OK, so I understand the point of offering your visitors a trial - you make them an offer to your membership site at a discounted rate.  Maybe they try you out when they would not have.  You get them to try your service, load them with value in hopes of keeping them on at the full rate afterwards.

BUT, be carefull in how you run your show…

A couple of months ago, I got an offer from Derek Gehl at The Internet Marketing Center.  The offer was for a $2.95, 21 day trial to his new Search Marketing Lab.  OK, let's try it out.  So I sign up. It was new, I check it out, didn't feel there was much value.  I forget about it.  Now, i just realized that my credit card has been billed $27 for a monthly subscription.  I contact them to get it figured out (I never logged in again).  In the meantime, since that first charge, there has already been another.  I ask for a refund.

Well, they were fine to cancel my subscription and so on but when it came to the refund, here is what they wrote:

Jonathan,

 You were charged for 2 months – and no there were no refunds as you were outside the refund guarantee.

 Thank you and have a great day.

That's it, sorry, too bad, see you later.

Now, it would have been nice to get a note from them at the end of my trial to let me know my card was to be charged (but, no).  They should have sent me a receipt for payments made (but nothing).  At the very least, they could have forwarded me my login details and offered to refund me the last payment.  But a little note saying, "sorry, it sucks to be you" is no way to run a business.

I actually was going to join a more expensive program of theirs but have lost all respect for the way they run their operation and am no longer considering doing anything with them.

Remember that even though you are online, it doesn't mean you have to be more impersonal.  Your clients are still people and should be treated as such.  Run your business with dignity and respect, build relationships that are real - not just you emailing out to your list.  It is worth it.

Your USP is your Unique Selling Proposition.

This is the identity that you create that sets you apart from your competitors in your marketplace.  This is the answer to the question in your customer's minds "why should I do business here?".

One thing that you have to remember though, as you develop your USP, is that you need to make sure that your USP addresses a concern that actually exists in your marketplace.

If your USP boasts something about your business that you think is important to you but none of your customers find important, then you have missed the mark.  If you have a Pizza shop and you are bragging about how fast you can deliver the pizzas but most of your customers are walk-in customers and they actually come there because of the taste of your pizza, then you have missed the mark.  You are promoting a feature of your business that is not relevant to your customers.

As you set up your USP, make sure that you not only identify and address important features or benefits, make sure that they are the features and benefits that your marketplace is actually looking for.

Do you use PayPal to process your customer's payments? If not, you are one of the few people left on the planet who aren't taking advantage of this wonderful resource.

PayPal's multi-million client base is growing at the extraordinary rate of 28,000 new accounts daily, and their payment processing system is sheer perfection. Still, you may wonder why you should use PayPal to process your payments. What's in it for you? It's a fair question, and you deserve some good answers.

Versatility and Ease
PayPal is the most widely accepted payment system in the world. At the time of this writing, it is available in 38 countries, and the company has plans to continue expanding its services around the globe. That means you can do business on a global scale and get paid the same day.

The user-friendly interface makes it a breeze to sign up for a free consumer account, which allows the sending, receiving and requesting of payments. It's free and easy for all those happy potential customers to buy from you and pay you immediately for your product or service.

Upgraded PayPal accounts can even accept credit card payments without having to sign up for merchant accounts with credit card companies. Being able to accept cash or credit card payments opens you up to a wider client base.

Speed and Security
Using PayPal is a dream for buyers and sellers alike. Their checkout system allows for a quick and seamless online transaction that simply processes a payment with the click of a button. Your customers can even pay you from their mobile phone rather than waiting until they get home to their computer. No more waiting for a cheque in the mail. That alone is a good reason why you should use PayPal to process your payments.

Although much of the world now has at least some idea of how to stay safe online, many people are still nervous about the security risk of making purchases. PayPal's payment processing takes that worry away with their aggressive security measures. They use only secured servers and information is encrypted. No one ever sees the consumer's financial data, not even the person or company receiving payment. Customers can relax and feel safe using PayPal to complete a transaction with you, as their details cannot be stolen.

If a consumer has dealt with a verified seller and feels there is an issue with that seller, PayPal will step in and investigate. Their account holders are offered buyer protection and Safeweb Insurance. This is another feature that helps you to establish trust with clients, especially if they have never dealt with you before.

There are so many incredible reasons why you should use PayPal to process your payments. The ease, versatility, speed and security all make for smooth transactions that will leave both you and your customer happy.

Automate your digital product delivery and increase the security of your downloads with a unique piece of software at www.minisite-sales-system.com 

If you don't even know what I am talking about, don't worry, I'll explain…

If you do know what article marketing is, then you are likely already using this technique to generate traffic and links to your site.

Basically, in a nutshell, article marketing is where you utilize the power of article directories to generate links to your site. What you do is simply write articles about the niche that your products or services are in. You might write some "how to" articles, you might write some articles about "why" certain ideas or products are better than others. Once you start thinking about it, the information that you already possess about your given niche or topic can fill a lot of articles. You only need to write articles that are about 500 - 600 words long.

How do these articles help you?

Well, quite simply, if you could get other websites, newsletters or e-zines to publish your written work, you could become an "expert" in your field or niche, couldn't you? Isn't that what makes an "expert" an "expert" - other people listen to and quote what they say.

If you write interesting and informative articles, then more people are apt to read them and in turn, use your articles as content. See, the thing that I haven't told you yet is the bonus… any time you submit an article to a directory, they allow you to have what is called a "resource box". This is a paragraph at the bottom of the article where you, quite simply, tell a bit about yourself - or your company, product or service. Most often, they will allow you to have a link in your resource box that directs back to your own website. So now, as publishers pick up and use your article, you are getting all of these links back to your website. Better still, the links are on the same page as the topic of your niche and very relevant to the content in your website. Now you should start to see the power of this activity.

You publish an article relevant to your niche, people read it, use it and you get a link back to your website.

So, that is great, how do I publish my articles?

Well, one option is to go to some of the article directories and submit your articles by hand one at a time. Certainly this can be done but it is very time consuming, wasting time that could be better spent writing more articles. What I would recommend is to use an article submission service and let them submit your article all over the web. They have lists of article directories that would take you a very long time to even come up with, forget submitting to each of them.

Better yet, read through this free little book called "The 4 Ridiculously Simple Keys to Online Success" that will bring you up to speed.

There is a funny mindset amongst some internet entrepreneurs and marketers that things online should be free. And this affects their businesses. Many people are drawn to the notion of free traffic to your website. Now, there are a few ways of get "organic" or "search" traffic and certainly it is nice when it happens but how does this come into play in a business model?

There are a few built-in downsides to the idea of free traffic. One is that it normally takes some time to build up. SEO or Search Engine Optimization can take months to produce results. First you have to put up your site, make changes, wait for results and repeat. Sounds easy enough but the search engines take time to produce the results and this whole process could take 3-6 months. Now depending on the purpose of your website, this might be acceptable, but if you are running a real business, you are sitting there loosing potential revenue as you wait around for your "free" traffic.

Let's compare that to paid traffic. Now understand that there are a number of sources of paid traffic available. You could buy advertising through Google Adwords on a Pay Per Click (PPC) basis, you can buy advertising on blogs or a lot of sites that get a good volume of traffic. Often these are based on the number of visitors such a site receives. You can buy advertising in online newsletters or ezines and so on. But, there are some distinct advantages to paid advertising.

First, you are in control of it. You can turn it on and off at will. Flip the switch (start paying for ads) and traffic comes in. Turn off the switch (pull the ads) and traffic stops. When you are ready to handle more sales, you turn up the volume of ads going out. No problem. When you are relying on free traffic, it can be unpredictable and not the best business model.

Secondly, with paid advertising, you can track your ads very easily. You know which ad or publication someone come to you from, you can get a good idea of what they searched for and what is going to interest them. This knowledge can help you build a better product or service because you can learn to target your customer better. When you are running a proper business, this information is very valuable to you because the better you can tailor your product or service to your customer, the more effectively you can market it.

I guess the biggest problem that people have is that they don't have a good plan or do proper testing before they get started. See, if you have a product or service that sells for X dollars, you need to know how much money you can spend to acquire a sale for it. Then you need to look over your conversion rates and how to improve them. See, a lot of people think that more traffic can solve their problem and boost sales. Well it can. But a more compelling offer and a better converting site can do it faster and cheaper. If you start at the beginning of the sales process and increase the conversions from surfers to clickers, from ad views to sales letter reads, from sales letter reads to sales, if each of these steps is slightly improved, then you start to see an exponential growth in sales for the same amount of traffic or the same number of visitors.

Once your site or sales letter converts traffic to dollars like a well-oiled machine, then turn up the traffic. Now you can go and pay for ads to get the word out. And when people find you online through an organic search, that is a bonus. But don't waste your time sitting there waiting for it.

Well for some of us blogging is just about passing time and writing something on a webpage that is of interest to us. Most of us use blogs as a tool for self expression, to make new friends or discuss any issue. But is this all that blogging is about? Well there’s much more that a blog can do for you. A blog can help to increase your sales and improve your relationship with your clients tremendously, which ultimately again leads to massive increase in sales and profits.So how does it help in improving your brand value, sales, product quality and client-company relationship? Well we’ll share it with you here. Blogs are great marketing tools and when used effectively can attract a lot of potential customers.

Imagine you are running a small fashion house and you have developed some new designs that you are not sure whether people are going to like them or not. What do you do? You’ll go and show them to some of your closest friends but not many people for the fear of word spreading out that you have produced such and such designs. But with blogs there’s a way out. You can put snaps of some of those designs on a blog and then invite people from different walks of life to check them out and give feedbacks on the designs. Such people can be easily found at the various fashion and clothing related online forums. You don’t even have to reveal your name or company’s name till you feel comfortable. This is one of the best ways to get the most genuine feedbacks about your products.

Blogs also offer a great way to improve your product quality. A certain Swiss lock-maker found that their sales were on a constant decline despite increasing demand and was desperate to know what was wrong with his latest designs. The lock-maker started a blog where he informed people about the high quality of metal used and the latest technology that he was using in manufacturing the locks. People accepted everything but everyone on the blog left a feedback which shocked the lock-maker and brought to light real cause of plummeting sales, the key to the lock. The key being supplied with the new locks way too small for comfort and often got bent after a few months of regular use. The company immediately changed the key specs and all the faulty locks and ensured that its reputation was kept intact.

Blogs are a great way to also improve relationship with your clients and also to make sure that they remain loyal to your brand. Blogs are a great way to also tell people what all they can do with your product. Several small software firms do that because often people don’t realize what all functionalities that they offer with their products. A lot of mobile phone companies blog to inform people about what all their mobile phones can do and what all features people are looking forward to.

Most of the products that are designed in today’s world are designed based on client requirement or based on what a group of people in the society need. So it is imperative to know what they want if you want your company to make handsome profits.

Blogs can also be used for advertising too and therefore you can earn money or promote some other business of yours or a relative’s or a friend’s through your own blog. Blogging has truly come a long way since its inception and has become more than just a bare necessity for individuals and business.