Category Public Relations

By Mark Gebbie

WHICH CAME FIRST, THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG…

Or how to send someone an email who didn’t request one from you first!

When I first went online and everything was pristine, new and amazing to me, one of the first things I ran into was the golden rule: “Don’t send someone an email unless they want to hear from you.”

I publish the Gebbie Press All-In-One Media Directory, a PR reference work that lists all print and broadcast media in the USA. I learned what HTML was, and began to cook up a page. OK, now I had a site. Obviously, I wanted to develop some cross links and let people know about it. After I learned what a search engine was, I started finding sites relating to PR, publicity, marketing and so on. I knew these would be good places for a Gebbie link and most had a contact email address on them. But I was under the impression that the only sort of message I should send anyone was “To whom do I make out a check and where should I send it?” I was afraid to offend anyone, being the new kid on the block.

I’m not talking about “1,000,000 fresh emails for $50.00” here. Clearly, that’s spamming and a rude way to market anything. I don’t know about you, but my address book was completely empty the first time I fired it up, and I didn’t know one single soul on the net who had said “When you get online, don’t hesitate to write!”

After I had something to offer at my site-links to all the media outlets in our directory, our TV and Weekly Newspaper databases a gratis, etc., I felt I would not be emailing someone out of the blue empty handed. Some of my rules:

“Don’t arrive unless you bear gifts!” “Don’t email a math professor about a media directory.” “If you have a sense of humor, use it.”

I admit I did start out emailing people who I thought would want to buy our directory. I was with AOL at the time; back then, one could search the members by keyword, so I plugged in “PR/publicity/marketing” and waded through all the profiles, sending anyone who clearly did PR for a living or who had one heck of a strong interest in the media in general.

I must have sent hundreds of emails, one by one. I sent each one with great fear and anxiety! But when I got a lot of “Thanks for the head’s up on your site – great resource!”, I relaxed a tad bit. I’ve since come to learn that this is one tough way to sell a book, and no longer go prospecting in this manner. I once emailed the entire membership (thousands) of the Int’l. Assn. Of Business Communicators. I’ve probably sent 10,000 hand picked emails in the last three years, and I can honestly say that I can count the number of truly irate recipients on one…er, well, two hands. The math professor in Oregon was one of them.

Hey, sometimes I miss the mark completely.

About the Author: Mark Gebbie, editor and publisher at

Gebbie Press,

providers of media contact directories, media contact lists and press release distribution services since the year 1955. Company is Dun & Bradstreet listed, website is VeriSign Trusted. Gebbie Press, in business for more than 55 years, is well known and respected within the PR industry for providing quality media contacts lists at

-affordable-

prices.

Source:

isnare.com

Permanent Link:

isnare.com/?aid=706993&ca=Marketing

By R.Green

The lists of bank and savings accounts that are available to most people are bewildering. A quick look at a comparison site like Moneynet (

moneynet.co.uk/

) or Moneyfacts will reveal thousands of different products. Unfortunately many of these accounts are not accessible for anyone with either a poor or even no credit history.

Research carried out for the National Consumer Council (NCC) (

ncc.org.uk/moneymatters/basic%20banking.pdf

) reveals that the poor pay more, or get less, for essential goods and services having a bank account can be a gateway to other products and services, such as affordable credit and insurance. To help counteract this problem of financial exclusion, the government has tried to initiate the introduction of basic bank accounts for the least well off. The NCC has however warned that, the current model of basic bank accounts, introduced by government in 2000 in an attempt to enable all low-income consumers to access banking services, is not delivering.

The new basic bank accounts were introduced as part of a wider push towards universal banking and corresponded with the introduction of direct payment of social security benefits to bank accounts as well as the Post Office Card Account (POCA). The plan was that these accounts would also help their users by letting them set up direct debits to pay their utility bills, and so keep better track of their finances from week to week.

The accounts were originally designed to let people save and withdraw money, but in an effort to prevent extending any existing debts and stopping the accounts from becoming overdrawn, they don’t offer cheque books, overdrafts or other credit facilities. The accounts were intended for those with no credit history who might not meet the banks’ criteria for opening a standard current account. The accounts features typically include the ability for payments, for example pensions and benefits, to be credited direct to the account, withdrawals by plastic card through cash machines and the facility to pay bills by direct debit.

The problems experienced seem to be partly because the accounts do not always help those with a small weekly income to deal with the unpredictable gaps which can occur in wages, benefits or spending. Automated monthly direct debit payments for goods and services can prove of little use to many on low weekly based incomes. Those paid on a week by week basis, expressed a preference for weekly cash based, rather than monthly direct debit, budgeting options and felt that bank accounts with direct debit facilities would not provide them any advantages. By using cash instead of a bank account, they found they could juggle payments easier, and avoid punitive additional bank charges if they did not have the funds to hand, to cover an outgoing debit payment.

Another problem experienced was that the holders of these basic accounts are also liable to be those on low incomes, with low (if any) savings and are more likely to be in arrears paying their household bills than those without them. This vulnerable group are less likely than most to be able to deal with unexpected additional expenditure, such as an unforeseen bill for home repairs, but without recourse to any credit facilities, they may be forced into resorting to high interest loans to cover temporary setbacks.

The NCC found that people on low incomes who use accounts to manage their money are more likely to be in arrears with household bills. They are also more likely to have outstanding credit commitments, partly because they have wider access to credit, than those without accounts.

The government has set a target of halving the number of households which do not have access to a bank account by 2006. The banks state that they currently face a lack of demand, however more than two million applications, in excess of the governments expected take-up, for the POCAs have been made. The banks are claiming that reaching the targets will be difficult, as they are being impeded by various barriers to opening basic bank accounts, such as the identification requirements in money laundering rules. Some of those on low incomes may not possess either a full driving license or full passport, and so find difficulties setting up new financial accounts. The banking industry has also been widely criticised for failing to actively promote basic bank accounts and, sometimes, for actually discouraging people from opening them.

The NCC proposed that basic bank accounts need to be more flexible. Suggestions to make the bank accounts meet the needs of consumers included offering weekly, rather than monthly, direct debit facilities where payments are only triggered if the money is available in the account, occasional payment holidays, and small free buffer zone overdrafts.

Whether the lack of interest is due to the banks, the government, or the product itself, something needs to be done if there is to be an increase in the take-up rates. Half of those surveyed by the NCC felt they do not really need an account. An even more damning indictment of the current basic bank accounts was that a similar proportion of account holders preferred to withdraw all their income, rather than leave it in the account, and then manage it as cash. An inclusion policy may be a laudable idea, but it is no use if people do not want to be included, and it should not disadvantage those it is meant to help.

About the Author: Richard lives in Edinburgh, occasionally writing for the personal finance blog Cashzilla (

cashzilla.blogspot.com/

), and reciting Vogon poetry.

Source:

isnare.com

Permanent Link:

isnare.com/?aid=9157&ca=Finances

How Do You Brand Yourself As An Affiliate Business?

by

Charles Boustany

The real problem that most affiliate marketers run into is they all promote the same website. This can present a problem if you are trying to differentiate yourself in the marketplace. In this article let’s talk about how you can go about branding an affiliate business of your own and be different doing it.

When you join an affiliate marketing program you are given a replicated website to promote. This means that the website to your promoting is exactly the same as everyone else’s except it is coded with your affiliate ID number. All affiliate websites look exactly the same and you would never know if you’re on a different affiliate marketer’s website or not.

You’re also given marketing materials such as banners, blog copy, e-mail messages, classified and solo ads, and so on. Again these are all exactly the same for every affiliate except when it comes to promoting your affiliate URL.

The way you go about branding your affiliate business is you do not directly promote your affiliate website. Instead you create a website that contains a unique banner, your picture, and your testimonial on how great the affiliate product is.

You can also create a landing page to capture contact information, and of course on that you want to make that page the same color, design, and header as your regular website. You also want to program into your autoresponder your follow messages that are uniquely written by you.

What you are doing at this point is branding your self first. This is an important point to understand as an affiliate marketer, because whenever you change programs your brand is you regardless of the products you sell.

This means that you can literally sell any product at any time without having to change your header, and any other things that you are using to brand your business with. If you want to brand yourself you want to include a quality digital picture on every page.

Depending on the product you sell today, affiliate marketing businesses are successfully built by developing relationships. The reason social networking works so well is because people still like to buy from people.

Branding makes this possible. Therefore you want to put as much effort into branding your self and your products as you would branding your affiliate merchants products for them.

Once you understand this basic premise you will never again directly promote an affiliate website, but rather you will always be promoting your website first.

Copyright (c) 2009 Charles Boustany

Charles Boustany is the webmaster of

godoitrightnow.com

Subscribe and receive 6 FREE Affiliate Business related e-books

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Article Source:

ArticleRich.com