Marketing is one of those big concept departments. Everyone talks about it, but not all business people are entirely certain who to make their marketing work. Constantly seeking the grand slam marketing idea, they miss the easy to use daily techniques. Some small efforts can reap some huge rewards.

There is unlimited untapped value in adding one customer or client at a time. While many business people think in terms of mass markets, for most entrepreneurs, customers arrive as individuals. The small attractors, that give notice to your products and services, can work wonders. Adding many new buyers together will enhance any company's bottom line.



Some quick, cheap, and mainly free marketing ideas:

* Be sure to include your website link on your email signature line. It costs nothing, and can lead to some clicks to your site or blog.

* Place your website URL, blog URL, and email address on your business cards. It is shocking how many business cards do not contain that vital information.

* When working on a remote job site, be sure to have a sign with your company name, address, phone number, and site URL. You never know who might see the high quality of your service.

* Place a product flyer or small catalogue in every fulfilled order you ship to customers. Make buying more products and services from you as easy as possible.

* Include your website URL on your shipping containers and boxes when you get new ones made for your company. Keep your website URL visible and easy to find at any time.

* Attend networking events and listen to problems that people in your target market might be experiencing on a daily basis. Provide solutions to their problems.

* Be part of local community groups and events. Some of your very best customers and company evangelists may be right in your own back yard.

* Be sure to have lots of good old fashioned business cards with you at every event that you attend. Hand them out freely. If you run out of cards, have more printed with all of your contact information.



* Offer free advice to others on your blog and website. Position yourself as an expert in your industry. People like to buy from others who they consider authorities on an issue.

* Start a blog and build relationships with current and future customers.

* Send press releases for all newsworthy events surrounding your business. If you have no interesting events in your company, it's time to create them.

* Always be accessible to the news media for interviews. There is no better free advertising and endorsement and you are propelled to a thought leadership position in your industry immediately.

* Keep looking for new ideas. Ask your staff, vendors, customers, and non-customers for ideas on products and services. Hold brainstorming sessions with staff members from all areas of the company.

Marketing need not be a mysterious undertaking, peopled by alleged geniuses. It is mainly common sense and helping to solve problems for others.

Add some easy marketing concepts to your company today.

Tags: marketing ideas, media, networking, creativity.

READ MORE - Simple marketing: Ideas you can use everyday

Best selling writer and blogger Michael Miller, author of
YouTube 4 You shares ideas and techniques for utilizing the expanding power of YouTube, and how video presentations will boost your company's success, as my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on Blog Talk Radio.

The show airs live on Thursday, June 28, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Michael Miller describes how you can search for videos, add videos to your blog or website and even create your own videos for uploading to YouTube. You will learn:

* How to search and find videos on YouTube and how to access them

* How to add video presentations to your blog or website

* How to create your own videos, even easier than you thought possible

* How to use video productions and viral marketing to enhance your business



Michael Miller (photo left) received a Marketing degree from Indiana University in 1980. After graduation, he worked for seven years in his family's retail business, then spent twelve years in various positions at Macmillan Publishing. In his last position as Vice President of Business Strategy, he helped guide the strategic direction for the world's largest reference publisher and influence the shape of today's computer book publishing market. Michael formed The Molehill Group in January 1999, and is now a full-time writer.

As the best-selling writer of more than 75 non-fiction books, Mr. Miller writes about a variety of topics, ranging from computers to consumer electronics to music. From his first book (Ventura Publisher Techniques and Applications, published in 1988) to his latest title (The Complete Idiot's Guide to Arranging and Composition), he has established a reputation for practical advice, technical accuracy, and an unerring empathy for the needs of his readers.

As a musician, Michael Miller has been playing drums since he was in grade school, and he attended the prestigious Jazz Studies Program at the Indiana University School of Music. He is also an arranger and composer, and has applied his musical knowledge and skills to author a series of best-selling music instruction books.



My book review of YouTube 4 You by Michael Miller.

Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.



If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.



To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with Michael Miller and learn ideas and techniques for utilizing the expanding power of YouTube, and how utilizing video presentations will boost your company's success, on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Michael Miller, YouTube 4 You, video presentation, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

READ MORE - Michael Miller: Maximum Value From YouTube - Blog Business Success Radio

This week sees a managerial approach to the travelling business show, recognized by one and all as Carnival of the Capitalists and if hosted by Sandy Kristin Piderit (photo below left) at Management Professor Notes II.

This week's edition of Carnival of the Capitalists highlights some of the best bloggers writing on the internet today, as well as some of the best and most popular entries ever to the Carnival.



Sandy Kristin Piderit (photo left)

Blogging topics presented include entrepreneurship, management, market trading, internet commerce, marketing, the national economy and personal finance.

As you would expect from Carnival of the Capitalists, there are many discussions of economics, marketing, business, and small business.

It's always great to read and discover the many high quality blogs out there in the blogosphere.

We don't always get to them all, and this edition of Carnival of the Capitalists has introduced many of us to some brand new ones; as well as some long time contributors.



I have an entry in this week's Carnvival of the Capitalists as well.

My post is titled "Employee Relations: Separate sets of rules" where I discuss how treating employees fairly is usually a motto of most successful businesses. All too often, however, the reality to employee relations falls short of the ideal standard. Many times, some employees are held to very different standards from other members of the organiztion. The differences may be subtle, or they may be overtly blatant. In almost every case, they are damaging to the company.


If you wish to submit an entry to next week's, or any Carnival of the Capitalists edition, e-mail your entries to the new address:

bizosphere -at- gmail -dot- com

You can always use the handy entry form at Gongol.com where all you have to do is fill in the blanks. Talk about making it easy to be included!



If you are searching for new and exciting ways to expand your blog's readership, you should seriously consider sending an entry to Carnival of the Capitalists.

Merely being included in the company, of the first rate regular Carnival of the Capitalists contributors, will enhance the reputation of your blog.

The extra visitors sent to your blog won't hurt either!

The growth and staying power, of Carnival of the Capitalists, is beginning to catch the attention of people outside the blogging community. Each hosting, brings a fresh assortment of new readers, to the various blogs involved.

The visitors aren't only bloggers anymore.

Readership is expanding to include the mainstream media, various government and private organizations, many businesses, and other interested people from beyond the blogging community.

Many people are introduced to some tremendous blogs that they might otherwise have missed.

Next week's Carnival of the Capitalists will be hosted by long time Carnival supporter Brian Gongol of Gongol.com.

In the meantime, click your mouse over to the Management Professor Notes II hosting of Carnival of the Capitalists.

If the great posted entries don't convince you to click, or the possibility of finding some brand new blogs to read doesn't do it, then visit Carnival of the Capitalists and get into business for yourself.

Tags: carnivals, capitalism, business, marketing.

READ MORE - Carnival of the Capitalists at Management Professor Notes II

YouTube 4 You

By: Michael Miller

Published: April 26, 2007
ISBN: 9780789736987
Format: Paperback, 197pp
Publisher: Que Publishing



The rapidly growing video site YouTube is the hottest feature of the internet, writes author Michael Miller, in his comprehensive video training book YouTube 4 You. Focussing on how to use the power of video, for gathering and sharing information, the author provides an indepth study of how you can benefit from the new media availability.

Packed with screenshots and photos, the first book written about YouTube is presented in four easy to follow sections. Each segement provides the reader with more tools and information required to take advantage of the viral power of YouTube. For Michael Miller, the phenomenon is much more than one of viewing pre-recorded video, but is one where everyone can add their own productions to the system. For people with a message to share, whether vital to the world or only a small circle of friends and family, YouTube democratizes the video medium as never before.



The first section of the book, Michael Miller (photo left) provides a background and history of YouTube, and why the site is an important one. The second section describes how to find and share the videos currently available. Part three focusses on a step by step process for creating and uploading your own video segments. The fourth part of the book teaches how to use the YouTube community effectively and how to add video power to any blog or website.

For me, the power of YouTube 4 You is in the easy to understand instructions, for using the video medium effectively. The very generous use of screenshots and photographs, leaves the guesswork out of the equation, for even a novice internet user. The step by step instructional section, for creating and using your own video images, is worth the price of the book alone.



Any business person, non-profit organization, or anyone with a message to share can benefit immeasurably from this book. Product demonstrations, seminars, and even video resumes are just a few of the unlimited uses of video to enhance marketing, training, and public relations efforts. The use of the video medium is only limited by your imagination, and YouTube 4 You provides the tools to help YouTube work for you and your audience.

I highly recommend YouTube 4 You by Michael Miller, as a hands on training manual, for adding the power of video sharing to any blog or website. As the YouTube phenomenon continues to expand, the opportunities for video presentation have never been greater.

Read YouTube 4 You by Michael Miller, and get the power of video and the viral potential of YouTube working for you.

Tags: Michael Miller, YouTube 4 You, video presentation, business book reviews.

READ MORE - YouTube 4 You by Michael Miller - Book review

Treating employees fairly is usually a motto of most successful businesses. All too often, however, the reality to employee relations falls short of the ideal standard. Many times, some employees are held to very different standards from other members of the organiztion. The differences may be subtle, or they may be overtly blatant. In almost every case, they are damaging to the company.

To most people, any thought of unfair treatment is restricted to the inexcusable and illegal discrimation against women, visible minorities, those holding other religious beliefs, older workers, and the physically challenged. There is little doubt that these blatant discrimination practices must be excised from every organization. There is no excuse or justification for such terrible bigoted behaviour. Such intolerable actions should be dealt with swiftly, and with vigour.



Other different sets of rules exist, that often go unnoticed, within otherwise enlightened companies. These practices include favouritism, old boys networks, and even lower goal targets for certain staff members. Good, hard working employees often discover very quickly that some staffers get preferential treatment that has little to do with any contribution to the company bottom line. Very often, the golden employee will be excused for actions that result in reprimand or dismissal for other workers.

More often, however, the company management simply has different performance requirements for various employees at the same level. A sales total that falls below the deemed requirement, that would get the average sales rep placed on warning or terminated, will be glossed over or even praised for the chosen ones. Other members of the sales team soon discover the biased results. Lower staff morale and falling sales overall are the usual result. The company bottom line suffers.



Since sales is a department where results are quantified readily, abuses are seen very clearly. Other departments, which practice separate rules, are less easy to spot at first glance. The differences, while subtle, are readily apparent to the members of the staff, however.

Special invitations, time off, vacation scheduling, and even lunches with the boss are noticed and filed away by everyone. If a pattern emerges, and the person receiving the benefits is not seen as earning them, staff morale can fall precipitously. Once again, overall productivity and company profits pay the price.

Treating employees fairly, and setting up clearly defined rewards available to all, is a must for any organization. If one selected individual receives the prizes, regardless of the effort or result, the company will reap only resentment. Unfortunately, many managers give undeserved rewards and perks to pet staff members. It is a practice that reduces company morale. Unhappy workers are less productive workers. Discrimination and favouritism cost the business money.

If your organization has slipped into the habit of preferential treatment for certain employees, it is time to stop. Your company's performance and profits depend upon it.

Fairness is good business.

Keep the rules the same, for all employees, and watch your staff morale and business profits soar.

Tags: employee relations, staff morale, boosting profits, eliminating discrimination.

READ MORE - Employee relations: Separate sets of rules