Baby Boomers: A Profitable Niche for Small & Home Based Businesses

The baby boomers of today -- those individuals born between 1946 and 1964 -- are not the grandparents of yesteryears. They are not some demure grandmothers sitting on a rocking chair. Instead, they are active, busy and generally are doing a lot. Some are even going back to work, or starting new careers! If you are looking for a market to serve, there are tremendous opportunities in targeting the baby boomers. According to the Bureau of Census, the "baby boom" propelled the largest percentage increases of any age group in the 1990-2000 decade.

A Merrill Lynch study entitled “The New Retirement Survey" reveals how baby boomers will transform retirement. The study finds that "boomers are not interested in pursuing a traditional retirement of leisure. Instead, the majority of boomers plan to keep working and earning in retirement, but will do so by cycling between periods of work and leisure, thus creating a new model of retirement."

As such, services or products that cater to the changing perspective of baby boomers about retirement are growing. Opportunities are aplenty for small businesses as these baby boomers are leaving and buying new (often smaller) homes, moving to senior communities or even deciding to stay put. Many of the baby boomers are looking for specialized, unique, even high-end services – which a small or even home-based business can provide. Some possible services include eco-tours, home remodeling, financial services, specialized spas and even kayaking.

Another profitable niche to consider is an apparel business targeting senior women. Women over the age of 50 are estimated to stand at about 50 million in the United States today — a baby boomer woman turns 50 every 14 seconds. As a woman ages, her spending power typically increases — but marketers' interest in dressing her decreases! Only a few retailers are actively targeting this important market segment.

The baby boomer segment is a large, growing, and under-served market. If you are looking for a profitable niche, this is definitely one!

How to Write Effective Emails

Despite clutter and anti-spam laws, email remains a cost-effective marketing tool for small businesses. An article in the Direct Marketing magazine lists down the key elements of an effective email, and these are:

• Identify the main point and pitch it at the beginning
• If you are selling a product or service, make sure the recipient has all the information needed to make a purchase
• Organize your message to support your main point
• Identify the right segment of your database
• Make sure that the tone is friendly and appropriate.
• Tell recipients how to opt out of the mailing list.
• Proofread the message.
• Craft a compelling subject line.
• Make sure attachments are attached and links are active.
• Include all contact information, not just the Web site address.

Read full article here

Chitika: New Way of Monetizing Web Pages

If you are looking for ways to further monetize your webpages and earn advertising dollars, you may want to consider Chitika's eMinimalls ("Interactive and Intelligent Product Merchandising Service") program . Chitika shows in real time the top products suited for your webpage and displays key product information as well as comparison shopping. Publishers get paid for every click made by the visitor (pay per click).

Using the standard ad formats (e.g. banners, leaderboards, rectangles, skyscrapers, etc.), you can show products that are suited for the page -- and hopefully what your visitors want and need. They offer two options in terms of being interactive: an automode whereby the code will automatically figure out what your page is all about and automatically select the right product for your page; and manual wherein you set the keywords you want to show for the page. The manual version is currently set as default, a way to ensure that those serving Google Adsense on their pages can run Chitika eMinimalls without violating the Adsense Terms of Service. If you wish to use automode, you have to send them an email asking that this feature be turned on.

The click throughs for us are quite low, but the pay per click is quite high (though not that impressive). We currently use it only on our main channel pages, but it brings in additional revenue.

If you want to expand your advertising revenue mix, try out Chitika's eMinimalls now

Checklist for Starting a Catalog Business

If you are looking for information on starting a catalog business, check out PowerHomeBiz.com's list of books that can help you start a successful catalog business. One of the most recent books on this topic is The Catalog Strategist's Toolkit: Rules, Tools, Forms, and Checklists for Both Print and Electronic Catalogs by Katie Muldoon.

In the latest issue of Direct Magazine, Ms. Muldoon wrote a checklist of questions excerpted from her book that can help you evaluate your plans for starting a catalog business. While a bit general, her checklist covers the organization/structure of the planned business entity to supplier relationships to price determination. She also looks at the market opportunities and the proposed plans to reaching potential customers. Going over her checklist of questions is like creating your own business plan!

Read the full article here.

Home Business Alerts: Finding New Ideas for Your Home Business

This week's issue of PowerHomeBiz.com's newsletter Home Business Alerts can be found here:
http://www.powerhomebiz.com/newsletter/2005/oct21.htm

Article Marketing2: Private Label Rights

An article touting the effectiveness of article marketing just came into my inbox today. The author talks about ways a non-writer can have information products -- in his/her own name without lifting the pen! One of his suggestions is to "buy private label rights to a collection of articles or product." According to the author, "you can then edit them anyway you like and most importantly, put your name on them and claim authorship!"

I don't have any beef with the concept of private label rights. This is an old income generating technique that has been applied successfully to various types of products. My problem with "private label articles" focuses mainly on the question: who actually gave the permission for an article to be sold as part of "private label articles?"

Let me point a specific instance and show how "private label articles" can be a double-edged sword.

One visitor alerted us to the fact that one of our articles, "Starting a Florist Shop Business" by our very own Jenny Fulbright was then being sold on eBay. Yes, on eBay!!! The seller was offering the article in two versions - one for download (about $2.99) and another one a printed version ($8.99). The article was going fast! The seller was offering the article as fixed price Buy it Now, with 50 quantities per auction. All 50 were gone in 3 days. So for the download version alone, the seller was making about $149.50, less eBay and Paypal fees. Not bad -- for something that was not his!

We acted quickly, and posed as one of the buyers. We purchased the article, and got the downloaded version in order to check whether the article in question is indeed our article. And what do you know? It is a word for word copy of our article -- except for the copyright notice and byline! The seller claimed the byline and the copyright of the article. After proving to eBay that we own the copyright of the article (and becoming part of eBay's Verified Rights Owner's Program), we were able to cancel the next batch of auctions and the succeeding ones. The seller was slapped a suspension by eBay. We also sent the seller a cease-and-desist notice.

What was his excuse? He didn't know that we own the copyright to the article, because the article was one of the private label articles he bought in a CD-ROM from another seller. So he thought that he could actually claim the article as his because that was part of the deal when he bought the CD-rom. This seller was then running about 150 different auctions at that time, selling different "how to" articles, all purposely from his "private label articles" collection.
Unfortunately, the seller refused to give us the name of the website where he got the "private label articles" CD, but promised never to sell the article again. True to his word, we never saw his eBay user ID again, or the article being sold again on eBay (and we check -- up to now).

But our experience showed the real risk to other writers out there: are your articles being repackaged as part of a "private label" collection of articles without your consent?

Direct Marketing: 10 Steps to Preparing Your Data

Direct marketing remains one of the most effective strategies for some types of products and businesses. If you are one of those who uses direct mail to get the word out about your business, Chief Marketer has a great list of 10 things you need to consider in order to prepare your direct marketing data. Given the costs involve of running a direct mail campaign, you'd want to make sure that the first step -- your data -- is clean and accurate.

The 10 steps you need to do are:

1. Properly integrate all your data
2. Validate your data and check for consistency/accuracy
3. Validate distribution parameters
4. Validate relationships (if you're sending to a list of "cancelled customers" check that your data actually contains a list of existing customers
5. Standardize your contact information (e.g. have a consistent way of saying "Avenue")
6. Check for duplicate records
7. Run National Change of Address
8. Check the validity of the addresses
9. Browse and spot check your data
10. Go with your gut: check for data that you think isn't right.

You can read the full article from Chief Marketer

Article Marketing: Is it Really YOUR Article?

PowerHomeBiz.com accepts article contributions from other writers. However, we publish only a handful of those submitted to us (of the 100+ articles per day we receive, we publish 1 or 2 of that -- either because we know the authors, or because we like the article because it is instructive and the topic/perspective is fresh).

One thing I've noticed though is the uptick of articles ripped off from other writers. Not just a paragraph or two, but the whole article! Some "authors" submit to us articles they claim as their own (they click "Yes" on the question "Do you own the copyrights to this article?" we have on our form). They keep the whole article and title intact save for the author's name, which they replace with their own name.

One article submitted to us recently is an exact rip-off of an article we published 3 years ago. The fake "author" runs a subscription-only content website (no wonder it is members-only, possibly to limit real authors from finding out about his scam!), and has been very aggressive in submitting articles of late. I alerted the author of the original article that someone is passing off her article as his. I shudder to think where else the fake author submitted said article, and what websites actually published it thinking he owns it. Needless to say, any articles submitted by said "writer" is sent to the Junk bin immediately.

We also use Copyscape and other tools to alert us of content similarities of articles submitted to us. There's this one article though that slipped through the cracks, which we published both in the website and in our newsletter. Thankfully, the rightful owner is a newsletter subscriber, and sent us a copy of his book where the content was ripped off word for word. We changed the article's by-line to the rightful author, and banned the fake "writer" permanently.

With people harping on the effectiveness of article marketing -- submitting articles everywhere to get free exposure and free links to your websites -- more and more people are joining the game. Alas, not everyone has the brains to actually write a good (or even decent) article and instead simply steal another person's article to be passed as their own. And it even puts publishers like us in peril. I know of an owner of an article directory who was slapped with a DCMA complaint after publishing a "stolen article" submitted to him. His mistake was taking the form submission at face value without checking the veracity of its claims.

Stealing articles is just plain wrong on a number of fronts. It is stealing. It is a violation of the rightful owner's copyright. But it is prevalent, and growing. All we can do is to be vigilant about it, with publishers taking a more aggressive stance about it.

Why Consumers are Not Shopping Online

I remember the fearless forecasts made by Web commerce drumbeaters back in the 90s - that the Web will revolutionize the way we shop, and we will now choose to shop in front of our computers instead of going to brick n' mortar stores. Well, it did happen -- but only for some.

In fact, the magazine Internet Retailer says that the retail web industry is "persistently faced" with the 40% obstacle -- "about 40% of consumers do not buy online." This view was shared by the latest results of the Retail Forward Inc.'s E-tailing Shopper Update, which showed that the number of consumers who went online to shop even decreased from 68% in April 2004 to 63% in April 2005.

So why are people not shopping on the Web? According to the study, following are the reasons why consumers are not shopping online:

• Prefer in-store personal interaction (41%)
• Shipping is too expensive (36%)
• Can't feel/touch/see product (34%)
• Concerned about security of personal data (29%)
• Concerned about privacy (28%)
• Returns are too difficult (25%)
• Online prices not competitive with offline (11%)
• Not enough time during the day (8%)
• No high speed connection at home (6%)
• Sites are difficult to shop (5%)
• No Internet access at home (2%)
• Other (16%)

If you are selling on the Web, it may be beneficial to know the reasons above in order to understand the concerns of your customers. And who knows, you just might be able to lure those 40% to shop online!

Are RSS & Podcasting Merely Fads?

Going through the articles submitted to PowerHomeBiz.com for possible publication, I have noticed a significant uptick on articles focusing on RSS. Many article writers are proclaiming the wonders of RSS, asserting that businesses must jump on the RSS bandwagon in order to grow their market reach. Same with podcasting - that this is the new nifty tool that businesses must use.

But how are RSS and podcasting being used? Are they actually being used out there?

An October 2005 white paper published by Yahoo entitled "RSS - Crossing into the Mainstream" showed that RSS have very limited adoption -- even awareness -- among Internet users. The study finds that only "12% of Internet users are aware of RSS, and only 4% have knowingly used it." That's a very low percentage!

Podcasting has an even lower usage rate. The study finds that while 28% of Internet users are aware of podcasting (which they attribute to media coverage and buzz), only 2% actually subscribe to podcasts! No wonder Business 2.0 magazine recently declared podcasts to be mere fads that will soon disappear.

The numbers put into context the decision of using RSS and podcasting for a business. For a home business with limited resources and technical knowhow, the study gives comfort to the slow adoption to these technologies. Afterall, only 2% of the Internet population use podcasting -- a very low number to target resulting in high probability that the whole effort may not pay off. Afterall, how sure are you that your market is part of that miniscule 2% who listen to podcasts? Well, according to the study, only if you are targeting those who are tech-savvy and heavy media users.

The study is interesting, and you can find it here

Common Business Loans for Small Businesses

Business loans can be defined as money lent for a specified amount of time at a specific interest rate to a specific person or people that operate a business or plan to operate a business. This definition is very broad, but so are the various types of loans available to business people. Deciding on which type of business loan that you and your company will benefit from the most is very important. Often times, a start-up business or someone that has never owned a business will find themselves more or less applying for a personal loan. This can be a very risky endeavor, mixing business loans with personal loans, however, often times it is the only available means for first time business owners.

One of the first things personal business owners need to do is establish business credit. Business credit can help you get a business only loan without using your personal credit. Establishing business credit can be done by:

Read full article

Exploit Your Brand To The Fullest

A brand goes beyond a company name and tagline. It is a complete personality or set of values, sometimes even a story line, along with repeated visual, auditory and behavioral elements. When you decide to invest in creating a brand, follow these guidelines to ensure that you get your money's worth:

1. Be distinctive. You'll land your company in expensive legal hot water if you attempt to steal or encroach on another company's identity. Apart from legalities, you tend to get the most bang for your branding buck when you generate a powerful contrast with competitors' images. Do something different.

Smartfood popcorn's glossy black bags still stand out on store shelves as few other food products do. And what macaroni-and-cheese maker besides Annie's offers free "Be Green" bumper stickers and information about the company mascot, a real rabbit named Bernie, on the packaging?

Read full article

Creating an Identity for Your Business

Graphic designers frequently play a prominent role in launching or repositioning a company. When they create a look (or new look) for a company's stationery, brochure, ads and web site, this often goes by the name of an "identity package." Don't let this convenient term mislead you into believing that a company's identity consists of merely the logo and look. No, every company has an identity or image in the minds of its customers comprised of at least nine other factors besides the graphic look.

How your market perceives your company should be deliberate, calculated and coherent rather than accidental and confused. Think about how you'd like your company to be perceived along these dimensions. Then investigate whether or not actual perceptions match your intent - and adjust your marketing to reinforce the qualities you want your customers to associate with you.

Read full article

Small Business Financing Alternatives

While being your own boss and owning your own company has many advantages and benefits, there are many challenges that you face as a small business owner. One of those challenges involves meeting the cash requirements of operating your business.

Getting the money to start your business was challenging enough, getting additional cash once your business has been started can prove to be even more difficult. Banks are more than willing to greet you with open arms when it comes to providing you with a business checking account and other services that they can charge fees for, but quickly change their tune when it comes to making a loan to help your small business. Even if the bank does agree to loan your business money, they often require you to pledge not only business assets but personal assets, such as your house, for collateral.

Read full story

Is Your Product Worth Talking About?

Every business owner knows that to succeed in the market, people must know your products, or at least have heard about your products. One extremely effective way to ensure that many people learn and hear about your product is to have them talk and get excited about it. But how do you get the market to actually talk about your product?

I stumbled across this Powerpoint presentation made by Terry Pittman, the head of AOL's Digital Research Division, on "What Makes a Product Worth Talking About?", which was presented during the Word of Mouth Marketing Association's July conference (a great resource for marketers).

Pittman raised several questions to determine whether a product is worth talking about:

• Is it worth talking about (e.g. improve life, better than alternatives, or catalyze curiosity)?
• Is it easy to talk about?
• Is it memorable?

Check out the full PowerPoint presentation

Bloggers & Word of Mouth Marketing

Blogging has been a growing phenomenon, with bloggers beginning to take on the role as word of mouth influentials.

Yet many businesses do not as yet realize the importance of bloggers in their own marketing mix. A negative blog post from an influential blogger about a product may adversely affect the perception of would-be customers to the product. Hence what bloggers say about your business, and how you could influence a blogger to champion your business, should be an important aspect of any marketing mix.

I found this short report from GfK (Growth from Knowledge) entitled "Reason to Pay Attention to Bloggers" that looks at the possible role of bloggers in an organization's marketing. The report starts by acknowledging the criticisms levied against bloggers -- e.g. "dangerous amateurs with too much power and too little sense of responsibility."

However, it goes on to say that bloggers -- from a marketing standpoint -- are an influential and desirable group. Several reasons are given:

• Bloggers are actively engaged in spreading influence: more likely to recommend products & brands to other people
• They have a younger demographic (and hence, more attractive to many marketers)

The main point of the report is that bloggers are going to be a compelling group for marketers to learn to engage because they are recommending brands to others.

Read the 3-page report

Seven Home-Based Business Ideas

I’m always amused at books that try to predict the hot jobs for the future. Leafing through one book, I saw "Underwater Archeologist." I’m not sure why that’s a high-growth area, but I noticed the book failed to predict any Internet-based careers, such as web designer! The book didn’t foresee the development of the Internet. Clearly, predicting the future isn’t easy!

None of these businesses is earth-shattering. But, they all offer real opportunities for entrepreneurs, if the business matches the entrepreneur’s personality and desires. We’ll briefly describe the nature of the business, why the business provides value to clients or customers, and downsides to the particular business. Then, for the specific business you contemplate, we’ll ask you to create a similar brief description of your proposed business idea.

Here are seven home business ideas. These are specific businesses which can be operated from a home.

Read 7 Home-Based Business Ideas

Finding New Ideas for Your Home Business

Generating new and fresh ideas is paramount to running a successful home business. Ideas are needed for developing, marketing and advertising your products or services, and used for resolving different problems you may encounter.

If you think you're in a rut, below are four (4) ways for generating new ideas that can help improve your home business.

Read Finding New Ideas for Your Home Business

Search Engine Marketing Strategies for the Holidays

With Christmas just around the corner, etailers are getting on high gear to ensure that shoppers go to them for their Christmas shopping. The research group eMarketer predicts that e-commerce will hit $26.2 billion for the last quarter of 2005, and etailers will be fighting to get a bigger share of that huge pie.

If you are selling online, part of the marketing strategies used to get more shoppers to come to your site is search engine marketing. Direct Magazine has an excellent article on the best SEM strategies that an etailer can adopt for the holiday season, as follows:

1. Adopt a 3-pronged approach: use broad generic keywords early in the shopping season, then move to more branded terms later on, after which cut back on SEM drastically just before Christmas. This follows a consumer's pattern of researching what items to buy early in the season, before making the actual purchase.

2. Manage your budget so you don't run out of your alloted keyword spending early.

3. Look beyond Google, Yahoo! and MSN to the smaller or vertical search engines, including both alternative searches and comparison engines.

4. Identify and use very specific keywords that may not get searched often but that convert strongly to sales and at a lower price than more popular terms.

5. Constantly tweak your ad as well as landing page to make sure that you clearly convey why customers should shop from your website

6. Don't forget the retail basics of inventory, fulfillment and suggestive selling. You don't want to advertise heavily something that you don't have! You have to have the inventory, able to deliver, and suggest other items that the customer may be interested in.

Pets: A Booming Home Business

Pets are big business nowadays. American pet owners are spending more on their pets today, lavishing them with costumes, frozen treats, toys and a myriad of other products. In fact, the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (APPMA) estimates that Americans’ spending on pets will be about $14.5 billion in 2005 for food alone.

Even home-based businesses are cashing in on the trend. Operating their business from their basement, Mark & Lorraine Moore of FlightQuarters.com earn millions in sales from their bird diaper (yes, bird diapers!) business. Another entrepreneur I recently featured at WomenHomeBusiness.com is Becky Marshall, who is seeking to cash in on the growing gourmet frozen treat market for pets with her Chilly-Dawg products. I have also recently chatted with Gayle Martz of SherpaPet.net, a former airline stewardess who decided to create pet carrier totes suitable for air travel.

If you are looking to jump in the growing pet business bandwagon, check out APPMA's top 6 pet industry trends for 2006 . It might just be the opportunity you are looking for!

Improve Your Productivity - In One Minute!

In my experience as an entrepreneur and business owner, I sometimes get overwhelmed with the many tasks that I need to do. That even if I work continuously 24/7, there are still a million and one things that needs to be completed. Little do I know, that I have already spent 30 minutes or so dwelling on my "panic mode" - not doing anything, just worrying about everything. It's counterproductive, I know, but sometimes I just can't help it. This is one area that I really need to work on to improve my productivity.

One of the best advice I've read recently is from Dr. Jill Ammon-Wexler, a regular contributor of PowerHomeBiz.com. In her article "Improve Your Life ... One Minute at a Time", she lists a number of things you can accomplish in one minute -­ from re-focusing on a goal, and planning one small action to move you in your desired direction.

Read full article.