The old twist was simply an extension of a company’s on-premise
advertising…Furniture trucks hauling chairs and tables across town with a photo
of their goods emblazoned on the side, or the local television station cruising
for photo ops with their logo plastered on the side.

Of course truckers have always had a hankering for highly stylized and
personal graphics on the doors of their cabs, usually lettered by a unique breed
of extremely talented artists.

That’s old school. There’s nothing wrong with old school, but the new school
envisions big bucks selling graphics on the sides of trucks that don’t have
direct affiliation with the companies who advertise on the side of them.

These days, XYZ Trucking Co. hauling lobsters, or whatever the catch of the
day might be, from Cape Cod to Boston, could advertise been.

“People see TruckSide advertising as an additional revenue source, especially
when freight hauling is down because the economy is down overall”, says Doug
Scott, news production editor of Transport Topics. A trucking publication that
recently ran an article about TruckSide advertising. “It is growing in
importance, you will see a lot more of the owner/operators, – the small guys or
small fleets – doing it”.

The parties that benefit from TruckSide advertising include the trucking

companies, advertising agencies, media companies that rent the sides of the
trucks, the advertiser and , last but not least, sign and graphic companies.

“One tractor-trailer company could have 30,000 vehicles – you add that up and

the amount of square footage across the country is phenomenal.” Says Jack Berry,
founder of PrintCom, a grand format digital printer based in Raleigh, N.C. “If
they qualify it, quantify it and get some leaders to adopt it, I will retire
soon.”

MEASURING TRUCKSIDES

Qualifications and quantification of the effectiveness of TruckSide
advertising is showing hopeful early results. The Traffic Audit Bureau (TAB),which
audits and authenticates the circulation, or number of impressions, for
out-of-home advertising, like billboards, has devised a system known as MARG for
tracking TruckSide advertising effectiveness.

The MARG System basically marries information from a Global Positioning
System (GPS) that tracks a truck’s movements every 2 minutes with traffic data
from the federal government’s Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) to
audit the circulation of a particular moving ad.

“The system was in development for over 2 years and we introduced it in
December of 1999, so the system is out there right now and people are in the
process of getting the GPS leads in,” says Larry Hennessy Vice President and
General Manager of the TAB.

Hennessy, says that initial test results from Chicago showed about
40,000-50,000 impressions per day for a McDonald’s ad that ran for 12 weeks on 3
trucks, either on the interstate near the city or closer to the center of town,
which averaged more impressions.

“I don’t know if it is a direct comparison (to billboards) because the media
is very different, says Hennessy,. “It is real easy to count how many people see
a billboard. With trucks in motion it’s much more complicated, but the numbers
generated in Chicago are relatively equivalent what outdoor advertising is doing
there”.

Tests in other major metropolitan markets, like Atlanta and San Francisco,
have shown similar results. Things are definitely looking up for the inner metro
markets, where delivery trucks and such make their rounds within the city
limits.

“One of the phenomena we’ve seen in the last couple of years is outdoor media
mixes, or optimization, where instead of buying just posters and bulletins,
advertisers are seeing the opportunity of reaching consumers in micro or niche
markets where they can reach consumers during part of their daily life cycle,”
says Steven Freitas, Chief Marketing Officer of the Outdoor Advertising Assoc.
of America (OAAA), “They’re seeing opportunities to reach them in various
places, and one of the products they’re definitely considering and using is
TruckSide advertising”.

Freitas adds that the OAAA hopes to start compiling national circulation
figures, with numbers of the top 25 metro markets within a year.

This niche marketing is not restricted to urban areas – the Texas Lottery has
had success on the open road, but so far, excluding the Texas Lottery, it’s the
only tracked example of TruckSide advertising.

“We do it a little differently for the Texas Lottery program – we lease the
trailers ourselves and sublease them to the company so that we can control the
vehicle”, says George Gearner, Chairman/CEO of Minneapolis -based Fleet
Advertising Media Group (FAMG), which sells TruckSide media packages to
advertisers. Gearner is also first chairman of the TruckSide Advertising Council
(TACA), an advocacy group for TruckSide advertising.

“All of the trucks have LED digits on the sides of them that display the
current jackpot of the Texas Lottery. We can access those trailers from the
Internet and change the digits using GPS”, says Gearner.

Initial results from the Texas Lottery campaign have also been positive.
Though the trucks aren’t blazing the coveted inner urban trails (however, they
travel within 50 miles of the central business district), they’re traveling to
and stopping at the places people buy lottery tickets.

This speaks to the targeted niche marketing that the advertising industry has
been moving toward for some time with alternative media forms, like TruckSide
advertising.

“About a year ago, Tide wanted to reach people whey they might be spilling
food on their clothes, so they put Tide ads on paper napkins in diners and
restaurants. It didn’t matter what the CPM was, what mattered was that they
wanted to reach diners eating. In many regards, TruckSide is the same way, ”
says OAAA”s Freitas.

TRUCKSIDE HURDLES

TruckSide advertising is not without its roadblocks as a number of factors
need to be overcome in order to fully explain the possibilities. As mentioned
earlier, quantification and qualification of the numbers is one, while the
specter of regulation is another.

“There are not a lot of regulations pertaining to TruckSide advertising, per
se, but because it is becoming more prevalent very quickly, a lot of cities are
starting to take a look at TruckSide advertising. There are some cities -
specifically New York, San Francisco and Boston – which have taken that step and
are aggressively looking at regulatory controls. There is some litigation in
those cities, because there are aspects within the city laws where they are
questioning whether it’s legal to carry signs on trucks. They’re talking about a
significant reduction or elimination with those cities, so some of the companies
involved in those cities are already in court dealing with those types of legal
issues and free speech.”

However, regulation thus far applies mostly to mobile billboards, trucks that

are designed to be moving billboards – particularly for special events like
conventions – and they usually don’t carry deliveries.

“Any time that the government sees an opportunity to get involved in
business, they do. However, we have been very careful nopt to violate any of the
federal or state department of transportation regulations. The trucking company
knows what the rules and regulations are, and we rely on the”, says Gearner.

There already has been a precedent of sorts set by the fact that metro busses
have been carrying ads on them for years. It would be difficult to override that
precedent and not allow trucking companies to sell ads on the sides of their
vehicles.

For the time being and for the most part, regulation is a non-issue and the
time is ripe for sign and graphics companies to put together advertising
packages for trucking companies.

Article Source: http://www.mobileadgroup.com/News/news-SB-0401.html

I recently spoke with a friend of mine and he and I were talking about setting up a Joint Venture with an idea that he has. One of the thing that we talked about what how to use Joint Ventures to create massive differentiation from your competition. The reason we got onto this topic as he was speaking with a friend of his and posed the following question to his friend: If I was to bring you extra business from markets that you don’t have access to, would you pay me a commission of the ongoing revenues these new customers create?

What my friend is offering to do here is to set up a Joint Venture to drive traffic to his friends business. Now this could be a quite lucrative win/win arrangement for both my friend and also for his friend. Our conversation then turned the next logical step in this thought process. I hear you asking “How can a bussines use Joint Ventures for differentiation?” Even if you weren’t asking that question, you are now

Before we go into that, lets look at WHY a business needs to stand out from the crowd.

If you (or someone you know) are in an industry sector that has seen a decline in business in the last 6-12 months (either less customers or customers spending less) here are my 2 questions:

1. Has there been a proportionate decline in the number of your competitors?
As an example, if there used to be 100,000 people buying from 1,000 businesses in your industry, and now there are only 10,000 people buying from the same 1,000 businesses there is clearly going to be a massive revenue reduction. Sure some of your competitors may have gone out of business but my guess is that this competitor decline has not been proportionate to your customer/spend decline.

2. What are you doing that’s different to your competitors?
Using the same example above, are you doing enough to make sure that you are getting the attention of the massively reduced customer base?

One of the challenges that I face with some of my clients is that they often want to do what their competitors are doing – now sometimes this can be effective, but generally is this really differentiation? Just because something is new to you doesn’t mean you are differentiating yourself.

One of the process that I teach is the practical implementation of Joint Ventures.

Joint Ventures has been, and always will be one of the most powerful marketing tactics ever! And for good reason:

* They are easy to set up, and generally they cost you nothing.
* Anybody can start using joint ventures to skyrocket their profits.
* It doesn’t matter what you sell, or where you sell it.
* I recommend wherever possible to focus on the mandate of Joint Ventures are best when they are No risk, No time, No selling, Little to No Money

Consider this: If you could stand out from your competitors, add massive value to your customers and inspire existing and new customers to spend more money, what would your bottom line look like?

Lets look at these factors a bit further:

1. Differentiation – only 2% of small to medium sized businesses use Joint Ventures – nearly ALL big businesses use Joint Ventures
2. Massive customer appreciation – one specific strategy is to give away other peoples stuff for free, which in turn drives word of mouth referrals = more customers.
3. Increase customer spend – customers love getting a deal (if you don’t believe this statement then you have never bought a combo deal at a fast food restaurant…) and will pay more money if the see value in it.

AND if you could set these up to create additional streams of income for you and your business wouldn’t this make Joint Ventures an undeniably amazing value proposition?

The short answer of course is YES.

Don’t freak out if this doesn’t make sense to you right now – it will after you expand your comfort zone and increase your learning.

Moreover catalogs may also be customized for added flare. There are certain advantages that may be derived from having customized catalogs and these are as follows: custom-made catalogs are excellent representative of any company or business. They also provide customers with a constant access to all the products and services that a company is offering. And of course catalogs showcase the products and services in detail.

Catalogs are so effective that according to one study it increases sales by 10 to 20% especially when it is combined with a website. But just how are we to create these catalogs? There are certain considerations in creating a catalog and these are design, paper, binding and of course the printing company.

Catalog Design

In deciding on what design to use for the catalog, one very important factor must be considered and that is the design must be able to effectively capture the interest of its recipients. Then there is also the consideration in terms of pages to be included in the catalog. The number of catalog pages will be in accordance to the information as well as the images that are going to be displayed on them.  Remember that is it not a good idea to over crowd a certain page with so many texts and images that have no relevance whatsoever to the company or to the products and services being offered.

But if ever you like your catalogs to have that professional feel and look to it you may consider alignment and parallelism as additional factors to dwell on. You see most people prefer to have their catalogs with symmetry meaning they want to see varied shapes, lines and patterns. Symmetry in some way attracts them so be sure to include that in your catalogs. Another is parallelism which is achieved by using uniform fonts, color as well as types of graphics or images in the catalog.

The Paper to Use

Choosing the right type of paper to use is important since it can make and unmake your design. There are certain characteristics your chosen paper should posses like surface strength, tear strength, bursting ability and the tensile strength. The surface strength pertains to the ability of the paper to resists ripping whenever ink is applied. The tear strength refers to ability of paper resist tearing. The bursting ability on the other hand refers to the capacity of paper to withstand ripping most especially for packaging bags and envelopes. And last but no the least, the tensile strength which is the ability of paper to stretch without breaking.

Binding of Catalog

Since catalogs are multi-pages documents you will have to bind these pages together. There are at least six types of standard stitching use for catalog binding the perfect binding, saddle-stitched binding, side-stitched binding, case binding, plastic comb binding and the three-ring binding. But before you choose you should first know the differences between these types of stitching. The perfect binding involves gluing of the outside edge of the pages in order to create that flat edge. The saddle-stitch binding make use of staples on the fold of the pages. The side-stitch binding also make use of stapling but this time staple the pages together on the side rather than on the fold. The case binding requires for the pages to be sewn together and then attached to a hard cover. The plastic comb binding make use of plastic teeth that are fit into a stack of pages. And then the three-ring binding requires for punching of holes into the pages before fitting them into a binder.

The Printing Company

There are many business printing companies to choose from and they are available either online or offline. However, there are certain edges that online providers have over their offline counterparts and that is in terms of their lowered prices plus their fast turnaround time. It is also more convenient transacting business as well as sending your catalog orders online.

While looking for a suitable avenue to pursue online, you are likely to come across the idea known as ‘private label resell rights‘.  Items such as software and e-books are amongst those commonly offered with private label resell rights, but the fact is that there is a vast range of products available. A writer or developer may  lack the time and energy necessary to market their product themselves and selling their work complete with private label resell rights provides a neat solution.  If you’re interested in making money on the internet, then this could represent an opportunity for you.

The amount of money charged for a product with resale rights will vary; however, most resell rights do not cost more than a few hundred dollars.  If you have the financial resources available, then you can help the product creator out and make some money for yourself at the same time – because once you have bought the resell rights then the proceeds from every subsequent sale are yours to keep.  That said, it is not necessarily as straightforward as it might first appear.

It is important to avoid a major pitfall when you invest in an eBook or software program with private label rights: you have to identify a product that is saleable.  If you want to make a profit, it’s important to to choose your private label product with great care, first researching what it is that customers are looking to buy. This ensures that you purchase the private label rights to a product that will not only sell, but will sell well.

As you would expect, researching the internet itself can help you learn about the products and concerns that are currently in demand online.  Keep in touch with the news daily.  Get involved in online discussions by joining forums. You’ll quickly discover that internet users are quite vocal with their needs and this will serve as a reliable guide.. If you can obtain the resell rights to the product that is being widely requested, then you can expect to make money.

In addition to using the internet, you are advised to always keep your eyes and ears open.  That essential piece of inside information could turn up in the most unexpected place, so don’t limit yourslef to online sources as they are just a starting point.  This research may seem time consuming; however, it is necessarily, that is unless what don’t mind losing the money you invested.

Juicy Cards Design Software

That is a very powerful application that allows you to create cards very easily and conveniently with the use of their templates.  Designing and developing your personal cards are relatively uncomplicated.  You only should download the software package and install it.  You’ll then be able to enjoy generating your own cards with high quality background images and layouts.  Once you are satisfied with the result, it is possible to then print and distribute your personalized cards.    

Belltech Designer Pro

Do you would like to create stunning design cards?  The Belltech Designer Pro stands out as the finest software program to use.  It gives rich professional quality cards and it guides you to develop impressive cards in only few minutes.  It features quick and easy pattern, templates and graphics, convenient design tools, color blends, stunning background and so on.  In addition, this software program is perfect for novices.  While using templates and clip arts, it is possible to still develop professional cards.  Your creativity is the limit for the Belltech Designer Pro.          

BusinessCards MX Maker

This could be the ideal software program to use by beginners.  Its interface is intended perfectly to address the concerns of beginners.  With this computer software, you may easily set up and print your own professional cards.  It offers templates and clip-arts which you can use to insert figures, images and background as you pleased.  It can also store info about the firm or folks and it operates using image file formats such as jpg, bmp, wmf, png and so on.    

Nowadays, almost everyone is too busy with their own businesses and making a very good impression seems quite tough.  To set up a compelling first impression, your business card must speak out your profession in probably the most creative and interesting way.  Right now, you will discover more than a dozen of calling cards examples you may use, to look at some of them you can check out <a href=”http://www.makeyourownuniquebusinesscards.com/”>unique business cards designs</a>.  However, did you know that there are  important points that your card should project?  Here are those:

Facts     

This is not a surprise as the card’s principal intention is to bring data to your customers.  However, the details must be relevant for the growth of your firm.  The crucial thing you should remember is balance.  The contact info need to balance out with the organization info.  For your convenience, it’s sensible that you limit the amount of contact facts you incorporate in it.  The wisest point to do is to include which means of communication you’re much more likely to use, for instance cell phone.         

Innovation

To actually make a big impression, you will need to use the blend of aesthetics and facts on your card.  These two elements should balance one another.  An eccentric card without sufficient info will not help you in several ways.  Some of probably the most famous card designs currently are constructable styles, organic styles and pragmatic designs.  The constructable styles entertain your customers as these are allowed to assemble the card by themselves.  The organic types on the other hand, are quite dynamic.  These are commonly used by gardening services.  And the pragmatic patterns are those with purpose.

Value

The card is commonly your client’s first point of reference.  Hence, it can be critical that it has value.  Also, describe why customers should speak to you.  On the other hand, bring worth to your card.  It may be functional or it can be used as decoration.  This can build your brand image while you create a larger network of customers.

The postcard size doesn’t necessarily mean that there would be only one standard size to fit all sizes of postcards. It’s because various sizes requires for different postcard printing equipments in fact a slight change in the size of the postcard may have an adverse effect on its price. And so, in order not to be shocked by printing prices afterwards it is smart to get first printing quotes. This way you will be guided on just how much your postcards will costs. Likewise, never hesitate to ask your postcard printing company on the postcard size that work best on their equipment.

There are two aspects of paper stock that you need to be aware of. Paper stocks can either be glossy or matte. If you desire to have your postcards printed in full color you will then be made to choose between a CS2 stock and a C1S stock. CS2 stock has a gloss finish on both sides while the C1S stock has a gloss finish on only one side and its other side having a matte finished. Between these two stocks the C1S was the most popularly used since the ink used in postcard printing doesn’t dry up on the gloss part of the paper stock so they resulted in printing on the matte side of the stock.

But that was a long time ago, nowadays there are already inks that easily dries on glossy stocks. The glossy stocks are far cheaper than the semi-gloss stocks and exude much character on them that’s why it is a much better choice for postcards.

In terms of the design file formats, it is important that you ask your postcard printing company the type they are accepting.  Although, there are printing companies that accepts various file formats however there are still some that makes use of only limited types of software and file format in their design creation. And what these postcard printing companies often do is that they would try to convert your postcard design file into the format that is accepted by their postcard printing equipment.  However, there may be some problems that may be encountered during the file conversion. One of the common problems faced involves font defaults and text loss to ensure that no such error occur it is important that your postcard project undergo proofing before finally submitting your postcard design for printing.  Or better yet, you may try to save your design file in a PDF format. This way there will be very minimal conversion and manipulation that have to be done in your design file.

The finishing is as important as the first couple of steps in postcard printing. There are two types of postcard finishing or coating and these are UV coating and Aqueous coating. The UV coating provides the postcard with that shiny look and feel. Especially applicable for color images which you may want accentuated.  Its drawbacks are in terms of its susceptibility to finger print marks and smears.

The aqueous coating on the other hand provides for minimal shine or gloss and entails for a much faster postcard printing process.  The reason for this is that aqueous coatings are quick drying therefore doesn’t hinder the continuous printing process.

It’s best to work smarter, not harder. If what you have been trying has not been earning you any sales, try something else. Don’t use the same methods of they’re not working for you. Try to find some ways to save your time while you continue to put your domain names out there. To become a power seller, it’s best to find a power seller and then model your business after theirs. It’s best to emulate what they’ve done correctly and to learn from their mistakes, while not trying to repeat those very mistakes. Eventually you’ll discover a method that works best for your needs.

Think about the possibility of not selling the names of your domains. Have you thought about hanging on to your domain names for a while? Domain names can be compared to wine in a sense; the longer they are out of site, the more valuable they become. If you attached the domain name to a small website that is getting a lot of advertising revenue, they become even more valuable. The longer you keep your domain name, the greater your selling price will be. Are you looking for a great deals on Hostgator Coupon?

Make your contact information accessible. Before they agree to a purchase, potential domain buyers want to have personal contact with the seller at least once. Most potential buyers will just find the Whois information of the domain name that they are interested in purchasing. If you make that information private or if your potential buyers do not have a way to contact you, you might have a harder time of making a sale.

A great way to make money online is to sell domain names. Some internet marketers can make a full time income from buying and selling domain names because they have managed to become so good at it. The trick to flipping domain names is to treat the activity like the business it is.

Putting more effort into your business will most likely turn more of a profit. Although many internet marketers flip domains as a side business, you could earn a good living by buying and selling domains.

Enom is the best domain name registrar.

Obviously all sports fans are very excited about their favourite sport, but there is something different about football that can bring the most extreme emotions of happiness and anger in people. It can be fair to say that football could be the main cause of sports-related violence in the world. Despite the fact that rugby is a very physical game, you do not get the sort of violence or crime that may be often associated with football. There isn’t any clear reason why this is so, however the power of emotion seems to be magnified in a game of football with at least two thirds of fans admitting that they have cried at football matches- probably through joy or as a result of feeling of utter despair.

With the 2010 FIFA World Cup looming this provides football fans to be able to exercise their fire for the game and for their country. The World Cup often encourages those people who are not necessarily big football fans to get behind our team by supporting our nation. The ultimate way to show your support as a football fan is with a football flag. It goes without saying that the World Cup stadium in 2010 in South Africa will probably be filled with supporters and their custom flags as a show of support to their country. Football fans across the world use flags as a way of conveying a terrific sense of support towards a particular team or country and with this support comes a feeling of pride and unification. If you go to an away match and are standing in an overseas stadium surrounded by other people with similar flag as you, you can’t help but feel an immense pride for your country. Not only do football flags produce a sense of unity and pride for the supporters but it also helps the players to execute well if they know they have the fans behind them.

Investing with any type of sports merchandise such as football flags may also raise a substantial amount of income for any club, therefore by purchasing a flag of one’s favourite team you’re really supporting them where it counts. Football flags will always be extremely popular amongst football fans as the ultimate sign of support. You can decide on a variety of different styles of flags from hand held ones to huge flags and you can even purchase a football flag to place on your car to show your support wherever you decide to go!

For the very best in flags visit the Flag Makers website to custom make any flag that you might want! You are able to choose everything from the material to the size, so get you a flag sorted for the World Cup 2010 and show your support right now!