GET FREE PUBLICITY.

That’s right.  I said free.  Now mind you, scoring free publicity for your small business will require a little bit of time and effort, but the rewards are unspeakable.

First of all, your company’s mention in a magazine or other media outlet is important because it boosts your “expert” status.   It also puts your products and services in front of a larger audience without spending a dime.  Finally, it builds on the credibility factor, as consumers are more likely to check out a product mentioned in an article as opposed to a blatant advertisement on the side of the page.

So for those that could use a little free publicity, here are a few quick ways to secure a mention in a newspaper, magazine or TV segment:

1. Sign up for HARO:  HARO stands for Help-A-Reporter Out.  For you, the small business owner, HARO is the sacred cow.  Basically, HARO is an email that gets sent out 3 times a day full of queries from journalists, editors and producers that need sources for their respective media outlets (and let me tell you, these sources are HUGE).   If your specialty, company or service fits what the query is calling for, you simply email the contact and pitch yourself.  No PR representative required.  And did I mention it’s FREE?

2. Create and Distribute Your Own Press Release:  Now, this suggestion isn’t as passive as HARO, and will require a bit of work and creativity on your part to be effective.  But if you can write a “newsworthy” press release and submit it to a few key journalists or editors that write on that particular topic, you have a decent shot of getting your work covered by the publication.

Just a few off-the-cuff tips though.   Make sure the blog, writer or producer that you are sending your press release to actually covers stories along that line or it will get tossed right in the trash.  Also, be sure to address your target by name when pitching instead of “Dear Webmaster”.  Finally, put yourself in their shoes before you send off something irrelevant.  Think “how would this information help them or their audience”.  That thought alone should help you craft a more relevant release.

And if you still feel overwhelmed with the concept of a press release and want some further instruction from a pro, download this disgustingly cheap e-course on SparkplugU by Susan Payton, the Marketing Eggspert.

3. Utilize Social Media: As I explained here, Twitter is EXTREMELY valuable in promoting your small business.  When done right, your message, products or services can get in front of thousands of people without costing a dime!  And if you’re a professional blogger and rely on traffic to generate advertising dollars, Twitter is a great way to get people coming back to your site.  In fact, Twitter is one of our largest referrers of traffic here on Sparkplugging.  But beware—if you decide to promote your business in the realm of social media, BE SOCIAL.  Shameless self promotion 24/7 will not be tolerated

4. Write “How To” and Other Informational Articles- Writing articles is another free and easy way to make yourself an expert and get in front of a larger audience on zero budget.  Sit down and think about things you know or specialize in that would be helpful to other people.  Then start writing.

Here’s a personal example of what I’m talking about.  I used to handle SEO/marketing for a personal injury law firm.   I wrote a really good article about elder abuse and things a caretaker should look for when checking a loved one into a nursing home (i.e. patient to staff ratio, waivers in the contract).  We then sent the article to a few publications and it was picked up by our local newspaper.  And one week later, that simple little article brought in a huge personal injury case to the firm and a dozen more phone calls to boot.

So take that example and apply it to your business.  Do you sell health products?  Write an article offering 5 tips for increased energy.  Do you design Wordpress blogs?  Write an article on how having customized site is essential to branding.  You get my point.  Then once it’s done, submit it to local publications, offer it as a guest post on a relevant blog or pitch it to the big guys if it’s really good.

As a final note, (and this applies to all the tips above)—the worst a person can do with your pitch is say no.  (OK, I lied—if it’s really bad, you may end up on the Bad Pitch Blog—which is not good.)  And best of all, these suggestions are free and won’t set you back anything if they don’t work.

But I encourage you to stay patient and keep trying with the free publicity outlets listed above– as it only takes *one* big break or mention to sky rocket your business to levels you’ve never dreamed of before.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons Artist Kevincole

About Amber Watson-Tardiff

Amber Watson-Tardiff is a freelance writer, virtual assisant and solopreneur.  When shes not writing or teaching people how to start their own home business, Amber can be found starting trouble here on Twitter or hanging out on her own blog, jerseymomma.com. To contact amber, email ambertardiff at gmail dot com.

Truth be told—Twitter can be great for promoting your small business.  And while proponents of social media like to say “anything goes, there really are no rules”—that’s not necessarily the case.

There are a few unspoken etiquette rules when promoting your business on Twitter and if you don’t pay attention to some of the tips mentioned below, it can cause people to ignore your friend requests or unfollow you all together.

Just remember, Twitter is a community—not advertising space.  People will accept the promotion of your business in balance.  Don’t expect to sign up for twitter, put out a few of your links and have whopping sales or clients pouring in overnight.

Seriously– not gonna happen.

But, if you work to make relationships and connect with your target audience, you’ll be on your way to getting sales or clients in no time.

And I do say this from personal experience.  As a freelance writer, all of my well paying writing gigs have come as a result of the connections I’ve made on Twitter.  Same goes for my network marketing business. While the venture is relatively new, I’ve been able to speak with prospects and sell a few products because of my connections in the space.

So without further adieu, let’s get started with some basic do’s and dont’s in promoting your business on Twitter:

• DON’T sign up for twitter and follow hundreds of people all at once.  Instead, sign up and follow people sloooowwwly (You don’t want to be mistaken for a spammer).  If a person follows me and they have one update, 500 friends and 2 followers, I just assume it’s a spammer and won’t follow.
• DO follow a manageable number of people and try to keep your followers to followee ratio relatively equal until you get the swing of things.
• DON’T make all of your updates about your company, blog or service. Instead, have REAL, friendly conversations until people get to know you as someone they can trust.  This requires you following what other people are saying and engaging in conversations that go beyond yourself or your business.
• DO post links to your latest blog entries, sales, etc.—but KEEP IT BALANCED.
• DO share (or Retweet) links to other people’s giveaways, blog entries or sales items.  By paying attention to what other people are saying, those people will be more likely to give your stuff a look when they see it come across the screen.  It’s called karma and it works.
• DON’T auto DM! Auto Dm’s are those pesky little personal messages you are probably sending out to your followers that say “Hi! Thanks for following!  Here’s the link to my site _______!”  If that’s you, STOP.  Again, get to know the people you are following before you hit them with your links.  Anything a person needs to know about you can be found on your bio line.  Keep it that way.
• DO DM someone about something that relates to THEM (again stepping outside yourself).  For example, I followed back someone today that wrote how she had 50 some followers and her husband was impressed because that was more than Jesus.  Well of course that made me laugh so I DM’ed her to say hi and that I was cracking up over her comment.  Friendly conversation in a DM is A’ok
• DON’T announce to the world how many followers you have!  I know it gets exciting when we feel like we are finally connecting to our target audience and people want to hear what we have say, but keep your numbers to yourself!
• DO use twitter to invite people in your target audience OFF the space and onto your blog.  From there you can be more promotional of your products, your services, etc.  On twitter you’ll make and foster the connections—but you’ll actually convert sales, clients, etc. on your own turf.  Keep that in mind before you spam

And to help the Twitter newbies out there, please weigh in below with the Twitter habits that annoy you the most.  By nicely telling people what NOT to do, we can have a much better experience in the world of social media.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons Artist wisleywoven

About Amber Watson-Tardiff

Amber Watson-Tardiff is a freelance writer, virtual assisant and solopreneur.  When shes not writing or teaching people how to start their own home business, Amber can be found starting trouble here on Twitter or hanging out on her own blog, jerseymomma.com. To contact amber, email ambertardiff at gmail dot com.

Well, I’ve been doing the most important thing that ANY network marketer should do, and that is trying the products for MYSELF.

Most network marketing companies give you a field test order, or a sample of their products when you sign up for your business. And while you may be eager to just get the show on the road and start making money, take the time to really use what you’ve ordered and make sure it’s something that you can get behind.

I personally am not the type of slimy saleswoman that is going to lie and say my products are delicious when they really taste like cardboard. While that may work for an initial sale, you will forever blow the potential of having repeat customers by selling a product that isn’t what it claims.

So before I told MY customers that a certain natural weight loss product tastes like cake batter, fills you up all day and produces super fast results (like I was told from a few people in the company), I needed to try it out for myself and see that it really does taste like cake and made my jeans fit awfully loose in just a little over a week.

Similarly, before I put natural, green cleaning products in the hands of people that were skeptical to give up their disinfectants and bleach, I needed to make sure they were effective in my own bathroom first (and again, I was pleasantly surprised that they worked better than all of my toxic stuff put together!).

Get my point. You shouldn’t start a business around something you don’t believe in.

However, if you do start a network marketing business and think the products are misleading or possibly lawsuit worthy, seriously make an attempt to get your money back. This is especially the case when asking people to fork up their hard earned money to start their own business under you and your venture. As you can see, this is where the difference between a scammy MLM income stream and a true network marketing income comes into play.

Once you educate yourself on a network marketing company’s products and services and try them out for yourself, then you can start making a business plan and thinking of creative ways to sell your product and bring new business owners into your organization.

But until then, don’t sacrifice your integrity and reputation for a dollar. Make sure what you are getting ready to sell to your friends, family, co-workers and trusting strangers isn’t a gimmick or a business plan that will ultimately drain their bank account of precious dollars.

Put the needs and wants of other people first, and like any legit business person- you will succeed

Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons artist Cyancey

Now that we’ve been introduced, let me explain the purpose of this post (and the posts to come).

Basically, I am about to become your guinea pig.

Many of you have expressed a desire to start a home based business but are scared to do it.  You wonder, “Will I fall for a scam?” or “Can I really sell enough products/recruit enough people to make an honest living at home?”

I’ve actually had the same questions myself so I decided to use my own money, take my own risk and start a home based business (otherwise known as network marketing or MLM) to give you an open and honest look at what it takes to succeed (or fail miserably) in this field.

An Overview of Why I Choose Network Marketing

I’ve been following network marketing for 7 months now and I know the opportunity to make A LOT of money is there (meaning $200,000 to 1 million dollars a year).  But I wanted to know if these companies can really back up their claims that ANYONE can do this with NO EXPERIENCE necessary.  I also wanted to know if it was possible to make my monthly quotas without annoying the crap out of my family and friends, or whether I would be forced to put up my own money to float things along in a down month.

I may not have the answers to those questions yet, but I’m actively pursuing them on a daily basis.  After spending a few weeks on training sites such as Danijohnson.com to brush up on my skills, I began to compile a list of companies that I thought I’d like to get started under.  I figured it would have to be a company that sold something I liked or one that was doing good things in the world so I could sleep at night knowing I put something helpful in the hands of a client.

After days of research, I finally ended up with a super reputable company in the health and wellness industry.  Without naming names, their green cleaning products are one of “Oprah’s favorite things” and the high profile/scientific endorsements behind these products are a mile long.  I figured if I was really gonna do this, I might as well start out with PR on my side

I will admit that googling “Network Marketing Companies” and “Home Base Business” turned up some very shady results.  The companies looked cheesy, spammy and borderline fraudulent- so much so that I was afraid they’d take my money and vanish in a few months.  In fact, as I scrolled through the google results, I almost changed my mind about the project in general- but in the end, I was determined to give network marketing a fair shot.

So like any good consumer, I asked my business coach friends (including our very own Marla Tabaka) where to turn.  I let them know that my goal was not to “get rich quick” and I needed a legit company in which I could naturally grow a home based business.  I was then put in contact with my current “upline” (or the network marketing term for the person one level above me) and just started training today to become an independent distributor.  (Ahhh ..the power of ‘word of mouth’ marketing.  Don’t underestimate it folks.)

What’s to Come

I am going to blog with as much detail as I can on this endeavor without getting myself in trouble with the company’s legal department.  I will tell you how much it cost me to get started and my continued monthly investments.  I will tell you how hard or easy it is to meet my monthly goals, and I how much I’ve honestly made at the end of each month.

I’ll also reveal the top marketing and sales tips I learn along the way to help you grow your home business right along with me.  From this information, you should be able to gauge whether or not network marketing is the right business for you and whether you could ultimately succeed if this happened to be your work at home job.

At the end of the day, that is the true focus of this site and Wendy’s vision.  Sparkplugging teaches and equips people to work at home.  You’ve already heard the ups and downs of freelancing from Lorna and Tamara, running a crafting business from Lisa, virtual assisting from Teresa, marketing from Susan and the truth behind blogging for dollars and life as a solopreneur from Wendy.  Now it’s time to find out what’s really behind those claims of “Make Millions Working from home” once and for all!  (Note: The person I am training under does happen to make a 6 figure income doing this thing, but scouts honor I am starting from scratch!).

So I hope you join me on this wild (and scary) journey I’m about to take.  I want to be as open as possible, so if you have additional questions or want more information about the business (I’d rather name names or help you get started privately), then please email amber @ sparkplugging.com.

Stay tuned and welcome aboard!

Newspaper image courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons Arist liewcf

Money at hand image photo of Flickr Creative Commons Arist d79focus