If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Do you have a website promoting your new product idea? It can be a great way to promote products. However, there are many pitfalls to doing so naively.

For example, I have been spending thousands of dollars on pay-per-click search engines over the last few years to promote my website. I have received many click-throughs but the costs have far outweighed any profits made from the clicks.

Recently I read that RELATIONSHIPS count, not CLICKS! I thought to myself duh! Why did I not properly follow-up with all of the people who clicked through and signed-up to download my free Independent Inventor’s Kit? It seems so simple now.

Well, that is why I am now blogging regularly and emailing those click-throughs to establish relationships with them! Most will probably never buy any products or services from me, but those that do will be worth it (financially speaking).

Regardless, I did not get into business solely to make money (though it helps to pay the bills), but to help people. I hope that those people who never become customers are helped by the free information they get from my website.

Well, I hope that you follow-up on the leads, including paid clicks, that you get… they are worth persuing to build those relationships and some end up as friendships.

Remember to offer some incentive (that helps people) to capture contact information… typically at least first name and email… so you can follow up. Also keep in mind that people are flooded with emails these days. Most people throw out 9 out of 10 emails they receive… so make sure your emails offer VALUE to recipients (i.e. supply some knowledge or product worth spending their increasingly scarce time to open and looking at).

In future articles I will write more tips on alternatives to email follow-up. Stay tuned!

Well, a little business now. Would you like to download your FREE Independent Inventor’s Kit 2008? Visit my website to sign up at: http://www.InventionPatenting.com.

Talk to you again soon… remember to follow-up and build those relationships!

I do not know who this is… but steering so as to cut the entire lawn may be a problem! Likewise, I hope that a snooze shut-off is included so the lawn mower does not unwittingly cut the neighbor’s lawn… and the neighbor’s neighbor’s lawn… and so-on.

Actually, my father tried using one of the first self-propelled push mowers to automatically cut the lawn in our backyard in the early 1970s. He placed a post in the middle of our backyard and connected it to the lawn mower using a rope long enough to reach the outer edges of the lawn.

The diameter of the post was such that one trip around the post caused a length of rope nearly equal to the cutting width of the lawn mower to wrap around the post. This continually moved the lawn mower inwardly towards the post to provide slightly overlapping cuts.

Only one problem my dad did not count on… the lawn was rectangular in shape!

Have an invention? Visit: http://www.InventionPatenting.com for more information.

As your Internet business grows, the value of your domain name increases. The issue of a domain name trademark should move to the top of your list.

You need to guard against unscrupulous competitors that may try to incorporate your domain name in their meta tags to obtain search engine rankings under your name.

If you have a domain name trademark, you can go after these individuals and compel the search engines to remove their listings.

To view the article, click on:

http://www.inventionpatenting.com/trademark_article_1.html

There are two types of patents that are typically of interest to inventors, “design patents” and “utility patents”.

A design patent protects the “aesthetics” or the “appearance” of the invention and is a much more limited legal monopoly than utility patents which protect the “function” of the invention.

Therefore, utility patents are desirable over design patents where possible, though an invention can be protected by both design and utility patents.

Learn more at:

http://www.InventionPatenting.com/provisional_patents.html

Once a patent application is prepared and filed and prior to issuance of a patent, the invention can be marked “patent pending” or “patent applied for”.

While these have no legal significance and grant the inventor(s) no legal rights, the designation tends to discourage other persons or businesses from copying the invention since a patent might issue on the invention granting the legal monopoly to the inventor(s).

Learn more at:

http://www.InventionPatenting.com/provisional_patents.html