If you’re like most people, big name brands will probably come to mind. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll think of some relatively obscure product or company, no matter how often you use their product or service. This isn’t surprising since it’s exactly how branding is supposed to work. The very purpose of branding is, after all, to get people to remember the brand (and the business/products behind it) and remember it in the way they want us to remember. With big name brands putting millions of dollars into branding, it is no wonder that their brands are among the first that pops into mind when thinking of brands at all.

What you should realize though is that branding is for everyone. No matter how small your business might be, it is still important to invest your resources in branding. The same is true for personal brands. As a publisher, you cannot afford to neglect your personal brand. Yes, your reach might never that of the conglomerates, but it will matter for the audience that you reach. Your business may be small now and your name may not be known, but if you have plans of growing your small business, then by not investing in branding now you’re missing out not only in establishing the kind of reputation you want with you present audience, but a way to get out a POSITIVE image about you to your target audience. Not only that, but you’ll also end up having to start from scratch in the future, when you could have started all the hard legwork right now.

So if you think that branding is not for you, think again, because branding is for everybody.

Image via Under30CEO

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

One of my favorite “classic” marketing tricks is the referral. Getting a referral is so important to a company because it has a very good chance of actually bringing in a profit. This is the case for because a referral means that your company is being talked about on a level of trust. The person getting the referral trusts the person giving the referral. This yields better results than if someone was just looking at a website.

If you think your company could benefit from more referrals, it’s time to start making this a priority. Consider a few of the ways your company can increase its number of referrals in the New Year:

Top 5 Ways to Improve Your Number of Referrals in 2012

1. Co-Marketing – Part of a co-marketing strategy is giving referrals. For those who are unfamiliar, many companies create partnerships with other, complementary companies for marketing purposes. For example, if you work at a day care center you may want to have a partnership with a pediatrician. If you refer customers to his/her practice and they refer their patients to your business, you will have an entirely new audience very quickly.

2. Social Media – You don’t need to resort back to traditional phone systems if you’re hoping for a referral. Contrary to what some may believe, old marketing tactics can coincide with new age methods. If you love social media, be sure that you have sharing buttons for all of your readers. This makes it easy for customers and clients to send an online referral to all of their friends and family.

3. Compensation – Even though giving a referral is very easy, people will be more likely to do so if there is an incentive. If you can give someone five dollars off their next visit or a free consultation just for bringing in a friend, your referrals will skyrocket. This is probably the easiest way to bring in new customers and clients (while making your existing clients happy).

4. Simply Ask – It’s never a bad idea to remind existing customers and clients that referrals are appreciated. This can be as easy as reminding them when they leave—just put it into your “goodbye” spiel. If you have a good relationship with a specific customer, ask them directly if they know anyone who may be interested. You might be surprised how something so little can go such a long way.

5. Testimonials – Gathering testimonials is great because it allows those who want to help to do their part. Many customers will tell you they simply do not know anyone in the area or anyone who would need your products or services. The solution to this is to ask for a testimonial for your website or brochure. Have them sign a document saying you can use their words on your website, and you’re good to go. This is an indirect way to give a referral, but a referral nonetheless.

In the end, people will not blame your company for trying to step up its referral statistics. It’s an inexpensive and successful way to grow a brand. In other words, looking to the past may benefit your company more than looking to the future in 2012.

Photo Credit: servicebusinessreinvention.com, mylot.com, blog.marketamerica.com

Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer on topics ranging from social media to telemarketing. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including customer referrals to small businesses and entrepreneurs for Resource Nation.

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

Some people write articles for websites. Some make a good living at this while others struggle. The same is true of people who do website host review for a living. They must push themselves every day to get up and plan a long day. It is true you can set your own hours but it you want to make a living at it you are going to have to put in long hours. This is especially true when you are starting out. When you write blogs in the beginning you will have problems finding steady work. As you get better you will get more work.

You may have to settle for lower pay when you first start writing for someone. People who do cheap web hosting have the same problem. Once they get a name for themselves they will be able to charge more for their hosting. The same is true of writers. They must start off with lower pay and build a good reputation.

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

There are lots of features which are given by web 2.0 and that includes searching for respective keywords. For people who are authorized by the web can make the information dynamic and offering the updated content to the people. Though online option you can share your views and thoughts about any topic via social networking websites. Tags, RSS and extensions are the other characteristics which you will come across. Hence you can get a variety with higher version of web 2.0.

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

Most of such people who are always on the web have already become tired of such unlimited web hosting sites, and they are not using them for much time as before due to the realization that these sites were not providing anything valuable.

Even if you have account on the Web 2.0 sites, which are supposed to be” cool” but still instant messaging or e-mail or phone and visiting people in person is a much better way of having a real both way communication. This two-way communication happens to be the key for developing relationships with other people, and Twitter and any other such sites cannot truly provide the fulfilling experience that makes requirement by everyone.

So, remove such sites from your phone, and stop logging into these sites such as Facebook. Instead, focus on making relationships with people in real not hiding behind unlimited web hosting sites whose only aim is to attract more people to join their sites to make more money.

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

Everyone and their mom is blogging these days – what sets you apart from the rest of the pack? This is not an easy question to answer, and the chances are that you will have to put a little more effort in order to get that edge. One of the things that you ought to do is to seek out a good data center service provider to host your own blog instead of relying on the hosting provided by a free blogging platform.

Take a look at these three compelling reasons why you ought to do so.

Control Appearance/Design

When you host your own blog, you have the advantage of gaining more control over its appearance and the design. Naturally, you want your blog to be as professional as it can be, and you want to have your own mark stand out. With a free blog network, the chances are that you will face restrictions in this regard.

Generate more revenue

Free blog networks come with a lot of stipulations. While you will be able to run a “full” blog on them, you might not be able to have as much access as you can from potential revenue sources. Hosting your own blog will open up so many more opportunities.

Promote your brand

This is linked directly to the first advantage. If you have your own domain and your own host, you will be able to establish your brand more fully. Compare this to having a generic URL and template/design attached to a free blog platform.

If you are serious about gaining that blogging edge, you really ought to get your own blog host. With all the choices available, it will not really cost you that much. More so, the benefits that you gain will outweigh the cost.

Photo via andyp

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

A company logo is the face of the enterprise. It is one of the most important tools in making a company immediately recognizable. Any marketing professional will tell you that recognizability is a major part of a company’s success. The more unique and perfectly suited the design is to the company’s image, the better the results.

Unfortunately, getting that great, innovative design is also the biggest problem of any company looking to develop their corporate identity. The art of creating a logo or a corporate design is something not everyone can do. Laymen like us can plot the general direction but not the nitty-gritty of the implementation. One can go to design companies to outsource the project. The upside here is that you get professionals to do it for you, but this can be an expensive proposition and you are limited to just a few mockups to choose from.

But a new online enterprise called logomyway.com has developed an innovative way of addressing the needs of companies looking for unique logos and corporate identity designs.

The idea behind logomyway.com is quite simple. By signing up with the service you can hold contests for designing the logo or design that you need. Logomyway has a community of hundreds of designers all over the world who participate in these contests. You will put up the cash prize for the contest and logomyway will get ten percent of the amount for administrative and paypal fees. The logo contest prize starts at a minimum of $200 and up to a $1000.

This system has a number of significant advantages over hiring a design company. The biggest advantage is the sheer number of mockups that you will get. You’d be lucky to get more than five mockups from a design company. But with the Logomyway system, you are guaranteed to get a minimum of 20 mockups submitted within seven days or you get a refund. It is not uncommon to get 70 mockups and up to 400 mockups for a contest! The sheer number alone will surely give you a wealth of designs to choose from.

Another advantage is that you will usually get submissions within a few hours – and not the weeks that design companies usually require. This is the kind of immediate feedback that you will surely appreciate.

Te quality of the designs that are submitted are also of the highest quality and exceptional artistry. The logomyway designer community comprise of seasoned graphic designers from different countries. They offer their experience in the field as well as their unique cultural perspective to bring you truly innovative designs.

All of the submissions are requied to be in industry standard Vector Logo files that makes it immensely scalable for any type of application.

More than this though is that you get full ownership of the logo design. The copyright to the artwork is given to you.

Logomyway.com offers a truly unique way of addressing your logo and artwork needs by offering both high quality submissions from experienced designers at really affordable costs.

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

This blog won’t change, and will continue to talk about blogging, and building out blogs, advertising and podcasting, but on Branding David, I will talk about owning a small business, working for others, consulting, speaking at conferences and events, as well as other things that I have been interested in writing about, and never had a platform to do so.

If you enjoy this blog, I hope you will check out Branding David and let me know what you think of it.

Some posts that I have already written that people seem to enjoy include:

• Starting a Blog? Go Wide, Not Niche
• Combatting Laziness
• Tips for Attending Conferences

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

I have moved from site to site, from place to place, and from company to company, and while many people know me rather intimately, in the more general sense, I am relatively unknown.

Attending Blog World Expo, I assumed a few people would know me outside of my normal social circles but that really wasn’t the case. Some people knew the sites I had written on, but most people didn’t know me by name.

If you want to do well online, it is smart to create one place where people can always find you, even if you are working as a blogger for other companies or blog networks. Don’t do as I’ve done and move from place to place or it can become difficult to remember who you are.

Hopefully, over time, I will be able to rectify this error on my part through continued brand building in a wider variety of mediums as those that were doing video podcasts were the most recognized, second came those that did a variety of audio podcasts, and third came us primarily text-only bloggers. So if you want to be recognized, a second tip would be to get your face and voice out on the web as much as possible.

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.

There were some amazing comments, including an analysis by Kevin Muldoon, Blogging Tips owner, and I feel really humbled by those that chose to participate.

Kevin drew a little flack from coming up with a set of criteria for entry, but I think that he handled it well, and I look forward to seeing which other blogs get put under the magnifying glass.

The biggest tip for this blog was to work on scaling back advertising, which I have already started, and work on moving items around to give the site a better flow. Many people seemed to enjoy the content, as well as the branding, but overall it seemed like there were many things people thought could be done better.

It is very humbling to have people put their opinion out there, and while I am still digesting some of what they said, I am definitely thinking about hunting down a great designer to take my current branding and help me take the design of this site to the next level. Don’t get me wrong, DesignDisease is absolutely amazing, and I will probably contact them first, but I think this site is ready for another slight design shift.

Thanks for reading eXtra for Every Publisher – xfep.com.