Women Bloggers

By David A

 Online marketing is not cheap. You can spend thousands of dollars on Pay Per Click (Google Adwords) and thousands of site-targetted dollars (AdBrite), and you can spend thousands just buying text links from individual sites. Trust me, I’ve spent thousands on advertising.

However, my favorite form of marketing is the free kind. Anything free I like, especially if it helps my websites make more money without increasing my advertising costs.

Here are three easy and quick ways to market your website at no additional cost.

1. Free Business Cards

Free business cards are a staple in my advertising arsenal. You can leave them everywhere and give them to anyone. The best part is, they are free! Use them where you want, when you want, and as often as possible. That is the motto I live by whenever I get a shipment of free business cards in the mail.

2. Link Exchanges

Link exchanges are a great way of spreading Page Rank, but also of sharing visitors. Most people who like a site will bookmark it. After they have read everything they want, they will read the site that you link to. You get the visitors, and share the visitor through a link exchange.

3. Business card networking

After you have received your free business cards, use them to network with other people. Everytime you meet someone, hand them one of your free business cards. After that, ask for one of their business cards in exchange. If they don’t have one, make sure you mention what you do, and the website address that is also listed on your free business card. Free business cards make a great networking tool if you will put them to use. Never forget, they are free, and should not be used sparingly. Use them in any situation you can think of. People will take them home and visit your site when they pull your business card out of their pocket.

With those three free website marketing ideas, your website will not only be more successful, but you won’t have to spend any of your hard earned money on marketing!

For three of the most successfull systems reviewed that can be used in connection with the above go to http://income4learners117.webs.com

To Our Success

David Hornby 01454 620131 dave@motivating1news.com

Pricing a Painting Project

By Jake Saab

 Imagine this nightmare scenario…

You’ve spent considerable time and energy putting together what you consider to be a fair proposal for a decorative painting job that you really want to land. You’re finally sitting in front of your client revealing each intricate detail of the finish that you want to create on their walls.

Your client seems excited and eager to get started. At last, you reveal the total estimated cost of the project. Your client is speechless and just gasps at you in wide-eyed astonishment muttering that this is a lot more than she’d hoped.

Are you left scratching your head wondering where you lost your client in your sales pitch? It’s simple. You didn’t get a feel for your client’s budget during your initial consultation.

Most clients won’t reveal their budget to you even if you ask them because they always want to get a lower price. So ultimately you need to know a couple different ways of discovering out how much money your client is willing to spend.

The first way is to come prepared with a sample price list of all the wall finishes you do. This is not a price list, per se, but a general list that breaks down the starting rate for a basic room that measures 12 x 12 feet with 8 foot ceilings.

So for instance, let’s say your starting rate for a colorwash finish on a basic room size of 12 x 12 x 8 is $500. You show your client this price on your list and tell them that this is your starting rate and that you still need to factor in windows, doors, actual measurements of the room. By doing this your client will have some indication of your prices when you do come up with your actual bid amount.

The second way to gauge your client’s budget is by using your samples. After you’ve been decorative painting for awhile you’ll have a good idea how long each finish takes you to accomplish from planning to completion. So if you take the total cost of the finish (including materials and labor costs) and divide by the square footage of the room you’ll come up with an average cost per square foot. Take this amount and write it on the back of the sample of this finish in black marker.

As you’re reviewing your samples with the client you can either casually point out the cost per square foot or let them see it as they’re flipping the pieces over. You can guarantee they’ll be sitting there doing some quick calculations in their head as they’re looking at the square footage cost for each finish.

If you’re worried about whether your bid is too high which is causing your client to now flinch at the price, there are a couple of things you can do to prepare yourself to bid fairly.

First, do your homework in regard to the going hourly or square footage rate in your area. Call around to some other faux finishers or decorative painters to find out what they’re charging. When you’re speaking to them pretend you’re a buyer and ask for their basic rates. Now you’re armed with comparative prices.

Should you bid high or low on a project? I’ve always gone by the rule that if there are a lot of obstacles that will be a nuisance such as high ceilings, lots of windows, children or pets that’ll be running around, or if the client will be difficult to work with, that I can justifiably charge more for the contract.

Sometimes, when you’re first starting out and you’re really hungry for the job you may find yourself bidding low just to land the contract. On the other hand just make sure that you’re not bidding so low that you’re working for minimum wage.

Also, when contractor’s bid low they skew the value of the work within the market unfairly for other decorative painters, which is unfair to the industry as a whole. Remember what they say: “if you get all your bids, you probably are not charging enough”.

As you can see, there’s a lot to consider when you price out a painting job. But with a little preparation you can win more painting contracts and prepare your client for your proposal.

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