Keep your consultancy fee low

In the beginning do not ask for premium price. Keep it low and competitive. Since you are catching up with the market and wish to change the way people look up to interior decoration service, keep your consultancy charge as low as possible.

Offer free advices for a day

Initially to attract people with the exuberance of your skill, you can give some free advices as a free sample. You may run offers all across magazines, newspapers, television saying your interior decoration experts will be visiting individual houses to provide free advice and guidance regarding their houses. You may offer free service only for a specific room within the house. This way you will soon gain popularity and become a household name for all. For further help people will remember of you and recommend your name to others.

Start networking on Facebook

A recent social networking rage – Facebook is a phenomenal way to get popular overnight. Build a fan page of your company. Your only mission is to have as many fans as possible and maximum numbers of ‘like’s and ‘comment’s against your posts. Now start getting active here. Frequently update status. You can post some questions, advices, achievements, contests, tips, pictures of beautiful decors done by your company and videos, pictures of fans, testimonials etc. Start running weekly contests, asking people to share or comment or reply to questions where you may give free goodies to winners. It will keep the attention of your fans really high and your company will reap fast growth of followers.

Always show ‘before’ and ‘after’ state

Whenever you wish to convince your audience with the caliber of your company, always display your work. People will realize worth of your work only when you compare the result with what it was before. So display the ‘before’ and ‘after’ picture side by side. It will convince the audience about your skills.

This is the month where Twitter has witnessed a negative growth of 9.4% on its September number which was 28.3 million. If we see year-on-year growth of other two social networking giants LinkedIn and MySpace than we will see a similar decline in the number of unique visitors. MySpace has recorded a negative growth of 20.5%, and it has fallen from 73 million unique visitors to 58 million, and LinkedIn has recorded a 4.7% negative growth, taking its tally from 14.6 million unique visitors to 13.8 million uniques.

Why I think Facebook is killing others?

We all have a finite 24 hours in a day, which we distribute (unevenly) on the works we do, and we have only so much time for social sites or Internet surfing. Seeing the average time spent by users on Facebook, which is in excess of 40 minutes a day, I think, people hardly get time left for other social networks.

Not only that, our habit of unevenly spreading time, also leaves us wanting for more time, which for many could mean cutting back on time spent on the Internet. And as people are more or less addicted to Facebook, time spent on other social sites drops down, which in the long term means, pulling out of these websites.

How they can survive?

For social networks like LinkedIn and twitter, which are not direct competitors of Facebook, developing a Facebook application could be a way, or may be not.

In a study conducted by comScore MobiLens, it was found that 63.1% of the US mobile users aged 13 or more uses texting to communicate with their friends in December 2009. It was a 2.1% rise against the September 2009 data, where it was found that 61% 13+ mobile users in the United States use texting.

The second most used mobile feature was mobile browser, and on the third rung were mobile games. Music featured on 6th place below download apps and social networking. (See image for complete data)

It all started small, but soon it became a force to reckon with, and then online marketing became “the thing” for business. Every new finding, new idea, new invention, and new way of doing things is significantly affecting the nature of online marketing. At present, a marketer uses the following tools to promote one’s business on the Internet.

Various tools of online marketing

• Text Ads
• Banner Ads
• E-mail marketing
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Pay Per Click advertising (PPC)/ Cost Per Click advertising (CPC)
• Pay Per View advertising (PPV)
• Cost Per Action (CPA)
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Lead generation
  • Sponsored blog posts
  • Sponsored forum posts
  • Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking pages
  • Digg, StumbleUpon, Reditt, and other social bookmarking tools
  • Yahoo, Google, MySpace, and other groups
  • Blog directories
  • Website directories
  • Article marketing
  • Video marketing
  • Press release submission

As you can see, marketers are spoiled by choices, which at times are good, but most of the times are not. At least, I feel so. I believe in the school of thought that says too many choices cripple the decision. But at the same time if these tools are put judiciously to use, one can get amazing results. I have shown you both side of the story, the decision is yours which one to use and which not to. If you feel you can handle all then use all.

Now internet advertising consists of making a social networking presence.  You need to have a blog, Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter account, to really make your company known.  So first things first, set up a company blog.  This will be a resource to write about the goings on with your corporation, and provide insightful social commentary on culturally relevant news.  So you want a decent writer who can write regular, engaging content.

Now you need Myspace and Facebook accounts.  Both are essentially the same, just with minor differences.  Keep the page professional, and a resource to sell products and ideas as well as provide news.  Myspace has been in decline, so that doesn’t have to be as big of a priority.  But at the moment Facebook has been holding strong, and could end up being a great interface with your customers.  Listen to them, and communicate with them.  This way you can learn what selling tactics will work, and what your customers expect from you.

Finally, the Twitter account.  This will probably be the most important, because here is where the most people are going to turn for news and information regarding your company.  Linking a blog with your Twitter and Facebook accounts will create a wealth of resources to contact your customer base, and do your own free research into what they expect.  You grow name recognition, and also get a great customer data tool, all rolled into a few easy to use websites.

Well, being as active as possible is a start.  Having no internet identity can be just as bad as having a negative one.  Employers want to see positive extra curricular activity, and work history.  These are cues to what sort of employee you are, so make sure an interviewer can easily find them.  Be active in professional forums, maintain a personal blog, and keep a professionally oriented social networking page.

Make sure that everything you put out there puts you into a positive light.  Anything you want an employer to see needs to be about creativity, positive, and showcasing commitment and hard work.  Don’t bash old employers and bosses, because that’s a big turn off to anybody interested in you.  In fact, don’t bash anybody, or have anything negative on a page that’s intended to be professional, because it will only show you in a bad light.

But don’t forget, what you put out there is only half the battle.  You need to search your name to see what other people are putting out in relation to your name.  Do a search, see if anything comes up from past employers, or if anything you wouldn’t want a potential employer to see pops up.  Takes steps to correct these, or have them removed from search engines if you’re uncomfortable with the material.  Most of the time places like Google are more than willing to work with you, so long as you’re polite and patient.

But to get business contacts, first you have to find them.  A business contact can be remarkably useful down the line in your career.  These relationships are great because they are mutually beneficial.  Think about your skill set and what you could offer to help someone else.  From anything like advice, to career prospect options, what do you have to give?

How much you can commit to providing will dictate what sort of business relationship you can form.  As business contacts are a two way street, you have to have something to bring to the table.  Try using websites like LinkedIn.  They are social networking resources for professionals and can be a good start for anybody.

Make sure you have business cards with you all the time.  Whenever you’re in the appropriate scenario, like a work related conference or event, they will be very useful.  Meeting people is great at the moment, but you need a way to keep in contact beyond.  A business card is the fastest and easiest way to do just that.  Not to mention it’s the most professional route.  Professionalism always gets you bonus points.

Remember to keep your ears open all the time.  Pay attention in the break rooms, and when you’re eating lunch.  You could find a great new business contact in a different department.  Somebody you were completely unaware of, and someone you could benefit from.

From there it’s as simple as maintaining the relationship.  If you want to be able to get trusted information from them, you have to provide the same.  Don’t hesitate to inform them of news around the company.  From job openings, etc.  Let them know what’s going on around you, and the opportunities available, and they will do the same.

Well first off, make sure you know why you should be networking.  Most jobs that are available on the market aren’t even advertised.  In fact, some of the best jobs out there are never even advertised before they are filled.  By making a name for yourself, and connecting to as many people as possible, you create more chances to find out about these opportunities.  Whether through connecting with someone whose company is hiring, or finding out through a friend that’s applying with the same company.

To network effectively, it’s as simple as making the effort to find professional relationships.  Career related seminars or conferences are a great way to get yourself out there.  The same goes for websites that feature social networking for professionals.  Resources like LinkedIn should be taken advantage of, as they are decent resources for making fast friends.

Beyond that it’s easy to make the little connections.  If you have children, try to talk with the other parents around you at school related events, or extra curricular activities.  You may find someone on the same career path, and that friendship could pay off in the long run.

Just remember to return all the favors you receive.  Networking is a two way street, it’s not about meeting people to benefit yourself, and then forgetting about them.  To make strong professional bonds you have to help, as well as take the help they are willing to give.  Tip them in to opportunities at your company, or openings you know of around you.  That’s the only way to network effectively, and keep yourself in a positive light with those around you.

What the Internet means to us depends upon our usage pattern and our behavior. For some people Internet represents freedom, while for others it represents opportunity, another group sees it as an enabler and others think of it as a leveler. With the tools like, blogs, forums, freelance exchanges, social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, and for some the Internet means a medium where you can buy or sell products. The Internet is not one but all of the above mentioned things.

E-commerce: what it is?

In this article let’s focus only on the buying and selling capability provided by of this medium, which is normally referred to as electronic commerce, e-commerce.

In the layman’s language, e-commerce is any commercial activity conducted over the Internet. E-commerce can either be business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C), consumer to business (C2B) or consumer to consumer (C2C), but the central tenet of e-commerce has always been exchange, and by exchange I mean any exchange of financial nature.

Let’s try to explain this with an example, suppose someone goes to the website of HP computers, and after going through the options available, he finalizes one model to purchase, but instead of buying the PC from HP computer’s online store, he goes to an authorized store in his locality to make the purchase. Will this transaction qualify to be called e-commerce transaction? Well, they answer to this question lies between the two extremes of yes and no. It can qualify as an e-commerce transaction as the buyer comes online and does everything except making a payment; instead, he goes offline to finish the process. But in the strictest sense of the term, it will not qualify as e-commerce. It will merely be an information exchange not a financial exchange. To be on the safer side, let’s say, if there is no financial transaction, we cannot call it an e-commerce activity.

E-commerce Life Cycle

The life cycle of e-commerce followed the same curve as did the development of any market. In the beginning it was just one homogeneous market, one e-commerce website selling everything, just like a superstore; but slowly the scene started to change and more and more niche e-commerce websites started cropping up. These web sites are like specialty stores of our locality that deals with just one kind of product.

osCommerce: coming of age

Over the year, the e-commerce scenario started to change and soon more and more niche product sellers were found joining the party, but everyone couldn’t afford to have a full-time programmer and a database designer to make an e-commerce website for him or her, thus a need for a ready to deploy e-commerce solution was building up. This need was addressed by ready-to-deploy open source e-commerce solutions but it was not until the development of osCommerce that this need was completely satisfied.

osCommerce is an open source e-commerce solution and due to its open source nature, there are contributors who work day and night to make this platform more robust and stable. Unlike paid employees of big corporate houses, these geeks are motivated by their passion; hence what comes out is a world calls e-commerce solution.

In its 8 years of existence, osCommerce has built more than 14,100 websites. osCommerce has a strong community of 207,200 store owners and developers who help each other in the time of need. osCommerce has more than 5300 add-ons, these add-ons provides scalability to the platform.

If you wish to start an e-commerce website, use osCommerce, it has the strongest support team (207,200 ready-to-help community forum members), matching which is practically impossible for any one group of developers.