Here’s a checklist to make sure that your MySpace page is optimized to generate leads for you.

They all center around one huge rule: You must bring the business conversation away from MySpace. As long as you are on MySpace, you have to play by its members’ rules.

1. The first thing you must have is a form to get your visitors email addresses. You will increase your sign-up five-fold if you give them some sort of incentive to give their email address. Promote this by posting bulletins.
2. Syndication code. MySpace users are Web savvy. They know how to edit basic html and add it to their MySpace page. You want to have a pre-made banner ad with a link to your Web site and supply the html code so that if one of your MySpace friends wants to post your ad on his/her page, doing so is very easy.
3. There must be an obvious link to your Web site.
4. A reason to come back. Have fun on that one.

Here’s a little wisdom so you don’t have to learn the hard way. The most important advice I can give you is to never send unsolicited messages to other MySpace users.

marketingprofs.com

All too often companies spend a lot of time and money developing their logo and the graphic look and feel of their promotional materials - important aspects of effective marketing - while giving only cursory consideration to their marketing message - an equally important component to successfully promoting your business. Development of your marketing message should be given at least equal time as development of the graphic elements or what is commonly referred to as the “look and feel”.

Here is a six step process that will help assure your marketing message will sell.

1. Capture the attention of your target market with a headline that clearly defines who you are talking to.
2. Identify the problems, symptoms, issues, needs and wants of your target market.
3. Provide a brief description of the product.
4. Describe the benefit and the value that the customer will derive from purchasing your product or service.
5. Give your message credibility.
6. Specifically state the action you want the recipient of your message to take.

Follow these six simple steps and you’ll have a marketing message that sells. And the great thing about investing in development of your marketing message - just like your logo - you will be able to - and you will want to - use it in all your promotional materials from your 30 second introduction to your website.

businessknowhow.com

With all the talk about the best ways to build backlinks, getting recognized by other bloggers, and “tips & tricks�? for promoting your own blog, it’s easy to forget about one of the simplest and most effective ways of marketing yourself: being friendly.

1. Introduce Yourself & Your Blog.
2. Make Friends via MyBlogLog.
3. Pay it Forward.

People spend so much time trying to learn how to game the system, write the best linkbait, and come up with automated methods for promotion, that they tend to ignore the basic strategy of networking. Be friendly to your fellow bloggers and they’ll be friendly to you.

Net Business Blog

Shara Karasic, Community Manager of Work.com, will provide the inside view on how to use work.com as a valuable source of insight for your business — and also the ins and outs of how to use the site to increase visibility for your own business online.

Here is a sampling of some of the benefits of using Work.com:

• By contributing to the large database of 1,300 how-to business guides and developing your own guide, you become published and viewed as an expert in your field.
• Work.com guides become indexed by the search engines providing additional visibility. Keyword research as well as using the proper terms related to your topic will benefit the visibility of your guide within the search engines.
• Your guide may bring additional contacts and networking sources to your doorstep, as well as supplement your marketing efforts. You can begin by emailing your guide to clients and colleagues, linking it to any web sites you may have, and including it in your bio.

smallbiztrends.com

Things Scam Companies Don’t Want You To Think About

My editor, Owen Thomas, recently passed along to me an email that had found its way to his inbox about a stock called Xethanol (XNL), suggesting that I might be interested in looking into it. The email claimed that Xethanol was attempting to defraud investors. I wasn’t too familiar with the company, but I knew it produced ethanol and was often mentioned alongside companies like Verasun (VSE) and US BioEnergy (USBE). That was enough to spark my interest, and a quick search of the company name along with the word ’scam’ came up with this Sharesleuth article.

Read the article at Business2.0

Business 2.0 Magazine looks at scrappy entrepreneurs who are squeezing big money out of websites that tap into the latest news, trends, and search fads.

When word of a whites-only scholarship at Boston University hit the media last fall–drawing coverage from bloggers and biggies like ABC alike–Daniel Kovach smelled opportunity. His goal: to boost traffic to the website he runs, Scholarships Around the US. So he paid a writer to crank out “The White Man’s Guide to Getting a Minority Scholarship,” which reveals that some schools do offer scholarships to “nonblack” students–and added it to the mix.

Then Kovach planted a link to the article on recommendation site Digg, where it jumped to the coveted front page. That, in turn, led other sites to link to the article. And Kovach landed a top search ranking on Google for phrases like “white man scholarship.” Read the rest of this entry »

A word of advice for companies thinking about forming a business alliance: Before launching any partnership, make sure both parties agree on how you’ll know, and what you’ll do, when it’s over.

An exit-plan must clearly specify the point of disengagement, tells both parties what their subsequent rights and responsibilities are, and provides a clear and effective procedural map that minimizes time and capital losses. A successful disengagement plan should comprise the following:

1. Clear definitions of what both parties will consider as exit triggers, or events that will set off specific exit provisions.
2. A detailed description of each party’s rights in a fair separation of the partnership’s assets and products, as well as a determination of rights and responsibilities
3. with regard to third parties, such as customers, suppliers and employees of the alliance.
4. A detailed description of the disengagement process, including specific strategic options, guidelines for creating the core disengagement team, and clear timelines.
5. A communication plan for continuous flow of information to alliance partners, customers, suppliers and other involved parties during the dissolution.

Maintaining transparency with partners, customers, employees and even rivals helps to manage the impact of news about the breakup on financial markets; it also helps maintain morale at the alliance, and helps to preserve any value that remains in the alliance. Lack of transparency leads parties to focus on protecting their own interests without regard for those of the partner, and eventually causes things to implode.

startupjournal.com