System needs to be simple and easy to maintain otherwise there is no point. I make use of a 2 drawer filing cabinet and use a colour coding system:

Drawer 1 – yellow files includes general and financial information
Drawer 2 – pink files includes marketing, projects and client information

You need to schedule time on a regular basis to do all your filing – I do mine on a weekly basis.
Remember, the simplest systems work the best!

Check out http://academyforonlinebusiness.com/about-us/we-recommend/ for details of what we use in our online business.

Once you have decided on your target market and identified what some of their problems are, the next step is to create an irresistible free offer (IFO) that you can offer to your website visitors in exchange for their email address and name.

There are lots of different types of ‘freebies’ you can create, take a look at the following for inspiration to create yours:

1. Free Report
Consider offering visitors with a free, condensed report focusing on a problem in the market. Titles like “Top 10 _____”, or “Top Mistakes In ___” will draw attention, and if you struggle to write, it’s always easier to create reports in bullet point format.

2. Free Ebook
Get your hands on quality private label content and revamp an information product around your chosen niche. Make sure that the content is of high quality, edited and polished before distribution.

You could also add a URL to another offer directly within the ebook, or even a link to your own personal website or blog.

3. Free E-Course
Provide visitors with a weekly training lesson or tutorial focusing on common problems in your market. Each week you can set your autoresponder to automatically deliver fresh editions.

4. Free Graphics / Templates
If you’re involved in an online business niche, delivering readymade websites, minisites, templates, or graphics may be of tremendous value to start-up entrepreneurs. Consider re-packaging PLR templates or hire a designer to create a mini collection that is exclusive to your list!

5. Free Video Training
People all prefer to learn in different ways, and for many, there’s nothing better than video presentations. Consider outsourcing the production of a “video mini – series”, or create screencasts that allow your subscribers to peer over your shoulder as you show them exactly how to complete certain tasks.

You could give away one video tutorial and upsell a complete series!

Want more information about different online business models and running a successful business? Visit http://academyforonlinebusiness.com/

List building is one of the most important aspects to building a successful online business – without one and you don’t actually have a business!

Some marketers seem to have a knack for turning lists into millions each year while others can’t seem to get one person to sign up for their list. The question becomes: What is the most important key to building a list successfully?

There really is one major part of list building that must be applied for it to work. Without this key, there is no chance that the list will be an income producer.

Building rapport and trust: Let’s face facts; no one will sign up to be on the mailing list of a SALES PERSON.

As an example, would you call up your local telemarketer and ask to be put on a monthly list of people they can call and harass? Most likely, you would rather have a root canal than talk to a telemarketer several times a month, right?

Well the same can be said for internet surfers. If they smell a sales pitch, they are going to run the other way. No one wants to be sold to. However, they do want to be appreciated, informed and rewarded for their visit to your site.

How do you inform and reward your website visitors?

The answer is by giving them something of value for FREE. This means giving them information that makes them wonder why you are giving it away for free! You want your customer to imagine how wonderful your other products are that do cost money. After all, if they got such great information for free, what will they get when they pay?

List building truly can be a money maker, but the very first step has to be building trust and giving something for nothing.

Someone has to step up first, and that is you as the site owner. You must say “Here, take this free information as a thank you for putting your name and email address in the box.” Then the follow up begins!

Remember, no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.

Want more information about building online relationships and running a successful business? Visit http://academyforonlinebusiness.com/

Monitoring your buzz via social media can be a real time sucker. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and it’s a great tool to use for automatically managing your social media and finding out what people are saying about you. There are a lot of ways you can use RSS to your benefit when it comes to social media and creating automation to avoid time wasters.

Here are the step by step instructions to setting up your RSS reader to monitor your social media buzz.

Set up Google Reader Account – Google Reader is free and enables you to keep up with any website that has an RSS feed. You simply set up your account and then add in the feeds. You’ll need a Google account. Even if you already have one you might want to set up one specifically for monitoring your buzz. One account for each niche you’re involved in is usually easier to keep track of.

Set up Google Alerts – Using relevant keywords for your niche and set the delivery option to feed instead of by email, then click create! You may have to “edit” the created feed in order to set it up to Feed instead of email. Do one for each keyword, keyword phrase, your business name and any unique phrasing that you use on your websites and blogs.

By setting up RSS feeds to monitor the social buzz about you, your niche and business you can then check it all on one page in one glance a couple of times a day. Better you can have your virtual assistant to set it up, and check it once a day and send you a report if something exciting happens, or is otherwise important that needs to be dealt with.

You can take this a step further by adding a Twitter Feed to your Google Reader account by using Twitter Search. Simply enter your keywords, click search, then click “Feed for this query”. Then you’ll also have anything important being said about you, or your niche on Twitter on the same page as the rest of the feeds.

Want more information about social media and running a successful business? Visit http://academyforonlinebusiness.com/

When you run an online business, you can work with clients across the world without any limitations. This makes online networking via social media and forums a great tool to raise your profile.

However, you could soon end up spending lots of time networking but seeing little results. Follow these simple tips to make sure you get the most out of your networking activities online.

1. Research various sites available
There are literally hundreds of websites you can go to network online with more popping up each day, so how do you decide which ones to use? Think about specific forums for your industry as this could be a great place to get help and advice. Look for places where your ideal clients hang out and demonstrate your expertise. Facebook and Twitter are also great tools, so make use of them.

2. Complete your profile
There is no point spending any time networking if you don’t have an up to date profile that people can see. This is where you share your expertise as well as links to your contact details and website.

3. Include your photograph
People like to work with people that they know, like and trust. This can be achieved a lot quicker online than with traditional networking as you can really connect with people. In order to do this, it is vital that you include a photograph of you, and not your logo.

4. Get involved
Get talking to members and offer your help where you can, there is no point hiding in the background. Just get out there and be yourself.

5. Don’t sell, sell, sell to people
Just because you are networking online, doesn’t mean you can constantly sell to people as this will make people ignore you. Instead, focus on building relationships so that when people are looking for someone with your services, they will think of you.

Why not subscribe to this blog to make sure you get part 2 of this article coming up later in the month.