As you know it can be very expensive to attract new customers. You can cut down on those expenses by “upselling” to those new customers. For example, let’s say you’re selling a computer with a 15″ monitor for $1200. You tell people they can upgrade to a 17″ monitor for only $200 more. That’s upselling! Your goal is to get more money out of the first sale.

Below are ten upselling strategies you can use to increase your profits.

1. Deluxe Upsell-You could sell a basic product and tell people for a little more money they can receive the deluxe edition.

2. Money Upsell-You could offer people the rights to sell the product they are buying from your business. You could charge an extra $30 dollars to get the reproduction rights.

3. Discount Upsell-If you’re selling a product people may order again in the future like shave gel, you could offer them a second can of shave gel at a discount.

4. Time Upsell-If you’re selling a product or service people subscribe to, like a magazine, you could tell them if they subscribe for two years instead of one, they can receive it half off the cover price.

5. Quantity Upsell-This is similar to the discount upsell. The only difference is you increase the discount by how many products they order. If they order 3 it’s a 10% discount, if they order 5 it’s a 15% discount.

6. Package Upsell-When you’re selling a product you could offer similar products in a package deal. Tell the people the other products are cheaper with the package deal versus purchasing them separately.

7. Affiliate Upsell-When you’re selling a product you could offer someone else’s product as an upsell. You would have to make a commission on the product in order to profit.

8. Free Upsell-You could offer a free sample or trial of your product (your first sale would be free) and then tell people if they order the full version right now they will get a discount.

9. Extra Upsell-There are many things you could charge extra for at the time of sale. It could be gift wrapping, imprinting, custom designs, etc.

10. Extended Upsell-If your product comes with a warranty, you could ask people if they would like to extend the warranty one more year for only $30.

In conclusion, you can use one or all these strategies to increase your profits at the point of sale. Don’t be afraid to use your imagination to come up with other upsell strategies.

About the author:

Rojo Sunsen is a specialized bounty hunter who prefers to work quietly/confidentially for the benefit of her clients.

Reprinted with permission from Articles.org. Original article located at:  http://articles.org/201545_10_upsell_strategies_that_will_increase_your_profits/

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As we’ve seen over the last few years since the economy went down the toilet is that Big Business cares only about one thing, and one thing only – and that is making as much money as possible whatever the cost.  If it takes laying people off to increase the bottom line, then so be it.  If it involves moving to another country where the labor is dirt cheap, then let’s do it.

Big Business is all about one thing.  Greed.

In this age of greed many businesses forget one overriding factor that weighs heavily on the success of the company, and the success of the economy; businesses are here to serve.  Businesses should be more concerned about how they can serve their clientele, not about how much money they can leech from each client.

Business is all about service.  Service to the client, service to the employees, service to the vendors, service to the community, and even service to the economy.  Service, service, service.  It’s all about service.

When a business comes from the attitude of, “How can I serve this person today?” the business will have more prospects turning into clients.  Why?  Because people love to be treated well by businesses they deal with.  If you consistently have the “attitude of service” your marketing dollars are considerably less expensive.  Your clients and customers will tell everyone they know that is in need of your product or service about your business.

Case in point.

Several months ago I started a business named, “The WordPress Webmaster.”  I started out with just one client.  That client referred others to me and some of those have referred even more business to me.  How much has this cost me?  Nothing, zip, nada.  Now several months later I have several clients, and they keep referring more and more clients to me.

Now why would they do that?

Is it because of the extensive knowledge I have?  That is part of it I admit.  However, the main reason why my clients refer others to me is because I always come from an attitude of service.

Years ago this was a given for any business.  Today though, Corporate America doesn’t care about serving and instead only cares about how much money they can get from their customers or clients.  People are tired of being treated like just numbers on a page, they want attention to their needs.

If your Internet connection is down, you want someone to quickly help you get it back up and running.

If your car breaks down, you want a mechanic that is knowledgeable but also one that is thinking of how best they can serve you.

Many businesses forget this as they grow and lose sight of the real reason why the business exists. It doesn’t exist at the whim of the owners and managers. No, a business exists and continues to grow because it is providing a valuable service to its customers and clients.  It is those people that support the business, that spend their hard-earned dollars at that business so that it can grow and prosper.  And it is those people that will tell others about your business bringing you more new customers and themselves returning to purchase from you again. Without the client or customer the business fails, plain and simple.

Begin looking at ways your can serve your clients and customers and even prospects. They all need to know and experience your new “attitude of service” and return to purchase from you again and again, keeping your business alive and growing.

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The importance of being active on social media to promote your business (and I’m using promote very loosely here – more on that later) is being shown to us each and every day.  “We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is, how well we DO it” – Eric Qualman

Here’s a video to remind us of the importance of social media.

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Some people struggle for years trying to find a business they enjoy and can make money with.  This post is about one of those people…

…Me.

For years and years and years and years and.. (well, you get the picture) …I searched for my own business that I would love doing and get paid well for it.  I tried this and that and then this other thing, oh and how about this instead?  Or maybe this?

For years I went from business venture to business venture, never really finding anything until I found Coaching.  Life Coaching to be more exact.  I love doing that, but that still wasn’t getting me where I wanted to go, except for the connections I’ve made.  Now that’s what brought about the realization of the proper business for me.

That’s when The WordPress Webmaster was born!

I enrolled in a group coaching program which is designed to help you determine your standing in the market, your niche, etc., and you make a bunch of really meaningful connections.  The coach that does this work is Kathy Brandon, also known as The Happiness Chick. She runs the Ready 4 Happiness Group and is an amazing woman.  I highly recommend that you get in touch with her no matter where you are in your business.

Due to the connections I made in that group, I ended up discovering what my true niche is, and that is Computer/Internet Geek.  Yep, I’m owning it.  LOL

If you’d like to see a bit of my history and qualifications for the title of Computer/Internet Geek, check out my “In A Nutshell” page on TheWordPressWebmaster.com

Needless to say my niche had been staring me in the face for soooooo long, but I was just too close to see it.  But really, the satisfaction I feel from my discovery is awesome.  I KNOW deep down that this is where I should be focusing my efforts, I just didn’t realize the gifts I’ve been given, nor did I value the knowledge and experience I have.  It was just a matter of being too close to the subject; I couldn’t see the forest for the trees kinda thing.

Since I have owned my greatness everything has become so much easier.  I am able to really define what I do for people which has a direct effect on my marketing.  I’m confident in my skills, abilities, and knowledge and I am moving forward with that.  I really feel a lot of relief too. 

So now I’ve put myself out there as The WordPress Webmaster and like I said, I AM owning it.  Now that I’ve done that though, where will this take me?  Well, where I intend to take this…

LOL, you’ll have to stay tuned to find out what plans I have for The WordPress Webmaster, but let me tell you this, it’s BIG. 

See ya soon!

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I think it was a couple of weeks ago there was some discussion about people harvesting the Fans of a Fan Page on a message board I’m a member of, and I’ve been thinking about the discussion ever since, for a few reasons.

On a metaphysical and philosophical level, isn’t the act of worrying about someone “stealing” or “harvesting” one’s Fans something that comes from a view of lack?  Lack in one’s own abundance, lack in the abundance of the Universe, lack in the gifts one has received from God?

In this case though lack shows its head as fear of competition, which is rooted in lack thinking.  It also reflects in our confidence in ourselves.  When we are not confident in ourselves we tend to worry about the “competition” and spend time thinking of things that hinder our success and ultimately the abundance we experience.

Just recently I have “grown up” (took me long enough) and come into my own and I must say that everything now seems so much easier than before.  I finally quit rowing against the current and turned my canoe around and started going with the flow of my life.  And everything is almost effortless.

As you know, if you’ve seen my other messages, I’m in the middle of a Twitter promotion for my new website and Twitter account (http://www.TheWordPressWebmaster.com and http://www.twitter.com/WPWebmaster).  Anyway, the service I’m giving away has actually brought business to me as I’ve had people contact me that wanted to pay me instead of winning the service.  Yeah, can you believe it!

But the point is, that’s what happens when you come into your own; when you finally “discover your niche” so to speak, but really it’s more than that.  It’s being right where you should be to take advantage of your gifts, knowledge, and experience.  And when you get there, competition doesn’t matter anymore and those that you might have once thought of as competitors now become your colleagues and joint venture partners.

And this then leads us into the marketing of your business because when you’re confident, when you’re not worried about the “competition,” when you don’t have lack thinking, and when you’re in the flow and have owned your greatness, your marketing becomes more effective and you see greater results.  Your message becomes clearer and those that you are targeting perk up and start listening, and ultimately, they become your clients and loudest promoters.

So I guess it goes something like this:

Accepting your gifts -> Greater confidence -> Owning your greatness -> The business success you desire

Kinda simple when you look at it like that, huh?

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The ground-breaking guided imagery, “Your Future Vision” soon to be released on Amazon.com, link coming soon!

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MYD Newsletter – April 29, 2010

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Experts in online marketing consulting emphasize a primary goal: getting your site indexed and ranked with the search engines.

Not long ago, they would have said a blog might help you do that. They likely wouldn’t have recommended that a blog serve as your main site.

Thanks to advances in content management software, however, that’s no longer the case. The line between conventional websites and blogs has all but disappeared.

“Blogging” programs have evolved into some of the most powerful and flexible content management systems available. One of the leading packages, WordPress, is completely free.

WordPress For Content Management

Sites built with WordPress can easily include static pages and sections. Technically, you will have a “blog,” but it can be made to appear virtually indistinguishable from any other site on the Web.

For new website owners who want to manage their own sites without learning code, content management systems like WordPress are particularly attractive.

Rather than compromising on your available SEO options by running your site with blog software, you are actually gaining some unique and affordable SEO advantages and opportunities.

Effortless Structure

Content management systems allow material to be easily categorized. Search engines love structure. Categorization options will allow you to keep a more orderly site that will naturally perform better with the search engine spiders.

By establishing and sticking to categories, you can effectively group relevant material and keep up with keywords and anchor text you’re optimizing. This includes:

• URLs with anchor text. Blog software makes it easier to create “crawlable” URLs that include your keyword phrases and anchor text.
• Relevant internal links. By grouping material in categories, you can make sure your internal links are relevant and doing the best job of dispersing PageRank across your site.

(All reliable online marketing consulting professionals stress the importance of relevant internal linking.)

Creating Fresh Content

Software like WordPress was specifically designed to handle the frequent creation of content. By regularly updating a portion of your site, either as a “news” section or as conventional blog commentary, you will:

- get crawled more often by the search engines,

- cultivate a regular readership to generate “word of mouth” traffic,

- more readily attract inbound links,

- and develop site “authority” faster.

The “blogosphere” is a social environment. Studies show that blogs trade links much more often than conventional websites.

By including a “blogroll” or list of links to relevant sites in your sidebar, you will find that other bloggers organically return the favor. Inbound links bring PageRank to your site and create a greater perception of site authority.

Traffic And Links Via Comments

Commenting plays a large role in link sharing on blog sites. Comments and trackback features further encourage interaction among sites and increase overall visibility.

Be warned, however, that for comments to best serve your site, you will need to engage you readers by answering their comments and by visiting their sites and leaving comments of your own.

(Note that comments can be turned on and off throughout your site with the WordPress system.)

Links In “Unconventional” Locations

Syndicating a site managed with blog software via RSS is a largely automatic process. By actively managing your RSS feed, however, you can include links and generate traffic that does not come directly from the search engines.

Further, your site will be eligible for inclusion in blog directories and will be crawled by blog-specific search engines where your competition may have no presence whatsoever.

Content management software like WordPress will:

• impose structure and order on your site,
• strengthen the use of anchor text in your urls,
• encourage the addition of fresh content,
• lead to organic links in the blogosphere,
• increase the frequency with which the search engines crawl your site,
• gain visibility for the site in areas your competition may ignore,
• and generate a greater sense of authority for you and your site.

So, how can using the software to manage your site be a bad idea in terms of SEO?

Wrapping It Up

Content management systems, when used with the basic principles stressed by online marketing consulting professionals, are simply another tool in an affordable SEO arsenal.

Such systems do not change the core purpose for establishing your site, they simply provide a different means of maintenance and improvement.

While you may spend money initially to have your site’s WordPress installation customized, overall, you will save on dollars that would otherwise go to a webmaster. Over time, that money can be spent on other SEO strategies.

With the ability to more easily and quickly manage your own site, you are not at the mercy of another person’s schedule. At the same time, the native controls built into the software will give you greater control over your efforts to gain search engine ranking.

That’s a win / win in anyone’s book.

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This is a great video that will get you started working your WordPress site for proper SEO

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How many times have you been surfing the Internet and clicked onto a site only to click right off again for one reason or another?

Perhaps the site took too long to load. Or maybe it was so poorly organized that you had no idea where to look for what you wanted. Maybe you got as far as actually ordering something, but the process was too complicated and you simply grew tired of trying to figure it out.

We’ve all been there. When you’re online, you expect instant access to the information you want, or you’ll leave. It’s as simple as that.

If fact, people take just 4 seconds when they land on a website to decide whether to stay or go. Count it in your head. That’s not a lot of time to convince someone to stick around and buy your product.

First impressions count if you want to convert your website traffic into sales or leads, so your site design is critical.

And as with all successful businesses, it all comes down to planning.

Here’s 5 things to consider when you create your website

Map Your Site

Think about all the pages you want to have on your website. Home, About, Contact, possibly a link to your blog (which should be hosted on your own hosting account but that’s for a later article), Testimonials, possibly a product page or two, or anything else you want to include in your site. Then…

Lay It Out In Front Of You

Get out a pen and paper and create a chart showing how the pages of your site will link together. If About is a menu option, what pages do you want to include under that heading? For example, you might want to put the Contact Page as an item available through the About menu option. Draw it out and you will begin to see the structure of your Site Map, which brings us to…

Navigation Rules

Whatever your site looks like, you need to have the important information laid out in an “F” formation on your page. Various eye tracking studies have shown that people tend to visually track across the page in that “F” pattern.

Put the most important thing at the top of the page, perhaps in the header image. Then people look to the bottom of the header image, and that is the reason why you see so many web pages with the menu right under the header graphic.

Lastly, the eye tends to go down the left side of the screen which is another place you see menus.

Keep this “F” configuration in mind when planning out the navigation of your website and when laying out the design of the website. If you have a menu under the header graphic or even in the header at the top, you can always use the left side of the website layout for promotion of your additional products, or for additional information. It’s your site and your choice, do as you wish.

Graphics & Images

The main question to consider when selecting graphics or images for your website is…

What message do you want to convey?

Then ask yourself if the image or graphic you are looking at conveys that message.

Use graphics and images sparingly and make sure you have a constant theme and message being conveyed between the images and the copy on the page.

The Copy

There’s been many different opinions on this over the years, but one truism continually arises. Your copy should sound like you are speaking to the individual reading it. Remember, you may have many people viewing a page on your website, but ultimately they are all looking at it by themselves. So speak to that person, that one person on the other side of that computer screen. Speak right to them, and make sure it’s in a conversational style, because you want to draw the reader into your message.

This post is an excerpt from the Quest Coach Training Strategic Business Tactics Course.

Gary Glasscock – Life Coach, Technology coach/advisor, computer geek for 24 years, Business building Coach. Gary’s passion is helping people to help others by assisting them in building successful businesses.

Gary is also Chief Training Officer of Quest Coach Training and offers the Strategic Business Tactics Course to help train Coaches advanced business-building and marketing techniques and strategies to assist the Coach in building a profitable practice.

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