Valve not interested in making portable games

Valve not interested in making portable games | Ubergizmo window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({ appId : '139683546053659', status : true, // check login status cookie : true, // enable cookies to allow the server to access the session xfbml : true // parse XFBML }); }; (function() { var e = document.createElement('script'); e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js'; e.async = true; document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e); }()); Network:Ubergizmo English, French, SpanishUberphones Subscribe to RSS Ubergizmo ReviewsMobileGamingAndroidAppleComputersGadgetsConceptsPhoto/VideoEvents |  Jobs Home > Gaming > Valve not interested in making portable games Valve not interested in making portable games George Wong 09/15/2011 13:33 PDT

If you’re hoping for the next Left 4 Dead or Portal game from Valve Software to make an appearance on your smartphone – you can stop holding your breath for now because it’s not going to happen – at least not anytime soon. The folks over at Kotaku recently had a talk with Valve and according to their report, the company has no interest in making portable games at all. Valve isn’t going to make games for consoles like the 3DS or Vita, let alone for the iOS or Android devices. “We’re about people sitting on their couches or at their desks,” Valve writer, Chet Faliszek was quoted as saying.

Because Valve is having a lot of success on the PC and on home consoles, I guess it doesn’t really see the need to enter the mobile market yet. Valve’s CEO, Gabe Newell himself has said that they wouldn’t be creating games for the PlayStation 3 in the past – look how things turned out. If the mobile market becomes a significant competitor to the larger “living room” consoles, we’ll see Valve take the leap – but it’s probably not going to be anytime soon. What are your thoughts? Would you like to see Valve games on handheld devices?

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Making a Sales Business Plan - Get the Key Success Factor

I recently reviewed my sales business plan and assessed what strategies were bringing in the business sales and which ones were not. While in the middle of the assessment I happened per chance to stumble across a guy who redefined for me the term sales. To say the least it turned my thinking around and kicked me into high gear.  When I went back to my sales business plan I reoriented the strategies around this new key understanding.

We've all heard it said that when it comes to sales you should be in the seat of your customer and think in terms of their view rather than what you want to say.

We've all heard of the term new sales now, which is rather old, infact about 15 years old now. New sales takes the sales out of selling and puts the understanding and helping into the sales process. So what we do now when we sell is come from the perspective of the customer and help them make a decision rather than sell directly to them.

So that's the sales process. What about this key then that turns your sales business plan into something live rather than something the sales agent ends up wearing out through the hard sell? How is it that this new perspective changes the way we look at business planning particularly the sales and marketing aspect of it? Most people don't even include a sales plan in their business strategies. In fact most business plans stop at marketing thinking that sales is covered. Yet the number one reason small businesses struggle is "not enough business sales".

As business people large or small we need to consider carefully this aspect of our business plan and actually have a section dedicated to the sales business plan. To do that we best understand this key, get our head around this simply idea. That is to redefine what sales means. If you don't understand the term how can you use it least of all master it and even plan accurately for success without it?

Traditionally the word sales has meant:  the total dollar amount collected for goods or services provided; the exchange of goods or services for an amount of money or its equivalent; the act of selling.  In short sales has meant money, exchange and hard sale. Small wonder sales agents have to work hard. With this concept it also makes it difficult to implement a successful sales business plan because you, as a business owner can't control any of those process and guarantee business sales.

How can you plan for cash if you can't control the process? You can't coerce cash out of someone for too long without gaining a barracuda reputation. Exchange is hardly sales because you haven't made on the deal by much as you've lost something that cost you money to gain something. Hopefully you made enough of a profit to cover your costs and grow. For many this is not the case. The act of selling has no control what so ever and dependent on the good will of the person selling.

What if we were to understand sales from this new perspective, according to the man who opened my eyes, sales would be redefined as choice plus yes.  If your customer doesn't say yes you have no sale. Customers don't like being bullied into or being sold to especially if it's something they don't want. Every customer wants choice. If you don't offer your customer choice its a monopoly not a sale.

Nowhere is this more successfully demonstrated than with infomercials.  They are very clever in their offers. There are two options in any sales transaction. Either the choice between two products or add -ons for acting fast or the choice between winning a good deal and losing out.

So I applied this new found knowledge to my actual sales business plan and looked at the strategies I had in place. I changed one thing - the actual communication message itself. One thing from this new perspective and my entire sales business plan came to life and a month later I can see the increase in business sales because of it.

So as you look at your sales business plan or think of adding sales to your existing business plan ask yourself "What choice are you giving your customers?" "Can you offer a choice between products or successfully communicate win/loose as a choice?" Is the pain of not having your product or service greater than the pain of paying for the product or service? All customers perceive loss when they hand over their money unless you can successfully communicate to them the gain. And that's the key you want to apply to increase your business sales. So make sure you reorient your sales business plan to include the is communication message and then strategize on how you are going to communicate it.

Janet Jeffrey's is a small business owner having had several businesses in her career over a wide variety of industry's from health and beauty to internet sales and marketing. She has put together a number of writers to help small business owners, particularly women in business at http://www.womensbusinessplan.com

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Mind Games and Money Making Tricks Used by Sales People When Influencing Customers to Buy

Mind games, money making tricks, and unethical selling techniques, are still used by many sales people despite being bad business practices. I've listed below some of the common tricks sales people use when influencing customers to buy from them. They are used by large and small business sales operations and can bring down or give a bad reputation to not just a company but a whole industry. Look at what happened with the vacation time share and holiday club marketplace. A whole industry tainted by a few companies using questionable sales techniques that were at best unethical and at worst illegal.

You can't build a long term large or small business sales enterprise based on money making scams. A successful sales operation should be built on relationships with your customers, repeat business, and customer referrals. Not one-off sales made with false claims and sales tricks to close the deal. So here are some examples of the sales mind games and influencing techniques that you should avoid.

Lying about who you work for

This is a common sales scam to gain a sales appointment with a prospect and to manipulate the buyer and close the sale. It was used by agency sales people trying to convert domestic power customers away from their existing supplier. In the UK they would start the conversation by saying they were from British Gas and were helping people find the best package for their gas and electric supply. This was to get them through the door and gave them some credibility. They felt it was more productive than saying they were from a competing company and were trying to get the customer to change.

There were cases reported in the media where elderly and vulnerable people were left totally confused. Some had signed contracts without reading them because the nice sales person said they needed a signature just to say they had called and completed the interview. Only when they received notification some time later that their power supply had been cancelled and was changing to a new supplier did they realize something was wrong. By that time the sales person had spent their commission and had moved on to the next money making scam. The power companies received bad publicity and lost trust and credibility.

False referrals

This sales scam is being used at the moment by off shore telesales and telemarketing companies offering to resolve all your outstanding debt problems. The reason they are giving for calling is that you have outstanding debts. This is a pure guess and in the current economic climate many people they phone will have debt problems. Some even claim to be calling you because your bank has contacted them. They ask who you bank with as a security question and then confirm that you answered correctly. Imagine a person receiving the call that has real debt problems. They think their bank has asked these people to call. All kind of thoughts will run through their mind, which is exactly the way this sales mind control trick works. They have a prospect at the end of the line that is now either panicking or thinks the sales caller has the credibility of their bank behind them. When the credit crunch eases and debt is no longer a hot prospect area, the off shore money making scams will move on to the next short term money maker.

My manager wants to know what I did wrong

Another bad business practice that some direct sales operations use is the manager feedback call. The sale person has presented their product and tried to close the sale, but the prospect has not agreed to buy from them. After several attempts to get the sale the sales person appears to have given up and the prospect relaxes and drops their guard. The seller then asks if they can use the phone and call their manager as he cares about customers and wants feedback on what the salesperson has done.

After a short conversation the sales person hands the phone to the prospect saying their manager would like a quick word and some feedback on how the sales person presented the product. The sales trick then used is for the manager to try and close the sale. One way is to ask what the seller would have needed to do to close the deal. The answer is then used to come back with another proposal. There are variations on this scam such as the sales person being reprimanded in earshot of the prospect in order to create sympathy from the prospect. Another way is for the manager to use his power to get the prospect a special deal, but only if they agree to the sales today.

These mind games and scams have been used in some industries for many years and the same ones are still around today. I often invite sales callers in just to see their strategies. I recently agreed to a sales appointment for double glazing. The presentation was very poor and objection handling came down to one stock answer, which was to offer a lower price with guaranteed credit if I signed today. After several attempts to close me the seller reached for his phone and called his manager. The manager asked how much I had been quoted and I answered. He said that was far too much and the sales person was new to the company and had given me the wrong price. That's strange I said, only a moment ago he was telling me what a great company you were and how he had worked for you for over twenty years so he knew all about the great products. There was a silence that I wasn't going to break. The salesman, sat in my living, room was going red with embarrassment. The manager at the end of the line couldn't come up with anything better than he was getting his staff mixed up.

Is it any wonder the double glazing market suffers from a reputation for poor sales ethics when these sales techniques are used? There are many very reputable companies in all direct sales markets, but many have to overcome the credibility issues created by a small minority that are more focused on money making scams than they are on providing a great service that will gain them repeat business and stacks of referrals.

I'm Stephen Craine a working sales manager and trainer. There are very effective and ethical ways to disguise your sales and appointment calls and make them appear more beneficial to the prospect. Using these techniques will increase your results while maintaining and even improving your credibility. You can see free sales training and ideas on how to put this into action at Telephone Sales Skills to make your call customer friendly. You can add these sales skills to the other training available on my website. There are free sales training courses and pages with sales tips and ideas on all aspects of the sales process. Start at the home page and have a click around the free sales workbook courses at http://www.Sales-Training-Sales-Tips.com.

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Sales Objections and How to Prevent Them When Making Sales Appointment Calls

Sales objections to appointments stop us from getting in front of a possible buyer and making a sale. If we can overcome or prevent these obstacles we will have more opportunities to close the sale and make more money. Try this sales training on overcoming sales appointment objections and fill your diary with sales opportunities.

Objections to sales appointments usually happen in two main areas of your call. The first is at the beginning of the call. This can happen if you don't grab the interest of the prospect or they see what they are doing when you phone as more important than listening to you. The second main place we get objections to sales appointments is later in the call when we try to gain agreement to a meeting with the prospect. Information can come to light between these two stages of the call, which can stop you making an appointment. This usually happens as you are asking questions to qualify the prospect as someone you can do business with. This is not always an objection, it is the discovery of information that indicates you cannot sell to this prospect, and in many cases it will be your decision not to meet with them.

Let's start this sales training on appointment setting by looking at how we can overcome objections that occur early in the appointment call. A great sales training tip on appointment objections is: It is easier to stop, or prevent objections than it is to overcome them. The early objections are often illogical and don't make sense. This happens because before you make a sales appointment call you look at the information you have about the prospect. You probably consider what you are going to say. Maybe even picture what products or services may be good for this prospect.  You go over the call in your mind and maybe you have made several sales appointment calls prior to this one. By the time you make the phone call you are tuned in to the situation.  You know what it is all about, you're reasons for making the call, and what you hope to achieve. Your prospect isn't. They are busy doing something else. Your call is landing on a mind that is not tuned into the situation, and it will take a few seconds for them to tune into your wavelength.

Your first words, your sales appointment call introduction, has to do several things. It has to clearly communicate information about your call so the prospect is brought into the conversation and the situation. You have to give the prospect a really good reason why they should listen to you, and you have to motivate them to move with you to the next stage of the appointment setting call. Think how you react to a sales call. Picture the scene. You're sat at home after a tiring day at work, and long drive from the office. You're relaxing, or doing something else that is just as important to you. The telephone rings and the caller ask to speak to you. The first line, especially from off shore call centers, is often, 'How are you today?  My first thought is, do they really care? This is a complete stranger that I've never spoken to before. Why would they care how I am? I would much rather they got to the point. In those first few seconds of the call I am making a decision on whether I should listen to the sales person, or go back to what I was doing. If I can't see a benefit to me within the first few seconds I am going to throw in an objection. This is when you get objections that don't make sense, such as; I'm not interested, even though they don't know what you are selling or why you are calling.

The sales training tip for overcoming these early objections is to follow a successful process for making sales appointment calls. One I have used with my sales teams uses an introduction that includes their name, and the company name. A brief line about the product we offer, including a potential benefit for the buyer. Then the most important line of the sales appointment call, the reason why they are calling. This line will prevent sales objections to appointments. If done well it will grab the buyer's attention and tune them into the situation. Try using this process to start your appointment setting calls and see the results you get, and notice how fewer early objections you get.

Now what about the rest of the appointment call? I'm Stephen Craine, a working sales manager and trainer. The professional sales appointment training above comes from the training and coaching I give to my working sales teams. We rely on these sales appointment techniques to achieve targets and keep our jobs. This is not classroom training that only works on role play calls. This is real sales training developed on live sales appointment calls with real customers. On my website I offer you a free sales training course on making sales appointments calls. It's completely free with no catches or obligations to buy anything. You don't need to register or leave your email address. I offer it free because when you see the effectiveness of the training you might consider buying one of the other courses available on the site. Click the link http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com/free-sales-training.html and see more information on the free sales appointment course.

The sales training website is packed with free sales training, sales tips. To visit the site and click around the pages, open http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com and get real sales training proven by working sales professionals.

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Cold Calling Tips For Making Sales Appointments to Grow Your Small Business Sales

Cold calling tips can help small business sales people to make effective sales appointment calls, and grow their business. Anyone can build basic cold calling scripts in just a few minutes and start making sales appointments today. Many sales people fear or hate making cold calls, but with these basic appointment setting tips you'll gain confidence and soon become skilled at making sales appointments

Think of your cold calls in three stages: The introduction where you present you, and your small business. Sales questions to qualify the prospect as someone you could sell to, and the third stage is where you ask for their agreement to meet with you. Now look at these cold calling tips for each stage of the call and add them to your cold calling scripts for making sales appointments.

Cold calling tips for the Introduction stage of the calls

When you introduce yourself and your product or your small business, keep it brief. Only use the necessary information to communicate who you are and what your small business sells. They don't need your life story or the full history of your company. If your small business sales have something unique to offer then make sure you include it. Phrase it as a benefit to the prospect. Write down your own cold calling scripts for each stage of the call and stick to only the information you need to include. Practice how you will present you and your business to the prospect. Then, when your introduction sounds right, add it to your cold calling script.

The most important of all the cold calling tips is to include a really good reason for your cold call. Take your time developing this line for your sales appointments calls. It is the line that will motivate the prospect to listen to you. If you get this wrong you can lose the chance of making any sales appointments. Put yourself in the customer's shoes and ask yourself what would you want to hear? What potential benefits can your small business offer a buyer that will make them want to meet with you?

Cold calling tips on how to ask qualifying sales questions

Don't make the mistake of writing a list of sales questions to ask the prospect. When you ask questions from a list you lose the relationship with the buyer. People soon tire of having to think of a new answer between each question they are asked. Instead of a list of questions, use this cold calling tip. Write a list of the information you require from the customer. This is the information you need to decide if you can sell to this customer and that you want to make a sales appointment with them.

Then use your list of information as a checklist while using normal conversation skills to gather the information that you need. Start by asking wide open questions such as, 'Tell me about... or, Explain to me...' Then use more specific questions to pin point the detail. This sales questioning technique works really well in cold calling scripts because it keeps the prospect talking and uses the questions to direct the conversation.

Asking for commitment to the sales appointment

Getting the customer's attention during the introduction stage of a cold call is important and sales people invest in learning sales skills for that stage of the call. But many people fail to build an effective cold calling script for the agreement gaining stage of the sales appointment call. When setting appointments by telephone you have to have an agreement gaining strategy that will work. Try these cold calling tips on asking for the appointment.

Don't ask if they will agree to a sales appointment with you. Instead ask when they are available to meet with you, or if they are available on a specific day or at a certain time. When making sales appointments give the buyer a great reason why they should meet with you. Explain about the possible benefits to them that your small business could offer. But do not get further into the sale than you want to. If your product or service is better sold face to face then hold back on the selling until you meet with them. I've always found it a bad idea to get into conversations about price on the sales appointment call. Use the price as a reason to meet with the buyer. Tell them you need to meet to discuss price and think of a good reason why.

What you are saying to the prospect is, so that I can show you the full benefits, we should meet and I can give you all the information you need to make a decision on whether to take it further. As with all good sales appointment training you should put that last sentence into your own words and write it into your cold calling script. You are not asking for a buying decision on your appointment cold call. You are only looking to secure the appointment. When you have given a good reason for meeting with you, ask them if they are available at a specific time. You are not asking if they will meet with you, you are presuming that because there is a potential benefit for them, the sales appointment is the next logical step.

I'm Stephen Craine and I'm a working sales manager. These cold calling tips are the basics of building effective sales appointment scripts. To add more sales skills to your calls, and grow your small business sales, you can get a free sales training workbook course on how to cold call to make sales appointments at http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com/free-sales-training.html

There's no cost, no need to register or leave any details, just open it, start using it today, and you can even save it and pass it on to others. For more sales training on all other stages of the sales process you can click around my website at http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com

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Handling Sales Objections With a Simple 4 Step Process That's Making Money For Salespeople Everyday

Sales objections can be handled with a simple 4 step process that smoothly turns objections into sales for any product, any type of sale, and in any market place. No longer fear objections and become an expert on handling them. A major benefit many sales people have gained from using this process, is to start really enjoying selling because they have the confidence to overcome sales objections.

I'm a working sales manager and sales trainer for a major company. The process that my sales teams use for handling objections has to work in real situations, and achieve real sales results. My job, and my income, depend upon the results my teams achieve using this objection handling sales training.

The sales objection process

Define the objection

Gain agreement

Present the answer

Close the sale

Use these simple 4 steps as the basic framework for handling objections, and closing more sales, and add all your other sales skills and sales training to the process.

1. Define the objection

The first step is to define the real objections from the buyer's viewpoint. The sales objections they perceive may not be real. They could be based upon false evidence or beliefs. You have to be able to see the sales objections from their viewpoint, even if they are not real or are based on false evidence. Then you can handle the objections. The key is to understand what the buyer believes, and views or hears in their internal pictures and self talk. This is where the real objection lies, and where it has to be dealt with.

Imagine a customer that thinks your product is too expensive because they have seen what they believe to be a similar item at a cheaper price. The customer is comparing what they believe are the benefits of your product with the cheaper one. Maybe the product they are comparing it with is inferior. Although untrue, this information is real to the buyer and must be challenged to get past the sales objection.

With good questioning skills you should define the real objection as seen by the customer. You should also define the beliefs and evidence that the customer has used to form their objection. It is their beliefs and evidence that you have to challenge if you are to handle objections based in the buyer's mind. Many objections, concerns, and questions, exist only in the buyer's mind, but to the buyer they are very real and will stop the sale if not defined and dealt with.

2. Gain agreement to the definition

Many less experienced sales people would now go rushing in with a fantastic sales presentation to handle the objection. They then find that they haven't answered the objection as viewed by the customer, or another concern arises that could stop the sale. They have used their best sales presentation to answer the objection, and now there are more to answer.

There are two really important actions that many new sales people miss out. One is to gain agreement to the sales objections they have defined. The second is to ask if there is anything else that could stop the sale. Before giving a great sales presentation to handle the objection, you want to make sure you are answering the real objection, and that there are no more objections. If there are more, then go back to step one and define them until you have all the questions, concerns, and obstacles that could prevent you closing the sale.

3. Present the answer

You have defined the objection, and gained agreement to the definition, and to there being no more sale objections stopping the sale. Now you present your solution and answer the sales objections. If you have used effective questioning skills to define the objection the buyer has told you exactly what they need to see and hear to get past their objection.

As with the above stages, remember you are presenting to overcome sales objections that exist in the buyer's map of reality, not yours. Only present the benefits that will handle the objection, not a general presentation of all the features and benefits of the product. Answer the sales objections the buyer sees, and challenge any false evidence or beliefs they are based upon. Understand what they are thinking, and what they need to see and hear to change their beliefs and agree to a sale.

4. Close the sale

Now you can close the sale, or gain agreement to the next stage of the sale. There is no need for trick closes or clever manipulation techniques. You earlier gained agreement that you had defined their objections, and that there were no more preventing a sale. That is where the main closing of the sale took place. You have presented an answer to the objection that shows the buyer the benefits that will turn the objection into a sale.

Now all you need to do is ask two gentle questions to gain their agreement to the sale. The first question is to ask if the benefits you have presented have answered their concerns, their objection to the sale. If it hasn't go back to step one and re-define their concerns, and start the process again.

Once they have agreed that you have answered their objection, the second action is to use a simple direct question to close the deal. You can relate the question to what happens next. For example, you could ask, shall we complete the paperwork? Or, can we agree a delivery date? You have done all the major closing earlier when you gained agreement to there being nothing else stopping the sale. A gentle question to ask for the order is all that is now required to gain you the sale, and the commission payment.

Don't be fooled by the simplicity of this sales objection process. It is the easy to use sales training that gets results, and that sales people are able to use in real sales situations. This sales technique is proven everyday by the sales teams I manage and train.

To see how you could put this objection handling process into action today, open http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com/sales-objections.html and then see if it's an objection handling technique you could use. Consider how easy it is to learn and put into action, and then decide if it will be of benefit to you in your sales, or sales manager, role.

Stephen Craine is a working sales manager and trainer for a major UK company. He uses his experience of sales, motivation training, NLP, and personal development coaching to achieve results for himself through the achievements of others in a sales environment.

All the sales training presented here, and on the website, has been tested and proved by working sales people in real sales situations. There are no acronyms, buzz words, or complicated techniques to market training courses. The focus is on practical sales training that achieves results. The aim is to help anyone looking to increase sales results, develop their career, and make more money.

For more free sales training or to contact Stephen Craine, visit the website at http://www.sales-training-sales-tips.com

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Making Sense of the Digital Divide: Literature Review

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Making Money From Art & Literature - Online

Is it possible to make money from art & literature online?

If you're an artist, do you know who's developing and presenting contemporary art & literature?

If you're a online cultural organisation, do you know who your key competitors are?

By looking at Alexa, Best of the Web, and other sites - as well as from our own perspective - we've picked out five key sites bridging the gap between capitalism and contemporary art & design.

These are sites that use socialised internet tools like tagging, comments, and blogging; sites that are wholly or predominantly based around the development and publication of contemporary art and literature; and sites that are developing and presenting new work. Above all these are sites that are making a living either directly or tangentially through their activities.

We Make Money Not Art

The name says it all - headed by Régine Debatty, this blog started in 2004 to investigate 'how often companies that develop and manufacture technologies actually meet the hackers and artists who have a more playful or activist approach to them. Do these two different worlds collide? If yes, how does it happen? If no, why not? Would it make any sense to try to change that non-communicative situation?'.

One of the most linked-to blogs, with an Alexa rating of 34,431, over 30% of its audience in the US and a regularly updated list of contributors, the site doesn't actually generate revenues as a direct result of its advertising but rather via Debatty's fees from writing and speaking.

Ad!dict

Based in Belgium, members collaborate on themed projects & share work via online profiles. Divided into a number of different areas - the addictlab, for example, allowing more experimental interaction - there is tremendous potential here to get involved in a wide range of new projects, either based on the themes or through interaction with other users.

This is one site that has spread its net wide in terms of a business model, supplementing revenue from retail of books and magazines with cultural funding, contextual advertising and business partnerships. However, with a net presence that seems to have been around since before the first bubble, there's no question that this is a powerful force.

Stereo Publication

This is one organisation that falls down more on the design side than the pure art side - an on and offline magazine, they make their money through retail sales and luxury editions of their high-quality magazine.

A little like We Make Money ..., Stereo claim not to be making money out of this activity - they say they are a non-profit organisation who are setting out to design new ways of developing magazines that are more creative. By including an online work-in-progress section for developing new projects, the processes are more visible - a low Alexa score does nothing to harm the fortunes of the group, who continue to turn out new work on a timely basis.

Born Magazine

Born have been around forever, and provide consistently high-quality content as well as some offline events. Their focus is art and literature, leaning towards new media.

This is where we see a quite different model - Born is financed through sponsors and through donations. This is a more organic, cultural model - and again, shows that with low overheads it's possible to have a long-running art and literature magazine.

Magwerk

Finally, having moved right to the other end of the spectrum from We Make Money ..., Magwerk are as close as you can get to a traditional publisher. Publishing a suite of lifestyle magazines including art and design, fashion, and music, these magazines are published as if they were physical, employing the kind of page-turning design you can now get for free on Formatpixel.

It may no longer be innovative - but it's certainly making money. With full-page adverts from high-quality luxury goods companies, solid business partnerships and sponsorship, Magwerk are definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Summary

We asked if it was possible to make money from art and literature online. These five organisations show that not only is it possible - they make it look easy!

Oliver Luker is the chief editor of Dispatx Art Collective, the online curatorial platform providing the tools of a socialised internet for the development and presentation of contemporary art and literature.

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Facebook Payday - Making Money on Facebook - An Honest Review

Do you know one guy made over 1 million in one week on Facebook? It's true.

The purpose of this article is to give a honest review of the new product "Facebook Payday" by Peter Koning. I have had the opportunity to take a look at the material in the pre-launch, and because of that, I want to give you my impressions.

There are so many ways and angles to make money online today....everything from gambling online to selling items on eBay or Amazon.

If you are into making money online, one of the areas that is often over looked are the social networking communities. There has been a lot written on MySpace and other social communities, and how to connect with people and promote your business, however, there has been little mention of Facebook...the monster of all social network communities...until now.

The numbers are staggering:


More than 63 active users
An average of 250,000 new registrations per day since Jan. 2007
An average of 3% weekly growth since Jan. 2007
Active users doubling every 6 months


These numbers are phenomenal, and for opportunists there is gold in those numbers. In fact, if you reach only 0.1% of their active members, you'll be reaching 100,000 people. That's almost an entire city of new people for you to meet. Not only that, these people are interconnected because of the relationships they've established on Facebook.

Peter Koning in Facebook Payday provides you with all the techniques that he has used to build up an enormous online business. For those who are open to social networking online, making money on Facebook can be very profitable to you. The Facebook Payday gives you all the monetizing application tools, relationship building strategies, as well as a full template and flowchart on different methods to promote your online or offline business.

What You Get With "Facebook Payday" -

1. Three Bonuses:


Facebook Primer eBook with all the applications needed to monetize your Facebook profiles
Facebook Social Ads eBook. Peter Koning bought the resale rights to this product and adds this as a bonus.
8 Interviews with Facebook pro's - Fahad Maniar, Mari Smith, Mike Geary, Paul Renner, Ron Reed, Rhoberta Shaler, Steve Iser, and Beverly Trca-Kitchen.
A Reed Floren lost interview.


** Interviews are available in audio or transcript format for you to download.

2. The Main Facebook Payday eBook itself, which is 101 pages in length, and comes with an additional Facebook Payday Action Worksheet pdf.

This is not one of those shallow info. products that is a waste of time and money. Peter Koning leaves no stone unturned as he reveals all of his secrets and gems in making money on Facebook. Facebook Payday goes over:


Selling Products on Facebook
Marketing on Facebook
Online Advertising on Facebook
Selling Services on Facebook
Build Your Own or Monetize Existing Applications
Investing


I found that the greatest benefit in Facebook Payday are the social networking strategies that lead to a "call to action" and making money. As well, there is an extensive discussion on driving traffic to your profile and then ultimately to your product sites. Using private messaging, walls, virtual gifts, discussion threads, joining networks, and more, are all ways to social network with people to build your business.

I can't tell you here, as I'm sure Peter K. would send his lawyers on me, but he reveals a special application that will allow you to sell affiliate products and get paid on your Facebook profile and sites. Not only that, but Facebook Payday advises you on what type of services or products to promote and sell on Facebook.

If you have an existing online business (or offline), and your looking for ways to promote your business, Facebook can give you an endless stream of customers knocking on your door with credit card ready in hand. With over 63 million active members, do you think you can find a few business partners?

Of course you can...and if you want to get a "piece of the pie," and want the best Facebook strategies, then I highly recommend Facebook Payday.

Discover how to generate an easy $20,000 per month with Facebook Payday

Click here to find out the precise details

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5 Ideas For Making Money With Facebook

How to make money with Facebook? Is it really possible to make money with Facebook? It seems like making money with Facebook is on everybody's mind these days. If you are one of those people who want to know how to make money with Facebook, here are some ideas to help you get started in making money on Facebook.

These methods don't require you to buy anything or pay someone to tell you the "secrets". As a matter of fact you can start making money with your Facebook right now without having to spend any money at all. These are no "secrets" for making money on Facebook. Simply some very basic methods that people use to make money elsewhere, but with a little work and patience you can apply the same methods to make money on Facebook.

Of course, like any other method to make money, you need a market for it. In this case the market would be Facebook friends. The more Facebook friends you have, the more chance you have of making (more) money. What if you don't have much Facebook friends? Fortunately it's very easy to create a massive market (friends for Facebook) simply by searching and inviting others to be your friend. But, if you want to take it to the next level and automate the finding and adding friends process, there are some software that can do just that.

Ok, lets get to the point and see how you can make money on Facebook. Here are some proven ways you can use to make money on Facebook.

Showing ads on Facebook

With all the Facebook applications that make it easy and a snap to start showing ads on your Facebook, there is no excuse for not taking advantage of this method, specially if you are popular amongst your Facebook friends, and have a big audience to show your ads to. Using AdSense, chitika and other PPC advertising companies you can easily setup your ads and customize it to your liking. Make sure to set it somehow that it serves ads related to product and services that you know your Facebook audience is interested in.

Writing a Facebook book (How To...)

Facebook is attracting more and more members everyday. And lets face it, not all of these people are Facebook savvy. And even though getting started with Facebook for you and I might be simple and quick, many people have problem with the basic things. Write a small and to the point e-book about Facebook and how to use it. Maybe a simple step by step instruction for getting started with Facebook. Or an e-book about how to use different application to make Facebook experience a better one. There are many possibilities. With the huge amount of Facebook apps and all the new ones that are added daily, this can be quite big. You don't even have to pay to promote your e-book, simply use your own Facebook or better yet create one for your e-book and start promoting it.

Affiliate marketing on Facebook

It's the same idea as showing ads, but in a more direct way. Register for free with affiliate networking sites such as ClickBank, Maxbounty and etc, and pick a product relevant to your Facebook audience interest to promote. You will be provided a simple code which is a link with your affiliate id embedded in it. Whenever someone clicks on that link and buys the product or service, you make money by getting a commission.

You can create an entirely new Facebook for that product and start promoting it there. A friend of mine is actually doing it for 4/5 different weight loss product. He created a Facebook page for each product and started adding friends to his Facebook. He writes short posts about the product and posts it on his Facebook with his affiliate link in it. Hi is making a couple of hundred dollars a month doing this. I know it's not much, but for something that doesn't cost you a dime and takes about 30 minuets to setup, and takes about 20 minutes or so a day to run, I don't think it's a bad deal.

Blogging about Facebook

There are already some people doing it. But there is always room for new voices. Get a free blog over at blogger and use Google AdSense (which is already integrated in blogger, so even if you don't know how to show ads on your blog, you can set it up with couple clicks) to show ads on your blog and make money that way.

When you established yourself as an authority and a trusted person for anything related to Facebook, you can get some sponsor and maybe use affiliate networking sites to find and promote Facebook related product.

Create and sell a Facebook application

If you are savvy enough and know your way around, why not use your skills to make a Facebook app of your own and sell it to Facebook users? Again, once you made it, you can use the same strategies mentioned above (blog or a Facebook page for the app) to promote your app.

There you have it, 5 ideas you can use to make money not only on Facebook, but you can also apply the same ideas to MySpace, Twitter and other social networking platforms to make money.

Satrap is the founder and author of controversial blog, blogstash.com. A blog full of great how-tos and information about making money online. Visit blogstash today to get your share of this valuable information and learn how to make money online.

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7 Steps to Making a Great Landing Page for PPC

Landing pages are heavily used to attract customers to where you want them on your website: the sales payment page being the ultimate objective for most ebusinesses.  Like everything else in life, there are right ways to go about creating a landing page and a million wrong ways.  Creating a good landing page is vital because this is what many first time users are going to see of your web presence, and you cannot afford for it to be the last they see of you!

Here is our simple, 7 –step program to creating a landing page which works:

Step One: Identify the USP

Every business and product will have a USP – Unique Selling Point.  Your USP may be you are the cheapest company in your zip code for your product or service, provide the tastiest food, the coldest beer, the fastest, the cleanest, the loudest, the closest, the “whatever” you do which sets you apart from the rest of the competition.

A USP will usually be combined in your primary headline, but it may be relegated to a secondary headline where you already have a short and sweet headline.  A good example is this one from Amazon:

“Earth’s Biggest Bookstore”

Step Two: Briefly Outline Benefits

Your USP headline attracts attention, but now you have to satisfy the customer’s initial curiosity.  You should have ONE paragraph, using BULLET POINTS to answer this question from your customer, “Why do I care this product or service?”

You are outlining benefits here – what will this product do for your customer.  For example:

• We are the cheapest which means you save money – GUARANTEED!


• You get the best quality – GUARANTEED!


• We deliver next day nationwide which means you don’t have to wait – GUARANTEED!

Go back and edit this paragraph continuously until you have just bare bones, so taking line one:

• We’re the cheapest so you save money – GUARANTEED!

Step Three: Use a Picture

This is known as the “Hero Shot”; think the cowboy in the Marlboro ads or the hunk in an aftershave campaign or the smiling couples for Viagra commercials.  They show the product in use, giving context which either forms an empathetic connection with the customer or appeals to their aspirations.

Typically, the hero shot will be a photo, but it can also be diagram showing where the product fits into an existing problem which is typically experienced by your target market readership, or it may be a chart showing where you rank with the competition (top!) or a simple graphic selling a number, e.g.” 50% OFF!”

Step Four: Set the Context of Use

Context of use is important, and this is closely related to step 3 and the Hero Shot.  Context of use provides the user with “real life” application; for instance, if you are selling a beverage, show it being drunk – if its beer, show it being drunk in a bar; if it’s champagne, show it being drunk on a yacht on a blue sea.

Obviously photographic imagery and video are excellent for doing this, but you can also invoke context of use by displaying a client list or by using testimonials.

Step Five: Get the Customer’s Information

Ask for the user’s email and/or contact information – this is extremely important for all landing pages, but it is especially vital for landing pages selling to other businesses (B2B).  In this instance, a landing page’s primary objective will probably be lead generation and unless you gain the contact information, you fail!

The best way to get contact information is to ask for it, typically providing some freebie or promotional pricing for a limited period.  Use a privacy statement too – this enhances your professionalism.

Step Six: Provide a 2^nd Chance Safety Net

Not every visitor will turn into a converted lead or sale and you will experience a substantial number of users who are interested in you but not ready to buy now.  Provide them with a second chance to do business with you, known as a safety net, and this can take many different forms:

• Add a button for the user to subscribe to your Facebook profile, Twitter feed or other social media presence you maintain;


• Offer to email a reminder;


• Offer a freebie download such as a whitepaper; or


• Bookmark the page.

Step Seven: The Call to Action

This is the ultimate purpose of the landing page – the final act you want the user to perform and at some point you have to ask them to do it.  The call to action may be to buy your product, it may be to complete a survey, to navigate through to a sales page, to pick up a phone and call your sales team, to add themselves to your email bulletin…whatever it is that you want the user to do before they leave the landing page.

Examples include:

“Meet the World’s Best Browser” and immediately below is the download box for the Firefox browser

“Things Mac” placed immediately above a download box and a “Purchase: Buy things Mac now” box

“NCover helps .NET teams all around the world deploy applications with fewer bugs” and placed below is a download box with an offer in it, “Download NCover – 21-Day Free Trial

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