It’s fun to make jokes. Getting a laugh is something just about anyone can appreciate. This is probably why so many people love to write humorous articles for their websites. They get attention, sometimes lots of attention.

But is it the right kind of attention for your business? That all depends on what your goals are.

If all you want is traffic, then it might be. A really funny post on your site can bring tons of StumbleUpon, Digg or other social media and viral traffic. But what it probably won’t bring is sales or repeat visitors, at least not in great numbers for the amount of traffic.

Humor, used well, can generate sales, but it’s more challenging.

Think back to any television commercial that made you laugh. It could be the “Where’s the beef?” ads from Wendy’s. It could be something more current.

Do you remember what the ad was about? What company ran it? Whether or not it made you want the product?

Appropriately used humor can do all of that, but too often ads are made funny more to be funny. There’s too little emphasis on the actual product they’re trying to sell.

One of the most challenging steps can be keeping the joke appropriate to your business. You generally don’t want to anger a significant portion of your potential customer base.

If this is something you’re going to want to use regularly in marketing your home business, you need to develop something of a style in it. You may even be able to take advantage of a running gag and have people look forward to the next time you mention the purple eel or whatever the key part of the joke may be.

So how do you learn to use humor?

The first thing you need to do is look at what makes you laugh. If it amuses you, it might just be funny to others. Then again, you could just have a really odd sense of humor.

Now look at ads that have made you laugh. Especially pay attention to any that are in an industry related to your own.

Also pay attention to comedians and others who earn a living by being funny. Read the comics.

Start coming up with funny things about your home business. You can write a list down on paper, on your computer, or any of your kids who doesn’t move fast enough when you’re looking for something to write on. Just don’t use permanent marker on them. People ask so many questions….

Show your ideas to others. Get feedback.

Write the ad, blog post or whatever, including the joke you thought of. Remember to keep a call to action in there, somehow!

Write it up for your site or email campaign, and give it a try. Track your results. Hope for results beyond your wildest dreams.

Humor doesn’t work for everyone, but it has its place and can be highly effective. Give it a try if you dare.

I don’t open much junk mail. I suspect I’m like a lot of people that way. But yesterday I got a piece that did get my attention… more as someone generally interested in advertising than as a customer. Even so, I would expect that it would catch a lot of people’s attention.

The envelope had a nice soft blue/white snowflake theme. The outside of the envelope didn’t make it too obvious that it was an ad, although one could notice the stamp, while real, was a bulk rate one, as well as a couple other indications. But it really didn’t look too different from what I’ve seen Christmas cards arrive in.

But inside was more clever. Yes, an ad, but they included a recipe for hot chocolate with a quick ad at the bottom. 4 copies of the recipe in fact, so that you could share it with your friends. I thought that was a particularly good touch.

So How Does This Apply to Me?

I rarely analyze ads that come in my mail. I haven’t tried that particular sort of advertising, but some factors can translate well to other media.

Consider the way this ad was set up. Seasonally appropriate, and while sent at a time that a lot of families are sending and receiving Christmas cards, it is specific to winter rather than the holiday. This allows it to potentially appeal to people of other beliefs as well.

Then there’s a recipe for a nice treat for cold, cold days. It’s ready to share with others, so if you like the recipe you spread their ad too.

Could It Work Online?

Of course it can. If you’ve marketed for long at all online, you’ve heard of viral marketing. That’s what a lot of free ebooks are really about.

If you have a list already, that’s a start. Alternatively find someone willing to send your product to their list. If it’s good, relevant and free, you have a fair shot at it. Never a guarantee, of course, but if you target your potential partners well it can happen.

The hardest part is standing out well enough that people pass your ebook around. This doesn’t happen as often as some would like you to think. There really has to be something that wows the reader.

Think useful. Think funny. Think unusual. But don’t think so long that you never get moving.

Technorati Tags: viral marketing, mailing campaign, online marketing

With the holiday season very much upon us, it’s time to start contacting your customers. A quick card to remind them that you offer items that make great Christmas or other holiday gifts. Odds are, many of them will be wanting ideas.

Tiny Prints has some beautiful, professional cards. You can even have photos printed on them to give a more personal touch.

Getting your holiday cards professionally printed is a good thing, but I would also recommend using a more professional touch and signing each card by hand. It may take a bit of time, but it shows just a little more thought than a printed signature. If you have a huge list this may be rather more than you care to take on, but do it if at all reasonable.

Consider including a coupon code on your cards. It will help you to track the response your cards get as well as motivate people to order from you. Just remember to think about whether or not you need an expiration date or other terms of use for the code.

Existing customers are a group you should never neglact in your home business marketing efforts. Take a little extra time when they’re more likely to be shopping.

Technorati Tags: home business, holiday business, holiday business cards

I’ve developed quite a fondness for StumbleUpon. Not only is it good for marketing a website, it’s fun. It’s hard to beat that kind of a combination.

Now, I know a lot of articles on building up a Stumble account really annoys regular Stumble users. That’s reasonable, considering that many tactics do nothing more than annoy people who Stumble because they enjoy it so much. I think it’s important to consider how to use StumbleUpon correctly.

Take the time to Stumble

People debate whether or not you should Stumble your own content. I don’t necessarily see anything wrong with it, provided the content is something that is likely to be enjoyed by other users. Before you start submitting your own content, figure out what appeals to other Stumblers.

The easiest way to do this is to pick interests to show in your profile related to your topic, and start stumbling. Look at the reviews the pages that get your attention get.

Doing this will help you to figure out just a little of what appeals to Stumblers. There’s no easy formula, but you can get some idea as to what qualities you should consider when creating your own content.

Pick your Stumbles carefully

Whatever you do, do not Stumble just any article you’ve posted on your website. I see far too many sites that I have trouble picturing being of interest to people using StumbleUpon. Pages focused purely on selling something, for example. If it’s something unusual or funny it can work, but without something like that, I have trouble picturing them doing well as Stumbles.

Similar for purely self promotional items. If you wouldn’t want to read it about someone else or their site, your fellow Stumblers probably won’t want to see it from you or your site.

Pick articles that are well-written, have a unique perspective, have a humorous slant, or are otherwise interesting. Same for images, videos and so forth. Stumblers get very tired of seeing the same thing over and over again, so you don’t want to submit something that you’ve seen on several other sites. Be more creative than that.

Don’t Stumble your own site excessively

While the limitations are guesses, most estimates I have seen say you can Stumble a given site no more than about 15 times. However, I have seen some people say you can get cut off after far fewer Stumbles. The more honest you are about your Stumbles, I suspect, the more freedom you have in Stumbling your own site.

Make friends and fans
It’s not entirely clear whether or not having more friends and fans on StumbleUpon improves the power of your Stumbles, but most people believe they do. People who have interests in your field are great choices, especially if they are also regular Stumblers.

Stumble often

And Stumble honestly. Submit pages that aren’t your own that you genuinely enjoy. Thumbs up pages when you like them. Enjoy yourself. Stumbling can be incredibly addictive if you relax and don’t worry about whether or not you’re getting anything out of it.

Think before you contact friends

Contacting StumbleUpon friends is a feature I’ve never taken advantage of personally. I know you can do this, but it is a feature to use with caution. Overuse is a great way to alienate friends. But if you’ve written something that you especially want attention to, and think it will do well, give it a try. But I wouldn’t send it to your entire list of friends right away, or possibly ever. Send it to a few and see if it was really a good idea.

And do so rarely.

Remember that traffic for traffic’s sake means very little

Stumble traffic may not be right for your website. It doesn’t necessarily convert or bring links. But it can.

The better the content, the better your chance of getting something from it. But it’s also the greater the chance you have of getting a ton of traffic, possibly too much for your server. You do want to be aware of this impact and certain about whether or not the potential extra costs will be worth it.

Technorati Tags: stumbleupon, stumble, stumbling, social bookmarks, social networks, building traffic, oneline business, home business

There’s been some talk recently of a “Do Not Track” list being started. It seems that some privacy groups feel that the tracking that some companies do online is unfair to consumers and that they should be allowed to opt out of it. They compare it to the “do not call” list.

But an article in Business Week points out how this could backfire. Tracking is one of the big ways companies best function online. Without it, they feel that many companies would choose to show more ads to make up the revenue lost because they couldn’t show targeted ads.

But I don’t know that legislation or a list is the way to go. First of all, how are sites to determine that you are on the list and don’t want to be tracked? That’s personal information you’d have to share, right from the start.

Software solutions implemented by individual users make a lot of sense, although I often feel these can be overkill and can be unfair to the webmaster. I equate it to removing all the ads from a magazine. Yes some sites go very much overboard on ads, especially annoying, flashing ones, but many others rely on a few, well placed ads to get by. But if you’re concerned about your privacy, something magazine ads have no access too, what choice do you have?

This is a very tangled issue. Tracking allows for a lot of personalization and many people love it. It makes it easier for sites to offer free content. But the concern that there is too little control over that information is very real.

Given the complexity of trying to figure out who could and could not be tracked on a site, I would say it makes far more sense to leave it to the software on the user’s computer than to have a list. Then if necessary regulate how private information can be used. Limitations can be reasonable, but they can also be harmful to how many websites survive and function.

Technorati Tags: privacy, do not track, tracking, user information

I love getting traffic from the search engines. Especially the free kind of traffic, rather than pay per click. It’s great knowing that people found my site and want to learn more from it.

But of course other websites are just a click away. That’s an important thing to remember, especially when you are trying to sell something.

One of the things I’ve been working on lately is trying to keep more in contact with my website visitors. This is why many of my sites are in blog format, with easy to see blog subscription options, sometimes including an email version. It allows people to keep hearing from me if they like what I have to say.

But I’ve been working on something else too. eCourses.

When you have multiple sites, running a newsletter for each can get pretty overwhelming. It’s not easy finding ways to keep from loading up your subscribers with nothing more than ads. Most don’t want that. They want information.

A good ecourse on a topic relevant to your blog takes care of that. You can write it up with the intent to sell whatever it is you want to sell to your visitors. It gives you extra chances to make the sale.

Now, ecourses are not just for standing alone. They do work well with newsletters too, although you then need to think about how often your subscribers will be receiving emails. You do not want to overwhelm them.

A good ecourse is not just a sales pitch. It’s informative. It builds trust. It gives subscribers the information they need to decide to make the purchase.

It is said that it takes seven exposures to make the sale. This is a big part of why so often ecourses run 7 days. That’s enough shots to really increase your chances of making the sale.

But 7 days is not always the ideal. You should have your ecourse be the right length for the information you are presenting. Don’t break off one day just because need another day but you’re out of ideas. Come up with something else… a summary, alternative resources, whatever it takes.

You also shouldn’t limit yourself to 7 days if the information is better presented over more days.

Always, always track how well your list is working for you. You need to know what’s working versus what is not. Think about how often you advertise to your list. How you advertise to your list. What happens to list members when the ecourse is over.

A good list is one of the biggest helps you will find in increasing your profits. Take the time to come up with a way to encourage your site visitors to get on your list.

Technorati Tags: ecourse, online marketing, the list, money, profits, home business, advertising, list marketing, ecourses

I’ve been trying Facebook out just a little. Not working it very hard; my account has a whole two friends, one being an acquaintance from high school who happened to be there too.

And then this morning I read over on Shoemoney’s blog about Facebook Flyers. I’d never noticed them before. But I immediately decided I needed to give it a try.

Facebook offers two choices. You can pay a flat rate for a number of exposures, or pay per click. I chose per click because the article on Shoemoney mentioned starting out with a really poor clickthrough rate. It’s a very minimal campaign for now, and aimed at getting subscribers to one of my newsletters.

Once I’m comfortable, I’ll start looking at how to earn through these links. Newsletter subscribers are very nice to have, but I’d love to see what can be done to earn some good old money too. But the plus is that I will know very quickly if I have new subscribers. As with many areas, no doubt things that are initially free will work pretty well, so pay per lead is probably a good idea.

Of course, I’ll have to be pretty creative since I’m sure the Shoemoney post will bring a lot more people to advertising on Facebook. But that’s all a part of the game.

Technorati Tags: facebook, facebook flyers, advertising on facebook

I was having a little fun Stumbling around when I came across a post called How I Made $100,000 by Spending 25 Minutes and $0 on Marketing on the Self Made Chick blog. It’s worth a read. She’s not joking, and it’s a great reminder that when you come up with an idea that should get you easy business, even if it’s not quite in your comfort zone, you should probably run with it.

If she keeps up posts like this, her blog is likely to be popular pretty quickly.

Getting out of your comfort zone is tough. I’ve made myself do that a few times, and it has always felt good, even if it hasn’t had quite the results Christine’s had. I even tried promoting myself as an expert for a local television show once, and I’m the girl who could barely talk in front of her class in high school. It didn’t work out, and a few months later the show was cancelled anyhow, but I tried.

Think about what you’ve been putting off. What should you be doing to grow your business that you haven’t yet?

Technorati Tags: procrastinate, procrastination, grow business, home business