customer to make your first sale. Don’t get bogged down in finding the perfect name, even if you find it, it won’t make any sales for you!

Build Your Online Business While Avoiding Information Overload

One time only, backend, squeeze pages, landing pages - it sounds like a foreign language doesn’t it?  One of the challenges of starting an Internet business is learning the lingo while avoiding information overload.  Information overload is a term often used to refer to the amount of information that exceeds what one can take in or process at one time. It results from instantaneous access to a lot of business information online, which in this case, is information about how to start an online business.

Information can come from marketing forums, directories, blogs, search engines, article directories, reports, courses, e-books  and offline sources. The problem comes when the more information one gets, the less meaningful and confusing one becomes. Unfortunately, it can be a challenge to control the kind of information one gets online, both knowingly and unknowingly.

There are so many sources it can be difficult to know whom or what to trust.  And that’s part of the problem. The Internet is un-policed and that means there can be information that’s wrong, untruthful and untrustworthy.  For example you may think that wiki’s or online encyclopedias would be a reliable source of information but that’s not necessarily correct.  Wiki’s can be edited by anyone, regardless of whether they’re knowledgeable about the subject or not.

Diligence and special research is needed in order for one to get reliable information and make clear cut decisions when it comes to starting a business online. When reviewing a guide, read it at least twice or 3 times before making a decision.  Compare the information to what you already know.  Does it make sense?

Join a few forums related to your business and read back posts. Look at the qualifications of the person making the post.  If they make a statement like “I need to make $1000 in 10 day” and their signature line promotes a product that says “Make Money Fast,” you might think twice about taking their advice or buying their product.

There are literally thousands of different ways to make money online.  Even a single business model may have a number of different approaches.  Trying to learn all the ways of doing everything will likely result in information overload.

Focus is your best friend when you’re starting an online business. Focus on learning one thing at a time.  For example, if building a list of subscribers is your task, focus on that until you can do it in your sleep. Then move on to the next task.