Podcasting, when done for the right audience, can create a powerful two-way bond between host and listener. Unfortunately, podcasting isn’t for every website. Read on to learn more about which websites are most suited for podcasting.

Start with an Audience

Podcasting as a marketing tool is a bit of a misconception. Podcasting is just not great for generating new traffic, especially in the beginning. On the other hand, podcasting is a very effective way of delivering new, regular content to a loyal base of listeners. If you already have a bit of an audience and want to strengthen your bond with them, then podcasting is a great way to go about it. If you are trying to build a new audience from scratch, then you might want to approach it from another angle.

Are They Tech Savvy?

In order for someone to subscribe to your podcast, they first have to know what a podcast actually is, as well as how to subscribe to and download a podcast. It might seem simple to you, but that is actually beyond the technical knowledge of a lot of people. If you’re creating a podcast on the best way to plan for retirement after fifty, you probably shouldn’t use a podcast.

How Much Time Can You Afford?

Podcasting takes a lot of time. First, you have to plan out the podcast. Then you have to record the podcast, which could involve multiple takes and/or coordinating with a co-host. Then you have to edit the podcast, which takes at least twice as long as the actual podcast itself. Finally, you need to upload the podcast, make sure everything went up properly, and then promote the podcast.

Before you start a podcast, realize that it is a long-term time commitment. Assume that you will need to spend at least five hours a week for the next year to keep your podcast up and running smoothly. If and only if you are willing to make that commitment should you start a new podcast.

Blogs Work Best

Podcasts work best on RSS feeds. While it is possible to run a non-blog website and still use a podcast, it becomes a lot more unwieldy. If you run a blog, all you need to do is post a link to your podcast on your blog and the RSS feed will pick up. It will then proceed to send the podcast to all your subscribers. On the other hand, with a non-blog site, you will have to create a separate blog just so you can create an RSS feed.

These are a few considerations before starting your podcast. First determine if it is right for your audience based on existing traffic and whether they are tech savvy, then figure out if it is right for you based on time commitments.

Customer surveys are a powerful way to get into the minds of your customers and really figure out what they want and what makes them tick. It can give you information on how you’re doing currently, as well as what your customers want in the future.

Here’s how to create a customer survey that will give you meaningful results with the least amount of effort on your customer’s part.

Start by Defining What You Want to Learn

What specific piece of data do you want to obtain by conducting this customer survey? Simply saying “We want to get to know our customers better” is not a good answer. Surveys without a clear goal in mind tend to be far too long and untargeted. Instead, have a clear question or direction for the survey. For example:

* How is our current service? What are we doing right and what are we doing wrong?
* What do customers want in our current product? What will they want five years from now?
* Who is our demographic?

Once you have a specific line of questioning or specific question you want to answer, and then start building your survey.

Creating the Survey

When you’re creating the survey, make it as short as you possibly can while still getting the data you want. That way you will have more people actually complete the survey, and you won’t bore your customers.

Some options for what kinds of questions to have in your survey include: Multiple choice answers, rating 1-10 scales, true/false questions, strongly agree/strongly disagree scales, and open-ended answers. Generally your questionnaire should be a mix of those above options. Make sure you include at least one open-ended question in your survey so your customers can freely express their thoughts.

Interpreting the Data

Make sure you have statistically significant data for each question before you deem the survey complete.

Then take your survey and start extrapolating results and what you’ve learned. Were you right about certain things and off about others? What were you surprised by? Carefully read over all the open-ended question answers. Were there common themes in the answers?

Now take everything you’ve learned and write down what your top three discoveries were. Then, use the data available to you to come up with new action plans to improve your customer experience.

One thing to note about customer surveys: If you’re conducting a survey about what customers will or will not buy, keep in mind that what someone says they would buy may not always match what they would pull their credit card out for. It’s good data to have, but having a survey saying that they would buy something is not a guarantee that the product will sell.

Design your surveys with a goal in mind. Keep them short and concise, and then use what you’ve learned to immediately create a plan and put it into action.

Most brick and mortar businesses have insurance. If you have a home-based business, whether you need insurance depends on your capacity for risk, what volume of business you are doing, and the kind of industry you are in.

As a general rule, you shouldn’t get insurance until you’re doing enough business that a fire or a lawsuit could cause serious damage. Also keep in mind that your home insurance policy generally does not cover your home-based business.

Here we will go over some of the most important types of insurance and who they apply to.

Property Insurance

This is most important for businesses that have a lot of physical components. For example, if you’re running an eBay store from home and have $50,000 worth of inventory in your garage at any given time, it may very well be worth it to get coverage for your property. This type of insurance basically covers you against physical loss in the event of a fire, flood, earthquake, etc. It may or may not include theft, depending on your policy.

Malpractice, Errors, Omissions

This type of insurance is primarily for professionals who could be accused of doing something wrong. For example, if you are running an insurance advisory website from home, you could be accused of giving poor advice. If you have this type of insurance, your legal bill and possibly even settlement will be covered. This type of insurance can also apply to people doing physical services, for example a tattoo artist. If you do a tattoo and it doesn’t look the way the customer wanted it, they got injured or for whatever reason decided to sue you, this type of insurance would also cover it.

Loss of Revenue Insurance

Finally, you can get insurance to cover your loss of revenue in the case of a disaster. Other types of insurance would cover your property, but not your lost revenue. If you have this type of insurance and your business gets hit with a fire, you’ll continue to get paid what you were earning each month for a certain period of time. It can be considered the equivalent of unemployment for home-based businesses, until you recover.

Should you get insurance for your home-based business? If you’re doing enough volume that a natural disaster would be very costly, or if you’re in a business where a lawsuit is a possibility, then it may well be a good investment.

Do some shopping. Compare at least three different companies and policies to determine how much it would cost. If you feel the investment is worth it based on how much risk it would mitigate, then get yourself a policy.

ClickBank is a great resource for affiliate marketers. It’s packed with great selling products that fit just about any niche. And you can choose from a variety of products to represent. They range from e-books to online courses and videos. If it can be downloaded online, it can be sold on ClickBank.

With ClickBank you earn commission right away. They also offer useful tracking and reporting functions so you can analyze your efforts and your success.

So how do you promote ClickBank products? How do you succeed as a ClickBank affiliate?

Build a Niche Website or Blog

Consider building a theme-based website. Choose a topic that you love and are passionate about. Or choose a topic that supports a top-selling ClickBank product. Create lots of content on that topic and use the content to promote your ClickBank product. Content options include:

* Autoresponders
* E-newsletters
* Blogs posts
* Articles
* Press releases
* Reviews
* How to videos
* Reports
* Online courses
* E-books

Article Marketing

Another great way to earn affiliate income from ClickBank products is to utilize article marketing. When you use article marketing, you write articles topics that support your chosen ClickBank product.

For example, weight loss. If you’re promoting an e-book about weight loss, then you would write articles on the subject. In your author’s resource box, you would include your affiliate link to the e-book’s sales page. Readers will click through. They will then make a decision to buy the book. Each reader who makes a purchase earns you a commission.

Social Networking

You can also use social networking to promote affiliate products. Create a fan page or profile. Write posts that offer value and link to the ClickBank product you’re promoting. Branch out and use several social networking websites to boost your income. Of course, don’t forget to interact, too. People tend not to respond to networkers who only promote.

PPC Advertising

If you’re skilled at finding low-supply keywords, you can use PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising to promote affiliate products. The trick is to test and track so you make sure you’re earning more in commission than you’re spending in advertising. By utilizing this tactic, you don’t have to build a website. You only have to research and write great ads. Each advertisement will send prospects directly to the affiliate sales page. If they have a good conversion rate, then this method can really pay off.

The great thing about being an affiliate for ClickBank is that you can choose any method that best fits your needs.  Many ClickBank vendors offer a wealth of marketing materials. They may offer sales pages, articles and blog posts. They may even offer PPC ads. You can use these materials however you see fit.

If you want to earn extra money, try ClickBank. Being an affiliate is a great way to earn a living or add money to your pocket.

If you’ve been trying to market local businesses successfully online, we just have to share this terrific video with you:

Local Marketing Myths

I know you’ve all heard of Russell Brunson, the internet marketing
expert, but I have to say, he has really outdone himself this time
with this information-packed presentation on why seemingly savvy
marketers are going about it all wrong when it comes to marketing
local services.

Have a look here:
The Local Marketing Myth.

If you’ve been trying to start up your own business or service to help replace lost income, or add a second income stream to your career, this could be the best 20 minutes you’ve ever spent!

P.S. If the video is no longer there when you click in, it’s either
because it is so controversial it’s been taken down, or Russell has
finally realized what GOLD there is in his ideas and he is CRAZY to
give such a powerful set of tools online for free. Good luck, and enjoy!