Well a great place to find potential business is the micro blogging site Twitter.

I’m not going to go into what Twitter is in this post you can read some of my other posts to figure that out; but what I will say us with a little imagination and use of Twitters search engine you can find specifically what you are looking for .

For instance I did a simple search by typing “I need a web designer” and hundreds of posts came up with those words in the tweet. I then simply tweeted to that person what they were needing and if I could help them I would and if not I may be able to point them in the right direction.

See the trick is to not come in to strong just ask questions and try to be helpful. It may not turn into anything today but somewhere down the road it could turn into your biggest account.

Online classified sites are a great way to get people to your website. I’m sure you have heard of Craigslist. Craiglist is a great tool to get visitors to your website really fast, and the great thing about it is that you can target the specific city you want your ads to show up in.

You can be as creative as you like with Craigslist, you can just feature text based ads or if you have basic HTML skills you can create some nice ads with graphics.

The trick to being successful on Craigslist is to set some goals and plan on posting a couple times a day; everyday. You alsways want your ads to appear at the top of the page and the only way to control that is to keep posting.

If you keep up with this and make it part of your daily marketing; you will find success in online classified advertising.

Every company has email yet they don’t properly use it. I sent an email to a small local business and never got a reply, it’s someone I know so I asked if he got my email when I saw him. He said he said he never checks email because he does not have the time. Then why in the heck is it on your business card? It’s like saying I don’t use the telephone in my business.

Here’s the disturbing thing big companies do the same thing. Intact it’s worse becase you expect a high level of service from these companies.

I sent Godaddy.com an email last week and it took 4 days to get a reply and then is was a form email. I recently emailed wsradio a question and never got a reply. I had a simple question for Comcast a month ago that went unanswered. It’s just crazy.

The excuse I heard from Godaddy was that they receive thousands of emails per day. No excuse, if that’s the case then either increase your email customer service team or unpublish your email.

Rule of thumb is that emails must be replied to within 2 hours. Companies have to stop ignoring their email. If you publish and email contact then you better be ready to answer it.

There are several ways to look at this but the main thing is you are trading service for money. In that regard the customer may always be right. But in the end do they appreciate the extra effort.

Let’s see; I’m about to put it to the test.
I’m pulling an all nighter for a client and then have to get an approval by a certain time in the morning. All this to get something printed and delivered by the close of business on Tues.

The moon and stars will have to align in order to pull this off in a stress free manner.

In the end will the client appreciate the effort.

Visit back to find out.

When running your business you need to do the little things to be better than the competition. Here is a list of the little things to do before the sale:

1. If you have an appointment; show up on time. And if for whatever reason you are going to be late and can’t avoid it; call.

2. Listen to your customers needs; it’s shocking to see how many people don’t listen.

3. Under promise and over deliver.

4. Ask your potential client if they are getting quotes from other companies. If they are give them a sheet with the top 10 or 15 questions they should ask. Make sure you address every question on that sheet.

5. Follow up

Following these simple 5 steps will make a big difference between you and your competition. You will be surprised how many companies don’t do the little things.

This is a great system it requires vendors to give the very best service.

Imagine if that grading system was used in all business transactions? We would still have some bad service but overall the quality of service would go up.

One thing you can do is to start thinking their is a feedback system out there and start giving exceptional service. If you think about it there is a feedback system out there it’s just not published online. But believe me if you give bad service that person will let everyone they know.

In the end providing good service will result in more business; just like on eBay.

Don’t fall into the trap of dropping your prices and get involved in the price war game. That’s dealing with a client you don’t want or need.

Not everyone is looking for the lowest price; there are consumers who look for good service. Let’s face it cheap prices means poor service. The consumer who only shops on price alone is a one time person who will suck the life out of you..

Although times are tough, don’t lose your focus; keep your service high and don’t lower your prices and when the good days return you will still be around.

Imagine not having a website for you business and you only have a shot at selling to 20% of the consumers looking for your product or service. That’s a fast way of going out of business.

All of a sudden the cost of a website looks pretty cheap. There are a lot of things to think about when getting a website for you business. Below is a list of things you should look for:

1. Has the company that you are thinking about using been around for a while?

2. Is the company that is designing your site a full time business?

3. Does your website company offer marketing services and do they create their site up to website marketing standards?

4. Is the website company going to be hosting your website?

5. Does the website company have the ability to do website updates as needed?

6. Look at the website companies portfolio, do you like the quality of their work?

It’s not enough to just have a website for your business. You should have a solid professionally designed site that portrays your business as a leader in your industry.

Blogging is fun and very addictive and if you love what you are writing about it’s very easy to do. With a good blogging platform and an interesting subject you will have lots of traffic to your blog in a very short period of time.

A blog is nothing more than an interactive website. Anyone can blog and there are tons of people out there looking for good information.

Here is a list of some great blogging topics:

1. Gardening
2. Parenting
3. Scrapbooking
4. Yoga
5. Weight lifting
6. Ebaying
7. Coin collecting
8. Books
9. Art
10. Wine
11. Cooking
12. How to
13. Organizing
14. Sports
15. Family
16. Home improvements
17. Pets
18. Cars
19. Model cars
20. Comic books

There are thousands of topics you can create a blog around. So think about things you are interested in and become an expert by blogging.

Remember when you were having the big weekend sale and the only way to advertise it was to run a coupon in the newspaper?

Remember when the only way to get national exposure for your business was to advertise on TV?

Boy how times have changed. The Internet is by far the greatest technological breakthrough of our generation. Small businesses have such a great advantage today than they did years ago. The question today is “are you taking advantage of the marketing tools available today to help grow your business”?

For instance are you:

1. Using social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn?

2. Have you implemented Twitter as a business tool?

3. Do run ads on CraigsList?

4. If sell products; are you selling on eBay or Amazon?

5. Do you have a website?

6. Do you advertise using Google Adwords?

7. Have you implemented an email marketing campaign?

8. Do you visit fourms and message boards that cater to your industry?

Start using some of these tools and you will see success in your online marketing efforts.