Donna Gunter Profile and Articles

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1). 10 Steps to Creating Your Internet Marketing Plan
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter

If you're the owner of a small service business, having a solid Internet marketing plan in place can both increase your name and brand recognition locally in your geographic area, as well as expose you to a whole new set of potential clients throughout the world. If you have a business plan or vision that is written, you only need to integrate this Internet marketing piece into that existing plan.

2). How to Reinvent Your Business in 7 Easy Steps
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to start all over again in your business and your life, knowing what you know now, but with a completely clean slate? I've often fantasized about going back to specific points in my life, armed with my current personal experience, learning and wisdom, and thinking how differently I might handle situations during those crucial life moments if I knew then what I know now.

3). 7 Lessons in Successful Self-Employment from "Weeds"
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter

I have a new love -- and it's not a man or a house or a car. It's an edgy Showtime television suburban satire, "Weeds", in which Mary Louise Parker plays a widowed soccer mom, Nancy Botwin, in a fictional subdivision of Los Angeles called Agrestic. Nancy struggles with the sudden death of her husband from a heart attack and agonizes how she'll support her family in their upper-class lifestyle.

4). 15 Proven Strategies to Grow Your List
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter

I've been publishing an email newsletter since 2000, and have to admit I wasn't very attentive to the whole process at the beginning. Hindsight is 20/20, and I could kick myself for not taking this strategy very seriously, as my email newsletter list is my gold mine because it's filled with subscribers who already know something about me.

5). How to Create Your First One-Page Sales Web Site
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter

Most one-page web sites (also called one-page sales letter web sites or mini web sites) have only one purpose -- to sell a product. My conversion to the one-page web site strategy has been a reluctant one, as I hate reading all the sales copy. However, the facts don't lie -- one page web sites written like a lengthy sales letter are one of the most effective ways to sell you product online.

6). How to Build Your Personal Marketing Swipe File
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter

You're probably familiar with the notion that there are no new ideas. I'm often told that I'm a great resource for brainstorming, as I can come up with many new ideas very quickly. However, I'm not really coming up with new ideas. I'm simply applying what I already know to new situations. How do I manage to keep so much info organized? Granted, much of what I know stays in my head, as I have a great skill in being able to remember almost everything I've read.

7). Top 7 Strategies to Build Trust in Your Online Service Business
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter

How do you know whom you can trust online? Which businesses are legit, and which ones are primed to rip you off? It can be tough these days determining which is which. With the advent of phishing and other online threats, some days you just want to shut down your email program and Internet browser and wish for a face-to-face interaction with someone that you know, like it was in the "good ole' days" before the Internet took over our lives.

8). The Key Ingredient in Client Satisfaction: Underpromise and Overdeliver
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter

Like anyone else who operates a small service business, your word is your bond with your clients. A client might tolerate a broken promise here and there for a very good reason, but if the broken promises continue, the client's trust in you will be lost, and in very short order you will lose the client. Granted, things happen to you as a small business owner that are out of your locus of control--a family member becomes ill, you lose electrical power (I know about this one only too well!), or your computer crashes.

9). The Truth About Starting an Online Business
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter

What happens when your Internet marketing empire doesn't take off that quickly or isn't that profitable? Yyou feel like a miserable failure. So, then you invest more time and money to get more information, with similar results. Who really gets rich here? The people selling the information on how to get rich. It begins to feel like a hamster wheel in which you run and run and run but never get anywhere.

10). Using eCourses to Leverage Your Expertise Online
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter

You're a wonderful service provider, whether you're a massage therapist, real estate agent, mortgage broker, web designer, etc. However, as a service provider, you have only so many hours in the day to work with your clients, yet there are still hundreds and hundreds of people in the world who could really use the knowledge and expertise you hold about the service you provide.

11). 10 Offline Tightwad Marketing Strategies to Help You Get More Clients
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter

Several years ago, in response to client requests for no-cost or low-cost marketing techniques, I coined the term "tightwad marketing". My definition of tightwad marketing is the art of doing more with less, or using your creativity instead of your checkbook to get the word out about your business.

Even though the saying, “If you build it they will come” worked for Kevin Costner’s character in the movie, “Field of Dreams”, life doesn't often imitate art.

12). 7 Signs That It's Time to Fire a Client
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter

It's an issue faced by business owners worldwide -- having to let go of, or "fire" a client. When I started my business, it's not a situation I ever thought I would face, as I was happy to take on almost anyone that wanted to hire me. However, over time, my client scrutinizing skills became more acute, and I began to realize that not every client is a perfect client for me.

13). How to Find Your Target Market Online
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter

Are you fishing where the fish are? This may seem to be a question with an obvious answer, but I'm constantly amazed at how many business owners are looking for their target market in all the wrong places. Worse yet is the business owner whose target market is "everybody". Do you know how tough it is to market to everybody? The reality is that not everyone needs your product and service, nor is it a good match for every single person on this earth.

14). How to Get More Clients from Online Discussion Lists and Forums
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter

If you dislike face-to-face networking as much as I do, perhaps networking online might be more your style. I'm still trying out some online networks like Ryze and Open BC, so the jury is still out on those. What's bringing me the most success at the moment is online discussion lists and forums.

The discussion list, also called a LISTSERV, comes in the form of an email broadcast to which you subscribe.

15). Top 10 Ways to Have an Online Sale
Copyright 2006 Donna Gunter

If you need money quickly or want a surefire way to increase your cashflow, it's time to throw a sale. Having a sale is especially easy to do if you've sell electronic information products (available as an online download), as your overhead costs are very low once these products are created. However, a sale also works if.