As some of you might remember, a few weeks after you subscribe to the Thrive Tip of the Week, I send out a survey. The survey asks some basic questions like where are you from, do you own a business, are you planning to open a business, and what’s your biggest marketing challenge.

Most importantly, I want to thank all the people who have taken the time to respond to that survey. Your feedback helps me provide information in my newsletters that matters to you.

I’d also like to share a few of the results from the survey. (more…)

Marketing on a shoestring is pretty much a way of life for us small business owners. This skill is becoming increasingly important because of what’s been going on with the economy.

Here’s a short list of marketing and promotional tactics that are usually inexpensive to implement and, when done right, can deliver a huge return to your business. (more…)

It seems there isn’t much good news about the economy these days. Huge drops in the value of the stock market, tight credit markets that make it difficult to get needed funding, home foreclosures, where does it end?

Small (and large) businesses are looking to see where they can cut back to conserve cash or to match real or anticipated drops in revenue. Marketing and advertising is frequently near the top of the list of things to cut when times get tough.

I think that’s a mistake.

(more…)

Last week, I talked about some of the benefits of article marketing. Now, let’s talk a little about the basics of how to get started.

Just about anyone with minimal writing ability can publish articles on various article directories. If your articles are the least bit interesting, they can be picked up by webmasters and bloggers to use as information on their sites. (more…)

The money is in the list.

How many times have you heard that? And how can you build a list without spending a fortune?

Articles. (more…)