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The SEO industry was born from the exploding commercial and social Internet development movement of the early ‘90s. Just ten or so years ago, at the time of the World Wide Web boom, businesses were only beginning to understand the obvious need for developing a marketable web presence - what is now called the SEO Consultant. Nobody seemed to talk much about what made for the most effective web sites - outside of easy page navigation, cool design, and fast-loading pages. That’s because few seemed to fully comprehend the depth and grandiosity of the potential. And most new web development firms were more than busy enough just building web sites without needing to care much if those sites were actually performing for their customers.

Let’s review a brief Internet history. As the Internet boom rippled out across the world, hundreds of thousands of companies were literally online within weeks. Or maybe millions within months. Let’s just say it happened so fast, nobody could keep track! (I’d be more than willing to revise this statement if anyone out there has a reputable source for factual data on the matter!) Anyway, it’s safe to say that today, there are millions upon millions of web sites out there. And today, if your company doesn’t yet have an website, you already know that you can barely exist outside the range of your own home community.

Significant Industry Development

Back in 1995, the United States had less than 1000 web development companies. Now, there are more than 40,000, and the affordable SEO industry is widely anticipated to grow another whopping 20 per cent over the next two years. This is encouraging news, despite recent speculation among governments, small and large recession. Fueling the incredible growth in the industry, in large part, is the relatively fast development of smaller web development companies, and the continued automation of medium and large business selling virtually any sort of service imaginable to the four corners of the Earth. Yet another contributor in the success in the field is the obvious decline in the cost of hosting fees.

The past decade has seen an amazing transformation in commerce, with the Internet driving e-commerce, led increasingly by more and more sophisticated web development. With the growth in e-commerce comes a natural curiosity about how to host web sites that can track visitor activity and report on marketing results in much the same way as more traditional forms of marketing. In addition, web site owners also want to improve numbers of random searchers easily targeting their web site.

When a potential visitor uses Google to find, say, a screwdriver, Bill’s Hardware wants to be the first listing that comes up on the search engine results. This is where organic search engine optimization comes into play. SEO is the science of establishing, for any given website, a higher ranking in the search engine results than their competition.

A web consulting firm can help small, medium, and big companies improve their search engine rankings, traffic, sales, and overall profit. These firms can develop professionally customized SEO programs that guarantee results.

becoming a second hand book seller online
There is another yet exciting thing you can do if you have a computer and internet connection at home and that is on– becoming a second hand book seller online. If you learn effective techniques in book selling online, this will surely make not just fun but money as well.

The perfect home business can be had when you learn the idea of how to sell books on the internet. This is said by lots of individuals who are making comfortable earnings working from the comfort of their home and selling their old text books and college books via the internet throughout the whole world. Selling books online is a readily available business alternative because many of use have loft spaces as well as basements that are full of books that we will no longer ever pick up and read but will be a benefit to someone else. For that reason how to sell books on the internet can work really for you.

books online
When you are to find a niche market for book selling, you may be interested on buying and selling classic books. Classic books are called classic books for good reason, they capture our imagination and we just love to read them again and again. With the growing use of the internet there are now many free online classic books which we can find and read at our leisure. Classic books include such wonderful works such as The Art Of War and treasure island. With the widespread usage of free online classic books there is no longer any excuse for us not to read those wonderful books which bring back so much memories.

internet marketing affiliate program
One effective strategy which you can use for your book selling business is making use of book affiliate marketing. The use of affiliate marketing is perhaps the best way to get started making money on the internet and in the offline world. Beginners are recommended to do some research and seek out the best affiliate marketing program which suits their need. Getting involved in affiliate marketing means that all you have to do is to sell the products which you choose to based on the affiliate marketing program which you joined; then sit back and wait for the commission checks to be delivered month in and month out– isn’t it great?. It really is that simple - the work you put in will pay off in the near future.

When you decide business, the decision to retain a business broker to represent you or go the DIY route becomes a important question. Most do it your self people believe they can end up with more money in their savings at the end of the agreement – this is the ultimate motive for people selling physical property as well as virtual real estate.

Similar selling your own property, selling your internet site means you will need to prepare all the paperwork yourself, appraise its true value, advertise the internet venture, qualify all the prospective suitors , negotiate the price, and handle all the specifics for closing including escrow, asset transfer, training and post closing assistance – all without any assistance without any experience. Most DIY sellers are not completely prepared for the quantity of labor and aggravation involved in the multi-facited transaction of selling a internet business.

Internet Broker

Without experience and a broad sense of comprehension of the marketplace, deal structures and accurate appraisal methodology, a seller can discover themselves over their heads. This generally leads the average seller to sabotage the maximum potential valuation they could receive for the sale on their internet biz .

Statistically, the average home selling price by the DIY market in real estate is 15% smaller than the median selling price of homes sold by agents. The bottom line is that there is about eight percent less in the sellers account after agent commissions. Similarly, with internet businesses being advertised personally by the seller, both the asking and final closing prices are likely to be lower by a broker. The final cash in the savings account of the seller can be the difference of tens to 100’s of 1000’s in some cases.

Of course there are anomalies to every thing, and there are some owners who are astute enough to sell directly and actually enjoy the experience. But for the majority of sellers the procedure can be scary. Most website sellers have developed their businesses through to a level of longevity and see them as their “baby”, so selling their “baby” after birthing it and growing it is a huge choice. Knowing who to sell it to is sometimes as crucial to sellers as the price and terms.

Website Business Brokers

Selling an internet business can be an emotionally draining experience that can take six to twelve months to accomplish. Attempting to accomplish this agreement without professional assistance while still trying to build the website can be very intense! .

For all of these issues , making a decision to hire an internet business broker specialist is in most cases the most prudent choice a seller can make.

A website broker adept at selling website businesses will be able help a seller through the procedure to insure maximum exposure and calm. From purusing the website fundamentals and appraising the true value of the internet opportunity a clean and clear prospectus memorandum, to marketing the opportunity extensively to targeted buyers, to screening real buyers from ’time wasters’, to negotiating price and terms, to securing the contract with correct legal purchase agreements, and escrow, and finally to completing an agreement and transferring the business.

Websites For Sale

Organizing the deal for the seller means much less stress and allows the seller to stay focused on the operations of the website business through closing. At times websites that get listed see a decrease in cash flow during the selling process because the seller is distracted from the day to day operations – this can be very damaging to the ending closing price. This alone may be the most important reason to engage a internet business broker as the seller will be able to concentrate on building the revenues to procure maximum value.

Finally, the calm of knowing a representative with loads of experience is looking out for your best interests and eliminating most of the duress that sometimes occurs in internet business sales. That together with the higher probability that a larger selling price will be achieved should be potent enough reasons to seek out an experienced professional website business broker to manage what will likely be one of the most important decisions of your life.

David Fairley
President Websiteproperties.com

Informally known as online flipping or flipping internet sites
- this business approach can be extremely fruitfulif executed properly. Just like buying a house and fixing it improves its appraisaland can lead to a windfall payoff upon a sale, so does the art of buying a online business and giving it a makeover increase its value that will
ultimately lead to a profitable sale.

Flipping websites for profit is not but one does need to focus on
particular details in the process - particularly when looking for a good opportunity to purchase a online business to enhance further and sell at a later date for more green.

Internet Businesses For Sale

Comparable to real estate opportunities, you want to focus on what you are thinking to buy - look under the floor at the foundation to make sure there is no rotting. Some internet sites are full with troubles and issuescreated by the former owner that will be tough to fix - such as being penalized by Google for trying to game the system. The most obvious being found no where in the organic search reults even when searching the url or having zero PR even after several years. Other red flags one needs to be aware of are sellers who show massive backlinks in a short period of time - these folks often have set up dozens of accounts at social bookmarking sites, and set links back to their site from these.

Most issues about a site can be bypassed if one pursues certain guidelines when checking websites topurchase, modify, generate cashflow and flip. Search for sites that have history - as a rule 1 year - the longer the better, as this establishes stability and the likelyhood of most of the pages being indexed by the search engines. Check the organic positioning for the key words and sentences related to the website and see how well it places now. Often times you can make quick adjustments to on page optimization like changing the meta tag title and description to get a quick jump in positioning. Next review the site’s material - is it unique and well written - is it duplicate content or search engine fodder scribbled by someone in Slovakia? Use copyscape.com or duplicatecontent.com todiscover if it is original. Don’t waste your time on websites/sites with non-useful copy written for the search engines but not for surfers. Steer clear of sites with duplicate content - this will be penalized by search engines and be a problem.

Once you have determined the site has original interesting content, has more than a ten pages, has been around10-12 months, has some history in the search engines,and is displaying at a minimum PR2-3 as well, it is time to summarize how the site is presently being monetized, if at all, and reveal the potentials to leverage the cashflow exponentially!. Sometimes a website is already churning descent cashflow, and just by applying superior SEO strategies as above will dramatically improve the traffic and therefore the revenues - particularly for pay per click adsense sites and affiliate program models.

Buy a Website

The primary areas to audit and scale up cashflow are the following:

For Content driven websites including blogs or forums begin by adding PPC - Google adsense or yahoo - if notconcurrently included on the site. Most likely the PPC code exists - but check out the positioning and layoutsbeing used - sometimes tweaking the positioning or layout can dramatically augment the clickthrough rates and revenues. Think about installing ad networks like Tribal Fusion, Buzzlogic.com , etc. There are tons of affiliate products related to specific subjects - both material products and also electronic software or ebook products available that convert great and pay handsomely - check clickbank and cj.com for potential candidates. Depending on the traffic copy and PR of a web site you can sell text links directly by coding an advertise link page on your site. This willearn upwards of $10 - $500+/month per link depending on the traffic and niche and exposure on the page. Another opportunity is adding a paid directory for services or products. If, for example, the site is about [spin]diabetes|laser hair
removal|body building[/spin], a directory of these businesses in every state could be created and marketed on the site. This will increase the pages and copy of the web site while driving in $50+/per listing potentially.

For membership oriented models or subscriber based internet businesses refining the content of the site to improve conversions and sign ups will be critical. Also, implementing a hover style ad that can not be blocked by pop up blockers will lead to much more registrations for newsletters - there are several to choose from like floatingadz.com
that can be used to craft these hover ads. Creating member incentives to proselytize the club is another method of leveraging current members to increase the membership, traffic and income to the site. Offering rewards, etc can totally turbocharge the existing members to promote the site.

For e-commerce websites selling products there are many ways to increase sales. Start with improving the look and feel of the site - giving a website a graphical change can improve stickiness and keep people from bailing the site after a nanosecond of arriving! Buying sites that can be enhanced to a web 2.0 look can do wonders for the revenues - because the site will exude a more trustworthy appeal. Replace old photos with professional digital images - create consistency of thumbnails and larger images as well. Once the site is visually appealing, begin adding new products and product categories to offer - this by itself can often ramp up sales significantly year over year with similar traffic. In addition, the new products and categories once optimized can quickly get indexed in the search engines and produce more visitors to the website Every product pageshould have original content including the url and title tags. Incorporating a PPC campaign or expanding on a current campaign by focusing on a multitude of very specific product keywords and keyword phrases can explode the targeted traffic to the site that monetizes very well. Most people only hone in on the obvious keywords - perhaps only a dozen at most- when there are hundreds more that get nominal clicks per month but added together create a torrent of traffic. Adding an affiliate program, establishing a newsletter and building an email list, doing online Press releases - PRweb or PR.com, can all be used to increase visitors and revenues and ultimately increase the equity of the online business for resale.

Sell a Website

After addressing all the SEO modifications, and improving the cash flows of the website, the revenues and profits are going to improve if you have done this efficiently. The catch now is to create enough history with the increased profitability so you can list for a lot more than you bought the site for originally. There are a couple ways of pursuing this.
Depending on the deal you struck to buy the internet business, you may be able to make the changes and flip within 1 - 3 months - and realize a significant gain. It is possible to snap up a website for a multiple of 10-15 times the monthly cashflow depending on the seller. In this case, you may be able to get a quick profit selling for 18-24 months providing you can use the former owners history and trends with the new appearance and revenue models.
If a website can begin creating significantly more cash than with the previous owner, it is a prudent idea to operate at this higher income level for at least another 6- 12 months. With 12 months being the actual acceptable basis for yearly cash flow - called trailing 12 months cash flow - that an appraisal is based upon, you will get much more ‘dinero’ both during this period as well as at finalizing a deal. Depending on your motive, the quick flip may be more attractive but usually there is more profit to be made by a longer term play. In addition, the tax implications are much better when you hang on for a year because the revenues will be taxed as a capital gains(15%) verses regular income tax(25%-35%).

A final word of wisdom - take your time! There are plenty of opportunities listed every day on websites like sitepoint, digitalpoint, and websiteproperties.com. Do your homework and follow the suggestions described above and your probability of success and carving a living from buying and selling internet businesses will be very promising.

Good flipping!

David Fairley
President, Website Properties.com

hosting in india
domain name is the first step to start your web site. As your domain name is the name and address by which you’re known online, it’s the basis of your online identity. The domain name is not that a lengthy process. Just as you prefer your child to have sensible name that reflects your belief and hope for her future, your web site too needs carefully selected domain name before you proceed for domain name. So it’s important to create the right domain name for your business. This is the common reactioVn that most the domain name consumers often say. Like naming a newborn child, your website too requires a name to be known and referred to on web. domain name is about identifying your website on the net.

web hosting in india
Domain name may be short and simple for remembering easily. Generic names are easy to remember, and there is always a generic name, no matter which business you are in. When you go onto any domain registration website, it would prompt you with a choice of similar possible web domain registration options. It can be anything between 2 and 67 characters long. For domain name, most generic domains are no longer to be had.

in domain india
If you deal in real estate, you will find domain names like property.com, properti.com, estate.com, etc. are already taken. After such process for the domain name, the registrar then communicates with the particular registry to make certain if the requested domain name is available for purchase or the requested domain name is already taken by another party. If lucky to have found one, check whether the domain name infringes any patent or trademark in your country or elsewhere before domain name.

It is likely that many such unique domain names are out of bounds. In that case, as mentioned above, opt for country-specific extension suitable to your need before domain name. If your company name is well known, you could incorporate that into your domain name. Sometimes it may be necessary that your domain name reflects your company name. Even so, try grabbing a suitable one, get domain name and finally name your company accordingly. It is then simply considerable that when you go through the process of the domain name, the trend nowadays is to base domain names on keywords relating to your product or service.

indian hosting
In virtual dedicated server online website hosting plans one does not get an entire computer just for oneself this means that the virtual server shares the resources of a web server computer with other customers of the online website hosting provider. There is a difference between dedicated hosting and a dedicated server. When single web server is rented to a single customer it is called real dedicated online website hosting. For businesses that work with high traffic, dedicated online website hosting is the idyllic way out. Hosting refers to the provided service, while the server is the equipment actually needed to handle high volumes of Internet traffic.

website hosting india
Application required for its operation and functionalities of web site falls under ones specific control. A dedicated server is an expensive service and you must plan to yourself in order to use it in full measure. Concerns regarding the maintenance, the security, and the reliability of one’s web server are all handled by hosting provider. When choosing a server for your website, you will encounter a variety of terms to consider.

in domain india
A dedicated server will give you special freedom with regard to online website hosting. The most reliable hosting server companies also offer continuous back up of your files. One doesn’t have to bother about maintaining the hardware and the connectivity of the computer as it is on rent and not been purchased this helps to avoid reconfiguration of your files.

One is freed from replacing the component or solving the problem, as everything is provider’s responsibility. A dedicated online website hosting plan ensures security for your website and emails too. In the occurrence of failure one may get reimbursement with the cost of one’s hosting plan for a month or a fraction of it, depending upon the severity of the failure. With the help of a dedicated server, you can get access to your server in order to configure and optimize your server by your way.

When compared to having to pay for the component and for the technical support required for actually replacing the component, this is something to keep in mind because it also affects how much knowledge is requiring when it comes to supporting scripts, codes and software issues. while web site in not online all these advantages seems quite good as at the day end one will just be paying for functional hardware.

If you run a blog, you probably will have a RSS feed. RSS feed is a tool that will help you build your reader base. Through RSS feed, you can turn your visitors into loyal readers.

People who subscribe to your RSS feed will know when new content is updated on your blog. If you keep on publishing quality and entertaining blog posts, your feed subscribers will know about it and enjoy reading your content on a regular basis. This way you will establish a growing reader base which will be very beneficial to your blog marketing.

RSS feed isn’t just for building a reader base; it can also be monetized with advertising programs so that you can make more money online.

Here are two advertising programs that can help you make money online with your blog RSS feed:

Text Link Ads Inc
This is one of the biggest Internet advertising companies allowing you to run text link ads in your RSS feed. Meaning, you can offer advertisers to place their keyword text link on your RSS feed. You will sell text link at a flat rate pricing and share 50% on all the text link ad revenue produced from your RSS feed.

Kanoodle
Kanoodle lets you display sponsored links within the posts inside your RSS feed. The Kanoodle will ensure the sponsored links is highly relevant to the content of your feed. This is to maximize the result of the sponsored links of the advertisers so that more advertisers want to pay for Kanoodle sponsored links and you as a publisher will generate more RSS feed ad revenue.

Both of the above advertising programs are free to participate. As long as you have a blog with fairly good amount of RSS feed subscribers, it is possible to use your RSS feed to generate more advertising revenue.

If you want to compete on the internet today, you must accept credit cards and start credit card processing.

Over 87% of all internet sales are paid for by credit card merchant account.

When you accept credit cards, your sales have the potential to increase as much as 400%.

How to Setup Internet Merchant Account

In order to accept credit cards on the Internet, an online merchant or business needs to have an Internet Merchant Account, a credit card processing system (shopping cart software or a complete ecommerce solution), and a secure payment gateway (using API application programming interface) to connect to banking networks for authorization of credit card transactions.

Whether you have a retail location or an e-business, National Merchant Bancard merchant services provides you with the PC and Internet Solutions you need to process payments at virtually any location. Our latest PC and Internet technology solutions can help you stay ahead of the competition with secure online transactions, and turn your existing computer equipment into a payment processing terminal.

Almost all merchant account providers have lengthy contract terms from one to three years which could cost your company over $1,000 in cancellation fees and penalties. Be advised that these companies can damage your credit and place you in collection proceedings if you refuse to pay their cancellation fees and penalties.

BE SMART AND DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!

How to Get a Merchant Account Provider

What credit cards can I accept?

You can accept Visa®, MasterCard®, American Express® and Discover®. We also offer Diner’s Club® and JCB®.

How long does it take to start accepting credit cards?

Our online application will only take 5 minutes to complete. Most of our merchants start accepting credit cards within the same 24 hours after their instant online approval.

Do you offer free technical support?

Yes, you will be provided with an (800) number to handle any problems or questions 24/7.

I have a bad credit rating, is this a problem?

No. National Merchant Bancard has one of the highest approval rates in the industry. If we cannot approve you probably no one will be able to approve you.

What is a Discount rate?

The discount rate is the percentage of each transaction that the processing company charges to handle the transaction for you.

What is a Virtual Terminal?

A web-based terminal that enables businesses to authorize, process and manage credit card transactions from any computer that has an Internet connection and a Web browser.

Is check software included?

Yes. We provide all of our merchant with free check software.

How will I receive payment on each of my transactions?

After the transaction has been approved, your customer’s charges are deposited directly from our processor to your bank account. Transaction deposits range from 24 to 72 hours from the date of the transaction.

Do I receive any training on the equipment?

You will be fully trained on all equipment at NO charge.

What is an Address Verification System?

An Address Verification System (AVS) verifies that the Address and zip code match the credit card customer.

What is a Gateway fee?

A gateway fee is charged to allow merchants the ability to perform secure real-time credit card authorizations manually using a virtual terminal or on a web site over the Internet.

What is a Chargeback?

A chargeback is when a customer disputes a charge on their statement by contacting the credit card company instead of contacting you. If a customer does not recognize the charge on their statement, or if they believe the amount was wrong, they may call their credit card company and ask them to investigate.

What is merchant account processing?

Merchant account processing services are provided by a bank or a third party processor to the merchant. These services include authorization of credit cards, settlement of funds through the bankcard associations (MasterCard/Visa), depositing of funds to checking accounts, merchant billing, and account activity reporting.

How do I get a merchant account?

Complete the online instant application and receive instant approval and activation of a merchant account that will allow you to begin accepting credit card transactions immediately. The merchant credit card acceptance program is applicable only to merchants located in the United States that have a relationship with a U.S. Financial Institution and a valid checking account.

How long does the application approval process take?

You can start accepting credit cards immediately after filling out our online application. After submitting the online application you will receive an email within a few moments along with your new merchant number.

Can I really start accepting credit cards immediately?

Yes, your merchant account will be active and can be used for processing credit cards.

How will I get paid for credit card transactions?

Funds are automatically transferred to your business checking account via an electronic ACH transfer 48 hours after a transaction has been “captured” and settled for payment. For example, credit card transactions submitted on a Monday will be funded on Wednesday or Thursday of the same week.

Will I need to purchase additional equipment?

No, All you need is a web browser and Internet access to utilize our Virtual POS terminal. Use this to authorize/settle transactions, view orders, manage recurring billing and more! If you are a retail merchant, you will receive our fee credit card processing terminal so either way you do not need to purchase any additional equipment.

Will I receive statements?

Yes. Internet-based reporting, that gives you online access to review your daily sales, financial history, and other pertinent account information. There is no additional cost for this service. In addition you will receive a paper statement at the end of each month.

What type of bank account do I need?

A business checking account is preferred, however, if you do not have a business account, a personal account that is primarily used for the business and is in the owner’s name is acceptable. Your bank will be credited and debited via ACH methods.

If I am a new start up company without a credit history, will my company get approved?

There are no hassles and no strict credit requirements. If we cannot approve you probably no one will be able to approve you.

I already have a retail merchant account. Why do I need another one?

Financial institutions and the Visa / MasterCard card Associations have different criteria for evaluating the potential risk involved in credit card transactions where the card is not physically presented to the merchant. This type of business is typically referred to as “card not present” or “MO/TO” (mail order/telephone order). For this reason, a separate merchant account is needed.

What is a payment gateway?

A payment gateway is a service that gives merchants the ability to perform real-time credit card authorizations from a web site over the Internet. The Gateway is an encrypted channel that passes the transaction securely from your customer’s computer to the financial institutions to capture the authorization and approval. Once the transaction is complete, the information is sent back through the Gateway to complete the order and provide you with verification. The Gateway offers many administrative features such as: viewing orders, keeping sales tax records, account maintenance, etc.

How do I get my gateway set up?

When you apply for the instant merchant account the gateway is automatically set-up.

How to know The Importance of Accepting Credit Cards

Affiliate Payload Teaches What Are CPA Affiliate Programs?

The internet offers numerous affiliate programs that make it possible for one to generate a nominal source of income. Some of the types of affiliate programs found on the internet today are CPA, CPC, CPM and CTR. One of the affiliate programs, CPA is the acronym for cost per action. Pay per click affiliate program is another name for CPA.

This affiliate program is basically an online advertising payment model where payment is based on qualifying actions by the visitors like sales and registrations. These programs usually provide banners, buttons, text descriptions and other advertising means to generate action from the visitor, therefore making you money.

The word action in these programs generally defines some sort of conversion in the transaction. The most common conversions, as mentioned, are sales and registrations. However, deals that are based only on clicks are not included in this program as deals that take place through clicks are generally categorized under cost per click.

In fact, it can be considered that the cost per action model is opposite to the cost per impressions model while the cost per click model lies somewhere in between. In the CPA model, it is the publisher who takes most of the risk as the commission here is dependent on good conversion rate from both the website and the advertiser’s creative units. This is unlike the CPM and CPC models where the publisher is not under as much of a risk.

There are several options for those interested in cost per action affiliate programs. The publishers with excess of an inventory usually opt for nonstandard offers. There are sites that specialize in incentive programs; and these sites are capable of offering CPA pricing on different leads while keeping caveats of incentivized traffic in mind. However, affiliate marketing is today considered to be the most used form of performance based pricing. In this program, the merchants and advertisers can determine the action they intend to reward and the amount they are willing to pay for it.

A typical CPA affiliate program can be seen as an offer site that appears before the surfer is reverted to the actual site he or she wants to visit. The site usually has some kind of offer or service wherein the visitor may be compelled to fill out a form or click on a link. The process is called the action that the visitor must take in order for the publisher to get paid. On completing an action, the website owner that’s affiliated with the CPA program pays the affiliate. This calculation is done based on the number of people who visit these affiliated programs.

You can generate a substantial income through CPA affiliate programs. If done properly, making money with CPA programs can be very rewarding.

For more information, resources, and some of the best internet marketing tools on the internet, visit Affiliate Marketing News

Read about Affiliate Payload on eUserReviews.com

Networking is a very big aspect of any business. Whether you are a franchisor or a successful franchisee or a person who is just starting a franchise, it is quite important that you learn to network properly. Networking means meeting people in a formal or informal way. It also means interacting with people who can be your customers, prospective franchisees, business partners, referral sources or even your competitors. Whoever they are, it’s essential that you know the dos and don’ts of effective networking.

• The first thing that you are supposed to keep in mind is that networking doesn’t mean selling your products. When you go to a networking event, you are going for meeting people who may influence your business. If you start with a sales pitch, then you will find that very few people are actually willing to talk to you.
• Be sure of why you have gone to that networking event. If you are looking for a referral source, then going for an event with majority of people from your industry won’t be fruitful. Similarly, when you are searching for people who can offer your franchise business for sale, you should go to such an event where you will find people looking forward to buy a franchise or people who can give you reference to such people.
• Make sure that you have a good speech prepared when people ask you the inevitable questions, “So, what is your profession or what your aspirations are?” Ensure the answer is not a fumble or a boring murmur of your resume. It should be dynamic and attention-grabbing, so that the person asking the question is forced to show interest in your line of work. Also, remember to keep it short and simple; if you go on rambling about your company, you will soon find yourself talking to a wall!
• Having a very good business-card to hand out is essential. Make sure that you have all the numbers up-to-date. Handing out cards with the number of your ex-office is a strict no-no. Moreover, when you take in any card, make certain that you write down something about the person who handed that to you, especially what kind of support you can get from him.
• When you network, show genuine interest in the event in which you are participating. People can spot a fake very easily. So, just don’t go to a networking event for the heck of it; try to involve yourself as much as possible in the event. Be a volunteer, organizer or a sponsor. You will see that you have done more networking this way than by actively pushing your card.
• Always follow up those people whom you meet in the networking event. But respect their privacy too. Call them within a certain time-period. Don’t be too pushy or too submissive; maintain the right balance and you can even turn a cold lead to an active account!
• Know the difference between a ‘lead’ and a ‘referral’. The first one may or may not turn out to be a business, but in the latter case, there’s a definite business chance, if you proceed rightly.
• Never take a person for granted. Talk to everyone you can whether or not they are associated with your field of work. Listen to them and show a genuine interest. Who knows your next big account will come from a source remotely connected to your business. The “six-degrees-of-separation” really does exist!