Raising money for a business often means getting investors. Having investors means giving away pieces of the company. You’re going to put your heart and soul into your business, and you don’t want to have to give away any of the equity. It’s your blood, sweat and tears, it should be your profits.

Yet, that startup cash has to come from somewhere. It’s not going to fall out of the sky, and you don’t want to have to go deep into personal debt to make it happen, either. Fortunately, there are a number of ways you can raise funds for your business without having to give away any equity. Some of the best include:

1.  Choose a business with low startup costs. There are plenty of fields you can get into with very little in the way of startup cash. Service businesses tend to fall into that category, as are Internet-based businesses. For example, if you have a background in graphic design, opening your own studio may require nothing more than the time it takes to set up a website and do some online marketing to promote your new business.

2.  Enter (and win) business competitions. There are a number of business competitions out there, often sponsored by various industry groups or educational institutions. Some of these contests offer prizes running as high as $200,000 to the winners. Other prizes in these competitions can include things like web design or hosting services, accounting services, and more. Depending on the competition, you may need to be a student at a particular university to qualify, though not all of the competitions fall into that category.

3.  Land a large contract. One of the best ways to get off the ground fast is by winning a big contract out of the gate. Get involved in the RFP process in your industry and in your local area. Depending on your field, you may need some startup capital to purchase your initial equipment, supplies, and materials, but that first big sale may be able to provide enough profit to really launch your business forward.

4.  Gather pre-orders. If you’re not in a field where you can land a contract, you can probably still take pre-orders. If you have an in-demand product or service, pre-orders can be a way to raise immediate capital, and create some buzz for your product all at the same time. There are a number of channels through which you can gather these pre-orders, but perhaps the most effective is a simple website.

5.  Start part-time. One of the most common ways small businesses get started is with the paycheck from a day job. If you start small and grow your business slowly from the ground up, you’ll accomplish several things. First, you’ll take the time you need to know whether or not you’re cut out for this kind of business. Second, you won’t have to put your livelihood on the line from day one, reducing your overhead significantly. This lets you pour more and more of your profits into the business, growing faster and faster with each sale. Eventually, you’ll hit that tipping point where the business is making enough money to support your full-time attention.

6.  Crowd-source investment. Consider using kickstarter.com or a similar site to get your business up and running. With Kickstarter, you can offer pre-orders (see #3 above) but you can also get investment capital. Kickstarter supporters are usually awarded with some kind of bonus for investing, such as a free copy of your product when it comes out, but you can add to the investment potential by offering extras (such as a signed copy of your new board game, for example).

7.  Partner with other businesses. You may be able to work with an established business offering a complementary service or product. For example, the local appliance repair shop might be willing to offer your delivery services to its customers. Partnering with another business not only gets you going without having to invest capital in facilities, it also reduces your marketing overhead. You have a ready market in the form of your partner’s clientele. It’s a win for your partner, as well, because your product or service becomes a value add that their competition isn’t necessarily able to offer.

You can build your business from the ground up without having to give away equity. Explore one or more of these options today, and get your business started out independently and on a solid financial footing.

About the Author: Greg Muender is President of of Ticket Kick, a California company that helps drivers to reduce speeding fines and/or get speeding tickets, and other traffic tickets dismissed by helping drivers through the trial by written declaration process. The company, which formally launched in 2010 after providing similar services since 2006, is the leading company in this space and growing rapidly.

Online industry in 2011 has picked up in notches and miles in the virtual world, because of the increase in the usage of internet by individuals across the globe for e-commerce and various other purposes. Many social websites like Twitter and Facebook have seen success with millions of individuals logging in, thus making way for the business establishments all over the world to aggressively promote their products and services through online advertising. Through online advertising, the business establishments were able to reach out to quite a huge number of individuals and promote their brand.

Popularity of Online Advertising

The year 2011 is considered to be the year of internet advertising simply because; billions of dollars were spent on online advertisements by business establishments all over the world in 2011. The companies quickly took the advantage of the popularity of social media sites and other websites and aggressively promoted their products and services to the masses. This way they not only let their global presence felt, but also took competition to an entirely new level, and increased their revenue in the form of sales.

Why Online Advertising?

The Internet has now become one of the main media for purchasing goods and services as making online payments has become quite safer. Any business that wishes to grow has taken to advertising in the internet to get a world wide presence. Such a type of advertising in the internet has become common and is considered to boost the success rates of any business. However, it is to be noted that all business enterprises were not quite successful through online advertising in 2011, as they were not able to target the potential clients due to wrong advertising strategies and policies. By placing proper advertisements in the relevant sites, you can be sure to attract the right kind of people to your website and thus have greater online traffic and subsequently expect good revenue. Various types of advertisements were used in the internet in 2011, and different techniques were used to attract the potential clients across the globe.

Was Online Advertising Popular in 2011?

It is not enough to just have a good, well designed and developed website for attracting customers. You need to target your potential customers and place advertisements accordingly, keeping in mind the demographics of a region. Advertisements when tailored have definitely brought in better results than expected and the business establishments have seen a rapid growth in its volume of business and revenue generation through online advertisements in 2011. Another reason for the increase of popularity of online advertising is that the traditional methods of advertisement are costly and also limited to a specific region. However, the internet being a free world where people are not limited to boundaries, the advertisements placed online tend to play a major role in getting success for the business. It is also quite cost effective to place numerous advertisements on the internet. Furthermore, various innovative ways of advertising were used on the internet in 2011, to lure the potential clients. Thus, the online industry has seen tremendous and rapid growth through online advertising in 2011.

Press release distribution is a core marketing system that works. If you know how to write quality and thought provoking contents to attract the media, then you can easily leverage on the rich targeted traffic and profit.

In this post, I want to draw a line between press release distribution and coupon discount marketing to help you get started in creative productivity. Everyone is marketing online these days, but is every entrepreneur reaping great success?

A friend of mine had to sell his blog to pursue another offline career. According to him, blogging is waste of time and only lazy minds embark on it. Actually, this happened 3 years ago and I’m still standing and attaining high levels in my online businesses. What about you?

Why You Should Distribute Press Release

There are several benefits attached to well-crafted press release content, but the major one is to “attract high paying clients.”

Every business needs chain of customers and database of paying clients. You’re not going to pay your bills, drive the latest car and live in good house from $17.34 commission on affiliate sale.

Offering your services to targeted audience is the best way to earn decent income from your web diary (blog). If affiliate marketing is your choice, then learn how to build an email list that trusts your recommendations. All these would consume your precious time and may not yield results at the end.

A press release when properly distributed could attract media practitioners and consultants across diverse fields. You don’t need thousands of clients to make real money, only one paying client is enough to make you rich. However, the more clients you’ve, the better in case of layoffs.

The Essence Of Coupon Discount Marketing

Do you know why Groupon and other and other third party shopping sites give coupon discounts and other incentives like free shipping, rebates etc.? No, they don’t love you so well; they simply want to motivate you to buy “now.”

No company wants to lose any viable prospects, and so, they flash the exact coupon code in your face to enable you save while shopping. Conversion rate is usually on the high side when hot deals are in place.

Even on black Fridays and Thanksgiving Days, sales usually go through the roof. That’s the power of persuading online shoppers of which your prospects are active members.

Now, let’s merge press release distribution and coupon discount marketing to strike a good balance.

Press Release Vs Coupon Offer Tip

We’ve been properly informed on the importance of press release distribution and coupon discount offers. But how do you implement both into your business? It’s very simple actually, but oftentimes, we complicate the whole issue.

Getting the best from every marketing campaign requires an “attitude.” This attitude is what sets you apart from the teaming population and generate reliable income on the long run.

Your Press Article Should Be News Worthy

Will your release articles make it to Google New?

Before writing a press release, you need to look away from your immediate self-gratification and focus on your audience. In order words, it’s not about you but your audience.

In my niche blog where I share insights on vista print discount coupon, psprint discount codes and other hot deals, applying these press release secrets helped me drive the right buying traffic on a weekly basis.

Write in the third person. Instead of addressing the press release in your name or about your company, approach it as a reporter giving sources where necessary.  Just like third party coupon networks help individual companies with coupon codes, you should become a representative of your company only.

Press Release & Coupon Takeaway

There you’ve it, the principles behind press release distribution and coupon discount offers. It doesn’t matter what niche you, these nuggets can be applied to any niche where there is hunger for quality information.

It’s left for you to take action and change your life. Write your first press release today with the mindset of a solution provider. That’s where profit lies. See you at the top!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Michael Chibuzor is a web traffic expert and helps small businesses drive targeted traffic to boost sales. He writes in his vistaprint discount coupons and coupon for psprint site and contributes regularly to 123print.com. These vistaprint.com discount coupon and psprint discount codes can help you save when printing business cards.

BuySellAds.com is a great platform for advertisers to reach and improve brand recognition and sales. In simple terms, we can refer BuySellAds.com to be an online network for advertising, which tends to bring the online advertisers and publishers together, thus making it easy for the advertisers in finding blogs and websites that suit their needs and budgets.

How does BSA work?

It is very simple to be a part of BuySellAds.com and all you have to do is to register yourself for a free account. Once your account is created, the necessary information can be entered in the form provided. Their website provides the user with the required HTML code which needs to be inserted into the blog’s template for the ads to be displayed on the blog, after the ad space is purchased by the advertisers.

Ease of Use

Once the blog is submitted to BuySellAds.com, it tends to appear in the publisher’s directory and help the advertiser to search the sites where they would like to place their ads. Once an advertiser finds an interesting listing, this website shows them the available data regarding the blog’s complete rank, Alexa rank, Google page ranking, RSS subscriber number and many other parameters of interest. Basically, an advertiser can gauge the website well in advance before investing.

Payment Section Directly Handled by the Website

As an advertiser, you can easily purchase ad space on your blog directly from BuySellAds.com and thus, you can be relieved of having to be a part of the deal. BSA will broker the deal smoothly between you and a publisher. And in case of any complication, the money you spent will be transferred back to you promptly.

Benefits for Advertisers Using BuySellAds.com

All you need to do is to open an account with them and add advertising money. You can browse their premium listings of websites. BSA has a very stringent system of approving publisher websites. Advertisers can save a lot of time which is invested in screening potential blogs/websites, since the job is already done and you are given a dynamic blog data to study. This website offers flexibility in regards to the amount and type of advertising space that you would like to offer to potential publishers.

A point that advertisers can really be happy about is that BSA charges their commission amount from the publisher and not the advertiser. So you have an advantage of being the king as an advertiser as you just have to pay the flat rate and not worry about the extra commission as the publisher pays for it.

A definite thumbs-up for BSA, it is really an useful service.

Do you use Buysellads?

This post will help you in understanding on how to gain press attention for your start up. Establishing a name for oneself and one’s fresh new business has surely become a job in itself nowadays. Public exposure is the key to success, but no one gets publicity that easy anymore. However, when it comes to approaching the mass media for showcasing one’s business, some basic rules never go out of fashion.

Ways to Make the Press Spread the Word of One’s Start-up

The common strategies for making one’s networking click are:

Fearless Showcasing

Underestimating you own self is the biggest mistake of any start up aspirer. If one is confident that he/she can provide interesting and valuable services then he/she has nothing to fear from. Targeting the correct type of writers is of prime importance. Generally people who write about other note-taking applications, personal productivity applications or some beta-stage startups are the main audience in such situations. Helping a reporter out by answering the different queries they post online may also prove to be effective in this struggle. Other than that, having personalized pages in Facebook and Twitter are also vital avenues to let one’s network grow. This also helps one to keep in touch with his/her customers.

 Constant Follow-up

Beginners get disheartened if they do not get any response back from the bloggers/reporters that they tried to contact. They just simply presume that they are not that interested. This is not always true. The reporters get numerous mails from various people from all over and it’s not possible for them to go through all of them each day. Weekly follow ups are advised, decreasing the interval durations between these follow ups as the due date approaches nearer. It can really be frustrating at times but one needs to bear with this turmoil patiently in order to make it happen.

24/7 Availability

A start up entrepreneur needs to prove that he is more than capable of meeting deadlines set by reporters. All reporters are not the kindest creatures alive on earth which would mean that personal crisis, no matter how serious, would be nothing more than “petty excuses” for them. In order to provide one’s company with the break needed, reporters need screenshots, so unless and until the business owner in concern cares to line them up for them, they could care less.

Too much Focus Ruins D-Day 

Overvaluing the day of the event may make one look like a fool. It does not make a difference if one decides to save some uniquely exclusive information to be revealed on that very day in order to make it extra-special, it does not usually make any big difference to the reporters because at the end of the day they chose to write a report on someone because they found it to be more interesting compared to others.

Being One’s True Self

Maintaining one’s humility instead of acting like a celebrity, just because one managed to bag some big media outlet is nothing short of idiocy. It just builds up a fake image in their eyes which would eventually attract negativity towards one’s company and make one seem like a wannabe.

What are your ideas to gain exposure from press?

This is a sponsored post by Zenni Optical.  They are the number 1 online eyeglasses store offering high-quality prescription eyeglasses. Prescription eyeglasses are a necessary health item that need to be brought from reliable brands. Apart from the regular features and safety of a presecription glasses, Zenni Optical aims at providing a lot of additional features that will make your life easier.

These eyeglasses are coated with  new generation features such as oleophobic coating (which means it is fingerprint resistant), AR and hydro-phobic coating. Together the user can have a hassle free use of his/her eye wear, where they do not have to worry constantly about keeping their lenses crystal clear. For most users the biggest issue is the oil from fingers and fingerprints, that simply would not go away.

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They have a great pricing which starts from $6.95 prescription eyeglasses. This means they provide high quality glasses at incredible pricing.  83k fans on Facebook is testimony to their popularity and reliability among their loyal customers.

Do you need free organic traffic?

Then search engine is your best source. If you position your web pages properly, they would begin to attract spike of targeted prospects to your blog without any additional efforts.

But dominating search engine isn’t an easy task for several bloggers. And for SEO experts, it’s not as easy as they made it to be. But they actually use secrets and tips to speed up their success rate.

If you ride with me, I will show you the best 3 search engine optimization strategies for 2012.

Once you master these simple tips, you’ll be on your way to efficient Google domination.

I’ve used the tips right here to optimize my coupon blog where I share vmware coupon, Parallel coupon, raxco coupon and computer performance discount codes.

What SEO Is Not

Before I share the tips I’ve for you, I want to instill what SEO isn’t. It’s not a hit-and-run marketing system.

It’s a real business that demands your total concentration and constant learning and implementation.

Don’t expect overnight miracle when running an SEO campaign. You can only get an instant result if pay per click was your choice. But for free traffic generation via search engine organic pages, you need plenty of smart tips, and a little patience.

So, SEO is not hype. It will not make you a millionaire in 2 months, but when heaven smiles on you, who knows what would happen in the first quarter of 2012. It’s a great year, and to succeed beyond your wildest imagination, here are the best tips that are proven to work.

1. Research, Research Again

Planning your attack is very powerful and can give you an edge in this competitive market. Those who have successfully dominated Google search engine didn’t get started in a day. They had a great plan and part of that was effective research. But a research study can never be effective in the first attempt; you need to repeat it once more.

Writing articles and publishing is the easy aspect of web page optimization. In fact, it’s not the optimization per say, it’s only a way you send your message errand to go and yield results.

Are you a product creator, content marketer, writer or business consultant, don’t rush into that next project until you’ve the pros and cons well sorted. The worst thing in business is to ‘start’ when you’ve not ‘researched.” So get started with your research study.

2. Don’t Chase The Next Fad

The web is always changing. This includes positive and negative changes. But guess what, everything on the internet marketing sphere is a fad, although there are proven and aged systems that will forever remain.

In order to make it big this year, don’t chase after the next fad. If new software comes forth with “yellow” promises to catapult you’re ranking to #1 without any efforts on your part, that’s a big fad.

Stay away from rumors that the next Google updates will strike you if you don’t take advantage. I’m sure you don’t have money to waste, why not invest that money in acquiring the right knowledge about content marketing and natural link building. All these would help your Google top 10 dreams a reality.

Avoid internet marketing fads; concentrate on churning quality blog posts, articles, copy, product reviews and what have you. Before the year runs out, the rewards of hard work and honesty will pay heavily.

3. Build Strong Link-wheels

Do you know how link-wheels work?

It’s so unfortunate how bloggers and link builders neglect this important aspect of raising a web page on Google. Have you ever wondered why the top 10 rankings on Google suddenly dropped and got drowned in page 20 of search engine results pages (SERPs)?

The reason is because those bloggers didn’t initiate a strong link-wheel system. In essence, this is an advanced form of linking to a web page. Let’s assume you want to build 10 links to your ‘money page.’ The first thing is to utilize a web 2.0 site like squidoo and create a lens that’s detailed and keyword rich. That’s your primary target.

Now, the remaining 10 links will be linked to your squidoo page which has your anchor links embedded. This will create a perfect off-page instinct that connects with the rest of your web pages.

Your top 10 ranking will be quicker, smoother and more flexible. But it all depends on your target keyword, the competition and how natural it flows.

Marketing Takeaway

There you’ve it, the best 3 SEO strategies to dominate search engines in 2012. What else can I say than to wish you a blissful New Year and good success as you work on your goals? Don’t give up so soon, better things are right under your nose. See you at the top!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Michael Chibuzor writes for a vmware coupon, Parallel coupon and discount deal site and occasionally for verybestsoftware.net where he shares free raxco coupon. These parallel coupon and vmware coupon discounts can help you save on computer performance software.

Image credit: digitalinventive

Passing years scare me. And with good reason. I have never been a fan of growing up. I am just 22 but I can tell you I have seen most things that many never will and felt things that many people would not ever want to feel about themselves.

Credit: peter-loza.deviantart.com

I am very attached to my folks back home. But back when I was 18, the naive teen in me was excited about leaving home and being all independent. I am talking about leaving for college after school. Now its 5 years since I have had a stay at home. In the last 5 years I have never had the peace of mind to stay with my mom and dad for extended periods. All my trips have always been a touch and go. Always giving me an incomplete feeling when I leave. And I cant help but think that maybe I should have stayed back and went to a college closer to home.

Because when everything is said and done, we will all see our share of misfortune and experiences with time. But the time that you get to spend with your parents is only limited.

Year 1995

I yearn for the Christmas when I was younger. When I was younger, the 25th morning were always insanely exciting for me. It was the morning when Santa would have left me a present on my study table. My eyes would pop open with a sudden jolt on Christmas morning and before anything would set upon the study table. And there it would be, the gleaming box of present. It was there every year for the next 5 years. Until I realized.

Let me tell you one thing, when a boy understands that Santa is not real. There is only one feeling. Pain.

If it wasn’t for my general realization of this fact, my mother would not mind placing gifts at my desk for every Christmas till I am 100. Trust me, she hated herself when my bubble burst about Santa’s existence. I think that is Love. I really do think of it as something divine.

Year 2011

Christmas in 2011. I wake up in my empty rented room. There is no gift. No mom with her radiant smile to make me feel all  Christmas-y. There is an ash tray that needs emptying. I barely feel like getting out of bed. After all it is just one Sunday I get off from work. I check my cell – I don’t even have the balance to call her up. It hurts.

I regret where I brought my life. I regret not being with mom more. Because now its too late.

The .XXX TLD is by far the most ineffective attempt to filter porn by ICANN, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. This extension was launched by them to help parents keep a check and prohibit their child from accessing any site ending with .xxx. At the same time, adult websites can still operate their content on .com and other extensions. This makes .xxx an ineffective tool. But like all extensions, the .xxx does offer some investment opportunities.

Should you invest in .xxx domain name?

To answer that question, let me tell you what is the current demand state of .xxx. The company that is in charge of managing the .xxx extension is the ICM registry. They are a Florida based company. The sale of .xxx domain names went live on December 6th. And what has happened is non-sexual and respectable universities/organizations are scrambling to grab .xxx domain names for their brand. Surprised? Here is why: a spokesman for the University of Michigan said, “This is viewed as a rational and practical step to protecting our image.” It’s true—the school certainly doesn’t want some porn company launching a GirlsOfMichiganUniversity.xxx website.

But what is the investment opportunity for internet entrepreneurs here?

It could be a wise option not to invest in a .xxx domain name. Your investment could take a long time to yield returns.

Some reasons why you should not invest in a .xxx

• Most porn companies are still operating on .com and are not really switching to .xxx. If anything, they are only purchasing .xxx related to their brand.
• The amount of complications and possible legal actions are not worth the investment. Some adult companies are giving legal threats against ICANN to colleges that have booked .xxx combinations to protect their good image.
• History has shown that no other TLD other than .com has really caught on. The .xxx sure looks like it is going down the drain as well.

Some reason why you should invest in a .xxx domain name

The above mentioned points are some of the cons of investing in .xxx. However, there is a tendency that when .xxx investments give returns, they might pay back in a very big way. It could be a wise investment if you are ready to sit with it for a long time.

A quick tip, unethical though it may be. You can invest in .xxx extensions for brands that are non-adult, they will usually come scrambling for buying that domain from you considering the potential image risk they will carry.

So, it completely boils down to you for making a call to invest. It may not be a definitive returns market but it might be worth a shot at.  The .xxx domain names will also be heavier on your pockets. They cost $70 which is almost 7 times the regular price of a .com extension and such.

Namecheap has started sale of .xxx domain extension at a special introductory discount. You can buy a .xxx domain name from Namecheap.