Article Public: 12/9/07

Friday, December 14, 2007

Affiliate Marketing Guide To A Monthly Online Income

By: Titus Hoskins

Creating an online affiliate marketing system which produces a monthly income is relatively easy. With one catch, you have to know exactly what you're doing and how the whole online marketing system works. Figuring out all the details can take you years to learn.

What the beginning webmaster or marketer doesn't realize building a solid online business takes time and patience. It is not done overnight, despite what the latest marketing gurus are trying to sell you, it simply takes time and a lot of hard work to build a solid online business.

First, you must have a basic understanding of how the Internet works and the future role you will play in it. You must understand the net is basically an extension of the real world: it is an enormous virtual playground as well as a vast storehouse of the world's collective knowledge. But you must also understand the web is a global marketplace unlike anything that has been seen before on this planet.

If you want to be an affiliate marketer you must place yourself or your site into this whole online environment. As an affiliate marketer you must play some sort of role in the transfer of information within this complex structure.

How?

Simply give surfers what they're looking for: information.

Supplying valuable, needed information is your key to online affiliate success.

Here are some proven affiliate marketing strategies or tips to get you started on your affiliate marketing career. Each is a brief summation of some of the factors to keep in mind as you create your own complex, yet simple, online marketing system.

1. Acquiring Knowledge

Your first step is to acquire the basic skills and knowledge needed to run an online site or business. When I started I had to learn how to write HTML from scratch and go from there... today there are many online site builders and WYSIWYG editors to get you started. Plus, you now have whole online site building systems you can use - Ken Evoy's SBI comes readily to mind.

No matter which route you follow, you must understand how an online site works, how to use keywords, how to create valuable content and how to tie in your affiliate links with this content... all this basic knowledge you must acquire.

2. Get The Big Picture: Your Role - Your Content

You must fully understand your role in the whole online affiliate marketing process. Your content must be valuable to the Internet user, it must offer information, solve a problem or offer a special deal. There must be some reason why the surfer will use your site to find what they're looking for on the web. They must benefit in some way from using your site.

Again, offering valuable, helpful information will spell online affiliate success for you.

3. Build Your Foundation

You must have your own domain or domains. You must create your own piece of virtual real estate that you can build and gradually add to as you proceed. Be wary of free sites. Don't rent, own your real estate outright. Your sites will become your valuable properties you will continue to build for years to come.

When picking a domain name try to get as close as you can to the main keyword or keyword phrase represented by your site's topic. Use hyphens if you have to but choose a name that is short and can be easily remembered and typed directly into a browser.

As for site design and layout - a simple solution is to use a blog format such as the free WordPress software and host it on your own domain. Extremely effective way of creating a full-powered content site without having to worry about learning HTML code or programing. You can have a website up and running within minutes.

4. Know Your Partners & Their Products

As an affiliate marketer you will be selling other people's stuff. You must get to know these future partners and their marketing systems. Pick affiliate products directly related to the topic of your site. Something your visitors are interested in and would likely purchase after you have supplied them with valuable information about those products.

A good way to find potential products and partners is to join the well established major affiliate networks on the web. These networks represents most of the Top 500 Companies in the world. Affiliate networks like Commission Junction, LinkShare, Amazon, ClickBank, Shareasale... these networks have been around for years and offer excellent payment structures and commission rates.

5. Long Tail Keyword Marketing

Develop content and high rankings for long tail keyword phrases related to your site's topic. These are some of the least competitive keywords yet they will also prove to be the most lucrative for you. Find the long tail keywords within your niche and exploit them. Using exact brand names of the affiliate products you're promoting make for effective long tail keywords.

Consistently use and develop this long tail keyword strategy and you will succeed at affiliate marketing.

6. Build Your One-Way Links

Take a pro-active approach to link building. Don't sit around waiting for links, instead go out and get them. Use your keyword anchor links in the resource box of your articles. Distribute these articles to all the major article directories... make sure Ezinearticles.com, Goarticles.com, ArticleAlley.com... are on your list.

Recommend products that you use, make forum posts, create viral videos, join social media sites, offer a free newsletter and build your own subscriber base, create follow-up autoresponder series on the major products you promote... these are all ways of creating traffic and customers.

7. Embrace Google But Don't Ignore the Others

Embrace Google as if your affiliate marketing life depended on it - chances are it will be!

Google is the search engine that you must optimize for if you want your site to really succeed online. Don't ignore the others, but Google has become the most popular search engine in the world and even accounts for 50% of all the searches made in the USA. (comScore)

So short of a brown-nose, do everything you can to please Google. The rewards are worth it. Whether you're a Google fan or not, Google has gained the trust and respect of the majority of Internet users. Getting a top 10 placement for your targeted keywords will often mean money in the bank.

8. Be Aware Of The Social Media Revolution

Be aware the Internet is constantly changing and in the next few years everything will be turned topsy-turvy. We are talking about the growing popularity of user-generated content sites such as MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube, Digg, Technorati...

Stay within the flow by making sure any site you create has a blog and RSS feed attached to it. Make sure all your content can be easily bookmarked in all these different social bookmarking sites. One simple solution is to use the easy bookmarking system supplied by Addthis.com, place their code on your content pages and let your visitors bookmark your content for you in all these different media sites.

9. Model It

In art one of the best ways to learn is to model or copy the masters. You learn by seeing how someone else has approached and solved a problem and then use their model or example. In affiliate marketing, one of the best ways to learn is to copy or model your business on one that has already been proven to work.

This is NOT literal copying of a site or business but simply modeling your own business on an existing example that works. Same structure, same marketing techniques, same principles... building your affiliate business on an existing mold or model is a wise route to take if you want to succeed.

10. Be Patient For Results

Building a viable online affiliate business takes some time so be patient. If you're building a content rich site and targeting specific keywords it can take months, sometimes even years, before you obtain significant results. So have long term goals in place and expect plenty of hard work before you reap the real rewards.

Just remember becoming a full time online affiliate marketer is well within anyone's reach. However, like most things in life, the journey is always much more enjoyable than your final destination. Many of you will probably discover, like I did, that 'the reach is the grasp'. Actually doing something is the main reward, all those monthly affiliate checks are just pleasant aftershocks. Very nice aftershocks that add up very quickly into a healthy monthly online income!

Be Careful Of Who You Follow If You Want To Make Money Online...

By: Alan Quan

I learned A LOT about the importance of being more careful of who you trust to personally help you succeed on the internet…

Last week, I went to visit my "guru" mentor in California to steal some of his marketing secrets.

He first took me to Starbucks, talked to me about the importance of spirituality and and how that ties into making money online. Then he said something that just shocked me…

"Alan, don't tell ANYONE where I live because people will think I'm a hypocrite and LIAR for posting pictures of my 'supposed' custom home I live in on my website!"

He then demanded my driver's license to know for sure that I'm really Alan Quan. He then closely inspected my driver's license and starts to hint to me that a lot of things you see on the internet is FAKE.

Needless to say, my senses told me that this guy is a dirty liar! After posting all these pictures of his multi-million dollar home on his website and teaching people how to make money online, he started to drive toward a trailer park!

He then told me that he needs to get something in the trailer park. So he got out of the car and instructed for me to do the same. I did as told and walked with my marketing mentor toward some worn out trailer homes!

I nervously thought to myself…

"Dude, is this guy a total liar? Are all the pictures of his income statements and his home all fake?"

After about a minute of following him down the smelly trailer park, he started to laugh hysterically. My defenses were up, but luckily I know some martial arts…

"Is this where he pulls out a gun and robs me of all my money?"

He then turned around with smiles all over his face saying…

"Alan, you are so easy! I'm just kidding man - I don't live here!"

When I FINALLY got to his real home - I let out a sigh of relief - this guy is for real after all! Whew! =)

But it was a great lesson he taught me…

You'd better be careful of who teaches you how to make money online, because anyone could fake it and you might actually be learning from a supposedly "rich" guy who lives in a tiny trailer home!

When you see an advertisement of yet another business opportunity in pre-launch with some loser who repairs broken cigarette lighters for a living suddenly earns five figures in one month with this "miracle" system…

…chances are great that this guy is an rich guy imitator, lying through his teeth and as new to internet marketing as you!

So it is an absolute MUST that you join a real marketing mentor that has a proven track record with REAL experience so that he can truly help you achieve the income goals you desire!

Using eBay to Generate Traffic

By: John Thornhill

Go the eBay way!!!

You have a website and you are desperately trying to increase the web traffic. Have you considered using eBay? EBay is perhaps the most cost effective solution to promote you website and subsequently generate more traffic for your website. Well, this is how it works….

You are not the only one out there looking for ways to generate more traffic. There are millions of website owners trying to carve their niche in the virtual world by advertising their website using a solid marketing tool. Unfortunately, most overlook the significance of ebay and the pivotal role it plays in website promotion. With more than 65 million registered users worldwide who browse on the eBay website every now and then to buy or sell products, it shouldn't be difficult to guess what it would be like if even five percent of these users were drawn to your website..…

The good news is …. You can actually pull this traffic to your website and that too it is very simple! All you need to do is have a good eBay ‘Me' page for your eBay ID. Allow me to explain. Let us assume a particular potential customer looks at your auctions and your ID. On the same page, they will see a small "Me" icon that is linked to your Me page which can be in turn linked to your website. For instance, you are a website owner and sell a course on how to promote your business using the Internet. Now if you want to pull some of the eBay traffic, you may begin by compiling a small report on what Internet marketing is all about and offer it for sale at an incredibly low price. While the report should essentially include interesting and relevant stuff about Internet marketing, it should also pre-sell the main product – setting up your own business course that's for sale on your website.

Although this will be the proposed action plan, you will need a powerful auction advertisement along with an enticing ‘Me' page to divert online communities to your website.

Go for a "Featured Plus" auction in order to top the auction list. It should preferably be a Dutch auction so that you can sell several items through the same auction. Don't forget to add an enticing title to grab the attention of all those precious visitors whom you are counting on to advance your business. Many website owners have offered something for free on their ‘Me' page so that visitors are compelled to check out your site.

Do try out these ‘tried and trusted formulas' .. they have worked wonders for others and will surely work out for you as well!!!

5 Essential Strategies to Make Online Selling Easier

By: Donna Gunter

One very common mistake that online service professionals make is providing endless information on their website, blog, or ezine without asking for anything in return (i.e. selling a product or service). Now, that doesn't really make much sense, does it? How do you stay in business if you don't have any sales?

I have had clients who simply like to have their products sit obscurely for sale on their websites and do little to make their list members or website visitors aware of what they have for sale for fear of offending their visitors or subscribers. If someone is going to be offended because you're trying to sell to them, then just let them go. You don't need a list of tire-kickers who want to sponge all the free info that they can from you and never buy anything -- you'll never be able to stay in business that way.

Why don't service professionals want to sell? I think there are 3 basic reasons:
1. They are uncomfortable with the process (self-esteem issues tied to not believing in themselves or their product or service) and never ask for the sale.
2. They believe the members of their contact list will revolt if they receive any sales messages.
3. They don't possess a "sales mindset."

I have to chuckle when I do a promotion and get an email from someone on the list who chastises me for "daring" to sell to them and notes that they much prefer to "decide" when they want to buy something from me and then they threaten to leave the list. I just respond that I'm sorry that they feel that way, but unfortunately I'm not a trust-fund baby, and that my hard-earned information has the same value as any info that they might get from their car mechanic, doctor, attorney, or accountant, and I've never seen any of those professionals give away what they know. Unfortunately, when you own an online business, you have to educate your target market that you have to charge for information.

I've come to discover that what's missing in many online business owners is a sales mentality. Creating a sales mentality means that you need to acknowledge that you're in business to make money through selling and that your customers need to become accustomed to having you sell and seeing things for sale all over your websites. Sounds simple, right?

What does an online business owner need to do to foster his/her own sales mentality? Here are 5 strategies to make online selling easier:

1. Acknowledge that selling is integral to your business. Sales isn't a dirty word. How you perceive selling, however, might be. Many online business owners think, "I'm a [fill in industry here], not a salesperson. I need to hire someone to sell for me." Fact is, YOU are really your own best sales person. If you don't believe in the value of what you offer, why will anyone else? In order to make a living, others must know about and buy what you're offering. They're only able to do this is you have a process by which you educate them to give you money for your expertise.

2. Get your list accustomed to seeing sales pitches from you. When's the last time you sent a promotional email to your list? Online business owners need to send at least 2 solo promotional emails a month to their list in order to remain "top of mind" for a specific problem held by their target market. Don't overuse this tactic, however. I've seen service professionals email their lists 4-6 times per week, causing email fatigue with the recipients, who decide that they don't want any more emails from that person and opt off that list. I limit myself to one weekly email that is my ezine, which contains promotional material, as well as one promotional email when I'm running a sales special or am holding a special event.

3. Ensure that your marketing materials tell prospects how to buy. Make it as easy as possible for your contact list to buy from you. If you're selling information products, make the "buy now" button readily apparent on your sales pages. If you're selling a service, give your target market several options to contact you to buy your service -- by email, voice mail, instant message, etc.

4. Incorporate the "law of attraction" into your sales mentality. A sales mentality doesn't have to equate to slimy. I think one of the most attractive ways to sell yourself is by sharing your knowledge and expertise with your target market. As a matter of fact, I'm often told that this is one of the reasons people seek me out to hire me -- I don't hide what I know and am willing to share freely, within reason, of course. I think of selling as helping my prospects solve their problems, and my enthusiasm is evident as we start to brainstorm and dissect how to rid them of a particular problem. Let your enthusiasm for problem-solving serve as your attraction mechanism for new clients.

5. Show your prices. Many service business owners won't list their pricing or fee structure anywhere on marketing materials because they feel it's necessary to "sell" themselves on how wonderful they are via a 1:1 conversation before discussing money. I don't really want to work that hard. I'd rather prospects come to me fully informed about all aspects of working with me. Be open and transparent with your pricing -- don't make prospects jump through hoops to ascertain if they can afford to hire you. I use my fees as a screening device -- those who can't afford my rates won't call, and those who can afford the rate know exactly how much they will spend. Consequently, when people call me to hire me, the first thing they say is, "When can we start working together?" Now, wouldn't you rather have that type of conversation with a prospect?

A sound sales mentality is necessary for success in any business. Make sure that you're educating your target market about how to buy from you.

Your Get Clients Online Assignment: Take a moment to assess your website, your blog, your ezine, and other marketing materials. Is it easy to purchase from you? Is it clear that you have a product or service for sale? If not, start incorporating the above suggestions today and see how much your sales increase.

Excellent E commerce solutions from the advanced application development services

By: Denish Parker

E-commerce solutions are reachable to perform as connection between online businesses and the customer. By serving a link with the customer, the E-commerce request of your website is a vital attribute of your e commerce business. The entire E-commerce solution for your business is relatively important, and it must be both users friendly and safe for consumers to believe secure passing on their particulars.

With individuality theft and credit card fraud on the increase, it is dangerous that your E-commerce shopping solution is liable and secure, which can make it moderately complicated to discover the good one that hysterics within your financial plan. On the other end, the consequence should be specified more on the superiority, usability and capacity of features served by any given package.

With e commerce application development services you can:

Accomplish your method your technique
Match procedure to your organizational maturity, risk acceptance, and eminence principles
Support both highly-structured as well as more lissome development teams
Acquire benefit of built-in reporting, notifications and endorsement mechanisms

E commerce application development solutions find the antidote to gaps, poor handoffs, incompatible or misplaced facts, and lost time during enlargement. End-to-end solutions. Many Application development company optimize all these factors together through:

• Integration of development with business requirements
• End-to-end visibility and traceability of actions and artifacts
• Process elasticity and compliance to the technique each team works
• Smoother partnership and workflow mechanization among circulated teams
• highest combination with 3rd party tools and IDEs
• Easier exhibition of fulfillment

Custom ecommerce software development solution allows you to have the software development solution which meets the precise requirements of your meticulous business. E Commerce application development is conducted with you the client in mind.

How To Maximize Your Adsense Earnings

By: Bernie Alexander
Most webmasters know that Adsense generates a sizeable chunk of advertising income. That is why many of them use it to go after high paying keywords. They even purchase high paying keyword list that are suppose to escalate their Adsense earnings, build content driven sites and yet fail to make the money they desire. What are they doing wrong?

A major problem is no traffic. No matter how good the information on your site is, if not many people see the site, your dream of making a good income from Adsense will not be realized.
In order to get the traffic one thing you must do is optimize your site navigation. For many this is a new way of thinking.
But stop for a moment and think about how visitors are using your website. After a visitor has landed on a certain page, they have the tendency to click on another page that sounds interesting.
They get there because of the other links that appears on a page that they initially landed on. This is site navigation. It is all about enabling visitors to move about your site. And one way of maximizing your Adsense earnings.
A typical website has menu links on each page. The wording on these links is what grabs a visitor’s attention and gets them to click on one of the links that will take them to another page of that website. Links that have “free’ or “download” are oftentimes good attention-grabbers.
This navigation logic can also be applied to driving traffic to your high paying pages. There are some websites that are getting a lot of traffic from search engines, but have low earnings. The trick is to try and use come cleverly labeled links to get the visitors off that page and navigate them to the higher earning ones. This is one great way of turning real cheap clicks to real dollars.
Before you begin testing if this same style will work for you and you website, you need two pieces tools. Something to track and compare and some high earning pages you want to funnel your site traffic to. An option is to select a few of your frequently visited pages. This is ensuring faster results.
Now, the next thing to do is think of ways to get visitors from the first page to the link that will take them to your high earning pages. Come up with a catchy and unique description for the link. Think of something that people do not get to see everyday. This will trigger their curiosity enough to try and see what that was all about.
You can also use graphics to grab your readers’ attention. There is no limitation to what you can do to make your link stand out. In order to have a successful Adsense site you must do everything legally, ethically and morally possible to achieve that goal. Just be creative. As far as many Adsense advertisers are concerned, there are no written and unwritten laws to follow regarding what they write. Just as long as you do not overstep the guidelines of the search engines you should not have a problem.
Also remember that it is all about location, location and location. Once the perfect attention grabbing description has been achieved, you have to identify the perfect spot on your page to position that descriptive link so that your site visitors will click on it. For more information about which ad formats do the best, check http://www.adsenselady.com.
There is nothing wrong with visiting other websites to see how they are going about maximizing their site navigation. “Hot pages” or “Most read” lists are very common and overly used already. Get to know the ones that many websites are using and do not try to imitate them.
Another way of doing it is to try and use different texts on different pages. That way you will see the ones that work and what does not. Try to mix things around also. Test your ad formats by putting links on top and sometimes on the bottom too, then tracking each to see which format worked best. You will very quickly be able to tell which ones are getting the most clicks and which ones you might want to remove.
Finding the optimal site navigation style requires formatting and testing, then reformatting and testing. Let the testing begin!

Do you know how to make money online?

By: Suresh A

A large percentage of the people surfing the internet are looking for ways to make money online. But not many people find these ways. Yes, it is true that you too can make money online. But you need to know which methods to use and how to use them. If you do not know these things then you will not be able to make a single dollar online.

On the contrary if you know how to do it, you will be making more than thousands of dollars each month. Now there are specialized websites which can help you to earn money online. These websites have the hidden secrets to making money online and will give you these secrets for a small fee.

Such websites also bring together a group of like minded people from different parts of the country. You will get the best opinion for investments in real estate, shares, blogs, surveys as well as newer and more innovative online money making methods.

The forums section has many forums with each forum dedicated to a separate way of making money. When you go through these forums you can not only get the ideas but also interact with these money making experts. They will help to track your progress as well. This interactivity goes a long way in helping you understand the process.

There are innumerable benefits of such money maker websites. There are myriad chances that within a small time of joining you will have created a new and innovative method of making money online. Who knows you might be selling your own money making method via a similar website tomorrow. The smart person is the one who knows when to strike. Be an opportunist and make the most of this opportunity now when the web 2.0 is still relatively new.

Marketing Your Business Online

By: Cynthia Overfield

Any person who is starting or has an established online business, should use online network marketing as one of its major sources for advertising. Online network marketing can be very productive in driving traffic to your site. Marketing your business online is a wonderful way to run your business from home at your convenience.

A business promoter can go about online network marketing many ways. Some useful tools are online forums, blogs, articles, and newsletters just to name a few. It does not matter whether your business is online or offline, any or all of these methods will help you get the exposure you need to make money and attract customers.

Online forums may be the easiest and most accessible route. There are thousands of people in online forums everyday. The key is to pick a forum that has topics closely related to what your business has to offer. Some forums allow you to link back your posts to your blog for extra exposure. Many people searching for a business or a product are frequent visitors to forums. It is a good place for them to ask questions. If you are knowledgeable about your business, this is a great opportunity to sell or promote what you have to offer.

Placing links that are relevant to your business on your blog is an excellent free source of marketing your business. Links to your blog give your online business more credibility in the eyes of the search engines. With good links, the search engines will place you higher in ranking results. The key is to find blogs that let you place links to other sites on the web. If the blog is high ranking in the search engines, this could mean a huge amount of free traffic to your business.

Viral marketing is another way to spread the word about your online business. The main reason viral marketing works so well is that thousands of people will see your ads every day. The true benefits of this type of marketing are once you set up your campaign, it runs on autopilot and viral marketing is usually free. The key to viral marketing is writing ads that make people want to click in order to find out more about your business. People who are clever with words do extremely well with this type of network marketing.

The newest and most likely the best type of network marketing is writing articles. Article writing has become one of the best ways to reach higher ranking in the search engines. Article writing also allows you to establish yourself as an expert on your designated topic. When you submit an article to a directory, you should always link back to your online business. This allows you to maximize your incoming links and receive high quality traffic to your website. By writing at least two quality articles a week, you will obtain the best results for your marketing efforts. Another great benefit of writing articles is that you can send them out to opt-in customers who have signed up for your newsletter thus doubling the exposure for your business and your products.

When done correctly, online network marketing can be a significant and highly successful tool for any business. It does take some knowledge and understanding for this type of advertising to work. Doing research is the key in order for one to feel comfortable marketing their business this way. Once you understand the basics of article writing, blogging and viral marketing, you will establish your presence on the web. Above all, you must be persistent and consistent if you want to achieve success at network marketing.

Review of Mark Warren's Ultimate Wealth Program

By: Anita Buchan

The Ultimate Wealth Program, from Mark Warren, is one of the most popular and well-marketed affiliate marketing programs out there. It is primarily aimed at beginners to affiliate marketing.

The main part of the program is a 48-page e-book. A list of 'random thoughts', bonus e-book and software downloads, and an affiliate marketing website are also included. Even if the main part of the program was not up to much, you could argue that the bonuses are worth the money by themselves!

The core e-book offers a broad introduction to affiliate marketing. It takes you through the basic principles, going step by step. It is fairly clear and simply written. For beginners, it undoubtedly covers all you could need to know.

However, if you have any previous experience of affiliate marketing you may want to purchase a program that is more advanced. Although it gives a good overview of all the basic principles, it fails to go as in-depth as other programs I have reviewed. The tone it is written in can get on the nerves. At times it is straightforward, and at other times he seems to be trying to imitate the Rich Jerk. A mistake, since Rich Jerk is definitely a one off!

It also fails to reveal anything new or particularly exciting. Again, if you are a beginner to affiliate marketing this does not matter. But if you are looking for a program that will teach you to develop your business, and take it to the next level, I would recommend other programs as being more helpful.

Some of the information is also slightly out of date. His section on search engines references several which have now been taken over by their rivals or gone out of business. There are therefore some links which no longer work.

And there are also some statements that I would disagree with, although as Mark Warren is undoubtedly a more successful affiliate marketer than I this may be wrong of me! But I disagree with his statement that all ‘informational products are the same'. The most popular and best selling e-books tend to be so because they offer something new or different, and word quickly spreads.

However, the bonuses are good. They just take a while to digest! There are almost too many. Having over a hundred bonuses sounds good, but some are not worth much.

The software downloads are probably all you need to start up. They might not be top-class, but you are not going to want to spend a lot of money on expensive software before you have even made your first check! You also receive templates of websites, sales letters and banner ads, all of which you might find useful.

And what you should find even more useful is the number of them you have resale rights for. These can be used to attract traffic to your website, as an inducement in building a mailing list, or simply to make yourself some extra money.

I also found customer service to be good. I received access immediately after paying and there were no problems with any of the downloads. The one e-mail I sent to query something received a quick reply, and there is a 90-day money back guarantee.

In conclusion, this is a good package with some significant flaws. For beginners, it contains all the information and software you could need, and is clearly presented and well-written. The list of bonuses covers every topic you could need to know about. However, for those more advanced, this fails to reveal anything new or particularly exciting.

I would recommend this for a beginner, but not the the more advanced.

How To Decrease Clickbank Refunds

By: Pawel Reszka

All of us at one time or another has had to return a purchase for various reasons. Wrong size, wrong color, received another just like it as a gift. However in all sales venues there are those that are less than honest about their returns. People have been caught switching price tags, going to a young associate (who may be less knowledgeable about the merchandise pricing) paying the lower price then returning the item a few days later finding someone who appears to be familiar with the merchandise and turning in the item (minus the "lost"' receipt) and receiving a refund of the full price. Due in part to that and other refund fraud scenarios many stores have gone to the store credit as opposed to a cash refund.

The Internet in general and companies like ClickBank specifically face an even greater challenge when it comes to refunds. Because you are selling a download there really is no way to "get it back" yet, since you guarantee satisfaction the money would have to be refunded to an unhappy customer. There are legitimately "unhappy customers"' whether the product just wasn't what they thought it would be or they found something they found more to their liking, however the internet is alive with people who are scam refunders. These are people who found a way to "get something for nothing"'.

Because ClickBank offers a 90-day full refund policy that they adhere to completely they become a real target for the scam refunders. Unfortunately what you have to do is to recognize this as the nature of the beast, doing the best you can to protect yourself. You have to do your best to make sure your website is an honest representation of the product you are selling. This wont stop the scam refunders but it will eliminate many of those that think you are offering something you aren't.. Read your web information over as though you know nothing about the product. Check for anything that might confuse you or seems ambiguous. If you adopt this attitude it wont be quite so upsetting when the refund request comes in. You cannot take it personally, it isn't a reflection of you, your website or your product. Even taking as much precaution as you can you can still figure about five percent of your sales to result in a refund.

Many ideas have been put forth to try to stop this fraud. One popular thought is to set up a list of these scammers. You would not really have access to the list but you could set your account to not accept orders from those buyers. This would be similar to E-Bay's blocked bidder list. Although this would be a big help, the biggest problem with this solution is that it isn't all that hard to set up multiple Internet identities.

You work hard to build your business and scam refunds are annoying but on the plus side the effect a no hassle refund policy has on making people comfortable ordering from you far outweighs the annoyance of the refunds.

Online Mentor - How Do You Find an Online Mentor Willing To Help You Start Your Online Business

By: Leo Hanes

Are you frustrated trying to figure out how to get your online business started all by yourself?

Are you tired of looking for somebody you can trust to mentor you online, and answer your questions without joining their membership site, or coaching program with membership fees you really can not afford at this time.

How do you go about finding an online mentor for the help you are looking for?

* First of all admitting you are having problems figuring out all the techie stuff, never mind the creative sales process involved is the first step.

* Second, you must do your own research & find a true mentor. You must not skip this important step, take some time and research online who is working in your specific area of interest. It is suggested you spend some time in forums, social communities, article directories, and anywhere your target audience gather to ask each other questions.

* Third, after you have done your preliminary research, and identified a few prospective online marketers that you can relate to, focus on creating a short list of contacts, try contacting them and see what response you get.

* Fourth, search online for their name and do more extensive homework, learn all you can about them. Its just like researching for a prospective employer, you need to know as much as you can before the interview.

* Fifth, try out their newsletters, get on their list, and see how they communicate with their readers, or if they have any interesting offers check the offer out, you may find an introductory offer, free or trial offer that you can test drive first.

Then ask them if they are willing to help you in any way- interview them!

Do you want to learn more about how I try to help others with their online businesses? I have just recently completed my brand new e-book guide to successfully creating profits online, it highlights the importance of mentoring - "How to Breath Life into Your On-Line Business"...Download it free now:.

The Autoresponder -Your Million Dollar Employee

By: Jo Mark

One tool that is an absolute necessity in generating income from articles is a good autoresponder. The reason is simple. Very few people will make a purchase on their initial viewing of your article. Most people will not buy until the fifth, sixth, or seventh contact. For that reason, you need a tool to stay in touch with them on a regular basis. That tool is the autoresponder. You can set it up to contact the people on your list as often as you like. I find it kind of annoying if I’m contacted every day, but every two or three days is fine.

The initial goal of the autoresponder is to make your prospects comfortable with you. In the beginning, send them plenty of FREE REPORTS and free gifts that are related to the products you offer. Of course, you can add a short blurb at the end suggesting that they go to yoursite dot com for additional information, but as rule, don’t over-sell in the beginning. In your first six emails, you should make heavy pitches no more than twice.

I like to send out a few three or four page MINI REPORTS. I make sure I send them out one at a time. They are designed to be viral sales pieces. I let prospects know that two or three of these reports make great incentives to get people to opt into their list. I let them know that they have resell and reprint rights for each item. Each mini report contains some good information along with two or three ads for items that I’m currently promoting. They work pretty well because I’m still selling product from Mini Reports that I stopped sending out six months ago.

There are many options available in selecting an autoresponder. Some are free, some can be hosted and operated from your own computer, and some are hosted by companies that charge a monthly fee. The fee based autoresponders range in price from a few dollars per month to over a hundred dollars each month.

Determine how you intend to use your autoresponder before beginning your research. If you will be using it to send out a newsletter to 8000 people monthly, make sure they can handle that many (at no additional charge). If you intend to send out pdf files, make sure your autoresponder can do this and also investigate the maximum download sizes permitted.

After determining how you are going to use it, you are ready to perform a search. By doing a search, you will find a wide variety of autoresponders available. Before making a decision, test them out. Many will allow you to send out test emails to your own email account. Make sure that the test emails do not all wind up in your bulk, or junk email box. If they do, you would be wise to continue looking.

The best thing about your autoresponder is that it will never come into your office and ask you for a raise

What Is The Purpose Of ERP Software?

By: Linda Bruton

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software can be described as a complete business software solution. It is aimed at the integration of all business processes and sub-processes into a single unified system. This system is formulated and implemented in an organization to effectively and efficiently achieve the business goals of the organization.

ERP software packages are implemented to manage the existing and prospective business plans and policies in an efficient manner under strict deadlines. It can be referred to as the ultimate business solution package that is predominantly concerned with making sure that the available resources of the organization are utilized in the best possible manner and coordinated with the business objectives of the organization.

It is crucial that modern day business organizations have a single unified system, which aims at harmonizing its business efforts. This can prove to be a crucial determinant in deciding the scope, area and net results of the organization as a whole, rather than running many different systems that don't work well together. What makes ERP different from any other business solution package is the presence of a single and unified database system.

ERP software is as essential to the needs of a business today as food is for living. Businesses cannot run competitively in the absence of properly drafted and formulated ERP software. The more effective implementation and follow-up, the better are the results. ERP software is needed by all modern-day organizations, irrespective of the size, area of operations and business objectives.

Nowadays there are many ERP software packages available in the global market, including SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle, J D Edwards, and BAAN.

The selection of an ERP software package is dependent on many factors: previous ERP software implementation, nature and size of operations, recommendations of consultants, and management decisions.

Before installing ERP software, a detailed study must be made and reviewed to match the business requirements with the available packages. This must be taken as a serious study as any mistake in selection or its effective implementation can prove disastrous to the organizational objectives and prospects. The ERP software must be installed by an ERP vendor or third-party consulting organization, which are expert service providers when it comes to providing Consulting, customization and support.

Some of the benefits of ERP Software:

* All processes and sub-processes are linked and unified into a single system.
* There are enhancements in the field of productivity, efficiency and achievement of business objectives.
* ERP tends to considerably reduce the response time by effectively transferring crucial information.
* ERP helps in streamlining the numerous functions performed by the organization as a whole.
* It helps the management to make vital decisions with unparalleled accuracy and in-depth study.

Thus, ERP software can effectively change the outlook of any business organization that exists in today's cutthroat business world. Proper implementation of the ERP software is the key factor, which can benefit the growth prospects of any organization.

Working Online: Why You Should Learn To Grow Beans When You Work Online

By: Elaine Currie

If you Work online you need to do something different during the quiet summer season.

As I write this, it is the start of the summer season and business on the Internet is slow. It's not that things have gone out of fashion or anything like that, it's simply that people are doing other things instead of spending time on the Internet, it happens every summer.

Most types of Internet based businesses will feel the sudden slow down because the season affects so many different types of person. Often their customers are mothers who are currently being kept busy with entertaining and caring for their school-age children who are making the most of the long summer vacation. Grandparents who would normally visit your website will be too busy if they have been enlisted to look after grandchildren while both parents go out to work. Students are busy travelling as far and wide as possible while they have the freedom to do so. Ordinary citizens are enjoying their annual vacation in pursuits as diverse as surfing, scuba diving, rock climbing, visiting foreign cities or just lying on a beach reading trashy novels.

What can you do to drum up more visitors during the slow summer season? Not very much, unfortunately. Even a spell of bad weather won't help a great deal: if people have pre-booked vacations lined up, they are going to make the best of things no matter what the weather does. Bad weather definitely won't make things easier for anyone taking care of kids who would rather be pursuing outdoor activities.

So, what should you do to get through the summer? Spending extra time on your Internet business is not the answer. The answer is, in fact, do anything but that. Make use of the slowdown in Internet trade to do some housekeeping so your business will be in tip-top order when summer is over, then take yourself off to do something completely unconnected with your business.

As an online business owner who is usually engrossed in Internet activities, suddenly having time for yourself can be a bit scary and you won't know what to do with those extra hours. Growing beans can help you: it is easy to do and is a rewarding pastime. If you have ever picked and eaten your own home-grown beans, you will know what I mean.

Of course you don't have to grow beans (or any vegetable), I just mentioned growing beans as an example because that's one of the things I like to do in the slow Internet summer season. The point is that you should do something as far removed from your normal business activities as possible. If there is something you always wanted to do like going caving, or skiing or learning how to cook or paint watercolor pictures, do it during the quiet spell when you can have guilt-free time off.

It doesn't matter if you choose to do something worthwhile such as helping a charitable organization or something frivolous such as learning to dance, as long as it is something completely different and makes you happy, it is a good use of your time. You will benefit from the change from Internet life and your business will benefit because you will return to it with recharged energy levels and renewed enthusiasm.

What to Look for in a Web-Based Business

By: Eric Hill

There are so many web-based business opportunities flooding the Internet these days. With endless opportunities and scams out there, what are some of the things you should look for before investing your hard-earned dollars?

Reasonable Earnings Claim. Yes, the Internet can be very profitable, but it is highly unlikely that you will begin earning $1,000 per day within a month like so many opportunities claim. Sorry to break the news to you, but it’s just not that easy. Can you earn a decent income online? Yes. In fact, you can earn a very nice income online, probably more money than you can ever imagine, but the truth is that it will take some time to produce those types of income.

Compensation Plan. How is the money made? What is the minimum payout? When do you get paid and what payment methods are available? Are there any sales quotas or sponsoring requirements before earning commissions? Is the compensation plan a retail or multi-level marketing (MLM) structure? Compensation plans vary greatly so be sure to study them individually in order to understand the specifics.

Products or Services. What products or services does the Web-Based opportunity promote? There must be a legitimate product or service sold with any Internet opportunity, otherwise it is more than likely an illegal pyramid scheme. It also helps if those products or services are unique and can’t be purchased at your local retail store.

Longevity. How long has the company you are considering partnering with been in business? Longevity on the Internet is a rare thing. It would be a shame to spend the time, money, and effort to build a business only to find it gone tomorrow. It unfortunately happens. Longevity speaks volumes on the Web.

Support System. A web-based business should be viewed as a partnership. Does the business you are joining have a support system in place to help you succeed? Or, are they only interested in getting your money then leaving you to fend for yourself? While no program can guarantee your success, a good support system will dramatically increase your chances of success.

A little research into these five items can go a long way in saving your hard-earned dollars. There are scams around every corner, especially when you’re doing business with people you may never meet on the Internet. Be careful out there! I hope this was helpful and I wish you success.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

10 Factors Google and Yahoo Consider For a Top Search Engine Ranking

By: Timothy Mcgaffin

Want to get into the top 5 of either Google or Yahoo? Make sure your website contains the top 10 factors for deciding a top search engine ranking.

It does not matter if you have the cure for cancer, if nobody knows about it you are not going to make any money. A top search engine ranking in either Google or Yahoo is the surest way for buyers to find your products so you can become a wealthy marketer. Google and Yahoo are responsible for about 80% of all search engine traffic in the world.

Make sure your online business or website contains these top 10 factors used for determining sites with a top 5 search engine ranking in Google and Yahoo.

Factor #1: Number of Quality Sites that Link to Yours

Google and Yahoo put a lot of significance on how many quality sites link back to yours with a page rank of at least 4 and above. This is probably the most important factor when considering a top search engine ranking.

When search engines see lots of important sites link back to yours it must mean that your site is also pretty important.

Remember the purpose of the internet is to provide information back to the end user. As someone is conducting research on the World Wide Web, sites must also participate and flow and connect to other related sites allowing those searching for your keyword terms various paths to the information being inquired.

Factor #2: Number of Pages Your Website Has

A website with less than 50 pages is really going to struggle to get a top search engine ranking unless it has more quality back links coming into it than their competitors.

Factor #3: Keywords in Your Title Tag

Google and Yahoo look to see if your keywords are contained in your page title and description. Make sure your keywords are also listed within your heading and subheading tags.

Factor #4: Keywords Showing in Links

Keywords that are highlighted within a link are considered more significant than those not at all highlighted within a link.

Factor #5: Keywords in Bold

Likewise words in bold are also considered more important than those not in bold.

Factor #6: Keywords in URL

Websites that are in less competitive markets that contain the keywords within their URL are considered more important than those sites that respectively do not.

Also keywords in the URL that come before unrelated words are considered better than a URL that follows an unrelated word within the URL. For example if your keyword is televisions, a URL with ‘televisions' followed by unrelated words such as your name ‘Mike' is better than putting your name ‘Mike' before ‘televisions.'

Factor #7: More Significance Given to First 25 Words on Page

The first 25 words of each page are given more weight than all other words on the page. Make sure your keywords are in the first few words of your page. However, if you try and just list the same word or phrase 25 times repeatedly Google and Yahoo will penalize you.

Factor #8: Greater Than 300 Words on Your Homepage

Make sure you have at least 300 or more words on your homepage.

Factor #9: Keyword Density

Keyword density is not as important as it once was in the past but it still is an important factor. In order to get a top 5 search engine ranking look at your competitors sites and compare the density of their sites to yours and try and match their density.

Factor #10: Page Rank

Want to find out the page rank of your website or the page rank of another site? Download the Google toolbar and make sure the page rank indicator is activated. One major factor in determining your page rank is the first factor listed in this article. Quality back links are the most important factor for formulating your page rank.

A top search engine ranking in Google and Yahoo is decided most often by the combination of these 10 factors. If you want to get into the top 5 of the two most important search engines than make sure your website applies these major search engine ranking factors.

How to Make Money Fast Online

By: Timothy Mcgaffin

Everyone dreams of getting rich quickly and easily online. Unfortunately the truth is making money fast online is easy but only after you gain the knowledge and pay your dues.

You must be willing and disciplined to pay the price. Only those who consistently work to gain and apply the knowledge will achieve their financial goals online.

Online businesses are one of the fastest growing markets in the financial world. Making money online has many advantages over traditional brick and mortar establishments.

Businesses on the internet have very low start-up costs, little overhead, and are virtually always open and can provide automated streams of income. You do not even need to have any of your own products. Physical products are not required to create a fortune either. Digital products provide the highest profit margin imaginable for any online business. Usually employees are not required as well.

In contrast, traditional brick and mortar businesses do require employees, real estate costs, utility bills, insurance, among others and can only be open for business a limited number of hours.

But why do so many people fail to make money fast online? There are two major reasons.

First, many people who are looking to make money fast online are not willing to work. The truth is you cannot instantly amass a fortune overnight by magic or by flipping a switch. Yes, work is required to make money fast on the internet. Greed and laziness are two common characteristics many naturally own. Simultaneously these two characteristics are the most commonly exploited and preyed upon by shady individuals to profit from themselves.

Second, those who are willing to work, lack the knowledge of how to drive large amounts of traffic to their websites at a low cost. Failing to market properly to potential buyers often times breaks the bank, making it impossible for someone just starting out to make money fast on the internet.

Then how are so many people amassing fortunes quickly online?

Online fortunes are produced by those who simply gain the knowledge, then apply that knowledge, and are willing to apply it over a relative number of months rather than a few fleeting days. Making money fast and effortlessly online does not happen instantly. But it does happen fast every time knowledge is exercised.

Fast can be defined when understood within a contrasting timeline. For example, in order to become rich working for someone else in the corporate world, years and decades are a requisite to climb the financial ladder of success. Now compare the corporate world timeline to the online world. The ladder of financial success on the Internet is realistically weeks or months as long as real knowledge is gained and continuously applied.

The fastest way to gain the knowledge is to personally hire a mentor or coach as a systematic guide. However this student and teacher relationship can be expensive. A mentor will require substantial payment upfront in return for their time to properly teach a student. For example, a university or college expects students to pay their tuition in full before the semester begins.

Also, there is nothing in place to hold the mentor accountable to ensure your success. Once that mentor has been paid there is no guarantee you will be successful. As well, if you fail to graduate from a university, a refund will not be provided.

The alternative to hiring a personal mentor is to simply find a successful product or service where the supplier will financially benefit from your success. Selling a product where the profit is split between the student and the teacher holds both sides accountable. The teacher will be motivated to make sure the student is successful selling their product or service. Each time a sale is made, profit is divided among both sides in a previously agreed upon cut.

The bottom line is the more money made within a team, the more money divided among all members of that successful team. The secret of the very wealthy in any business field is leveraging the efforts of teamwork to produce the highest and fastest amount of money for all partners.

Now, you just need to find the right money-making relationship where both sides are held accountable to fast financial success. When you do find the right relationship, you will then be able to earn money as you learn the knowledge. As you continue to apply the knowledge, more money will be earned and you can then leverage more to make more and thus a relatively fast fortune is acquired.

How To Decrease Clickbank Refunds

Online Mentor - How Do You Find an Online Mentor Willing To Help You Start Your Online Business

The Autoresponder -Your Million Dollar Employee

What Is The Purpose Of ERP Software?

Working Online: Why You Should Learn To Grow Beans When You Work Online

What to Look for in a Web-Based Business

Top 10 Ways To Guarantee Marketing Suicide On MySpace

By: Rebecca Johnson

More and more marketers are beginning to use social networking sites such as MySpace as one of their advertising pillars. The only problem is the 90% of these people don't have a clue how to effectively market using these sites. If done right Myspace can be a wonderful way to grow your business. If you have no clue what you're doing, it's a great way to commit marketing suicide. Here are the top 10 ways to guarantee your failure on MySpace.

1.) Not taking the time to set your page up so that it is easy to read and is appealing to your visitors. If your page is not easy to read no one will take the time to read it. Hint: Paragraphs People.

2.) Putting a picture of anything but yourself as your profile picture Please don't put a picture of your product or a logo of your company as your main picture. People want to put a face to the name, they don't care what your product to company logo looks like. If you don't offer that face, they will go to someone who does.

3.) Choosing a boring picture of yourself as your main picture. What is the first thing your visitor is going to see before they even make the decision to view your profile? Your picture must speak for you and compel them to click on it to find out more about you.

4.) Using your about me section to talk about anything other than yourself. Just remember that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

5.) Branding your Company instead of yourself. Remember, people only join and buy from people that they know, like and trust. They are looking for a way to relate to you.

6.) Having only one thing to offer your visitor, especially if that one thing is a business opportunity. Most people are already in a program and aren't looking to join another one. If your still barking your MLM to the world you heading for the biggest dead end you've ever seen.

7.Thinking that you don't need to build a relationship with the people on your friends list before you decide to pitch them your program or product. They will say no every time. How many people have you had say yes? Be honest.

8.) Posting money making opportunity bulletins that talk about how much money they can make by joining your opportunity and expecting them to actually get read. If you're not offering valuable content that informs and educates your prospect, and all your doing is pitching your program, they have no reason to read your bulletins. Once again, most people are not looking to quit their program and join yours.

9.Using company generated emails to send out to your friends list. Everyone has already gotten that same email at least twice from the other people who think that those emails work.

10.) Not taking the time to learn the communications skills that are needed to successfully use MySpace as a marketing tool. The only thing that stands between you and everything you want is your ability to communicate and to influence other people. The keyword here is content.

You can have the prettiest MySpace page, the biggest friends list, all the fancy tools, but if you can't communicate, you have no content (relevant content) and you don't have the right Mindset, all bets are off.

7 Smart Tips To Remember When Choosing An Echeck Processing System

By: Kay Fione

When you decide to accept electronic checks for your business, you would then seek the services of an e-check processing company or service provider. This company will facilitate the conversion of paper checks payments into electronic check format, process them, and then deposit the amount into your account. There are many companies that cater to this type of service. Some have built a good reputation with years of solid experience. Others are just starting out. This article gives you important tips to remember when choosing an echeck processing company.

1.)NO OUTRIGHT PURCHASE
To begin with, look for a an echeck processing company that does not require you to purchase costly software or equipment. You are a businessman and you want to avoid any unnecessary capital outlay. Shop around and look for a service provider that caters to the needs of your business without shelling out much-needed money. Stay away from companies that require you to purchase equipments.

2.)WATCH OUT FOR PERCENTAGE FEE
Don't be hoodwinked into accepting any percentage fee charge for each processed check from your echeck processing provider. Legitimate companies charge a flat transaction fee each month, and not on a per check basis As soon an echeck processing company personnel mentions this fee to you, leave the company's office immediately.

3.)NEGOTIATE FOR COMPETITIVE PRICING PACKAGE
Converting paper checks into echecks and processing them electronically is fast, secure and convenient. However, this service comes with a price. Electronic check processing companies charge transaction fees, monthly fees, and other pertinent fees. Since all of them compete for your patronage, why not negotiate for a competitive package? If you are play fair and honest about it, these processing companies will reconsider and will trim down their fees to fit your budget.

4.)ENSURE THAT THE ECHECK PROCESSING COMPANY ALLOWS DIRECT DEBIT TRANSACTIONS
In short, if a particular company owes you a monthly recurring payment, you can perform direct-debit transactions from their accounts without the need for them to send you the paper check. A personnel will accomplish this through phone-based transactions. Remember to negotiate for the same flat transaction fees for this service.

5.)SETTLE FOR A COMPANY WITH AN ECHECK PROCESSING SYSTEM THAT CAN EXPORT DATA
It would be a plus factor for your business if your echeck processing company can export your transaction data so you can integrate those data into your current Customer Records Management software smoothly. This type of service is generally available from well-established echeck processing companies.

6.)BE A STICKLER FOR SECURE INTERNET TRANSACTION
Financial transactions sent through the Internet carry great risks of being intercepted or hacked. Therefore it is necessary that your echeck processing company implements the strongest encryption protocol to protect sensitive customer information. Make sure your service provider adheres to 128-bit, SSL, secure encryption technology.

7.)TECHNICAL SUPPORT
When things go wrong, be sure you know beforehand where and who to call for help. This is oftentimes referred to as technical support. And it is imperative that your echeck processing company maintains a 24/7 helpdesk that can dispense the necessary assistance you need at any given time.

6 Secrets to Designing an Effective Website Opt-in Form

By: Donna Gunter

The one asset that is considered to be the gold in your online business is your email list. I constantly tell my clients that their #1 goal at events and primary call to action in their online marketing strategies should be to asking people to join their list.

The best way to get people on your list is to create an effective opt-in form on your website. An opt-in form is a sign up form on a website that asks for key pieces of info, like email address and name, for example, in return for sending the visitor something of value, like a free report or ezine subscription.

What are the criteria that need to be considered in the design of this form?

1. Page Placement. On what page of your website should your opt-in form be placed? That's easy -- every single page of your site. Most people erroneously believe that every visitor will come to their website through their home page. Nothing could be further from the truth. Because every page of your website is a possible landing page, ensure that someone can opt into your list from whichever page they are taken to within your website. In fact, about 60% of my traffic comes to my site through one of the articles I have written, and so I have my primary call to action -- an opt-in box for my ezine -- visible on every page of my site.

You can even add this strategy to the checkout process when someone makes a purchase from you. Add a check box to join your list to the checkout page of your shopping cart, ask the purchaser to opt-in to your list via the thank you page your purchaser is sent to after purchase, or include the request in the email autoresponder follow up that the purchaser is sent post-purchase.

Another place to insert your opt-in form is at the end of any articles you have on your site or your blog. Create some short (1-2 sentence) sales copy that ties your content in with an offer to opt into your list. If the visitor liked what he read, you'll catch him at just the right moment to want to opt-in to your email list.

2. Location on Page. Marketing wisdom says that the best location for an opt-in form is the upper right corner of a page. Regardless if it's on the right or the left, the opt-in box definitely needs to be "above the fold", to use an old newspaper term, i.e. in the top of the page that's immediately visible on the screen so that the visitor will not have to scroll down to see the opt-in form.

For maximum impact, the opt-in form needs to stand out and be noticed. Putting the opt-in form into a box with a bold outline or eye-catching color will help, as will creating a graphic icon that the visitor will immediately see, like an image of your ezine or your special report or bonus ebook. In order for your visitors to take action, your opt-in form needs to be the first element on your page that attracts their attention.

3. Type of form. There are two basic types of forms you can use for your opt-in form: an inline form and a popup form. The inline form is the traditional form you see on many websites that request the visitor to fill in his email address and name, for example. The pop-up form, or pop-over form (which is unblockable by pop-up blockers), is disliked by many people. However, from my experience, the pop-over form (one that slides onto the page from the top or side of a page or one that jumps into a page and bounces a bit (also know as a hover ad) is very effective, provided it is used properly.
Your best strategy is to use a combination of the two forms. Make sure that your inline opt-in form in present on every page of your site, and use the pop-over form selectively throughout your site only on certain pages. Don't ever use the pop-over form by itself, as having that repeatedly appear in front of your visitor is a sure way to annoy him and cause him to immediately leave your site.

4. Opt-in Benefits. Why would someone want to part with his name and email address for you? Your visitor is seeking the WIIFM (What's In It For Me) factor. There has to be a very compelling reason for your visitor to part with his name and email address these days. One way to get that information from your visitor is by offering a free email newsletter, but even today that's not usually enough. In order to get a visitor's attention today, you have to up the ante and offer a free report, ebook, audio or video, or ecourse that helps the visitor solve one of the pressing problems that led him to your site.

In order to build that trust and confidence and further bolster your opt-in success, let your visitor know your privacy policy, or how the email address will be used; set expectations for how often and on what occasions he will receive emails from you; and what happens next in the signup process.

5. Information to collect. How much information is a visitor willing to give you? For many years simply an email address was considered adequate, but with the advent of broadcast services that have well-developed features that let you personalize email broadcasts, you may want to request additional info. At a minimum, get the first name and the email address of your visitor. If direct mail marketing or telemarketing is a part of your future business marketing strategy, you may want to collect mailing address, city, state, zip, and phone number as well. However, if you make that information mandatory, you may lose many opt-in opportunities. If you want to collect this extended information, put asterisks on your opt-in form to denote which fields are mandatory (like name and email address) and which are optional. You'll be surprised at how many people will give you their mailing address just because you asked for it.

6. Post-form process. Create an online video or one-page tutorial with screen captures to walk your subscriber through the next desired steps in the opt-in process. Most visitors don't want to think, so if you can take them by the hand and show them step-by-step how to get on your list, they will happily follow along and do as you ask. This is especially helpful for newbies who may not have experience in joining lists.

With an effective opt-in form and opt-in process, you can exponentially increase the size of your lists in a very short time. Then, you have a ready and willing list of potential clients to whom you can begin to market your expertise, products, and services.

Why would you want CRE Loaded for your e-Store?

By: Anna Bergman

Even with only a few shopping carts available in eCommerce, it can still be difficult to choose one. This article explores the solutions offered by the recent CRE Loaded software program from Chain Reaction Ecommerce.

Ecommerce became possible in 1991 when the Internet was opened to commercial use. Since that time it has evolved from online billboards to a fully functional, personalized shopping experience. A major turning point came when people started to trust online shopping, and then the business started picking up. Among the numerous inventions necessary for ecommerce to survive is the online shopping cart. The shopping cart is made by software that allows the buyer to shop quickly and easily – and it is perhaps the most important invention.

There are several e-Commerce store-management software programs available on the Internet at present. The three major ones are OsCommerce and its two spin-offs - Zen Cart and CRE Loaded. Zen Cart and CRE Loaded are similar to the osCommerce core set of operations. OsCommerce is considered the simplest version of ecommerce website and is widely used with stores that do not have a lot of traffic. Zen Cart is considered to be the most user friendly ecommerce system. CRE Loaded is considered to be the most comprehensive and comes with by far the most included options and features which can be activated or deactivated as the owner wishes.

The development of CRE Loaded began after Chain Reaction Ecommerce was founded in 2001 and was undertaken in response to hosting customer demands. Created from the direct feedback of thousands of customers and users, the features and capabilities of CRE Loaded are grounded in real capabilities that are fully tested in the real world.

CRE Loaded currently has 39 additional modules over and above the many that are already included in the default OsCommerce installation. CRE Loaded also offers powerful shopping cart solutions in both the free and paid editions. CRE Loaded has a better template system and its “affiliate manager” allows you to specify the per sale payment percentage rate for each of your affiliate accounts as well as providing a tiered structure that is based on sales performance.

Basic reporting tools are also included, showing the products viewed, purchased, and customer orders total. A database backup manager is also a part of the tool set, as is a basic newsletter setup for e-mailing to your customers - which means that you have online marketing without having to pay for that service.

Product Management with CRE Loaded is very simple. You can add new products to your store in no time. You have a tool for adding products and categories and there is no limitations on the number of products, categories and subcategories. You can easily copy and move products between categories as well. CRE Loaded also offers you Advanced Product Management capabilities, which includes no limitations for attributes determined to products and option type features.

The only drawback for CRE Loaded is that it might seem a little more difficult to manage at first because of all this variety of features. But the new 6.2 version offers a solution to this. In addition to five new menus, it features a better organization and layout. It has a new Admin "Control Center" – that comes in two versions - a PRO version with additional functions for power users and a FREE one for normal users. Plus, security and fraud protection is improved and the installation is made even easier with a new installer.

In regard to concerns about standards compliance, the CRE Loaded system benefits greatly by having a quality standards compliant template design. With CRE Loaded templates you can set up your webshop designs and optimized layouts for many different types of businesses: your personal online store, huge corporate online store, or an offline presentation. CRE Loaded templates are easy-to-install and easy-to-customize designs – saving you time and money. CRE Loaded templates come with all the necessary files to start your CRE Loaded online store. These files include: PHP, CSS, and image files. Installation instructions and outstanding support services are provided with every template. The database of CRE Loaded Templates has the very highest level of security which makes CRE Loaded eCommerce stores more popular with users. On a final note, with more than 100,000 units in distribution, an aggressive release schedule and numerous industry partnerships, Chain Reaction Ecommerce and CRE Loaded will remain at the forefront of eCommerce well into the future.

The Art Of Starting, Developing, and Maintaining an Online Business

By: Keith Adams

Have you ever tried to start your own business online? Did you make money? Well, if you didn't, I'm sure I could tell you why not...assuming I had enough information regarding the process you took.

In order to build a successful business online, one must be sure to be very systematical in their approach, or they are doomed for failure. This process involves certain steps that include: Most importantly, a sound idea as to which direction you want to take your business in. What exactly do you want to do? Sell products? Your own products or someone elses'?

The next thing you need to do is get the appropriate service providers lined up (of course, this assumes you already have a computer which is pretty important). Get a domain name registered, find a company to host your site, and now you are ready to design your site.

Most good web hosting companies provide you with great tools to do this, like Dreamweaver or Frontpage, so you can really tinker with your site until you get it exactly to your liking.

Once you are up and running, it's time to submit your site to as many directories as you can, and you can get a neat little software program that can help you do that for free, just google in directory submitter and voila! After that, you need to start trying to exchange links with as many websites as you can. At first, they don't really need to be relevant to your site, but in time you will want to emphasize the relevancy factor. But the main goal is to get as many links to your site as you can in the beginning.

You want to make your site as visible as humanly possible, and the more links, the more visible you are going to be.

Once you get rolling on that, you can move right along, and start advertising your site. If you can't afford the big wigs, like google and Yahoo!, there are a lot of free online ad placement agencies that are just dying to get your email address. Put out as many ads as you can, and you will see, visitors will start trickling in. If you have a solid product or service they will be back.

The main ingredient, you see, in any successful internet venture is PATIENCE! Rarely is there such a thing as an "overnight sensation" on cyberworld. Success is brought about by a go-getter attitude, motivation to succeed, and most importantly patience.

It takes time to build up a high page rank. It takes time to create a lot of one-way links to your site. I know a lot of people, and I was guilty of this years ago, that get into this with all kinds of energy, and give up because they hadn't made any real money in the first few weeks. Remember the story of the Tortoise and the Hare? It wasn't the sprinter that wins the race...it was the one going at a steady pace.

Rome wasn't built in a day either.

8 Easy Ways to Jazz Up Your Business Profits With Echeck Processing

By: Kay Fione

If you own a business shop and accept just either cash or credit cards, then you could be missing an important business trend of the day. Accepting payments by check. You see, according to the latest survey, a great percentage of American adults do not want to own credit cards. They have checking accounts and they mostly by check. If you cater to this formidable group, you could potentially be increasing your sales profits But here's more. Technology makes check payments more convenient to customers and merchants alike. Paper check can now be turned into electronic files using a simple imaging software and then sent over the Internet. It could then be used as a medium for any business transaction.

Today, electronic check or e-check becomes globally acceptable. It works in the same way a paper check does. To facilitate the faster transfer of funds, merchants utilize echeck processing service. This gives added convenience to businessmen with online store.

To illustrate, a customer from Wisconsin can browse a merchant website and make his purchase. Upon clicking “ Buy”, the customer is directed to an online form where he would fill up the details of his check payment. The merchant, upon receiving the echeck, submits it to an echeck processing company. In just a couple of days, the payment funds is deposited to the merchant bank account. It's that simple.

To summarize, here are the ways accepting online check payment and echeck processing service can jazz up your business profits:

1.ADDITIONAL CUSTOMERS WILL PATRONIZE YOUR BUSINESS
Those who do not want credit cards but have checking account will transact business with you. Also, individuals who may unresolved issues with their credit card companies can still do business with you using echeck. This means additional people to your existing customers base and hence, additional revenues.

2. LOWER PROCESSING CHARGES
Echeck processing companies charge 25% to 50% lower compared to credit card processing costs. Moreover, electronic checks do not have any monthly fees with them. This translates to substantial savings for your business.

3.RISK-FREE
If you subscribe to echeck verification service from your electronic processing company, you will be protected from any echeck fraud and be assured that prompt payment of funds will be deposited in your account.

4.ACCOUNT FLEXIBILITY
With echeck processing, you have more freedom with regards to the choice of banks you want to deposit your money. At the same time, the deposited funds from echeck payments earns interests, too.

5.SAY GOODBYE TO CHARGEBACKS
Those who accept payments by credit cards will soon have to deal with costly chargebacks. With electronic check and echeck processing service, you no longer worry with such risks.

6.SAME PLATFORM WITH CREDIT CARD PROCESSING
If you already have a credit card processing service company, you don't need to find another echeck processing firm. You see, echeck processing works in the same platform with your existing credit card processing service. This means that you can accept credit cards AND echeck payments and let your processing company do the work for you.

7.UNPARALLELED SECURITY
Echeck companies process your electronic check using the latest and secure 128-SSL bit encryption. You will enjoy security and peace of mind with every transaction.

8.STATISTICAL INFORMATION AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
You will be able to access and manage your account data using any web-based browser, at any place and time. That's convenience, at best, for you.

With echeck processing service, you can proudly say that you can have your cake and eat it, too!

Avoid These Fatal Web Site Design Flaws (If You Want A Profitable Site)

By: Titus Hoskins

Web site design is not rocket science but you have to avoid certain fatal flaws or your site will never get off the ground. You must also sidestep these common design mistakes if you want your web site to reach its fullest potential.

In other words, there are certain vital elements of web site design you must get right or it's game over before you even get started. These are the design elements which every successful site possesses, essential components every webmaster must consider when designing a profitable site.

* The Right Keywords

Perhaps one of the most deadly design flaws has to do with keywords. Many novice webmasters fail to target the right keywords when designing their sites.

Keywords are the vital lifelines of any well designed web site. Basically, keywords are the exact words or phrases web users type into search engines to find what they're looking for on the Internet.

You must get this right or it may spell disaster for your site. You must target the right keywords and optimize your site for them in all the search engines.

Most SEO experts suggest you have your main keyword phrase in the domain name of your site. This domain name should be directly related to the topic of your site. If you design a site on gaming laptops, then these keywords should be in your domain. All pages on your site should be related to these main keywords.

But first you must make sure your keywords are good searchable keywords, i.e. a large number of people must be searching for these keywords each day in the search engines in order to supply a steady stream of interested visitors or potential customers to your site.

How Do You Find Good Keywords?

There are many free keyword suggestion tools that you can use. All the major Pay-Per-Click programs such as Google Adwords, Yahoo! Marketing (Overture) and MSN Adcenter have keyword suggestion tools.

Many professional online marketers use keyword research software like Keyword Elite but you can also use any free online keyword suggestion tools to see how many searches are made. This is a good site:

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Check and find good keywords related to your site and optimize your site for them. Don't pick the most competitive keywords because first page placement in the search engines will just be too hard to obtain especially for a new site.

Instead pick long tail keyword phrases which have fever searches but you will have a better chance of ranking high for these phrases. These long tail keyword phrases also have much better conversion rates than general (too broad) keywords.

Make sure your targeted keywords are in the title of your page and many experts suggest it should also be in the URL. Simple yet effective design elements which will increase your site's chances of success.

* Exterior Links On Your Homepage

Another common design flaw is placing exterior, external links on your main homepage.

Most SEO experts suggest ALL your links on your homepage should be internal links pointing to your own content filled pages on your site. External links should be on a separate 'links page'.

If you want to use affiliate links, create a separate page for each affiliate product or program and link to this page on your site. Place your affiliate ID link and moneymaker on this content filled (reviews, how-to-use, testimonials...) internal page, rather than on your homepage.

To rank high, especially in Google, all your PageRank and visitors should be funneled into your site and not out to some external links. This is extremely important on your homepage - so make sure all or most of your links are internal links.

* Simple Effective Navigation

You must design your site with simple effective navigation in mind. Visitors to your site must be able to access and move around your site with ease. Your site should also be fast loading even in this age of high-speed Internet for surfers are the most impatient creatures on the planet!

As a common courtesy, if nothing else, make sure you place a link back to your homepage on each and every page of your site. Instead of just calling it 'home' or 'homepage'; include your domain name or major keywords in this link: 'gaming laptop home'.

Have links to all major areas or topics of your site on each page. Make it easy for your visitors to find what they're looking for on your site.

Include a sitemap which lists all the major pages/content on your site. Make sure a link to your sitemap page is listed on all your webpages, never leave your guests stranded with nowhere to go.

These are just some of the most important design flaws which can spell failure for your site. Avoid them at all costs. So make sure you keep these design elements in mind when you're designing your next site or correcting your present one.

Creating a successful site will be much easier if you overcome these simple, yet all too common, web site design flaws. Give your site a fighting chance at success by sidestepping these mistakes, after all, sites like rockets are meant to soar.

Benefits Of Helping An Online Business Newbie

By: Teresa Bell

Do your remember when you first ventured out in the online business world? You probably had questions and problems along the way. Wouldn't it have been easier if you had help? When a newbie asks for your advice, educate them; answer their questions and help them solve their online business problems. If you do not have the knowledge to help them out, point them in the right direction. There's a lot to learn and thank goodness I had a mentor that helped me when I needed it. Everyone wins plus you can get your own network going.

You'll get many benefits from helping online business newbies. Below are eight possible benefits you could receive:

1. You will feel good knowing that you had a part in helping them build their business. You can sit back and say "I had a part in their success."

2. They may become one of your best friends. Most people can use new friends, even business owners. You may even become business partners and create a totally new business together.

3. You could end up being strategic business allies in the future. You could regularly do joint venture and cross promotion deals with each other.

4. They may help you out with your business. Maybe they will give you some testimonials or endorsements for your products or services.

5. You might gain some valuable referrals from them. They may also join your affiliate program and make sales for your business.

6. They might offer you some free advertising space on their web site or in their e-zine for your help. You could also exchange advertising with them.

7. You both could end up developing a new product or service together. The product or service could be a combination of your current ones.

8. They might purchase the products you sell and become one of your best customers. You could sell them many back end products or services in the future.

There are probably many other benefits you could get from helping a new online business owner. Always remember to help them out because it's the nice thing to do and not just to benefit your own business. Keep them informed of new information you hear of so they stay current with program updates and/or new opportunities or technologies being introduced.

For more information and marketing support please contact me and I will be glad to assist you with any questions.

How to get prospects to find you using the Internet: 4 keys to creating a search engine friendly site

By: Rodney Goldston

Many people believe that getting listed in a major search engine like Yahoo!, Google, or MSN is almost as good as getting your business mentioned on the Oprah show. Not quite. You see, getting listed in a search engine, even a major search engine, won't accomplish much unless you get placed in the top few listings on a number of specific keywords that you target.

In this next series of articles entitled 'How to get prospects to find you using the Internet', I'll teach you everything you need for economical search engine optimization, getting found in your town (local search engine positioning), and offer a bunch of tips for the Google search engine, Yahoo search, and other small business web site search engine positioning.

In this article I will teach you 4 keys to creating a search engine friendly site. Let's get started.

Rule #1: Give visitors the information they're looking for

The single most important thing is to provide high-quality content on your pages, especially your homepage. Pages with useful content will attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to your site. In creating a helpful, information-rich site, write pages that clearly and accurately describe your topic. Think about the words users would type to find your pages and include those words on your site.

Rule #2: Make sure that other sites link to yours

Links help crawlers find your site and can give your site greater visibility in search results. When returning results for a search, search engines combine PageRank (their view of a page's importance) with sophisticated text-matching techniques to display pages that are both important and relevant to each search. Search engines count the number of votes a page receives as part of its PageRank assessment, interpreting a link from page A to page B as a vote by page A for page B. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."

Don't fall for page linking scams. Only natural links are useful for the indexing and ranking of your site. All the major search engines have algorithms that can distinguish natural links from unnatural links. Natural links to your site develop as part of the dynamic nature of the web when other sites find your content valuable and think it would be helpful for their visitors. Unnatural links, such as doorway pages, to your site are placed there specifically to make your site look more popular to search engines.

Rule #3: Make your site easily accessible

Build your site with a logical link structure. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link. Static links are URL's that do not contain special characters, such as www.AskBigPapa.com . URLs that contain "?" are called dynamic URLs. Dynamic URLs are created by server-side scripting languages, such as php, asp, jsp, perl, and cgi. The portion of the URL appearing after "?" is the page's query string parameter and is the part of the URL that changes.
Even if your web site depends on dynamic links you may be able to create static copies of dynamic pages. If you create static copies, don't forget to add your dynamic pages to your robots.txt file to prevent search engines from treating them as duplicates.

Rule #4: Things to Avoid

Don't try and fool search engines by filling your page with lists of keywords, attempting to "cloak" pages, or putting up "crawler only" pages. If your site contains pages, links, or text that you don't intend visitors to see, the major search engines consider those links and pages deceptive and may ignore your site. Many people believe that getting listed in a major search engine like Yahoo!, Google, or MSN is almost as good as getting your business mentioned on the Oprah show. Not quite. You see, getting listed in a search engine, even a major search engine, won't do squat unless you get placed in the top few listings on a number of specific keywords that you target.

Avoid search engine optimization companies that claim to “guarantee” high ranking for your site in search results. Honest search engine optimization firms can improve your site's flow and content, but beware of others who may employ deceptive tactics in an attempt to fool search engines. Be careful; if your domain is affiliated with one of these deceptive services, it could end up banned.

The best advice I can give you is to keep your web site simple. Many web sites are loaded with images. Don't use images to display important names, content, or links. Crawlers do not recognize text contained in graphics. Use ALT attributes if the main content and keywords on your page can't be formatted in regular HTML.

Don't create multiple copies of a page under different URLs. Many sites offer text-only or printer-friendly versions of pages that contain the same content as the corresponding graphic-rich pages. To ensure that your preferred page is included in search results, you'll need to block duplicates from search engine spiders using a robots.txt file. I've posted an article in the Google section of my site, www.AskBigPapa.com, that will teach you how to block various Google user agents.

Better Business Bureau - Don't Fall For The BBB Internet Scam

By: Elaine Currie

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) was founded in 1912 and now has branches serving consumers throughout all the USA and Canada. The BBB was set up to help consumers to identify "better businesses". The BBB offers a means of settling disputes between consumers and businesses quickly through arbitration. The BBB also works to improve the relationship between consumers and businesses through consumer education and a system of voluntary self regulation on the part of business owners.

The Scam

You will probably be wondering how an institution famous for consumer protection, like the BBB comes to be involved in an Internet scam. To be clear, the BBB is not a willing participant in a scam, it is a victim of a scam that also affects other reputable organisations such as the International Council Of Online Professionals (ICOP).

The scam is being perpetrated by unscrupulous webmasters. The way the scam works is simple and the scammers are getting away with it because people either accept what they see at face value and don't bother to check up or don't even realise there is a way to check to protect themselves against this scam.

BBB and ICOP Accreditation

In order to be admitted as a member of the BBB or ICOP, business owners must be able to prove that their business complies with strict guidelines and that they are ethical in their business activities. If an online business meets the strict standards and is approved by the BBB or ICOP, the business owner is entitled to display the company's membership seal on his/her website.

Trusted Seals

Although many consumers are aware of the function of bodies such as the BBB and ICOP and recognise their membership seals as a mark of trust, not all of them realise that they should click on the seal to check that its use on a particular website has been duly authorised. If the seal is being used legitimately, clicking on it will take you to the official website where it will confirm that the website you clicked through from has attained membership.

Scammers are using the seals to trick people into believing they are trustworthy and that their business meets the high standards set by the BBB or ICOP. These webmasters get away with this scam because people recognise the seals and take their presence on trust or just do not know that there is a way for them to check the validity of the seal.

Checking Trust Seals

When a BBB or ICOP seal is displayed on a website without the proper authority, you will most often find that the seal on the website does not have a clickable link. Alternatively, clicking on the seal will just take you to an unrelated web page or to a generic page belonging to the organisation, where there is no reference to the status of the website where you clicked the seal.

Report Scammers

To protect yourself and to ensure that the good work done by the BBB and ICOP is not undermined by scammers, make it a habit to always click on their seals when you see them on a website. To make the Internet a safer place, unauthorised users of these seals should be reported to BBB Online or ICOP.

NASA Technology Used In e-Commerce?

By: Micah Klitgaard

NASA was established more than 50 years ago and has been a world leader in studies of our home planet. In October 2005 NASA decided to share their series of the stunning 'Blue Marble' images. The satellite photos were divided into 12 calendar months and provided a detailed overview at an entire year in the life of our planet.

Each image took up 10 Gigabytes of hard disk space. To be able to understand how much 10 Gigabytes really is, you can think of that each image consists of 5000 pictures taken with a typical digital camera.

Two years later they are probably still the largest zoomable images ever seen on the Internet. Thanks to advanced zoom technology it is possible for NASA to manage and study our earth by images using any Internet connection.

During the recent years it has become possible to buy expensive products over the Internet. You can buy everything from clothes, cars to expensive furniture. Unfortunately you still have to make a decision for the product based on one or a few images - often in poor quality.

Several studies have shown that the most significant barrier in modern e-commerce is the lack of quality product images - more specific the lack of sufficient image details or resolution. Customers can't "experience and feel" the products in the same way as they were holding them.

The explanation is that high quality images take up a lot of disk space and increase the download time. It is inappropriate to let Internet users wait several seconds for a high quality image each time the user is viewing a product.

Another barrier is the increasing use of mobile devices like PDAs and mobile phones. It is still too hard making a decision for a product on a 240 x 320 pixel display on a mobile phone if the product image is 1680 x 1050 pixels.

But how can it be possible to zoom even large images like NASA's 10Gb satellite images by use of an Internet Connection while webmasters are struggling to limit sizes of their web images?

By combining and re-scaling existing technologies for other purposes and goals, it has become possible to see and almost feel tiny details of any e-Commerce product in the same way as you can study every detail of even large satellite images.

E-Consultant Sonja Jacobsen explains the controversial mix of NASA technology and existing web technology "as a way to move forward in a competitive market" and "almost all e-shops will be able to present their products with zoomable pictures within 2-3 years with similar technologies".

Finding A Webmaster Who Creates W3C Compliant Websites

By: Larry Lang

If you are planning to hire a webmaster for your web design needs, be sure to do your homework. There's a lot more to designing a web page than merely making it look good. How your web pages are or are not constructed can mean the difference between up and running or shut down!

After doing your basic due diligence in checking the individual or the company itself with the Better Business Bureau to see that it has a good reputation and that there are not outstanding complaints against the company or webmaster, your next step is to check to see if the pages that the webmaster designs are W3C compliant.

A webmaster's home page is like their resume or "sample" of the work they do. If their own home page is not compliant, chances are that they will not create yours that way, either.

What is a good way to check for compliance? Beyond the obvious method of just plain asking, it's very simple to check up on a particular web page to see if it is compliant.

Validate Their Home Page

One way for you to do this is to validate their home page. You can use the W3C validator at validator.w3.org website to see if the webmaster's home page and other pages are compliant. All you have to do is enter the URL of their site and the validator will let you know if that page complies.

Are Other Client Pages Compliant?

Another way that you can check up on the webmaster is to look at other client pages and check them for compliance. Enter their URL in the validator as described above and check them out. If other client pages are compliant, you can feel more assured that yours will be compliant as well.

Most webmasters or web design companies will show samples of other sites they have created. They may list some as references for you to check out their work. Take this opportunity to check out their previous clients and the pages that have been created. In addition to running a check on the client pages, you might actually be able to speak to previous clients and ask them about their experience with the webmaster you are considering.

Remember, your website represents your company or business. It is worth the time and effort to do your research and choose the right person for the job.

Drive Laser-Targeted Traffic To Your Site Using 5 Simple & Underused Ways

By: Gunjan Tiwari

Highly targeted traffic is one of the most important entities in the internet universe. Any website owner or administrator recognizes the importance of driving traffic to a website. The success of any website does not rely entirely on the site itself. You may have a terrific idea for a website, offer an excellent product or service, or have an exceptionally designed site with superb content, but if you do not use the right strategies to advertise, your site would not attract the high traffic you need. Attracting targeted traffic is a task that should be taken seriously for any site to succeed or make a profit.

But what if you don't know how to get traffic? What if you don't understand the basic ways that traffic is generated?

Generating traffic is just like anything else in life. You have to understand the basics before you can move on the more advanced techniques.

Here are the 5 most effective ways that I use to drive Laser-Targeted Traffic to my site

Method 1
--------------
Set up blogs at wordpress.com or blogger.com and add content related to your product. Add links back to your website.

Write good content for your blog. Make sure that the content for your blog is entertaining as well as informational. It should provide certain keywords targeted to your market as well as great quality. You can create this content yourself, use private label content or you can hire a professional content writer. The choice is up to you.

Keep in mind when adding content to your blog that the search engines track down the keywords and keyword phrases in your content then index your pages based on how they are used.

Method 2
-------------
Write articles that grab the attention of people that are interested in the product or service you provide. Try writing articles that will provide relevant information and tips that will make them want to visit your site for more. After your have composed your article submit it to article directories with a link back to your site or squeeze page.

Many sites offer free submission and posting of your articles. When people find interest in your articles they have a good chance of following the track by finding out where the article originated. Include a link or a brief description of your site/product with the article and there is a great probability that they will visit your squeeze page.

Again if you don't want to write the article yourself you can use private label content or hire a content writer.

Method 3
--------------
Trade links with other sites. This method may seem a bit out dated but it is still a very effective way to get free traffic.

If you don't want to hunt down link partners yourself there are many services that will do the hard work for you. Just do a quick search for "link exchange" and you will find many options.

Keep in mind you don't have to stop at links - you can also exchange articles, ads or even product recommendations.

Method 4
------------
Use traffic exchanges. It is similar to link exchange but on a different level. Most traffic exchanges give you credits when you view other people's site or ads. Then those credits are used when someone views yours.

This way, both benefit from each others efforts to generate traffic. The other sites visitors can go to your pages and know more about your site as well as theirs. There are many free traffic exchange programs available. Just use your search engine to find the one that's right for you.

Method 5
--------------
Take advantage of online forums and online communities. The great thing about forums and online communities is that you can target a certain group that fits the certain demographic that you are looking for. Another great advantage is that you know what you are getting into and you will be prepared.

With online communities and forums you can build a reputation for your company. Show them what you are made of and wow them with your range of expertise about the subject, with that you can build a reputation and build trust with the people in your expertise and knowledge.

Usually you can add a sig file with a link back to your site in your forum posts. As your post count and reputation increases, so will the targeted traffic to your sales or squeeze page.

How to Find Profitable ClickBank Products

By: Pawel Reszka

Congratulations, you've decided that this is the business for you. You've signed up to be a ClickBank affiliate and you're all set to go, now how to find the best products to promote.

Within the ClickBank website there is the ClickBank marketplace where all the available products are listed. This listing is updated regularly each evening.

When you search the marketplace listings you can search through several categories such as Business-to-Business or Fun and Entertainment. Each category has subtitles like Web Design or Psychics. You can narrow down your searches with key words. You've now got a long list of products available, which is sorted by popularity. For each listing there is a percentage shown, which is the amount of commission you would receive for selling that particular item. For your own sake you want to try to stick with products that have a commission rate of at least twenty-five percent. Commission payouts run from one cent up to one hundred dollars.

Check out the various products available and find the types of products you are interested in promoting. The high ranked products are popular but that also means there are a lot of people promoting them. You may want to try some of the lower ranked products as there are less people selling those same products. However, you still want to try to stick to products that offer you a reasonable commission. Try to keep to products where your commission is at least twenty-five percent.

Read over their sale pages well, read them as if you were the one looking to buy. Would the ad impress you? Does it give you enough information? Would it make you want to buy the product? Is it clear what type of customer service is offered? If the answer is yes, you've got a good product to try. If the ad leaves you cold it will probably do the same to people you refer to the site.

While you are checking over the product pages there are things you need to watch for that can reduce your chances of making a sale even when you have a really good product.

Is the ad crowded with far too many links diverting your attention from the product and getting to the order page? Do you see offers for free reports or sign ups for a mailing list? These are ways that a vendor can develop a list of leads to follow up on later stopping you from receiving a commission. Is there a clear link that would send your customer to a page where he or she could sign up to become an affiliate? There goes your commission as they could then just purchase the product for themselves. Are there several different payment options listed or does the site use a pop-up when the customer exits that takes them to a place where they can make a sale that doesn't use ClickBank? Either of these will put you in a position where you will not receive the commission.

Bottom line, there is nothing stopping you from still using this product but you may want to recommend changes the vendor that he can make that will still get him sales but protect your commission.

Make Money Fast Online - 2 Essential Steps

By: Brian Mccoy

Be prepared to take a pen and paper and write notes because these are two very valuable things that are essential to you if you are wanting to make money fast over the internet.

We will be diving into two essential things you must do if you want to see how you can make money fast with your online business.

Here are the two Must Haves to Set Up a Business to Make Money Fast!

Necessity # 1: You must have a very captivating website.

Having a well done website means that your site is nice, but not overdone. You may be thinking to yourself, well that's great but I have never made a website and have no clue how to do so. The good news and answer to this question is there are very inexpensive services that are under $40/month that make it very simple to create a catchy website that will even allow you to put an audio, picture, as well as video together in as little as a few minutes to an hour or two, literally! Some examples of a couple of services out there include marketingburst and marketing makeover generator.

Now any website that you use to market online should have a capture page that has an autoresponder built into it. The autoresponder allows you to send emails to your list on a daily basis on your behalf. If you use marketingburst or marketing makeover generator, they have this covered. You simply add some emails in there and let it take care of the rest.

Necessity # 2: Generating Highly Targeted Traffic to Your Site.

Now that your website has been completed correctly, it is time to put on your advertising cap. It is not enough just to advertise, you must target the right people. Even if you had the best product or service in the universe, if you are not targeting the right people, you will fail. When you drive massive targeted traffic to your high converting website, you will start to make some money in a very fast and short time frame!

So how do we get targeted traffic to our website?

First off, you will want to conduct some indepth research on who your customers will be and the type of thoughts or questions they might be searching for on the internet? For example, maybe you are selling a book on making money on eBay. Less than targeted traffic essentially means you don't go into detail and would be targeting someone who is maybe simply searching for making money. Targeted traffic is when you actually are going a step farther and targeting specifically making money on eBay, how to make money on eBay, make money fast on eBay, etc.

After concluding your research, you will need to take what you've learned and get started on marketing and advertising. You could make up an article on how you can make money fast on eBay. You could also write a press release about your new book on making money on eBay. These are a couple of outstanding ways to create hits to your site. They will help you get your website in the numerous search engines on the keywords and topics you write about.

There are some other minor characteristics you can use to help you in making money fast online, but if you use the above two characteristics on a consistent basis, you should start to see some phenomenal success!

Free Website traffic for Pink Cows and Purple pigs

By: Paul Easton

Free search engine traffic, will need to have efforts on the area of link building. Offsite factors such as gaining backlinks, have shown to give proven results. Unfortunately some webmasters actually confuse Google by telling them and the other major search engines that that sell "purple pigs" when actually they sell pink cows.

Then, as if to make things worse, they miss the human or the "real factor". This was provided in a recent interview on a top ranking site in a very competitive industry, golf gifts. A search term that has over 20 million results and an estimated 57,838 searches per month.

Lets consider a site that sells exclusive gifts, like pink cows and purple pigs. They plan a linking campaign and firstly aim at the first single keyword term "pink pigs" and so they structure the link text and description as follows:

"Pink Pigs" – All pink pig gifts - all sizes and shapes.

Using the anchor text "pink pigs"- to link back to the home page. Now lots of effort goes into seeking the correct links, aiming at this term. It progresses well and the ranking is achieved to every ones delight- " Look a number ranking for pink pigs! –we are really great!" – (large pat on the back)

Then the term goes of in hunt for the second term – purple cows and follows the same process. They achieve the same results- however they have dissolved the anchor text of the number of links and the first ranking achieved, slips. It then becomes a juggling game to get the ranking for both keywords.

Essentially the have Google "scratching its head" ….what subject is the page/site really about?

So what is the better option so as avoid this- two options:

Deep linking- This is the linking to internal pages rather than the home page, so in the first case, you would generate links to this page as http://www.thesite.com/pink-pigs.html and then proceed to do the exact same process for the other search term.

The downside of this is that it still does require different linking campaigns takes time and splitting of resources. A better option is that of combining and adding the human factor, after all, Google provides results for humans after all, and the quality of the results is high on the agenda. In this case, you could create a better anchor text and description such as:

"Purple Cow Gifts - Shop online for all manner of purple cow and pink pig gift sets, with discount specials every week"

This is also human friendly, and although its main aim is top search engine ranking, it could be seen as a normal, human based link. Include both the terms in the description, and then on the actual site the title of the home page makes sense. Then in the first paragraph on the home page could mention both search terms as well as link directly to those specific pages (www.thesite.com/pink-pigs.html etc) this would make sense to both the search engine spiders, used for finding and displaying results, and to humans.

A site that has realised this, and has the results to show it is thegolfcollection.com which has the number 1 ranking for not only golf gifts but number 4 for golf accessories out of 20 million results.

Lets take a site that sells gifts, like pink cows and purple pigs.

For this reason, planned keyword research is needed prior to any linking campaign for SEO results, for both the anchor text and the description.

An excellent tool for information on keyword research is Aaron Walls keyword tool:

http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/

This tool should be used together with an Adwords Campaign to gain the most accurate measure of the volume of searches for your terms, before any SEO link building activities take place.

The human that is searching has to be kept in mind. You want people to click on the link. It should appear to Google and the other major engines that this the primary purpose of the link. This SEO link building strategy will bring your success for years to come and large amounts of free traffic your competition would love to get there hands on. To your success!

Why Your Marketing Doesn't Make Sense to Everyone

By: Robert Greenshields

When you communicate with people, they receive the information using one of five sensory modalities – visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory (or in everyday language – pictures, sounds, feelings, smells and tastes).

And, in creating an ‘Internal Representation' inside our mind, we use the same sensory modalities – with the addition of one more – ‘auditory digital' or self-talk.

However, it's crucial to recognize that individuals experience those senses in different proportions. Some people may pay more attention to their visual experiences, while others may find their feelings (whether internal or external) more important.

In communicating with somebody, it's therefore important that you're able to relate to all of the senses.

Although everybody experiences all of the senses, normally one sense is their ‘preferred system'. It's the one they tend to rely on to a greater degree than the others. It's also the one they fall back on in situations of stress.

The preferred system tends to be visual, auditory, kinesthetic or auditory digital.

The main impact of this in communication and marketing is that we have to make sure that we're appealing to all of the different senses as much as possible.

That means that wherever possible, your communication and marketing should have visual, auditory, kinesthetic and auditory digital aspects.

In many cases, you might have the opportunity to use olfactory or gustatory elements as well. And that's not only if you happen to be in the restaurant or perfume business. For example, many studies show that the smell of freshly brewing coffee makes it much easier to sell a house.

If you can take into account all of the senses, your marketing becomes much more effective.

Appealing to all the senses means you need to have a mix of the elements in the words you use, for example:

• Visual: Ask people if they can see what you're talking about or picture themselves using the product.

• Auditory: "Does it sound right? Does this ring a bell with you?"

• Kinesthetic: Ask if it feels right or if they can get in touch with their need for it.

• Auditory Digital: "Have you got all the facts? Do you have all the criteria, all the information you need to make your decision."

To communicate at an unconscious level, you always need to think about how you can connect with each of the senses of your different customers:

1. How can you make your offer as visually attractive as possible?

2. How can you add an element of auditory and sound to it?

3. How can you create a kinesthetic experience?

4. How can you satisfy the demand for detailed criteria?

The real secret is being able to match up people with their needs. But, where that is not possible, you need to be able to cater for all the categories.

How can you make your marketing and your customers' experience satisfy the needs of all the senses?

Five Simple Steps For Finding And Building An Online Business

By: Greg Baugh

The American dream may very well have changed. Now, not only do we want to start a business but we also want to start it at home and many want to start it online. The trouble is, what do we do, where do we go, how is it done? The Internet is SO big, how in the world do you find the right business to start for you and then hope to succeed at it?

It's not as difficult as it might seem. And yes, before the cynics get to you, it IS being done. Starting an online business is not only an achievable goal, it's more than likely more achievable than say trying to start a business in the brick and mortar world. Why? Because overhead costs are smaller for one, and that is the number one reason most businesses fail.

Also an online business is live 24/7, but you don't have to be. Who can ask for more than that? It really is the ideal place to be. So, why do so many online businesses fail? Simple, the expectation is out of place. Many start an online business by simply building the site and ...waiting. “Build it and they will come.” Well no, not really. If you treat your online business like any other business venture, have some patience and persistence, and then you can succeed.

Here Are Five Simple Steps For Finding An Online Business:

1. Don't Be Taken In By Those With Hidden Agendas: Emails by the truckload will promise you easy wealth if you will just do...whatever it is they are prescribing. Oh! And IF you will buy their book, membership, or whatever it is they are selling. It's not a bad idea to read the ebooks, you can learn a great deal. But keep your head about you. Don't just go for something because it sounds like easy money. Let's face it if you are looking for easy money, don't you think you would have found it by now?

It's a much better idea to look for the business idea and plan that appeals to you on other levels besides the financial level. You really can start a business doing just about anything online. I personally like business plans that don't require me to deliver a physical product. However, other people like the idea of delivering a physical product and that is why Ebay became so popular.

2. Make a list of what you are willing to do and not willing to do. Some people like to write and so they choose things like blogs, or selling information to make their living online. Fancy making more money writing blogs than trying to convince a publisher to publish your book! It's happening all the time. Or say, you like the support of a business that is all ready to go for you. We call that a Turn-Key Business and they are hugely popular and have a good track record if approached properly. In other words, like a real business, not easy money.

3. Plan to do more than get your site up and running. Real businesses require marketing and promotion for long-term stability and growth. You should have a plan that is followed weekly, monthly, and yearly to push your business forward. Once you start getting business don't drop your marketing plan. Many new business people decide once they have a few customers, the marketing is done. Nope, you have to continue to market for the life of your business. It's just like exercise. You can't run on the treadmill once and condition your heart forever, right? Well...we wish...but the answer is no.

4. Be patient. Don't expect to be a raging success in one month or even three. Give your new business at least a year! Impatient business people rarely become success stories. It takes time.

5. Remember, you don't need the whole haystack! (What?) A client once told me as she was just barely starting her business, "I'm a needle in a haystack. The Internet is so big, how will they ever find me?" Well, they ALL won't find y you. If your a needle in a haystack of people, all you need is for the surrounding hay to find you and you will do great! This isn't all or nothing. It's a step at a time, one prospect at a time, one inch forward at a time and before you know it you have one big haystack of super duper customers and you are smiling all the way to bank. Take the time to learn the ropes.

Build thoughtfully, and practice patience, and you too can succeed with an online business.

Top Selling Clickbank Ebooks in a Nutshell

By: Stephan Miller

Affiliate marketing has changed a lot about my life. In fact, it has made my present life possible. Do I live in a mansion and drive a Ferrari? No, not yet. And most of the people that claim that they accomplished this in three months are either lying about some of the details or need to lay off the crystal meth. Affiliate marketing takes some work and some areas of it are highly competitive. But the more you know, the easier it gets. And the more you do it, the more you know.

When you first start, you must start with the faith of a convert, because it may be a while before you get results or even "get it". But after that point, after the first few sales, the bug will have bitten you and there is no going back. While specializing in one certain product or niche for a while is the best way to start, specializing in only one form of marketing is not a good idea. Keeping up with the latest twist on getting your message to potential customers is a must, but paying upwards of forty dollars for it and then having to wade through PDF pages to find the meat you were looking for is a waste of time.

Most of the top selling ebooks on online marketing from Clickbank are filled with fluff to make them seem worth forty dollars. Of course, some newbies may need step by step screenshots showing how to upload Wordpress to your web host, but most of us already interested in affiliate marketing know how to do this. We want the two or three pages that give us the technique.

The basics of affiliate marketing can be told in only a few sentences. Find a product to promote. Get as much targeted traffic going to your affiliate link as you can.Cash your check.But the details of how to get the targeted traffic can change a three figure check every couple of weeks into a four figure check. In fact, a paragraph or two in that marketing ebook you just purchased may be worth two or three times the cost of the book. But finding that paragraph in the book is impossible.

I'm the checklist kind of guy. Give a list, not a novel and I will figure out the rest. I don't need screenshots. I have been doing this for a while. Basically when it comes down to it, most of the top selling Clickbank marketing books cover PPC Advertising, Linking, Adsense, Niches, and Blogging.

We will hit Adsense first. This is not a good first choice for a newbie. Yes, it has its places and you can make money. But those that make the day job quitting type of money only from Adsense are few and far between. Many begin with a site that gets a lot of traffic. Adsense is great for well-established sites. But the amount of software it takes run run an "Adsense Empire" starting from scratch is crazy. Lurk a few marketing forums and you will find out that most of the gurus who make big bucks this way buy 100's of domains at a time, have software to auto install their sites, and then use article spinning software to add content to their sites. And then they have to worry about getting banned. Not a very stable way to start.

Linking is pretty simple. Join social networks and bookmarking sites, especially the more popular ones and be active. Don't just add links to your own site, but add useful links along the way and become known as a finder of good links. Then mix your links in. Write articles and submit them to article directories. Write press releases and submit them if you have any little tidbit of knowledge that seems newsworthy. Comment on blogs whose theme matches your own site's. Participate in forums and add your link to your signature. Stephan Miller's Blog is a great resource for finding sites to get links from, listing hundreds of sites in each of these categories.

You have to learn to spot niches and with a virtual warehouse of products to promote, its hard to narrow down what you want to promote. Start with yourself. When was the last time you were looking for something online and it took you forever to find it. When you found it, you may have inadvertently found a perfect niche. When you are done with yourself, check out your family and friends, especially those ones who use the internet but hate to because they can never find anything. And if you have no friends and never buy anything online, what are you doing trying to sell anything. No, just joking.

A lot of the guru's say to use keyword tools to find niches. Great! But where do you start? You can check out what's selling on on sites like Amazon which lists a sales rank for the products on it's sites. Or go to Niche Finding Sites for even more ways of finding niches. Then you use the keyword tools to find the real niches that have very few competitors.

Most of the blogging ebooks are rather simple and sometimes the writer didn't even edit the book before he sent it to the "press". I looking at you Rob Benwell. Basically, start as many blogs as you can handle, write a lot, and use the keyword tools you have at hand while you are writing your posts to create content the search engines will love. Other than that, use linking techniques.

In conclusion, many of the ebooks you will find on Clickbank are overpriced and "not worth the paper they are printed on". There are some good ones there that have stood the test of time. But many are hyped to the top by people trying to make a quick buck, like me :). You are better off buying the latest Idiot's Guide on SEO and that's no lie or just lurking forums until something clicks for you. You can waste a lot of time collecting ebooks that is better off spent actually making money.

Clickbank Pros & Cons

By: Pawel Reszka

You won't find a business in existence that doesn't have both good and bad selling points. Every business is different, with some you learn to deal with the fact that your product seasonal or regional, Franchises cam be great as far as the assistance both financial and business wise that you are given but frustrating when it comes to them having final say over what you can and can't do or can and can't sell. If you want to succeed with your business you need one that you can enjoy and that has more good points than bad.

ClickBank has its good and bad points just as any other business does. On the good side, it is very easy to get started. The sign up process is simple and there is enough free information available to give you a good start. The downside? With all that information available and the sign up itself being so simple you may go in with the mistaken impression that this will take no work on your part. All business requires some work on your part, the more work you are willing to put in the greater the payback.

Back to the good side: ClickBank's customer service is top notch and their policies are spelled out in simple English. What is and is not allowed is stated very straightforward. There are real live people to answer your questions and help you find solutions. One downside here is their no hassle 90-day return policy does draw scam refunders.

Again on the good side: there are hundreds of product listings to choose from. They are rated so you can see what is a hot seller right now. On the bad side: there are hundreds of product listings to choose from that in itself can become a nightmare. Good point: If you are one of those people that have trouble deciding between products then ClickBank has the solution for that too. You can set up to point your customers to the Marketplace and let them select the products they want to buy.

Yea: You have great flexibility. You can choose from products already out on the market or just coming out into the market or you can sell your own products. You can be both vendor and affiliate. You will find lots of information on making and selling your own e-books or designing your own programs. Nay: If you have your own products to sell but need complete control over when, where and for how much they are sold you probably shouldn't use this particular venue for your sales.

Really good: You can choose products that pay a commission that is acceptable to you and you do not have to worry about billing anyone to get paid. ClickBank collects the product payment, figures your commission and the seller's portion and they take care of paying both of you.

If you go into this understanding that you are not going to just sign up, sit back and make thousands of dollars a week while sitting on your butt watching television. If you are willing to do the research, find the right products, develop a good customer base with good customer service then you can make good money with ClickBank.

Four Lightning Fast Ways To Create An EBook

By: Jim Edwards

Do you want to know an interesting fact about books on the Web?

People don't buy them for their intrinsic worth, just to, "own a book for their shelf".

They want to buy a solution to a problem or in plain terms, they want a solution to something, now!

That means your ebook creation doesn't need to run 300-400 pages.

I see ebooks doing very well with only fifty pages in length.

However, you probably don't want to get down into the 10-20 page length unless it gives specific directions to buried treasure or gives so much of a "WOW" factor that length doesn't matter.

So how can you really come up with an ebook in only a few days, even if you didn't write it yourself?

Well I know four really quick, efficient ways to do just that, without sacrificing your entire life as a tortured author.

#1 - Your "Gold Mind"

First, if you know a subject really well, then just create an ebook using the knowledge in your head. (That's what I did with my first 3 ebooks.)

If you don't write that well, then put it together by recording it and getting it transcribed.

Then you edit the transcript or hire an editor to do it for you.

You can create an outline of the points to cover in the ebook and then use a dictation service or a software program to simply "talk out the ebook".

You simply talk out each point in detail, using your mastery of the subject.

What you come up with may even surprise your greatly!

#2 - Hire An "Expert"

Second, if you don't possess the specific expertise on a subject, you'll want to find someone who does.

Then you will use the expert interview format to create content which can turn into a full length ebook.

After you come up with a list of questions for the expert, you conduct the interview with a conference call and record it.

Then, as in the first method, a dictation service can turn it into a saleable text version for you.

#3 - Buy Your Way In

A third way to create an ebook product involves buying resale rights to a book already written, or agreeing on a marketing deal with an author with an existing book /ebook.

Many people can write good books, but they simply don't know how to market them.

This offers a "match made in heaven" for two talents to get together: your marketing ability and their writing ability.

You want to check carefully on three important points though, if you decide to buy resell rights for an ebook project.

1) First, how long ago did the ebook first appear online?

Does it appear "shopworn" from over exposure or poor marketing?

2) How large of a niche market does it target?

A long time ebook with a small niche might not make a good investment. But if it looks like a lot of new people could use its content, then you might want to buy the resale rights.

3) Last, you want to honestly evaluate the ebook, whatever the age.
Do you like it? Does it contain good up to date, information?

Will it deliver on promises and make you feel like you got value for the price?

If you can answer yes to all three, then you probably found a good investment.

#4 - Outsource "The Whole Enchilada"

Finally, the fourth way to create an ebook involves hiring someone to first do research for you on a specific subject, and then hiring someone to write it for you.

You can find services on the Internet which will do the job for you and offer competitive bids based on your requirements.

CAUTION: You want to make sure that you own all rights to whatever content someone produces for you in a "work for hire" agreement.

I recommend using services which can automatically provide this type of agreement as part of the bidding process along with instructions on how to complete such an arrangement with a writer.

You want to remember one thing, no matter which one of the four approaches you use in creating your own ebook.

Your ebook must be of VALUE to your target niche audience. So many people come out with fluff, B.S. and nonsense that when you deliver real, demonstrable VALUE to people, they remember!

That's how you build up a loyal following that eagerly buys up every product you release.

That's also how you build up a business that lasts for years and doesn't end up just a flash in the pan (like most online businesses).

6 Ways to Capitalize on the Growth of the Internet

By: Jo Mark

There are about 2 billion websites listed on the Internet today. That’s about 76,000 times the number of sites that existed in 1998. That is a pretty nice rate of growth. The question is, how can we capitalize on that? Let’s make a few assumptions based on this information:

1) We can expect that the number of websites will continue to grow. Each of these new websites will need a place to be hosted. Look for quality companies that are among the best in the field and join their affiliate programs. These can be very profitable programs because you collect a check every time someone makes a payment. In addition, many of the sites will seek out domain names, look for the largest of these companies to continue to do well.

2) Most of these newer websites will attempt to increase the traffic to their site. Seek out popular programs that cater to increasing traffic. There are numerous SEO companies and others that focus on this type of business.

3) Some of these sites will be designed and maintained by professionals. Look for large companies that offer a full range of services in this area. Companies that offer Flash sites will probably do well in the foreseeable future.

4) The number of web pages available displaying ads will continue to grow. The amount of money you collect on a per ad basis will probably decrease due to the increase in the number of sites seeking to display them. Diversify and look for innovative ways to monetize your site.

5) Internet sales will continue to soar, but, due to the increased competition, the amount of income per web site will probably decrease. The big will get bigger, and it will more difficult for new, smaller sites to make a livable wage. Use whatever you can to grow and increase traffic. It will only get more difficult in the future.

6) The popularity of Internet video has been experiencing explosive growth. If you doubt what I say, look at youtube. Video will continue to play an ever-increasing role and may eventually replace written content. Look into adding some sort of video option to your site.

By being proactive, and looking to add some of the programs mentioned above, we might be able to capitalize on future Internet trends. Don’t replace the things you are doing now, especially if they are working well. Just begin to add in some of the income streams above to take advantage of future growth.

How To Attract Customers With Proper Web Site Designing

By: Pasi Kaarakainen

Web site designing is a very important aspect of gaining customers for a home business. You must learn at least the basics before you can begin selling your products. You must choose carefully what kind of products and services you are advertising. These types of merchandise must be reflected through the theme of the website. If a client has a difficult time navigating through the web pages, cannot understand the setup or sometimes bored with what they are viewing the items may not move as well. Web site designing is vital to your personal as well as business ventures. A customer looks for products that are fairly inexpensive, are simple to locate and can entertain them as well. This type of issue can be simply solved with different styles and methods.

You may want to enlist the assistance of a personal web developer. Web site designing is their expertise and they know how to bring in and keep the customers happy. You can accomplish this goal rather easily. There are various web developers across the internet. You can view their work and then contact them. After that you can discuss with them personally and decide what you would like to be done with your home business website. You may choose to let the web professional take creative freedom when the web site designing has began. They are able to create fantastic pages that can enlighten, promote and bring customers back for more. This type of person not only can create fantastic web pages, they could also write from a selling point and make every product a must have item. Web site designing can be completed by these professionals without much effort.

There are times when a business owner is just starting out and they do not have much money to hire a professional web designer. Fortunately, you can also create wonderful web site designing on your own. You could locate various web designing programs that may cost some money or are free. These can be downloaded and used to create a fantastic page. You may know a little bit of HTML code or none at all. There are free tutorials located around the internet that a business owner can read and learn quickly and without much effort. There are three key points that you must understand for web site designing. The first step is easy navigation and a simple checkout procedure. A customer does not want to spend much time looking through the website or at the checkout. They desire quick service and simple access. The second step you need to take is the advertising part. Every product needs to appear like a customer cannot live without it. The third step and the most valuable one is it must be entertaining. A successful web site designing creation needs to capture a client's attention and hold it for as long as possible.

There are several methods that web site designing is made simple and straightforward. A home business needs to stand out above the rest. Every person must complete this goal to have a fabulous and long lasting home business. Clients or customers that arrive to your webpage desire quick access, comfortable features and entertaining products. Web site designing is not a hard concept to grasp. It can be achieved various ways and you will be content with the business it brings in.

Make Money Online - Tips For Keeping The Big Bad Wolf At Bay

By: Elaine Currie

If you want to make money online, you are not alone and there is plenty of help available on the Internet to get you started. The trouble is that it is not easy to know who you can trust to give you honest advice and who is just a big bad old wolf strategically shaved and dressed in a nice suit.

Once you have been around the Internet for a while, you will find it easier to sort the genuine help from the other kind. You will learn to check out the size of the teeth and ears of anyone who offers you help. You will find that you will be able "smell" a scam as soon as it appears on your computer screen. The attempts to get you to join a get rich quick scheme will all start to look very similar and you will pass them by without sparing them a second glance. Experience will enable you to ignore the hype, shut out the wolves and concentrate on finding a legitimate way to make money that you will enjoy doing. In the meantime, while you are gaining that experience, these 4 tips will help you on your way.

Tip 1

Think before you act. If you see a way to make money that appeals to you, take time to consider it. If there is undue pressure on you to sign up immediately, take that as a warning sign. If the program really offers a legitimate way to make money, the owner or sponsor will be happy to give you information about how it all works and to give you time to make an informed decision.

Tip 2

Trust your gut reaction. You might be lacking in knowledge and experience when it comes to recognising a legitimate way to make money online but you should still rely on your instincts. If there is something about a money making opportunity that gives you a bad feeling, trust that feeling and stay away. If you ignore your gut reaction and join the program, your original doubts will hang around like a toxic cloud and you won't feel comfortable with the program even if it is the best way to make money anyone could hope to find.

Tip 3

Use the Internet to research any money making program you are considering. For a quick way to get an idea of how good the program is, just do a search for the name of the program accompanied by the word "scam" and then start reading the entries. Don't be put off by the number of results: I just did a search for "Pope scam" and received 1,870,000 results. Does that mean the Pope is a scam? No, of course not, most of the entries relate to scammers attempting to exploit the Pope's image, and this is why you need to read the actual entries. Bear in mind that no company in the world has a 100% customer satisfaction rate (you can't please all the people all of the time etc) and this is where you will have to use your own discretion and instincts.

Tip 4

Forum (message board) postings are a good source of information about ways to make money online. The information is completely raw, so you need to process it carefully rather than just swallowing it, a large pinch of salt is often necessary. You can read input from disgruntled customers criticising a program, successful members defending the program, rival program owners trying to destroy reputations and the odd mad person who just enjoys stirring up discord. Don't forget, forum postings are not the work of experts, they are the opinions of ordinary people and opinions will vary. Use the different opinions to help you weigh up the pros and cons of any online business you are considering.

The period during which you are looking around and trying things out is a dangerous time. The wolves can scent an Internet newbie within seconds and, if you want to avoid being their next meal, you need to learn very quickly how to recognise a wolf when it comes huffing at your door. Following these simple tips will make it easier for you to keep the wolves from getting their paws on you while you seek out the best way to make money online.

How Search Engine Optimization Helps Small Businesses

By: Erin Ferree

You've probably heard people talking about Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, and wondered if it would help your business. The answer, in short, is absolutely!

Search Engine Optimization is the process of fine-tuning your website code and content to rank well in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The basics of the SEO process are to:

- Choose keywords and keyword phrases that describe what you do and that your target market will use to search for your services.

- Use those keywords throughout the code and text for your website.

- Place links back to your site, containing those keyword phrases, on other websites. The search engines look at incoming links from other sites-not at outgoing links from your site-to improve your rankings

There's a whole field of consulting built up around Search Engine Optimization, mainly because the search engines are constantly changing how they work, to discourage unethical or unfair Search Engine Optimization processes, such as loading a page with invisible keywords or using code in the page that specifies words that have nothing to do with your business.

Given the rate of search engine changes, you might wonder if SEO is cost-effective for your small business, or if your limited marketing budget would be better spent elsewhere. The benefits of SEO are:

- You'll get more visitors to your website. It naturally follows that if more people visit your site and learn about your fabulous products and services, then more people will buy from you.

- You'll get more inquiries. You get the thrill of getting calls and emails from clients you otherwise might never have met. Imagine, the phone rings, and it's a new potential client on the other end! You ask them how they found out about your services, and they say "Oh, I found you on Google." High search engine rankings will make finding new prospects easier.

- Your leads will pre-qualify themselves. Before the phone call or email even comes through to you, it's likely that the new prospect will read through your site and determine whether your services or products are a good match for their needs. This saves you time and effort in the sales cycle.

- SEO opens the doors to doing business internationally. There is no "Global Edition" of the Yellow Pages, but the Internet makes your business information available to everyone around the world... if they can find you. Being ranked well in your business category in the search engines is the first step towards a building a global business.

- Higher rankings give you more credibility. Google is a particularly respected search engine. Many buyers have consumer confidence in the companies that Google returns at the top of its results.

- Ranking well increases your visibility. Coming up in the search engine rankings is one more way to get noticed by your target market.

A caution on getting your site optimized for the Search Engines

Beware of SEO companies that offer optimization that sounds too good to be true-it probably is. If they offer to get you top-ranked search engine positioning in a short amount of time or for a small sum of money, then they are probably not going to use effective or ethical methods, and you won't get the positioning you want. Some of these companies even use methods that will result in your site being banned from Google, which will take you out of its index entirely, and it's very difficult to be allowed back in.

But don't let this scare you; using a little discretion, you will be able to find the perfect SEO company for your small business. And with its help-increasing your website's traffic and credibility-you just might take your small business to the level of big business!

6 Tips on Generating Web Site Traffic with Traffic Exchanges

By: Donovan Baldwin

In the process of becoming an Internet marketer, most of us have used free traffic exchanges at one time or another. After all, they promise free website traffic, and it seems to be so easy to just sit there and click away. However, after a while, most of us realize that either we are doing something wrong or free traffic exchanges just don't work!

Oh, they deliver free website traffic, all right, but nobody buys into our product or program. We soon figure out that the people looking at our page have seen it before, are bored by it, and are just looking at it, if they ARE looking at it at all, just to pass the time until the next click is due. Really, they are probably more interested in what is going on with their web page than spending time worrying about ours. Eventually, most people begin to feel that it seems so pointless and they drop out and go try something else.

Now, there ARE people using free traffic exchanges to generate real traffic, visits by interested people, to their website, only they have learned a few tricks to make this happen. They have learned, over time, how to avoid the more ordinary and common mistakes that a majority of people make while using free traffic exchanges.

1. They don't use their real page. Certainly, the occasional offer or web page is either so universal in topic or so tempting in some way or another that it does okay...at least for a while. However, think about it. After a while, you began to recognize many of the web pages you were shown...over and over. You probably even begin to say to yourself, "i"ve seen that one before. That's the seventh time I've seen it in the last hour." That is, you might think that if you haven't already zoned out.

By the way, that "seventh" time may actually be a first time. You see, you might have been looking at seven different members of the same affiliate program promoting the site they were given. Ever see "your" site roll by? Maybe it wasn't "your" site!

Part of the game for a successful Internet marketing experience is to stand out in some way, and this is especially true at free traffic exchanges. If you want to stand out, you are going to have to offer something that catches the eye of the other surfer and encourages him or her to click over to your real site. I am not going to go into a discussion of lead capture pages and splash pages right now, but a quick search on the Internet will provide more info.

They sometimes don't even send people to their "sales" or "pitch" page directly from the traffic exchange. After all, if you can offer someone some kind of gift just for dropping by that helps predispose them to look more favorably on other offers you present than they would if they just show up at a sales site.

2. They use the best free traffic exchanges. For a newcomer, or even for an old internet marketing pro, figuring out which traffic exchanges are the best ones to use can be a challenge. Rest assured, however, that it can be done and it is worth the effort. There are websites that do keep track of this sort of thing, and it is well worth your while to track those down and avail yourself of their knowledge. The good news is that these are generally free and provide you with additional information about free traffic exchanges as well as the opportunity and tools to help build your downline in the various traffic exchanges.
3. They build a downline. Remember the hours you sat in front of your computer clicking away only to find that you have generated just a few hits to your site? Well, to make use of the relatively untargeted visits provided by free traffic exchanges, you need to have hundreds of hits...perhaps even thousands. There is no way most people can or will sit there for the hours needed to generate web site traffic in the volume required. In fact, there are just two ways; buy it or build a downline. Having hundreds of people in your downline at any one site, maybe even thousands, can provide the hits you need for free.

By the way, this brings us back to being with the best traffic exchanges as they will usually have the biggest base of people to view your site, will be the easiest to recruit people to, and may even allow you to buy a downline, as in the case of WebbizInsider.com.

4. They pay for services. This requires a little savvy shopping around, but once the Internet marketing professional has his or her free traffic exchange system up and running, they are willing, at some exchanges at least, to pay to upgrade to a professional level. Many traffic exchanges will allow an upgraded member to collect commissions on purchases made by their downline in addition to getting credits when they surf. Plus, an upgraded membership often includes extra credits as well. With a big downline, this could be a business in itself.

5. They experiment. Maybe I should say that they test. One thing works good at one exchange but not as well as another. It may be only the background color is turning people off, or it may be the whole design of the site. Maybe the product or offer is just not catching on. One test of a product is "did I like it", but, even so, not everyone is going to be interested in what YOU are interested in.

6. They treat their traffic exchange membership like a business. They go to work selling and using the traffic exchange just as they would marketing the product or service they are trying to sell. They will keep records, trying in some way to track which exchanges and which pages seem to be providing the best results.

An Introduction to Turnkey OsCommerce Websites

By: Georgia Templeton

OsCommerce is an open source e-commerce software platform. This is, in essence a customizable platform used for creating a website that exists for the purpose of selling something.

Open source means that there’s a general public license that allows anyone and everyone to benefit from the software without having to pay for it. You don't have to buy it but you can buy a turnkey solution if you prefer.

OsCommerce was born from an experiment called "The Exchange Project" and evolved over time until it was renamed osCommerce in 2001. There are many people, with enough technical skills, that they can build a store quickly and easily with osCommerce.

It’s got great functionality and is much easier to work with rather than building an e-commerce site from the ground up without this platform.

An entrepreneur might expect to pay a lot of money for the functionality of starting an online store but osCommerce is free to use. This can give someone the ability with some pointing and clicking to set up a customized online storefront rather quickly. For the beginner, this can be a great thing.

One of the benefits of open source software is that what usually happens, as is the case with OsCommerce, is that the community of people who built upon the platform created an online community such as a forum and knowledgebase where everyone benefits from the experience of others.

Not only can you share what you've done to the software but if you run into problems others are often more than willing to help you find a solution. Although this is an ideal software option for the beginner in the world of electronic commerce, this platform has enough scalability to be customized and grow with a company. Many people enjoy playing and experimenting with open source products.

Because the software is free, there isn't official support on the platform that you are entitled to. This can present a minor roadblock to those without technical knowledge. However, you aren't alone though.

A huge benefit of an open source platform is that you can find an abundant amount of information online about what others have done in similar cases or you can submit a question about the software and wait for another community participant that is part of the knowledgebase to help you.

Although it is free to use, you do have the ability cash in on your expertise with the software and once you get to know how to use it, you could build your own e-commerce solution and sell it in a boxed turnkey solution.

With your solution you can offer many things including paid support or technical services as well as individual add-on modules. Many programmers are taking advantage of this opportunity and creating boxed turnkey solutions.

The availability of OsCommerce turnkey solutions is increasing. People seem to really like the functionality of the osCommerce platform and the benefit to a turnkey solution is that there’s nothing the purchaser has to do technically in order to set up the store. This has created a demand in this area.

It’s often as easy as a basic software installation. Many turnkey solutions will offer tech support as well which is beneficial for someone just starting out who doesn't want to have to sift through a forum for answers or wait for someone to help them.

Because the software remains open source, a turnkey solution will have customizable options and that’s a plus for many people who develop their skills quickly. Before long, they might find themselves contributing to the knowledge base.

When you start an online business, having an easy software solution is going to help you focus on selling and search engine optimization rather than worrying about technical setups. The platform can include many things including a shopping cart with check out, online catalog, product specials, newsletter capability, report generation, automated invoicing and other features too.

Benefits of osCommerce turnkey solutions include:

The ability to receive technical support

* Out of the box capability to get you up and running quickly

* A popular and recognized platform

* Customizability for your specific needs

* Scalability that can match your business growth

* An extensive knowledgebase and community to support your e-commerce efforts.

Why You Should Create Authority Sites In 2007 and Beyond

By: Cory Threlfall
It is a well-known and widely accepted fact that we live in Internet age. Earlier it simply meant that if you are not online, you don't exist. But in the present scenario it means if you are not listed in the first one or two pages of a search engine, you will not survive for long. Everybody is trying out different techniques to optimize their search engine rankings, some succeeding and many others failing in achieving this goal.

Developing an authority site is one sure technique to succeed in increasing the visitor volume and monetary gains in 2007 and beyond. Let us see why is it so.

An authority site is the one, which has numerous pages full of content and several incoming links. Both content and links are the most vital and defining features of authority sites and they are largely interlinked. For links to point at many of the internal pages on the site, they require to have strong content appeal. A good content acts as a magnetic force for attracting links. Being one of the most vital Internet marketing techniques, the benefits of having an authority site are manifold.

Now let us see, why you should create authority sites in 2007 and beyond:

Reason #1. An alternative to Search Engine Optimization:

Mere search engine optimization might be working wonders till yesterday. But with the increasing intensity of competition in the virtual market, it is no longer enough. You need some thing more than search engine ranking through keyword optimization.

Authority site focuses beyond search engine rank optimization. It focuses on content optimization along with keyword optimization, thereby creating link optimization. This automatically optimizes visitors' traffic towards the website and thus increases sales resulting in monetary gain. So there is no longer any need to operate by the rules of search engines to maximize visitors' flow.

Reason #2. Link Optimization through quality content:

Originality has always been more valued and will be valued in future too. Authority sites provide abundance of industry related original and useful information. These original content will attract more and more inbound links. If you are into Internet marketing business, you are sure to know that inward links optimized by keywords can optimize your page ranking. Thus with authority site you achieve benefits of both search engine optimization and link optimization.

Reason #3. Ensure Visitor's Loyalty:

With more and more new Internet marketers coming up everyday, visitor's loyalty will be the key to sustained success in online business in the coming future. Authority site provides the visitors with adequate quantity of quality, i.e. it provides enough of regular and updated quality content. Only quantity does not work any longer. Visitors prefer a no nonsense approach. If you have an authority site that has everything the consumer is looking for, he will not make an extra effort to again go through a search engine process. Thus authority site being the king of content provides you with loyal visitors.

Reason #4. Low maintenance, High Income:

The maintenance cost of authority site is very minimal. The time required to spend on updating it too is little. Thus it is a low maintenance, high-income source.

Reason #5. Prepare for the Future:

Today companies undertake acquisitions and mergers with different companies as route to expand, but in the coming future big companies will take over or buy out profitable authority sites. Those that cannot sustain themselves will either go out of business or be bought out by somebody.

So, by setting up an authority site you will be in prime means to attaining success in Internet marketing and earning money in the present as well as the future. Thus this is the right time to create an authority site and be prepared for the future of the Internet.

Start Up Business Online - Opening an Online Store

By: Deanna Mascle

Opening your own store as a Wahm is easy when you take your business online. Online shopping is becoming a mainstay of American commerce and more people are comfortable with making purchases from Internet stores. If you have something that you are passionate about selling, consider opening an online store.

Before you start an online store, do some research online and check out your potential competition. If you have a business idea in mind, it is worth the time and effort to see what else is being sold in your category of products. If you have no idea what you want to sell, you’ll also want to head online to search out what would be most profitable to sell.

When you make the selection of what you are going to sell, remember to think “niche.” A niche is a small category of products that meet the needs of a specific group of people. Your online store shouldn’t have a “Wal-mart” approach where there is a little bit of everything for everyone. Online commerce is all about small categories of interest. There are so many things to choose from, you have more success when you cater to a small and specific group of people.

The best place to start with finding a niche is thinking about your own interests. When you sell to a niche that you know well, you are more likely to know what products will be of interest to those people. You can sell to your clientele based on your own experience.

Many Wahms start an online store because they have homemade products to offer. One example is handmade baby clothes and cloth diapers. Many Wahms have found success with putting their sewing skills to work and selling their wares online. Other popular handmade online stores include bath and body products, candles and gift baskets.

This does not mean that you can’t have online store success if you don’t make your own products. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of Wahms who have success by opening stores stocked with store-bought inventory.

Whatever your choice, whether handmade or store bought, there are many options for hosting your online store. These options depend on how comfortable you are with web design. Many companies, like Yahoo, offer store websites that are very user friendly and simple to set up. They can cost anywhere from $30 to $200 per month for the storefront services. Many Wahms also find success with eBay stores, which allow them to sell in auctions or in a fixed price format.

Look at all of your options before you choose your online store hosting. Remember that the quality of your hosting will reflect the quality of your business. The last thing you need is your entire website going down due to cheap hosting. The best choice is to find a reputable host that will provide you with a storefront and hosting for a reasonable price. Don’t try to pinch pennies on this aspect of your business. You could end up out of business in no time.

Once you’ve found a place to host your store, you’ll need to drive internet traffic to the store. One of the easiest ways is to trade banners with other Wahm online stores. Many Wahms support each other in their online efforts. This form of networking is a great way to introduce your products to customers who already look to support Wahms. You can also advertise using pay per click advertising and work on your website so that it increases in page ranking for certain search terms.

Keep your customers coming back with an easy to navigate website, simple ordering techniques and good customer service. Even though most of your business will be done online, it’s a good idea to get a business phone line and put that number on your website. This way customers can feel confident in purchasing from you because they know they can speak to a real person if there is a problem with their order.

Regardless of what type of online Wahm store you choose to open, following these tips will make your business a success.

Web Site Ecommerce- Get Started With Ecommerce

By: Eric Menzies

Website Ecommerce - Join in the Ecommerce Business

Tired of your old job? Working from 9-5 isn't doing it for you? Just want to earn more money on the side? Anybody over the age of 18 has the door wide open. You can make money out of your own bedroom by starting an ecommerce business. You would be surprised at how many people in the USA sell items from their homes, and make more than their day jobs!

No matter who you are, everyone can use extra money for entertainment, savings, vacation, and more. If you want to be a part of the ecommerce business, you can start now. First, plan on what kind of business that you want. You should try to do something you are familiar with. For example, if your hobby is art, you should look into something art related. It's always good to have a job you enjoy.

You don't have to sell something tangible, you can offer services, too! If you are good at critiquing college papers, you can offer that. If you are good at accounting, you can offer that, too! The possibilities are endless, so think! You might want to offer a service which you haven't seen before, and you know is in demand. Just like any major decision in your life, don't be in a rush. Take a few days to think about it.

The next step is to plan your website. You want it to be planned carefully so it can be easily navigated to your customers, and look professional. Be careful, and watch out for spelling errors, because people do notice these. If youÕre not familiar with web design, there are tons of free and cheap programs out there that can assist you. Also, if youÕre still having trouble, do a simple online search for anything, and you'll be sure to find something to your benefit.

When you think of ecommerce, don't think it is easy money, because it's not. But it's very realistic for anyone who is hard working, and in need of side cash. If you fit that personality, you're on the road to success.

Follow-Up Is VERY Important For Making Money Online

By: Alan Quan

I've actually sent this message out to my subscribers about what I learned from my marketing mentor who makes incredible income from just a few hours per day.

While I was sitting in my mentor's multi-million dollar home, one of the biggest thing I learned from him is following up with your customers constantly.

And when I say constantly - I mean every single day. Of course there are some days when you are busy and can't possibly send out a message, just be sure to not skip more than two days with your customers...

...otherwise they will be no better than strangers.

Now my preconceived notions was that sending an email everyday will turn people off...but he does it - and maybe that's why he's owns a multi-million dollar home.

He was SHOCKED that I didn't send out a message everyday to keep in contact with my subscribers, and this is how he put it:

Alan you are STUPID! Imagine this scenario ...

Let's say I met you at the mall and I introduced myself, "Hi, nice meeting you. Bye!"

And then a week later, "Oh yeah, nice seeing you again! How's everything?" The connection won't be the same.

You see you need to constantly be in contact with your customers - otherwise they forget they you exist - which means less sales for you!

Once I got into the habit of following up every single day - I get sales you won't believe.

HA! That's why I'm blowing you out of the water and you're trying to keep up with me, Alan.

Ohhh...what are you gonna do about it?"

So today, after getting some "tough love" from my mentor to slap some sense into me, you can be sure to hear from me and my thoughts more regularly - and you should do the same with your customers!

But a big challenge with sending out these personalized messages to you is the deliver-ability rate...

You see, what good is it if you have 10,000 subscribers and only 1,000 of these messages are actually sent to your reader's email? That's why THE MOST important thing you need to have with an autoresponder is how well they get your message through your prospects.

I don't care if you can find an autoresponder that is $10 cheaper with some extra function, the MOST important factor you MUST take into consideration is with the autoresponder company's deliver-ability rate!

Stop Making Excuses. Your Website Must Match Your Other Marketing Materials

By: Erin Ferree

At first glance the title of this article sounds obvious - that your website would look like all your other marketing materials. Of course that's just something that would have to happen, right? But I run into more and more entrepreneurs who want to break this rule. Creating a website that looks significantly different from all of your other marketing materials just tends to be a bad idea. I'm going to review the most common reasons I hear for breaking this cardinal rule. Then I'll tell you exactly why doing so would hurt your brand rather than help it.

The 4 reasons that I hear most often from entrepreneurs are:

- The web allows you to use as many colors as you want, without paying extra. Many forms of printing still charge per color of ink used and using more than 2 or 3 colors can get very expensive for small businesses. However the web allows you to use all the colors that you want, for free! Many entrepreneurs get very excited about this. They use every color they can think of throughout the site. And sometimes, they choose not to use the 2 or 3 colors that they've used in their print materials because they're sick of them. This results in a website that doesn't look anything like their other designed materials. This creates a "disconnect" for clients who come to your site from a reference of another piece. For example imagine someone's looking at your business card designed in black and red. Then they go to your website where there's some black and red, but also bright blue, gold, green and a touch of purple. They may think that the website belongs to a different company! It makes your visitor wonder if they're in the right place. And that can make you lose their trust.

A better way to use color online is to use the wider palette of colors available as secondary colors. If your printed materials are mostly blue and gold, that doesn't mean that you have to use only blue and gold in your website - but they should be the main colors used. Adding in highlights of khaki or green can look very nice and add more visual interest to your website. But if you choose green to be your main color for your website, it will be confusing.

Also, make sure that the extra colors you choose fit in with your brand. Make sure they communicate the messages you want to send out about your business. In other words, don't choose more colors just because you can. Make sure that there's a solid design reason and the psychology behind the colors you're adding to your palette makes sense.

Another way to add more color online is full-color photography. Stock photography is quite cheap and accessible to even the smallest businesses and can add a lot of pep and pizzazz to your tired color palette.

- Many entrepreneurs get bored with their designs, and use the web as an excuse to "mix it up". If you've had your materials designed for a while, it's not uncommon for you to be bored with them. No matter how innovative the design or how excited you were about it when it was created, this can happen. This boredom comes because you see your own marketing materials almost every day. Whether it comes from printing letters on your letterhead, handing out your cards at a networking event, looking at proposals with your brand on them, walking into your office and seeing your logo on the same old sign every day, or giving presentations off of your PowerPoint template - you see the same thing over and over. And it's natural. But I can almost guarantee you that unless you've been in business a very long time or you've been harassing your clients with constant marketing mailings, you're the only one who's bored of it.

Deciding to take a different design direction on your website is bad for your brand. It is bad because you need your site to be instantly recognizable as yours. Web surfers have notoriously short attention spans - if they click to your site, and it doesn't look right, they'll be off and away to another site in the blink of an eye. They won't stick around to read your copy, look at your logo, or to spend the time to figure out whether they are, in fact, in the right place.

- Some entrepreneurs don't have files of their logo! If you designed your materials a long time ago, and only got printed materials as a deliverable, this is certainly a valid problem. Your designer may also have gone out of business or changed their contact information. Or maybe you can't remember their name or number because it was so long ago! I've seen many entrepreneurs to create a different logo or masthead for their websites because they don't have the file for their logo close at hand.

If you still know who your designer is, I recommend contacting them and asking for a complete set of digital files of your logo.

It's a better solution and better for your brand, to look up your designer (even if it takes a bit of searching), or to have another designer re-create your logo as a digital vector artwork file, and to use that on your website.

- Some entrepreneurs think that websites must have a certain type of design element to look up-to-date and modern. It's true that your site does have to look clean, professional and well-designed. But it's not true that your website has to have one particular type of design to look current. Your site doesn't have to have textures, rounded corners, drop shadows, 3-dimensional styling or animated motion effects. Only use those effects if they reinforce and communicate your Brand Definition to your audience and are a part of your Visual Vocabulary.

Just using these elements because it's cool and "of-the-moment" isn't something that I recommend. It will dilute your brand and move your website away from the rest of your Visual Vocabulary.

If you're thinking of creating a website that looks drastically different from your other designed materials for any of these reasons, consider the consequences before moving ahead with a different design. It's often more valuable to have a matching website that extends and reinforces your brand than to create a design that looks too different.

10 Steps to Creating Your Online Business Disaster Plan

By: Donna Gunter

I'm a 2005 Hurricane Rita evacuee and fortunately made it through a hellish evacuation process and ensuing hurricane with hardly a scratch. Running from a hurricane and dealing with its landfall isn't something I've ever had to do before, nor is it something I'd ever like to do again. However, as an solo business owner, I'm quite thankful that I have an online business. The fact that I own a virtual company and can operate from anywhere that there's electricity and phone service was of great help to me in this disaster. It was a primary factor in helping me reopen my business a scant 4 days after the landfall of Hurricane Rita when so many brick-and-mortar businesses were still shuttered for weeks after the storm.

As an online business owner, what can you do to make your business disaster-proof? It seems that we have an increasing number of hurricanes making landfall in the coastal states, and add to that an increased number of other types of natural disasters like tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires, mud slides, ice storms, blizzards, etc. makes me think that there is no ideal location in which to operate a business. Accepting that natural disasters are here to stay, here's what I learned from my hurricane evacuation that helped me get my business back up and running quickly:

1. Know the location of your vital papers. You should be able to quickly put into a folder the following for you and your family:

--marriage license

--birth certificate for you and your children

--social security card

--bank account information, including bank routing number

--driver's license or state ID card

--car title/mortgage info and insurance contact info

--house deed/mortgage info and insurance contact info

--apartment lease or copy of a utility bill and renters insurance contact info

--employee ID card

If you have documentation of your home contents, bring that information as well. In a disaster, you'll be asked to prove where you live and that you are who you claim you are, especially when applying for disaster assistance. You may also have to initiate damage reports on property, so having those files at your fingertips will help you expedite the process.

2. Have an online backup of all of your computer data. I back up my computer in two ways--to an external portable hard drive as well as to an online backup service. I use both because my files are my livelihood -- I would be dead in the water without them -- so I want to leave absolutely no room to lose my data. For my external backup, I use a 100 GB portable drive made by Seagate, and for my online backup, I have unlimited backup available through Carbonite.com

You can also use an online office system, like CentralDesktop.com or OfficeZilla.com, to upload and store many of your data files, calendar events, or contacts you might need to access.

3. Create a file with vital contact information. I copied a file with all of my usernames and passcodes for websites, bank accounts, etc. to my USB flash drive (a key chain-like device with 4 GB of memory) as well as the physical and email addresses and all phone numbers of friends, clients and family members -- anyone I needed to contact during the evacuation period. I manage my passcodes using RoboForm2Go, www.roboform.com, a portable version of my password manager software. You'll also want to take along your children's school contact info to be able to check on the current operating status of your child's school, as well as local media website info. My lifeline in getting current information about my home city was through the websites of Beaumont's newspapers and television and radio stations. If you keep your contact info in Outlook and want to create an online backup, you can do so through Plaxo.com. All you need to access your info in Plaxo is a computer and to know your username and password.
4. Know the primary office/computer equipment that will be required to get your business up and running. I had operated with a minimal amount of my office equipment during this time due to my being a house sitter for a friend for 2 months. So, upon receiving the mandatory evacuation order, I knew that to run my business, I needed my desktop PC, flat panel monitor, wireless mouse and keyboard, speakers and associated cords, modems, router, backup portable external hard drive, office telephone and associated cords, laptop computer, printer, box of software, and scanner. It sounds like a great deal of equipment, but I packed it all into 2 boxes from U-Haul (1 small and 1 medium box). I knew I could work for at least 2 months comfortably with just this equipment.

5. Know the location of your primary paper files for your clients/business. I have 2 sets of files -- ones for the immediate short-term that I use frequently and my lateral file drawer files that are primarily reference files. I grabbed the contents of the two drawers of my 2-drawer file cabinet (which hold my immediate short-term files), all of which fit into one small U-Haul box.

6. Have a backup telephone plan. I wasn't sure what I was going to do for phone service for my business, as all of my clients are scattered across the US and in Canada. Just to be safe, I upgraded my cell phone plan, and had a prepaid calling card (purchased an AT&T calling card at SamsClub.com at my disposal if I needed it. As luck would have it, my hotel offered an unlimited Internet access/long distance plan for an additional $1.88 per day, so I happily signed up for that, saving myself a fortune in phone calls and Internet service fees.

I now have Vonage.com as my phone service, so in the event I had to evacuate again, I could take my office phone and Vonage modem with me and have phone service at my office number by simply plugging in my Vonage modem to my new Internet connection.

7. Have a backup Internet access plan. Since power restoration to my home was estimated at 2-8 weeks, I had to find temporary lodging. I looked for a hotel that offered high speed Internet access and was able to use their system for my Internet access. However, once I found the hotel, I also called the tech support of my DSL ISP and found the local dial-up numbers for the area in which the hotel is located. I never had to use the dial-up service, but it was good info to have. If you have cable or DSL Internet service, now is the time to discover alternate Internet access plans to be able to get online should your DSL or cable access be out-of-service. You should also know how to access your email online through your ISP if you don't have access to your computer. If your ISP doesn't offer a version of webmail, you can use this service free-of-charge, Mail2Web.com.

8. Bring along adequate office supplies for a month. I threw in pens, pencils, post-it notes, a calculator, stamps, envelopes, tape, stapler, paper clips, note pads, etc. that would last me at least a month while I was out of my office. I used a portable plastic file case to carry these items.
9. Outline your office procedures to help you operate independently or be able to delegate tasks. Instead of carrying your business operations info in your head or have it stored in various files across your computer, what makes more sense is to document all of your office procedures, as well as computer and client info, so that everything you need is in one document. I can then upload this doc to my Yahoo account, my backup files, or carry it with me on my USB flash drive.

10. Bring a digital camera to record the event and/or record damages to personal property. I wish I'd had a digital camera to record all that I witnessed during my evacuation from Hurricane Rita (I now own a Canon Powershot A630). My sister took tons of pics, but I would've loved to have had the same opportunity. More importantly, however, is the need for a digital camera to record damage to your home and property. In a wide-spread disaster, it can be at least a month, usually more, before your insurance adjuster will be able to assess damages to your property. In the meantime, however, you need to start repairs, like placing a tarp on your roof, boarding up broken windows, removing downed trees from your house or yard, or cleaning your refrigerator of spoiled food. In many cases, your insurance will cover the repairs or food replacement, but you need to carefully document the "before" scenario in order to receive compensation for your loss.

Don't let a natural disaster destroy your business. Take some time now to prepare your disaster-readiness plan, and get back into business as soon as you can!

The Most Important Website Usage Statistic

By: John Anghelache

How effective is your website at making sales?

One of the most important factors is to look at your website usage statistics and see how long people are staying on your site. Usually, the longer someone stays on your website the more likely they are to buy. Why is that?

The answer is simple. People searching online crave two things… and… one of them is content. Whether you have an e-commerce site or a simple sales site people still want good content before making a buying decision. Let’s look at how you can give them what they want in both cases.

For e-commerce sites providing good content goes beyond product description. You can also include helpful tips within your product description. Face it, most of the time, a product description makes for dry reading. It’s nothing more than a boring list of features. Spicing up the description with helpful tips will keep people on your web page. Tell them how they can use the product in various situations.

Which leads to another important point: What keeps people on your site is the… words. Yes, I know a lot of web designers insist on making sites with lots of bells and whistles. But it’s the words that keep the people engaged when shopping. Graphics, pictures and interactive stuff is nice if it somehow demonstrates the benefits of your product.

So each of your product descriptions should be written in a conversational style. And they should offer some helpful tips for using the product and deriving the maximum benefit from it. Again, video demonstrations are also a good idea to include but don’t rely on them solely. The words are what engage website visitors and persuade them to buy.

On the other hand, if you have a simple one-page mini sales site, your content must be valuable. Let me explain. The vast majority of sales sites are nothing more than obvious sales pitches. There is nothing wrong with that per se.

The problem is that a lot of people (once they realize the site is nothing more than sales talk) will just click away. To keep them on the site as long as possible you need another strategy. You need to include valuable information along with your sales message. For instance, you can give away some helpful information that the reader can actually use. And you can do this without disclosing proprietary information.

The whole point is to keep the website visitor’s attention on your site for as long as possible. You can accomplish this by making your site’s experience fun, somewhat entertaining and valuable. Make your product descriptions fun to read and give away tips that people can use to get the most out of the product you sell. Keep people engaged with good solid information. Add some graphics and even video that actually shows off the benefits of the product you’re selling.

If you do this you’ll notice your website usage statistics will show that people are spending a lot more time on your site. The more time they spend there the more chance you have of them buying something.

Why Website Traffic Is Hard To Get and What You Can Do About That

By: Jeff Schuman

To make money on the internet you need your own website or blog with your own domain name.

The longer you are online trying to make money the more apparent it will become to you that you need your own website or blog. Replicated ones do not cut it as the competition to be profitable increases.

Speaking of competition what is it we are competing for? Traffic, or as we think of it, visitors to your site. This is Internet marketing simplified. We put in the effort because were trying to get more traffic. This is a very easy principle to understand. You might think of it as Internet Marketing 101, or Internet Marketing for dummies.

My Internet business will beat your business everyday if I have more traffic. My website can be horrible in content and design, and I will still make more sales, get more subscribers to my newsletter, get more referrals, get more repeat traffic, and so on if I have more traffic than you.

Since I started marketing on the internet in 2002 getting traffic is the most written about subject I have seen. Do you get the idea that getting website traffic is going to be hard to do.

If you have a large budget for advertising you are still not guaranteed internet marketing success. You can waste as much money as you gain from your online promotion efforts.

For this reason I have always tried to think long term when I promote online. I like to ask myself this question. "Is what I am doing today going to benefit me in the future?"

I have always tried to go for as much free or nearly free traffic as possible. I put my emphasis on getting links back to my site as many ways as possible. For me that has meant article marketing, social networking, forum marketing, blogging, and email marketing to my opt in list.

This is a bunch of work to do it this way. Getting a link back to your site one at a time is time consuming. That would be pay per click advertising. Getting my website address on someone else's web page takes effort.

That is probably why search engines reward you so much for doing it. Anyone with money can buy their traffic. To earn it takes some skill and a lot of elbow grease so to speak. But for a long term solution to getting traffic you have to understand it will take effort and then buckle down and do it.

Hopefully this article will help you understand how hard getting traffic is going to be and how much work is in store for you. But the rewards are huge for those of you willing to do just that. Every backlink is potential traffic for years and years to come. That is exciting!

Facts About New MLM Pre Launch Information

By: Susan Parker

In every MLM company, there is one very common fact of life that relates to every entrepreneur: during the new MLM launch, whoever gets in first has the largest advantage!

However, there's more to it than just getting in first in a new MLM launch. A good business decision should be made based on the founders of the MLM company, as well as the strength of the compensation plan of the new MLM launch. The new MLM launch company should be closely scrutinized. The importance of mass market appeal for the new MLM launch and the demand for the product/products are an absolute must. The highly attractive product(s) & a well-planned compensation plan linked to a new MLM launch company will bring hope of financial freedom, making it very possible to create a team of excited distributors and consumers. The goal of creating passive income with a new and innovative product is the biggest reason MLM entrepreneurs get into an MLM pre-launch.

A charismatic hard-worker can still do well with a top MLM company that is 5-10+ years old. A 5 year old company that is well established can be a fine choice for many. The compensation plan has had plenty of time to be proven, there are usually many business building tools, and there are many mentors available to help with encouragement and proven strategies. Keep in mind this fact; 90% or better of the top earners that get involved with a new MLM company launch, do so within the first 1-3 years of the new MLM company's existence. The new launch MLM company has not had the time for proper due diligence, usually has very few business building tools, and its pioneers may experience rocky times. However, the new launch MLM company, with the proper management and an awesome founding team makes a way for a trusting entrepreneur to become a top earner very quickly. Being one of the first to have the opportunity to learn about the new MLM and take advantage of the timing of the new launch through massive action, gives the MLM entrepreneur the best chance for success.

A wise entrepreneur will investigate the new MLM launch or pre-launch and do their due diligence on the new opportunity. When they find the criteria above is met, they will get involved in the first year. So, do your due diligence on the new MLM launch company. Check into the integrity of the founders, the compensation plan, and the product or products. If all the criteria is met, be sure to take immediate and massive action with your New MLM choice and you will like the results!

I Want a Home Business But...What is right for me?

By: David Lewis

Beware of the Fluff. They seem like great companies, they have a good sales pitch and their comp plan looks good too. They have big corporate offices and have been around for years. Isn't that good? Any company out there that sells products like lotions, potions, pills, miracle juices or miracle gas saving products usually doesn't work for the average person for many reasons.

Those companies usually make most of their money from you, the distributor, not from selling the products. They have you on auto ship, so you are their income.

They only pay about 2% to 15% so many levels deep. They will tell you that when you fill the matrix, you won't have to do anything and you'll be making 20 to 40k a month. The truth is, there are so many loop holes to their comp plans that no body ever reaches those levels. You either will have too many people on your left, but not enough on your right side to make the higher level payouts. They tell you that you need more personal volume and your group volume is fine or vice versa, or my favorite, you had fallout this month, so you no longer qualify for that car bonus we promised you about.

They make you hold home parties to push your crap on your friends. Listen to me"¦..If I wanted weight loss, I'd go to GNC. If I wanted Lotions, I'd go to CVS, Save on, Nordstrom or Bullocks. If I wanted to put additives in my gas tank, I'd go to Kragen, Chief or Pep Boys and buy a product from STP or Penzoil. You get what I mean"¦.?

They are a copy cat company of the original company. How many companies out there are selling a juice that is based from the Acai Berry, Goji berry or the Mangosteen fruit? How many of those promise to cure cancer? What a joke? Is our society that ignorant that if something actually cured cancer, wouldn't we want to check it out? How many travel companies are there now? How many fuel additives are there now? How many of those have been shut down? How many make up, skin lotions and vitamin companies are there out there?

It just seems like there is so many junk companies on the internet, how do you what is good and what is not? Some of these companies above actually have a good product, but I would never go in business with them.

So, how do I choose a business that I can profit from and that I can be proud to represent?

When I evaluate a company, I look for these key points. Keep in mind, when I join a company, my #1 goal is to make money and to do it legitimately. I do not want to hurt anyone or rip anyone off. This is what I've learned and these guidelines will help you determine what company is right for you.

If you are not making at least 75% of the upfront commission when you make a sale, forget it. This means that you are doing all the work and the company and/or the person above you is making all the money.

If you have to have 1000, 10,000 or 20,000 people in your organization before you make any real money. DO NOT Join. Most people will NEVER get there.

If they teach you to hold home parties and invite all your friends. Run away fast.

If they have a sales pitch 2-3 times a day and only 2-3 training classes per week. This means that the company is more interested in selling you than training you how to make money long term

If you can't break even or get into profit with 3 sales, forget it.

If you can't speak with the owners or the corporate office via phone or webinar, Forget it. I like to know who I am doing business with before I will do business with them.

If it is a start up or in pre launch, forget. The chances of these companies becoming the next Amway is about as good as winning the lottery. At least with the lottery, you have a chance to win once or twice a week. You might as well go to Vegas and blow your money on a good time. At least you'll have some great memories, see a great show and have a great meal.

These are not all the rules for success on the internet, but this is a great guideline to follow when evaluating an internet company.

Capitalize on The Growing Expired Domain Name Trend

By: Richard Weber

-- What Makes Expiring Domain Names So Good? --

In short, expired domain names are a GOLDMINE. Better still, this is a goldmine on complete autopilot because you are able to leverage the promotional efforts of thousands of other people.

First of all, for those of you who may not know exactly what a domain name is, whenever you see YourWebsite.com or YourBlog.net, that is a domain name. In order to get a domain name for a website or a blog you need to register it with an appropriate company called a 'domain name registrar.'

Domain names are pretty cheap (about 8 bucks a pop or so), and there are tens of thousands registered every single day.

When you register a domain name, this is not a permanent thing. Rather, you will register a domain name for a certain period of time, anywhere from one ot ten years usually.

Most people choose to register a domain name for only one year at a time, and in this case the domain name must be constantly renewed in order for the owner to keep it. Many times, when a domain name is approaching its expiration date, the owner will simply choose not to renew it.

-- How You Can Cash In On The Expired Domain Name Trend --

So that is all well and good, but WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH MAKING MONEY??

Here is where the cool part comes in:

Every year or few years, the owner of a domain name must pay a registration fee or else the domain name itself will be back in the marketplace where anybody can buy it.

There are many reasons why an owner of a domain name would not renew it, including that they simply did not realize it was going to expire, they got sidetracked with other business ventures, or they simply decided that they did not want it anymore.

Here's the rub: Due to the previous owner's promotion, there is still alot of traffic and visitors being directed to a domain name when it expires!

If you can redirect the traffic going to the expired domain name to your own website, you have a constant stream of new visitors coming to your site every day on autopilot.

If, as an individual or even a small business, you set out to acquire some expiring domain names for yourself, you would have a very difficult time going about this. It requires a sizeable amount of capital to be able to get into the expired domain name game an a large scale, and it is only on a large scale that you have massive success.

This is just a simple principle from Economics 101, people! ECONOMIES OF SCALE, which means the little guy doesn't stand a chance. It's the same reason that nobody can compete with Wal-Mart, because they have such a huge amount of working capital.

But, like the title of this section suggests, there IS a great way for the little guy to cash in on expired domain name traffic. There are several big companies out there that will buy lots of expiring domain names, and over time they come to accumulate tens of thousands of daily visitors that they can rediirect.

But instead of keeping this goldmine of traffic to themselves, they will allow anybody to submit their own website address and have some traffic redirected their way, which is very affordable and efficient for the little guy with a small budget.

This can be a great option for anybody who has a quality website but lacks a steady stream of visitors, as this is among the cheaper yet still effective of all marketing options.

--Picking A Good Company To Get Traffic From --

I will say right now up front that it IS possible to be scammed in this arena. Be on the lookout for unscrupulous companies who pander to the hopes and dreams of aspiring internet marketers, and then run away with their cash.

What is it that differentiates a legitimate company from a scam in this area? For starters, a legit expired domain name company will always have testimonials on their site from the previous satisfied customers.

A legit company will also be very upfront about what their entire operation is, and they will explain it in terms that even an internet newbie can understand. A scam company will take the approach of providing little quality information, perpetuating the illusion that they know alot about this industry and you should just trust them on this point and hand over your credit card info.

Basically, if you have spent a decent amount of time surfing the web, you will have developed an intuitive sense of when a site 'just doesn't feel right.' So if you feel any internal alarms going off, simply click off the site and make sure you don't give them your money. Most likely there will be absolutely no return on investment.

Creating Your First Clickbank Product

By: Pawel Reszka

You have a digital product (or many digital products) you wish to sell. You've designed (or paid someone to design) a beautiful website to display your products. You get a couple hits here and there but realize you need to do more to get that product out where it is seen by a lot of people. The solution is using affiliates. Affiliates are people who make money by promoting your products. Unlike other sources of advertising, when you use affiliates you don't pay them unless there is actually a sale, so you never spend money on advertising that doesn't result in income for you.

Where to find the affiliates? ClickBank is a company that for a small fee, provides affiliates with access to your website to check out your products who can then direct potential customers to your site. When there is a sale ClickBank collects the payment, pays the affiliate and sends you your share so you don't need to do any extra work.

Registering with ClickBank is a simple procedure where you fill out a couple forms with your basic contact information for payment, name, address, phone, email, website address etc. You never need to worry, as they do not ask for any sensitive information.

To get started you tell ClickBank about your product and once they approve it you negotiate your suggested retail price. All products are listed at less than fifty dollars unless there has been a special arrangement decided before the product is listed.

There are guidelines you must follow. You have to maintain a website, you must have certain pages in that website. One of the "must have" pages for your website is the Pitch (or Sales) page where you will let the customer know what they are getting and why they want it then directing the customer to the ClickBank Order page to make payment arrangements. The other is the Thank You page only seen once the order has been accepted. These two pages have to be under your own domain name.

ClickBank only allows digitally delivered products and/or printed materials that are not necessary to the downloaded material. The materials must be such that you can download within 24 hours of purchase. You must be willing and able to provide phone numbers and/or email addresses for technical support where there is a live person who will respond within one working day. Your support pages must be on your website and in English and your products must comply with all state, federal and FTC regulations as regards disclosure, consumer protections and all other topics. Honesty in your advertising is a must, nothing misleading or ambiguous.

A few of the big "do not's" are: Do not let anyone other than the customer be allowed to enter orders, credit card or bank information. Do not use Pop-up commercials or spamming and no Sale of multi-level memberships, franchises, pornographic material, spy ware, etc. is allowed.

ClickBank reserves the right to terminate the membership of any vendor who violates their rules and regulations at any time.

Are You Getting Maximum Impact with MySpace?

By: Randal Williams

Are you getting maximum impact with MySpace? With more and more community websites popping up where people can create a profile and represent themselves as they want, no wonder it can be difficult to get the maximum impact with such communities as MySpace. Let's face it; everyone has likes and dislikes as well as concerns and certain interests, so you can really build a good social network on MySpace. They can focus on their interests and let themselves be heard by others in their network.

This is all a great thing for businesses in particular as they can get a great deal of feedback from a large targeted group of people. It is a smart idea for businesses to invest some time to keeping up with these social networks as they can play an important role in making or breaking someone. Take time to consider the options for social networks that are available to you and see who has the most in an audience that is interested in what you have to offer. That would be the one you want to be active with.

Perhaps one of the best ways to meet your goals is to visualize what market you are trying to reach. Sit down and make a list of who you want to target, what kind of people are they, what do they look like? You can go down to the very details of such things as what kind of car they drive and what they do for a living. This will help you to get a better perspective on your social networks once you have the details ironed out.

Another great tool that you can use with social networking is video and audio blogs. Once you get these tools down, you will see your business grow. When you use such tools as the video and audio feeds, you can give your targeted audience a better understanding of what you have to offer. It gives them a feeling of seeing it first hand. Social networks like MySpace can help you to build trust with your audience and it also give them a place to communicate with you. Most every person loves to be interactive with the social networks and if give them a sense that they have contributed to something that they value.

So when looking into social networks such as MySpace you want to be sure that you are getting the maximum impact with your services. You want o reach the right audience and give them the sense that they are a part of what you are offering. You will find that your sales will soar and your clients will grow. Social networks are definitely the way to go to reach people from all over the world. This is a great way to go worldwide.

What is Article Marketing and How Do I Use It?

By: Cindy Dykstra

Article marketing can be described as writing articles and submitting them to directories to generate backlinks for your web site. Article marketing is a proven way to establish yourself as an expert, increase web site traffic, generate leads and improve your search engine rankings.

While article marketing is one of the most effective forms of on-line advertising, it is one such method that is often overlooked by business owners. The business or web site owner who does take advantage of article marketing has a leg up on their competition.

Article marketing has several benefits, including establishing yourself as an expert, lead generation, increased site traffic and improved search engine rank. How does this work? Let's explore each of these benefits.

Establishing Expert Status

To get the most from your article marketing efforts, the articles you write should pertain to what you do for a living and what you want to promote. Just like your local store owner who recommends a particular product or answers questions about using one, sharing information with readers sets the impression in their mind that you are experienced and knowledgeable. They will begin to trust your advice and look to you for further guidance.

Lead Generation

After reading an informative article, readers often look for more information. At the end of each article, there is what's called a "Resource Box" or "Author Bio". This is where the author gets to give some information about themselves, request the reader to take action and provide a link for them to follow. Since the reader has already shown an interest in the material in the article, clicking that link is the natural progression. This link can be used to drive visitors to a specific product page or a newsletter sign-up form

Increased Site Traffic

Article marketing is a proven traffic producing strategy. Each article can be republished thousands of times, gaining interest and attention and a further reach. When you submit a site to a search engine or a directory, it takes a while before it gets listed and the effects start to show in the way of increased traffic. Writing and submitting articles to directories which see large amounts of traffic can generate increased traffic to your web site in a short amount of time.

Improved Search Engine Rank

Each article you publish with a link to your website is considered by the search engines to be an incoming link for your site. The combination of increased traffic and interest, and a respectable number of incoming links will produce a higher page rank and better listings in search engine result pages for a web site.

Successful article marketing requires you to write and publish consistently but the secret value that article marketing holds is in the fact that one well-written, interesting article can generate literally thousands of visitors and revenue over time. The more quality articles you write, the more quality, targeted traffic you receive.

You can dramatically cut your Internet marketing budget by using article marketing to establish credibility for your web site and build incoming links from high ranking web sites. All of this in turn creates high page ranks for your website and creates more search engine traffic for you. Article marketing is and always has been one of the best methods a business owner could use to promote their web site.

Online Opportunities - The Best Way To Start A Home Business

By: Pasi Kaarakainen

Have you been searching for online opportunities? If so, there is a good chance that you are considering starting your own home business. This may sound like a large undertaking on the surface, but did you know that thousands of people start a home business every day? This is not to say that it is easy to do, but if they can get started, there is no reason that you can too. The first thing that you need to do is to consider between many online opportunities that are available to you and to decide what kind of home business you want. It is very important that you are interested in what ever you are doing, otherwise you are going to get bored and eventually you will give up.

One of the most popular online opportunities is starting a website. This is something that a lot of people pass by for their home business because they think that they need to have a lot of technical knowledge. And while you do need to know some about computers and the internet, anybody can take advantage of this online opportunity if they are willing to put their mind to it. In fact, there are teenagers who make a good bit of money with a great website. As you can imagine, if the younger generation can start a home business you should be able to work just as hard to reach the same plateau.

Another online opportunity to look into is setting up an online store. In other words, you will sell stuff online as opposed to setting up a land based store. This is a great way to control your costs while also getting into a line of work that interests you. The great thing about this online opportunity is that you can either sell your own products, or you can use a drop shipping service to sell somebody else's. Either way, an ecommerce store is a great home business idea if you are interested in pushing products.

Finally, look into online opportunities that offer a service. This can be anything from a freelance writer to a web site or graphic designer. No matter what you like to do, there is a good chance that you can market your services online, and in turn, start a home business that already suits your needs. When your business is based around your current interests you will have a much better chance of succeeding from day one.

With so many online opportunities to choose from, it is up to you to find the one that you can make happen. A home business is not always easy to set up, but if you ask the thousands of people who have succeeded with this, they will tell you that it is well worth the time and effort. The bottom line is that there is an online opportunity waiting for you. Go out and grab it!

Clickbank Supertips To Increase Sales

By: Pawel Reszka

There are many books out there that you can purchase that will give you a great deal of information for making a success of your ClickBank business. Two of those are "ClickBank Supertips for Vendor"s and ClickBank Supertips for Affiliates". These were both written by Harvey Segal specifically for affiliates and vendors of ClickBank. Mr. Segal has thoroughly researched ClickBank, reading and re-reading the information on the site and the ClickBank Success Forum gathering and organizing tons of information into a helpful, easy to use guide to running a profitable business. Whether you are an affiliate or a vendor or both the contents of this book will go a long way to helping you develop a profitable business that you can actually enjoy running.

For vendors it will give you good solid reasons for developing your own products, and will introduce positive arguments for writing your own e-books as well as directions for creating your own software (as the book will show, you don't have to be a professional programmer).

If you prefer to use products that someone else has already gone through all the trouble to develop he will give you constructive information teaching you about pricing, showing you the proper ways to provide for affiliate links to lessen the chances of commission theft and methods for keeping more than one product or account running smoothly.

ClickBank Supertips will also fill you in on how to monitor your advertising and how you can figure and keep track of the return you are getting for your investment. He will give you tips for getting approval for products that are over the fifty-dollar limit, and shows you what to watch out for so you don't find yourself inadvertently breaking any rules that could end up costing you.

There is a section on "rebranding rights", and a section telling you how to enlist more affiliates the right way. He will inform you what to do if you find that you are a victim of commission theft, how to protect yourself from product theft and what to do about refund requests.

For affiliates the book will show you where the products are (even those that aren't listed in the Marketplace) how to decide which ones are worth promoting (you can't always judge by the Marketplace ranking as there are a lot of good products with a deceptively low rank) finding products that have only just been released and the best methods of getting the product out there and bringing the customers in.

The book will teach you about the tools you will need that are not provided by Clickbank so you will be able to track how many visitors you're getting on your links and tools that will enable you to make sure your link is not being stolen.

As with the vendors you will receive information on what to do if ClickBank is experiencing down time, how to get paid for bringing in vendors and useful information regarding how you get paid by ClickBank. One book, tons of information.

“7 Keys to EDC Gold’s Success"

By: Dario Victor Carrera

You may have looked at EDC Gold a business opportunity or know someone who is in already. Actually, you've most likely seen all the advertising out there about people saying things like "I make $45,000.00 in my first 30 days" and other kinds of claims.

While not all claims are true, most about EDC Gold are! Yes, top earners are making $50,000.00+ a month. But no one has done that in their first month not even the top earners .So why this much money, why are EDC Gold members most likely to succeed?

Key # 1 100% commissions from all your sales

From every person you sponsor, you get 100% commissions. This gives you the greatest chance to succeed online. That means you could spend $400.00 on marketing per enrollee and still make $597.00 profit. EDC Gold is the pioneer of this system and has many copy cats out there already.

Key # 2 Three Price Points

3 price points. $997, $397, $69 are the three different levels in which you can enroll in. With other programs out there like Jaguar-Predator Marketing System in which you their top level is $4000.00, EDC Gold is more accessible to the masses. This gives you a greater chance to converting prospects into members.

Key # 3 Owners of EDC Gold Are Accessible.

Michael Corcoran and Craig Garcia have their telephone numbers available for anyone to call. This is unheard of and gives the company tremendous credibility and potential members the security they are looking for.

Key # 4 High Converting Websites

The corporate websites available are excellent and have a very high conversion ratio. There are over 14 sites available; some are directed at different niches on order to respond directly to those markets. You can a look at all the web site available before you join by taking a free tour of the back office.

Key # 5 Relevant Products

There are over $20,000.00 worth of e-books and software that help you and teach you How to promote your online business. These products correlate perfectly with this business Opportunity.

Key # 6 Unmatched Training and Support

No other company provides more training for its members than EDC Gold. One such Training day is given by a publicly traded corporation that specializes in helping big corporations with their online marketing especially ad word campaigns. They also have a direct line with Google. Only a select few have Google's direct number. Other training schedules Top income earners in the company. Most are given by the owners Craig and Michael.

Key # 7 the It Factor.

Some people have "it" some people don't. The "It" factor is the passion, commitment, Conviction, desire. EDC Gold's owners have the "it" factor. Just listen in on a training Call and you can see for yourself. To listen in on an opportunity call, visit the website below for more information. With the Kind of training EDC members receive, any average Joe can make a six-figure income if they have the desire and commitment.

The Three P’s of Internet Prosperity

By: Seppo Lamsa

Whether your home business is an Internet home business where your sole venture is making money online, or you work at home servicing local customers, you still need Internet marketing.

No matter what your own home business ideas or the home business opportunities of others you use to make money online, you're going to have to promote that home business primarily through the Internet. About the only time your work at home wouldn't involve Internet marketing is if you had an at home job working for someone else and your job tasks didn't involve marketing.

For most of you who work at home, however, Internet marketing is a must.

If you will remember the three P's of Internet marketing you will succeed. These are Patience, Perseverance, and Punctuality. Let's take a look at why each of these is important to your Internet home business.

Patience is crucial if you are to succeed at your home business. While there are plenty of folks on the Web offering home business opportunities that will make you vast amounts of money in incredibly short time periods with very little outlay of money and just a few hours of work each week, don't believe what they say. It's just not true. Growing a home business – growing any business – takes a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a fair amount of upfront costs. It's vital that you don't buy into what can only be a frustrating experience, and a loss of time and money, by launching one of the business opportunities that promise big bucks tomorrow. You must assume, no matter what your home business, that you will not make enough money online to "give up your day job" and really live off your work at home income for 2-3 years. If you can't keep you and your family in sound financial shape through other means, then you must find funding that will do so, or just wait until you can before starting your home business.

Perseverance is crucial to a successful Internet business. Products, tools and even some of consumer's demands and expectations for the Internet change almost daily. You must stay on top of those changes. It's not enough to set up your Web site, put your URL on major search engines, create your blog and place your ads and then just wait for the money to roll in. Your Web site must offer continually changing content; you must update your promotional materials often and continually search out new advertisers and sponsors in order to encourage new and repeat traffic. If your search engine optimization includes paid search engines (and it should) you'll have to keep a continual eye on where your home business site falls in search results and re-bid as needed. Your blog should have some change daily, even if it's only minimal. The more often you add new material the greater your repeat traffic.

This brings us to Punctuality. Whether you are trying to make money online or at a brick and mortar location, or through the old fashioned snail mail print catalog method there is one maxim that has rung true for decades – and will probably still be true one or two centuries from now. It is far easier to keep and grow profits from a current customer than it is to find a new one. While you certainly want new customers you also want to pay attention to your local customers too. These folks are the ones to bring in many of your new customers, after all. Punctuality is the key to repeat traffic. If you are going to update your Web content, do so on a regular basis. Do it at the same time each day, the same day each week. Let your loyal viewers know that your Internet business site will have a brand new product launch, or a new business executive profile, or a new column out by 6am each Tuesday – and then don't let it be 6:05 by the time it's visible. This makes for loyal and repeat customers. Better yet, introduce your weekly sale or your weekly promotions at the same time of the same day each week and watch your traffic –and your revenue - skyrocket.

The basic tools for marketing your Internet home business are article writing, search engine optimization, e-newsletter or e-zines, direct mail and affiliations. None of these, however, will work if you don't practice the three P's of Patience, Perseverance and Punctuality.

Are You an Entrepreneur?

By: Wendy Stevens

You want to start your own work from home business and make a real life for you and your family – one that doesn't consist of all the demands of the corporate world. But do you have what it takes to be a real entrepreneur? Whether you get going by doing direct sales in a multi-level marketing company, have your own product which you will attempt to sell online, or want to become a business coach for others, you have to do some self-examination so you won't fall on your face.

Naturally, there will be no guarantees that you can make it. You, as an entrepreneur and simply by the definition of this alone, will have to assume all the risks of your new business. But if you engage in excellent planning, prepare yourself for delivering an excellent product or service, and keep intelligent self-council, you can make your dreams come true.

You must know what your strengths are and mentally validate your abilities. This is so you don't get discouraged too easily. For instance, if you are in direct sales and you know you are great at closing sales on the phone, you must always keep this in mind, and put your all into your calls and making sales.

Of course, you also must be aware of your weaknesses. Maybe you are good at sales but poor at recruiting other sales reps – as in multi-level marketing. Know what your weakness is and work out step-by-step how you can either overcome it, or get someone to do that function for you. There are always solutions. Entrepreneurs overcome and squelch their problems.

If you aren't a self-starter, it's time you figured out how you can attain this attitude. It's important for someone who is going to work from home to be able to get the ball rolling when it stops. You can't procrastinate and expect success.

There are many different relationships you will have with many different personalities. Can you deal with them and get along with all types of people? You will have to communicate with customers, possibly vendors and other professionals such as bankers, attorneys and accountants. If you need assistance in learning to deal with any lines in your new business, perhaps business coaching could help you learn how to cope.

Customer complaints will happen no matter what sort of business you are doing in your work from home enterprise. Do you know how to deal tactfully with someone who is upset?

Even though you will face 12-hour workdays, you can plan out and organize your work at home business to be everything you need. Study how others deal with problems, and learn how to confront and handle them. You will be a success as an entrepreneur and achieve what you desire.

How To Protect Yourself From ClickBank Commission Theft

By: Pawel Reszka

As with any business if there is a way for someone to steal they will find it. It is up to you to protect yourself from fraud. If another affiliate were to get hold of your vendor I.D., it would be a simple matter to remove your affiliate I.D. and insert his or her own.

Affiliates are very important to vendors and those vendors need to take steps to assure that their links are not visible to customers browsing their website. A couple of viable precautions are using a redirect link, or a cloaking code. There are also programs which the vendors can purchase that will allow him or her to offer the affiliates security such as Hop Guard. Your business relies heavily upon affiliates channeling buyers to your site and Hop Guard encrypts the affiliate's link so that they can be assured that no one will make off with their commissions. There are cloaking programs available, one such is Affiliate Cloner another is Affiliate Shield. These programs provide you with a way to cloak your link so that your affiliate I.D. does not show. If it can't be seen it can't be changed. Click Mate is a program that focuses on linking all your affiliates to all of your products along with giving you the ability to notify all of your affiliates when you have a new product. Click Mate also helps with tracking and security.

Using products like these will show your affiliates that you are a real professional who is concerned about providing the security they need to be able to do their jobs. Easy to use, the affiliate merely has to enter his link and an encrypted link will be immediately assigned to them. Nothing is 100% foolproof but these are some of the best on the market.

In another scenario, which although unethical isn't technically fraud, a customer of yours, once on the publishers site could simply click an available link and sign up as an affiliate themselves and purchase under his or her own I.D. instead of yours. Some of the things a publisher can do to protect their affiliate's commissions from this kind of dealing would be to find ways to make it less probable that someone will see the links.

They can put the links on a page that is separate from the ordering pages. Make certain that these are pages that a search engine will not try to index. As an example, you could put the links on the FAQ's page. You can also set up pages separate from the ordering areas where the affiliate program is explained and visitors to your site are told that the program is available and they only need to contact you for further information. Another solution would be a separate page that the affiliates link to, which would still have all of your information and the order link, leaving your vendor page intact where you could safely have things like the sign up link for new affiliates since the buyers sent by your affiliates would not end up on that page.

7 Routine Maintenance Steps For Your Website

By: Larry Lang

You've invested the time to create great looking, compliant web pages. Now what? Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance. You'll find that just as it is well worth your time and money to create an attractive, compliant website that is search engine friendly, you've got to maintain your site to keep it that way.

Your website is a reflection of you and/or your business. What does your website say about you? Missing or broken links, outdated information, and missing images are just a few of the things that can make your site look unprofessional, as well as affect your search engine ranking.

Your webmaster may offer maintenance services, but here are seven steps that you can perform yourself to make sure your web pages are – and remain - W3C compliant.

1. Each time you change a page, be sure to update the keywords. You may be adding something or changing text and you want to make sure your keywords reflect the changes.

2. Keep the html/xhtml code clean and remove old code when not in use. Cluttered or improper html code will have an adverse effect on your search engine rankings.

3. Color schemes can date your site. Adjust the colors of your site as they become outdated, and keep in mind that different monitors pick up colors differently.

4. When pages are changed, always check the links to make sure they work, and check for outdated links. Links that don't work make your site look unprofessional, and visitors won't stay long if it doesn't look like your site is up to date.

5. Be sure to keep current backup copies of all of your web pages on your computer or an external backup drive. None of us plans for technical difficulties or site crashes, but we all know they can happen. Don't leave your business at the mercy of your webhosting account. By keeping copies of your web pages, you will be able to shorten the amount of time it takes to get back up and running in case of a calamity.

6. Always check changes to your site with at least 2 browsers; for example Internet Explorer and Firefox. You may be surprised at the differences you see.

7. Review your pages after making changes to be sure that they look the way you want them to. Also be sure to validate the code and validate the CSS each time you make changes.

Keeping your site fresh, updated, and working properly will ensure not only more traffic, but more returning traffic. So take the time to review and maintain your website regularly.

Quick and Easy Ways to Get Articles For Your Site

By: Jeanette Cates

If you are new to Internet marketing, one of the best approaches you can take is to set up a blog. A blog is quick to set up, costs next to nothing, and is easy to maintain. So for most starters, this is the type of website they set up first.

But immediately after that, the instructions tell you to "Publish an article every day for the first month." And while this is a good idea to get the notice of the search engines and to start to build some readership, most people panic at the idea of writing 30 articles.

Here are four approaches you can use.

Idea #1: Use other peoples' articles. Go to an ezine directory site and choose up to the maximum number of articles or 30 articles, whichever is less.

For example, my favorite article directory is ezinearticles.com They have a limit of 25 articles published on a single site. (Check the publishers' guidelines for the latest information.) But they also have an easy-to-use Publisher's interface that makes it easy to grab articles with minimal formatting required.

There are hundreds of article directory sites. Just search for "your keyword articles" in Google (no quotes).

For each article, write a short introductory paragraph and publish it on your site. Be sure to link to the author's site from the resource box at the end of the article. That's their "payment" for providing you with complimentary content.

Schedule the articles to go out once a day and you have 25-30 days of content - quickly and easily.

Idea #2: Use PLR (Private Label Rights) content. These are articles and ebooks that you have the right to claim as your own. In all instances you want to rewrite these into your style. But they give you a lot of content to start.

To find PLR content, look for "yourkeywords + PLR" in Google. They are generally offered in "packs" of articles, so you will get 10-50 articles at once. That's more than enough to get you started!

Idea #3: Use Wikipedia. Wikipedia provides content that is free to use, so you can create your own articles from it.

Look up your topic in wikipedia then start chopping the content into short articles. Remember, an online article is typically 400-700 words. So you can grab pieces of this content, rewrite as needed, and post it.

When you're using Wikipedia, remember to get related articles. For example, if there are famous people associated with your content, then include short biographies and articles about them.

Idea #4: Use News Items. Set up a subscription to your topic in Google News. You specify the keyword phrase on the topic on which you want to stay current. You'll receive a daily email with all of the headlines on that topic. You can click on any of them to read the full story.

You can then write a short article on any given news item - or in some cases, post the news release in its entirety.

Remember that using a combination of these approaches provides a good content mix for your site. So start with one method, perfect that, then go to the next one. Don't fall into the trap of trying to do all four from the start. Master one, then move on.

And remember, enjoy the process. You'll be learning more as you go - and you'll be providing a valuable service to your readers.

Pay Per Click Need to know

By: Shonda Miles
Running an online business you may have already discovered that there are several cornerstones to be used in promoting your business and leading it to success. There are of course such crucial things as creating and designing your web site, filling it out with valid content, making it effective and easy to use for your consumers.

However, all these things by themselves would not actually lead you to success in the online business, because one of the key cornerstones you need for your web site to start producing revenues is generating valid traffic of your target consumers to it. And Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the way to do it.

Of course, there are several possible opportunities for carrying out successful online advertising campaigns and there are many tools that can help you to do your Search Engine Optimization. First, we will take a look at the Pay Per Click (PPC) online advertising and traffic generating tool and see how it works and what it can actually do for promoting your web site and business online.

The term "Pay Per Click" is closely related with two other online advertising terms such as "Keywords" and "Sponsored links". When doing your Search Engine Optimization using PPC you select the Keywords - the words that best characterize your business, products, services or web site content - and use them in your text ads or Sponsored links.

The Keywords you select for your PPC Search Engine Optimization should be the ones that most likely would be used by your target consumers, when carrying out their online searches for the products, services, companies or information they are looking for. Than these Keywords are placed in your text ads and in your web site content, so that your target consumers would be able to find your web site and your company online.

These Sponsored links are placed by the Search Engines next or above the other natural search results. This way your target consumers can find your web site by clicking those links and landing on it.

Basically, this means you pay for your ads only when somebody actually clicks on one of them. Obviously, that is why it is called Pay Per Click advertising. This Search Engine Optimization tool is quite potent in generating valid traffic for your web site and has quite high level of Returns on Investment (ROI).

The prices for Pay Per Click keywords start with 0.01 $ and come up to 0.50 $. However, some of the best and most "valuable" and rated keywords may cost much more. Another advantage of the Pay Per Click Search Engine Optimization is that the Keywords are mainly used in the text ads and the efficiency rate of such ads is much higher than that of the graphic or banner ones.

Now, there are several Search Engines that work with this kind of online advertising. Here we will take a look at the Top Ten Pay Per Click ones. In the year 2007 such Search Engines as Google Adwords, Yahoo formerly Overture and MSN adCenter head the list of the Top Ten Pay Per Click advertising operators. Google Adwords, for instance, offers excellent and easy to use PPC tools, which allow advertisers not only to select the best fitting keywords, but also to price and test them.

Here is the list of some of the other Top Ten Pay Per Click Search Engines you may turn to for carrying out your PPC advertising campaigns. The three top ones are Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing formerly Overture and MSN adCenter. Than there follow ABC Search, SearchFeed, 7Search, MIVA, Enhance Interactive, Findology, Microsoft adCenter and Ask.com. All of these PPC tools have the minimal amount of money you have to deposit to use and bid on them. However, some of them offer significant bonuses as well.

Start an Online Business: The Internet Marketer’s Checklist

By: Joel Christopher Remandaban

Are you new to the internet marketing business? In no particular order, I am giving you some of the things you need to have if you really want to be able to make it in the internet marketing business. There are many things you can use, but here we give you the basic checklist with which you can begin.

Email Of course, you cannot really expect to have an internet marketing business in full blast if you do not have a spacious and easy to organize email account. Emails are quite easy to create. But you must be able to create filters. It is most advisable to create a separate email account for your personal and business needs.

Website A website is important because that is where you put your squeeze page, present your products and update on your prospects. A good web host costs only a few dollars a year, so make sure you have this accounted for already even before you begin your launch.

Products What else will you be promoting if it it weren’t for the product? Your products will be the vehicle with which you will earn money. You will not be able to call yourself a true internet marketer if you do not have products so make sure you have decided on them already.

Outsourced Experts Writers, web designers and programmers are just some of the key people you need in your internet marketing business. If you are able to outsource and focus on your own strengths in internet marketing, you will be able to do so much more in less time and earn so much in return.

An “Office” or Workplace It does not have to be something with a corporate feel to it. Your home can be your office. For as long as it is a place conducive for your internet marketing operations, let nothing prevent you from securing it and using it to the utmost. A good workplace is a place where you can concentrate.

A Niche A niche is that target of your products, your promotional stints and your sales pitches. If you have nailed down that specific niche with which you are to do your internet marketing stuff, you will have a more promising career in this business.

Goal A goal is important because it will help you tailor your actions accordingly. An internet marketer without a solid goal is like a man running aimlessly with no direction in mind.

Strategy for Success You must also embrace some sort of strategy in order to reach your goals. Trains do not just get on their destinations unless they have the tracks marked out specifically for them. In the same way, you are not to reach your destination without the strategy to take you.

An Excellent Mentor You cannot expect yourself to learn it all by self study. You cannot get it right the first time. People who have better experience in the business than you are will prove to be great collaborators in teaching you the ropes of this business. Make sure you take every opportunity to be taught.

A Big and Sustained List Now this is the biggest clincher. A good master list is the best way to ensure internet marketing success. You cannot expect your products to sell or your website to have traffic unless you are able to make use of a big list.

Internet Based International Trade

By: Zhou Jinghui
The streamlining of international trade process was made available to simplify information and data access for SMEs in order to conduct their international trade. To begin with, the system was developed to include the expenses on communication, banking, insurance, and inspection in addition to the traditional production & trading expenses. With the new system for international trade, SMEs can now research the market, pickup leads in a seamless ambience for online transactions.

International Trade- Internet based product selection

The present system for international trade with a computer and internet requires you to possess an internet connected computer. Importers will visit vendors' websites; browse specifications for chosen products. Once done, the products of required specifications can be selected and an order form can be generated for just the selected products of the already selected specification. Before you complete the international trade order, the order can be checked and/or corrected for details of product name, quantity, rate and total price. The order can be cancelled if it is unsatisfactory for any reason. Similarly, confirming it requires importers' information like name, company's name contact and shipping addresses, insurance, payment details etc.

International Trade - Providing Payment Details in International Trade

This is the most critical part of online international trade; it requires sensitive information like bank account/credit card and telephone number to be transmitted. To eliminate fears of this information from being intercepted, check the credentials of the websites.

Use the following foolproof steps to secure your information and payment.

1. Secure websites will have secured protocols like https:// unlike the usual http://

2. When secure pages load, an icon of a lock shows up at either within the address box or right most corner of your browser.

3. Secure pages are certified by agencies like Verisign and Thawte corporations

4. Certificates can be viewed by clicking on the icon of lock to confirm validity and encryption details.

International Trade System

The computerized system for international trade works through internet and initiates by importers choosing and placing orders on suppliers over their websites. Websites can be owned by a single exporter or collectively by their associations. Processing the trade sends the completed form to a server linking with the particular client's computer who receives the order. The system works efficiently even for websites with plurality of suppliers and the orders are transmitted to the chosen supplier and is never misdirected. The systems are robust to handle transactions flawlessly and servers are configured to send orders to definite suppliers and a confirmation will be sent you and the whole system will be automatically updated for stock position and lead time data. It provides a secure method, albeit through internet, for international trade and saves time for both buyer and seller and if configured provides a negotiating platform for both buyers and sellers.

The Insiders Secret To Massive Sales On Ebay With No Product Or Delivery

By: Chris Haycock
This article is about an Internet business that you can start today with no cost. A business that people across the world are starting and using to become financially independent, without any real hard work, product creation, marketing skills, or any of the other skills or assets associated with online business.

So what is this amazing money maker? Why, eBay of course. OK I hear the groans already, but bear with me what I am going to tell you about is not the traditional eBay business. This is a business so simple to run that teenagers to pensioners are making a fortune from it.

I'm not going to bore you with the mechanics and ins and outs of eBay. It's been done to death, and there are many sources where you can find out how to sign up and get an eBay sellers account. Just go to www.eBay.com and they will walk you through it. If you are not already a member (and that frankly would surprise me), you probably know someone who is, who would be prepared to help you get set up if you don't feel like doing it yourself. But it is very easy and straightforward.

OK, lets assume you have your eBay account. The big problem many new to eBay face is, what to sell? You may have sold a few items from the house and garage, of course these are soon gone, and if you are serious you need a supply of good quality items to sell and generate and maintain a good income. Get this wrong and you won't make a red cent. Get it right and you can make a killing without ever having any stock or sending out any products. Sound good? You bet.

What I am talking about here is dropshipping. As you probably already know dropshipping is where a company ships a product to your customer for you. How does this come into eBay? Easy, here's an example. Lets say you sell African Masks. At the site I'm going to tell you about you'll see they sell for around $850. So you list on eBay for around that figure. A customer buys from you and you get their payment and shipping details. You then go to the dropshipper (either online or by phone) and tell them where to send the Mask, and pay them their price for the item and shipping. You might pay around $200 (out of the money you already received), giving you a healthy profit of $650 for no work to speak of. You never touch the product and you are never out of pocket. I really don't think it gets much easier than that.

Right then, how do you find the people and the products to sell? How do you know about competition? No point in picking products that are being sold to death by loads of other sellers, you'll sell next to nothing. Well that's the great thing about this website. You can go through products from A to Z until you find something you are hapy to sell. Then, by clicking a few buttons you can see how much competition you will have and what your chances of success are. In other words this really is a no brainer way to make sure you are starting an internet business that will fly.

OK, enough teasing, the site that all eBayers wish they knew about is www.worldwidebrands.com This is not a free site, but with what it offers it really shouldn't be. This site is an absolute cracker for anyone wishing to start an online business straight away, without any stock, and not even having to deliver the product. Plus, with the competition search function you can guarantee success before you even start. You can be selling anything from medieval swords to baby clothes, to gym equipment, without ever seeing one product yourself. No bad debts, no hassle. How easy can it be? Give it a go, you won't look back

EDC Gold and the 2 up programs

By: Candi May

EDC GOLD a 2 up program, what is a 2 up program, and what is all the commotion about? I wanted to dive into this on behalf of any newbies out there who are looking to start an internet business. When I first started looking into all these programs and seeing all this jargon, well, it left my head spinning. So, what was the difference between a 1 up and 2 up versus a 0 up and what does all this mean any way

EDC Gold, Easy Daily Cash, Passport To Wealth, Road map To Riches, Predator Marketing System, Prosperity International, Emerald Passport, Advantage Conferences, Coastal Vacations & Liberty League to name just a few are what you would consider a 1 up or 2 up program. So exactly what does this mean? That is where you pass up your 1st sale to your sponsor (in the case of a 1up) or your 1st and 2nd sale to sponsor (in the case of a 2 up program such as EDC Gold).

So what is wrong with that you might ask? Well quite frankly I am going to let you be the judge of that. Let's just take a look at a 2 up program for example so you can draw your own conclusions. And I will use EDC Gold for example.

EDC Gold is a direct sales company specializing in sales of digital products including e-books and software that can help enhance websites. They also have a new program called the Promo Black Box, which is also an online marketing training program that includes bi-weekly webinars. Their compensation plan is an Aussie-2up. This means that you pass up the first 2 sales to your sponsor. Once you have made two sales you are now qualified and the third sale you make is yours. You then break away from your sponsor and become their competition.

When you join EDC Gold you have to pay your sponsor $997. You also pay a one time administration fee of $49. You also pay a monthly fee of $49 which can be eliminated by a onetime payment of $350. The last three fees are fees you don't find out about until you begin your payment process..

In close, 1 up or 2up programs can be lucrative, but for the newbie however this can become discouraging by having to give away sales and then be in competition with their sponsor. Also, will there be any help or support once you break away from your sponsor? Another important thing to look at is the growth of the company and where they are headed as well as the viability of the products.

The Beginner's Guide To Understanding Google PageRank

By: Richard Weber

Let me ask you: If you have a certain idea or topic in mind, and you wish to find out more about this topic, what do you do? Ten years ago you would probably have gone to the library, but today... You GOOGLE IT!

If you take anybody currently living in the modern world, chances are that is what they will tell you. Google is King! Over the course of just a few years, Google has gone from a couple of smart guys at Stanford University with the revolutionary idea of making the entire internet available from their desktop, to being the undisputed gatekeeper to nearly every single portion of humanity's collective knowledge.

The Google search engine has in fact become so popular and proliferous that the word 'google' itself has now become a verb! (As in, if you want to find out more about a certain person, you just google them.)

Every time you do a search, you will see the term or phrase that you searched at the top, followed by about ten webpages that Google thinks are most relevant to your term. Since there are literally tens of millions of Google searches every single day, it is not a great leap to think that the websites that manage to get their ranking very high in Google will get ALOT of free visitors and traffic.

But what is it exactly that determines which websites get listed in the top ten listings? Well, the system that is behind every single search result that you see is called the PageRank system, named after its creator and co-founder of Google, Larry Page.

Before the PageRank system, there did exist some other methodologies for determining web search relevance and delivering accurate results, but none of them were as robust, accurate, democratic, or resistant to human error as PageRank.

-What Puts PageRank in A League of Its Own-

There are basically two major ideas behind the PageRank system that have made it so revolutionary:

First, the PageRank system is rather democratic in nature because every time one website (we will call it site A) links to some different website (we will call it site B), that link is considered to be a 'vote' by site A that site B has good information, or for some reason is worthy of being viewed and read. This concept of the democratic nature of the links found all over the internet is a vital main idea behind the PR system.

Second (and this is the part that really put PageRank on the level), NOT ALL LINKS ARE CREATED EQUAL!

That is to say that if you have two links coming to your website, one from Forbes.com and another from some backwater, fly-by-night dot com, these two links will not be treated equally.

So what does this mean for the question of how did the highest ranked sites get where they are? They have been around for long enough to have numerous popular sites link to them, they have valuable, relevant, dynamic content, and chances are that they probably link to other related websites.

Another vital (but not so revolutionary) mechanism behind determining which webpages are displayed for certain keywords is an advanced text-matching system. Google's text-matching system is able to deliver highly relevant webpages because of the vast computing power behind the Google search engine itself.

-Technical Explanation of a Website's PageRank-

This following part is a technical explanation for those who want to further understand the nature of the PageRank algorithm. If you are only interested in learning how to improve your own site's PR, then feel free to skip to the next section.

With the PageRank algorithm, every single website on the internet is given a numerical PR value somewhere between 1 and 10, with 10 being the best. It will help if you can remember from your math class what a logarithm is, because the assignment of a certain PR number is logarithmic in nature, similar to the Richter scale of measuring earthquakes.

This is important to understand, especially if you want to increase your own PageRank. In terms of PageRank, this means that a PR6 site is not twice as valuable as a PR5 site, but actually TEN TIMES as valuble. This would approximately mean that a single incoming link from a PR6 site would be give you the same amount of value as a few dozen links from PR4 sites. Notice that a PR6 incoming link will NOT give the value of 100 PR4 links, because PageRank is concerned with the quantity of incoming links as well as how important they are.

-Tips For Improving The PR of Your Site or Blog-

Try to create content that is valuable, funny, or for some reason really makes people want to link to it. This strategy will increase your number of incoming links without any extra work, which will thereby increase the PageRank of your site or blog.

A 'link farm' is a website that has hundreds or thousands of incoming and outgoing links. Sites like this can actively inflate PageRank to make a site seem more relevant than it actually is, so Google will 'punish' websites associated with link farms by bringing them down in the search rankings.

Do not worry or feel like your site or blog is not good enough if after just a few months or so you do not have a high PageRank and are not listed very high in the search results. It takes time to build PR, so the better your content and the longer you have been online, the better chance you have at naturally gaining a higher PR.

See if you can find a few high-quality websites or blogs out there related to your own site topic, and contact the owner to see is they would be interested in linking to your site if you link to theirs. This is called 'link exchanging,' and if you do it to much then Google may 'punish' you becase this is another way of inflating PR, but exchanging links with a few quality sites will help you.

One last thing, and this has been stressed throughout the article, there really is a single golden rule that you can apply to boost your PageRank: create MASSIVELY VALUABLE information and content that people will naturally want to link to on their own, and you are set.

Website Promotion Ideas- Promoting Your Website Now

By: Eric Menzies

Site Promotion Considerations For Your Business

Starting out to promote your web site can be a daunting task. Here are the eight best ways to kick off your web site promotion. While it may not be easy, these tips can make the difference in the success of your site.

1. Establish your own website venue. Establishing your own website venue is an integral part of promotion. A custom URL that leads directly to your site is essential to attracting and keeping customers.

2. Develop a comprehensive marketing plan. Marketing your expert abilities is important enough to include in all marketing plans for your web site.

3. Stay up to date on web site trends. Successful web site marketing demands that you are current on everything happening online, positive or negative. You can benefit from the experiences of others.

4. Develop a portfolio. Begin compiling your portfolio early. This will allow you to show customers and clients what you can do for them with your products or services. Your portfolio will speak volumes as to the quality and style of your work.

5. Participate in online forums. Online forums bring together individuals from all over to discuss trends and ideas that can be beneficial when planning your promotional strategy. This open exchange of ideas is an excellent source of feedback, as well as a place to hear from others the sorts of struggles and successes they have had with their own programs.

6. Join freelance web sites. Freelance websites offer a place for you to promote your services. Businesses frequently use these sites when searching for individuals to handle certain aspects of their business.

7. Promote yourself. You are your own best asset. Toot your own horn; let everyone know what you can do for them. In preparation for this, it is important that you have your own plans in order and can offer them as examples of your work. This is not the time or place for humility.

8. Provide current, relevant and accurate content on your website. Stale web site content drives clients and customers away. This can undo all of your initial hard work. Success comes from hard work and consistency, failure comes when we rest upon our initial success and do nothing else to maintain the momentum.

2 Tips To Guarantee Your Money Making Success Online

By: Jeff Schuman

Would you like a make money tip that can make a big difference in your business? In this article we will give you 2 make money tips that will come pretty close to guaranteeing your online success if you use them.

Let's start with this question. Do you find it hard to get motivated to work at your business everyday? If so viewing how you work at your business everyday is going to become more important to you starting today. Here's what you should be doing.

1. Create a daily to do list and then read it.

2. Like what you do online and do more of it.

I enjoy Internet marketing so it is very easy for me to go to work everyday. I do it full time now. When I was part time I really had to focus to be effective. Do not mistake activity for achievement. Many people waste more time than they are actually productive.

In my case I found I liked article marketing and focused on that because it was working in helping me grow my business. I used writing and submitting articles and then building a web page out of them. Over time I developed a very large website and blog that Google loves.

So what does that mean for you?

If you like to write you are lucky, You can combine article marketing and blogging to do more of that. If you enjoy ppc advertising use Google Adwords to do that. If you like people get involved with more social networking sites like My Space or Digg.

What I see for people who are not successful online is they are not doing what they like to do when it comes to building their business. Here is an example. You read somewhere that learning html code is important so you spend hours upon hours trying to learn how to do it. In the end you never do learn how because you are not a technical person and you have no interest in it.

Making money online is very hard to do if you do not enjoy the process. You may make a little money for while, but it will never be a long term income for you. It is important you enjoy what you do online and look forward to doing it.

Plus you have to have a daily to do list. Even if you only write 1 thing on it, you must write it down. Then check it off after you complete it. It sounds easy, but many people will not do this and so they just fool around all day not accomplishing anything. It is imperative that you jot down what you want to get done.

You can pretty much guarantee your success if you do these two things. These make money tips are so simple and that is why most people do not do them. Give them a try and see where your business is 90 days from now.

Wealthy Marketer Scam Review

By: Brian Mccoy

As you are already probably aware of, many individuals who are advertising wealthy marketer are using deceitful tactics by giving you assurance that you will become an overnight success with little work involved.

Here's a scam review on wealthy marketer so you can see what the best option is for you.

First off, the products that are marketed in the wealthy marketer course are e-books and software products that come with resale rights. Some of the products include a very well put together 77 page handbook put together by millionaire and wealthy marketer CEO, Alex Hunter himself as well as software that enables you to put audio and video on your website in a quick fashion and all cost free. So in observing the marketing products provided through wealthy marketer, I think that one can see some tremendous value from them.

Next, lets take a look at how much one can earn with the compensation plan. It pays an affiliate $900 immediately for selling the wealthy marketer handbook and e-book course. This is just the beginning, as it pays another $200 per sale that anyone you bring in makes and another $100 per sale for anyone they bring in who made a sale. In conclusion of the review of the compensation plan, the payout passes the test of giving the representative immediate income with $900 earned per sale and the long term residuals through the $200 and $100 overrides from their 2nd and 3rd level affiliate sales.

When investigating wealthy marketer, I think you will find some real value in the software as well as the opportunity for success in advertising and marketing the products for profit.

The reason people call many online businesses a scam is because they don't know how to market and since we're here talking about this, why don't I give you some good suggestions that I have used with success and that can be utilized in marketing online with success.

Recommendation: Watch and read an e-book or video on just one specific marketing technique at a time.

You should fill your brain with marketing techniques that you are interested in. You will also want to make sure that these fit with your budget or time constraints because you certainly don't want to get too overwhelmed or burned out.

The next process is putting the techniques you've just learned into action.

A top internet marketer made this funny but true statement, "even if it's crap, just get it out there." The point, is that you only have so much time and so even if you don't understand it exactly, you should put it into action. You can always test it and tweak things later... take one step at a time.

Next, you should look at making some adjustments or tweaking your marketing techniques.

It's a great start to be generating clicks or visits to your website. The final step is targeting the right people which will not only increase the amount of visits to your site, but also you will see a drastic increase in your sales conversion. You will always want to track visitors.

Just to review, many people will call wealthy marketer a scam simply because they don't understand how to draw targeted traffic to their website and throw in the towel too quickly when anything becomes an obstacle. The internet is a great place to create a 6-figure income, but you must be willing to work as money doesn't grow on trees.

Ecommerce strategy for modern business

By: Andrew Winthorp

Ecommerce strategy is fast becoming an important issue for business who are facing changes in competition and consumer preferences as a result of the growth in the online space. Whether you’re an existing business trying to increase your exposure on the web, a fully fledged online store or a home based business trying to get established, ecommerce is a hot topic you need to know about. Here are some basic considerations every online business should consider.

Design: Interface design is very important. Branding your site positions your business in the minds of the consumer. It is important that you know who your customers are in order to convey the right image. If you’re trying to appeal to a young and funky audience, then the site design should appeal to the target market. In the same respect, a more conservative organization needs to ensure that its image is upheld. Site design also needs to accommodate the programming functionality. Trade offs are necessary with creating the initial site structure.

Development: When you’re developing an ecommerce site you need to scope and bound the business requirements. This needs to be translated into a functionality specification for the development team. If you don’t adequately define the business logic you can run into costly overruns when salvage and repair becomes necessary. Take the time to get it right the first time. This will help you bring the project on time and on budget.

Promotion: Sites need exposure to capture an audience. You need to identify you advertising channels. This includes integrating online and offline advertising. Natural Search engine listings and pay per click are part of an integrated online campaign. If you’re not sure how to do this you need to secure help. Without traffic finding its way to your site your site runs the risk of becoming an island.

Security: With online fraud and identity theft a major concern, taking a proactive approach to ensuring your site is robust and hacker proof is an important step in the right direction. All precautions should be taken to maintain maximum buyer confidence.

These are some basic considerations that you should address as part of your ecommerce strategy. It is important to take a holistic approach to your overall online business initiatives.

How To Please Your Website Visitors

By: Terry Detty
So which is more important, to please the visitors or the search engine spiders? The unequivocal answer is to please the visitors. What good is a site that attracts spiders but not actual people? And what good is a site that only attracts some visitors but not search engine spiders?

In this article, we will go over writing content that interests and pleases both your readers and the spiders.

So how do you write content that pleases a visitor?

First, stick to writing content that is relevant to your site. That means that if your site is about Rock music, you should not have any content about dogs, as that only makes your site look bad and repels visitors.

Second, write content in an easy to understand, conversational format. Do not use big, fancy words just for the sake of looking smart or pleasing search engine bots. I can’t count the number of times I’ve visited a site with content that is so hard to comprehend that I do not wish to ever come back to that site again. You want to make a good first impression on anyone who takes the time to look at your site, so make sure your content is easy to understand.

Third, never ever write content that is long, dull, and boring. If the point you are trying to get across can be said more concisely in 500 words, than why waste another 300 words droning on and on about the topic? This is a huge turnoff to potential visitors.

Fourth, make sure that all of your content is grammatically correct. I know, this is hard because we live in the instant messenger world, where sentences like “how r u?”, are thought to be acceptable. However, anyone who is well-educated will appreciate good grammar. Make your site shine in this department.

Fifth, don’t overuse keywords and keyword phrases. In other words, don’t make it blatantly obvious to the reader that you are trying to attract search engine spiders to your site. Make an effort to make sure that your keywords and keyword phrases flow into the content of the article. This is easier said than done, but can be accomplished with a little fine tuning.

But what about search engine spiders? How do I please them?

Search engine spiders are actually very easy to please, much easier than actual human beings. This is because search engine spiders aren’t subjective—they don’t care what the subject is about; they just care about the number keywords and keyword phrases.

The only way you can possibly displease a search engine spider is by overusing a keyword/keyword phrase and making your site smell like spam. Search engine spiders are now more advanced than ever, and so they are better able to ignore sites that are full of spam. Too many keywords or keyword phrases that are blatantly there will hinder your site from being crawled by spiders.

Keyword density of 1-3% is generally considered to be good. Any less than 1% is bad and will make it harder for your site to get listed on search engines; any more than 4% makes your site look like spam. Keyword density is basically the number of keywords or keyword phrases in a piece of content divided by the total number of words. Before you write your article, take some time to make up a short list of keywords that are relevant to the topic at hand. Then try to naturally sprinkle them into your content, so that your content will please both the search engine bots and your readers. If you are able to do that, you will have a successful site in no time. Not only will the search bots love you, but actual people will, too!

Writing content that is good for both people and search engines is an absolute essential to making your site a powerhouse. So follow the rules above and you will be able to write excellent, pleasing content!

Google Adwords: A Beginner’s Guide

By: Laurence James

So, what's the big buzz about Google Adwords? Well, if you have a website and need to grow your sales, Google Adwords is the answer. Google Adwords is proven to be very effective at driving new business, and that's the primary reason why everybody's trying to get to the top of the paid listings. In short, if you want to increase your sales quickly and dramatically, you need to get started with Adwords. It's cost-effective and really does work, instantly.

When you search on Google, you'll no doubt notice the sponsored links on the right hand side of the page. These are examples of Adwords. These text ads, sometimes also found over the top of the natural search results, are advertisements from companies that pay for each click through to their website or landing page. These ads are keyword specific and help match searches for certain products and services with companies that can provide them.

If for example, you're selling beauty products and have signed up with Google Adwords, your text ad will be seen in the sponsored links section when a surfer uses the search terms ‘beauty treatments', ‘beauty products', or whatever keywords you've selected - (multiple word and highly specific keyword phrases always work best). In this way, you advertise directly to those people who are already interested in (and actively searching for) what you're offering. It's a great way to build your business.

In essence, if you want more highly targeted traffic driven straight to your website, Google Adwords is one of the most effective tools available on the Internet today. Just by clicking your ad, the surfer will be funnelled to your landing page to make a direct purchase, get in contact with you or request contact from you. You pay a fixed amount per click to a pre-set daily budget, and the system proves to be a very convenient way to sell your products or services online. With a bit of experimentation, just a few keywords can make you a healthy profit.

Now, you're probably wondering how to get started. First, you need to sign up for a free Google Adwords account. Then you have to choose the keywords that are relevant to your type of business and customer. Google itself can help you with this, and has a number of tools that not only suggest the keywords to use for your industry, but how many people search for them and how much they cost.

The next stage in the process is to write your ad. It's important here to use your chosen keywords in the title of your ad, and make the body copy as punchy and benefits driven as possible within the allowed word count. This takes some practice, and it helps to split test different ads to see which ones work best. After you publish your ad, Google will only charge you if someone clicks on it, and will stop charging when your pre-set budget is reached. For example, you can set a maximum of ten pence per click, with a daily budget of £5.00, and so on. The tools mentioned above are particularly helpful in determining the level at which your budget should be set.
On top of all this, Google Adwords can also make your ads appear only to surfers located in a particular city or region of your choice. So, if you're offering loans to residents of Manchester, for example, you can set your ads to show exclusively to surfers in this area. This makes targeting even more effective, meaning leads coming to your site are extremely well qualified. And when you understand a bit more about how it all works, there are also tools to help you monitor and improve your return on investment too.

Google Adwords has helped many online businesses grow very quickly. With this cost-effective marketing tool, not only will your web traffic increase, but your sales volume will grow as well. Like never before, Google Adwords enables you to advertise to potential customers at precisely the right time and place. Such laser targeting will revolutionise the way you do business.

Running a Retail Website: Tips For Success

By: Salvatore Scaramuzzino

Of the many potential Internet home businesses, a retail website can be one of the best. Running a retail website isn't the easiest thing in the world to do – but neither does it have to be the hardest thing you've ever done. Whatever goods and services you are selling, there are ways to make it work just a little better. Here are some tips that can help you improve your retailing efforts – and, by extension, your home based business.

It is very important to create a niche site. If you want to make it big in the Intenet retailing business, you should have a site, or a group of sites, that cater to specific customer groups or to specific products. Finding these specific customers or products (your "niche") is what you should spend 100% of your time doing as a prospective Internet home business owner. A "supermarket" set-up on a retailing website, where many types of products are thrown together, simply will not work. It is suicide to think that you can compete with the huge and well established sites like Amazon, Overstock, etc. Also, people can easily get confused in such an environment. Confusion can lead to frustration, and frustration can lead customers to simply give up and finding a simpler site on which to buy. A niche site must be focused, targeted, and relatively easy to navigate.

Make your site easy to navigate. Everyday, many people are getting on the Internet for the first time. Some of these people will to go to your site. If these people cannot navigate your site, then chances are nil that they will buy something. Make it a practice to review the layout of your site from time to time. Make a non-biased evaluation of what you see. Is it simple enough? Imagine yourself making your way through the site for the first time. Is the overall arrangement conducive to persuading people to make a purchase?

Advertise, advertise, advertise. You can't expect anyone to buy from you if they don't know that you're in business. You should advertise in every possible way. Over the internet, this means giving out links and reciprocating with people who link their sites to your site. It means writing articles that will extend your sites visibility. It means getting optimized for the search engines, so your site appears as early as possible when someone looks for a product you carry. However, you can also advertise conventionally. For instance, you can post banners and give out flyers and stickers. You can spread your business information by word-of-mouth as well – which is arguably the most effective way of all. A shining recommendation from a friend can do more than a thousand stickers.

Sell quality products. The only way to make money in retailing is to keep people repeatedly buying from you. And the only way to do that is to provide goods and services that exceed your customers expectations. Remember that people must feel satisfied with their purchases, or they probably will never purchase anything from you again. If you have excellent products, people will find their way to you, even if you don't expend as much effort advertising them.

By applying these basic tips, you should be on your way to creating a great retailing website.

6 Common Computer Error Messages In Echeck Processing

By: Kay Fione

When your business subscribes to echeck processing service, you will perform business transaction using some peripheral equipment and largely with Internet connected computers. Basically, this means that you will accept checks from customers, convert these echecks to electronic format, and then send them to your processor for processing with a click of a button. It's that simple.

However, echeck processing transactions do not always to smoothly. Glitches will sometimes happen. You will encounter error messages which may appear too cryptic for you. As a merchant, you should know the meaning of these error messages and how to resolve them.

Below are some computer errror messages you are bound to encounter with echeck processing:

1.)Timed Out
There was considerable delay before you click the “ Submit” or “ Send” button of the transaction. The program cancels the action before it was sent. Re-submit the transaction and that should do the job.

2.)Unable To Establish Connection To Check Processor
Either your computer experiences Internet connetion problem or your that check processing company's server could not connect to your PC. This mechanical glitch happen once in a while. Just wait for some minutes and re-try the transaction.

3.)No Response From Processor
You void some transactions in the batch you attempt to send. Therefore the program cancels such action and renders it incomplete. You simply have to re-submit the transaction.

4.)Error in MICR
When you convert a paper check to electronic check, the resulting echeck format has a bar code that contains the check account number and its check routing number. A missing digit in the account or check routing number will trigger a MICR error. Carefully check again these numbers. Chances are you just miss a digit. But in case the errror persists, call up your customers and verify the correct check account and routing numbers. That should solve the problem.

5.) Returned ( RDFI) Not Qualified To Participate
You have a customer that pays you by check. This customer maintains a checking account in a particular bank. Unfortunately, this customer's bank is not a member of the ACH network. So you get the “ Returned ( RDFI) Not Qualified To Participate” error message. Sometimes, this also means that your customer disables any electronic debit transactions from his account. Just call up the customer and update him regarding his check's status. He can the authorize his bank to permit the electronic withdrawal of funds from his checking account into your merchant account.

6.)Mail Delivery Not Sent
The protocol of sending and receiving of email between your PC and that of your processor's computers was not configured correctly. If you are a savvy PC user, you simply go to the settings, check the necessary boxes, and click OK. If you do not know configuration settings, better call your processor's helpdesk and tell them your problem. Either they will give clear, step-by-step instructions or they will go over your PC and configure the settings correctly.

There are still other error messages you will encounter with echeck processing service. Better familiarize yourself now with the meanings of these error messages and how to deal with them than lose considerable time and resources in solving them later on. You will be doing yourself a great deal of favor this way.

Thousands Of Visitors And Other Fibs About Website Traffic - The 10 Worst

By: John Shields
Everyone talks about the BEST ways to create traffic but here are what have to be 10 of the absolute WORST ways to get real productive, targeted traffic to your website.

How do we know this? We test website traffic programs and publish the facts in an online monthly report - so you don't have to waste your time, or your money, on these losers.

First, put yourself in the shoes of someone looking for information about the products or services that you sell on your website.

Now be honest and ask yourself when was the last time you did any of the following to search for information on the Internet?

1. Sat down at your computer and really read all of that good old fashioned unsolicited spam email?

2. Joined a site that promised to send your email message for free ... and you diligently read the hundreds of emails you received everyday from this same site?

3. Used a program like 101-website-traffic, 10 million hits, global blaster, your ad blaster, blaster this or blaster than, and you really made money from this traffic?

4. Joined a program where you have to click on ads for hours at a time ... and you really clicked on all of those ads? Really? How many of those sites did you actually visit?

5. Signed up for a freebie that didn't have anything to do with Internet marketing ... and now your inbox is jammed with wonderful email offers that you always read for hours and hours?

6. You paid someone to submit your site to "5,000" search engines ... but now you realize that there aren't even 500 good search engines on the Internet?

7. Used a free hosting company and loved all of the banner ads, at the top of your site, that you web host requires when your hosting is free.

8. Tried some keyword trickery like keyword "stacking", "stuffing" or "hiding" and your site didn't get banned by the search engines.

9. Joined a link or banner exchange and became fabulously wealthy ... just like the fancy ad copy for the exchange program, said you would.

10. Used a program that promised tons of traffic and guarantee you will make $100,000 in 4 months ... and you really made a hundred grand?

I'm sure you get the point. If you are not doing the above then why on earth would you expect your prospective customers to be any different?

Why would you expect your prospects to visit your site by using any of the above methods when these are not the methods you use to visit other sites?

Now turn the tables and think of the things you really "do" use to get information on the Internet.

1. You really do read email when it is from someone you know and trust ... but spam goes directly to the trash.

2. You join programs and buy products you need that are recommended by people you trust.

3. You read articles about the subjects that interest you.

4. You have joined affiliate programs and purchased affiliate products.

5. You have signed up for "free" information that interests you. Hint, targeted information.

6. You use the search engines to look for the information you want - Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Ask Jeeves and maybe a couple of others.

7. You pay for your web hosting and setup your site the way you want it to look.

8. You have clicked on the ads you see running down the right side of many websites, i.e. like Googles AdWord ads you see when doing a search on Google.

9. You have placed links on your site for affiliate programs that you sell or other sites have links back to your website from their site.

10. You know that a program that guarantees you unlimited traffic and that will make you $100,000 in 4 months ... is a scam.

These are just a few of the many ways to ensure you get "productive" traffic not empty clicks. Empty clicks are just that - empty - and your wallet will stay that way, too!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

What Information Marketers Should Know About Merchant Accounts

By: Bret Ridgway

If you're involved in marketing information products on-line then there's no disputing the need for you to accept credit cards in order to increase your overall sales. Typically in a retail environment your sales will increase anywhere from 15 to 40% when you have the ability to accept credit cards. This article is part 1 in a series of what information marketers should know about merchant accounts.

Visa and MasterCard account for over 90% of all credit card transactions, so the acceptance of those two card types is mandatory. Amex and Discover are the other two significant players, but account for only 5-7% of the market. If you're selling higher priced information products acceptance of Amex is highly recommended.

There are four primary components involved in the processing of credit cards. The first is the actual card issuing entity, be it Visa, MasterCard, or other. The second is the company that sets you up to be able to accept credit cards, which is called the Merchant Account Provider. The third component needed for online processing of cards is a payment gateway, such as Authorize.net or Plug ‘n Pay. And the fourth is your online shopping cart system. All are required to do business on the Internet.

When a new information marketer applies for a merchant account the primary thing the merchant account provider is looking at is the personal credit of the requestor. The underwriters for the company will be looking to see if you pay your bills on time first and foremost. Then they'll be looking to see if you own real estate. In the processing industry, owning real estate and having decent credit says to them this is a stable merchant.

Another big component of the underwriting process is your refund warranty policy. What type of refund policy are you giving? From the viewpoint of the merchant account provider the longer the guarantee period the less desirable it is. Why? Because it stretches out the risk of a refund even longer. The greater the length of potential liability the increased chances there are for a chargeback of the sale.

There can be many different reasons for a chargeback, but the bottom line is the customer is saying they don't agree with something regarding that transaction. It could range from the product not being received to the wrong product received, to the product not being as described to any number of other reasons.

Chargebacks can typically be made anytime from six months up to a year. In fact, on international sales there are some regions that may allow customers up to a year and a half to request a chargeback on a purchase. Next Month – Part 2 of What Information Marketers Should Know About Merchant Accounts.

Instant Squeeze Page System - Worth the Money or Just a Scam?

By: Charlie Essmeier

Anyone who has spent any time studying Internet or affiliate marketing has probably heard the phrase "the money is in the list." What that means is that the mailing list is probably the online marketer's best tool for continuing profits. It is much easier to make sales to a list of customers that you know are interested in what you have to offer than it is to try to attract new customers to your products. Bigger lists, as a rule, mean bigger profits.

One time-proven method of creating a mailing list is to use what is known as a "squeeze page." A squeeze page is a one page Website that offers to solve a problem the reader might have. A squeeze page will have a small amount of text describing the problem and announcing that a solution is at hand. At that point, the reader is asked to provide his or her name and e-mail address in exchange for further information.

It can be quite difficult to create and maintain a mailing list, and that's the reason that Leon Klepfish created the Instant Squeeze Page System. This system is designed to help those who are new to online marketing create effective squeeze pages in order to build mailing lists of their own. Does this system work as described?

The Instant Squeeze Page System is a membership site where members can access a number of professionally designed squeeze page templates. All they have to do is cut and paste their own text and autoresponder information and the page will be posted on the Web. All the hosting and HTML coding are done automatically; there is no need for the user to know anything about Websites or hosting. In that regard, the process couldn't be simpler.

Does the system work as described? In terms of creating the squeeze pages, yes, it is. Building a mini-Website is only part of the process, and it's the easy part. Once the squeeze pages are online, the marketer needs to promote the site in order to drive traffic there. That, as always, is the biggest problem in marketing. While it can be easy to create Web pages using tools such as the Instant Squeeze Page System, the hard work comes from figuring out how to get traffic to the site in the first place.

If you don't know how to build a Website, the Instant Squeeze Page System can be a big help. Just keep in mind that it's only part of a complete marketing system.

7 Steps to Make Your Website Your Client Attraction Magnet

By: Donna Gunter

When I started my online business in 1999, I had a website, but did very little with it, as it seemed impossible to get noticed by the search engines. My website simply served as my online brochure and I had no plan in place to drive any traffic there. Fast forward to 2007, and now almost all of my clients come to me from my website. In fact, my website has brought 5 clients to my door in the past week.

My website and my Internet marketing strategies do such a good job of promoting my business that when clients contact me, it's usually to say, "I've been to your site and I've been reading the great info you provide. I know you're the one to help me. When can we get started?" Consequently, I'm rarely in the position of having to "sell" someone on the benefits they'll gain by working with me, as my website takes care of most of that for me. I think that's very cool, as I absolutely hate trying to sell myself.

What can you do to make your website your client attraction magnet? There's so much information out there about online marketing and so many directions from which to choose that it's easy to become overwhelmed and confused Whether you have a website and have been online for awhile or are just getting started on creating your Internet presence, here are the most important first 7 steps you can take to get more clients from Internet marketing and create your own client attraction magnet:

1. Domain that reflects your brand. The domain name from which you transact all of your online business should reflect your brand in some way. You can accomplish this by purchasing a .com version of a domain name that is the same as the name of your business or by buying a domain containing keywords relevant to your business. Before buying your business domain, make a list of keywords that someone might use to find you online. This list could include your industry, your target market or niche, a problem your target market has, or a solution that you can offer. If you've been in business for awhile, it may make most sense to simply stick with the business name you have been using rather than trying to rebrand your business online. I highly recommend GoDaddy.com for all domain name purchases.

2. Basic website. In order to have a website and email addresses from your chosen domain, you need to purchase a reliable hosting account for your website. At a minimum, the services that you'll want in your hosting/design package include: hosting for 1 domain, 5 GB of space, 200 GB of monthly transfer volume (tied to how many visitors your site has), 10 email accounts, 10 MB storage per email account, 24/7 support, and basic website statistics. Resource: I highly recommend Aaces.com, HostMySite.com, and iPowerWeb.com for website hosting.

A very basic and attractive initial website of roughly 5 pages can be created by a web designer for as little as $350. Or, if you prefer to do it yourself, you can purchase Frontpage, Dreamweaver , or download a free HTML editor, Nvu, at Nvu.com and either build your site from scratch or customize a pre-made template. Another option is to use a hosting service that provides an online interface for website design, creation, and updates. This type of service enables anyone who's familiar with Microsoft Word to log in and create content, add images, and add pages to their very own website. The major providers of this type of service include GoDaddy.com, Yahoo Small Business, and 1and1 Web Hosting.

As you think about your site design and navigation, determine the look and feel you want to convey on your site, and make your content persuasive. Remember, people visit websites because they have a problem to solve. Visitors to your website will decide to hang around and browse through your site based on how well you answer the following:

* Who am I and why am I qualified to do what I do?

* Who is my target market? What are their problems?

* Do I fully understand and offer solutions to those problems?

You've got less than 10 seconds to capture a visitor's attention. So, it's imperative that your site speaks directly to your target market and that they get a good sense of who you are and what you offer so that they can get to know, like, and trust you and eventually buy from you. If you're not clear and confuse them, they'll be leave, so don't let them be distracted by pretty bells and whistles on your site. It's the content, call to action, and ease of navigation that ultimately matters in site design.

3. Call to action. Present a clear call to action that is clearly shown on every page of your site. Your primary call to action should be getting the visitor's name and primary email address by asking him subscribe to your ezine or by giving him access to a free information product like an ecourse, special report, audio/video recording, or ebook. In order to do this, you need to purchase and learn to use email marketing software that helps you capture visitor contact information. I highly recommend aWeber.com for this task, as it enables you to build, develop, and manage your online contact database.

4. Client-capturing device. The best way to obtain contact info from a visitor is to create an information product in which the content is so compelling that the visitor gladly parts with his/her name and primary email address to obtain the free giveaway. By giving you their contact information, they have become a warm lead and you can start to develop a relationship with them and begin to market to them.

The easiest way to create a client-capturing device is to simply make an electronic recording of you talking about a topic that helps your target market solve a problem, have the recording transcribed, edit it for readability and continuity, create a cover, save it as a PDF file, and you now have a client-capturing device you can give away.

5. Stay-in-touch mechanism. A regularly published ezine, or email newsletter, is one of the most effective ways you can keep in touch with your prospects. For the greatest success, publish your ezine consistently on a weekly basis.

Since you're developing a relationship with your prospects, the best way for them to get to know you is to let your "voice" permeate your newsletter. Demonstrate your expertise in your ezine by writing articles addressing relevant issues of your target market and how they can resolve the issues. Keep your newsletter short and to the point and create 3 columns for each issue -- a personal welcome and insight from you, a main article that provides useful information for your readers, and an invitation to buy a product, buy your services, or attend an event.

6. Your first product There are any number of types of information products you can sell online. The ones that are easiest to create and require little investment (other than your time to create them) are those sold as an electronic download. The quicker you can develop your first product, the closer you are developing both an effective marketing funnel and multiple streams of income for your business.

7. Traffic generating strategies. Once you've built it, will they come? Only if you start to implement some traffic generating strategies. My favorite traffic generating strategy is article marketing, in which I write a new article each week and submit it to online article directories through my article submission service, SubmitYourArticle.com . I've had my articles reprinted on blogs, in ezines, in professional association newsletters, and in print magazines. After reading my article from one of these sources, the reader goes to my website, signs up for my client-capturing device, and then receives my weekly ezine that I use to develop a relationship with that reader, who has now become a prospective client/customer.

Other effective traffic generating strategies include pay-per-click advertising, being a guest on someone's teleseminar, submitting online press releases, or creating a blog or a podcast. You don't have to do them all. Just pick one and implement it consistently.

Follow and work this 7-step plan and experience first-hand the joy of getting more clients online.

Graphic Website Design

By: Chris James

Graphic website design is not as hard as it sounds. With a little professional touch and very short learning curve, within minutes, you can get your self into web site graphic design in a way you never imagined if you know the exact secrets of doing it. I am here to tell you exactly how you can supercharge your graphic website design portfolio if you are not a professional, by revealing to you how you can leverage the work of expert graphic designers with computer internet graphic web site design skills to create the kind of websites that artists who design graphic websites are paid highly for. At the end you will be able to use this knowledge to design your personal graphic web site.
To start with, it is a fact that you cannot design an affordable design graphic website in few minutes yourself without first learning about things like color matches and other technical junks that people will admire and respect, this is why you need professional quality. This problem can easily be overcome by getting blank graphic designs that is created by professional graphic designers, then inserting your specific needs by following simple instructions a little child will understand, such as, click here-save-export and so on.
For example, if what you need on your site is a header, then get blank headers that are created by professionals; if you want your color match to be blue, then get a blue blank header. If your header text is “ get fast solution to chicken recipes here”, then insert the text into the blank header and so on. Do this for ecovers, logos, brochures and other graphic website designs. You will get a professional quality website graphic designs only those in the know use. Once you get your blank graphics, you need a system such as software to simplify the process for you. With software, by choosing just your colors, fonts, shadows, bevels and any other style you want, you will see your graphic in few minutes completed.

Once you get your blank graphics, you need a system such as software to simplify the process for you. With software, by choosing just your colors, fonts, shadows, bevels and any other style you want, you will see your graphic in few minutes completed. This is the excellent secret many graphic designers don’t want you to discover. You can get these blanks from graphic design websites on the net. However, the best graphic design website I know that can give you lots of excellent header, logo and ecovers, together with or without pictures is found at the link below.
This is a product that just needs your choice of styles, together with ready made website design graphics to give you the eye popping designs people pay heavily to get, just click below to find out for yourself, only if you are not a professional.

Ecommerce - Its Meaning and Importance

By: Monalisa Boral Maitra

The Internet is now a successful industry. With the expertise advancing at a swift rate, more and more people are open to computers and Internet. Increasingly they are learning to utilize the Internet for their day to day needs. Here Ecommerce websites take a first place, moving out to the millions of people probing for your kind of product or services online.

Putting it simply, Ecommerce or Electronic Commerce means buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet.

Prior to drawing a final conclusion in any business, you must always remember to take into account the advantages your company would obtain upon executing the new approach of ecommerce. So, the first and foremost thing that you need to know is whether your kind of business needs an ecommerce feature enabled website?

Is ecommerce website for you?

The initiation of ecommerce websites has brought upheaval in the process of purchasing and selling goods. In this regard, it is important to consider websites like ebay, amazon etc. They have widely used the ecommerce method to earn sales revenue.

So, whether you already have a business or beginning a new one, whether the volume of your business is large or small, you can always gain advantage by demonstrating your products or services online, thereby gaining a huge amount of viewer exposure. In a nutshell, just any selling/buying business can profit by the ecommerce method.

So how can you earn bigger sales revenue from an ecommerce website?

The benefits of having an ecommerce website are many.

Publicity – The products displayed on your website present large publicity to the millions of visitors on the web. For example, if you have a computer showroom in a city, the visitors would include people from in and around the city. Infrequently there will be visitors from places outside your city. Thus your product exposure is limited. On the other hand, if your products are put on view on a website, it joins you to the plentifull people who access the internet and looking for similar product as that of yours.

Time and Convenience – Time is one of the fundamental factor in our lives now-a-days. A customer may find it difficult to visit your store physically everytime. Alternatively, if you have your store exhibited on the Internet, anyone can pay a visit to your online store at their expedient time.

Your store closes at some point of time. But your e-store works 24X7 for you to fetch in customers.

Moreover, with all your product images and descriptions provided on your estore, the customer gets a systematic idea about your product and you do not have to expend time outlining the same thing to each and every visitor to your store. It further saves time per transaction. Each sales representative would take some amount of time to demonstrate your product to any customer. Your ecommerce website carries out similar job to hundreds and thousands of your potential customers at the same time. As all the information about your product are provided earlier to your customer’s visit, it takes less time for them to understand its benefits and hence closing the deal is easier. Thus, several number of transactions can take place within a day.

Showcasing your Product through Demonstrations and illustrations, depicts a clear and thorough idea about your product without the effort of hiring and training personnel to do so.

Cost Effective - Sustaining a store in a primary locality is not highly expensive. Alternatively using the ecommerce is a whole lot easier system of showcasing and giving information about your products.

Besides advertising of your store and its products should be carried out from time-to-time. Using web as a media of advertising your website, is much cheaper compared to that of other audio-visual medias, like radio or TV.

In an ecommerce website all that you need is a professional website design, that have a look and feel equally potential as your competitor, Search Engine Optimization to rank your website with your other competitors, and the annual hosting fees.

Broadly speaking, there are no major obstacle of Ecommerce websites.

With time, more and more people are realizing ecommerce as a viable purchase method over the existing traditional methods. Thus, with this ever budding technology, ecommerce will continue to flourish globally and in due course become a crucial business strategy that has to be adopted, to thrive in the fast-growing market and keep abreast with your competitors.

Free Merchant Account: Debunking the Misconceptions

By: Benedict Bailey

If you're an ecommerce site owner, or somebody who does business on the Internet, you'd know that in order to accept credit card payments, you'd need a merchant account. For some business-owners, getting a merchant account through a broker or a bank is easy, especially if the business is as steady as a rock.

However for some merchants with start up businesses, getting their own merchant account proves difficult. A mom and pop business applying for a merchant account through a bank can get rejected for the following reasons:

1.Nature of the business is too risky
2.Too early in the business to apply for a merchant account
3.Processing volume is too low

There are a lot of reasons to get rejected by banks or brokers. However, hope isn't lost as there are other ways to get a merchant account. Get a free merchant account. Free merchant account providers flood the Internet. They offer so many freebies, you can just imagine where they get their profit. However, contrary to popular belief, a free merchant account isn't free.

No it's not. It never was, it never will be.
Can you imagine anyone having a business of processing credit card transactions not making money?
That's called charity, and what they do is far from not gaining any profit.
This is where the problem starts, the misconception people have on free merchant accounts.

Misconception #1: Everything's for free with these merchant accounts

Sorry to say but they also have overhead expenses, employee salaries, and other related expenses. There is no business in the world that isn't out to make money. For free merchant account providers, although they do give out freebies, they still get a fee from the transactions they process for your business. They do provide free setup, free terminals, and free software to invite start up businesses to sign up with them.

Misconception #2: Free terminals are guaranteed new

Indeed, free merchant account providers offer free terminals – however, not all terminals are created equal. Some terminals process credit cards only, others are appropriate for wireless merchants, while others process echeck payments. Some providers give out terminals that aren't as appropriate as you'd like for your business. Other free merchant account providers dupe merchants into thinking it's all new – when in fact, their terminals are refurbished or completely out of date. However, there are always 2 sides to a coin. There are still a lot of free merchant account providers who give out top of the line equipment to their subscribers.

Misconception #3 Free merchant account is the secret to ecommerce success

People believe there's always a magic pill to success. Wake up bucko, there isn't. There's no such thing as instant success, more so in business. Okay, admittedly there are some who are LUCKY in business, but let's make this clear – they worked hard for it. Although a free merchant account can help you process credit card payments, it's not enough to have it. You have to market your product or service successfully, and make sure your goods are in demand. A business demands a lot, and a free merchant account is just one of them.

A free merchant account is indeed a helpful tool in creating the empire you want in the Internet marketplace, however, one should be wary of scammers who prey on innocent merchants who do search for information, not just the right one. Getting the right information can reduce the misconception, and prepare you for what to expect from the services of a free merchant account provider.

How to Find Your Online Niche

By: Scott Oliver

To the casual observer, the internet looks like it already has every topic covered. But that's certainly not the case. When you're trying to figure out what you might be able to do as a home based internet business, your first job is to find out what people are looking for on the internet, but not finding to their satisfaction. This is called finding your niche, or your place in the sea of websites and business. And while it sounds like an impossible task, this is certainly not the case when you follow this advice.

The trick with finding your niche is that you need to be as specific as possible about what you are going to sell and promote. When you choose something too big (i.e. coffee), you will definitely become lost in the shuffle of the others around you. But if you specialize more (i.e. coffee that's organic), you will address an interested audience.

What Do You Already Enjoy and Know About?

Sometimes, finding your niche is as easy as finding out what you already want to do. Let's take the example of beauty products. If you already enjoy makeup, for instance, and want to make a living out of it, it might be easy to think that you're going to get lost in the sea of beauty product sites on the web. But the intimate knowledge that you already have is actually going to work to your advantage. For example, if you like beauty products, but can't seem to find a certain kind of product – that might be your niche to explore. Think like the customer because you are a customer too. Come up with a list of things that you shop for on in the internet and then figure out what's missing from the online market.

You might also want to create an internet based business using the skills and the training you already have – since you're the veritable expert in what customers will want.

What are Other People Asking For?

While you can't talk to everyone on the internet, you can look to see what their saying. Just head to chat rooms that are related to the market you want to target and then look around to see what people are complaining about. You can even internet with these potential customers by becoming a regular post maker on the boards. You might also want to go to forums that address your target audience (i.e. expectant mothers if you want to sell baby clothing) and see what those people are saying. Take notes and begin to hone the focus of your business.

Multiple Markets or Just a Single Market?

If you've done your research and found several different markets in which you might be able to start your business, the next question is whether or not you want to tackle all of these markets or just attend to one. In the beginning, the best idea is to start with one market at a time to learn the 'ropes' and to find out what you need to do as a business person. You need to be able to focus all of your attention to this one market until it becomes profitable. In many cases, the specialization of one market may even be more profitable than delving into multiple markets anyway.

In the end, your niche needs to be something that addresses a problem or a concern a customer is having and that they will continue to have in later years – that's what creates success. But there area plenty of open niches available for you – all you need to do is pick one.

Getting Tons Of Free Traffic To Your Site…

By: Dario Victor Carrera

"Who Else Wants Tons Of Free Traffic To Their Site?"

2. Post topics in forums. Visit the online discussion forums where your peers gather. Respond to questions you are knowledgeable about and include your link and contact information if appropriate. Set up you favorites so you can post on many different forums. Don't overdo it, since your credibility in key in establishing yourself as an expert.

3. Comment on blogs that are related to your field. If you are allowed to add comments about the issues being discussed, take advanced. Add insightful comments about topics and leave your website link. Your comment and your link will remain on the blog website permanently.

4. Check out traffic exchanges. There are several kinds of traffic exchange programs but the ideas are are the same - team up with other website owners, and they send you traffic in exchange for you sending them traffic. Do a search for "traffic exchange" and you will find these services.

5. Create something of high value that has no expense to you accept your time. It can be a report with useful information that you allow people to give away. Try writing your own e-book, or creating website that people naturally pass on to their friends because it has a "wow" factor of some sort. Of course, this pass-around information will have all your links, so your site will spread all over the internet. You can see why the call it "viral marketing.

6. Write articles on topics related to your site and include your author bio and of course the link to your site. Submit your articles to article directories, you may also use software that auto summits your article. You will allow people to publish your article in their newsletters and websites. This is another form of viral marketing since your articles will spread around the web like a virus. The best part about this is the fact that you will be regarded as an expert, giving you instant credibility, and people will more likely buy from you. How's that for a free publicity?

7. Start an e-zine for your web site. You are building a relationship by given away value. When people read each issue they'll be reminded to revisit your web site. Submit it to all the free e-zine directories on the internet. Successfull e-zine writers build huge lists of subsribers that they can nomitze by recommending new products.00. Do the math.

8. Hold your own classes and webinars. They could be held in your web site's chat room. The idea of "live" information will definitely entice people to visit your web site. You will become known as an expert on the topic.

9. Give free consulting to people who visit your web site. You could offer your knowledge via e-mail or by telephone. People will consider this a huge value because consulting fees can be very expensive.

10. Here is a pretty obvious one, post ads on free advertising site. Here are some, Craigslist, Backpage, adlandpro, inetgiant, freeadvertsingforum. Just run a search on Google for "free advertising" you'll find even more.

11. Join free safelists. Here you'll have likeminded people networking to promote their products to each other. They have all opted-in to send and receive e-mails from each other. The pros are that you can instantly reach potentially thousands of people by sending out emails, and you don't have to worry about receiving spam complaints. The down side is that you are promoting to people who already have some sort of business. The bottom line. It's a numbers game.

12. Make videos on YouTube. Check out what others are already doing, go to YouTube and search your market, just as you would with Google. Copy the one who you think is most effective. Don't forget include your link to you website by you video description.

Online Business Tips – Tips For Building An Online Internet Business

By: Eric Menzies

Tips For Building Your Online Internet Business

There are many challenges in having an online business, the greatest of which is advertising. An online business lacks the customer service opportunities a business with a physical location has. It’s difficult to choose the right advertising method for your new business. Proper design, proper venues, and proper methods are all integral to putting your business in the eye of as many potential consumers as possible. Researching advertising methods will also enable market research, better preparing a new entrepreneur for a plan on how to conquer the demands of the online business world.

Here are some tips to starting a successful, well advertised online business:

1. Start small. Don’t let your first effort be your most expensive. Your required capital and your experience should have a directly proportional relationship. Make your mistakes when the cost isn’t large enough to put you out of business forever.

2. Find a mentor. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel; benchmark your business plan and advertising campaign against an already successful venture. Learning from others’ mistakes will help you make less of your own.

3. Do your research. From concept to production, it’s important you conduct thorough research at every step. The online business market is an ever-changing realm; research will keep you current, as well as keep you in tune with your target market.

4. Manage your time. Make a schedule and stick to it. Give yourself a block of time to conduct research and prepare your plan, and give yourself a bigger block of time to execute your plan. With so many distractions available on the internet, it takes a disciplined entrepreneur to stick to the plan and produce a business.

5. No online business is an island. Work with your affiliates and become familiar with their products. If you’re both selling products, arrange for mutual promotions. These will double the traffic for both businesses.

6. Know where to go. No entrepreneur has all the answers, but every entrepreneur should know where to go to get them. Know what tools you’ll need and where to find them when it’s time to execute your business plan. Having your resources handy will streamline your business plan and ensure a successful online advertising campaign.

6 Ways To Get Low Cost Website Traffic

By: Fred Farah

There is one unquestioned prerequisite for generating income for your web site, and that is a steady flow of website traffic. If no one visits your site, what chance do you have of making any income from your web site. You will just spend months or years just having a hobby that takes your time, and brings you nothing in return.

It takes money to maintain an income generating site, and the saying is true, it takes money to make money. BUT, it doesn’t have to take a whole lot of cash to generate website traffic to your site.

Ever wonder how do the popular sites get their traffic. Most of them are spending lots of money to bring home the traffic, by investing in advertising campaigns and all sorts of marketing schemes. This is all worthwhile because, well, they are what they are now, high earning, big hitting websites.

If you don’t really have their resources, you don’t have to do this. There are sufficient ways to generate low cost website traffic without having to spend what you can’t afford. So many people have dabbled in high cost methods and ended up losing their shirts.

What follows here, are the top six ways to generate low cost website traffic. And this should result in more revenue for you.

Publish a weekly or monthly Newsletter.

In my view, this is the most important feature to use. This may sound like hard work because of all the writing it becomes necessary to do to keep your readers up to date. Well, honestly it is a lot of work, but absolutely the most significant investment of your time.

Never the less, you can get help in obtaining free articles from other web site owners who want to advertise their site. This will provide free advertising for them as long as their resource box is kept at the end of their articles.

But I must caution you, you are better off writing your own work, as it increases your credibility. And what is more important than that.

As your newsletter gets passed around and gets increased exposure, you will build an opt-in list of people who like your site, and your news.

Join Online Communities and Contribute to Forums

This only requires your time and nothing else. You can share your knowledge and expertise with many online communities as well as your web site. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche as your site.

Share your two cents and let them see how knowledgeable you are on different subjects. As you build your reputation, you also add respectability to your site, making it a reputable and honest business that will be frequented and trusted by more and more people.

Get Incoming Links to Your Site

This is a proven method that is very important. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with one you so that they could produce more public awareness about their own sites. You’ll soon see and feel the sudden upsurge of the traffic coming in to your site from other sites.

A major prerequisite in exchanging links with other sites is having a similar subject as the other site. If you are into Internet Marketing, or any of the sub fields like Affiliate Marketing, Niche Marketing etc, then it makes no sense to have links from sites outside of this arena.

The most important benefit of exchanging links, and preferably obtaining one-way links boosts your site's importance to Google. Depending of the amount of links, as well as the Page Rank of the links coming in to you, Google should eventually raise your page rank, and have your site appear higher up in search engine results made by surfers.

Write and Submit Articles

There are many e-zines and submission sites on the internet who are anxious to accept your articles. If you want to save costs, you can do the articles yourself. There are many freelance writers who are willing to write for you for a small fee, but if you need to save money, it is wise to do those articles yourself. About the cheapest cost to buy articles written uniquely for you, is about $10. You can get quotations from companies such as Elance.com

Write articles that are themed along with the niche of your site. Write something that you have expertise on so that after they read it, they can respect your knowledge about the subject and become eager to visit your site. Write articles that produce tips and guidelines relating to the subject or niche of your site.

Try to submit at least one article a week to submission sites. You will find that after you have submitted about 10 articles or more, you will start getting respectable traffic. Submit first to Ezinearticles.com and GoArticles.com. Then after a few days, submit to more sites.

Include a resource box at the end of your article that provides a link to your site. Write a little about yourself and your site. If you provide a light, information-laden and interesting article, they will go to your site for more.

Fill Your Web Site with good quality Content

Here we go again asking you to do more writing. Why? Well just what do you think a typical surfer is looking for? Good information, well written and easy to understand. This is why you have a web site in the first place, to provide this benefit to your visitors.

Write good content for your site. Search engines track the keywords and keyword phrases your site uses and how they are used. Great quality here is mandatory. Include some links in some of your articles, to products that you are promoting as an affiliate marketer.

Traffic Exchanges

This is similar to exchanging links but on a different level. This may cost a bit more than exchanging links but could be made cheaper because you get to earn credits by spending time surfing other people's sites.

Traffic exchange services are the viewing of another’s site or page. This is done vice versa where a site can use your sites contents and so on. You both benefit from each others efforts to generate traffic. The other sites visitors can go to your pages and know more about your site as well as theirs. Once again the public awareness of your site's existence is boosted.

I have to caution you again here. The subject of traffic exchanges is very controversial. It is well documented that most of the traffic exchanges provide little or no benefit. One that has earned a good reputation is Traffic Swarm and perhaps you should consider it.
So there you have it. Try these methods, and you will be glad you did.

How to Defend your Website from the Google Duplicate Proxy Exploit

By: Sophie White

There is a current and active way to knock a website out of Google's search engine results. It's simple and effective. This information is already in the public domain and the more people that know about it, the more likelihood there is that Google will do something about it. This article will tell you how it works, how to get a website knocked out of the search engine rankings, but most importantly, how to defend your own website from having it happen to you.

To understand this exploit, you must first understand about Google's Duplicate Content filter. It's simply described thus: Google doesn't want you to search for "blue widget" and have the top 10 search terms returned copies of the same article on how great blue widgets are. They want to give you ONE copy of the Great Blue Widget article, and 9 other different results, just on the off chance that you've already read that article and the other results are actually what you wanted.

To handle this, every time Google spiders and indexes a page, it checks it to see if it's already got a page that is predominantly the same, a duplicate page if you will. Exactly how Google works this out, nobody knows exactly, but it is going to be a combination of some or all of: page text length, page title, headings, keyword densities, checking exactly copy sentence fragments etc. As a result of this duplicate content filter, a whole industry has grown up around trying to get round the filter, just search for "spin article".

Getting back to the story here, Google indexes a page and lets say it fails it's duplicate content check, what does Google do? These days, it dumps that duplicate page in Google's Supplemental Index. What, you didn't know that Google have 2 indexes? Well they do: the main one, and supplemental one. 2 things are important here: Google will always return results from their Main index if they can; and they will only go to the Supplemental index if they don't get enough joy from their main index. What this means is that if your page is in the supplemental index, it's almost certain that you will never show up in the Search Engine Ranking Pages, unless there is next to no competition for the phrase that was searched for.

This all seems pretty reasonable to me, so what's the problem? Well there's another little step I haven't mentioned yet. What happens if someone copies your page, let's say your homepage of your business website, and when Google indexes that copy, it correctly determines that it's a duplicate. Now Google knows about 2 pages that it knows are duplicates, it has to decide which to dump in the supplemental index, and which to keep in the main one. That's pretty obvious right? But how does Google know which is the original and which is the copy? They don't. Sure they have some clever algorithms to work it out, but even if they are 99% accurate, that leaves a lot of problems for that 1% of times they can get it wrong!

And this is the heart of the exploit, if someone copies your websites homepage say, and manages to convince Google that *their* page is the original, your homepage will get tossed into the supplemental index, never to see the light of day in the Search Engine Ranking Pages again. In case I'm not being clear enough, that's bad! But wait, it gets worse:
It's fair to say that in the case of a person physically copying your page and hosting it, you can often get them to take it down through the use of copyright lawyers, and cease and desist letters to ISP's and the like, with a quick "Reinclusion Request" to Google. But recently there's a new threat that's a whole lot harder to stop: the use of publicly accessible Proxy websites. (If you don't know what a Proxy is, it's basically a way of making the web run faster by caching content more local to your internet destination. In principle they are generally a good thing.)

There are many such web proxies out there, and I won't list any here, however I will describe the process: they send out spiders (much like Google's) and they spider your page, take your content, then they host a copy of your website on their proxy site, nominally so that when their users request your page, they can serve up their local copy quickly rather than having to retrieve if off your server. The big issue is that Google can sometimes decide that the proxy copy of your web page is the original, and yours is not.

Worse again, there's some evidence that people are deliberately and maliciously using proxy servers to cache copies of web pages, then using normal (white and black hat) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques to make those proxy pages rank in the search engine, increasing the likelihood that your legitimate page will be the one dumped by the search engines' duplicate content filters. Danger Will Robinson!

Even worse still, some of the proxy spiders actively spoof their origins so that you don't realise that it's a spider from a proxy, as they pretend to be a Googlebot for example, or from Yahoo. This is why the major search engines actively publish guidelines on how to identify and validate their own spiders.

Now for the big question, how can you defend against this? There are several possible solutions, depending on you web hosting technology and technical competence:

Option 1 - If you are running Apache and PHP on your server, you can set the webhost up to check for search engine spiders that purport to be from the main search engines, and using php and the .htaccess file, you can block proxies from other sources. However this only works for proxies that are playing by the rules and identifying themselves correctly.

Option 2 - If you are using MS Windows and IIS on your server, or if you are on a shared hosting solution that doesn't give you the ability to do anything clever, it's an awful lot harder and you should take the advice of a professional on how to defend yourself from this kind of attack.

Option 3 - This is current the best solution available, and applies if you are running a PHP or ASP based website: you set ALL pages robot meta tags to noindex and nofollow, then you implement a PHP or ASP script on each page that checks for valid spiders from the major search engines, and if so, resets the robot meta tags to index and follow. The important distinction here is that it's easier to validate a real spider, and to discount a spider that's trying to spoof you, because the major search engines publish processes and procedures to do this, including IP lookups and the like.

So, stay aware, stay knowledgeable, and stay protected. And if you see that you've suddenly been dumped from the Search Engine Rankings Pages, now you might know why, how and what to do about it.

12 Simple Steps to Explode Your Site Traffic Using Online Social Media

By: Dave Foster

LAST YEAR SAW THE ARRIVAL OF ONLINE SOCIAL MEDIA. If you operate a website or blog, you would be well advised to realign your site to exploit the popular social media sites for increased traffic.

You should also introduce social media components to your site because web users are experiencing these new forms of interaction on more and more sites and they will have an expectation of the same from your site too.

If you want to attract repeat visitors and want them to stay longer, your focus for the next few months should be on the social aspects of your site.

Social media uses technologies like RSS, blogging, podcasting, tagging, etc. and offer social networking (MySpace, Facebook), social video and picture sharing (YouTube, Flickr), and community-based content ranking (Digg, MiniClip) features.

The central theme of these sites is user generated content used for sharing amongst other users. The social aspects of these sites allow users to setup social communities, invite friends and share common interests.

You don't have to change your site immediately to take advantages of these new technologies. Introduce small changes incrementally and you will be well on your way to measure up to your visitors' new expectations.

Step 1. Declare who you are to the online community. People should be able to relate to you. Unless they know more about you, you will be just an unknown identity and most people don't like to deal with people they don't know. Create an About Me page to list your achievements skills and aspirations.

Step 2. Create a MySpace page and link your biography in the Profile of your MySpace page. Also provide a link back from the MySpace page to your website. Spend an hour every week to develop your online social network in MySpace. Invite a few of your new friends to write blog articles at your site about your products or services.

Step 3. Install a free blog and start publishing at least one article in your blog every week. Provide an easy bookmarking feature to social bookmarking sites like delicious (just like the ones at the bottom of this post). This is done by providing an action button for each article i