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10 EXCELLENT Reasons to Start Your Own Discussion Forum

2009-06-25T09:40:00.001-07:00

Riches, fame, glory ... OK, that's perhaps exaggerating somewhat, but running a successful forum can certainly make you very popular and bulk out the wallet considerably.

Here are the ten best reasons to start your own discussion forum:

Meet People

Do you love to garden, do wood-working or build model airplanes? Visit a forum on any niche topic and you'll meet others who are also interested in that topic.

Share and Learn

Help others by sharing your knowledge and learn from those with new and different experience.

Increase RECOGNITION

Repeated posting is a great way to get your name out there.

Enhance Credibility

Become known as an 'expert' by providing thoughtful answers and suggestions to questions posed on the forum.

Boost Traffic

As you become more widely known as an expert, your name and URL will be mentioned elsewhere on the web, which then brings more visitors to your site.

Improve Site Ranking

More visitors means better page rankings at Google and higher search engine listings at all the major search engines - which in turn means MORE traffic still!

Create Information Database

Any product or service sold generates a set of commonly asked questions. Post answers on your forum and then send people directly to the specific answer on your site. (Having them go to your site will also help boost your page rank and bring in still MORE visitors!)

Reduce Workload

Regular forum participants will answer questions that others have posted, thereby reducing your workload.

Gather Information and Feedback

Need new ideas for products? Post your own questions to find out what your forum visitors most want and need - then use that information to:

Promote Products

Display ads for products related to your forum visitors' interests at the top and bottom of every page. Ads can be for your own products or for merchants with whom you are affiliated. Post new messages when you have a new product that your visitors will be interested in.

Those are just the obvious reasons - I'm sure you'll discover many more benefits when you become master of your own forum.

About The Author

Article by Rosalind Gardner, author of the best-selling Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People's Stuff Online. To learn how you too can suceed in Internet and affiliate marketing, go to: http://NetProfitsToday.com.

13 Techniques That Boosts The Power Of Your Resource Box!

2009-06-24T09:40:00.001-07:00

***What is the Resource box?

'Resource box' is an information box about the author of the article.You will see this resource box at the end of the ezine articles.

***Why it is so important?

Hey...It is giving you free advertising.When somebody reads your article, they will see your name and web site link at the end of the article. More chances of inviting visitors to your web site.

When ever your article is published on other web sites, it amazingly increases your link popularity in search engines.You know how the search engines love the web sites with good link popularity.

***So what are techniques that will work for you:

1.Number one rule: *Try not to sell your products through your article resource boxes.*

Use your resource box to build up your opt-in list. If you have an ezine or free ecourse always keep a link for subscriptions.

2.You should also put your web site URL in the resource box.Email links to your ezines won't increase your web site link popularity.

3.Always spell check your name and URL twice before submitting it.Misspelled name with wrong URL...Things won't work in your way.

4.Try to keep single URL in your resource box.If that URL is going to give the reader something FREE like free ebook, free subscriptions you will get good click thru rate with that URL.

5.Keep your resource box short.Like six to eight lines.

6.Don't keep your affiliate links in the resource box. Some how people don't like clicking the affiliate links. Use redirection scripts or services.

7.If you want to keep few lines about your product in your resource box,Always those should be the benefits of your product.People love the benefits not the features of your product.

8.DON'T use hype words like 'Million bucks over night, 50 million visitors...Guaranteed' etc.

9.If you are promoting specific product through your resource box, then link the web page that directly takes the reader to that specific product page.

10.If you want to display the charge for your service, then tell it in the lowest possible value. Instead of '$25.00 per month', you can write it as 'Less than 85 cents a Day!!'

11.Try to put related URL in the resource box.For example if you are writing article on search engine optimization and if you keep a ebook compiler product link, expect low click thru.If you don't have a related product always you will be having your ezine or any other mailing list links for getting subscriptions.

12.Always highlight one or two words in your resource box with Caps,quotations,* signs etc.

13.Last but not least is DON'T forget to keep your resource box before submitting your article.

Radhika Venkata - Subscribe to 'EbookBiz Magazine' which is completely focused on ebook business and Internet Marketing. Receive FREE Ebooks with Resale rights every month!

http://www.ebooks-world.com/freetosell.shtml

Webmaster Resources: List Your product, ezine or web site free! http://www.webmasters-central.com/

10 Totally Easy Ways To Increase Your Sales Now

2009-06-23T09:40:00.001-07:00

Increasing your sales doesn't have to be hard or require a large investment of money or time from you.It can be as easy as making a phone call or writing a note to a business associate. Here are some totally easy ways that you can use to start increasing your sales today.

1. Find a strategic business partner. Look for ones that have the same objective. You can trade leads, share marketing info, sell package deals, etc.

2. Brand your name and business. You can easily do this by just writing articles and submitting them to e-zines or web sites for republishing.

3. Start an auction on your web site. The type of auction could be related to the theme of your site. You'll draw traffic from auctioneers and bidders.

4. Remember to take a little time out of your day or week to brainstorm. New ideas are usually the difference between success and failure.

5. Model other successful business or people. I'm not saying out right copy them, but practice some of the same habits that have made them succeed.

6. Take risks to improve your business. Sometimes businesses don't want to advertise unless it's free, sometimes you have to spend money to get results.

7. Include emotional words in your advertisements. Use ones like love, security, relief, freedom, happy, satisfaction, fun, etc.

8. Ask people online to review your web site. You can use the comments you get to improve your web site or you may turn the reviewer into a customer.

9. Out source part of your workload. You'll save on most employee costs. You could out source your secretarial work, accounting, marketing, etc.

10. Combine a product and service together in a package deal. It could increase your sales. If you're selling a book, offer an hour of consulting with it.

There you go! With a few easy techniques you can increase your sales almost immediately with out a large investment of time or money.

About the author:

Lisa M Cope - Creator of Find-1.com an online directory of products and services and Flipidy.com a premier source for online business information.
Contact: Lisa@flipdy.com

Using Autoresponders In Your Direct Sales Business

2009-06-22T09:35:00.001-07:00

Are you in a direct sales business and trying to figure out, like me, how to streamline your systems so that you can spend more of your precious business time working on income generating activities?

Well, I'm here to tell you that there are some simple steps you can take NOW to help your business for the long term and an Autoresponder is one of those ways! An autoresponder is an online program that takes a prewritten email message or series of messages that you've created and sends it out automatically when someone signs up either via email or a web form.

That sounds a whole lot more complicated than it really is. So let me give you examples that might work in various aspects of your direct sales business to help you see how easy this really is:

Lead follow up and tracking.

Do you advertise either online or offline? With an autoresponder you can put an email address into your advertisement and when one of your potential customers/recruits emails you to find out more about your company, they are automatically sent your initial packet of information instantly. Take it one step further and you can even put a different email address into each ad, making it easy to track which ads are producing results.

Lead Generation.

Do you have a coupon or e-book that you can give away to potential new customers or recruits? Set it up in your autoresponder and create a web form (all free with most systems) that you can place in your blog or on your website. Then just add a quick statement of Request more information on my business today and receive a free gift sending interested prospects to your autoresponder where the gift and the information are sent to them automatically!

Downline newsletters.

If you've built a team of distributors under you, you'll want to stay in contact with them regularly. An autoresponder can do that easily, first with a welcome to my team email and then later as you broadcast your team newsletter through the list.

Help your new consultants get off to a great start in their new business with a series of email training messages geared toward those days when they are waiting for their starter kit. It's a great way to keep the enthusiasm high during those first days!

Is there a specific area in your direct sales business that seems to generate the same questions from all the distributors in your group? Set up another series of emails specific to that business topic and set up your team members there as the questions come in.

Leadership communication.

As your direct sales business grows you'll promote leaders from your team. Set up a series of emails congratulating them on their promotion and encouraging them in their new role as leader. Many people in direct sales have no idea what it means to lead a team of their own and you can set up a system to get them trained and equipped as well. and have it work for you continually.

Customer newsletters.

Stay in contact with your customers by using an autoresponder series just like you do with your downline. Have a welcome series for new customers to keep your name and information in front of them.

Customer classes.

Set up a series of emails that highlight a product of the month from your product line, or an email class on how to use some of your products.

Contests

Set up a series of contest emails for either your customer base or your downline. For instance, have a scavenger hunt through your catalog and use the autoresponder system to create the excitement over a series of days.

I'm guessing that most of you, unless you're brand new to direct sales, have much of the information for many of the above ideas already in your computer somewhere. With an autoresponder it's just a matter of transferring that information into the system where it can work for you, even when you're off doing other things. Give it a try. Many autoresponders have a free trial offer so you can check out how they work before you take the plunge. but after just 6 months of using it with my own direct sales business, I can tell you it's well worth every penny!

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Annette Yen is a home schooling mom in Direct Sales for over 20 years. Get a FREE trial autoresponder HERE at Aweber.com or see how one works by emailing Annette for her free guide: Creating a Series of Email Trainings for your New Recruits at newrecruitguide@aweber.com

ClickBank Affiliate Program

2009-06-21T09:35:00.000-07:00

ClickBank has a remarkable affiliate program. ClickBank is both a payment processor and an affiliate network. ClickBank is an affiliate program manager as well, and it is very easy to sign up as an affiliate with them. All you need is to register with ClickBank, it does not cost one penny, and is open to websites located in any part if the world.

Affiliates can earn anywhere from 5% to 50% commission on sales of products. This is dependent upon what they link to. There are hundred of merchants to choose from with over 10,000 products and services. There are definitely niche merchants within ClickBank.

Linking to a ClickBank merchant has it advantages; such as you know you will be credited for all sales that go through the ClickBank network as the tracking is automated as part of the payment processing. One benefit of linking to ClickBank is that you will receive credit if the customer doesn't buy immediately. What this means is that if the customer comes from your link and decides not to buy, but changes his mind later and purchases, you will receive the credit on the commission, no matter how he got back to the site. This is controlled by cookies, which are maintained for 90 days after the initial click-through.

Once you join you will select a nickname, after that part is complete you will browse through the ClickBank Marketplace to select products to sell as an affiliate. ClickBank will provide you with the URL for each program using your nickname.

The other option is to use ClickBank as a merchant.

As a merchant (vendor or seller) you can set up an account for a one-time fee. ClickBank let's you set up a sales and thank-you page and list that in their database. After they have approved your pages, you can set a price and presto ... you've got an affiliate program running. ClickBank checks and pays your affiliate sales. And they will list you in their Market Place.

ClickBank affiliate program is not limited to people within the United States, however, payment are issued in US dollars and mailed every two weeks. You will also receive an email every time a payment is made through your referral. Real-time sales reports are available for your review 24 hours a day. You will not need a merchant account for this program. ClickBank tracks all visitors from your link, and then the commission is credited once an order is placed and accepted.

ClickBank has a lot of products you can sell as an affiliate, and you should be able to make a lucrative income from it. Remember you will need to put forth some effort if you expect any type of results.

The best way to maximize your profit at Clickbank's products is to create your own Clickbank Mall to CBJunction.Com because CBJunction automatically retrieve data from Clickbank Marketplace and you can automatically use all of the products into one website CBJunction.Com for FREE or purchase it to us.

Remember your success will depend on the effort that you put in. However here's the eBook that can help you. http://www.webquartet.com/befamous

About the Author

Ross Dalangin
Software Developer Since 1991
Computer Instructor Since 1994
Web Developer and Consultant Since 1995
Database and Network Administrator Since 1996
Search Engine Optimizer Since 2000
Web Publisher Since 2001
http://www.webquartet.com
http://www.cbjunction.com
http://www.recordname.com
http://www.dalangin.com
http://www.systemempire.com
http://www.instant-weight-loss.com

10 Viral Internet Marketing Strategies That Produce A Massiv

2009-06-20T09:35:00.001-07:00

1. Start a newsletter that people can subscribe to, and use an autoresponder service like GetResponse (www.getresponse.com) or Aweber (www.aweber.com) to capture and store your subscribers' contact information.

2. Use the double-opt rather than single opt-in method to capture qualified targeted leads. Why? Because double opt-in requires new subscribers to confirm their subscription (yes, I want what you have to offer) and reduces the chances of a bounced email.

3. Refer people to your web page that offers them a freebie (free report, ebook, etc.), capture their name, email address & phone number (optional) and then take them to your home page while behind the scenes your autoresponder provides a series of follow-up emails to them automatically, re-introducing yourself and your business offer. Studies show that most people need to see your offer at least 7 times before they make a decision to purchase.

4. Include a headline & outline the features/benefits of the product or service you are offering on your web site. Make it easy for your audience to understand what they will gain by buying from you.

5. Include written testimonials from people who have used your product or service on your web site. Include audio testimonials that prospects can listen to and you will really capture their attention.

6. Let your personality come across in your newsletters. Allow your subscribers to know who you are and what you are about. Keep it real and be honest with them. By establishing trust and credibility with your prospects, you will greatly increase the return on your investment in time and money.

7. Be sure to include plenty of informational articles on your web site that focus on educating your visitors. Add or replace older articles with new ones on your web site each month. Keep you web site content fresh and exciting to your viewing audience. The more content you have the better. Search engines tend to rank sites higher that have a good deal of content and good content keeps your visitors or prospects coming back for more.

8. Write an informational article about a topic related to your business and post it on your web site. Include an About The Author resource box at the bottom of the article that includes your name, company, telephone number, address, web site link and your permission to re-print and use your article on their web site or e-zine as long as your resource box remains intact. Submit your article to web sites like http://www.ezinearticles.com and watch your web site traffic increase substantially.

9. Include a Refer a Friend section on your web site and add a hyperlink to this in your newsletter. This gives your visitors and subscribers and opportunity to share your URL with others. Most autoresponder packages make it easy to do this.

10. Start your own affiliate program using an affiliate management solution like AssocTRAC (www.assoctrac.com). Promote your new affiliate program on your web site or newsletter. Watch as you recruit a global sales force eagerly willing to promote what you have to offer. They send you a paying customer and you cut them a commission check. It's as simple as that.

About the author:

About The Author

Darryl DeLong is an Internet Marketing Consultant. Learn how to build up your opt-in list, site visitors and sales with my brand new ebook entitled Viral Internet Marketing Strategies get a free copy here: http://www.viral-internet-marketing.com

Affiliate Programs The Fast Track to Wealth

2009-06-19T09:36:00.001-07:00

Copyright 2005 Peter Dobler

Remember the day when you made the ultimate decision to change your life? Yes, it was the day when you decided to start your own home business. Gosh, I remember the anxiety when I uploaded my very first web site, waiting for something to happen. It's like going onto a stage and performing in front of a large crowd.

Ok, what has this to do with affiliate programs and how to make money with them? Not much other than this is the primary reason why people spending money online. Emotions are the number one selling factor, period. And newbie web masters are loaded with emotions.

When you started your home business, did you have a product to sell? Neither did I. That's why affiliate programs are perfect for startup home businesses. In a nutshell, an affiliate sells products from somebody else and keeps a commission from each sale. An affiliate id responsible for all the advertising and only gets paid whenever there's a sale.

Take a break and think about this for a minute. Every day there are thousands of people online, searching for products and ideas to make money with. They know that there's big money to make and they are eager to get started. When you started your home business it probably never crossed your mind to sell your own products and to run your own affiliate program.

If you're in the online business for a while with mediocre results it is time to switch sides. Why should you carry most of the risk with your advertisement spending with less than satisfactory sales results? Not to mention that you're at the mercy of somebody else's reliability to send you your hard earned money.

If you don't have a product to sell, go out there and search for products with master resale rights. This will grant you the exclusive rights to sell the product and keep 100% of the profits. Selling the product through affiliates doesn't violate this, because you're paying your affiliates for the advertising efforts, the final sale is still made by you.

Of course there are a million products with master resale rights available. Choose your product wisely. You don't want to start an affiliate program with products that are already over marketed and maybe available for free or as part of a bonus package. This takes some time and research, but it is well worth the effort.

One source is to research the public domain sector and compile your own information product. There are numerous publications available on this topic. Another source is to join a membership program that sells master resale rights products. Make sure that they offer unique products and check their rules. Many offer a trial membership, take advantage of this.

Once you have your product start your affiliate program. Don't join one of the many services that offer affiliate program services for a monthly fee. Here's why. Having thousands of affiliates advertising your product is a great thing. Having thousands of free links to your web site is priceless.

Create as many advertising samples for your affiliates as possible. Have these samples point to different entry points to your web site. Banners are the worst advertising tools, but newbie web masters love them. They are easy to implement. What do you care, you got your free link to your website. Make sure that you use search engine friendly affiliate links. Affiliate links with a ? are recognized as such. Better are the affiliate links that look like a directory structure. The easy way to implement this is to use PHP as your language of choice.

Guess what will happen after a few months running your own affiliate program from your website? Your own web site will skyrocket in rankings on any search engine, because you got so many links to your web site without having a link farm on your own. This is every web masters dream. Now you have a choice. You either aggressively promote your affiliate program or you promote your products. Either way you win.

If you're still skeptical, go to Google or Yahoo and search for links pointing to your favorite affiliate program. Simply type 'links:' and your affiliate program's domain name into the search field. Make sure you don't have any blanks. This will return all the websites that are linking back to this affiliate program. Check out the number on the right upper corner where it says 'Results 1 - 10 of about x'. x stands for the total number of links. Now do the same for your website. Hmm, you got nothing? Well, that's the difference. I hope you see the power of this by now.

Before you go out there and slab together your own affiliate program. Do your homework and research as much as possible. You want to get it right the first time.

Good luck to you all,

Peter Dobler

2005

Peter Dobler is a 20+ year veteran in the IT business. He is an active Real Estate Investor and a successful Internet business owner.
Learn more about wealth building methods at http://www.thefasttracktowealth.com

But I haven't the time not to shop at Amazon for books

2009-06-18T09:35:00.001-07:00

It is correctly often thought that people's time is valuable and that they do NOT have the time to go shopping in the big book
stores - the gas costs, getting stuck in the queues at the checkout...I know
what you mean.

But there are other people - like us - online as well as Amazon. If you are
looking for one of the top books, people like us display them and allow you to pay by credit card as well. So you save nothing by going to Amazon for
bestsellers unless they give you over around 35-40% off paperbacks and coming
up to 30% on other books.

Where I agree Amazon does score is that it displays lots of books for you
to search through. Others don't either because they are not big enough companies yet or because few people enquire about most books - how often are you interested in seeing all the books Amazon has about kite flying?

They are time saving yes, but because they allow people who are interested in things like kite flying to see books at the expense of people like you who want bestsellers - you pay $1.60 to subsidise kite flyers! So for bestsellers, ther is really
no need to go to Amazon.... and if you don't care about you $1.60 and you
don't need the book urgently, it won't bother you to wait a couple of weeks
equally to wait while other people get you the books at a cheaper price...

About the Author

A UK online bookseller selling books at prices often cheaper than Amazon.co.uk

''The 13 Key Success Factors Of A WellExecuted Joint Ventur

2009-06-17T09:36:00.001-07:00

1. Product or Service That Sells Well

You want to find a product / service that sells, and sells well. You need something that people want, not something that people need. People buy wants a lot more than they buy needs.

Is your product or service targeted towards a niche market? Is there a big demand for it? Are the customers in that market rabid for products like yours? Are they easy to reach?

2. Endorsement

One of the most important factors in the success or failure of your Joint Venture.

You have to send an endorsement (recommendation) to the list. NOT a blatant sales letter type ''endorsement''.

The endorsement has to convey the fact that the list owner is trying to help his client base, not sell them something. The endorser is doing a favor to his clients. He went out of his way for them to bring them this special offer.

That's why you should always offer a special privileged rebate on the product or service.

Write the endorsement as if you were personally talking to someone and someone only.

3. Price Of The Product Or Service

The price has to be along the lines of the cost of what has already been sold to the list. Trying to sell a several hundred dollar product to a mailing list that's used to buying cheap products is not a good idea.

4. How Targeted Is The List Vs. Your Product? Or Vice Versa?

The more targeted, the better. Don't expect to make megabucks if you match a book on doll collecting with a financial newsletter or e-zine. If the offer is not very targeted, the deal will flop.

There can be exceptions to this rule however. Special occasions like Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter etc. can be used as a reason to buy. So you can match 2 completely unrelated businesses and the deal will probably work.

5. Relationship

Another very important factor. Always, always partner with list-owners that have a great relationship with their subscribers because the stronger the relationship, the stronger the endorsement, and the stronger the endorsement, the more sales you'll make.

And if you have a mailing list, you should always work on building a better relationship with your subscribers. Some marketers have such great reputations and relationships with their client base that they can sell almost anything to them.

Some have been known to sell products that were priced several times higher than their competitors, and they made a killing at it. Achieving this level of trust with your subscribers should be one of your main goals, one that will benefit you for years and years to come.

6. Size Of The List

As a rule of thumb, the bigger the better. But that's not always the case. If the subscriber base does not trust, or has little or no relationship with the list owner, doing a Joint Venture with that mailing list will be futile. If you can find a huge targeted list that has a great relationship with the list owner, you may very well be sitting on a gold mine.

7. Sales Letter (Or Copy)

The sales letter is another very important factor. The higher the conversion rate (or visitor value), the more profits you will be making.

8. Recency

Have the prospects recently bought products similar to the one you're trying to sell? If so, it's a very good sign. The best prospects are the ones who bought within the last 4-6 weeks. These folks will be the most responsive. But don't mail sooner than 3 weeks apart.

9. Frequency

Do the prospects regularly buy products and services similar to yours? Another very good sign. If they have often bought stuff like yours, they'll probably want to buy more.

10. The High-Passion Index Of Your Target Market

You'll have a lot more luck selling to folks who are really passionate about whatever you are selling. Golfers, for example, have been known to spend small fortunes just to take a stroke or two off of their game.

11. Has The Sales Letter, Price Of The Product Or Service, Etc. Been Tested?

A tested sales letter, etc. will be a lot more lucrative than one that hasn't been tested at all.

If the price hasn't been tested, you are most likely going to be losing a lot in sales. You should test to determine the price that sells the most.

12. Is The Endorsee A Well-Known And Trusted Expert ?

The more the product or service owner is trusted and considered to be an expert in his or her field, the more the Joint Venture will have the potential to be profitable.

13. Are The Prospects Rich? Or At Least Well-Off?

This pretty much ties in with the frequency. Most rich people spend a LOT of money to learn as much as they possibly can. They never hesitate to invest in their education.

About The Author

Gabriel Howes is a Joint Venture expert.

If you want to learn how to set up very profitable JVs, please visit my website: http://www.ultimatejv.com/adtrackz/go.php?c=sya1

3 Tips For Writing Content That Will Make You Sales

2009-06-16T09:35:00.001-07:00

Content is king. Without content your website is an empty shell, a skeleton with no flesh, an empty vessel. Content can redeem the worst designed website. The right content can make your phone ring off the hook and flood your inbox with people wanting your product or service. Content is the most important ingredient in the recipe for your website's success. If you have engrossing, valuable and relevant content you are onto a winner..

Tip 1 - Keep It Customer-Focused - What You Like Is Irrelevant

I land on the homepage. I want to buy a bathroom from this company. I want to know what bathrooms they have available. I want to know how much it will cost, when they can deliver, if they have any special offers and what their previous customers have said about them. Instead, upon landing on the homepage I get the following all-time classic;

Welcome to ABC Bathrooms. Our company was formed in 1985. Our Managing Director John set up the company at the age of 25 after spending thirty years in the position of..

Who cares?! I want to know exactly what you sell and how much it will cost me. I have 10 spare minutes today to find this information out and if I don't see it on your site in a few seconds I will click off to your competitors so don't bore me with the life story of your managing director. I do not care. Give me content that I like - not what you THINK I would like. Key difference.

Tip 2 - Sell Benefits, Not Features

Potential customers do not want to know how your product was built, how old the production manager is or what colour the wallpaper is in the production plant - they want to know how buying it will enrich their lives. They want to see evidence for the benefits of owning your product or using your service. People don't buy things - they buy benefits and they buy feelings. People buying a Ferrari are not buying a mode of transport they are buying prestige, luxury, envy, success - they are buying a symbol, a way of life.

Think about your product or service from a customer's point of view - what are the real, measurable and provable benefits to them of buying from you? Include these over and over in your content and it will bring more sales for you. Don't be afraid of blowing your own trumpet - stick the benefits right on the homepage for a start!

Tip 3 - Include Calls To Action - Everywhere!

Excellent - you've written killer content and people are coming back to your website time and again for the information. Your traffic figures are shooting through the roof. It's brilliant! You can't believe you've cracked it. And then you look at the number of orders placed last week - zero. Oh. What happened there? Better to have one person visiting your site each month who actually places an order or produces a sales lead rather than have 1000 people who do neither.

If you don't have clear benefit-focused calls to action peppered throughout your content people will not get in touch with you or place that all-important order. You hook them in with the winning content and then you offer them more information vial email or a free quotation if they phone you - anything! You must have calls to action present throughout your site - combine this with the other two tips and you are on the way to having content that actually makes you sales.

Michael Cheney

Sales & Marketing Director, magnet4web.com

Are You Getting Your MagnetMail? - Mike Cheney's World-Famous Free Magic Mail To Make Your Website Magnetic, Get Yours Now: www.magnet4web.com/websiteservices/?page=magnetmail

Accounting for Affiliate Marketers

2009-06-15T09:36:00.001-07:00

If you are an affiliate marketer, then you are in business. Therefore, you should treat it like a business. Keep in mind that Linkshare, Clickbank, Commission Junction and all the other affiliate marketplaces are going to report your earnings to the IRS.

Each of them requires that you provide a Social Security Number or EIN number when you apply with them. These numbers are used to report your earnings. At the end of the year, you'll receive a 1099 form which is the IRS earnings document given to Independent Contractors.

Since you have to pay taxes on your income, you should take care to make sure that your income is properly calculate. Remember, gross adjusted income is going to be the total amount that you earned - your expenses. For this reason, you really need to keep track of all of your affiliate marketing expenses.

Keep receipts and track all the following:

* Web Hosting Costs

* Affiliate marketing tools (such as your WordTracker membership fees, the cost of products like Adwords Analyzer, etc.)

* Any PPC advertising that you purchase.

Don't do as I have been prone to do and wait til the end of the year before you start putting these numbers together. You'll forget many and you won't be able to gain access to others.

For example, with PPC advertising, Google seems to keep records online forever. Great. But Overture only keeps the last 90 days and you can't - I repeat - You CAN'T get those records older than 90 days. (Ask me how I know :(

Getting receipts means that you'll have to think ahead. When you buy something online, print the receipt page. When you subscribe to a service that may pull a fee from your checking account or credit card account on a monthly basis, make sure to opt in to any e-mail notification of transactions that you might be able to get.

Print everything out and put it in a folder for that years tax records. You won't regret it when tax season comes along.

You will also get a much better picture of how much money you're earning. I think a lot of affiliate marketers brag about their checks, but conveniently forget that out of the $10,000.00 they earned last month, they spent $8,000.00 for PPC advertising, $27.00 for Wordtracker, $100.00 for their web host, ect, etc, reducing their actual profit to enough to buy some bubble gum.

There's great software that makes all of this easier of course. Quicken or MS Money Home and Business editions or PeachTree accounting would all make the whole process of tracking these numbers much less painful.

Finally, there are real benefits (and some costs) to incorporating yourself. Incorporating changes the tax rules and create scenarios that let you put more of your profit into your pocket. They also help to shield you from liability. I'm not a lawyer, so I'd recommend talking to an tax law lawyer. I incorporated in Florida and the entire expense was about $495.00.

About the Author

Charles Waters discovered the wonderful world of affiliate marketing in 2003 and has never looked back. Today, he operates several successful money making web pages, including The Affiliates Home.

6 Ways To Attract Search Engines To Your Website More Often

2009-06-14T09:35:00.001-07:00

Copyright 2004 Priya Shah
http://www.PriyaShah.com

Adding fresh, updated content to your website is the surest way to get search engines engines to spider your site more often. Search engines are known to index sites updated on a regular basis more frequently.

Updating and adding to the content on your website frequently will give you an advantage in the search results and also help you expand the number of search terms or key phrases you can get found for.

There are many tools and resources you can use to automate the process of adding fresh, updated content and creating more spider-food on your website.

Here are six ways to add fresh content to your site:

- Weblogs or Blogs

A blog is an online diary or journal. Setting up a blog is easy and the many free blogging services make it possible for just about anyone to get started.

Several blog programs allow your users to create an account and post their comments to your blog, thereby adding more fresh content for you.

I use Blogger.com to create my own blogs like the Number One In Your Niche Blog.
http://www.numberoneinyourniche.com/blog/

- Newsletters or Ezines

Publishing a regular newsletter or ezine is an excellent way to add content at regular intervals and get repeat traffic to your site. Archiving your newsletters online is one way of automatically updating your pages and adding new content.

As an example see the archives of my newsletter online
http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/archives/

- Content Management Systems

Content Management Systems (CMS) allow you or your website visitors to add, edit or delete content to your website without having to create and format the pages manually.

Article exchange scripts are a type of content management system. There are many zero-cost or open-source content management systems like PHP-Nuke or Post-Nuke, that are often included with hosting packages and require no set up.

Xongoo! CMS is a search engine friendly and zero-cost content management system
http://www.xongoo.com/contentmanagementsystem.php

Other open-source CMS include PHP-Nuke and Drupal
http://www.phpnuke.org
http://www.drupal.org

- Forums/Bulletin Boards

A forum or bulletin board is an excellent tool for building content and creating an online community that will bring repeat traffic. Many web hosts now provide packages that include bulletin board scripts on your server.

The best part about a forum is that it allows your visitors to build your content for you. However, it does require time and energy, and some technical knowledge to moderate and maintain forums.

phpBB is a popular open-source bulletin system
http://www.phpbb.com

- Reviews/Interviews

Reviewing and publishing a write-up on new products or resources in your field is becoming a favourite technique with affiliate marketers looking to boost their commissions.

It is also an excellent way to get found for the keywords related to the product you review. You can also do regular interviews of experts in your industry and put up the transcript on your site.

My product reviews have allowed me to get high rankings for specific keywords of my choice
http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/reviews.htm

- RSS or Newsfeeds

RSS is the latest craze in online publishing because it allows syndication of *expert* news and content that is regularly updated at the source.

Using RSS feeds you can enhance your site content without the need to write a single line on your own. Search engines love RSS feeds and are known to spider pages with such feeds more often.

Express RSS is a tool that allows you to add RSS feeds to your site in under a minute
http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com/expressrss.htm

About the Author

Priya Shah is the author of the search engine optimization guide, Number One In Your Niche http://www.NumberOneInYourNiche.com and edits the newsletters Be a Whiz at eBiz http://ebizwhiz-publishing.com and The Glutathione Report http://www.glutathione-report.com

Affiliate Programs How to Pick the Solid Ones

2009-06-13T09:35:00.001-07:00

If you've surfed the internet long enough, you must've found so many merchants offering Affiliate Programs. But the tricky thing is to choose the solid ones for your niche.

This is very important, because your reputation is on stake here! Joining the wrong affiliate programs will only hurt your online business.

First of all, it is almost impossible for you to collect adequate informations on those merchant companies. You certainly can't investigate them thoroughly. Hence, you will never be able to predict their successes or failures.

That's why you must not stress on one single merchant only within your niche.

Pick a couple of the best quality products to promote. Still, you can do some critical researches to reduce risk.

OK, now let's see how we can pick the goods from the bads. Here are some factors that influences the dependability of an affiliate program. The more of these factors are present in a certain program, the more reasons you get to sign up to the program.

Let's see...

1. Great quality products. This is a must. How could you promote something you are not proud of?

2. Good affiliate sites.

3. Good comissions. Normally, solid merchants offer more than 25% of comissions.

4. Free to join.

5. Great Supports. Solid merchants usually train their affiliates through training calls, newsletters and other mediums. They also shows your real-time stats and earnings, send you an email whenever a sale is made.

6. Long-term cookie to lock on the visitors to your site. This way you still can make sales if your visitors return to your site months later.

7. Monthly payment with realistic minimum.

8. Two-tier comissions. Some merchants give you comissions on your referrals' sales. Meaning..if you refer someone to become an affiiate, you can earn comission everytime he makes a sale.

So do some researches before you sign up!

About the Author

Farid Aziz is a full-time Internet Marketer. Reveal more of his FREE tips and strategies on Internet Marketing and get a FREE Course on How to Make Money Online with Your Hobby at >>> http://www.InternetMarketerSells.com

Chris Carpenter's Google Cash An Ebook Review

2009-06-12T09:35:00.001-07:00

It is rare to find a brand new blueprint for making cash on the internet. The continuous churning of rehashed and ripped off regurgitated pablum has plagued the internet guru market for the last few years. But ever so often with some persistent digging you find a gem. Google Cash is that shining diamond on the coal-heap of get-rich-on-the-internet promotion.

With the pending IPO of Google and all the hype surrounding it, it's easy to overlook the hidden fundamentals that make Google such a marketing miracle. The Google Adwords program allows savvy marketers to reach highly desirable eyeballs at a predictable cost. Google Cash is a startlingly frank analysis of this fast-paced direct response medium.

You sell hand-made knitted scarves. You can place your ad directly in the path of people searching for one. With some elbow grease and a sharp pencil you can figure out to the penny what you can afford to pay for that ad. And you can target the world or Little Rock Arkansas with that ad thanks to the awesome interface and techno-wizardry of Google Adwords. What used to take 3 months in the old days of marketing back in the nineties takes 3 hours today!

Chris Carpenter lays out a step-by-step blueprint for generating extra income on the web using Google Adwords. He pulls back the curtain and reveals his own successful campaigns and even some of his stumbles in this marketing arena. He demystifies the mathematics and explains the entire process at a Grade 10 comprehension level.

If I had a teenage son or daughter, I would get them to stop working at McDonalds and get them investing their free time in building an online auction business. I used to hate cleaning the garage. Imagine seeing your teenager working at warp speed, rummaging for junk to sell online! It's possible thanks to Google Cash.

Can anything and everything be sold online through Google Adwords? Frankly, the astounding answer is yes! If a human wants it, you can put it in front of them. The Google Adwords interface is the single most powerful direct-response medium currently on the planet. With 300 million daily searches, with a little bit of imagination and creativity you can find a target niche for your product.

Think of Google Cash as a starting point rather than a be-all-end-all solution. For the price, it delivers great value. But you have to take action with this guide. Even though it lays out the step-by-step path to follow, you'll still have to invest the hours building your keyword campaigns and creating your Google projects. Even though there is real brain work involved, the potential rewards of developing your own online cash machine with Google outweighs the short term sweat equity. I think you'll enjoy Google Cash.

About The Author

David Ledoux is an online entrepreneur, freelance writer and author. He is the creative force behind http://www.best-online-auction-links.com and http://www.free-palm-programs.com.

Delivering Information Products Though Paypal Automatically.

2009-06-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

Paypal is one of the wonders of the web. Never has it been easier for individuals or small business to receive payments though the web & to be able to accept payment though debit or credit cards without having to own a merchant account. You can have a paypal account setup within minutes & accept payment straight away.

One of the most widely used examples of how paypal is used to sell goods, is with Information Products such as ebooks, special reports or software.

If your using paypal to offer information products, you can simply setup your site to accept payments & deliver the product automatically. Get it right and you could be earning money in your sleep!

The most basic setup is by using Paypals return page tag in the following format (change [ to when iserting any code).

[input type=hidden name=eturn value=http://www.yourname.com/thanks.php.

Insert this into your paypal code & when a successfull payment is made your visitor is simply diverted to the page you specify. Most of the time it will be a Thanks For Your Order Page, but additionally you can include the products on this page for your visitor to download straight away.

Although this is the easiest ways to setup autodelivery of your products, by using paypals return page tag visitors have the opportunity to download your product without paying. Don't get me wrong, this method works & I see it used daily, even on established websites but experienced web users know that by viewing the source page of your order page, they can view where your page is located free. By simply copying & pasting the address into their browser

To make it more secure an IPN script can be used which is what we use at http://ebusinessebooks.com. First of all the following tags will need to be installed within the paypal button code.

[input type=hidden name=eturn value=http://www.yourname.com/thanks.php
[input type=hidden name=otifyurl value=http://yourname.com/order.php

Notice how we use both the return & the notifyurl tag. In the case where you have a script to verify the payment, the return page will be used as a Thank You page, & will also inform the visitor to check their email account. The script in the example we use here simply emails the download loaction to the users email address. I've created a basic script which you can use for delivering intangable goods though your websites here.

Just a few words of advice, When using an IPN script such as above in conjunction with paypals return tag. First all all both the return page & the script must be on the same server for them to function correctly & the return page should be a .PHP page & not a .HTM or.HTML page. If you use a html page as the return page the script will not run & your product simply will be delivered. There's no need to change any of the code in the thank you page, simply just rename it to a page with a .php extension.

Now if your not comfortable playing around with paypal buttons or IPN scripts there are a number of services that can take care of everthing for you. One of these is Payloadz which offers delivery of intangable goods. The advantage of these similar services is that they also work on eBay which is where a lot of informational products are sold.

Whatever solution you decide to put in place, once it's up & running you'll find there's no need to keep checking your email hourly & sending out identicial various download locations. Spend the time wisely & move on with promoting your site further.

Good luck.

About the Author

Mark Kenny sells eBooks & guides though http://www.eBusinesseBooks.com & creates turnkey websites available at: http://www.Trading-Web-Solutions.com

Are You Really An Internet Marketing Professional

2009-06-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

Copyright 2004 Willie Crawford

Let me ask you a somewhat personal question today. The answer to that question determines how you treat your on-line business, and dramatically impacts your chances of on-line success. That question is, Are you really an Internet Marketing Professional?

Being a professional means that you view what you do as much more than just another job or a business. It's something you do because it's your calling. It's something you do because you believe that it's what you were meant to do and because you believe that it helps to make the world a better place.

You don't have to view it as a permanent calling, but you do need to believe in the importance of what you do. If you don't see what you're doing as significant, then you should seek a different calling.

I borrowed that definition of a profession... of a calling, from how I felt about my job when I was in the military. That was one of those jobs that you did because you felt that it was something that needed to be done. The pay generally wasn't that attractive, so you had to look for a higher purpose in sticking with such an often-thankless, always-demanding job where you were expect to be prepared to sacrifice your VERY life if needed.

Running an on-line business should be much more financially rewarding and certainly demand less personal sacrifice, but it should still be viewed as a profession that you can throw yourself completely into.

Like many professions, your on-line job involves offering solutions to peoples' problems. Doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, mechanics, and schoolteachers, all provide solutions to problems. They all fill needs. I submit to you, that if you are an Internet Marketing Professional, your job is no less important, and that it comes with no less obligation than any of the jobs mentioned above.

It may seem like a stretch to envision your job of marketing products and services on-line the same as diagnosing and prescribing medications for an illness. Yet, that is exactly what you should be doing. You should be analyzing your customers' and clients' problems. You should understand what is causing the problems. You should be familiar with possible solutions, and you should prescribe the best suitable solution that you are aware of.

Adapting that view of your on-line business is one of the big keys to your success. That's because if you do view helping your clients as a sacred trust, you WILL really strive not to violate that trust. There's that word again.... rust. Lack of trust is what keeps potential customers who want and need what you offer from buying from you. Trust is earned, and people intuitively know whom they can trust.

Jay Abraham was the first person that I personally heard clearly explain the sacred trust and obligation that a marketer has to his clients. That obligation is to only offer products and services that really make their lives better. It's to treat a client the same as you would a close friend or a family member... always deeply wanting only the best for them. It's also selling them products and services that you know they need but may not yet realize that they need.

If you conduct your on-line business with that degree of professionalism and commitment to your clients, you do a number of things:

- Regardless of the product line or service that you are providing, you make sure that the one you offer is the best available for what your client can afford. In the real world, not everyone can afford the best doctor or lawyer. However, the lawyer or doctor that they can afford is obligated to provide the best service that they are capable of rendering to their clients.

- You take yourself seriously. That generally means that you come across to your prospect as being the expert on your topic. That sometimes means you may need more training if you're not the expert on a topic. Taking yourself seriously also means that you charge what your time and expertise are worth. You don't fall into the trap of competing on the basis of price.

- You promote something that you believe in. Some on-line marketers promote get-rich-quick schemes that they KNOW really don't offer their prospects any real earning potential. These people soon burn out - or the universe simply gives them what they deserve. When you really believe in your product, that is sensed by your prospects. These prospects are therefore more open to examining the products and services that you recommend as solutions to their problems.

You don't necessarily need to market important sounding products on-line to be a professional. People need ordinary good and services everyday, and they turn to the Internet to find them. A good mechanic, sometimes covered from head-to-toe with oil, knows the value of what he is doing. He knows that if he doesn't service your brakes properly, it could kill you. He takes pride in a job well done. He sees himself as a professional.

That mechanic also views himself as a professional because he can do something that not everyone can do. I submit to you, that when you craft webpages, write ad-copy, create a computer program, or promote a product through the search engines, that you also do something that not everyone can do. So I ask you again, Are you really an Internet Marketing Professional?

About the author:

Willie Crawford is a corporate president, published author, seminar speaker and host, tele-seminar speaker and host, retired military officer, karate black belt, master network marketing trainer, and lifetime student of marketing. He shows people how to actually generate substantial income on-line using very simple, easily modeled systems. An example of such a system that you can study and duplicate is at:
http://ProfitMagician.com

Why Doesn't My Small Business Web Site Sell?

2009-06-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

Many small business owners are disappointed by the ability of their web sites to generate new business. Simply having a web site does not guarantee its effectiveness as a marketing tool. If your web site is unable to consistently generate new leads and prospects you may well be disappointed in your investment in your web site. Does this sound familiar? If so, you may be making one of several common mistakes made by small business owners when they decide to turn to the web for more business. Here are five common mistakes that can hinder the marketing performance of your web site.

Failure to Measure Traffic

Every so often when I speak with someone who is dismayed at their web site's ability to generate revenue I am surprised when they tell me they don't know how many people visit their site each month, day, hour, etc. Measuring the traffic to and through your web site is critical for understanding the marketing prowess of your web design and the effectiveness of your advertising efforts.

If your web site enjoys lots of traffic, say over 1000 visitors a day, but generates one or two sales a month you can be pretty sure there is a deficiency in your web design. If you are not measuring traffic to your site you do not provide yourself an opportunity to identify and correct the problem. Your web design should lend itself to helping you get your visitors to take the action you want, buy something or provide you their valuable contact information.

On the other hand, if your web site generates a small amount of sales and you don't know that only fifty people are visiting your site each month you deny yourself the ability to realize that you have a fantastic web site and that marketing it better will lead to a significant increase in revenue.

If you are not measuring your web site's traffic you are missing opportunities to increase your ability to generate sales and be more successful. Two providers of web metrics are webtrends.com and webstat.com.

Poor marketing message

Another reason web sites fail to sell is that they do not do a good job of delivering a compelling marketing message. Without an excellent marketing message you risk your visitors hopping off to another web site because they do not know that you have what they want or need.

One sign that you may have a less than stellar marketing message is that it does not speak directly to the consumers who become your clients. Your marketing message should identify exactly whom you help. If you help more than one population you can easily cater your marketing message by changing just a word or two. Be sure your marketing message clearly indicates whom you help and you will notice an improvement in you sales success.

Another sign that your marketing message is not hitting a homerun is that it does not clearly demonstrate that you provide what your customers seek. If you sell handbags and your marketing message is glamour can be yours then you are missing the boat as this marketing message fails to indicate at all that you sell handbags.

To correct a dysfunctional marketing message make sure it clearly identifies your target market and the results they seek. Once you have a great marketing message you can use it in your web site and your other marketing material as well.

Don't See Big Picture

Another common shortcoming of small business web sites is that many fail to realize a fundamental marketing concept: most consumers who make a decision to buy something make the decision to do so after 6 - 8 contacts with some form of marketing for a particular product or service. Failing to realize and act upon this marketing fact will hinder your ability to grow your business.

The purpose of marketing is to establish your business in the marketplace so that consumers think of you when they are ready to act to fill a need or desire. By regularly getting your marketing message in front of your market you can help them associate what you do with what they need. You can also attract more clients by demonstrating your expertise to clients in your marketing material.

Poor design

Do visitors to your web site do what you want them to do? If they are not it may be the design of your web site that is preventing your visitors from taking the action you want them to take. The design of each of your web pages is instrumental in guiding the actions of your visitors.

So what constitutes good design? Good design stems from the skillful integration of graphical and textual layout, color, shape and choice and flow of content. If your site does not have the content your visitors seek you will strike out each time someone visits your page. If your web pages don't put what you want your visitors to see immediately in front of them you will miss opportunities to sell. If your choice of fonts and colors make your pages difficult to read your visitors will likely move along to another web site they can understand more easily.

To identify if your web pages suffer from poor design ask yourself the following questions:

Does my text stand out over my background color?
Does the design of my site focus my visitor's attention where I want it?
Does my content give my users what they want?

If you answered 'No' to any of the questions above you can improve your ability to get your users to do what you want by taking steps to correct anything that may be wrong.

Failure to Focus on Client Needs

When people visit your web site you want them to read through the content of your site. By doing so your visitors develop a sense of how your product or service can help them. If your copy doesn't focus on your clients' needs and desires they will be off to another site in a blink.

If your visitors are quickly leaving your web site it may be because your copy does not focus on their needs. Here are some common mistakes to avoid:

Don't focus on the process or method you use to do your job
Don't focus on your existing clients
Don't focus on your experience
Don't focus on the quality of your product

By making any of the above mistakes you detract attention from the reasons that are going to help your clients make the decision to buy from you. You may be very proud of your accomplishments, and you should be, but focusing on them does not address your clients' needs and will do little to help you sell more effectively.

About The Author

The author, Jeremy Cohen, helps small business owners attract more clients, grow their businesses and be more successful with his marketing services and free marketing guide, Jumpstart Marketing: More Prospects, Clients and Success. Get the guide at: www.bettermarketingresults.com

jcohen@bettermarketingresults.com

Affiliate Goals Successful Goal Setting for Affiliates

2009-06-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

When I first started out with Affiliate Marketing a few years ago, my primary goal was a very simple one. I just wanted enough money to pay for my hosting, which at the time was an ungodly $40 per month for a small website. Of course, these days you can host a hundred websites for $40 and have tons of features, but back then this was normal.

As the years went by, my affiliate sales grew slowly to around $500 a month. It was then I realized that maybe I could turn this part time income into a full time salary. I had not really devoted a lot of time to researching affiliate programs. I would simply find one that would pay off, and use it. The day I realized I could earn more than the $500 per month, I set down some goals to get me started. I have fine tuned these goals over the past 24 months, thankfully I had to because to be honest, I was obliterating my financial expectations.

So, my goals in the beginning were pretty simple:

1. Find an affiliate program that pays $50 per month to cover my website hosting fees.
2. Make sure it is related to the content of my website.

Not much there huh?

A year ago, these were my goals:

1. Earn $500 per month through the Major Affiliate Networks
2. Look into smaller affiliate networks, including independant merchant.
3. Create websites devoted to the product or service I am marketing.
4. Change hosting providers to allow for up to 100 domain names / websites.
5. Continue to learn more about new affiliate oppurtunities.

As you can see, my goals grew substantially. I am proud to say I met all those goals within a few months, instead of the year I had planned.

My goals from 2004:

1. Earn $3000 per month average through June 2005.
2. Earn $5,000 per month average from June 2005 until December 2005.
3. Continue to create websites that reflect a postive buying experience.
4. Write more articles and website content promoting the products I am marketing.
5. Create an ebook that will help others learn the affiliate business.
6. Teach family and friends what an affiliate actually does!
7. Create a website devoted solely to affiliate programs and list the many programs available.
8. Become a merchant in the sense of marketing my ebook using an affiliate program.
9. Write a true business plan for my affiliate business.
10. Learn the tax laws so I can properly prepare my taxes.

Wow! That is a long list of goals for one year!

Here is where I stand on those goals.

#1. Earn $3000 average. My PROFIT for Jan 2005 was over $6,000.
#4. I try to write 2 articles every day promoting a product.
#5. I have created an ebook available at http://www.internet-cash-system.com
#6. I have started teaching my friends and family what I do.
#7. I have created an affiliate directory at http://www.affiliate-directory.us
#8. I have created an affiliate program using Clickbank for my ebook.
#10. I learned the tax laws and statues I needed to do my own 2004 taxes.

So, as you can see, I am making great progress already.

Now, you may ask why have all these goals?
The answer is simple. I think that goals equal success.
Goals give us something to strive for and reinforce our belief we can reach those goals.
A few years ago, I never dreamed I would making the kind of money I do today.
Now, I plan on evaluating my goals every six months, and making changes as needed.

To see my best performing affiliate programs, visit the Affiliate Directory.

About the Author

J. Ratliff is a successful affiliate. He has an affiliate directory to share the best affiliate programs and a personal blog at www.jamieratliff.com.

Can These Bones Live?

2009-06-07T09:35:00.000-07:00

Last night (May 26 05), I had this very short dream. I was in a large field which was very dry and dusty.

In the field, laying in rows, were burnt looking, dry skeletons. I touched one, and it turned to ashes. I then heard God speak; he asked me Son of man, can these bones live? I then woke up, and the Lord had me read Ezekiel Chapter 37.

Irvin aka walkin2e

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Author of My Walk with the Lord, www.selahbooks.com, preacher, retired military

Choose Your Home Business Carefully And Then Really Work At

2009-06-06T09:39:00.000-07:00

By Kirk Bannerman

I've had many active and enthusiastic business team members that
were their own worst enemies because they exhibited the classic
flea on a griddle behavior pattern and jumped around chasing
one business opportunity today, and then another one tomorrow
without ever putting in enough sustained and focused effort to
reasonably give themselves a chance to succeed at any of them.

I can really relate to this situation since I briefly fell prey
to this same dog in a meat market syndrome when I first started
my own home based business a few years ago. I caught myself
trying to chase several different opportunities at once and not
being very successful with any of them.

There are so many home business opportunities (some real, some
not) that it takes real personal discipline to avoid the
scattergun approach...you know, throw enough against the wall
and something is bound to stick. In the early going, it is
really important to resist this temptation and to stay tightly
focused on a single business.

Some will argue that I don't want to have all my eggs in one
basket. To those people I say, diversification is fine, but
only after you have achieved solid success with your initial
business. A premature attempt at diversification will quite
likely cause a loss of focus and actually slow down your
success rate.

If your main marketing vehicle is a website, you can fairly
easily leverage your initial success and effectively promote a
few other complimentary and closely related home based business
propositions from the same website.

However, it is important not to go overboard and offer too many
choices to visitors to your website. If you do, there is a good
chance of confusing your visitors to the point where they will
take no action and you have, in effect, diluted the effectiveness
of your website.

Whatever you decide to do, you will need to stick with it for a
reasonable length of time (give it at least one year) and put in
a solid and sustained effort. Stay focused and don't get
discouraged. As much as you would like it to be, starting and
developing a real home based business is certainly not an instant
gratification situation.

About the author:

Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and
coaches others seeking to start their own home based business.
Visit his website at
Legitimate Home Based Business for more details.

10 Instant Benefits Of Submitting Your Articles To Ezines

2009-06-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest problems that most online business owners
face is how to promote and generate targeted traffic to their
website. An easy way you can boost your online presence is by
writing and submitting articles to E-zines.

Here are 10 benefits of submitting your articles to e-zines:

#1. You will gain recognition and instantly brand your website,
business and yourself by submitting articles to ezines. By
including your resource box with your name, business name, web
site address and e-mail address you will gain valuable free
advertising.

#2. You will be seen as an expert in your field. This will give
you and your business extra credibility which will help you
stand out against your competition. Most people simply don't
want to write, or don't know how.

#3. Your article might also appear on the publisher's web site.
If they publish each issue on their home page this will give you
some extra exposure and increase your link popularity.

#4. You will improve your search engine rankings when your
article get's published by many ezine publishers. This will
create many links pointing to your website.

#5. You can put your own article into a web page on your
website, with the right keywords in the meta tags and text. This
will create content to attract search engines and help to boost
your search ranking.

#6. You could also allow e-zine publishers to publish your
articles in their free e-books. Since people give them away,
your advertising and exposure could multiply virally all over
the internet.

#7. You will get your article published all over the web when
you submit it to free article content directories. They'll allow
their visitors to republish your article. This will increase the
exposure of your article to thousands of people.

#8. You could do a swap with another ezine publisher to get your
article guaranteed to run in an e-zine. You could agree to run
one of their articles in your e-zine if, in exchange, they run
yours in their e-zine. It's a win/win situation.

#9. You might earn extra income from people wanting to hire you
to write other articles, books, or even ask to speak at
seminars, since you are seen as an expert. This is another way
to boost your income.

#10. You will begin to gain people's trust. If they read your
article and like it, they will be less hesitant to buy your
product or service. Then, you will be able to see an increase in
your profits.

If you want to increase the visibility of your website and get
more visitors then start writing your articles and submit them
to E-Zines.

About the Author

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ahmad Supaat will help you setup your own money-making web site PLUS your own prewritten Ezine-in-a-box! Get your copy of 30 Days to Internet Success. Sign up for the FREE Home Biz Tips Ezine via homebizedge@getresponse.com, or http://www.HomeBusinessEdge.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------

The DPAPR Formula For Success!

2009-06-04T10:02:00.000-07:00

The What if.......... factor!

Can also be translated as if only....

It freightening how many people have regrets about things they said, lost opportunities,love lost, etc.

The vast majority of employees are unhappy with their jobs, a big chunck of our society live in constant denial and depression.

The actoress who jumps out with a smile on her face and a sparcle in her eyes is a far cry from our own situations, even though we would like it to be us.

In stead we walk around with a knot in our stomachs fearing the smallest setback which hasindeed got the capacity to destroy our livelyhoods.

But....

What if you take charge......

What if you claim the power that is within you.....

The DPAPR - formula for success!

Decide

Plan

Act

Persist

Reap

Now don't make a mistake all of us have the capacity to take this formula, apply it and succeed. Once yourealize that we are the sum total of all our own decisions. That is right where you are right now at this point in time is your own creation.

You are the product of your own decisions. So you can decide right now if you are going to do something about those areas in your life that leaves you cold.

Our worst enemy is lack of action, lethargy. It is because we don't live according to to the DPAPR formula that we become the victims of our own bad decisions which becomes habits. Let's face it no one is holding gun against your head forcing to be a couch patato or to eat that extra slice of pie.

It is simply just so much easier to follow the path of least resistance because the you don't have to think and decide you can just sit back and let it happen to you, depression, obesity, poverty, low self-esteem, etc.

OR....

You can decide, plan, act, persist and reap.

I was listening to Dr. Joe Vitale the other day and he mentioned that the no1 thing that all people seek is not money or love....

It is....

JOY

And you will only ever have joy if you are happy with yourself, your situation and your achievements.

So decide today......

What if you take action and you succeed......................

About The Author

You are free to copy this article.

Tonie Konig is the owner of http://www.my-net-coach.com and http://www.zebracraft.com.

He also has a successful wholesale business supplying exotic decor to the retail sector.

He lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

info@my-net-coach.com

The Advantage of Printing Software

2009-06-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

As the world advances in its way of living plus the invention and innovation of different technologies, almost everyone are using various facilities that would enhance their out put and they could get their desired result.

This printing software allocate the users coming from different ages to create and craft all kinds of tickets, greeting cards, business cards and invitation cards using their own artistic talents.

For instance with the tickets, it has been available only from various stores and ticket booths for many generations. However, with the latest technology that we have tickets can also be customized that are available with selected areas for a steep amount.

But with continuous hard work, dedication and perseverance of the different software companies now, you can already opt for the shape, color, size and other features of your ticket at a haggle basement amount.

This printing software includes all the ordinary layouts in addition to other designs that are carefully created that you would have never seen before. Once you downloaded the software you can immediately print your tickets from your very computer. This is very serviceable for special occasion and for cramming print out of tickets needed.

One of the best assets of this software that draw-in users is its facility to customize family photos, illustrations, images and decorations. Festivities like wedding, christening, birthday and anniversary are well highlighted with the use of portraits in the cards and other print outs.

This software is so easy to use once you downloaded it plus you can even print out up to 10, 000 cards, tickets, invitations and many others in a year. Not to mention that it is so manageable to use with the pop-up toolbar that makes the program simple to use and there are small printable marks appear on the ticket templates in the software.

Most of the software publishers endow with websites so, suggestions and tips are available for use. Technical support is also accessible that can handle your questions that you may have. Make sure that you are abreast with the latest printing technology to experience a fun-filled and prolific printing all by yourself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kristine Llabres is a fresh graduate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts major in English.
Adventure, traveling and extreme experiences are some of her inspirations in writing. A devout reader of classical novels and Marxist books that boost her stand with regards her philosophies in life and a young lady who wants her life to be documented in every single detail of it.

Climb Aboard the Boat to Success

2009-06-02T10:50:00.000-07:00

Viral Marketing is the fastest way to generate more traffic,
sales and opt-in list members. It works in a way similar to
viruses that cause the common cold, spreading from one
person to another very quickly. Yet many Internet marketers
don't use Viral Marketing techniques, and, as a result,
they're missing the boat to bigger and better profits.

Definition of Viral Marketing: a method that causes people
to pass on your marketing message to others.

As an Internet marketer, you must rand yourself among
prospects in your target market. Just as a virus can be
passed from person to person, so can your marketing
message. And, like a good joke, gossip or a rumor, it
spreads like wildfire.

Creating a free e-book or report, for example, to offer your
website visitors or ezine subscribers keeps your name or
product in front of them. How? By including links to your
website or affiliate programs within the e-book.

And by giving them an incentive to pass along your report to
others, you'll create a turbo-charged Viral Marketing
machine. Simply allowing them to brand the e-book with
their name and website URL will get the ball rolling.

You don't have to create your own e-book, though. There are
plenty of good ones available. Just be sure the information
is something your website visitors are interested in and
you'll see how quickly your traffic will increase because
your link is in front of them as they read it.

That's just one Viral Marketing method. There are many, and
successful marketers use several of them combined in order
to maximize the effects. In fact, it's how most of them
became successful.

For more techniques to help get you going, claim your free
copy of Viral Marketing Made Easy:

http://www.home-business-on-a-budget.com/ViralMarketing.htm

Don't miss the boat to success... start your own marketing
virus and reap the rewards.

About the Author

Denise Hall is the owner of Home Business on a Budget which
specializes in tools and resources for your home business
needs. Visit http://www.home-business-on-a-budget.com today.
Free weekly articles, money-saving tips and resources:
http://www.home-business-on-a-budget.com/subscribe.htm

This article may be reprinted in its entirety with this
resource box included.

A guerrilla marketing tactic for begining businesses

2009-06-01T09:35:00.001-07:00

When you first start a web based business you need every bit of help you can get to make yourself known to your potential clients. With a couple of hours work and research you can get the most famous internet business working for you. I developed this idea after reading Jay Levison and Seth Godin's book 'Guerrilla marketing fort eh home based business.

I doesn't matter if you are selling ships or shoes or sealing wax, or even cabbages or kings, there will be books about your product. No matter what your niche Amazon will be selling books about it.

The obvious use of Amazon.com is to join the associate program and sell books and other goods for a commission. But a less known feature of Amazon is that you can also use it to build targeted traffic.

Here's how I did it. My niche is varietal wines, so I found the best selling half-dozen books about wine at Amazon. I then added a few of my favourites to get about ten books.

Then I used these books to build a 'So you'd like to...' guide in which I put some references to my Vinodiversity site.

So you'd like to guides are better than listmania lists because you get more opportunity to put in some copy. Try to write some copy rather than just listing the books or other products. This will establish you as some sort of expert in your niche.

Your guide will be displayed whenever anyone searches for any of the products you include. It is important to use a few of the most popular books to get your guide in front of a larger audience.

In may case the most popular book was 'Wine for Dummies' so I gave my piece the title 'So you'd like to graduate from the wine dummy class' a theme related title to tease viewers to have a look.

To see what I have done go to amazon.com and do a search for 'wine for dummies'. My guide will be displayed at the left of screen.

I must say I have not had huge amounts of traffic from this source, but I have had a few useful contacts. I have also got the name of my business spread around the web more. And when you are just starting out every little bit helps.

About the author:

Darby Higgs is the founder and manager of Vinodiversity, a web based information site about wines made from alternative grape varieties in Australia. See http://www.vinodiversity.com

Cross Promote Online For Maximum Profits

2009-05-31T09:34:00.000-07:00

Cross promoting is when two or more businesses promote their products or services together. I try to find businesses that have the same target audience, but are not in direct
competition with my business. Doing cross promotions with other businesses increases your profits, sales, and
beat your competition.

You can find businesses to cross promote all over the Internet. Participate in e-mail discussion groups, online forums and newsgroups that deal with your target audience. Subscribe to e-zines that deal with your targeted audience.
Note on your Web site or e-zine that you are interested in cross promoting your products and services. Search in
your favorite web directories and search engines to find targeted businesses.

Cross promoting has many benefits. Save money by sharing the advertising and marketing costs. Save time when both businesses share the workload. You can offer your customers new products and services. Get referrals from the other business' clients. Receive valuable
information from the business.

Once you find a business you would like to cross promote with simply e-mail them your proposal. Tell the business owner the benefits of the cross promotion. Explain to him or her why it would be a win/win situation for both of your
businesses. Give them a lot of compliments about their business, Web site, products and services. Using all three methods above will greater your chance for a profitable cross promotion. Good Luck!

About the Author

Adrian Kennelly is the webmaster of DirectoryGold
Web Directory

How I Host My New eBook Domains For FREE!

2009-05-30T09:35:00.001-07:00

When it comes to selling ebooks online, one thing is
certain: a small focused website that features just
one lead product will far outsell a big website that
features lots of products and links.

By focusing on just one product, you avoid distracting
your visitors or forcing them to make decisions. That
way, they'll take the time to study your product and
the chances of making a sale are vastly increased.

I can see the evidence for this in my own business.
While the main company website (BizzyDays.com) continues
to bring in a steady stream of sales, it's actually the
individual websites for each of the ebooks that are
responsible for the lion's share of orders.

The problem, however, with having one website for every
single ebook is that it adds a lot of extra overheads.
In general you're looking at minimum $100 for any kind of
webhosting and somewhere between $8 and $35 for a domain
name.

These are not huge figures, but let's face it, costs are
costs and if you're in business you want to keep them as
low as possible.

That's why I felt it was worth sharing with you my little
'trick' for setting up brand new websites for just the
price of a domain name.

This week I launched a new website for our ebook publishing
guide You Step By Step Guide to Success On The Internet.
The TOTAL cost to set up this new website
(http://selfpublishing-ebooks.com) was just $8.97!

So how did I manage that?

Firstly, it's worth noting that I use an excellent hosting
service for my main website BizzyDays.com. One of the many
features they include for just $9.95/month is the ability to
create your own sub-domains (http://subdomain.domain.com).

So, the first step I took was to set up a new sub-domain (I
called it http://selfpublishingebooks.bizzydays.com). Next I
designed the website and published it to this address.

Then, I went along to http://www.DNbuy.com and bought the
domain name www.selfpublishing-ebooks.com for $8.97. The reason
I bought it at DNbuy is because they offer a whole range of
domain name services completely free (domain parking, URL
re-direction, e-mail re-direction, etc.).

Once I had the domain name, it took me just a couple of
minutes (via the DNbuy website) to set up the new domain
name to point (or re-direct) to the sub-domain I'd just
created (http://selfpublishingebooks.bizzydays.com).

I'm even able to 'cloak' the address shown on the browser's
address bar, so that, even though people are surfing on
http://selfpublishingebooks.bizzydays.com what shows up on
the address bar is http://selfpublishing-ebooks.com.

Finally, DNbuy even re-directs my e-mails for free.
This enables me to create new addresses (like
sales@selfpublishing-ebooks.com) and have any messages
that are sent to these addresses re-directed to my
regular e-mail address inbox.

And that's it! A brand new website -- hosted and all --
for less than $10.

Now there's no excuse not to create sales-focused
mini-websites for ALL your ebooks!

About the Author

Michael Hopkins is owner of BizzyDays eBook Publications.
Download Brand New Original eBooks for FREE at:
http://www.bizzydays.com
Download The eBook Publishing Success Package at:
http://selfpublishing-ebooks.htm

GigaSlot Wireless Gamming Platform

2009-05-29T09:35:00.001-07:00

GigaSlot Game Concept
The wireless gaming market represents a lot of new challenges, as well as several obstacles. The biggest challenge is that the player can play really everywhere in a comfortable enough fashion in an alternative way to classical Internet casinos, the obstacles are technical, as for example limited wireless device possibilities, required proper device setup for network awarded applications, support for a broad range of different and not fully compatible types, as well as business, which is currently the lower familiarity and understanding of all required wireless technologies among players.
The smaller display size of wireless devices brings the requirement to design enough simple games, but which are still fun to play. Such games should have skill-based features as well as some story behind them. They must be optimized for several different sizes of displays of wireless devices, as well as for their Internet versions.
Recently GigaSlot released its first game, which is a five-payline, three-wheel slot machines, where 0.5, 1, or 2 coins can be bet independently on each payline. During the game, the player is allowed to hold wheels, and he collects star bonus symbols whenever there are 3 or more star symbols shown anywhere on the reel window of the machine. When the player collects the 3rd star, he wins a bonus spin for which all payouts are multiplied by 10 times.
The GigaSlot players need to own an ordinary mobile or cell phone, smart phone, or wireless PDA, which supports Java(r) technology. Then the player also needs a wireless plan from the wireless network provider enabled for data transfers via analog CSD (r), GPRS (r), or EDGE (r) technology. The games can be downloaded from wap.gigaslot.com within a few minutes; the account registration, as well as the initial deposit can be done through the downloaded application without the necessity to switch to a classical Internet Web browser.

Benefits of GigaSlot Solution
The GigaSlot strategy is based on the following features:
- GigaSlot games are also available for current low- and mid-class phones supporting Java (r) in its early MIDP1.0 (r) or newer MIDP2.0 (r) releases, which are equipped with a basic color display having a minimum size of at least 101x80 pixels. GigaSlot supports the most popular phones from leading market vendors: Nokia, Motorola, Siemens, Samsung, and PalmOne Tungsten Treo (r) models. All of the best selling mobile and cell phones at Amazon.com are supported. GigaSlot games are not limited to only smart phones, as some of our competitors offer. The minimal wireless data transfer speed of about 9600 bps is sufficient to reach the response times between 5 and 15 seconds, depending on the cellular network latency, and given wireless device model.
- The identical games with the shared user account data, as bonus states, deposits, are available for play on the Internet as well as on wireless devices.
- Easy to use registration, deposit, and withdrawal possibilities, usable directly through the wireless device, are being implemented. The player will not be required to use the Internet web site for registration, deposits, the player created pre-filled payment orders during each successful deposit, and he can recall them later, thereby minimizing the amount of data the player is required to retype for each additional money transfer action through the limited wireless keyboard and smaller display. The payment system is generic in terms that it can be used for credit cards as well as for alternative payment systems, such as Neteller(r). GigaSlot has implemented a unique strong encryption solution, which also works on low- and mid-class cell phones having MIDP1.0, which in itself does not provide any built-in security such as SSL and HTTPS protocols.
- Games offered by GigaSlot are unique and exclusively developed; they are not licensed to other operators at the moment.

Partnership with GigaSlot
GigaSlot is willing to build strong relationships to accelerate its wireless gaming startup. The targeted marketing is focused on several strategies, especially on entrance into affiliate networks, on banner, text links, newsletters, opt-in E-Mails and SMS marketing, and on offering of mobile content for free or for royalties through wireless content providers. Our games can be played for free (Practice Play), or without any previous deposit in a weekly-awarded tournament (Tournament Play), or for real (Real Play) together with the continuous bonus program including the first 100% signup bonus should improve the conversion rate and player faithfulness.
GigaSlot offers up to 30% of monthly gross deposits to its partners. GigaSlot has already established a partnership with several Web portals offering mobile and cellular phone content, and is willing to extend its partnership with Internet marketers, gaming oriented portals, and wireless content providers, as well as with cellular network operators. Details can be found in our affiliate program, available upon request from partners@gigaslot.com.

Future Outlook
We have identified the following critical factors for success in the wireless gaming market:
- Games must be designed with the respect to limits of wireless devices in terms of screen size, keyboard size, memory, computing power, and data transfer speed limits. They must be new, offering an original experience and skill-based features.
- Games must be available for wireless devices prevailing the market.
- Simple and easy to use registration, deposits, withdrawal requests processing service have to be offered, enabling players to play wirelessly without the requirement to switch to a classical Internet Web browser.
- Both Internet, as well as wireless versions of the same games should be released.
- Build up strong partnerships for player conversion.
GigaSlot Wireless Casino has proven to be able to follow these concepts. GigaSlot plans to release at least one new game each quarter to offer a new unique wireless gaming experience to its players in the rapidly developing wireless market, to build one of the well-recognized wireless gaming brands.

http://www.gigaslot.com
http://wap.gigaslot.com

20th November 2004,
(c) GigaSlot Casino Management,
management@gigaslot.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

GigaSlot Wireless Casino targets the new area of casino gaming on mobile phones, cell phones, smart phones, and wireless PDAs. GigaSlot has recently released the first client/server game GigaSlot available on the www.gigaslot.com portal.

An Often Overlooked Killer Affiliate Marketing Technique An

2009-05-28T09:35:00.001-07:00

Copyright 2005 Jim Boere

Chances are you are currently promoting one or several affiliate programs as a way to build a residual income for yourself. But are you really making the most of your advertising campaign? Are you original, creative, or are you using the same standard promotion techniques all your 'competing' affiliates are using too?

Here's a way to make your offer original. A way to stand out from the crowd, and convert a much higher percentage of your prospects into affiliates.

I'm talking about 'bribing' your prospects!

The one question on every prospect's mind when they're reading your offer: What's in it for me?. Remember, they might see 20, 50, even 100 emails and ads every day, trying to get them to join an affiliate program. So, what you need to do is make your offer different, original, so that it captures the prospects undivided attention...and 'forces' them to ACT.

One of the techniques I like to use, is adding something to the 'standard offer'. Something they don't get elsewhere. An exclusive bonus, if you will, for joining the program through my affiliate link. A 'bribe'!

The bribe could be, for example, a free guide or tutorial that will help new affiliates make a flying start with a particular program. You could offer this in the form of a PDF report, an eCourse, a dedicated 'training page' on your web site, or even one-on-one consultation by email or phone. Whatever you personally feel most comfortable doing. The idea is to give prospects an extra incentive to take action and join immediately.

They will be very tempted to join, because:

1) You just massively increased your credibility. By offering to teach people how to be successful with this program, you will be perceived as an expert.

2) You are not just 'one of those people only interested in growing their own downline', you are personally committing yourself to help them actually succeed. You are showing that you care, that you're willing to do more for them then 'all the others' are...

3) Since you - an expert - are offering to teach them how to do well with this program, people will feel confident that they actually will do well. That they actually will make real money if they join.

Using this technique will help you to bring in more affiliates. But you will also create a much stronger, more personal relationship with those new affiliates, right from the start. As a result, they will pay more attention to your future follow-up messages and recommendations. Thus further increasing your (residual) income.

There are many ways to draw attention to your exclusive offer. A few suggestions:

* Notify your newsletter and other opt-in list subscribers by email.
* Put a text box on your web site.
* Install a popup / popunder / fly-in ad on your web site.
* Promote your offer through eZine ads, classified ads, banner ads, etcetera.
* Mention it in your email signature file.
* Mention it in the signature file of each of your forum post.
* Be creative and come up with more ideas.

Use this killer affiliate marketing technique to improve both your short and long term results. And teach your affiliates to do the same!

About the Author

Jim Boere is a published author and full-time online marketer. Visit http://www.onlinebizpromotion.com/SFI.htm to join the program he recommends for building residual income. You will be offered his free personal coaching (automatically) within 48 hrs.

#1 bestselling Internet Marketing course online

2009-05-27T09:36:00.001-07:00

This all-new version contains all the information that your customers need to start, run, and build a successful online business.

The unique step-by-step layout of the course contains in-depth information on:

-100s of hot-selling product ideas
-Secrets to designing web sites that sell $2.4 million per year
-How to rank #1 in the search engines
-Turning leads into lifetime customers with e-mail marketing
-Writing killer ad copy that sells!
-Free and low-cost online classified ads that produce sales
-Building a HUGE responsive opt-in e-mail list

-- FAST -Dominate your market using affiliate programs
-Making sales instantly with online auctions like eBay H-ow to accept credit cards online
-Expanding your business to reach international markets
-Getting links from 100s of high-traffic sites
-Getting traffic from discussion lists and newsgroup promotions
-Viral marketing How to get 1,000s of subscribers to your newsletter
-Sales strategies like price setting & bonuses
-Advanced promotions that increase sales 400% (or more) in 24 hours!
-NEW tips & tricks that make banner ads profitable (again!)
-How to spend less than 20 minutes per day running your business! Sources of FREE advertising and traffic ... and this is just the tip of the iceberg!

The course package contains 2 beefy three-ring binders, 3 CDs, and 4 guides containing over 1,300 pages packed with the exact tested and proven fast-growth strategies that Corey Rudl has personally used to turn his own one-man business into a $7.6 million enterprise -- all on a shoestring budget.

Check out more at http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/854238 You can copy the above address in the web browser.

About the Author

Corey Rudl has personally used to turn his own one-man business into a $7.6 million enterprise -- all on a shoestring budget

6 Great Reasons To Be An Affiliate

2009-05-26T09:35:00.001-07:00

Deciding to start your own business can be a scary process. There are dozens of questions you need to ask yourself before you even get started. What product or service am I going to sell? Where do I advertise? What kind of start up costs are involved? Do I qualify for a large enough loan? Can I do this? It can overwhealm you very quickly.

If you're new to internet marketing and doing business online, the best place to start is affiliate marketing. While it may not be for everyone, there are a lot of advantages to being an affiliate:

To start with a lot of the hard work is already done for you. Someone else has already created a product for you to sell, and written a sales letter. All you have to do is market it and send people to their sales page through your affiliate link. The merchant takes care of the rest, and you just cash your commission cheques. Just make sure you've signed up with a merchant whose wesite converts well, meaning their sales letter really entices visitors to buy their product.

Another plus with affiliate marketing is that it can be done from anywhere in the world, as long as there's an internet connection. All your promotion is done online, so as long as you have a computer with the internet you're in business. You can work your business while you're on vacation if you wanted to.

The ability to be able to work from home is a big plus for a lot of people as well. Stay at home parents can be a part of their kids lives, and work their schedule around family time, instead of the other way around. Not having to get up and go to work every morning, and come home tired in the evening is eliminated. You can work when you want, and see your family more often.

There's less stress working for yourself because your income and achievements are based on your actions and skills. You don't have co-workers to bother you or bring you down if their work is lacking. You can choose how much money you want to make each month and then put your plan into action to achieve those results, rather than working for someone else, getting paid for the hours you worked, and not the quality of work you do.

You have no inventory to carry because everything is done online. Most affiliate programs sell e-books or other electronic products, so everything is shipped to the buyer via email and the internet. People have instant access to their purchase, and don't have to worry about shipping costs or extra fees.

You have low start up costs when you're an affiliate. Your advertising budget is where you'll spend your money, and you can find great places to advertise and get your money back plus a profit. Affiliate programs are free to join usually, so you don't have any monthly commitments other than promotions. With the right training your advertising expenses will pay you many times over, creating a nice income for you and your loved ones.

These are just some of the advantages to being an affiliate. Of course it's up to you to decide if it's something you think you'd be able to do and enjoy. It's a good idea to research any business before you invest any time or money, so you know what you're getting yourself into.
About the Author

http://www.your-cash.ws free traffic report for visiting.
Free Report

Affiliate Programs Points To Consider

2009-05-25T09:36:00.001-07:00

It seems as though you can't visit a web site now without being asked to join
their affiliate program - they're everywhere! Affiliate programs are
attractive, as they offer a means of earning money from product sales without
having to actually take orders, ship merchandise, deal with customers, stock
inventory or take a financial risk. Post a banner to your web site and you're
in business. Affiliate programs do offer a means to make additional income
from your site, however, there are a few points to consider.

A Good Fit:

Before you run out and join a bunch of affiliate programs, take a moment to
think about your current web site visitors. What types of products and
information would they be most interested in? For example, if you have a web
site that deals with pets, joining an affiliate program that sells pet
supplies might be a good fit. This would be something your average visitor
would have an interest in. Joining a program that sells books on How To Kill
Your Neighbor's Pesky Pet, may not be such a good fit. That's a bit of an
exaggeration, but I think you get my point. If your affiliate program doesn't
appeal to your site's visitors, you will not have much success.

More Isn't Always Better:

If joining one affiliate program is a good deal, then why not join 500
programs? Don't stop there, why not post as many different affiliate banners
as will fit onto each web page? If this sounds like a good philosophy, think
again! Posting too many banners and text links on your pages will not only
look sloppy and slow down the time it takes to load your pages, but will
confuse your visitors, resulting in less click through traffic, rather than
more. (Click through traffic - People that actually click on your affiliate
banners and/or text links.) It's best to focus on just a couple affiliate
programs. And make sure to keep your pages simple, easy to read, and
aesthetically pleasing.

Increasing Your Click Through Traffic:

As I said before, your web pages should be simple. Too many banners,
especially those that change rapidly or flash, can be very distracting and
annoying to your visitors. Also, don't rely just on banners to generate click
through traffic for your affiliate program. Adding text links in addition to
banners will greatly increase your click through percentages. Banner ads are
becoming so common that many people don't give them a second look. By adding
simple text links on your web pages which explain a little more about your
affiliate program's product(s) you can capture the attention of your visitors
and increase your click through traffic. Also, the placement of these banners
and text links is important too. Putting these at the bottom of your pages
will not result in as many hits as you would have if they were displayed in a
more prominent place on your page.

Ask Questions Before You Join:

Doing a little research before you join an affiliate program will pay big
dividends later. Find out the answers to these questions before making a
commitment to join any program:

* Does it cost anything to join? Most affiliate programs offered today are
absolutely free to join.

* When do they issue commission checks? All programs are different. Some
issue once a month, some issue every quarter, etc. Also, many programs set a
minimum earned commission amount which an affiliate must meet or exceed prior
to a check being issued.

* What is the hit per sale ratio? (The average number of hits to a banner or
text link it takes to generate a sale - based on all affiliate statistics.)
This is extremely important, as this number will tell you how much traffic
you must generate before you can expect to earn a commission from a sale.

* How are referrals from an affiliate's site tracked, and for how long do
they remain in the system? You need to be confident in the program's ability
to track those people your refer from your site. This is the only way you'll
get credit for a sale. Additionally, how long those people stay in the system
is also important, as the visitor may not buy initially, but may return later
to make a purchase. Will you still get credit for the sale six months from
now?

* What kind of affiliate stats are available? Does the program offer detailed
stats? Are these online and available in real time? It's important to be able
to see your individual stats, so you know how many impressions, hits and
sales you have generated from your site. (Impressions are the number of times
the program's banner or text link was viewed by a visitor to your site. A hit
is simply someone clicking on a banner or text link - taking the visitor from
your site to the program site.)

* Does the program pay just commissions on sales, or do they also pay for
hits and/or impressions? Getting paid for impressions and/or hits, in
addition to commissions on sales, is important. This is especially true if
the program has a low sales to hit ratio.

* Who is the online retailer? Find out who you are doing business with. Is
this a solid company? How do they fill orders? What types of payments do they
accept? How long have they been in business? What are their return policies
and how do these affect you? What products do they sell and what is their
average sale amount? The more you know about the retailer offering the
affiliate program, the easier it will be for you to determine if this is the
program for you and your site.

* Is this a one or two tier program? A single tier program pays you only for
the business you personally generate. A two tier program pays you for your
business, plus it pays you a commission on the sales generated by any
affiliate you sponsor into their program. Some two tier programs will also
pay you a small fee on each new affiliate you sponsor - a recruitment fee.

* Finally, what is the amount of commission paid? (And fee for
impressions/hits - if available.) 5% - 20% is common for commissions paid on
sales. $.01 - $.05 is common for the amount paid for each hit (click
through). If you find a program that also pays for impressions, don't expect
the amount paid to be much at all. From these numbers you can see that the
program's average sale amount and hit to sale ratio are extremely important.
This is especially true if yours is a low traffic site to begin with.

These are just a few of the main aspects of affiliate programs which you
should be familiar with if you plan to incorporate any such program into your
web site. I hope this provides the reader with additional insight and helps
them in selecting the right program for their site.

About the Author

Todd W. Winslow is the co-owner of TADD Marketing Group, L.L.C. He is also
the founder of TADD Publishing Group which publishes a variety of e-mail
newsletters http://www.taddgroup.com, and is co-creator of The Mystic Beagle
- a romance and relationship advice web site http://www.mysticbeagle.com

Is Blogging and RSS ALL THAT? Yes and a bag of chips!

2009-05-24T09:35:00.001-07:00

Copyright 2005 Jack Humphrey

In a very popular marketing forum recently I saw a post that blew me away. It was from someone asking if having a blog was really that big a deal in marketing their website!

Let's put it this way: simply putting a blog on your site does nothing for your traffic and links. Nada. Zilch. Zippo.

But what novice marketers fail to realize is a blog that is RSS enabled is a powerful traffic generation tool in the right hands.

Webmasters who understand what to do with a blog once they install one are reaping huge rewards in targeted traffic, incoming links, and faster search engine spidering.

There are search engines on the web that deal in nothing but blogs and RSS feeds. Meaning you cannot and will not get into those engines without a blog. And you are missing some seriously easy traffic.

My blog feed is all over the web, passively linking right back to my site, my posts, and my products. People use my content feeds (RSS) without my having to ask them to do so. Other sites need content that is rich in the keywords I regularly use on my blog, so they grab my feed and benefit from content they don't have to write themselves.

Where do they find my feed? Not usually on the blog itself, but in the feed engines! Take a look at some to see what I am talking about:

http://daypop.com
http://syndic8.com
http://technorati.com

Some only take your RSS feed URL while others just want your blog index page. Submitting to the ever growing list of blog and RSS directories is the easiest way to get spidered by the regular engines and get your links into directories all over the world.

All you have to do is provide good content on your site's main topic on a regular basis. Whole sites are run on blog software nowadays because the power of RSS promotion makes promoting them so much easier than static html pages and regular search engines.

Getting into the directories is one thing. Now you need to beef up your promotion by pinging regularly. Some blogs like Wordpress will allow you to update a list of sites to ping every time you post.

Pinging is simply sending a quick notice through to each site on the web that tracks and updates the information they have about your blog. New post - new ping. One click and tons of sites all have the most recent posts to your blog!

I use http://pingoat.com lately with great results. I like to make sure I am pinging every blog engine out there. They have a considerable list of places to ping and I do it every time I post to my blog.

In a matter of hours I have search engines crawling my site for new pages. And since I link from my blog to the rest of my site, the people who come to the blog can get to every other part of my site with ease.

All of this is merely scratching the surface of what blogs and RSS feeds can do for your marketing efforts. Everyone is going to RSS to syndicate their content. If you aren't yet, you'd better start ASAP. Because you are getting left in the dust by your competition for your keywords.

After actively blogging, pinging, and submitting your blog feed and main URL to the blog engines for a couple months you are going to see amazing amounts of back links. And in far shorter time than it would take you with any other marketing method other than aggressive syndication of articles.

So if someone asks you if having a blog is really all that, now you can tell them what it's all about. It's not the blog, it's what you DO with it that counts.

About the author:

Jack Humphrey is the author of Power Linking 2005. Find out how you can take a bite out of the website promotion learning curve at http://www.power-linking-profits.com

Checklist for finding profitable affiliate programs

2009-05-23T09:35:00.001-07:00

High quality product or service -- remember, it's your reputation that is on the line (and online!). Don't recommend products that UNDERdeliver.

+ Merchant has a good site that sells effectively.
+ Ability for affiliate to link straight to individual products, rather than just to the home page. (If the visitor has to find the product that you recommend, your Conversion Rate plummets.)
+ Type of payment model... Pay-per-sale and pay-per-lead are good. This is
true performance marketing. If your referred visitor delivers the desired
response, you get paid.
+ Affiliate Support...
Accurate, reliable real-time online accounting, preferably with some kind of ability to audit by spot-checking
Detailed traffic and linking stats
Notification by e-mail when a sale is made
Useful marketing assistance, provides traffic-building and sales-getting tools
High-quality newsletter that educates, trains, and accounts for amounts earned
Professional marketing materials available
Affiliates receive discount on products

Great affiliate support is important for a etween the lines reason, too. It indicates a high degree of commitment to the program and its affiliates.

+ Pays good commission -- hard goods have lower margins than digital ones.
So their commissions will be lower. Still, you should make at least 10% (hard good) or 20% (digital good) on any product that you recommend. Don't be scared off by low-priced products if they offer a good % commission -- the lower dollar value per sale is offset by the higher sales volume.
+ Must be free (no charge) to join, no need to buy the product.
+ Lifetime commission -- if the program pays a commission on future sales of other products to customers that you refer, this is a huge plus.
+ Two-tier commission -- if the program pays a commission on affiliates who join because of you, this is also great.
+ Lifetime cookie -- Do you receive a commission if the person you referred
returns and buys within one month? Three months? The cookie that tracks this should not expire.
+ Restriction on number of affiliates -- you won't find many of these. But if you do, grab it.
+ Monthly payment, with reasonable minimum.

Research, prune, pick and start building your affiliate business

http://affiliates.sitesell.com/build-income.html

About the Author

Common Search Engine Optimization Misktakes and Solutions

2009-05-22T09:35:00.001-07:00

To many websites, webmasters discover that major sources of website traffic come from search engines. Therefore, they are all keen on gaining top search engine placements through search engine optimization.

Based on our several years of SEO experience, we point out some common mistakes and shed some lights to correct it.

1. Cannot Get Indexed by Search Engines, Really?

A garment ERP software solution provider came to me and asked a question: I have established a new website for 1 year, and found a SEO company to submit my website. However, my website can be found in search engines only when I type my domain name http://www.indigo8-solutions.com in search query box. The SEO company told me my domain got banned. What can I do?

Ah, I told them they have been fooled by that SEO company. If you type your domain name in search box and your website can be found, which means your website has not been banned. Interestingly, your SEO company's domain name is no longer found in Google. Their domain got banned only.

To help them find out their real problems, I found the following in search engines:

a. When typing their domain name in search query box, their site will be displayed in search result. Instead of displaying Title Tag in the search result, search engine displays their domain name only.

b. Only 1 page is being indexed.

What's the problem then?

With a closer look to their coding, I found that at the top of their webpage, they heavily use Javascript to present their heading, company name, visible content, and website menu. Actually, many search engines have difficulties in reading Javascript codes.

Solution?
Put those Javascript in external js files and leave the webpages with plain HTML codes. Search engines usually have problems in crawling Javascript. Since their whole site navigation menu is written in Javascript, they should build a sitemap using plain HTML so that search engines can read all of their pages.

One more tips: When you cannot get indexed by search engines, do not blindly believe someone saying that your website get banned. You should firstly look at your website structure and see if your coding are clumsy and make search engines hard to ead your website.

The problem created by Javascript is not uncommon nowadays. Even a very big Asia Market Research Firm - Marketshare also commits this error. They are now starting to rectify it.

2. Link Building

In many forums, some people are strongly opposed to link exchange and claim that it is a devil and it hurts your search engine ranking and even get you banned.

I personally do not agree. Evidence shows that many top sites are doing link exchange and getting top rankings across all major search engines. In addition, link exchange has been a long used way for traffic building by smaller websites. I do not see why search engines will block people to promote websites using this simple and long used method.

Indeed, link exchange becomes a problem only when you manipulate link text with a pure purpose of tricking search engines, exchange links with link farms, or buy hundreds of domain names and cross-link with your site.

A solution to avoid link exchange hurting you includes:
- Use a wide variety of link text
- Seek link exchange with sites of similar theme
- Emphasize on how many traffic you can get from your link partners instead of search engine ranking

Some webmasters know the importance of link exchange. However, they think that it consumes most of their time and finally give up doing it. A solution is that you can consider using Link Software such as LinkAutomate to manage your links. This kind of software saves you time in link checking and link page update.

3. Use of Flash Intro

Web design companies try hard to persuade you to use a Flash introduction as your homepage. You think that Wow! The flash animation is very appealing and it makes your site looks more attractive. However, do you know that it can hurt your website in search engine ranking?

Let me explain..

Search engines analyze website based on text. Flash, unluckily, is not text. According to How to Design Website Guideline of Siuchu Suga, search engines are not able to read content presented by Flash. They just treat Flash as an embedded object or graphics only. If you use a Flash Intro as your homepage, you will never get good rankings.

In addition, many Flash intro do not offer additional and meaningful content to visitors. Ask your visitors, how many of them are really interested in reading your Flash Intro before going straight to your website content?

A solution to use Flash or not, please ask yourself whether the Flash intro is really useful and can offer additional information to your visitors? Secondly, instead of a Flash homepage, you may consider making a Flash header together with content at your homepage.

4. Hidden Text and Meta Tags

Webmasters understand that keyword density is a way to improve search engine ranking, and some webmasters use a technique called keyword stuffing. They will stuff keywords into their webpages repeatedly, e.g. keyword 1, keyword 2, .... keyword 1, keyword 2.... Well, everyone knows it does not make sense to visitors. Therefore, those clever webmasters will make those text invisible. For example, make the text color identical to background color.

Unluckily, this trick no longer works. Search engines are able to detect it, and penalize websites using this nonsense technique. If you do not want your site being penalized, remove those text immediately in case you have adopted this method.

Okay, some webmasters only stuff keywords in Meta Keyword Tags, an area for putting keywords. I am sorry to say that stuffing keywords in Meta keyword tags is also no good. You can only repeat a keyword for 3 times at most. Nowadays, search engines place less emphasis or even no emphasis on Meta keyword tags. So, what is the point of risking yourself by stuffing keywords there?

5. Use of Dynamic Pages

Many websites use content managment system (CMS) to generate their webpages. As generation of dynamic pages are easier for website development, CMS generally use dynamic pages. However, search engines have difficulties to spider and understand them.

To solve the problem, you can consider using Mod Rewrite in case you use Apache server or finding a CMS that can generate static HTML pages.

6. Be a Pagerank Monster

Many search engine marketers are too focused on their website's pagerank. Everyday, they are talking and checking pagerank.

They perform link building based on pagerank only. In fact, pagerank is only one factor for Google to determine search engine ranking. It also cannot affect your rankings in other search engines like Yahoo and MSN. If you are too concerned about pagerank, you finally will ignore other important optimization criteria.

Therefore, you should repeatedly remind yourself that pagerank is only one of the many factors and you cannot only work on it.

7. Too Believe in Sandbox

Some webmasters propose that a new website will be put into sandbox by Google so that you cannot get any high rankings for highly competitive keywords. Even though their website cannot get any rankings after 1 year, they still believe that it is sandbox effect. Some even says Yahoo has Sandbox, MSN has Sandbox, etc...

From Google's patent information, there is no clue that such sandbox occurs. From my experience, if your site is new and cannot rank high in highly competitive keywords, it is solely because other websites are more established in search engine world. For example, they have more inbound links, more content, etc. Therefore, webmasters should not focus on finding how to get out from sandbox. Instead, you should put more effort in link building and content optimization. Eventually, you will see your website's rankings rise.

About the Author

By Jimsun Lui, who is working in Search Engine Positioning division of Agog Digital Marketing Strategy Limited. The company assists clients in both Chinese and English search engine optimization and also
offers Ecommerce Website Design Service.

Such a thing as bait overload?

2009-05-21T09:36:00.001-07:00

As ebook publishers we constantly strive to develop new information products that we
hope people will find value in, open up their wallets and graciously hand over their hard
earned dollars to us in their hope of learning something new or finding an immediate
solution to fix whatever problems they may be experiencing at that moment in their life. I
call this a hunger for curable knowledge, a fixer upper of sorts. It is often a battle for
many of us to decide on a realistic price that we believe the potential customer will
perceive as fair value. We all know, at times, this can be a painstaking task. We bounce
back and forth between prices, testing out the waters, trying to find just the acceptable
price range to motivate the visitor to make that all important decision. It's easier said
than done. As marketers we have the temptation of offering bonuses as a way to increase
the perception that this info product we worked hard to develop is actually worth the
price were asking. But when does this strategy reach the plateau of overkill? To the
point where offering so many extra bonuses to entice the visitor to buy at the price of
$27.00, instead are we not actually implanting the emotion of doubt in our visitors mind?
Another difficult question to answer. As we all try our best to try and put ourselves in
our customers shoes, to try and figure out what their thinking when they see our offer, but
were not all psychic. Could our customers be thinking If the author is offering this
many bonus ebooks in his or her offer to entice me to buy this one ebook is the
information in that ebook really worth the price?. Then there's alway's the argument
that adding many bonuses to an existing offer definitely increases the chances for a sale.
Raises the perceived value of course! I agree that this type of marketing does work, but
only when applied to a book that we are asking a much higher price for, such as $97.00.
Asking people to fork out that kind of cash can be pretty risky simply because many
people can't afford the asking price, or figure it's not worth it. Whatever information
that is contained in that ebook had better be hard to come by information or the
percentage of refund requests could be high. To avoid this potential downfall is when
offering bonuses should come into play. But the bottom line is this, if the information
contained in the ebook your offering is truly valuable why bother offering a bunch of
bonuses in the first place, possibly risking making your prospect suspicious? Not
everyone perceives the same way. If they take the risk (and a lot of people who purchase
online feel they do take risks when making a purchase) and buy your info product
without any bonuses and like what they read, as long as it helped them, most of the time
they won't ask for a refund, and you've made a sale and everyone's happy. Long
extended no questions asked money back guarantees can be a great way of putting your
prospects fears at ease, but sometimes it can backfire to. But even more importantly than
offering bonuses, 1 year money back guarantees and all the rest, it's absolutely critical
and probably the most important part of closing a sale is to have your contact information
in plain view on your site. A place they can call and to talk to a eal person before
deciding to buy, and a physical address, not a P.O. Box. More often than not that's all
that's required besides good ad copy, but I see many sites in my web surfing adventures who fall short on
providing that information. As a customer would I buy from them...not a chance.

About the Author

Brian is a freelance writing covering topics of interest in the financial, health, and family arena's. He's the owner of www.theebookking.com and invites submissions of free quality ebooks to display in his growing directory.

How to Dominate Google Adwords from Day 1

2009-05-20T09:35:00.001-07:00

Whether you're promoting an affiliate program or your own product, using pay per click traffic is almost necessary.

Wait, let me re-phrase that - pay per click traffic is almost necessary to TEST. Let's be frank, this form of traffic does NOT work for all niches and businesses.

Also, succeeding with pay per click traffic is not as easy as just putting up an ad and sending traffic to your main site.

There are lots of elements involved such as your ad, your competition, the landing page, and how much you're paying.

Obviously, to discuss all these elements, we'd need to write a book - however, this particular article is going to make you an expert on how to pay less than all your competition and out rank them at the same time.

Google has a unique system of ranking their ads that allows you to be on the top even if you're paying the least per click.

How?

Just make sure you have the highest click-through rate on your ad...

There are two main things you need to do to make sure you can get to the top while paying the least.

1. Have a killer start - don't be cheap, spend the most in the beginning.

2. Consistently test your ads to improve your click through rate.

#1 - Killer Start

One of the biggest mistakes people make when they launch a PPC campaign is that they get cheap in the beginning and try to start slow.

That's all wrong.

You need to spend the most in the beginning. Go in with a bang...here are two reasons why.

1. If the strategy just isn't going to work, find out early and get out - don't waste precious time.

2. More importantly, spend the most on PER click in the beginning. Why?

If you spend the most on per click in the beginning, that's the only way you can convince Google to put you on the top. You have no click through record, so you have to make up for that by spending more.

By spending the most in the beginning, you'll get your ad on the front page and get quick exposure.

This way you'll quickly build up your click-through record and can immediately start decreasing your cost per click without losing your spot.

Now, if you had started with a low cost per click, you'd end up on some page far down, never really get any exposure and could potentially take weeks/months

before you build up any kind of click through rate.

So, first lesson, start fast - go in with a higher per-click budget. Get in strong and you'll see the best results.

#2 - Test, Test!

The next best way to increase your ad rankings and decrease your per-click costs is to always test new ads.

Google allows you to run two ads at the same time for the same keywords, they will automatically rotate your ads, one after the other.

This way you can slowly tweak the headlines, the ad, the domain name - everything and find what works best.

Always do this and you'll slowly see your click through rates increase - as your click through rises, you can decrease your cost per click without losing your spot in the ad.

So, bottom line, even if you're in a niche with a lot of competition - you can still dominate.

Go in strong, try to get your ad some quick exposure to build a clickthrough rate fast. Then, quickly start decreasing your per click costs.

Just a quick word of caution, if you use this strategy, make sure to actively monitor your adwords account. ALSO, make sure you set your daily limit to something you can afford losing.

You'd be surprised how quickly Google can eat up your mo*ney!

Alright, now you're equipped with some advanced tips on how to quickly take over a niche in Google.

If you have any further questions, please contact Anik Singal at Support@AffiliateClassroom.com.

About The Author

This article is written by Anik Singal, founder of AffiliateClassroom.com. Anik Singal has developed his own affiliate system that helped him earn well over $10,000 in just 60 days. Now, he's looking for a few students to train one step at a time.

http://www.AffiliateClassroom.com

Affiliate Programs : Golden Opportunity or Waste of Time?

2009-05-19T09:35:00.001-07:00

Now that the idea of doing business over the internet has been firmly established, many potential internet businessmen are searching for the best way to do business. Usually the choice comes down to whether you want to set up your own business and online store, or sign up for an affiliate program.

First of all, let's define what we mean by an affiliate program. An affiliate program is basically an internet business set up by someone else. They could be selling physical goods, education, information or any other products that can be sold online. By signing up as their affiliate, you are helping them promote their business or store. In return, they will pay you a commission for each sale you bring them. The amount of commission varies between different affiliate programs. Examples of affiliate programs include Amazon.com and Wordtracker, which you can visit at:

http://www.onlinebiz-help.com/links/wordtracker.html

1) EARNINGS

So how does an affiliate program differ from starting your own online store? Let's start by looking at the potential earnings. (After all, the main reason everyone wants to start an internet business is for the money). When you sign up for an affiliate program, you will be paid a commission for each sale you refer to the online store. This commission can range from 5% to 15% for physical products, and possibly up to 50% or more for virtual products such as subscriptions and ebooks.

On the other hand, if you start your own store, your profit can be much higher. For virtual products, your profit can be 100% of your selling price. After all, once the newsletter or ebook is created, you do not need to spend any more effort. When someone buys your ebook, they just download it from your website. If you are selling a physical product, your profit depends on whether you are manufacturing the product yourself, or buying from a wholesaler or dropshipping company. Your profit in this case could easily be more than 40% or 50%.

So, if you only consider the potential earnings, starting your own business is more lucrative than joining an affiliate program.

2) LOGISTICS

However, money isn't everything (Or so they say). When you are starting your own internet business, there are a number of logistic issues you need to look at. Here are a few things you would need to take care of:

a) Create your website
b) Design your product (if you are selling new products)
c) Create your product (if you are selling new physical products, or any virtual products)
d) Set up an online store
e) Set up a merchant account or payment gateway
f) Set up a warehouse or storage space (if you are selling physical products)
g) Have procedures and staff ready to fulfill orders
h) Set up an affiliate program to get others to market the products for you
i) Monitor for fraud
j) Monitor stock levels

As they say, No pain, no gain. Having your own store pays very well, but requires a substantial time investment from you.

On the other hand, if you sign up for an affiliate program, all you need to do is set up a website to promote the program. All the ads, banners, marketing text etc will be provided to you by the affiliate program. Your only responsibilities would be to get people to visit your website, and hopefully click on the affiliate links to buy the products that you are promoting.

3) CONVERSION

Whether you have your own business or are promoting an affiliate program, the bottom line is the conversion rate, or the percentage of visitors that actually buy something from you. A number of factors influence this conversion rate. Factors as quality of the product, quality of the website, customer support are all important. However, I personally believe that the most important factor is trust.

When a potential customer arrives at your website, he will need to trust your site enough for him to be willing to buy from you. After all, on the internet you are just a faceless salesman. He doesn't know who is actually running the site and whether he will actually get the goods that he orders.

Having said that, one of the key methods of garnering trust is by recommendation and referral. If a store is being referred to or recommended by another website, the potential customer will feel that the store is trustworthy. After all, if the store is not trustworthy, why would the other website recommend it?

This is where affiliate programs shine. When you refer a potential customer to the store for which you are an affiliate, the customer will feel more relieved, since the store is being recommended by your site, a 3rd party. The customer will be more likely to buy from the store, benefiting both the store, and you as well.

There are both pros and cons to joining an affiliate program. You might earn less with an affiliate program compared to starting your own store, but I believe the benefits of not having to be responsible for the logistics makes affiliate programs are very viable passive source of income.

For more information on affiliate programs, do visit http://www.onlinebiz-help.com

About the Author

Steven is the webmaster of http://www.onlinebiz-help.com - Your Guide To Internet Business. His website contains various resources on affiliate programs and internet marketing advice to help you succeed in your internet business.

Mug An Author Dot Com

2009-05-18T09:35:00.001-07:00

There must be millions of thieves behind bars wondering where it all went wrong. Following the traditional methods of separating the vulnerable from their valuables like beating up old ladies, burgling homes, etc., more often than not they fell foul of the law. All they really need to do is move with the times.

Today, with a criminal mind and a modicum of PC savvy the ungodly can do the crime without doing time in the largely unregulated Internet sector simply by forming a company and setting up a website. The Information Highway is swarming with highwaymen disguised as businessmen and racketeers rejoicing in the title entrepreneur, relieving the unwary and nave of their hard-earned possessions. Meanwhile the law, ever respectful of the man in the suit, hovers by the roadside scratching it's head, unable or unwilling to distinguish between villain and victim.

There's a multitude of businesses to choose from. Creativity, or the ability to lie glibly, is much more important than acquired skill. Why not try publishing and kill two birds with one stone? If you still have the manuscript of that potential best seller, the one that's frayed around the edges from bouncing from one slush pile to another - hey, you could be your own first customer!

Know-how is not an essential requirement. If the old people you mugged in their home believed you were from the electricity company after glancing at a fake ID, trust me, in the virtual world you can convince frustrated writers that you're the Second Coming. For Fake ID read Impressive Website and it's a known fact that most people who can string more than two words together believe they have a book in them. Tell them it's true by offering to give their work the chance it deserves and they're hooked! Editing? Isn't that what a PC spell-checker does?

You'll need an accountant and a lawyer, preferably Mafia trained; also a hook-up with a printing house that specialises in print-on-demand (that's like a highly sophisticated PC printer), so you don't have big print runs to worry about. Sell a few - print a few is your maxim and be sure to get cash up front. A o returns policy means no wastage. Big retail outlets, especially those that are Internet-based, will come running. Use their names in your advertising to impress the authors while convincing them that their books will adorn the shelves of the main bricks and mortar bookstores - they'll love that line.

Your web pages will be selling a dream, so don't let the truth spoil your marketing presentation. Tell those would-be authors that you're a TRADITIONAL publisher, and then offer royalties and a dollar up front to legitimise the claim. You can say you're the nation's Number One if you like - an equally meaningless phrase. Let them have two free copies of their own book for review purposes. Add something about sending out reviews then hit them with the clincher - ABSOLUTELY NO PUBLISHING FEE REQUIRED. All website promises can be modified later as you see fit.

Now get your hard hat on because you're about to be drowned in a deluge of slush. Sure, there's a danger that you may sign up some writers with real talent (Travis Tea's Atlantic Nights - http://critters.critique.org/sting/ -springs to mind ) but don't let the thought scare you into reading a complete manuscript. This is a hit and run, mass production operation where quantity rules over quality. Send a standard patronising acceptance. While they're still floating on cloud nine, get their signatures on an airtight seven-year contract and, WHATEVER ELSE YOU DO, make sure they give you get a list of up to 100 of their friends and family members for pre-publication targeting. Because of the prohibitive cover price you will impose, those people could be the only ones who buy the book, besides of course the author - your main target - who will have little option but to spend as much as he can afford on bulk-buying his own product for re-sale. These sales don't earn royalties. Soon you will have deprived victims of their prized possessions and all but emptied their wallets, without resorting to violence or attracting the attention of the police.

Show them their book covers with their names proudly displayed. Now they really do believe in miracles and the gushing email letters from your new authors might make you doubt your own criminal credentials. Copy and paste them into your website immediately, on a page headed Testimonials. Where else could you acquire so much free publicity available for reference when ungrateful hacks questions your motives? They'll start to worship your logo so give them a church where they can pay homage. Supply an Authors Message Board. Here they will exchange books and website links and discuss all sorts of trivial things like how grateful they are to have a book published without editing or critique. A few resident cheerleaders will emerge, thankful to be big fish in a very shallow literary pond. Eventually many will post messages that might prove thought provoking. Remove these messages immediately and ban such troublemakers from the cult forum! Grateful newbies will always outnumber those who have wised up. DIVIDE AND RULE! Those messages will be amongst your website's prime assets and you will link to them ad nauseam in your standard don't take that tone with us email letters sent to the whiners under the oxymoron Author Support. Ignore most of the disparaging communications whether by email or snail mail and never use your own name in correspondence or on your website if you can avoid it. Your new names will be Author Support Team and Info Centre.

Incredible though it may seem, some of the more affluent will let you mug them over and over again, while the more discerning might employ a lawyer to demand the return of their material. Berate them for their ignorance of the publishing world, but if they carry a real threat offer to release them, but only if they sign an agreement to keep their mouths shut. Where else but in the DOT COM world could you force a victim to beg to have his or her own property returned?

A Company name? Universal Publishing? Publish the World? How does PublishAmerica grab you? Sounds just about right, doesn't it? But a word of caution; even Internet scams tend to have a limited life span, so when the search engines that brought new customers start generating links to websites exposing your racket then you know the day of reckoning is nigh. It will be painful, but you must accept the fact that the scam has run its course and release your writers from their contracts before you suffocate in a heap of lawsuits.

Enjoy! While it lasts.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eddie Bruce is retired and writes Scottish and English short fiction. His varied works, often semi-autobiographical, reflect the ordinary man's eternal struggle to find a niche in life. Some of his acclaimed stories can be read at http://www.adrifterslegacy.co.uk

3 Steps To Skyrocket Your Sales Like A Fire Cracker

2009-05-17T09:35:00.001-07:00

Crash! your half filled coffee cup shatters the
silence splitting into smithereens and splattering the still
hot coffee in all directions. You sit up straight
ignoring the spilled cup, ignoring the coffee stain
soaking into your carpet, with your heart racing and a
slight tremor in your hand, you quickly type in your
passwords to log in to your web account.

Thank goodness your web host enables raw statistics,
you will soon catch the cheating thieves. What! 10,000
visitors and not one sale... Not one measly sale.
What's incredible... no one even signed up to your
mailing list! That`s not possible! Didn`t you use that
excellent sales letter software.

Yes your sales letter is just perfect and your
headline is a hypnotic beauty... you have gone to
great lengths to provide top rated testimonials, the
sense of deadly urgency, the free gifts are all
there... yes your sales letter is perfect, yet no
sales!

Hold on... Did you design your sales page to deliver
the `most wanted response` dictated by your traffics
psychological mind set?

What`s that?

Consider where will you get your site traffic from:

- From ezine/ email advertising - This is usually very
highly targeted traffic. The people coming to your
site already know what to expect and are looking
forward to it. Here your regular sales letter will
work well.

- From search engines - This traffic is more complex.
People are coming to your site looking for
information in response to certain search terms. Your
`killer sales letter` may not be sufficient - you
need to be able to satisfy their thirst for
information. Thus more informative and bigger sites
work well instead of `killer mini sites`.

- From other sites linking to you- This again is very
highly targeted traffic. The important point here is
why is this site linking to you... is it because of
your ebook or newsletter listings, your article or
classified ad etc.

Here the response is usually dependant on the link
through which the visitor arrived - his mind is
already made up as to the action to be taken on your
site - such as download your ebook, join your
mailing list, read your articles etc.

- Guaranteed hits from Lotto or other gaming sites -
Here you have only a few seconds to capture your
visitors attention, the visitors are coming with a
need to `win some fabulous prize` - Hence the regular
sales letter does not usually work, Nor will you get
any commendable signups to your mailing list. Thus
you need to give them what they want: Some
irresistible viral gift.

- Guaranteed hits from traffic exchanges - Here You
have less than 30 seconds to capture interest. The
regular sales letter does not work very well unless
if you are advertising other free traffic/ advertising
program .

Also most surfers are surfing several exchanges at the
same time and usually do so in the night or early
morning - they are just clicking away robotically or
like a zombie, with their minds befogged or numbed
with sleep and not more than a passing glance to your
incredible headline.

Here you need a `six pack` to jolt/electrify them and
make them look at your sales page with their hearts
racing wildly and a mad gush of adrenaline.

Thus based on the psychological mindset of your
traffic
you need to determine your Most Wanted Response: What
will work best: sales, signup to your mailing list or
a free viral give away. You are now ready to write your
headlines and sales letter.

Here`s a recap:

1.Determine the psychological make up of your traffic.

2.Establish your most wanted response

3.Write up your sales pitch to deliver your most
wanted response.

If you follow the above technique your websites
visitor to sales conversion ratio is not only going to jump
but will skyrocket like a fire cracker and you will laugh
your way to the bank.

About the Author

Shahnaz Rauf is The Editor of The Monster Twister- a
Newsletter helping ordinary web owners achieve
extraordinary heights without losing their shirts. To
Subscribe
mailto:themonstertwister-subscribe@snzeport.com Or
visit her website at http://www.snzeport.com

Building Residual Income

2009-05-16T09:35:00.001-07:00

Thanks to the internet building residual income is easier than
ever before. What is residual income?

Residual is defined as the quantity left over at the end of a
process; a remainder.

Income is defined as the amount of money or its equivalent
received during a period of time in exchange for labor or
services, from the sale of goods or property, or as profit from
financial investments.

A simple combined definition as it relates to making money
online might be to get paid over and over for your original
efforts another way.

Here's one way you could do that online.

Let's say you create an info product around the theme of making
money online and you package it as an ebook and sell it for $47.
What you could do is sell a subscription to your online
newsletter for $9.95 a month. You make income for selling your
book, but you build residual income by getting subscribers to
your newsletter.

You could package your ebook and newsletter subscription
together. Basically do not charge for your ebook about making
money with the idea that you will make your money on the
subscription to your newsletter.

Then hire someone to put your newsletter together for you and
hire writers for you content. This is a great way to build
residual income because you do the front end work of selling
your product and getting subscribers and make your profit on the
difference between what you collect and what you pay out on the
back end to produce it.

Another way building residual income can work for you is to
recruit affiliates to sell products for you. Affiliate marketing
is great because you make money selling other companies products
and they collect the money and ship out the products. Often
these sales are made on 2 levels. Yours and the sales by the
affiliates you recruit.

The Plugin Profit Site is an excellent program for making
residual income. You get a money making website, pre-written
newsletter and training all set up for you in 3 easy steps. You
start up costs are less than $80.

What you do is advertise your newsletter and website as well as
the Plugin Profit Site Program itself. As your network of
affiliates grows you will be building a residual income that can
grow enough to support you for life. There are already people
making thousands of dollars every month after only 3 years. To
learn more about building a residual income with your own PIPS
Program go here:

About the author:

Jeff Schuman's small business resource website has the
best of everthing to help you run your own small business.
http://www.sites-plus.com/building-residual-income.html

Build Your Own Ant Farm

2009-05-15T09:35:00.001-07:00

Why build your own ant farm? Ant farms are, both, fun and educational. They take up little space and are a great way to teach your children about these amazing little insects. They will learn a bit about entomology and how an ecosystem works without even trying.

There is no need to purchase a ready-made ant habitat. Building your own ant farm is easier than you might think. It is an ideal science project or something to consider when your kids are suffering from a case of the 'mid-summer there's-nothing-to-do blues'.

If you have the time to research the subject, on your own, you will probably find a wide variety of instructional articles and tips touching on the best way to build an ant farm. Some of these methods will prove to be more complicated than others.

But, if you are anything like me I know you are interested in a fairly simple project. So, I recommend that you follow the instructions below and save the HARD work for the ants!

Supplies Needed:

Small aquarium and a smaller container to take up un-needed center space
Sand and/or garden dirt
Funnel
Construction paper
Scotch tape
Shovel
Bucket
Cotton balls
Honey
ANTS! (large black ants work best)

First, you need to locate an ant farm in your backyard. With the shovel, gently dig up the area, which seems to have the highest ant population. Look for queen ants with wings and larvae, if possible. Transfer soil and ants into bucket.

Place the small container in center of the aquarium. It should take up all space except one inch around all sides. (This forces the ants to build against the glass, where they are easily viewable.)

With the funnel add the soil and smaller worker ants to the space between the containers. Next, add the larger ants, queen ants and larvae.

Once the ants are in their new home, tightly cover the aquarium. Make air holes, smaller than the ants.

Make a construction paper cover to place over the aquarium. This will make the ants feel as though they are underground. To view ants, simply remove the cover.

Feed the ants small bits of honey, sugar, tiny pieces of fruit or bread dipped in sugar water. Provide water via a soaked cotton ball, every other day. And just plain enjoy the new farm full of ants!

About the author:

To find many more articles on parenting babies and toddlers and kids and teens head over to http://www.freeparentingtipsonline.comwhere you will find all you need to know about being a parent!

10 Reasons Why People Won't Buy A Second Product From You

2009-05-14T09:36:00.001-07:00

1. You didn't follow up after the first sale. After the sale you could have introduced your other product on the thank e-mail.

2. You didn't ship the product in the about of time you stated. If they needed it in a hurry and you didn't provide, they won't rely on you again.

3. Your product didn't do as promised. If your product didn't accomplish their desired goal they're not going to think your second product will either.

4. Your customer couldn't get a hold of you in time when they had a after question sale. You could have added extra lines of communication.

5. Your customer doesn't want to revisit your web site because it didn't offer much. You could have offered more original content or freebies.

6. Your competition is offering free shipping with their product. You should have been more aware of how they are targeting your customers.

7. Your customer forgot your web site address. You should have given your customers your web site information in your product package.

8. Your customer service couldn't solve a problem they had with your product. Your customer service should be trained to handle most problems.

9. You didn't up-sell when they were already in the buying mood. You can always try to sell your other product when they're ready to buy your first one.

10. Your competition offers a stronger money back guarantee. You must always be thinking of better ways to remove the risk from your customers.

About the author:

Wesley Atkins is the owner of http://www.reviewbooth.com/ - containing numerous web site marketing tips, articles, and reviews of marketing tools and software.

Are You the Jack of All Trades?

2009-05-13T09:35:00.001-07:00

The most commonly overlooked question for a great
number of netpreneurs who are looking to start an
online business is whether they are planning to do it
alone or as a team. Whether you are planning to start
or have already began working on your Internet
business, it is wise to step back and evaluate the
different skills that are required to succeed online.

For most people new to an online business, their
Internet dream starts with a great idea, which can be
an original ebook, affiliate program, software, or
online service. Yet, most people fail to realize that
from their ideas, the product or service must be
produced, a web site must be created, a marketing
campaign must be executed, and so on and so forth.

Many people say that the beauty of starting an online
business is that it requires little or no startup cost.
Well, the truth is that if you are planning to start an
online business with little or no money, be prepared to
do A LOT of things yourself.

Also, starting an Internet business rarely costs
nothing. At the very least, you'll need a computer, an
Internet connection, and a web host if you are planning
to have a web site.

If you are planning to pursue your Internet dream
alone, you will have to be the jack of all trades. That
means that you must be your own web site developer,
product creator, search engine expert, links manager,
ezine publisher, customer service personnel,
accountant, and Internet marketer. For the average
person, assuming most, if not all, of the roles
mentioned above is indeed a daunting task.

On the other hand, you may choose to work on your
Internet business as a team. The advantage of working
with a team is that it lessens each person's workload
and allows each individual to concentrate more on his
or her assigned task(s). However, be prepared to share
your profits with each other.

If you do not have any friends who are interested or
willing to work with you, then you might consider
hiring others to work for you. You can hire others to
work for you on a one-time basis (such as designing
your web site) or you may choose to employ someone to
do some routine work (such as maintaining and updating
your web site).

Now, if you still think that starting an Internet
business is easy, think again. Despite all the hype
that you might have heard about making great amounts of
money from your own product or affiliate program,
succeeding online does not happen overnight.

However, starting an Internet business does not
necessarily have to be hard. As with any offline
business, an Internet business requires that you take
the time to learn the different aspects of the
business. Would you go to battle in a war if you have
never done any military training?

After all, an Internet business is, as its name
implies, a business. Hence, you must treat your
Internet business seriously if you wish to succeed.
Having an Internet business does not mean that you can
work any less than an offline one. It only allows you
to work flexible hours from the comfort of your home
(and in your underwear, if you wish).

So, if you are thinking of starting an Internet
business, decide today: do you want to be the jack of
all trades? If so, be prepared to open your eyes (and
mind!) to learning new things every day! After all,
isn't learning supposed to be a lifelong process?

On the other hand, if you don't want to be the jack of
all trades, be prepared to open up your wallet...
KATCHING!

About the Author

**************************
Sean Wu is the founder of http://www.MoneyALLY.com, a
newly launched web site that reveals the truth about
making money online.

Subscribe to his MoneyALLY Newsletter today and get
as your FREE gift a $159 Money-Making Starter Kit.
Simply send a blank e-mail to:
mailto:moneyallyezine@ListWarrior.com
**************************

Need Content? Pick a free ebook

2009-05-12T09:36:00.000-07:00

Providing free and valuable content is a great way to create
repeat traffic, gain ezine subscribers, and of course to get
visitors to your site in the first place. You can provide free
content by creating a free report or free ebook that will entice
those interested in your web site's topic. But suppose you
don't have the time to write an ebook or free report? Or
suppose you wouldn't know where to begin any way? Don't let this
alarm you.

There are a number of free ebooks out there already written for
you. Why would you distribute any of these ebooks for these
web
masters? How does that benefit you? Well, each and every one
of
the following free ebooks will allow you to customize them with
your personal contact info so that you may earn commissions
from these web masters or perhaps send traffic to your own
site. These ebooks, written by others will benefit you just
the
same. So If you are interested in providing ebooks to your
customers but don't have the time to create one- take your
pick:

1. Practical Dot Com Business. A FREE Step By Step Guide To
Creating Your Own Internet Business. This ebook is completely
free and comes with ebranding software to create a version with
your own URL and message for all who download from you. Take
a
look at this ebook form here:
http://www.practicalselling.com/pdcb/

2. The Ebook of Free Ezine Ads. This is a great ebook to give
away. It Includes a very large list of 70 free ezine ads for
all of your visitors to take advantage of. This ebook comes
with the option for you to include a 60 word ad in your version
of the ebook that you can give away. More information with in
the ebook. Download this free ebook from here:
http://www.freezinesite.com/ezdir/freeads.html

3. Have you seen those beautiful digital ebook covers that
everyone is using to help sell their ebooks? You can create
those great looking covers and so can your visitors. Here is
an
outstanding tutorial that will teach you and your visitors to
create these great looking graphics. You can give them this
tutorial for free and have it customized with your company
information to boot. All for free. Check it out here:
http://coverartguide.com utorial/customize.htm

4. Bob Silber has created a free ebook that will teach you about
resale rights. Making Money With Resale Rights This ebook
is
extra special because it is an audio ebook. You can hear Bob's
presentation in real audio. It can also be personalized with
your affiliate information for free. More information with in
the ebook. Download this great free ebook from here:
http://ebookpublications.com/ scroll to the bottom

5. When you sign up as a reseller for Web site and Ezine
Promotion for Idiots you will be provided with a free demo
copy of the ebook with your affiliate URL to give away. This
is
really a good ebook. And you will also be provided with a number
of other sales materials. All absolutely free. Sign up for this
program here: http://www.smart-webpromotion.com/reseller.htm

6. At my own web site I have a 12 page report that you can have
customized with your affiliate information and make 50%
commission from sales of The Electronic Publishing With
Teeth! series. This is also free. Get yours here:
http:/ hefreeadnetwork.com/write/

7. When you join Jimmy Brown's affiliate program he will
provide you with 3 free ebooks to have customized with your
affiliate info and give away. All for free. Sign up for this
program here: http://www.123webmarketing.com cresellers.html

8. Annihilating the Silent Success Killers. Offered by Nicolaas
De Wet Theron is a free ebook that will allow you to fully
customize with your affiliate links. Profit directly from
giving this ebook away for free. Take a look at this great free
ebook at: http://www.internetwealthzone.com/killers.htm

9. Terry Dean offers three outstanding free ebooks that you can
have personalized with your affiliate links and your web links.
They are The Best of Web Gold, 101 High Profit Businesses
You Can Start Online For Little or NO Money, and How to Start
Your Own Traffic Virus. Take advantage of these at:
http://www.bizpromo.com/ebookdownloads.html

10. Small Business Marketing Power Tips. A collection of 14
reports that you can have customized with your own contact
information. This ebook offered at:
http://www.smallbizhelp.net/ebook.htm

About the Author

Pam Renovato is the web master of The Free Advertising Network
with a newly added Power Marketing University. Let me ask
you- What will you do when you find out all of those other
marketing techniques don't work? Use your teeth! More info at:
http://thefreeadnetwork.com

Twenty Ways To Profits Online

2009-05-11T09:37:00.001-07:00

1. Offer to write exclusive articles (that means you only submit them to one place) for high traffic web sites in exchange for a link back to your site.

2. Create a positive online image. Tell your visitors about fundraisers you have sponsored or that you donate a part of your profits to charity.

3. Improve your customer service on a regular basis. Try out new technologies that make it easier to communicate with your customers over the net.

4. Ask your customers what they would like to see offered by your business in the future. This type of information can boost your sales.

5. Make sure your web host isn't losing your sales. If you get an e-mail from someone that told you that they couldn't access your site, it might be your host.

6. Allow your visitors experience to be an enjoyable one at your web site. Provide easy navigation, good content, fast loading graphics, search options, etc.

7. Keep changing or adding freebies to your web site. If people see the same freebie in your ads they will say to themselves, een there done that.

8. Add a directory to your web site. When visitors submit their web site, e-mail them confirming their link has been added and remind them to revisit.

9. Organize your marketing and advertising into a plan. Create a list of daily, weekly, monthly and all other future promotional plans.

10. Trade links only with web sites that your target audience or yourself would visit. They should offer their visitors valuable content or freebies.

11. Gain an advantage over your competition. You should find one benefit your competition doesn't offer and use it as your main selling point.

12. Design your e-zine so it creates multiple free advertising streams. Ask readers to forward it to people they know, offer ad trades, etc.

13. Allow your visitors to subscribe to an update e-zine. Anytime you make changes to your web site they can receive an informative e-mail.

14. Focus your articles on information the targeted readers and e-zine publishers want. They will get published more often, which means free publicity.

15. Use problems to attract online traffic. Find a common online problem and use your web site to solve it. People will visit and see your ads.

16. Have an informative FAQ page at your web site. Anticipate questions your prospects or visitors may have; this will help improve your sales ratio.

17. Improve your negotiation skills. This'll improve your business because you're always negotiating ad swaps, supply prices, joint ventures, wages, etc.

18. Beat your competition by giving away a similar product or service that they charge for. It could be add on products, warranties, servicing, etc.

19. Build a larger online community by giving your visitors bonuses for participating on your message boards or chat rooms. Try free products, ads, etc.

20. Instead of starting an affiliate program, start a referral program. Give people discounts and free products for referring people to your site.

About The Author

Paul Jesse is a retired government employee now living in Arizona. Visit his website at: http://www.sheamarketing.com

Discover How To Instantly Increase Your Sales Conversions a

2009-05-10T09:37:00.001-07:00

Pop-ups, if you're somehow, strangely, not familiar with
the term, are those little windows that open when you visit
certain sites.

** Generation One - The Pop-Up

Until a few years ago, the pop-up was considered the
biggest breakthrough in advertising on the web.

When they were first introduced they were a great success
and click-through rates went through the roof.

Imagine being able to interrupt whatever your visitor was
viewing, by launching a secondary window on top of the
browser window and drawing attention to your advertisement
or subscription box.

But after a while - like most effective marketing tools -
pop-ups started being abused.

A primary popup would open secondary pop-ups till
eventually just visiting a page that has a single popup in
it, could land you with a barrage of about 15 to 20
pop-ups.

Unscrupulous marketers exploited this to the fullest,
especially those hawking porn sites.

Frustrated visitors soon began complaining about pop-ups,
and more considerate webmasters began to use cookies to
ensure a pop-up was not shown more than once per visitor.

Pop-ups became such a nuisance that developers created
popup blocking software.

These applications delete the code that's trying to open a
window - and BAM - it's bye bye popup.

** Generation Two - The Pop-Under

Not to be left behind, web marketers came up with another
version, the pop-under, which launched a secondary window
under the primary window.

In most cases, the visitor didn't even notice this
pop-under until they closed the primary window.

Although less intrusive, these were still a nuisance, and
you don't get an award for guessing what happened next.

Right, the pop-up blockers soon started blocking pop-unders
as well.

** Generation Next - The Hover Ad

What the beejeezus is a Hover Ad?

Well, it's a floating window that popup blockers can't
stop.

The technology that creates Hover Ads is not new. In fact,
it's been available to web designers for at least 2 years
now as DHTML (Dynamic HTML).

Hover Ad are DHTML layers which can be selectively moved and displayed over the primary page that's being displayed.

Although they use JavaScript coding, they don't require the
opening of a new window. Pop-up blocking software are
fooled into thinking they are part of the same window, so
they are unable to block them.

Hover Ad can be animated, moved around, made to appear
once per session, shown after a delay, and more.

These ads don't work with older versions of Internet
Explorer. But since most netizens use browsers with IE 4.0
and above, that are capable of displaying this code, this
sort of advertising is being used more often.

So, you may ask Why should I switch from regular pop-ups
to Hover Ad?

The most compelling reason is that your pop-ups can be, and
are being blocked! Hover Ads can't.

Anyone who uses the Google and Alexa (ten million users)
toolbars is most probably NOT seeing your popup right now.

The Netscape 7.0 Browser (almost 52 million users) has a
built in popup blocker.

Earthlink (five million users) provides its users with a
popup blocker.

AOL (35 million subscribers) has released version 8.0 with
Popup Blocking capabilities.

At least 40 million internet users will never see your
advertisement!

You could be losing out on a lot of new subscribers and
potential revenue right now.

So how do I add Hover Ads[TM to my website?

For the do-it-yourself-er there are freely available
JavaScript snippets that you can put to use on your site
today without buying any fancy software. A sample of code
can be obtained from CodeLifter.com. The drawback here is
that you need in-depth knowledge of JavaScript coding.

Another approach is to use high end HTML editors like
Dreamweaver, which have DHTML scripts included under the
Layers menu. But again, Dreamweaver is an expensive
software.

If pop-ups are a big part of your online marketing strategy
- and if you have noticed a recent drop in your
subscriptions, sales and profits, you can be pretty sure
that your visitors are not seeing your pop-ups anymore.

But now at least, you know you can do something about it -
and soon.

About the Author

About The Author
Satyajeet Hattangadi is the Owner of Novasoft Inc( http://www.novasoft-inc.com), a software solutions provider, makers of Hover Ad Generator -that creates popup blocker proof, rich media animated ads in under a minute

Rejoice and Be Thou Ravished

2009-05-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe;
let her breasts satisfy thee at all times;
and be thou ravished always with her love.
Proverbs 5:18-19

When interpreting Scripture, we must always keep in mind that the manners and customs, in Bible days, differed greatly from those we have today. For example, when dealing with what some would consider delicate subjects, they did so freely; readily discussing sexual and personal matters in mixed company, and often in the presence of their children. Their discussions were done in an open manner; with a frankness and a bluntness that would make many people, in today's society, blush. We need to keep these things in mind when interpreting verses like those above.
Verse 18 begins, Let thy fountain be blessed. The Hebrew word for fountain is maw-kore' and the way it is used here is as a euphemism, for the female pudenda; the female genitals or sexual organs. This verse goes on to say, and rejoice with (not apart from, but together with), he wife of your youth.
This is talking about the sexual act, which is to be a joyous experience for both partners, within a marriage. It is talking here about marriage and marital relationships, not premarital, or extra-marital relationships.
Verse 19 says, Let her be as the loving hind, (female deer) and pleasant roe (wild climbing goat). The Hebrew word for loving is ah'hab, which speaks of affection; sexual or otherwise. Pleasant or khane means well-favored, or gracious; precious, an object of beauty.
According to this verse, a husband is to let his wife be affectionate, loving, wild, and playful towards him.
The end of verse 19 says, Let her breasts in the Hebrew, dad, which is the seat of love, satisfy thee at all times. Satisfy, raw-vaw' means to slake the thirst; this is talking about appetites, make drunk, to take the fill of; to satiate; (abundantly) to satisfy fully.
The last part of the verse says, and be thou ravished (shaw-gaw'- enraptured; intoxicated), in drunkenness, always (taw-meed'- constantly, daily, continually) with her love.
Husbands are to find complete, continual, satisfaction in their wives alone. It is to be with her love that they are to intoxicate themselves.
Many have been raised to believe that the sexual act is something that is to be endured and should only be engaged in with thoughts of propagating the human race. God, however (in light of these verses), appears to have thought differently on this subject.
While sexual intercourse is, indeed, the means He has given us for bringing forth life, life is not the only reason for which it was given. According to the verses we've just studied, we see that the sexual act is meant to be a joyous, thrilling, satisfying, experience within a marriage. It is also meant to be enjoyed by both husbands and wives, with or without propagation in mind.

Rejoice with the wife of thy youth ...
and be thou ravished always with her love.

by Dot McGinnis

http://our.homewithgod.com/heavenlyinspirations/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeavenlyInspirations-originalwritings/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dot is a poet and a published author from Pennsylvania who has served as assistant editor for the Christian newspaper Majesty. She is retired yet continues serving the Lord via the Heavenly Inspirations Ministries.

Hold That Article! (or 5 Techniques To Effective Rewriting)

2009-05-08T09:35:00.001-07:00

Hold it! Don't send that article! Not just yet!

You may think you're through writing your article and that it'snow ready for publication. But after the writing, you're not really done.

You might not know it, but you can prune down that 750-wordarticle you've just finished into one that's only 500 words or less.

And guess what?

I bet the short version would still be as effective as your original article, if not more.

Writing is all about communicating. It's about getting your message across to your readers simply, quickly, and effectively.

You don't just send in your first draft to your editor or publish it right away without looking it over first.

Re-writing. It's the key.

Actually, it's the most crucial step in the writing process.

It can be a frustrating thing to do especially when you're still in writer mode and you believe you've written a brilliant piece.

But realize this: Re-writing your article will definitely pay off.

So here are 5 re-writing techniques you can use:

Technique # 1:Stick to your central theme or idea. Don't insert bits and pieces of information about other things. Read through your work carefully. You're bound to find ideas, words, phrasesand sentences you can strike out.

Technique # 2:Beware of long introductions. It's OK to start with an introductory paragraph, but some writers tend to write introductions that span several paragraphs. Start with the most striking sentence, quote, or idea and then go on from there.

Technique # 3:Rearrange words, phrases and sentences. Often, merely rearranging words within a sentence will shorten that sentence. The trick here is to find prepositions and eliminate them. Break down long sentences that contain two or more ideas. You'll getrid of more conjunctions, articles and prepositions that way.

Technique # 4:Are you being redundant? If you used something like absolutely complete, ask the question, for a span of one month, or factual information, then you've managedto be redundant. It's either complete or not -- you don't haveto add the absolutely to make your point. Do you ask astatement? Of course not! So it's fine if you use ask. You say for one month. You don't have to add a span of. And lastly, save yourself the trouble and use facts instead of factual information.

Technique # 5:Get rid of dangling modifiers and participles, awkward prepositional phrases, and unnecessary adjectives. Lookover your work to see if you have cliches. You may haveoverdone your metaphors and analogies too. Find them and cut them out.

Apply the 5 re-writing techniques on your article and you'llget a leaner, meaner and more polished piece. And *that*will get your piece published in more ezines and sites!

So...have you just used the 5 techniques on that article you were about to send a while ago?

If you have, then don't keep that article sitting on your computer -- Send it NOW!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shery Ma Belle Arrieta
mailto:publisher@ewritersplace.com
Shery is the creator and author of the exciting
new series of ebooks for writers, SEEDS: Ideas for the Everyday
(Non-Fiction) Writer. You can download a FREE sampler at
http://ewritersplace.com/seeds.html. The July SEEDS ebook
contains 82 idea seeds, all based on historical events.
Visit http://www.thepublishedwriter.com/report1002.html.

10 Ways To Extend The Reach Of Your Site

2009-05-07T09:36:00.000-07:00

10 Ways To Extend The Reach Of Your Site
by Titus Hoskins

Successful websites extend their reach far and wide! They
build links, connections, partnerships, or use whatever means
they can to extend the reach of their sites. By extending
their reach, these websites create greater exposure,
bringing in more targeted traffic, leads and sales.

You should do the same with your site. It will greatly
increase the importance of your site - boosting name
recognition and increasing your site's visibility.

Lets look at a real life comparison, ever build a large
patio or outdoor deck onto your house and suddenly realize
you have not only doubled the floor plan but you have also
changed the very nature of the house itself. Or you build
a gazebo or a guest house on your property... and suddenly
you and your visitors have a different view or opinion of
your property. In fact, you have expanded the reach of your
property by building these extensions.

Think of your website in the same light - by building simple
extensions you can change how your site is viewed and judged
by others; resulting in many positive benefits. Little things
that are so simple to do, yet it can have far reaching
implications for your site. You can, in fact, extend the
reach of your site to all corners of the globe.

Here are some of the best techniques for extending the
reach of your site, some of these are very simple, some a
little more complex:

Article Writing
Get one way targeted links placed all over the web by writing
simple 'how to' articles on the topic or theme of your site.
Extend the reach of your site by simply including your live
links in the author's resource box at the end of your articles.
Simple and very easy to do - just try it!

Viral Desktop Applications
You can extend the reach of your site by placing links directly
onto the desktops of your visitors by offering them simple
desktop applications like wallpaper, software programs, or
ecalendars, like the DATEwise desktop eCalendar (see below).
These are great for building brand recognition.

Old Fashion Link Building
Finding related websites and asking for reciprocal links
is still one of the best ways to extend your site. Takes a
bit of hard work but it pays off big time. And don't forget
about testimonials, simple little recommendations about a
site or product, these can be great link building opportunities.

Bookmarks
Make sure you have a bookmark link on all your pages.
You might also want to make a favicon - small logo that goes
with your bookmarks. And subtly ask those who bookmark your site
to place a shortcut on their desktops.

Ezine or Newsletter
You can reach and keep reaching your site's visitors by
building your own opt-in list newsletter or ezine. Broaden
the scope of your site by offering diverse information in
these publications.

Viral eBooks and Reports
These can be simple 'how-to' ebooks on topics related to
your site. Include links to your website and build name
recognition as well as tageted traffic.

Forum Posting
Becoming a regular poster on all the online forums will
give your site greater exposure and build site or brand
recognition. More importantly, if you offer helpful and
well informed information your site will acquire a resident
expert - you!

Off-line Advertising
Placing your site's logo or URL in off-line places, billboards,
t-shirts, caps, but try to resist the latest trend - putting
URLs on body parts! Off-line exposure will greatly extend
the reach of your site.

Burning CDs
Burning your best programs or information on CDs, DVDs or disks
and distributing these around to all interested parties
will create more recognition. Great for reaching non-online
computer users.

RSS Feeds and Blogs
This may prove to be the granddaddy of ways to extend your site.
The original name for RSS stood for 'Rich Site Summary' - you
make a summary of your website and syndicate it to all interested
parties. Other webmasters will take your syndicated RSS feeds
and place them on their sites. You create mini satellite sites
of your content all over the web!

In addition, as your site expands and grows, other opportunities
will present themselves... in traditional media such as TV, Radio
and Print advertising. Starting an affiliate program for your site
is another option you may want to consider. An affiliate program
can greatly expand the reach of your site. So too, will starting
mirror sites in different languages or countries.

As you can plainly see, there are countless ways to extend the
reach of your site. However, just trying a few of these will boost
your site's creditability and visibility, bringing in more targeted
leads and traffic. So it's your move, don't just let your site
sit there, start implementing some of what you're just read.

The whole world is waiting...

About the Author

Get a Free DATEwise eCalendar & Personal Planner for your Desktop.

Click here for Free Desktop Calendar

Copyright 2005 Titus Hoskins of Free Marketing Tools

This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

10 ways to ensure your site does not get indexed on search e

2009-05-06T09:36:00.001-07:00

**** Copyright Todd Jamieson 2004 ----- Todd Jamieson, EnvisionOnline.ca (www.envisiononline.ca) ****

Search Engines have come a long way since the web's beginnings. Back in the old days it seemed like anything you typed in would ultimately show at least one or more pornographic web site. Well, luckily those days have passed us and getting indexed on search engines has become a necessity of doing business on the Internet. In my experience with personally working on over 250 business web sites in the last six years (an having them all indexed), I have accumulated a substantial list of techniques that work and don't work. There are literally hundreds of things that will have a negative effect on your ranking. Below is a list of my top ten.

1. Have no html text on your home page.

Because search engine robots are still not able to read images (jpegs, gifs etc), you will be guaranteed to not get indexed - because there is nothing to index.

2. Have a 100% Flash driven web site.

Some search engines are now able to index certain parts of flash, but as a general rule of thumb flash sites do not get indexed.

3. Dump a bunch of keywords on your home page and change the colour so they are visible to the eye.

While there is no published standard, most online professionals agree that tricking the search engines by adding a large number of keywords on your home page is bound to get you black-listed on search engines.

4. Create an automatic redirect that sends someone to another web site (from your home page)

If you code your web site so that when someone visits it, it will go to another page instantly - most search engines will ban you.

5. Rely solely on your Keyword and Description meta-tags.

Most search engines DO NOT use keywords or description text as a way to index sites. Some use the description tag for the results list. But in general the major search engines ignore these all together when looking to index your site.

6. Having less than 100 words on your home page.

As your home page is usually the first page a spider visits, it is important it has an ample supply of keywords for it to determine how it should index your web site.

7. Not incorporating a site tree or text links off of your home page.

Again, because search engine spiders read text only, it is extremely important to give it the food it needs to help index as many pages as possible on your web site.

8. Not having a links page.

Most of the major search engines use link popularity as a key method of determining how high a web site will get ranked within their search engine. Starting a reciprocal linking program by trading links between like-minded web sites will increase your popularity online.

9. Having little keyword rich content

Have you ever noticed that most of the high-ranking sites seem to have a lot of content? This is because they have learned the importance of having spider food online. Keyword rich content also helps build your credibility and makes your site more appealing when trading links.

10. Link Farms and get rich quick schemes

Nothing in this world is for free. There is no such thing as an automated search engine optimization tool that works all of the time. Many of these spam emails do not even pre-qualify their prospects - I have heard of even Google receiving a spam email! Optimizing your site takes time and patience. But if done right, the pay-off could be extremely large and provide you with a significant source of sales or referrals from new prospects.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(c) Todd Jamieson 2004 ----- Todd Jamieson, EnvisionOnline.ca (www.envisiononline.ca)

About the Author

About the Author:
Todd Jamieson is Founder and President of EnvisionOnline.ca and has worked as Project Manager on more than 200 web sites, web applications and Internet e-business initiatives for small and medium sized enterprises. He is also actively involved in a number of other small businesses.

Business Needs Drive Search Engine Updates

2009-05-05T09:36:00.000-07:00

The Business Reasons Behind The Major Updates

All major search engines claim that they strive to present search results to users with the highest quality. But the business of search engine is business. What they won't tell us is that there're many business reasons for every major search engine updates. Search engine traffic is hot commodity - it's free and has higher conversion rate since the searchers are very close to make their buying decisions. The downside of the search traffic for webmasters is that they don't have control at all. Your sites may be ranked 1 today, but nowhere next day.

Search engine companies will, no doubt, use the search engine traffic to maximize the values for their stakeholders. Google's Feb. 2 update (allegra update or Superbowl update) once again shocked the webmaster community like last Florida update. The noticeable change in Superbowl update is that well-established sites rank well even for specific keywords that aren't even highly relevant to their pages. You may think the move is to fight spams and improve the quality of SERPs. That's only part of the story. The results of the update is that the websites of well-established corporations (with never ending press releases) will get a major traffic boost from Google. Google does this by algorithm changes, not manual manipulations.

If we think search engine traffic from Google is really an incentive to try it free before you buy. This time, Google decides to lure the major corporations to test the benefits of search traffic. Major corporations will likely increase their spending in online advertising and those news agencies may even drop their law sues against Google if they see the traffic from Google justifies that their sites benefit from including in Google index database.

Is this the real driving force behind last update? Only Google knows. If you own Google, however, you will do the exactly the same.

Will this negatively impact the user experience? - maybe and maybe not. What is the real difference between the 1 spot and the site that ranks 100? - the backlinks. Backlinks don't alter the quality of a page at all.

When they say technology, they mean business. Major technology changes are always driven by business needs. It has nothing to do with good or ad.

Strategies to Cope with search Engine Updates

The Internet and the Web was once hailed as the new medium and the new opportunity for small business and site owners. They will be disappointed as big three peek into fortune 500 companies's deep packets. There're strategies they can use to cope with the search engine updates, however.

1. Create a portfolio of website using different SEO techniques. If some of your sites get hammered in a update the rest may benefit
from the update.
2. Generate traffic from all major search engines.
3. Use the search traffic to build loyal user bases.
4. Build sites similar to the sites of well-established companies. The tags, on-page, off page optimization techniques will become less and less important as major corporations aren't interested in those types of things that geek webmasters are interested.

About the author:

Bruce Zhang operates a website http://www.4th-media.comthat automatically aggregates and categorizes SEO news, new articles http://www.4th-media.com/newsbot/and forum threads http://www.4th-media.com/forumbot/from over 50 sources daily to help webmasters and SEO professionals to keep up with the latest development in search engine marketing. The website also offers original thoughts on SEO.

4 Simple Strategies to Keep Network Solid and Grow Fast

2009-05-04T09:36:00.001-07:00

Mostly people talk about compensation plan only when they promote and market an online business. I do believe about these compensation plan but they forget how to support, guide and educate from the start to achieve that goal. Without mastering the basic skills and a systematic approach, it will definitely lose more money than what will be making.

For many people, one of the scariest parts of starting a new business is the fear of not having enough knowledge of business. Many people feel they know little about how to put the word out. However, marketing a home-based business need not be complex or expensive.

In the network marketing need more work hard to keep existing customer or member than recruit new member. If they satisfied to our services, they will keep stay and network will grow fast.

The 4 Simple Strategies are:

1. Mentoring or Coaching, Lead by a professional or a savvy internet marketer that had been proven succeed to teach, help and share everything about personal expertise, experience and knowledge in business, and if possible, anytime mentor is needed by member will be there to guide and give the necessary support.

2. Training, there are so many newbie network marketers out there. Training will educate them step-by-step to organize and action on how to run the business, a learning period to get an understanding of what its offer and to develop a strategy that works for them, educate first so they will know what to do and how to do it to run business, understand the opportunities, represent it correctly and set realistic goals.

3. Teamwork that means pulls together and helps each other to succeed. Any time you are in business, whether for yourself or as an employee, you're in the business of pleasing other people. Your business will only succeed if you are able to work well with others and work hard at building relationships. Some of teamwork methods are mailing list, tag team or testimonial team. Mailing list provides a simple way of corresponding with a group of people to discuss or share any information about business including share knowledge or to solve the problem together and technical issues among member. Tagging is all about helping others and Tag team is a team to ag prospect for our reference. It will encourage them to join by giving their testimonials and own good experience for potential customers or prospects.

4. Marketing guidance is how to professionally market a business to a large number of potential customers that provided for members with many various ways. Member can choose which one method is most effective so they don't need to lose hundreds of dollars ways to promote and market online and offline the business. It can be library tools, e-Book software resource, regularly scheduled teleconference calls, presentation, FAQ, tips and trick that will be provided with always updated and a never-ending supply.

About the Author

Elite Team Member and contributor A Revolutionary New Approach To Internet Business

Visit http://www.EliteTeam4Success.com

Feel Free to reprint this article in newsletters and on websites,
with resource box included. If you use this article, please send a
brief message to let me know where it appeared: eonetea2000@yahoo.com.sg

Traffic Conversion Secrets Finally Revealed!

2009-05-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

Dan, I need your help. The copy on my website sucks. It must. Nobody is buying my product Or ordering my ebook Or signing up for my course Or booking my services.

People tell me all the time that their websites doesn't convert.

(Not sure what conversion is? It's that magical transformation that turns a site visitor into a product/service buyer)

If you're a website owner who's unhappy with the business your Internet presence is generating, I wouldn't be surprised if you think your copy is the culprit, too. A lot of people think that if there's a problem with conversion that the sales copy must be at fault.

This is WRONG THINKINGand potentially fatal to your website's success.

Don't misunderstand me My business is copywriting. It's my bread and butter. (Also my caviar and champagne!) I come from a traditional sales and marketing background where the emphasis is on words that sell.

The world's most brilliant sales letter for the world's most incredible product won't necessarily generate the through-the-roof results you might expect. The truth is that turning a casual site visitor into a here's my credit card take whatever you want buyer takes MUCH MORE than just effective copywriting.

Converting prospects into clients and customers takes more than a super headline More than a list of what's in it for you More than an ironclad guarantee and more than a page of testimonials from celebrities and authorities.

This isn't a war that will be won with words. You need moremuch more.

If you think of your website as a high-powered sports car, your sales letter is the engine. But as any racer on the NASCAR circuit will tell you, without the right fuel and other essential components, an engine can't run smoothly and a car will never be first to the checkered flag.

I don't care if you have the most powerful engine in the worldthe greatest sales letter ever written. If you're not taking advantage of technology and leveraging human psychology in your sales and marketing efforts, you're simply out of the race.

I usually wear my copywriter's hat when I do the rant and load you up with lots of ideas for creating great sales messages. The how's and why'sthe do's and don'ts the nuts and bolts.

But this time around, I don't want to focus on the engine. Instead, we're going to make a pit stop to look under the hood of killer websites and talk about everything that's working to power their success.

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Conversion Secret #1 - Less Can Be More (Why the QUALITY of Your Traffic is More Important than the Quantity)

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The number of people that visit your website is meaningless if they don't buy anything when they're there. You can have ten thousand people hitting your site a month, but if they're looking for camping equipment and you're selling baby strollers, you're not going to convert a single visitor.

And if you're paying per click, this will kill you. Your marketing dollars are going up in smoke.

On the other hand, you can have less traffic, but if they're targeted, you'll have a very high conversion rate. If your baby stroller site has a banner ad at a baby formula store, chances are the people who click through will be more likely to buy from you.

Here's something you MUST keep in mind: more likely to buy doesn't mean that they will buy. That's why tracking your traffic is so important. You have to know exactly where your traffic is coming from.

Are they from Per-Pay-Click? Are they from affiliates? Are they from offline marketing? What percentage is from what promotion? Unless you know the answers, you can't build on your success.

You can't improve something you can't measure. W. Edwards Deming, management expert.

A steady flow of QUALITY traffic and information about where it comes from will affect your conversion rate just as much as the quality of your sales message.

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Conversion Secret #2 - Don't Let A Good Answer Get Away (Exit Poll)

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No one expects a 100% conversion rate, of course. You may dream about it, but, depending on what you're selling, if you're getting a 2-3% conversion, that's pretty damn good.

Okay, you're not converting 97% of the people that come to your site But does that mean that their visit has to go into the lost cause column? No way!

If you paid to have those people visit, you can't just let them get away! You need to get some kind of return on your investment. Why not do an exit pop-up survey, asking them why they're not buying?

Want to really get a visitor's attention. Use an audio pop-up. When people leave your site you can have a pop-up with an audio portion like this:

Wait, before you go, could you please help me out? I'm not trying to sell you anything, I just need some information. Could you tell me the single biggest reason that you're not giving us a try today? What's the ONE reason that's stopping you from purchasing (my product name)? Just fill out the box below and click on the submit button. Your opinion matters to me..

Boom! You've just created your own consumer feedback forum and you haven't spent a penny on some high-priced focus groups. Once you get a bunch of responses to your exit poll, you'll be able to identify patterns in what people say. Use what you learn to make the changes that you know for certain will bump up your conversion rate.

Success and failure shouldn't be based on guesswork or assumptions. It doesn't matter what you think is the reason people aren't buying. It doesn't matter what I think is the reason people aren't buying.

The only thing that matters is what your customers thinkthat's the pulse of the marketplace and the lifeblood of your future business. And with an exit survey, your customers will tell you what you need to do in order to convince them to buy your product!

People consider me a marketing wizard because I'm so good at market research. Well, I may be a wizard, but I'm not a genius, and I certainly didn't earn my Ph.D in marketing. That's because you don't have to be marketing genius to get your finger on the pulse of your industry.

Here's the secret: I am not the marketing wizard. You're not the marketing wizard. Your CUSTOMER is the marketing wizard.

All you have to do to learn the mysteries of more sales is ASK your customers And make sure you ask the people who decided not to be your customers, too.

Just ask and they'll tell you. Then take what you've learned, incorporate it into your sales message, and watch the o sales turn into sales so fast that you'll get a speeding ticket for all that fast-moving, fast-buying traffic!

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Conversion Secret #3 - Take a Tip from the Tortoise (slow and steady wins the race)

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Far too many Internet marketers try to close the sale with one step. Are you one of them?

Do you run an ad in some ezines, post a couple of Pay-Per-Click ads, then sit back, relax and wait to enjoy he show? Do you assume that people will notice the ad, read the ad, get excited by the ad, go to your site, read your sales pitch, pull out their credit cards and buy from you?

Do you expect to accomplish all that with ONE STEP? Give me a break. What are you thinking?

That's like you're trying to have sex on the first date.

You might get away with it. (You might get some sales and be profitable) But chances are, without a little coaxing from you at every step in the process, you'll be going home alone.

Take it slow, will ya?

Show some class. Have some manners. Get to know each other. Share some stories. Make a connection. Develop a relationship before you try to close the deal. People buy from people they trust. So you'll make a lot more sales if you take the time to develop a solid relationship.

How do you convince website visitors that you're one of the white hats? Start building that relationship. One way is by giving more than you get.

Give them a free report. Give them a free mini-course. Give them a free ebook. Give them a free chapter. (Are you getting the idea that free may be the most important word in relationship-building on the Internet?)

Bribe them and get them to give you their name and email so that you can follow up with them using an autoresponder. And don't forget to make it simple.

One easy-to-use option is a hover ad that drops down on your visitor's screen when they visit your site, inviting them to opt-in to your free offer. Why a hover ad? Testing shows hover ad gets more attention than traditional pop-ups.

A more advanced wayand to some a less savory, but extremely effective wayto capture contact information is to make your home page an opt-in request.

Basically, a visitor can't get to the rest of your site without providing contact information. You qualify them before you let them read your sales pitch! That's pretty brilliant if you ask me!

The opt-in doesn't have to be fancy. And it definitely shouldn't be very long. Just a killer headline and some equally killer benefits. That'll do it.

A good example of this kind of approach in action can be found here: http://www.extremewebcopymakeover.com

Don't blow it! When you follow up with them, you don't just want to pitch them. You want to deliver value in your autoresponder messages. Educate them. Teach them something. Then just have a little plug at the end.

Remember I said that people buy from people they trust. If you're constantly selling things, then you're a salespersonand your motives are immediately suspect.

But if you're constantly giving things away, sharing ideas, giving more than you're getting, you're a valuable resourcea good frienda trusted advisor. (There's the secret password -- trust!)

And the beauty iswhat you give away doesn't have to cost you a penny.

Let's say you're selling an ebook, you can actually take the first 3 chapters of your ebook and turn them into a series of autoresonder messages. This is a great way to give them a taste of what you're selling and to prove that you're the eal deal.

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Conversion Secret #4 - Hear Ye, Hear Ye (Audio on the Internet)

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When I talk about copywriting, I often talk about how important it is to engage the reader's senses. Make them see with word pictures Make them feel with hot-button language. The more senses that are involved, the more likely it is that your prospect will be sold.

Using audio on your site is a sense-sation.

With audio, you appeal to a completely different sense than the average site. The web is full of visual appeal, but with audio, you suddenly connect with a visitors ears with a whole new component -- a verbal component.

Your spoken words will strike an emotional chord with visitors and connects on a human level in an otherwise electronic world.

And here's something that every website needs: excitement. Because it's rare, audio is unusual and attention-getting. It's brand new, instead of the same old, same old.

(This won't be true forever, of course, but for now, you can take advantage of audio's scarcity.)

Your audio features don't have to be limited to you. You can also use audio testimonials. Instead of just having a written testimonial, why not offer a listen to what this satisfied customer opportunities and add audio testimonials to your sales page.

Don't let your fear of the unknown or a fear of failure hold you back. You don't have to be a techie to utilize and implement these technologies. If you've got the will, I'll show you the way:

This is a list of website conversion tools that I use and recommend to my clients so that they can add ells and whistles quickly, easily, and inexpensively.

http://www.danlokrecommends.com

Okay, now my secrets are your secrets. The same tricks and techniques that I've used to achieve astronomical traffic conversion levels are now at your disposal.

They've been tested and refined and re-tested. They've worked for meand they've worked for my clients (who, by the way, paid me a fortune to implement them on their behalf).

I know they'll work for you. Let me know when they do. I'd like to add your success story to an upcoming issue of the Rant.

Stay Lok-ed and loaded for success,

Dan Lok

About The Author

Dan Lok is known as the Website Conversion Expert, with a proven track record of selling over $17.3 million dollars of merchandise and services. Dan has resuscitated copy that was previously in critical condition and helped his clients to double and triple their conversion rates some as much as 417%!!! More than 150 websites have been Lok-ed and loaded for Internet action. Go to: http://www.WebsiteConversionExpert.com

Get more than just a presence on the Internet

2009-05-02T09:36:00.000-07:00

The water purification salesman had been talking to us for what seemed like hours. During a lull in his monologue, I asked if he had a website.

Yes. In fact, we are the only independent distributors of this product who does, he proudly beamed.

So you get a lot of leads from the website, then? I asked.

No, actually I don't think we've gotten a single lead from it, he replied.

Then why do you have a website? I wanted to know.

To have a presence on the Internet.

A few days later, our home inspector was giving us an update on the state of our house. We had bought it a few years earlier in winter, when snow was on the ground and on the roof, and we thought an update would be a worthwhile investment.

Do you have a website? I asked.

Yes, I do. But, I don't think a single customer found me that way.

Then why do you have a website? I asked.

To have a presence on the Internet.

A lot of entrepreneurs and small businesses are sold on paying for a website because it is important to have a presence on the Internet. For many businesses, that is true. But what does a presence mean?

Would you open up a store in the corner office of the fifth floor of an office building, or would you open it up in the mall?

Would you leave the windows bare, or would you fill the windows with merchandise and open the door to make your store inviting?

Would you ignore customers when they enter the store, or would you carefully place merchandise and staff to maximize the revenue from each visit?

A presence is only valuable if the website serves a purpose, if it fulfills its goals. Just sitting there, somewhere in cyberspace, is not a sound business strategy. An experienced website marketing consultant can help you determine what goals, if any, are viable for your business website.

Here are a few of the goals you might want for your website:

Online pamphlet.

If you connect with customers by telephone, this is an ideal way to instantly deliver a pamphlet to them. No mailing, no delays, they can even call up your information while you are on the phone with them. This website has to look credible and be choc full of information.

Credibility booster.

If you are selling a big ticket item, particularly one that requires a good reputation, a website can help. This website should look upscale and focus on credibility-boosting content. It is ideal for speakers, consultants and other business-to-business service providers.

Lead generator

One excellent use for a website in many non-retail businesses is as lead generator. The idea is to funnel traffic (website users) into the site and lead them to take action. Such action might be to call you, to request a brochure, to request a free sample, etc. The main requirement for this is the maximum amount of targeted traffic possible, of people interested in what you have to offer.

By way of example, my marketing strategies website serves these first three goals: online pamphlet, credibility booster and lead generator.

Email Address Gatherer

This is really a form of lead generation, but it is unique in that you are not trying to sell through the website, but through an email newsletter (also called an ezine). The website is there primarily to pique interest, and the newsletter is there to build affinity and trust in order to make the sale. You need to have a newsletter set up, and you need targeted traffic.

By way of example, my personal growth website at serves this goal, attracting subscribers to my Daily Dose of Happiness.

Sell

Of course, if you sell hard goods, electronic goods or even many services, you can make the sales right online. You need some form of payment gateway and/or shopping cart, and your website needs to be able to make the sale from start to finish, which is not always easy. Of course, you also need customers in the form of targeted traffic.

By way of example, my liquid vitamins website at serves this goal.

What you want your website to achieve should dictate the look, the structure, the content, the writing style and whether or not the site is optimized for the search engines. Before investing any more money of time in your website, invest the time required to determine the goals you want your website to achieve.

Or you could be like that water salesman or my home inspector, satisfied with having a presence. Of course, many people go through life having a presence on Planet Earth, but most entrepreneurs I have met are go-getters. If a presence is not good enough in the real world, why settle for it in the online world?

A website should be an investment, not a cost. If your website is not working for you, or if you feel your business should have a website, determine realistic and useful goals, then set your website up to achieve them.

Maybe you don't need a website at all. Or maybe your website could double your profits. Either way, don't let it sit there gathering dust somewhere in cyberspace.

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

David Leonhardt is an effective seo consultant and a website marketing consultant..

AdSense is Stupid When...

2009-05-01T09:35:00.001-07:00

AdSense is Stupid When...

There are times Google's heralded ad affiliate program isn't in
your long term business interest. Oh no I said it!

AdSense isn't the unstoppable revenue engine for every
eBusiness. Before I am taken out and flogged by the eCommerce
pundits -- please let me explain what I mean in my defense.

I make revenues from AdSense at a very high click-through rate.
I experience high click-through rates with AdSense without
resorting to questionable tactics like tricking site users with
photos (the AdSense trick and tip dujour).

So my perspective is from one who has made decent income from
AdSense to fund aspects of his business like advertising
seminars -- and outsourcing to his virtual assistants. Yes,
AdSense is a legitimate and significant revenue source. However
evaluate AdSense with some type of balance.

By now you may have heard about people like Joel Comm's six
figure income with AdSense, or Jason Calacanis of Weblogs being
on his way to generating 1 million dollars in AdSense revenue.
Google's Ad revenue sharing affiliate program for publishers
certainly seems to be an eSales Nirvana for many webmasters.

But there are obvious and not so obvious times not to use
AdSense ads on your sites. Let's list - examine - and explain
them below.

~~~~> 1. On Sales or Mini-sites

This is a no-brainer. If you are trying to sell a particular
product that is important to your bottomline, you don't want
AdSense ads distracting your customers from either joining your
email list, or hindering your site's online sales process.

However I do see hybrid sites that are mini-sites or full scale
eCommerce sites, with AdSense at the bottom of their pages.
This might not be so bad since only 1% - 15% of your site
visitors will either buy from you or fill out a form.

The thinking with this approach is you might as well make money
from disinterested parties using up your server's bandwidth.

~~~~~> 2. SEO Business Sites

If your livelihood depends on search engine optimization or
marketing for a living you might want to think twice about
displaying AdSense Ads on your site. I can tell you this from
personal experience. I once was on top of MSN for search engine
marketing in my local area. I concentrated on my local area
because I found people felt more comfortable hiring an eCommerce
consultant locally.

One day my site fails totally out of the MSN index. After
intense study I noticed that I obviously had a filter on my site
from MSN.

I analyzed all the top ranking sites in MSN and noticed the only
difference between me and the other top ranking sites was I had
Google AdSense ads on my site. Someone at MSN felt that my
AdSense ads, and perhaps to a less extent, my book on SEO, was
getting a free ride in the MSN search engine database.

In fact I noticed that there were no sites with AdSense ads for
at least the first 3 pages. Plus the sites with AdSense were
only using 1 ad unit at the bottom of the home page (there were
very few of them in the top 5 pages).

I knew it was strange to not have AdSense ads on the top
Internet marketing sites. This prompted me to scan other
industries where I noticed the same trend.

Many of the leading SEO gurus have sites that have been banned
from the top listings by the search engines. It seems the more
visible you become, the more of a target your sites are to the
search engine auditors.

Some of my sites are still on the top of MSN with AdSense ads
but that doesn't mean they won't also be targets in the future.

Let's face the facts. MSN and Yahoo! have competing ad networks
to Google's, and this competitive situation is rife for a
potential backlash against SEO sites with AdSense ads.

Many SEOs will point to exceptions to this position. However
you have been warned!

Think about it, how long will MSN and Yahoo! sit back and watch
SEO driven websites use their search indexes to fund Google?
Did you know SEO in MSN and Yahoo(!) --- is much easier to
obtain.

Therefore optimized sites are creating an ad sales wealth
transfer from MSN and Yahoo into the pockets of Google! It
won't be long before Yahoo! and MSN begin to devalue ranking on
AdSense sites in their databases -- if not outright ban them.

If you are in the search engine business stay search engine
neutral, or create multiple sites for different search engines.

~~~~~> 3. When AdSense Becomes Your Only Business Model

When you become so myopic in your thinking that you build a
business solely on AdSense revenue -- think again my friend.
Why build a business solely on the largess of Google?

I don't know if your realize it or not, but the sites making the
real big AdSense money usually have a following that doesn't
depend on the search engines. Internet mavens like Chris
Pirillo or Joel Comm have been on the Internet a while and have
followings for their websites. Therefore they can consistently
make six figures with AdSense.

These content powerhouses are an asset to Google and not the
other way around. But do you think Google is going to sit back
and watch just anybody make big bucks off of their top rankings?

If you do a search on most keywords you will notice many of the
top ranking sites are news sites, .gov sites, or .org sites
these days. The only exception is in industries where these
sites don't really exist like eCommerce industries (clothing,
shopping, etc.).

No doubt in most industries you will notice a conspicuous
scarity of AdSense sites in the top rankings. In other words
don't bet your future fortunes on AdSense.

An IPO based on projections of AdSense revenue isn't in the
future for the average eBusiness. Think of Google AdSense as
supplemental income. Building a business solely on AdSense
revenue isn't just silly -- it's just plain stupid.
About the Author

Kamau Austin is the publisher of over ten websites. See more of
his eCommerce and Search Engine Commentary can be found at:
www.eInfoNEWs.com and www.SearchEnginePlan.com .

Leather motorcycle jacketsbombersjacketscoatsblazershal

2009-04-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

Leathericon offers high quality leather jacket, motorcycle jackets, nascars, blazer, bomber, biker, coat, vest, skirt, pant, tank top, halter, shorts at affordable rates.We specialize in custom made leather clothing.
Lucrative Affiliate program inside.
10% commission on each sale made.
http://www.leathericon.com/Affiliate/index.asp

A Internet Marketing Plan Is Crucial

2009-04-29T09:35:00.001-07:00

A Internet marketing plan provides you with a way to define your potential market and allows you the chance to position your business for optimum sales. You wouldn't start on a trip without map, would you? Likewise, starting an online business without a well thought out strategy is a recipe for failure. Let's look at some things you must consider when starting to write your strategy Internet marketing plan.

A Internet marketing plan should define goals and set objectives to achieve those goals. Having a solid yet flexible plan will assist you in building your business and will help influence the others that your business will be a success. The following items will give you a core of business principles that will give you a firm foundation to start your business. Each component that is mentioned below will move your site from failure to success.

To start, the first issue you must address in designing your strategy is define your target market. Step back and look at who your most valuable customers will be. Examine the age groups, income level, marital status, educational level, and other qualities that will be common ground for them and your website.

Your Internet marketing plan has to figure out who your customers will be; now design your site to serve them. Custom fit your website to their tastes, pleasures, and desires. Give them a variety of products and services designed to fit their needs. Sell in such a manner as to build trust with your clientele. This in turn will build loyalty, as they will want to come back.

A third element in your strategy is how will you close and execute the sale. Will your website contain a shopping cart? What about a secure server certificate? Will you accept major credit cards or will you work through a third party? Designing your website with the customer's ease in mind will make them want to return the next time they are interested in purchasing.

About the Author

Why do Some Get Filthy Rich Online and Others Don't?
Learn the shockingly simple answer - 9 Part Free Report:
=> Home Based Business Opportunities
=> mailto:thecomlev@getresponse.com

5 Strategies for Selling Yourself

2009-04-28T09:36:00.000-07:00

This is a constant debate. Should you sell your product or
yourself? Of course you should always sell the product. But,
your long term goal should be to sell yourself as well. Here's
how to start.

Be completely comfortable with who you are. Try to change
yourself too much and people will sense dishonesty.

You should have a marketing strategy, but also be willing to give
free advice and referrals. If you are building a long-term
enterprise, this will be invaluable as you open up relationships
with your customers.

Gain a reputation of being sincerely interested in your customers
BEFORE you start selling. Talk to them informally and make them
remember you were there.

If you have a web site, update it often and make sure there is
plenty of information. Invite people to refer to your web site
for details on your products and services.

Above all, make yourself interesting to others. If you sell
yourself as well as the product you will always have an eager
market.

About the Author

Promote BIG with Kevin's All-Out Marketing Package. For one
affordable price you get a press release with national media
distribution, your own article sent to 2,000 ezines, ezine ads,
and a page of expert sales copy for email or your web site.
http://drnunley.com/marketingplan.htm
Reach Kevin at mailto:kevin@drnunley.com or 801-328-9006.

Easy Steps To Start Your Online Business

2009-04-27T09:35:00.001-07:00

Start with a plan

Anyone who has ever started and managed a successful business, internet or otherwise, knows that it requires research and planning. Your business should not be a get rich quick scheme that is thrown together haphazardly.

Take time to explore what it is you want to accomplish. If you expect to be successful then plan your work and work your plan. Doing it any other way will lead to costly mistakes that could be fatal to your hopes of ever creating a solid online business.

Determine your interest

The first step in building your online business is to find an area where you have a great interest or passion in. Here's how you can accomplish this:

Take time to brainstorm the best website concepts that will work for you. It is much easier to build a successful online business if you love what you are doing.

If you can't find your passion, create one. Find something that grabs your interest and plunge into it until it becomes your passion.

If all else fails, go for the money. Research what is popular and sells. Find out what people want and sell it to them. You will greatly enhance your chances of success by doing so. There are a number of places where you can go to determine what sells. Just do some surfing. You will soon find something to catch your fancy.

Determine your target audience

Once you have determined your interest, determine your audience. Your audience will affect the design and content of your web site. Ask yourself these questions:

Who is it that I expect to visit my website?

How will they find my web site?

What is their age, gender, education, computer experience, etc.?

What does my audience want; e-books, article, e-zines etc.?

What do I want them to do after they reach my site; request information, sign up for something or, order something?

What inticements will convince them to stay and revisit my web site?

Answering questions like these will be a critical step in the development of your online business. They will help you to focus on what important steps you must take to promote your business. In the end they will help you to increase your web site revenue, maximize your marketing spending, improve you web page customer conversions, increase your brand awaremess and reinforce your customer loyalty.

Conclusion

Remember that an effective online business starts with a clear set of objectives. Before launching an e-business be sure to explore and evaluate both your business and personal goals. It may take some time to thoroughly think through these business building concepts but once done, you will be able to use the information you have accrued, to build a comprehensive and thoughtful business plan that will help you reach your goal of making money online.

About The Author

Craig Cawthorne owner of http://www.AffiliateNet4U.com provides a comprehensive service of website development, domain name selection and registration,affordable hosting, and first class, high quality web site templates for individuals ready to start there own home based business. Stop by his Web site and subscribe to his Free newsletter full strategies and techniques for successful web site promotions that can help you! http://www.AffiliateNet4U.com

Adsense Boost Your Payout 400% No Really

2009-04-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

How?

Dead easy.

I implemented this tactic myself recently on one of my sites and my CTR has gone up 300% and it hasn't been 24hrs yet. Needless to say I'll be spending sometime making changes to my Adsense ads across my network of sites.

What is it?
Sorry, can't resist a little intrigue.

It's very simple.

Using the Adsense Leaderboard banner 728 x 90 I added small images/photos above each ad at 140 x 100.

These photos are broadly related to the ads and draw the eye of the visitor to the ad. Which the ad alone maybe would not do. Once the eye is drawn your visitor will be much more likely to read the ad text below the image and in turn they'll be more inclined to click.

Google already knows of this tactic and I know a number of people have approached them via email before implementing the images. Obviously nobody wants their account suspended. The good news is Google are fine with it, for now at least. Although a few warnings have gone out with regard to animated images not being appropriate. So no Flash or animated gifs!

You can view this in action on one of my sites -
http://www.how-to-make-money-online.info

You can't fail to see it at the top of the page.

Now I hope this is new information to you. If so I know it's going to be damn useful. :) And most of all profitable!

The benefit of this over Google's own Adsense 'image ads' is that you choose the image for one and the basic text ad appeals for another. As I'm sure you are aware text ads work better than image ads. Combining them together in this way seems to work btter than either one of them would alone.

There's also a major boost in the fact that you are able to select the most relevant image for your site content and current Adsense ads.

About the Author

Darren Yates is the owner of http://www.how-to-make-money-online.info a site about Making Money Online and Internet Marketing.

You are free to reprint and distribute this article as you like. All that we ask is that you do not make changes, that this resource text is included and that the link above is intact.

Article Writing & Promotion...Your Fast Track To Sales & Pro

2009-04-25T09:35:00.001-07:00

Writing articles, and promoting them for publication, is one of the most productive long-term promotional tactics available. Well researched and written articles... which provide valuable, useable information, are highly sought after by newsletter publishers, magazines, ezines, etc.

It is a marketing truth that Content Is King. Good, keyword rich, content is what drives online traffic through search engines and gives the visitor a reason to keep coming back to a website. This is often referred to as sticky content. As a traffic-generation tool it is unsurpassed.

Webmasters and publication editors have an insatiable appetite for tightly written iched articles that are relevant to their web sites or publications themes.

This need is your opportunity...

An editor of an ezine, newsletter or magazine has a never-ending need for good content. Each issue they publish must be filled with useful, relevant content that will appeal to their readers or subscribers self-interest. A publication that cannot provide great content will not long survive.

------------------------------------------------------------

An editor of an ezine, newsletter or magazine has a never-ending
need for good content.

------------------------------------------------------------

By regularly supplying the media with well written articles, you build a never-ending supply of links and traffic to your own websites.

How?... Well, the secret is in the bio. Each article you submit for publication has your own authors bio that gives full attribution and links to your site. This is the payment you receive for having supplied the articles... it is a payment which gives you long-term dividends!

Not only will your article be presented to many thousands of subscribers initially... but those same articles (with your bio and links) will be archived on the publications websites. Those archived articles become fodder for search engines which not only provide on-going traffic to the publishing site... but to YOU as well. It is truly a Win/Win proposition.

NOT A WRITER?... NO PROBLEM...

There are countless freelance writers who will ghost write articles for you and... giving you the copyrights. I know of many well-known names in the industry who have articles plastered all over the internet...and they have never written a word themselves. I know this because I have written some of their articles. :-)

If you need such services try elance or do a Google search for ghost writing or freelance writers. There are many highly educated, english speaking, foreign-based professionals who will write articles for very nominal fees.

OK... YOU HAVE AN ARTICLE... NOW WHAT?

Having a good article is only the first part of the equatiion... now you need to get the articles distributed to those editors and publications who will welcome your contribution... and publish your work.

There are three primary means of promoting your articles:

==> Article Directories

==> Article Announcment Lists

==> Your Internal List

==> Paid Distributiion Services & Software

Here is a breakdown of each... and a list of resources to
get you started...

ARTICLE DIRECTORIES...

Article directories are websites which categorize and archive your articles... and promote them to editors and publishers. Most are free... but some are fee based. They all provide a submission system for you to provide your articles to them. In addition, most have their own internal list of editors and publishers that they announce your new article to.

TIP: The simple act of listing your articles in the directory archives will provide you instant incoming links to your website which could increase your site traffic and page ranks.

Here is a partial list of article directories. (Please note
that companies go out of business occasionally and you may
run into a link which no longer works.)

http://www.allmerchants.com/
http://www.allnetarticles.com/
http://amazines.com/
http://www.articlecity.com/articlesubmission.shtml
http://articleresponder.com/index.php
http://www.articlesubmissions.com/index.php
http://www.boconline.com/
http://www.businesstoolchest.com/
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/index.shtml
http://www.connectionteam.com
http://www.dime-co.com/
http://www.ebooksnbytes.com
http://www.echievements.com/
http://ezineadhelper.com/cgi-bin/articles/articles.cgi
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/bb/index.php
http://linksnoop.com/
http://www.mailbiz.com/mailbiz/magcat/
http://www.SimpleSteps2success.biz
http://thewhir.com/find/articlecentral/
http://webmarketingspecialists.com/articlesubmit.htm
http://www.webmomz.com/users/login.shtml
http://www.zongoo.com/index.php

ARTICLE ANNOUNCEMENT LISTS...

Announcement Lists are email newsletters, lists, or
ezines, which allow you to announce your new articles
to thousands of editors and publishers instantly. Most
of these announcement lists are sent out daily to their
subscribers. This means that you can have your article
circulating to key editors and publishers within hours
of completion.

Here are a number of important Article Announcement Lists
that will give you a simple and fast mechanism for distribution of your articles...

http://topica.com/lists/articlereview/
http://topica.com/lists/freeezinecontent/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articleannounce/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articleannouncelist/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Reprint-Articles/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreeeContent/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freezinecontent/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/internetmarketingarticleblaster/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/netwrite-publish-announce/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publishernetwork/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QCReprintArticles
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ReprintArticles-Paradise/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/reprintedarticles/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheWriteArticles/

YOUR INTERNAL, IN-HOUSE, DISTRIBUTION LIST...

Over time you will begin to build a list of editors and
publishers, who have used your articles in the past, and
find them to be relevant. This list is your private goldmine. Each time you finish an article the first step you want to take is to send it, in a private mailing, to your in-house user list.

You might want to consider doing a mail merge to this list and personalize your submission to the specific editor by name.

Remember, this list could be worth thousand of dollars to you over the coming months and years. Do not treat it lightly. This list is truly a center-of-influence list that you will want to spend time and effort nuturing. Remembering them at holidays and on special occasions, goes a long way to building a profitable relationship.

Pick up a phone and call them. Let them know that you appreciate your relationship... and let them know you are available for special writing assignments. (Here is an example of how strong and beneficial this simple act can be... About two years ago I sent a small holiday gift [a screen-saver of tropical Hawaiian images to a magazine editor who had used a number of my articles in the past.
I waited until the package had time to arrive and then I picked up a phone and called her. She was delighted with the thoughtfulness of the gift and then stunned me with the news that one of her regular columnists had been forced to resign... and would I be interested in replacing him?. So... that simple telephone call resulted in a regular column in a print magazine that serves one of my niche marketplaces. A marvelous result that may not have happened if I had not urtured the relationship.

Ask them What Articles Do You Need?... and listen closely to their answers.

By doing so... you will develop a sense of what materials are needed and wanted in your marketplace. Write specifically to those needs and you will develop a strong editorial following that will pay off in huge traffic flow, increased sales and profits, and an enhanced image and reputation. These are pretty hefty benefits for some time spent researching and writing articles!

PAID DISTRIBUTION SERVICES...

Two recent innovations that have burst on the article marketing scene are: (1)custom distribution software (Article Announcer) and (2) web-based article distribution services (Article Marketer). My experience with these systems are that the web-based service is much more cost efficient, easier to use, and has the built-in advantage of having the most current and up-to-date database of publishers seeking your content.

(c) Copyright 2005 Thom Reece All Rights Reserved

About the Author

Thom Reece is the CEO of On-Line Marketing Group, a direct response marketing agency with headquarters in Hawaii. He is the creator of the Online Marketing Resource Center [ http://www.e-comprofits.com & the major portal for the
network marketing industry- MaxxMLM.com [http://www.MaxxMLM.com . Thom can be reached by email at: thomATe-comprofits.com

More Well Worn Bibles

2009-04-24T09:36:00.001-07:00

The world needs more well worn Bibles on its' tablesThe Bible contains words of life and truth but no fablesPeople need to read and study these words of oldThey are more precious than jewels and the finest gold

The Bible is the best selling book of all booksBut sadly most are only used just for looksAnswers to life's questions are found in its' pagesBut most people think the answer to life is higher wages

People need to read the Bible from Genesis to RevelationsFascinating stories are recorded of life and its' tribulationsThe words of the Bible give hope and promises of tomorrowWhen the whole world will be free from pain and sorrow

A well worn tear stained Bible tells an unique storyOf its' owner and his walk with Jesus on the way to gloryThose passages of scripture that are marked in inkWas living water for that thirsty person to drink

I'm asking you some questions, be honest with meDo you read your Bible or is it only for others to see?Is your Bible well worn or is it gathering dust?Do you fully believe in Jesus and in Him trust?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Author of My Walk with the Lord, www.selahbooks.com, various other articles and poems (do a yahoo or google search on my name), preacher, retired military

10 Work at Home Niches You Can Use Today

2009-04-23T09:35:00.001-07:00

One of the biggest obstacles to getting started working at home, or expanding your current home based business, is finding a profitable niche to target. Well, I have done a significant portion of the hard work for you in this article.

Below are ten niche ideas to help you start your work at home based business today.

1) Having a Collection - Many people collect things. Your work at home business could target product niches such as trading cards, coins, nick-knacks, dolls, plates, old books, glassware, comic books, stamps, or anything else you can think of that people tend to collect.

2) Attracting Men/Women - Most people want to be attractive to the opposite sex, or even the same sex in many cases. You could target product niches like flirting tips, makeovers, attractive clothing styles, perfumes, colognes, etc...

3) Saving Memories - Pretty much everyone likes to retain memories of special occasions, parties, vacations, and anything else worth looking back on. They want to maintain them and have them to show to their families and friends. Your website could target work at home niches like cameras, camcorders, photo albums, diaries, journals, etc...

4) Being a Good Parent - Most people who are parents want to be good ones. Your home based business could target product niches like parenting guides, parenting classes, anger management, stress management, or anything else associated with good parenting.

5) Saving Time - We could all use more time in our days. Your work at home based business could help people save time by promoting products like daily planners and calendars. Or you could take it further and offer instant benefit products such as laundry service, meal planning and delivery, etc...

6) Living a Long Life - Most people want to live as long as possible. You could target product niches about anti-aging medications, medical exams, fitness products, safe sex contraceptives, nutrition products, supplements, etc..

7) Being Full of Energy - Energy is something we all lack at one time or another. Energy drinks are a hot item right now. It seems a new one comes out about every week and people buy them like crazy. Your home based business could target them or other energy products like caffeine, energy inducing diet plans, sleep theory, etc...

8) Being in Fashion - Most people want to be trendy and in fashion, especially the younger generation. Your home business website could target niches about fashion information, clothing products, clothing accessories, celebrity trends, etc... aimed at people under 40. Or you could separate the niche and target all age ranges.

9) Be Intelligent/Smart - Many people prefer to be recognized as being intelligent or smart. Your home based business could target niches like increasing grade point averages, continuing education, raising IQ, increasing mind power, vocabulary, speed reading, etc...

10) Being in/Finding Love - Most people want to be in love or loved. They also seek to avoid those things that harm it. Such as getting a divorce, breaking up, etc... You could work at home while making people happier by targeting niches like relationship counseling, dating services, single bars, and other love products.

There you have it... ten niches you can use right now to start working at home or expand your current home based business with. Break them up, mix and match them, use them to generate other ideas, or do anything else you want with them. Just get going on making your work at home dreams come to life today.
Trent Brownrigg is a successful internet marketer and home business mentor. Visit his Work at Home Based Business website at http://www.work-at-home-jobs-iowa.com and he will personally help you succeed with your own home business. Please subscribe to his Biz Tips Newsletter by sending a blank email to: workathomebiz@aweber.com

10 Magic Ways To Multiply Your Orders

2009-04-22T09:36:00.001-07:00

1. Use reward programs to keep people revisiting your web site and buying your products. You could reward gifts or discounts for revisiting or buying.

2. Publish ezines for other web sites to increase your traffic. You could do it at no charge and in return just ask for a sponsor ad in each issue.

3. Trade endorsement ads with other ezines. They pull more hits and sales than just trading classified ads because it gives your ad instant credibility.

4. Test your ad copy before you start taking orders. Tell your visitors to email you if they want to be notified when you launch a new product.

5. Get your visitors excited about your product by letting them know how excited you are about it. Tell them why you're excited and use exclamation points.

6. Use incentives to gain referrals if you don't have an affiliate program. Tell people when they refer customers you will award them with free products.

7. Tell your visitors the reason why you're having a sale so they don't think your products are cheap. It could be a holiday/seasonal sale or clearance sale.

8. Stay away from overloading your web site with images and graphics. They can create a slow loading web page and distract people away from your offer.

9. Cut out words, phrases, and paragraphs in your ad copy that aren't selling or supporting your product. This will stop people from getting bored with your ad.

10. Keep people at your web site as long as possible. Allow them to download free ebooks, sign-up for contests, use free online services, etc.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Kleine is the owner and webmaster of OpportunityKnoxx
http://www.opportunityknoxx.com
where you will find thousands of free webmaster resources, free ebooks and software.

Creating Your Own Product: Testing The Market And Finishing

2009-04-21T09:38:00.001-07:00

Copyright 2005 Ronald Gibson

Now that you know what you want to write about, the next step in the process is to gauge the amount of interest there is in your upcoming product.

You can also do a quick search on The Dowser (download the free version at http://www.keywordempire.com/keywordempire.exe) to see what types of searches folks are doing with regards to the subject you have chosen to write about. Simply type in the keywords of your subject or just type in your subject itself to see what 'pops' up. This will let you know just how many people are interested in learning more on that particular subject. And it will also give you some great information about the ratio of current websites on the subject to those people searching for it.

But that's not the only way to perform testing on your subject matter of choice.

Forums are a fantastic way to ask some questions about your subject and get real answers from real people. Plus it's a wonderful way to find out how much interest there is from others about your topic. To go one step further, you could ask specific questions and incorporate those into your ebook chapters based on what responses you get.

But remember, we're only trying to find information that can be added to, or enhance, our niche product that we've hopefully at this point already started. Also a good tip is when writing you don't have to necessarily write in order. Of course, keep the product in a specific order by using your chapter outline so that it has a general flow once it's all finished and compiled. But behind the scenes while you are writing it all up, it may be easier for you to write on a certain portion of the product before another, without following a 'beginning to end' style.

The best way to create a popular 'niche' category information product is to combine that which you have knowledge of, like a personal hobby or your current career, with those terms, or keywords, that are at the top of the search engines. But you can create anything you want, whether it's popular or not and still get people to purchase it with a little trick that many successful internet marketers, including ourselves, use. And that is...

Offer your customers a way to make money with your product!! Whether it be giving them resale rights with their purchase, offering them an exclusive joint venture partnership to become an affiliate and earn a percentage of the profits when reselling your product, or giving them several other resale rights products from within your product that enhance your product and stick with the subject matter the best you can. Giving them something that they can use to make money with will indeed get you more sales.

Remember, nothing is ever written in stone when it comes to the internet. Since things change frequently there is always a chance that something that was popular yesterday won't be tomorrow. Keep this in mind when writing too. A quick example is that many older book titles on marketing and self-improvement have been storming onto the ebook scene as of late with the trend of Public Domain product compilation. So if you think that your subject won't have ANY audience, you couldn't be more wrong!

Chances are good that someone will want to read what you have written. Even if no one has heard of you. That doesn't matter. What does matter is that everyone has a unique way of looking at and solving certain problems. No two people see things the same. My point is that even if there are hundreds of ebooks, special reports, or articles that cover the very same topic that you have written about it won't be filled with the exact same information. That's why you see literally thousands of ebooks covering the same subject matter, but often adding the author's own unique spin on it.

And if you are worried about the length of your particular product, don't be. There are more important things to be concerned with than something as trivial as length. Believe me, there are some marketers out there that sell 5-15 page reports that sell very well for them and for a reasonable price too. How do they do it? Because they focus on the WAY in which they have provided the information to their customers, and that they are providing good, high-quality, useful information to their customers, site visitors, or newsletter subscribers. You can do the exact same thing with your products so long as you too are providing good, high-quality,useful information on your subject matter of choice.

Always remember to be original with your writing. A good way to be sure you are in fact being original is to write how you speak. Don't use a huge amount of big words you yourself don't understand and expect your readers to! Writing how you speak will also make the task of writing a lot easier for you. Especially if you think of it as if you were creating your product for a good friend, or your significant other.

And never forget that nothing is perfect. Sure, feel free to re-read, revise, and retype your product. But don't just let it sit there and do nothing with it because you feel it's not good enough. Get your product out there, even if there are a couple of typos or a point you forgot to cover. It doesn't matter. What matters most is that you finished it the best you could and you weren't afraid to get it out there to the public.

You don't have to get it perfect; you just have to get it going

Once you make it past creating your first product, any others you create will be a breeze. Getting started is always the hard part so cross this hurdle first!

Ronald Gibson is a Web Designer and Internet Marketer. He is the Webmaster of AffiliateUtopia.com, which offers information about some of the best money making opportunities on the Web. For more information, visit:
http://www.affiliateutopia.com/ and http://www.affiliateutopia.com/blog/

9 SureFire Ways To Increase Your Ezine's Readership!

2009-04-20T09:36:00.000-07:00

You Have Won!

Hold an ongoing prize drawing in your e zine. The prizes should be something of interest or value to your subscribers. Most
people who enter will continually read each issue for the results.

100% Original

Give your subscribers content they can't read anywhere else. I'm not saying all your content has to be 100% original, but a
portion of your e-zine should have original information. People will usually read information they haven't read before.

Was I Right?

Give your subscribers a quiz or a series of trivia questions. Publish the correct answers in your following issue. The people
who participate will want to see if they were right.

Read All About It!

Supply news stories related to your e-zine's topic. People want current and up-to-date news. If you can be their first source,
they will become loyal readers.

The Polls Are In!

Hold an interactive poll in your e-zine. Ask subscribers a poll question. Have them e-mail their vote or opinion. People love
to give their 2 cents worth. They would also like to read the results in your next issue.

Become A Jester :)

Give your subscribers a little humor now and then. Don't be so serious, tell them a joke. If they associate your e-zine with
being happy they will want to read every issue.

The Information Free-way

People love to get free stuff. Tell readers were to get free stuff online or offline. It could be software, services, sample
products, e-books etc. The freebies should be related to your e-zine's topic. Keep the freebies coming and your subscribers will keep reading!

Mini-Yahoo

Tell your subscribers about Web sites related to your e-zine's topic. The web sites should be interesting and helpful. Become your readers miniature Yahoo, you know how many readers they get.

In Our Next Issue...

Get your subscribers excited about your next issue. Tell them about upcoming articles, prize drawings, freebies etc. If they know what's in store for them, they won't want to miss reading your next issue.

About the author:

Wesley Atkins is the owner of http://www.reviewbooth.com/ - containing numerous web site marketing tips, articles, and reviews of marketing tools and software.

Blocked Stumped And Stuck: 12 Prompts To Get You Writing!

2009-04-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

Beginning writers often wonder how to start writing. It's theworry they get themselves into right away that mostly hindersthem from getting anything written down.

Experienced writers often get stuck in the middle of their novels,stories or articles. They sometimes agonize and worry about whatto write next and that's how they are delayed.

Beginning and experienced writers and the writers in between cansometimes fall into the trap of getting themselves locked.

So here are 12 writing prompts you, the beginning writer or theexperienced one, can use to start off your writing.

PROMPT # 1 I write because... Think of as many reasons as you can. Any reasons you know and feel you should and could write, and why you write. Then from your list, see if you can turn your reasons into an essay, a story or a poem.

PROMPT # 2 Sit still for five minutes. Close your eyes and listen. Don't think, just listen. What sounds do you hear? Is there music? Rustling leaves? Is your TV on? After five minutes, write down all the sounds on a piece of paper. If you can't think of the correct words for the sounds, write how they sounded (example: bbzzztttt for something you heard). Now use the sounds on your list to create sound poetry.

PROMPT # 3: Use this prompt to start off your story: When the dust settled, he saw...

PROMPT # 4: Quotes are powerful writing starters. They evoke emotions, insights and inspirations for any writer. What's your favorite quote? It may be something a famous dead person said, or a line in a song, or a passage in the Bible. Write the quote on top of your page and write your interpretation of your favorite quote. You can inspire, motivate or even impart a lesson.

PROMPT # 5: When was the last time you received a letter? Or a postcard? Who sent it? What did it say? Did you reply to the letter? Write yourself a letter. Pretend that you are somebody else. Put yourself in your neighbor's shoes, or your old friend's shoes. If you were them, what would you want to tell yourself, or want to know about yourself?

PROMPT # 6: When you ride a bus or a car in one of your trips, what do you do? Do you sleep during the trip? Do you stare out the window and watch unseeingly the view? Or do you take it all in -- the greenery, the buildings, the people, the colors, the hues, the clouds? Recall the most recent trip you've had. Where did you come from and where were you going? Why were you going there? How long was the trip? What did you see on the way? This short exercise will help you with your power of recalling details. The more you recall, the more detailed your writing will be. Do this exercise on a regular basis and you will be able to write with good use of details.

PROMPT # 7: Watch your favorite movie. Afterwards, experiment on giving it different endings. If it's a romantic movie with a mushy happy-ending, why not re-write the ending and say, have the guy end up with the other woman? Or if it's an action film, ask yourself what would happen if the hero got killed. The thing here is you have to think of a different version for the movie's ending.

Prompt # 8. Imagine you're walking in a mall and all of a sudden, a woman grabs you by the hair and starts a catfight with you. What would you do? Would you fight back? If you're a man, think of what you'll do if another guy punched you on the nose for no reason at all. Would you punch back? Describe the fight scene.

Prompt # 9. Recall the last dream (or nightmare) you had. Describe the dream in detail.

Prompt # 10. If you were an animal, what would would you be? Why?

Prompt # 11. When you were in gradeschool, what was your most hated subject? Why did you hate it? Do you still hate it? Why or why not? Did the teacher have anything to do with it?

Prompt # 12. Put on your favorite CD or tape. What music comes out of it? When you listen to it, what do you feel? What comes into your mind?

I hope the prompts I have created for you will help you get thosewords out of your head and onto the paper.

Drop me a line and share with me your writing if you are inclined.Until then, great writing to you!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Donald Trump's Marketing Secrets Revealed!

2009-04-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

It's official!

Now in it's third season, Donald Trump's killer television series The Apprentice is officially a franchise.

With new seasons in the making, a clothing line that carries The Apprentice brand, DVD's in production, and mega-fortunes to be made, it's no surprise that the king of real estate... a man who knows a good thing when he sees it... is involved.

I like Donald Trump a lot.

Mostly because I learn something new from him every time I watch him in action.

One of the barbs critics aim at Donald Trump is that he's a shameless egomaniac who can't get enough of the spotlight.

Well, they may call it egomania, but from my perspective... it's a brilliant business strategy.

I'll admit it: I'm a marketer.

My job is to make people sit up and take notice of my clients (and their products or services), and to deliver a rand message at every opportunity.

That's exactly what The Donald does.

If that makes me him an egocentric, self-congratulatory target for media pundits, who cares? Because it also makes him a household namein households from Bangor, Maine to Bangkok Thailand.

Brand recognition is the foundation of every marketing strategy.

If you're a small business owner, YOU are your brand.

That means you must sell yourself as well as your product or service.

Trump understands the concept, and what's why you see his brand Trump on everything.

You've got to be willing to get name out there Willing to say, Hey look me!... Ready to stand up for yourself, believe in yourself, and blow your own horn

Loudly and as often as possible.

Have you noticed that each episode of The Apprentice includes a segment devoted to a current Trump project?

This as an opportunity for The Donald to billboard a success story.

Week after week, he tells millions of people, I'm a great real estate giant and here's the proof. Take a tip from The Donald

You've got to be your own full-time marketing campaign 24 hours a day... because nobody else will!

Especially if you're an entrepreneur.

When you're the own of a business, especially a new business, it's kind of like being a parent.

Before your business can alk... before your little one has grown and established a reputation that literally speaks for itself... you need to be the spokesperson.

How long will this last?

You may not want to hear this, but the answer is -- forever. You must always be ready to carry the banner for your business and your success.

So, before you give Donald Trump wo thumbs done for shameless self-promotion, consider how his ego... and his knack for savvy marketing... is a real asset to his business empire.

If it's good enough for The Donald, it's good enough for me... and YOU, too.

The next time you sit down for the next episode of the Book Smarts vs. Street Smarts season of The Apprentice, open your mind.

Instead of picking at the negative traits of The Donald or his op guns Carolyn and George, think about their success and ask yourself...

What can I learn from this guy? How does he marketing himself? How can I adapt this concept to me and my business?

The truth is, if you can't get at least a handful of golden nuggets from this super-successful entrepreneur, you may be hopeless.

What I'd like to do is share some of the key marketing insights I've learned from Donald Trump and The Apprentice that you, too, can use in your business.

Before we get to the marketing insights, however, there's a bigger business concept that you need to understand.

I'll give it to you the way I like best... straight... Lok-ed and loaded to blow your mind:

You have something to learn from people of any age, any background, any education, and any level of success.

The candidate on The Apprentice can't hold a handle to Donald Trump's success. Yet each week, they pull rabbits out of hats, rising (more or less) to meet the challenges presented to them.

Every new task makes them better in business as they evolve, refine strategies, and respond to what they're learning. There's no better formula for success than the flexibility and resilience they demonstrate.

So don't just focus on The Donald for your weekly dose of marketing magic.

Keep an eye on the candidates, too! You never know who's got something to teach you.

Apprentice Marketing Lesson #1 - Too Much Is Never Enough

Actually, oo much is never enough was a successful slogan from the early days of MTV, but it could just as easily be the poster child for marketing. You can never connect with consumers too frequently.

There's a marketing truism out there: To sell a prospect, you'll need to make repeated contact. That's why most direct mail campaigns use a minimum of three messages, why magazines put as many as five subscription forms in each issue, and why The Donald says the word Trump as many times as he can in every episode of The Apprentice.

Does it make a difference? Can it make The Donald even more successful?

Definitely.

In the 21st Century, every consumer is bombarded with advertising messagesup to 3,000 a day for some people.

After a while, they just tune out. Or, if they don't tune-out, consumers are often so distracted that they don't really hear or see a marketing message.

It's more effective to send three mailers to 1,000 prospects than one mailer to 3,000though the cost is the same. Another approach is a imed or sequenced campaign.

In this kind of campaign, message #1 is a teaser. #2 is the guts and a gift offer. #3 gives ordering instructions. The sequenced approach allows you to generate both expectations and recognition.

Prospects look forward to hearing from you.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you need to keep hammering away at the eyes and ears of potential prospects. But the main reason for this many not be as obvious as you think...

By repeating your marketing message over and over, you imbed that message in the consumer's mind. Then, when the consumer needs what you have to offer, they'll think of you first... even if aren't actively marketing to them in the moment.

The goal is to make yourself the automatic go-to solution for a problem whenever that problem occurs. The consumer's sub-conscious will do the driving.

Apprentice Marketing Lesson #2 - Sex Sells, But Too Much Sex Repels

The candidates chosen for The Apprentice are uniformly attractive, articulate, and the kind of people that most other people enjoy looking at.

The producers of the show -- including Mark Burnett who produces that other mega-hit Survivor -- know that sex sells on television.

Sex sells in marketing, too.

During the second season of The Apprentice when The Donald pitted the men against the women, tasks were routinely won thanks to sex appeal... women's AND men's.

(You may recall that the men's team used one of their attractive members to flirt with and win over a table of gay diners during a restaurant challenge.)

But if you weren't watching closely, you might have missed the episode where sex didn't sell -- big time... and THAT is the point of this mini-lesson.

In one of the last episodes of the second season, candidates were challenged to sell candy.

On one team, two blonde women donned matching red leotards and flashed -- their smiles only -- at male prospects.

Sales were brisk because, as we all know, sex sells... and for most men there's nothing sexier than a leggy blonde.

The other team was struggling, so with just minutes to spare before the end of a task, one team member offered to drop her skirt as a way to convince male passersby to buy her candy.

They bought... in droves.

They weren't buying candy, of course, they were buying sex... just like the guy who finds a car suddenly irresistible because of the leggy swimsuit model that's advertising it at the Auto Show... and just like the guys who bought from the blonde wins on the other team.

The problem with the uy my candy and you can see my buns approach is that it was over the top.

As The Donald pointed out in the boardroom, the candidate wasn't selling candy... she was selling sex literally, with a candy bar bonus.

That, my friends, is why so many marketers are referred to as prostitutes... and why the candidate who dropped her skirt was dropped from the show at the end of the task.

As The Donald put it so eloquently: You're fired!

The skirt-dropping candidate was fired despite the fact that she had fulfilled her mission -- to make money. Why? By over-selling sexuality, she left a negative over-all impression.

Sex is powerful stuffuse it wisely and sparingly.

Apprentice Marketing Secret #3: Cross-Promotion

I've talked about this concept until I am blue in the face, but I still meet prospective clients who stubbornly say, My product is such a winner that I don't need to partner with other businesses and give away any of my profits.

That's insane!

Or more delicately No man is an islandand no business is either. There's not a company on earth that can survive without a constant stream of qualified prospects coming through the door.

So it doesn't matter what industry you're in or what product/service you make available, whoever you are...

Tying your product to another popular product, service, business, or person is always a winning marketing strategy.

The Apprentice has featured cross-promotions with Burger King, Pepsi, the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain, and other well-know, extremely successful businesses.

If these super-corporations benefit from cross-promotions, doesn't it seem logical that your business can, too?

The biggest trend in high-end marketing today is film and TV cross- promotions. Ever since E.T. gave Reese's Pieces a huge boost, marketers have aggressively tried to get their products placed in films and television shows.

Having a good product or service is NOT enough... although it's certainly Job 1. Quality and value bring your customers back for more. But how the heck do they do how wonderful your stuff is if they haven't even bought from you yet?

In order to make a sale, you need someone you can sell to. To achieve that you need effective marketing systems to get these people in your funnel in the first place.

Cross-promotion is the key.

Customers who are already sold on the business your partnering with become, essentially, pre-sold on you.

And cross-promotion allows you to expand your marketing reach without spending any additional marketing dollars.

Can you imagine how much Burger King would have to pay for a 15-second spot during The Apprentice.

By appearing within the show in a carefully negotiated cross-promotion, Burger King gets all the gain (aka the audience) with none of the pain (advertising expenses)

What did The Donald get out of all of this? In addition to finding a company willing to let his apprentices take over their business for the day, consumers will now hink Trump when they purchase one of the burgers promoted on the show.

Clever, huh?

You're Fired... Fired-Up, That Is

I've distilled the essence of just three of the effective marketing concepts that Donald Trump has accidentally shared on The Apprentice. They're the same strategies he uses in his own business, but he's let the cat out of the bag and now his secrets are YOUR secrets

If you're inspired by what you've read here and would like to go deep into Trump's mind, The Donald has written several powerful books filled with stories, anecdotes, secrets, and amazingly effective techniques for making it to the top... and staying there through thick and thin.

*Trump: How to Get Rich

*Trump: The Way to the Top

*Trump: Surviving at the Top

*Trump: The Art of the Deal

*Trump: The Art of Survival

Did you notice that each book leads with the word Trump? He never misses an opportunity to promote his brand.

I told you The Donald was a master marketer!

And consider this: if you can beg, borrow, or steal just one or two ideas from a man who's sitting on a billion-dollar empire... ideas that could jumpstart your business empire... wouldn't it be worth 20 bucks? (Less if you get a second-hand copy on Ebay).

This is your chance to be The Apprentice of Donald Trump... to learn from the master... without worrying about getting fired on national television.

About The Author

Can you make money working at home?

2009-04-17T09:35:00.001-07:00

If you are a Work at Home Mom WAHM you have made a very important decision to stay at home with your family. I applaud you for that decision, but I know it can be a financial and emotional sacrifice to stay at home. I have been staying at home with my child for almost a year now, and I have found several ways to improve my family's finances and help me feel that I am contributing to my family's budget.

A great way to make some extra money is to get involved in a legitimate home-based business.Some of these businesses do require an initial investment, but the potential income makes this small investment worth it. My favorite business opportunity right now is a legitimate

Christian home based business called Disciple's Cross. With Disciple's Cross, you make beautiful crosses and send these crosses back to the company. The company will pay you for the crosses it accepts. It has been a lot of fun to participate in this business opportunity and wonderful ministry.

Affilate marketing is one of the easiest ways to make money. Most affilate programs are free to join and give you the opportunity to offer great deals such as free satellite and unlimited video game rentals. Once you join affilate programs, you will need to create a webpage with your programs and participate in website promotion via search engine optimization and search engine submission.

Other ways to get your website noticed are to use article promotion and link exchanges. With link exchanges, you would ad text or graphic links of other related sites onto your site, and they would ad your site information onto their site. This will get your site noticed by more people and will improve your search engine ratings.

The key to being successful working at home is to have a positive outlook. Don't ever give up!
http://www.wahmresourceplace.com/

About the Author

Paula Wilson is a WAHM and the owner of WAHMResourcePlace.com

Develop An Income From Affiliate Programs

2009-04-16T09:36:00.001-07:00

Whenyou're trying to develop an income from affiliate programs, don't fall into the trap of only promoting information products or
tools aimed at Internet marketers.

Many people, even those who have been in the game a long time, get stuck in this niche and never leave it. They forget that there's a whole wide world of buyers out there just waiting to be sold to.

I guess it's natural for many people to start off selling marketing ebooks, member only sites, and related products. After all, it's what they're interested in so they tend to think everyone else is. But really they're playing in a very small arena.

Another reason is that these products are pushed into their faces all the time...in newsletters like mine :-)

People also tend to promote products in the very narrow Internet marketing niche because they generally pay a much higher affiliate percentage, often 50%.

All well and good, but we're all selling to each other and competition is fierce.

I hate using that clichd expression hink outside the box so I won't.

But what you need to do is take a good look around the net. Study what people are buying.

Remember how in last weeks newsletter, and in the week before's I talked about building 2 mini sites a week... saying that if they all only made $50 a week after a year you'd end up with a weekly income of over $5000?

http://www.ozemedia.com/newsletters/issue271.htm

http://www.ozemedia.com/newsletters/issue270.htm

Well the health related mini site I built just over 2 weeks ago has really taken off, and last week it grossed $5695 paying me $348 in commissions. See screenshot.

It's doing well because:

Competition for sales is fairly low in this niche. (you'll find that nearly EVERY niche has lower competition that the overcrowded marketing niche.)

It's a tangible product that people spend big sums on.

Health is a huge industry...most of us want to live to old age. I'm nearly there :-) We're an aging society so demand in this field will keep growing.

Now $348 is nothing startling, and I expect this to grow as the site does better in the search engines. But my total costs have been under nine dollars for the domain name, and around $25 on Google
Adwords.

I can't really take hosting costs into consideration because I pay just $29 a month to host up to 200 sites

The money spent on Google Adwords will not be ongoing. The way I currently work is to list a site with one or two of the pay-per-clicks until they take off in the no fee search engines. See Allan Gardyne's Pay Per Click Search Engines site for advice on using them

The downside, if it can be called a downside, is that commissions are usually much lower in this and other niches.

But that's got to be balanced against the fact that there are a lot more potential buyers in this (and numerous other) fields, and that people often spend bigger sums.

So even if you only make 3 to 8 percent on sales of big item products it can soon add up.

The aforementioned Allan Gardyne, who does VERY well marketing to marketers, is someone who really understands the importance of targeting other areas.

Take a look, for instance, at this site his assistant Rupert built using Site Build It.

It's making around $1000 a month in affiliate income but the affiliate program the site is linked to, Tiger Direct, only pays 3 percent.

So as usual I've taken a long time to get around to the point of all this, which is you've GOT TO look at expanding into other niches.

Tip 1:

Look at using Nichefinder to help you locate profitable niches to build sites around.

Tip 2:

Wordtracker is another very useful tool. I've got an annual account I use several times a week

Tip 3:

Read my book Mini Site Profits to see how I'm doing it.

Tip 5:

If you want to build a text based site like Allan's, which ranks very high in the search engines, and you're not comfortable doing it all on your own use Site Build It.

2. Value Exchange.

And while we're talking of Ken Evoy's Site Build It, he's just released a new free service which helps you find exchange links for your sites.

By entering your site details it registers your site (which doesn't have to be a Site Build It one) as a site that is willing to exchange links with other sites that have a similar theme/topic content (the engines weight a link less heavily if the linking site is not of a similar nature to yours)

It also searches for similar sites, ones with topical content that relates to yours.

Like I said, it's a free service, so make use of it.

About the author:

Phil Wiley is the author of the best selling book Mini Site Profits www.minisiteprofits.comand writes the free weekly Letter from Phil at www.ozemedia.com

Read About

10 Sizzling Ways To Improve Your Ad Copy

2009-04-15T09:35:00.001-07:00

Copyright 2005 Keith Gloster

Could you sell your products or services without using graphics in your ad copy?

Chances are that you could. But because the internet is a visual medium by which information is transmitted and we live in a society where seeing is believing, I doubt that you'd generate very many sales without graphics.

So how can you write ad copy that sells your products and services even when you don't have graphics? Here are 10 sizzling tips to help you improve your odds:

1. You could decrease or increase the length of your ad copy. There is no rule on how long your ad copy should be unless space is a consideration. The ad should be long enough to sell your product.

2. You could add some sub headlines on your ad copy. Sub headlines act just like headlines; they grab the readers attention. They'll keep the readers interested as they continue to read your ad.

3. You could ask your reader questions through out the ad copy. They will answer the questions in their own head as they read your ad copy. The questions you ask should persuade the reader into buying.

4. You could highlight keywords through out your ad copy. The keywords should be attractive to your target audience. You could highlight them with color, underlines, italics,
etc.

5. You could bullet or indent your benefits on your ad copy. Most people won't read a whole ad copy, so make your products benefits standout and you won't lose the sales from all the skimmers..

6. You could change the size of your text on your ad copy. You want to make your text large enough so it's not hard to read. You also want your headline and major points to be larger so they will standout.

7. You could raise or lower the price on your ad copy. A higher price could increase the perceived value of your product and a lower price could lesson your product's value.

8. You could add proof of results on your ad copy. You should include testimonials, endorsements, and factual statistics to prove your product's claims.

9. You could add special offers on your ad copy. It's usually easier to sell the offer than the product. You could use discounts, free bonuses, volume sales, etc.

10. You could eliminate the hard-to-understand jargon on your ad copy. Unless your product calls for technical words, you want your ad to be read without people pulling out a dictionary.

About the author:

Keith Gloster provides advice on effective traffic and lead generation tools and techniques. For the creative edge on permission email marketing, traffic and lead generation, and to claim some valuable bonuses, you can subscribe to his popular newsletter at:
http://www.free-mlm-leads-generator.com

Don Quixote's Post Humous Virtual Expedition Filling The B

2009-04-14T09:36:00.001-07:00

Perhaps the online community today is not so different from Don Quixote chasing after windmills, mistaking them for giants. Excessive web browsing might yield more or less similar symptoms of lunacy as those displayed in Quixote's mad adventures.

If the web were to appoint godfathers, Michael Saavedra Cervantes, Don Quixote's inventor, would be a very appropriate candidate. Already the founding father of European literature, his one and only book's structure is not too dissimilar to the myriad of modern cyber texts.

For starters, you often don't know where Quixote and his squire Sancho end one adventure or where they begin another. Also, Don Quixote offers an abundance of contradiction, imagination beyond what is ordinary, subplots here there and everywhere. And this is not where the comparison ends. There's even interaction between the author and the characters without it seeming to be a violation of the characters or of the story itself.

It's a bit ironic that despite high technology and the 500 years or so that have gone by since the book was published haven't made us invent a clearer concept of interactivity. Today, people interacting with their search engines are having a hard time actually finding efficiently what they are looking for. At the same time, companies run huge financial risk if their websites fail to secure high rankings in search engines. Where's the interactivity that actually connects efficiently all the time?

To stand out from the crowd in cyber space, you need a well-thought out concept. But where to begin? Researching the status quo of internet marketing is a good starting point because the marketing guys are there to bridge the gap between companies and customers.

The main theme of marketing studies at the moment is customer research. A lot more money gets spent on consumer behavior than before the deflation of the dotcom sector. The trend is driven by companies turning to quantitative analysts to find hard and decisive numbers about their actual consumer markets.

Here goes, the more you can fragment a market, the better one's chances (of controling it). Nothing new. What is new is the way marketers are devouring the data, dissecting it like biologists would owl droppings. Hopefully, interpretations of the findings are not exactly stomach turning but contributing to better interactive patterns.

So this is where we are - at the beginning of an understanding-based approach of customers. The trend has been termed 'new marketing' or 'behavioral marketing'. Wonder how companies are dealing with this? If you may believe the experts, companies are aiming to gradually reach higher click/sales conversion rates from their marketing campaigns, rather than going for quick sales. Apparently, the focus is more long term and on an increased understanding of what brings buyers to their decision.

Marketers say it's back to the drawing board throughout the bank. The very beginnings of the buying funnel are now researched in greater depth. This is good to keep in mind when you are getting to grips with cyber culture. Search behavior is the focus of a lot of market research, if only because so much information that comes out of this has yet to be capitalised on.

But marketers have a hard nut to crack here. Our search behavior is very difficult to describe in words, let alone pour data on it in models and derive a sensible meaning from it. Searching has become such an intuitive function, we tend not to give the actual search process much thought, writes Gord Hotchkiss from Enquiro, a US firm that specialises in people's search behaviour.

The company's research into the way people browse for stuff is so simple you would think most of the findings would have been included in assumptions some five years ago. Yet many marketers were reported to be astonished at the findings. It appeared that it is very unlikely that two people perform identical searches even if they are looking for the same thing. Other firms confirm Enquiro's experiment. iProspect conducted a survey that pointed out that search engine click through behavior can only be categorised by a few, very vague, denominators; gender, education, employment status. The study also underlines that frequency of internet use and internet experience are factors here.

It makes the frantic hype around getting the search engine top rankings on a handful of keywords look a bit expensive. Yet, half the competion battle is won by being somewhere first. So companies, even though they don't know exactly where they are, will monopolise all those keywords they deem useful. Huge portions of marketing budgets are spent on the purchase of search keywords.

The result is the commercialisation of search engines. This is going on with rapid speed, and they are increasingly seizing significant portions of companies' marketing budgets.

Pay Per Click-only engines are starting to attract large numbers of listings. The main risk is failure of conversion of the increased traffic into sales.

Not everyone is convinced of the merits of Pay Per Click campaigns. Garrick Saito who is one of many small business owners on the web says his company Respree.com, selling reprints of art works, largely abandoned his campaign. I still use Pay Per Click today for a very limited purpose, bidding on terms that I will only pay $.01 per click on. Of course, the traffic is not nearly as great as if you were to bid $.25 or $.50 per click, but then again, the advertising dollars don't add up nearly as fast either, he says.

Saito is one of many small business owners that are looking to optimise free organic listings by changing search keywords. It is his experience here that enables him to do that somewhat effectively and without the help of an outsider. I am trying to optimise my pages so my products, categories and artists rank well, he says. Saito is not sure if his own company is representative of his branch. I can see competitors with deeper financial resources spending money (perhaps a lot of money) on PPC campaigns and other placements. However, [... the larger players are more the exception than the rule, he says.

So the commercialisation of search engines might not necessarily be succeeding in attracting small to medium size businesses, the vast bulk of the internet population. But the free lunch is probably over very soon come what may. Search Engine Trends reports that demand for free listings has recently risen in relation to what the engines offer; demand for free listings is 80% and what is offered is 75%.

Companies wanting reasonable visibility might soon have to fork out. Further evidence to this point is this; 44% of search engines offers paid listings, whereas demand is merely 4%. Pay Per Click advertising is a similar story with 33% of the engines offering this and demand at 4%. This looks meagre, but if you think of it as a new trend, the 4% is quite convincing.

Meanwhile, one wonders what good the newly emerging order is to customers. How are we going to see the forest amid the trees? A recent study into the various kinds of searches people type into their browsers are indicating consumers still are somewhat overwhelmed by what they are offered, despite some five years or so of experience with the medium.

Apparently, the more questions you type into your browser, the more autonomous a user you are, according to the sponsors of one such study, ComScore Media Metrix. So called 'sophisticated' markets include (in descending order) the UK, Canada, the US, France and Germany. But even in these countries, people are not overfacing their browsers with innumerable questions. In the UK, people entered on average 40 queries per month. And this is the highest scoring country of the list.

Perhaps everyone wonders where to start. Or maybe we've taken the web for what it offers with most of our information sources safely bookmarked and ready for use independently from the search engines.

It's another question whether companies are actually ready for intensified relations with their customers. JupiterResearch found that only one out of five companies that have access to statistics on consumer behavior actually also optimise their targeting.

Perhaps Don Quixote was not so totally outlandish, trying to slay windmills - at least he spotted them, went after them and changed his approach rather than gave up when he discovered he was totally mistaken!

About The Author

Angelique Van Engelen

contentclix@contentclix.com

7 Essential Steps to Web Site Promotion

2009-04-13T09:35:00.001-07:00

Web Site promotion should be the major part of your web site
marketing plan. It's not enough just to design a beautiful web
site and put in on the Net. Promoting your web site has to be
done constantly if you want to get a continuous stream of
traffic to it. If you don't drive traffic to your web site, your
online business venture will soon fail.

1. Create a web site marketing plan - if you fail to plan then
you default to a plan for failure. When designing your web site,
create a plan on how to market it as well. Try to put yourself
in your customers shoes when doing this. It's too easy to just
view your web site from your own perspective. You need to have a
clear vision for your business, goals (short and long term) you
wish to achieve and the strategies of how you will accomplish
them.

2. Define your target market - many online marketers promote
their web site aimlessly in a field which is too large i.e. they
may use bulk mailing as one of their promotion strategies. Of
course you may get some visitors but the chances are you will
not make many sales. Why? You have not narrowed your field of
customers and targeted them. If you sold Cadillacs online for
instance, you are not randomly going to market to every person
on the Net. Your target market may be previous owners of
cadillacs, or people who routinely purchase luxury American
cars.

Getting targeted customers to your web site, will increase sales,
because they will have more interest in your product or service
than marketing to a general audience.

3. Use several promotion strategies - don't just stick to one
form of promotion because you never know which one will work the
best for you. If you use many channels i.e. search engines,
email marketing, forums, writing articles etc you have a greater
chance of getting more traffic to your web site.

4. Promote continuously - if you want to drive constant traffic
to your web site, you must promote it continuously. Web traffic
is the lifeblood of your online business. For example, you could
constantly optimize your web pages for the search engines,
resubmit them if needed, visit discussion forums every day and
write an article for online publications every two weeks.

5. Calculate your return on investment (ROI) - this means
keeping track of how much money you invested in your marketing
plan and what profit you received in return. This will avoid
wasting large sums of money thrown aimlessly into advertising.

If you calculate it takes 100 visitors to your web site to
generate one sale and with each sale you make $10, then you
shouldn't spend more than 10 cents to get each targeted visitor
and still make a profit.

In order to know which aspects of your marketing campaign bring
the most visitors, you must be able to monitor visitor activity
to your web pages.

6. Analyze your web site traffic - by analyzing your web site
traffic, you can determine what marketing strategies are
successful. You can then change them as necessary, to boost the
sales or services from your site.

Your analysis may include what keywords your visitors are using
to find your web site, which web pages are the most popular and
where your visitors are coming from. These are essential
statistics you should know, instead of blindly promoting your
web site and hoping for the best.

7. Test, monitor and track your results - to run an effective
online marketing campaign, you need to constantly test what
works and what doesn't. Tracking the response to an ad may cause
you to refine it until it generates a great return on the money
you invested. Once your results are satisfactory, you can then
roll out your ads on a larger scale and spend greater sums of
money.

You should also monitor your site in the search engines, so you
can optimize your web pages for higher search engine rankings.
This will attract more visitors which leads to higher profits.

Web site promotion strategies will differ for everyone, and will
depend a lot on your product, web site and your personality. Try
everything you can, record the results, and see what works for
you.

About the Author

Herman Drost is the author of the new ebook
101 Highly Effective Strategies to Promote Your Web Site
a powerful guide for attracting 1000s of visitors to your web site.
http://www.isitebuild.com/web-site-promotion

An Ingenious Way to Use Wordtracker . . . that's actually ea

2009-04-12T09:36:00.001-07:00

An Ingenious Way to Use Wordtracker. . . that's actually easier
too!

By Robin Nobles

If you're in the search engine industry, or if you're a Web
designer or Webmaster, it's an almost sure thing that you've
heard of, and probably used, Wordtracker
(http://www.wordtracker.com).

But, for those who may not know about Wordtracker, let's back up
for a minute.

What exactly is Wordtracker, and why is it so important?

Most search engine optimizers would agree that one of the most
important things you can do for your Web site is to target the
right keywords. If you target the wrong keywords, you may get
scores of traffic but no conversions to sales, or no traffic
whatsoever. Either is disastrous for an online business.

Before Wordtracker, it was up to the search engine marketer, or
the client, to choose the right keywords for the site. We also
had GoTo's Search Term Suggestion Tool, which was one of our only
sources for keyword help at that time.

Then Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com) entered the
picture. With Wordtracker, you can plug in some keywords, and the
Web-based service will give you ideas for additional keywords
that might work for your business. Not only that, but the service
will also tell you how competitive those keywords are (how many
other Web pages have been optimized with those keywords in mind)
and how many people have actually searched for those keywords in
the past 24 hours at each of the major engines.

Ideally, your goal is to choose a keyword phrase that doesn't
have a huge amount of competition but that (hopefully) a large
number of people are searching for. This is where the KEI comes
in. KEI, which stands for Keyword Effectiveness Index, refers to
the number of times a keyword has appeared in Wordtracker's data
compared with the number of competing Web pages, which points to
which keywords would be most effective for your search engine
marketing campaign.

In other words, the higher the KEI, the more popular your keyword
phrases are, and the less competition they have. According to
Wordtracker, a good keyword to target is one that has a KEI of
around 100, but an excellent keyword to target has a KEI of
over 400.

Okay, enough of the background into Wordtracker. Most of you
probably already know all of that. In fact, your path through
Wordtracker most likely looks very similar to mine.

The old way to use Wordtracker

In the past, I have always started at Keyword Universe, or maybe
at Keyword Projects. From there, I work my way through the
system. Does it work? Yes, very effectively. Is it time
consuming? Yep.

But, let's look at an easier, and even more effective, way to use
Wordtracker. And with this alternate way, you're actually
considering keyword phrases based on your target audience.

Introducing John Alexander

To write this article, I interviewed John Alexander, an authority
of Wordtracker who has spent countless hours working through each
of the features and developing his own unique strategy.

As means of introduction, John is a professional search engine
optimizer with Beyond-SEO (http://www.beyond-seo.com) and a
trainer of onsite search engine marketing workshops through
Search Engine Workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com).

Besides using Wordtracker to find keywords, John actually uses
the service to target an audience's surfing behavior. Once he
determines the surfing behavior, he can use that knowledge to
target those who are most likely to purchase his clients'
products or services.

Unlike most of us, John doesn't get stuck in Keyword Universe
to where the system does all the thinking for him. Instead, he
begins at Comprehensive Search (found under the Multiple Search
heading).

He explains, Where you'll find most of your 'revelations' or
'insights' is in the Comprehensive Search feature of Wordtracker.
Try entering one part of a search phrase and letting
Comprehensive Search figure out the best 'full use' of the
phrase.

Let's look at an example

John has a client who sells baby furniture and products online,
so he needed to find the target audience for baby furniture.
Putting his creative mind at work, he started thinking about who
would want to buy baby beds and strollers. Not people with
newborns - after all, they already own all of the furniture they
need. The true audience for his client is soon to become parents,
grandparents, etc.

His next step was to use Comprehensive Search to try to determine
what his target audience is looking for. John typed in aby,
and he found some very interesting results.

People searching for the word aby were searching for keyword
phrases like aby names, Baby Names, Baby Boy Names, and so
forth.

Bingo! He had the angle he needed to get traffic to the site.
Rather than concentrating on the actual product he was trying to
sell, he thought of a way to pull in traffic through a different
window. After all, what will his target audience be looking for
on the Internet? Ideas for names for their new babies!

John adds, Keep in mind that this angle is also based on the
fact that babies are always on the way, around the world, day
after day, which creates an extremely unique market for certain
products. Understand the advantages of identifying people's
behavior, and you'll never look at keyword research quite the
same.

After he has captured the visitors at his site, he can easily
slide in the fact that the site is also selling baby products and
furniture. He's gotten them to the site, which is step #1; they
are his target audience, which is step #2; and with compelling
content, he can increase the site's conversion rate to go along
with the increase in traffic.

How did John proceed? He created a page that focused on the
meanings of baby names.

Keep in mind that the page he created has value and unique
content. He didn't just toss together a page, simply for the sake
of getting a top ranking. Instead, he worked hard to find links
all over the Web to sites that offer the meaning of baby names.
His page offers tremendous value to the search engine and users
as a one-stop resource for finding links to the meanings of baby
names. Then, in strategically placed spots on the page, he subtly
added pictures of his client's products with links to related
pages.

John explains, Don't ever trick your audience or they will
simply never buy. Give them exactly what they are looking for
right up front. In this example, I created a page that offers
baby names and the meanings of baby names, and I subtly offered a
few product listings or links to my client's storefront. It is
essential that you always provide content related to their search
first, and then offer links to appropriate products within your
client's site.

The bottom line?

How did John's strategy work out for his client? The baby names
page alone pulls in an additional 500 unique visitors of
extremely targeted traffic each month.

John adds, I cannot give you the percentage in terms of the
exact increase in sales, but I can tell you that the client has
been very pleased with the results.

Remember that this is just one page that John added to the site.

He explains, Had I really wanted to pull out all the stops, I
could have created several entry pages around this one theme. For
example, targeting keyword phrases such as: 'most popular baby
names,' etc. You could also build the content right into the site
and extend it through all of the races:

* Spanish baby names

* Italian baby names

* Jewish baby name

* French baby names

(See Part 2)

About the Author

Robin Nobles is the Director of Training of the Academy of Web
Specialists (http://www.academywebspecialists.com), where she has
trained several thousand people in her online courses in search
engine marketing strategies (http://www.onlinewebtraining.com).
She also teaches 3-day hands on search engine marketing
workshops in locations across the globe with Search Engine
Workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com.

The Emmaus Journal "I'm Mad as Hell and I Am Not

2009-04-11T09:35:00.001-07:00

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge as long as the by-lines and resource box are included. A courtesy copy of the publication would be appreciated. Email d23@comcast.net for address. Thank You!

Article Excerpt from
The Emmaus Journal
C.L. Mareydt d23

Got your attention on that title. No apology, because Hell is drawing more and more like a magnet toward its rim of perpetual death. It is happening all around us and we apparently do not, or do not want to, see it. Perhaps in some innocuous way we have given a lazy mental assent learned from our ingrained doctrines of Death and Hell. But, our testimony in the meantime is not sure and not complete!

Oh, salvation is not the question, at least for the authentic Christian majority that have professed Yahshua as Lord and Savior. But the Life Yahshua sacrificed on the cross is meant for more than the gift of salvation. Instead it has unfortunately been diluted and polluted into a nefarious collection of high minded religious churches filled with deceitful doctrines full of idolatry, greed, and lust.

Please forgive me for such uncomplementary statements. But, there are enough lies and dilusions that have been set upon us all. We are being controlled and do not even know it. Controlled spiritually, soulfully, and naturally. Controlled by the Religious Pharisees that abound in numbers within the religious denominations. Conrolled by the Doctrines of Devils we have given our itchy ears to. Controlled by such Teachers who have set their kingdomly dictates for all of us to stumble after in blind obedience, usually to our own hurt. Controlled by the ever so clever vises of our Enemy, Satan himself. Cloaked as a wolf in sheep's clothing. Cloaked as an Angel of Light. Cloaked as the lieing Prophets speaking out of their own spirits. Satan and all his demon host are drawing the religious church closer and closer to the darkened pit. He is frantically laughing all the way, for even Satan knows his time is limited and is only more determined to take as many souls as he can with him to the fiery depths of his destined chasm.

Yes, I am talking to Christians, about Christians! We know this World does belong to YaHWeH, our Elohim, and eventually it will all return to His absolute authority. But, to this date through all the generations past and into this Dispensation of Grace, YaHWeH has allowed Satan and his angels of darkness to have a poweful influence over all the inhabitants of this earth. Very easily seen is the degradation that has befallen us in a worldly sense. Plain as day and statistically verified the criminal activity worldwide in lawlessness on the streets and in the boardrooms has skyrocketed. We have only to look at America's ever aclaimed and highly advertised 'Sin City' as a pitiful example of our own nationwide morality to boot. Las Vegas has been built upon the so called '9 deadly sins' and is constantly praising itself as the vacation spot for all tourist and all Americans. Even now, our larger cities are opting for their 'Gaming Licence' in hopes it will help their ever failing revenues and draw more people into the cities to spend more money. Do I dare even ask how many Christians support such activities? This example is but a worldly advocate of lust and greed. We understand the worldly population carousing in such exploits of idolatry, and pointly shake our judgemental finger at them. But to be in godly righteouness we must also turn that fingerpointing toward ourselves.

Idolatry, greed, and lust come in many Christian Religious forms as well, but not as easily descerned. Yes, cleverly disguised, but grieviously still there. It seems the new church walls cannot contain the overflowing crowds lately. Men, women and children muscle their way into these religious forums, after coming through a week of game playing out in the world. Please, I know many God fearing church members also, who are right along side the rest. But, this is addressing the percentages within the crowd that claim the so called Christian title, without the revelation of Yahshua's reality and the Kingdom of YaHWeH in their heart. Too many in the church masses are morgaged over their head, not once but two or three times; insured to the hilt to prevent any calamity of nature, credit card debts that would make a hampster on its running wheel look sane, supporting livestyles that produce more ulcers and headaches in the long run with dysfuntional families that cannot communicate. Sickness, disease, and oppression abound into worldly bondages that plague the heart and soul unto a living death. But, all these great church services are available for them. Most church services perform two and three times on Sunday morning not to forget the evening meetings, plus the mid week services all to alleviate the pressing consciouness of good and evil. Each of these services are faithfully geared toward the uplifting of its pew people along with many support ministries within house for the extended care designated to these ailing Christians. Tapes abound, books abound, seminars abound, retreats, specialized prayer meetings, plays, dinners, luncheons, picnics, carnavals, bingo, rummage sales, secret sister societies, brotherhood meetings...please continue and add your own list. My, my, my. All centered of coarse around worship, praise and the Word.

Can we take a breath here? When all is said and done and performed, through Sunday to Saturday, is there any real time left for YaHWeH, our Elohim? Is there any time left to spend by ourselves on our knees or personal quiet time by ourselves, littleless with Elohim? No outside interference, no preachers, no teachers, no tapes, no worship music, no nothing; but you and YaHWeH, our Elohim. No inside interference, no mental strategies, no motives, no personal give me plans; no nothing, but your heart and soul moved toward Elohim.

What a novel idea. What a universal eternal truth. What a revelation. Is this what it takes? A revelation? Do we not read the scriptures ourselves to know that our YaHWeh, our Elohim is seeking all over the Earth for the ones who will worship Him in spirit and in truth? (John 4:24) Have we learned nothing in our spiritual venture? Or has it just been another self fullfillment plan, fueled by the covert strategies of our Enemy? Our own Enemy in house. In our churches, in our homes, in our private affairs. Using our spiritual weakness and our pride of life against us. Using our lack of discipline and influencing our hearts to wander away from YaHWeH. For even Satan knows religious activities can keep us away from the Truth. The hidden truth that is of Elohim. The private Truths that can only come from His Spirit to your spirit.

In the great measureless wisdom of Elohim, we can rest assured that nothing in this day and age that we live in is new or unexpected. In and through everything known and unknown, is the Spirit of Elohim. Our YaHWeH is beyond our magnitude of comprehension, but yet very near and approachable. In such vast simplicity full of order and purity Elohim still enables mankind to know Him. Through it all! But the time has come to stand up and take account and accountability of what we know and who we know. Very, very, personally. An personal assessment inside and a personal assessment outside. Exactly what do you want to be accountable for. Exactly what do you want to be accountable to. Our own words condemn us and our own words give account of our spirit. Yes, from faith to faith, but all in personal accountabilty with YaHWeH. We do know ourselves better than anyone else, beside YaHWeH. The time is at hand and our own houses have to be in order, spiritually, mentally, and naturally. The call has already been issued, and the final warning trumpets are blowing. Are we hearing them? Are you hearing them? Soon it will be too late. Soon the warning trumphets will stop. Soon the last grain of sand will empty from the hour glass. Then what dear brethren? Are any of us really prepared to meet YaHWeH face to face and give an account of our life; and then have to face up to the account of our life? Scripture gives an exact account of this.

Once again, the warning trumphet is blowing! Let's heed the sound of its alarm. Let's turn our houses upside down and inside out. Let's allow the spirit of Yahshua to run through our temples with a whip and scourge. Let's not settle for any form of idolaty, greed, or lust in our own temples, our households, nor our churches. It's enough! Let's start judging our own self and our own life. Let's not offer lip service to Elohim and then go back into our lives full of all the Enemy's delusions. It's high time and well past the time that the house of YaHWeH be called a house of prayer. Let it begin inside of us as His temples and inside of our homes and our worship places. Demand more out of yourself, more out of your household, more out of your church. We have much to be accountable toward. Are you ready to meet such a challege for yourself and set your own house in order. Are you stirred in your inner being enough to do something about it yet? Get ...mad... AT... Hell... and... DO NOT... Take... It... Anymore...!

C.L. Mareydt d23

Visit C.L. Mareydt at design twenty three located on http://www.lulu.com/d23 and http://www.cafepress.com/d23

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Inspirational Writer and Author. Book Gallery Includes: 'Who Do You Say I Am', 'I Am That I Am', 'Mountain Top Legacy no. 1', 'Tokens For Life', and 'The Emmaus Journal'. Visit C.L. Mareydt at design twenty three located at http://www.lulu.com/d23 and also at http://www.cafepress.com/d23. Thank You!

Creating Trust

2009-04-10T09:36:00.001-07:00

It can be difficult, at best, to do business on the Internet.

Okay, you and I LIVE out here. We have grown to rely and trust the Internet. We have friends. We shop, we bank, we do business.We order take out, we even fall in love. We have found ways to do almost all of our daily tasks out here in cyber space. We hear daily of all of the people signing on for the first time.

So how could it be so hard to sell our wares?

Well, it's the trust factor. Jupiter Communications, one of the leading providers of research on Internet commerce, recently revealed studies that showed 64 percent of online consumers are unlikely to trust a website.

Our customers don't have the advantage of seeing our trustworthy faces. Getting to know us. Developing a relationship with us.

Then how do we go about alleviating the fears of our potential customers? Here are a few suggestions bound to set you on the right path.

BE HONEST.
Don't make promises that you can't keep, or claims that you can't back up.
MAKE THEIR INFORMATION ACCESSIBLE AND UPDATABLE.
Make sure that your customers know what information you gather at your website and what you do with it. If you store profiles at your site, make them accessible to your customers or give them away to update it or make changes.
HONOR YOUR CUSTOMERS' PRIVACY.
If you sell directly from your site, it is important that you know, and adhere, to consumer privacy practices. Make sure that your customers understand your secure sales process and that they know what you do with their information (particularly credit card information) after the sale.
COMMUNICATE!
Publish an ezine or newsletter to help customers get to know you better. Host chats and/ or discussion boards and promptly and accurately answer your Email. (This means that you should actually READ your Email before replying!)
EDUCATE YOUR CUSTOMER AND OFFER IMPECABLE CUSTOMER SERVICE.
Make sure that they know how to use your product. Offer quick and responsive support and guidance. If a customer has a problem, don't try to sweep it under the rug! Take care of it as quickly and as graciously as possible. It is a fact that 98 percent of people will continue to use a business even AFTER they have had a problem, if their problem was resolved in a prompt and courteous manner.
GUARD YOUR REPUTATION!
Stress the benefits of your product over another without insulting the other product. Stay clear of the dirty politics tactics. It doesn't do much for your reputation.
OFFER MONEY BACK GUARANTEES,
whenever possible, then honor them quickly.
MAKE TESTIMONIALS AVAILABLE,
and encourage visitors to check with other customers before they purchase products or services from you.
BE CLEAR AND COMPLETE WITH YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION.
Include your business name, address, and phone number. Adding names and pictures of yourself or your employees can help visitors feel more confident and comfortable.

How can we alleviate the fears of our potential customers? Trust is something that takes time to earn. But the more you concentrate on your customer service, and the more responsible you act with their information and concerns, the quicker you will build a loyal customer base.

Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither are successful and worthwhile businesses! Give your customers a reason to trust you, and they will!

About The Author

Mari Peckham is the President of Peckham Enterprises and webmistress of PowerPromoPlus, your online advertising solution at: http://www.powerpromoplus.com

To subscribe to her online advertising tips, tools and techniques ezine, AdvertiseOnline, send any Email to: advertiseonline-subscribe@egroups.com or visit: http://www.powerpromoplus.com/advertiseonline.htm

Click and Park: The Future of the Parking Industry

2009-04-09T09:35:00.001-07:00

Automobile-dense markets are perfect targets for Web and wireless enabled payment services for parking, which allow for advanced fee collection, decreased operational costs, fewer on-site employees, increased security, predictive parking services and co-branded promotional plans for customers.

For instance, the county government of Burlingame, California, wirelessly regulates its parking meters to stop meter theft and monitor coin deposits. The parking industry itself is estimated at over $500 billion; the US accounts for over 105 million parking spaces.

Half-way across the world, Singaporeans today can use their mobile phones to pay for parking, taxi fares and photo prints. In the Suntec City shopping area, drivers can pay parking tickets via cellphones after having procured a designated PIN (Personal Information Number) with a local services agent. M-solutions providers like Netgalactic (www.netgalactic.com) expect major takeoff in Web and wireless enabled parking solutions for markets ranging from the US to the Asia-Pacific.

In Australia, companies like Telstra are also targeting services which will collapse multiple credit card features into one single cellphone. In Melbourne and Sydney, mobile phone-equipped parking meters are widespread (thanks to features like meter expiry alerts via SMS), and sales at phone-equipped soft-drink machines are reportedly 10 per cent higher than at conventional machines.

Leveraging the Web and handheld devices for parking offers numerous advantages for drivers: avoiding the need to fumble for change, locate attendant booths in labyrinthine parking lots, waste time queuing up at the booths, or deal with the uncertainty and inconvenience of not having guaranteed parking spots. Services offered through such a system would fall into three categories: pre-parking services (eg. viewing, booking, promotion of related commercial goods and services), active services (eg. expiry alerts), and post-parking services (eg. aggregated billing, coupons, co-promotion of other services).

e-parking or m-parking solutions are bound to work best in locations with high density of spots, office areas, event locations, or lots which are close to transit points (such as subways and ferries).

For parking lot owners and managers, a Web-based wireless-enabled solution offers added advantages of monitoring traffic flow patterns in real time, datamining archives of parking pattern history to unearth useful trends, and offer value-added services in keeping with an increasingly wired and unwired clientele. These could include bulk purchases for companies and tour operators, and promotion of related services like carwash (especially in long term lots).

Key components of such a versatile parking solution include applications (eg. bar-coding), database systems (for spots, corporate clients), messaging, manager dashboard, back-up and security.

With proper planning and robust implementation, parking headaches could soon become a thing of the past in the Internet and wireless age.

In sum, while Web-enabling may have been the clarion call of the Internet Age, handsizing seems to be the slogan of the Wireless Age, according to Jaclyn Easton, author of Going Wireless.

About the Author

Dr. Madanmohan Rao is an Internet consultant and writer based in Bangalore, India. He is the co-author of the handbook The Internet Economy of India, 2001 and the forthcoming Asia Pacific Internet Handbook (McGraw Hill). Madan was formerly the communications director at the United Nations Inter Press Service bureau in New York, and vice president at IndiaWorld Communications in Bombay.

Chicken Soup with Chopsticks (Excerpts from Chapter One)

2009-04-08T09:36:00.001-07:00

Does God care if I marry a gentile?
Even as I started dating a Chinese girl, I knew I was embarking on a remarkable adventure. I just had no idea where and how far the adventure would take me. The more events unfolded, the more I realized that my view of the world and how I lived in it were being profoundly and permanently altered...

If the problem with marrying a gentile was that my religion prohibited intermarriage, why should that bother me? Perhaps not everything in Judaism made sense, and as an intelligent and thinking individual I could take from my heritage what I felt was meaningful and disregard the rest...

The possibility that God Himself does not want a Jew to marry a gentile is not something I recall being taught explicitly. This may be because, even though I believed in God in my own nebulous way, I didn't take seriously the proposition that God authored the Torah. For one thing, I considered many claims in the Torah absurd: that the world is less than 6,000 years old, that Noah lived more than 900 years and built an ark to house the planet's animals, and that a sea parted miraculously to enable the Hebrews to escape their Egyptian pursuers. As far as I was concerned, these were stories with possible moral messages but not actual facts. If the Bible were true, then the theory of evolution, and much of science, must be wrong. In a world where humans went to the moon, performed brain surgery, and saw and talked to people on the other side of the planet, I had far more trust in what modern science presumed than in what the Bible stated...

Quest for a Life Partner

I was expected to marry one of my people. Not to do so would be a shocking betrayal of my family. The prohibition against intermarriage was so ingrained that it was hardly an appropriate subject to bring up for a family discussion...

Whereas my siblings sought only Jewish spouses, I kept my options open. I was not convinced of the necessity to restrict my search for a mate to those of my religion, especially as we constituted a tiny minority (a fraction of one percent) of the human population. Moreover, I encountered females, from various religions and backgrounds, who were extremely nice, good-natured, and attractive. My motto about intermarriage, as in other areas of life, was I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Sino-Attraction

In the summer of 1994, three years after I left my parents' home in Montreal and was living on my own in Toronto, I met Belinda. I was twenty-nine; she was twenty-five. We quickly became friends.

Would you like to see my snake? Belinda asked, as I dropped her off in front of her building.

My heart pounded and raced.

Okay, I heard myself saying. I knew that sooner or later she would show me her pet. I hadn't reckoned it would be so soon.

Belinda ran inside and returned shortly with a tiny corn snake tucked into her sleeve. Once in the car, she let me hold it. It was the first time I had held a snake. Instinctively, I applied my peripheral vision to the clammy, slender creature in my palm, imagining it was some inanimate object.

Belinda reached for my other hand. What do you think about our relationship? she asked.

It was the first time we had held hands. Thoughts of the biblical symbolism of the serpent and the fact that she was Chinese pulsated through my mind. At the same time, I was taken aback by her forthrightness. It was only our second date.
I took a slow, deep breath.

As you know, Belinda, I'm marriage-minded. You told me you were too. But, I'm not interested in just getting married, having children, and leading a normal life. That's the minimum of what I would expect. I want to reach for the moon, grow together with a life-long partner, embark on an adventure with this person that would make a difference in the world.

The snake began to slither its way up my sleeve, and I pleaded for help. I don't recall anything else we talked about that evening.

* * *

When I met Belinda, I had little interest in religious Judaism. I was unaware of its unique spiritual treasures and their relevance to today's world. In fact, like many of my peers, I had an affinity for secular Jewish culture, and that is where it stopped...

In college and university I took courses in political philosophy and became interested in Marxism, Platonism, socialism, humanism, feminism, and any other ism that was popular in academia. I wondered if any of them was the key to fixing the world and ushering in a utopia. I delved into the teachings of Christianity and Buddhism. I traveled to the Arctic for a month, hoping to taste native spirituality. I joined the army and sought, but did not find, patriotic pride. I spent two summers in Israel working on a kibbutz and interviewing the vatikim, or elders, those idealists who left the relative comfort of their European homes in the '30s and '40s to go to a harsh and barren land and pioneer a new experiment in socialism. At one point I seriously considered moving to a kibbutz and dedicating my life to the principle from each according to his ability, to each according to his need. Later, when I moved to Toronto, I toyed with New Age ideas and started frequenting an ashram...

Belinda and I began to explore different religions together, and we frequently talked about spiritual matters. We also talked about Disney, travel, computers, and Indian food. We were amazed at how much we had in common. Like typical romantic couples, we spent most of our free time with each other, sometimes engaging in juvenile activities. One of our favourite pastimes was to go to parks and look for trees to climb. Once we played an entire game of Chinese checkers seated high up on tree branches, with a bag of snacks hanging beside us.

I knew that when my parents found out about my latest girlfriend they would vehemently oppose the relationship unless, perhaps, Belinda were to convert to Judaism. I feared being ostracized by my immediate family. Perhaps on a deeper level, I feared cutting myself off from my ethnic roots. As painful as these thoughts were, they did not deter me from pursuing the course on which I had already embarked.

If you find these excerpts interesting, you will find this true story fascinating.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Discover more at www.PaperSpider.Net
Order: 1-888-BOOKS-88. Wholesalers: Ingram, Baker & Taylor
Click to learn more about Jack Botwinik.

Chasing the Rainbows End

2009-04-07T09:35:00.001-07:00

Life in the 21st century is fast-paced, and dangerous. People try different ways to find a little piece of heaven in a not-so-perfect world. Different means are used by different people to chase the rainbows end, and find that elusive pot of gold.

We live in a fallen world. Adam and Eve's sin cursed us all and pain and suffering entered the world. To deal with hurts, western civilization often employs economic relief to ease our woes. Men are cursed to toil to live, spawning a competitive marketplace where the king of the hill wins. Children, at a young age, learn to play this game as well, and even when grown, the same rules apply. He who gets the promotion, makes the most money, and has the most toys wins, at least in the world system. But, that old adage, that you can't take it with you, is still a truth to spoil this road to happiness.

Despite this truism, it doesn't stop so many from seeking fulfillment through materialism, when real happiness lies within one's own heart. I, myself, have sacrificed this part of myself, and let it get hardened by the difficulties of life. I wasn't chasing the proverbial American dream. After all, I've been thrice divorced. The title for my life should be Paradise Lost. I was consumed with responsibility caring for my two children that I've raised alone. I was very proud of that fact too. I gave up my work that I enjoyed doing fiscal and HR work, and taught myself computers because I could make a lot more money, afford a house on my own, and buy that yellow Mustang I've always wanted. You sell your soul for such ambitions. Did chasing that rainbow allow me to follow my passion - absolutely not! What I ended up with, was what many IT professionals achieve - severe burnout, and a boring job that I can hardly stand to drag my butt to each morning.

Alas, there is an antidote for the diseased heart, after years of trying to find it searching for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow - I could actually follow the desires within me, and redefine myself at age 41. I may be a late bloomer, and it may take a lot of work, especially since while I'm doing it, I still have to get up each morning and face the monotony of the day job. At least, if I follow my dreams, the day goes by just a little bit faster, and I appreciate the new me just a little bit more. Don't let your sacrifices in this life be your heart.

Years ago, the critics in my life, and in my own head, encouraged me to deal with responsibilities - the IT profession was the best way to support the children, and carve out the best possible life for myself. The inner critic agreed with them, and I squelched the desires to become a professional writer to the point, I stopped writing all together for 15 years. Everyone kept telling me that there's only a one in a billion shot at becoming a successful writer and getting my novels published. I may have bought into it then, but I've discovered life is too short not to follow your passion. Therefore, I'm giving it a shot, and trying to write something worth reading. Over the years, I've managed to get some poetry published; now I want something more. I've hired a writing coach, and I'm trying to write something, anything, each and every day. I've even started my first novel - the one I've always wanted to write, but wasn't sure I was good enough at my art. I know if I don't try, I'll never know what it's like to actually find who I was destined to be, and I'll live a life full of regrets for having failed to try.

One valuable lesson I will definitely pass on to my children, is to follow your heart, despite all those who try to discourage them. I, for one, will no longer be one of those critics. My son, Sean, is an incredibly gifted singer, song writer, and guitarist. I used to push him to do all he could do to prepare for college, and consider a major in music education, so he could always teach and make a good living, if the band thing didn't pan out. No more will I be my son's critic, and squelch his dreams as being impossible If he must grow his hair long, and wear an earring, and play music all night, I will not rain on his parade. At least, he will know he tried to use his God-given gifts, and didn't let them lie dormant.

My daughter, like myself, has the passion for words. She writes stories in her free time. Thanks to the internet, I can find endless essay contests for her to enter. Sure we'll all meet with some discouragement and rejection, but we'll have the peace and contentment of doing what truly makes us happy - what we were put here on this planet to do. In this, we will find the pot of gold and the end of the rainbow. If we aren't rich, at least our spirits will be.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

At 41, I'm trying to reinvent myself, and follow my passion to write. For years, I've had what I considered the responsible job to pay the bills, and discounting writing as a valid career choice. I now want to follow the dream to become a Christian writer

10 HeatSeeking Tips For Exploding Your Sales!

2009-04-06T09:36:00.001-07:00

1. Test different web site color themes to see which
combination will sell your product better. You can
also test the size and style of your web site text.

2. Promise your readers an end result or outcome
in your ad. You must give them a solid guarantee
that your product will solve their problem.

3. Never assume people believe the information in
your ad copy. You need to back-up all your claims
with indisputable evidence.

4. Give your customers free shipping. If you can't
afford that, you can give free shipping to customers
that buy over a certain dollar amount to raise profits.

5. Test your web site regularly for ordering glitches,
bad links, broken graphics, etc. Those types of
errors will make your business look unprofessional.

6. Use free advertising as much as possible. Test a
wide variety of free advertising options like banner
and link exchanges, classifieds, newsgroups, etc.

7. Build credibility for your business by publishing
an e-zine and writing articles. Your customers and
prospects will see you as an expert and trust you.

8. Answer all your e-mail messages as quickly as
possible. Nothing will loose a sale quicker than not
responding to a prospect in time.

9. Build a professional looking web site even if you
have a small budget. You could use free graphics,
designs, list servers, and other tools offered online.

10. Enter to win awards for your web site. When
you display the award graphics on your web site
it will increase your credibility and professionalism.

About the Author

Larry Dotson is the co-author of The Hypnotic
Writer's Swipe File a collection of hypnotic words
and phrases that sell. You can visit his web site at:
http://www.ldpublishing.com

Don't Treat Your Business Like a Casino

2009-04-05T09:35:00.001-07:00

It's amazing how many people are jumping into the internet marketing business. The good news is that the pie is pretty unlimited so we can all get a nice slice. The bad news is that most of the people I encounter are thinking that they can buy some miracle product, sit around and money will show up.

What's up with that? This is a business, not a casino where you put down your money and hope it makes more for you. The bottom line with this business is that you will have to put in time and money to build, key word - build, your business. The more time you put in, the less money you have to put in. Why don't people get this? They need to start treating their business like a business and stop treating it like a hobby or a trip to the casino.

It's pretty basic business sense. No big secret here. On the internet you can run a business for under $100 a month to start. Most businesses cost AT LEAST $5,000 to get started and take 3 years to make ANY profit. The little guy has NEVER had such a great opportunity to make so much money before now.

On the internet you can build a business by spending only 5 or 10 hours a week. Spend it getting yourself free advertising and it will continue to build your business for years. How amazing is that?

There's a ton of money to be made for anyone who wants to build an online business the right way. Lord knows there's also plenty of products that are great to teach you how to do it right.

But I keep hearing from people who think they're going to put up a site and people will magically find out about it and buy what they're selling. If you build an ice cream stand in the middle of the desert do you think people will magically find it and buy ice cream? It's the same concept.

That's not how it works. It's called internet marketing for a reason. The more you market and the better you market, the more money you'll make. Even better, the longer you do it the easier it gets to make even more money.

Have these people ever heard of any business making money by just opening a storefront? It disappoints me to run into people with this attitude because I know they could do really well if they would just put some effort into creating their business.

C'mon. Get real. Do these folks really expect to get results with an attitude of, I'll spend some money and try this internet marketing thing to see if works. Try to pick up a pencil off the floor. You can't. It's impossible. You pick it up or you don't.

Try is a myth. When someone says they'll ry to do something it's wimpy code for I expect to fail at this and have no intention of committing to getting results.

Do it or don't but don't lie to yourself about rying anything. Have you seen someone ry to diet or seen a teenager ry to not talk back to parents?

How did that work out?

These folks will give up quickly and settle for lives that don't turn them on. They'll keep on doing work they can't stand until one day they'll die. On their death bed all you'll hear is I should've, could've would've but didn't.

Imagine if these people instead had the attitude of, I'm building a business to create the life of my dreams for me and my family and nothings going to stop me! That's completely different from ,I bought this 'how to make money on the internet' product and I'll try to do what it teaches and see what might happen, maybe, if I have time after I watch the game. Which attitude do you think produces better results?

As long as we're alive for 80 to 100 years why don't we live it up and have fun making money and making more free time to do what we want with people we love?

The one thing no product can give you is passion and motivation. That's what you bring to the table every day. I'm driven by a passion to create my own multiple residual income streams so that I won't have to ever work a job I hate again. I also have a passion to empower others who have dreams of creating lives of freedom for themselves.

What are you passionate about? How can you make money from that? Why don't you go to work on it today?

Don't fall into the trap these people are in. If you don't like how your life is and you want to make it better, feel the pain of where your life will be in 10, 20 or 50 years if you stay on the same path. Let that pain fuel you into action to take control of your life and build your dreams into your reality.

About The Author

Sopan Greene, M.A. is a marketing & life coach & editor of the Net Profits newsletter. Grab Your 2 FREE eBooks & a FREE report: Million Dollar Emails How To Start Your Own Traffic Virus & The 13 Deadly Internet Marketing Mistakes Almost Every Business Is Making... mail to: webmaster87-5956@autocontactor.com

http://www.NetMarketingMastery.com

A Common Frustration When Operating A Home Based Business

2009-04-04T09:36:00.001-07:00

By Kirk Bannerman

The source of frustration addressed in his article may be all
too familiar if you happen to work at an Internet-based home
business which relies on personal relationships and/or teamwork.

I am often contacted by members of my business team with a tale
of woe regarding a lack of response from their affiliates. It
typically goes something like...I send out lots of emails to all
of them and I very rarely get any response. What am I doing
wrong.

If your particular internet business involves selling well known
branded items, personal feedback is not an issue. Visitors to
your website (potential customers) are primarily interested in
selection, availability, and price. If it is a returning
customer, then you can also throw customer service into the
equation. Once the desired item is selected, your mouse does
all the alking without any human interaction involved.

However, there are many types of internet-based home businesses
where feedback and interaction are quite important and getting an
affiliate or business team member to communicate with you is a
definite objective. It's not at all surprising that this can be
a challenge when you stop to think that what you are trying to do
is initiate a dialog between two complete strangers who have
never even seen each other.

Heavily branded websites like walmart.com or amazon.com are
household names and carry an implied trust with visitors.
However, the vast majority of websites are not well known and are
found and visited as a result of searches performed by search
engines. In these instances, the visitor is probably arriving at
the website for the first time and human nature often dictates a
sense of fear or suspicion of the unknown which is manifested by
a reluctance to respond to email messages from an unknown party.

It seems that there is no pat answer as to the best way to elicit
an initial email response from a person. I have tried several
approaches with varying degrees of success. Individual styles
will vary, but the following four points should be kept in mind:

*you need to build trust & credibility with thorough knowledge
of your business and with straight forward talk about realistic
expectations

*don't over-sell or indulge in hype as many people are expecting
this and it can be an immediate turn-off

*send messages with at least one open-ended question that
requires a response

*keep the messages fairly brief, long winded messages that go on
and on quite frequently will not be read

One other thing to keep in mind is that your messages may not
even be reaching the intended recipient and they have no
opportunity to give you a reply. At the end of your messages
you might want to ask the recipient to send you a return email
just saying got it.

We all agree that spam is a very serious problem. These days,
many email providers and ISPs have appointed themselves to be the
information police and are employing various schemes to try to
recognize and block messages that constitute spam.
Unfortunately, these mail filtering or blocking techniques are
often very inaccurate and many messages that people actually want
to receive are arbitrarily being sent off into the ozone.

I have some first hand experience with this situation. Not long
ago, the ISP that my mother was using suddenly decided that she
would not be allowed to receive messages from me! It took us a
while to figure out what was going on, but once we did, that ISP
was going to soon become history as far as my mother was
concerned.

In the final analysis, all you can do is give it your best shot.
Some people will respond, some won't...and the beat goes on.
Remember, it's nothing personal, just human nature at work.

About the author:

Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and
coaches others seeking to start their own home based business.
Visit his website at
Legitimate Home Based Business for more details.