Five ways to attract new people to your business that cost next to nothing

Five ways to attract new people to your business that cost next to nothing to use – The power of Five System:

• Person to Person invite – Personal referrals are the most powerful way to attract a new person. People want to connect with people, not products or services. Make a connection by inviting the person out for coffee or someplace social before you begin to speak about your product or business.
• Social Networking – Use the power of online social networks to attract new people. You are searching for a variety of new prospects that have like interests. Avoid focusing on one group and avoid only attempting to attract other people already in your industry.
• Blogging/forums/Email – Attract people to you by sharing your message. It doesn’t matter what you write as long as it is entertaining and engaging. Placing an advertisement on a blog site is not blogging. Express yourself.
• Conference Calls/Live Events – Put the power of having partners to work for you in building your business. Information coming from other people also involved in your business builds credibility for your business.
• Fishbowl Leads - Use a plastic fish bowl or other container to collect business card leads at restaurants, health clubs, and stores. Offer some form of monthly prize like a free lunch from the establishment or a special discount. Offer to share the leads and split the cost of the monthly prize for an inexpensive or free-of-charge lead opportunity.

The Power of Five System demonstrates ways to turn a network of five people into a substantial monthly income. The system was designed by Michael Zimmer who is a business and marketing consultant with over 20 years experience. For more information about The Power of Five System he can be contacted directly at mjzimmer@takingmeglobal.com.

Just building it is just a beginning…

So you want to do business online? Your page is published, tags are in place for the search engines and now all you have to do is sit back and wait for the profits to roll in - Right?

Wrong. If you wait for that to happen you will be out of business before you began. Somehow you need to drive people to your site. The best way is promotion. You need to go out and tell people about your site. I am not talking about getting off your couch and missing the next segment of American Idol, ha-ha-ha. I am talking about getting online and inviting people to check out what you have to offer.

Back in the late 90’s when the internet boom was just beginning companies like Amazon and eBay used traditional advertising channels: TV, Radio, Billboards, Magazines, etc. They quickly found out that while this was a way to drive traffic to their site, it cost them more per lead than they were able to generate in profits. Shortly after that many internet companies filed for bankruptcy as investors cut off funding because they could not see a future in this business model. This is when these same companies, who are giants today reinvented their marketing and this is one of the ways we use today to generate traffic and make sales.

What they did is the same thing you can do – online promotion. It costs next to nothing, does not require a marketing degree, and can be done while you sleep with the right tools.

Here are a few ways companies use to market online:
- Email Auto-responders – They regularly hit their customer base with something new and different by email.
- Search Engine Placement – Using tools like Google Adwords they can move their listing to the top of the search. Companies like eBay and Amazon who offer just about everything for sale use these tools to place a listing near the top for just about anything you are looking for online.
- Affiliate Marketing – Affiliates are people who direct traffic to the site through links or emails and the company shares in the profit when a customer purchased as a result of the link.

We use some of these but they cost money. Since you do not have to pay someone to market your products online you can add these to your ways to direct traffic to your site and they are free:

- Social Networks – Create a page on a social network and invite people to look at your page.
- Forums – join forums and groups of interest and make sure your posts and profile contains your website link.
- Blogs – Like this one where you can express yourself and also promote your site through links.
- Affiliates – Sharing the profit is a good thing. Giving someone a percentage of the profit for sending someone to your site to purchase is great word of mouth advertising.

Most important never stop inviting people to look at your material. Ask them to subscribe to something that allows you to keep in contact with them. We will cover tips on how to keep them interested without driving them away in another blog.