In today’s post, I want to talk about something that has really changed my thinking and my approach to my entire online business, and has also had a huge impact on the profits my business generates. This simple strategy really has the potential to change your online business too, no matter what market you are in.

So what is this mystery strategy? Well as you might have guessed from the title, I’m talking about the idea of giving to your market.

Still confused? Let me try and explain this strategy a little more….

No matter what market most business owners are in, the majority always seem to focus on what they can get from their market. Now while there is no harm in seeking out opportunities in your market, I’m confident that if these business owners changed their thinking to consider what they can give to their market, they will in turn find that more opportunities present themselves and in turn they make more money.

Now, I think the best way reinforce the importance and effectiveness of this strategy is by demonstrating some examples of how you can give to your market, and show how it can benefit you further:

Content On Your Blog

No matter what kind of online business you have, I always recommend you have a blog. This is a great place to build an audience for your products or services, and also a great way to build authority in your market.

Posting regular, high quality content to your blog, is a great way to give to your market. This in turn will increase your audience, as other people share your content and it becomes spread across the Internet. You will also gain authority status in your niche as you continue to provide useful content to others, this positions you as an expert. This can have a dramatic impact on your business and allow you to sell more products or gain more clients in your business.

Answering Questions And Interacting In Your Market

Helping other people in your niche is a fantastic way to give back to your market. This could be on niche forums, on Facebook, or perhaps answering someones questions on Twitter. Whatever you do to help others, this creates new opportunities for relationships with others in your niche. The people you help may become customers of yours, or may recommend your business to others. They may also become business partners or joint venture partners on future projects.

I’ve built fantastic business relationships with my of my clients from my design business through offering exceptional service and going above and beyond what was expected. In turn, many of these people have offered me help as I’ve been growing my other businesses.

Your Own Calling Card Content

If you’re running a blog, or building your own information product business, this is one of the most powerful methods of giving back to your community that you can use.

Create a piece of unique content (ebook, report or video), or a unique tool or application which you can give away to your market. You will usually give this away in return for a name and email, but people will be happy to give you their details if your free content (which I call a calling card) looks like it has value.

Although you are asking for something back with this form of giving, it’s still a great way to build relationships and more importantly build a list of interested prospects in your niche market, which you can market to in the future. However, if you want to improve your success with this new list of prospects, you must continue to provide high quality information to them, as well as offers. By doing this you will establish yourself as an authority, but also as someone who wants to provide value and not just sell to them.

I hope you can now see the power of changing your thinking, and considering what you can do for your market, rather than what it can do for you. This strategy has honestly brought me a lot more money as a result of the relationships I have built by giving back to the niche markets in which I operate.

I’d love to hear your ideas for giving back to your market – what are you doing to give to your business community, and how has it impacted your business?

Tags: calling card, give back to your market, giving back

Shooting video requires different elements to make video as close to reality as possible. The basic elements for shooting professional quality videos are, sound, editing and lighting. Out of all the three, lighting is the most important aspect in shooting video.

The question is why is lighting the most important? If you want to know the answer  why, you should read this article.

Proper lighting gives the viewer a much better visual impression of the video they are watching. Just like in the movie theater people see the motion picture through lights and with the help of sound. It is easy to distinguish through lighting that the video has been professionally made or whether the video is poorly made. This is how important lighting is, it makes the video appealing to viewers.

Lighting is so critical in making the video look good that you will see the effect immediately when you try to use your camera. When you begin shooting with your video camera ,when using improper lighting you will notice that video quality doesn’t look as good. Once you become good at understanding the importance of lighting you will notice the difference immediately. This one simple tip will do wonders for your video marketing campaigns.

This video is not just about lighting, but it makes a good point…

Another important aspect of lighting is that it gives life to your video. Without good lighting can you imagine how the outcome of your video will look? Here’s an example, without good lighting you will not be able to see the real colors of the background. You will not clearly see the middle ground or the foreground of the video. This is what gives life to the color of most videos. Without the proper lighting this can be visible in your video.

Lighting is the most important element for anyone shooting or looking to create a good quality videos will soon understand. Lighting gives the visual impression to the viewers that they are looking at good color, and the quality and real effect that the video was meant to represent.

We hope that after you reading this article that you place more importance on lighting and any other aspect in your video marketing campaigns. This should help you to make better quality videos.

Feel free to leave questions in the comments section, or ask questions there if you have any. Thank you for taking the time to read this article.

Famous Bloggers has another great post today that sheds some light on blogging and standing out from the crowd. You can find the details here, share and enjoy

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I have the perfect new employee for your company.

This employee is adept at sitting around, sifting through all the latest news and gossip. They understand your company pretty well, and will work diligently to learn the ins and outs so that they can directly engage your customers.

There’s just a few things you should know.

This new employee won’t be doing any direct sales but they will make a lot of your customers pretty happy.  There’s a good chance they’ll annoy quite a few of them as well. They also won’t work by any real schedule that you have, and your dress code is unacceptable – they’ll be working in whatever they feel like wearing. They also don’t have a college degree and will be spending more than 80% of their time on Facebook and Twitter, along with a number of other social sites.

Did I mention that they want to work from home? Do you have an opening?

10 years ago we would have laughed together at the request, but not anymore. You and just about every other company out there should consider whether or not having this kind of position is viable.

I (and many others) have mentioned before that it’s no longer a question of whether or not you should get involved in social media, it’s just a matter of how and when. That leads to this query: Do you hire someone, or do you outsource?

The answer really depends on your business and how much direct control you want over the individual or group handling your social media presence. Hiring direct is a good idea for a firm capable of providing a decent regular wage along with benefits for a full time employee or a group of part time employees. Having the group or individual in house means you have immediate control over your social media presence and those employees can attending training, meetings, conferences and more within the organization to ensure that they are up on all the current company information relevant to their content and social media marketing.

Should you op to outsource, there is still plenty of control to be had however you need to ensure that those agencies or individuals stay current on company info. The benefit to outsourcing is that you can often get the services at a lower rate that won’t fluctuate under contract agreements as opposed to living, breathing employees that demand raises lest they handcuff themselves to the water cooler.

If you’re hiring an individual or several people to fill an in-house team, keep in mind that there’s no college degree for social media marketing.  Not quite yet, it’s getting there. The old rules of marketing don’t even really apply here, so a Harvard grad with a background in marketing is about as charming as a shaved cat to your social following. An outsourced firm or individual will likely have a bit more experience than an individual as they’ve already been in place working with other companies and clients to manage social media presence.

The whole beast is still relatively new, so there’s a learning curve as we all move along. The important thing is that businesses need to do something to solidify their social media marketing presence.

One thing you should not do is manage your social media presence on your own. Your focus should be your business, and social media (and marketing in general) can quickly become a huge time suck – especially if you become popular among those who follow you. Before you get sucked into something you can’t walk away from (because leaving followers suddenly hanging is bad) it’s best to get someone in place before you’re overwhelmed and burn out hits.

I’ll leave you with this article from Marketing Sherpa regarding the future of social media marketing and the way businesses are changing their position.

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Today’s world demands an similar share of show as well as content in your website. Unless you revise your website design and update it regularly, it fails to attract new traffic . Also, old customers are happy to have it in a renewed format. It is not necessary for you to personally coin each frame. You can eternally hire professional website Design firm to do your job. Obviously you have other jobs like managing your products and their maintenance, which are on the better side of your priority list. However, an eye-catching website can prove a milestone in your growing occupation.

Nowadays, a large number of website design firms are providing their services to be more consumer-friendly. as an alternative of giving just design, they give you a package deal.. Everyone has different necessities to be fitted in a correct format. Whatever your needs are, you need to inform your website builder team. They will design in such a fashion as to provide you everything handy.

If you are unable to find a good professional website design company that fits your necessarily, for the time being, you can be your own website designer. Though this is not a good idea especially when you think of a professional built website but it can work temporarily. Evidently it will lack the skillful presentation that can appeal the customers. This is the skill for which you pay your web design company. surely you do not want to sacrifice your visitors to save a few bucks. Especially when you want to expand your business over a larger area, custom website design company will be the best bet for a faster launch. But definitely if you learn a few steps of website designing, you can at least instigate the business online without the expert  help. Self-help at the time of need is must!

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