MLM The Easy Way - DHo Update http://www.blogmoneymiracle.com en-us EasyRSS
by Tellman H. Knudson

How important is list building? I know I ask that question a lot, and some people just don't get it. List building is everything! Without a list, you probably won't make much money. But with everyone out there asking for names and E-mail addresses, what are the chances you'll be able to compete, if you've just started out online?

Very bad. You have to snatch people's attention away from the newest product or program and get them to join your list instead of theirs, right?

A really great way to do that is with video. You may say to yourself, "Are you nuts? I'm not putting my face out there for the whole world to see." Well, why not? Almost every video I've seen has average people in it, just like you and me.

If you're worried about how hard it is or installing the software, get over it! You're wasting time. Pay someone to do it for you and to show you how it works.

I probably don't need to tell you how hot video is online right now. I mean, if it wasn't, would Google have spent $1.65 billion to buy up You Tube? No! Forget the doubts. And if you're shy, don't worry. You can even stay off camera and make video work for you.

But, if you're going to be in the video, you need at least a Webcam, or a camcorder. Even some cell phones have video cams in them these days. It doesn't have to be a Hollywood-quality film; the information has to shine. Just get a way to record your film. You can also use a program like CamStudio to do a Webinar-type presentation. Once you have the recording equipment, then hit the button, you're ready to go!

When you're finished with the video, you'll probably want to edit it. If you're on a PC, no sweat. You already have Windows Movie Maker installed because it's an accessory in Windows. It's pretty straightforward and very easy to operate. Play with it a while and you'll soon see what you can do.

After editing, you'll want to upload it to Google Video and You Tube, at least. Because those sites get the most traffic, they're prime, but you may also want to upload to places like DailyMotion, Flurl, and Blip.tv. There are actually a ton of sites out there, but it does take a while for a video to upload, so decide how much time you want to spend.

The more times your video is seen, though, the better off you'll be.

"Are we list building yet?" you wonder. Well, yes. Now, we'll be list building because with every video, you also upload "tags," as you do with any other Web 2.0 site. So, if your niche is baseball, you'll have a video about a batting stance, for instance, and your tags will be "baseball, sports, etc."

Those tags are how people will find you. Be sure the URL to your list building page is in the video, too, either by way of captioning, or even, hold a sign with the URL on it in front of you while you're speaking. Just be sure to use that list building page address. It's vital.

But, if you're still shy, you don't need to show your face at all. Use pictures. A static picture can make a nice backdrop for your video. Or use a slideshow. They work well, too. Still, don't forget to include the URL to your list building page on each picture. You can edit that into your picture in a program like Photoshop.

The audio doesn't necessarily need to be fresh, either. If you've done any teleseminars and recorded them, you can just snatch a clip of one for video. Be sure to keep the length of your chat to about three minutes, though, or you'll lose some of your audience. Things move fast online.

Be sure to track your visitors, too. See how effective your video is. I think you'll be surprised. But you have to try new things. Don't let the technology stop you. Otherwise, you'll be left far behind with no list at all.

Tellman Knudson is an Internet Marketing coach and CEO of Overcome Everything, Inc. Find more of his incredible list building secrets at http://www.myfirstlist.com/ .

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by Michael Laleye

Traffic on the freeway is bad. Traffic on the Internet is good. With over 60 million Web sites on the Net, you need a solid strategy for steering customers to your home business Web site.

Search Engines

Search engines are the yellow pages for a home business Web site. Over 80% of Internet surfers use search engines to find information on the Web. To get the most traffic to your site, list with the big search engine players Yahoo, Google, and MSN. Smaller search engines also get results from the big three, so you'll be covered in case customers visit less popular engines.

Looking Good

Your home business Web site can be simple or complex, but it must be functional and attractive. Make sure your site does what it's supposed to do - provide customers with concise, useful information about your product or service. Be wary of making things too complicated. The site should be easy to navigate or customers will look elsewhere.

Your home business Web site should also look professional, not cheap. If you aren't design savvy, spend money on a good Web designer. The investment will pay off by attracting more people to your Web page.

Online Ads

The Internet has many sites where you can list your home business Web site for free. To guarantee the greatest exposure, place your ad on several (20 or more) sites and repeat the process every month.

Banner advertisements can be as effective as TV spots in increasing customer awareness of your business. A banner ad should be direct, i.e. promote a benefit, rather than just the name of the product or service. Try participating in a banner exchange program such as LinkExchange, that connects your home business Web site to other company sites that have similar customer bases.

Affiliate programs offer an excellent opportunity to promote your home business Web site. Affiliate businesses post links to your Web page on their sites. You pay them a commission or a set fee, based on the amount of traffic sent to your Web site. Pay arrangements vary and can be based on the number of people who visit your site or the number of customers who purchase your product.

Bloggin' It

Bloggers are the hot new information medium. Getting them to write about your home business Web site is an excellent way to gain exposure to potential customers.

Technorati Blog Directory provides a listing of blogs by industry. Do your research here to determine which blogs might be interested in writing about your business. Send a short, personal E-mail to a few blog writers describing your Web site and asking the blogger to write about it. Offer the writer something in return. For example: free product or a link back to his blog on your Web site.

Offline Ads

Cruising Down the Highway

Your car is a moving billboard for a home business Web site. Window decals and bumper stickers are inexpensive ways to get the word out about your Web site. Spend a few extra dollars for a personalized license plate with your Web address.

Old Media Standby

Regardless of what the bloggers say, people still read the printed page. Run ads in the classifieds of large and small papers, trade magazines, and free weeklies. Your choice of print media will depend on the product or service offered and whether you do business locally or nationwide.

Make money online - Complete money making site set-up FREE! Go To: http://www.myaffiliatestarter.com/pips.html Read more great articles like this at: http://www.myaffiliatestarter.blogspot.com Get started today!

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by David Cooper

Here's something every affiliate marketer should understand: All keywords aren't created equal. Some are worth a lot more than others.

I can hear you now: "No kidding. Everyone knows that!"

Fine. The idea that some keywords are more valuable than others may not be a great new revelation. What might surprise you is how you should be differentiating between the power keywords and the also-rans.

Before you click away from this article, realize that the difference between the best keywords and the dead-enders has nothing to do with search volume.

Surprised? I thought so. Most people think of keyword value in terms of search volume. If millions of people are going to Google to look for "widgets" every day, it would be nice to own the top slot for "widgets," right?

Of course. However, snagging traffic on the basis of "widgets" might not be that easy. Every affiliate marketer in the universe will be going after those high-competition terms. Additionally, a relatively scant percentage of "widget" searchers will be serious potential buyers. There may be a lot of people out there searching for "widget" or "widgets," but not all of them are in a shopping mood.

So, by the time you duke it out for that high-volume keyword and then deal with a relatively small conversion percentage, you're apt to discover that the difference between awesome keywords and duds has little to do with search volume.

Two people sit down to do a Google search. One types "widget." The other types "where to find a good red widget."

Which of those searchers would you prefer to send to a sales page? Obviously, the second searcher is much more likely to make a widget purchase than the first.

So, even though "where to find a good red widget" may not secure a million searches per day, it converts much more than the generic keyword. And a smart affiliate marketer can own a top slot in the SERPs for it rather easily.

Less work. Higher conversions. It makes sense.

Those lesser-used keywords are buying keywords. They're the ones that will get you big checks in the mail from affiliate programs. The high-volume terms are search keywords. They'll get more traffic, but won't produce sales like the buying keywords will.

There's a marketing theory that's been applied to search engine use and keyword selection known as "the long tail." The idea is that it's easier to own those smaller-volume terms and the net effect of targeting the right ones will swamp the income potential of going after the bigger search term.

If you can learn how to apply that theory to your affiliate marketing business, you'll be able to experience success that will escape all of those other affiliates who are still focused merely on search volume.

Don't worry about the search keywords. Go after the buying keywords!

Their mistakes are your GOLD MINE! David Cooper knows how to discover the blunders of others and then use them as a way to create a snowball effect that ends in an Affiliate Avalanche (http://www.affiliateavalanche.com/) of cash!

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by Janice Hoffmann

A recent American Demographics survey concluded that 75 percent of American adults crave more customizable products and services, and 85 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds feel the same way.

THE TEST:

When you come in contact with one of your clients or colleagues, in what ways can you 'personalize' the experience?

1. SHARE A LAUGH:

Laughing releases even more endorphins than smiling. It also releases enkephalins, which are natural pain suppressors.

2. PAY SOMEONE A COMPLIMENT:

Praise stimulates the brain. Look for the good in others, and learn to appreciate small things.

3. HAVE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE:

A Patient-focused medical study showed that optimists are able to cope more effectively with stress. They tend to look on the bright side of things, and take extra steps to circumvent or diminish obstacles.

4. SEND THANK YOU NOTES:

'Management guru', Tom Peters writes, "send them by truck loads." A good will message strengthens the importance of a relationship and validates an interest in the product, service, and collaboration. It's common courtesy, and you'll stand-out.

5. FOWARD AN ARTICLE ON A TOPIC OF INTEREST:

Have you ever talked about movies, travel, or sports with a colleague or a client? If so, clip out a review of a movie they've enjoyed, send them a hot tip on a restaurant in a city they frequently travel, or pass on an inspiring story. A fun note, a newspaper clipping, or an article on a recent business trend, can send a message that you've been listening carefully.

THE RESULTS:

You affect others profoundly & people want more. WOW!

Janice Hoffmann is founder of SUCCESS IS SWEETEST, a New York City based Career & Lifestyle Coaching Boutique www.successissweetest.com .

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by Roger Hall)

If you're reading this, you're probably already advertising on Google. Or at least considering it.

Am I right?

What if I told you there are a couple of alternatives to Google AdWords Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising that could only cost you between 10% and 33% of what you would pay for those same clicks at Google?

How can this be?

It's no secret that Google has the vast majority of click traffic on the Internet -- and, as unhealthy as that is, its not going to change any time soon. Most PPC specialists will tell you, if you're not advertising on Google, you're history.

But, with some clicks going for more than $15 each (for high-end and lucrative products and services such as computer servers and credit card merchant accounts), isn't it time to look for effective alternatives?

Serious advertisers should consider alternative pay-per-click services.

Two that I have been trying recently for my own advertising are and Enhance Interactive and 7Search (disclosure; I am in no way affiliated with either of these companies).

Enhance Interactive, based in Provo, Utah:

Enhance Interactive's partner network receives more than one billion queries each month. I've found their program to be an easy, effective way to purchase PPC (pay-per-click) advertising.

You can pick both the keywords for your ad and the price you're willing to pay for someone to click on it (as little as $0.03).

Like Google, you only pay when your ad is clicked on.

Enhance Interactive's Guaranteed Inclusion service allows you to submit URLs which are guaranteed to be in the database of highly-visited search engines such as Excite and Dogpile, as well as smaller directories.

What's more, you can set a per-click price on any keyword and it will be significantly less than other large pay-per-click search engines.

Even better -- Enhance's system allows you to see your competitor's bids ... something Google does not allow. That's handy!

Your first deposit at Enhance Interactive is a minimum of $50, all of which is directly applied to clicks. There is no minimum monthly spend at Enhance Interactive. One disadvantage is that you have to pay in advance, whereas Google allows you to make a $5 deposit and they charge you every two weeks or a month for past clicks.

An interesting feature available on Enhance, which is not available on Google, is a feature called 'LogoLink,' where you can upload an 80x40-pixel image that's no larger than 8 KB in size. Animation is not accepted. This image will then be displayed alongside your PPC ad.

Very cool! Feedback from users who use this feature is positive.

While not as sophisticated as Google, conversion tools are available on Enhance, after you've installed some simple html code into your Web pages you wish to track.

Overall, I'm impressed with Enhance Interactive's service and prices, which I've found to cost only 20%-30% what a Google click would cost for the same keyword. I suggest you give them a try on a small scale. You won't have to stop your Google campaigns completely -- just cut back a bit and purchase some clicks from Enhance to give them a try.

7Search:

Moving a little down the click-quality scale, yet still worth a try, is 7Search.

With over 1.5 billion searches per month and no minimum keyword bids (starting at one cent per click), the 7Search product is an enticing alternative for advertisers weary of Google's high bid prices.

Like Enhance, Chicago-based 7Search allows you to see your competitor's bids, and select the ad position you wish to take.

One major potential "fly in the ointment:" you can't select what countries your ads will be shown in on the 7Search network. That can be a real deal-breaker for an advertiser who wants to target a particular region or country.

Why?

Click fraud and useless clicks are likely to increase. But remember; on 7Search, click prices are also a lot cheaper than Google, so it may be worth a try. As with Enhance, you pay in advance for clicks.

The 7Search interface feels a bit 'clunky' when compared with Google or even Enhance Interactive. But, if you're willing to slog through it for 30 minutes or so, you'll likely be able to figure out what to do. And you will be paid for your effort with low-cost clicks delivered to your landing page.

While 7Search does not provide a conversion tool, Google Analytics will track clicks that come from other search engines so, if your Google Analytics code is installed correctly, you can track a 7Search click, or most other search engines for that matter.

Summary

Let's not desert Google entirely -- it's still a good (if more expensive) tool. As always, even if you decide to choose Google alternatives, remember you can track most, if not all, the clicks arriving at your site with Google Analytics.

Towards becoming a more efficient business, give some thought to Google PPC alternatives.

Just remember: Using proper PPC ad writing and construction strategies is vital on the cheaper PPC service providers. The proven secrets apply on these cheaper services, as much as they do on Google.

About the Author

Roger Hall, Author of the new book, "37 Killer AdWords PPC Secrets Exposed," develops programs and pay-per-click ads to help you succeed. Discover how to create Google campaigns that work, save you money and beat your competition with his popular FREE AdWords Tips for advertisers. Available at: => http://www.37AdWordsSecrets.com .

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by Felton Thompkins

Do you need to automate?

In the Internet marketing business, this is one of those questions that deserves to be answered with a question.

The answer (question) is ... "Do you wish to make any money?"

I'm assuming the answer is "yes" to both questions but, in order for you to automate your business, you must have an autoresponder system in place.

What is an autoresponder?

An autoresponder is a system that allows you to just about "set and forget" your E-mail advertising campaigns, newsletters, E-courses, or just about anything you set it up to respond to.

The autoresponder, simply put, is a computer software program that will automatically answer any E-mail request sent to it. A perfectly good autoresponder will also automatically send you an E-mail notification that will inform you each time someone sends you a request for information.

When choosing your autoresponder service be sure it gives you that option.

You have a choice between a very simple autoresponder service or a very complex one, and the prices vary as such. You also have the option to set up your own system, or you can outsource the service. Outsourcing is highly recommended.

Your autoresponder is by far one of the most important pieces of software that you will need and use for building your E-business.

A word of caution before we continue, however: When choosing your autoresponder system, be sure that you're planning to use the system for the long haul, because your list will depend on it.

You may be tempted to choose a system that costs less but, as the old saying goes, you generally get what you pay for. A good service will cost you about $20.00 per month, and it's well worth the investment, if used properly. In this case, less is not always best!

Is an autoresponder the magic pill to all of your needs as an Internet Marketer? No. But it is a very important piece of the puzzle.

Let's just look at some of the benefits of adding an autoresponder to your business efforts.

INCREASE YOUR REVENUES!

Allows you to convert your Website visitors into subscribers.

Allows you to convert your subscribers into paying customers.

BUILD YOUR MAILING LIST

Add a simple Web-form to your Website in 2 minutes to build your list, boost your traffic, and get more customers.

DELIVER YOUR NEWSLETTERS

You can launch your E-mail marketing campaigns with advanced newsletter hosting features and top E-mail deliverability.

TRACK YOUR RESULTS

You have the ability to track your E-mail marketing clicks, visitors, open rates, undeliverables, sales and sign ups!

BUILD TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE AND BLOG

You know what? Buzz comes and goes. With your autoresponder, you can retain your traffic by automatic mailings to your visitors whenever you update your blog.

You will benefit from unlimited E-mail marketing and autoresponder features, follow ups, mailing lists, and broadcasts.

These are just a few of the benefits that you receive by having your system in place.

Copyright 2007 by Felton Thompkins - The Newbies Advocate. If you are in search of a very good system to automate your marketing efforts, here's an excellent place to start: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Felton_Thompkins .

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by Joy Gendusa

Where to Start:

Most novice marketers have definite fixed ideas about direct mail that are way off base - most often in the area of what to spend and how much to do.

You should determine what you are able to spend for your marketing budget, spend it, and determine the maximum number of leads that you can create. For instance, I’ve heard this statement quite often: "We aren’t that large of a company. How could we send out 2,000 postcards all at once?" because "What if they all call?"

Seems like a valid concern, right?

Here is the reality behind it: Unfortunately, they won’t all call. However, a good deal of them very well may and making sure that your traffic is not more than you can handle is something to think about.

Truthfully, there is no sure way to tell exactly how many people will call if you haven’t done this type of marketing before. Think of it this way: What would happen if they did all call? You may not be able to handle all of them, but you would handle as many as you possibly could, right?

In this scenario, you would have maximized your income for that time period, providing you could close all those callers! You can also explore the idea of expanding your operation to handle the number of leads that you can create.

What if you didn’t max out your promotion at the very start? You can afford to send out 4,000 pieces every two weeks but you think that you will simply get too many calls to be able to handle them all. You, instead, send out only 2,000 and the response is decent. However, you still have some down time where you are having to try to “manufacture” sales.

You saved $400 in marketing money but you had enough down time where you could have closed quite a few more sales than you did. The question now is "Which gives me more money in my pocket? Saving $400 on marketing or closing quite a few more sales and earning an extra couple of G’s potentially.”

More than likely, the answer is to spend as much as you possibly can on your marketing, right?

By spending all that you can afford on marketing when you start a program you maximize your income almost immediately.

Okay, Time to Track Results.

Hopefully you have more than one way that you try to recruit new customers. So -- how do you know which ones are working and which aren’t?

Set up a system to track the results.

Let’s take, for example, a situation in which you decide to start a Postcard Marketing Campaign for your business. The first week you send out 3000 postcards. When they start hitting homes you get 30 calls.

Did all of these leads come from the postcards? Probably not. Because the week before you got 8 calls and hadn’t sent out any postcards yet.

So how can you tell who actually got a postcard?

The Answer: All you have to do is ask them. "So how did you hear about our company?" The hard part is making sure that any employee in your company who answers the phone and may talk to a new prospect remembers to ask the question every time.

The fewer prospects who answer this question, the less accurate your information will be when making future marketing decisions.

Now let’s assume that you have been sending out postcards for a while and you have a good number of calls coming in. If you ask the question "So how did you hear about our company?" they may respond, "I got your postcard in the mail." But, by now you have mailed postcards to 4 different lists, 3 times each.

How do you tell which list and which mailing this customer was from?

The Answer: Put a marketing code on the postcards that will tell you which specific postcard they received and when it was mailed.

Give each list a name and work the date into your marketing code as well. And the only thing your representatives have to ask is "Would you mind reading me the marketing code above your address?"

This code should give you all the info that you need to know and help you keep your Marketing Results Tracking as accurate as possible.

Try not to operate off of assumptions about “how to market” if you haven’t educated yourself. And make sure you collect all the data and make your future marketing decisions based on the facts.

Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania (www.PostcardMania.com) in 1998, her only assets a computer and a phone. By 2005 the company did over $12 million in sales, employed over 100 people and made Inc. Magazine’s prestigious Inc 500 List as one of the 500 fastest growing companies in the nation. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy.

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by Brandon Cornett

Direct mail postcard marketing is one of the most versatile forms of marketing available. With its versatility, postcard marketing can serve small businesses and large companies alike.

But, as with any form of marketing, you only get out of it what you put into it. To help you get the most from your postcard marketing efforts, I've assembled 55 tips for success.

Obviously, some of these tips will not apply to your particular postcard marketing needs, but with 55 of them ... there's bound to be something in there for you!

Upfront Considerations

1. To keep yourself on track through all of the steps to follow, create an overall postcard marketing plan. After reading this article, you'll know exactly what to put into it.

2. To save yourself time, headache and hassle, turn the logistics over to a professional postcard printer.

3. To find the company that's best for you, create a list of postcard service providers and begin comparing them on the points that are most important to you (cost, services, easy of use, etc.).

4. Begin thinking about the various elements of postcard marketing and who will handle them (the copywriting, the design, etc.).

5. Track down some colleagues who have used postcard marketing in the past. Buy them a cup of coffee and pick their brain about lessons learned, vendor recommendations, etc.

6. Start reading up on direct mail marketing in general, and postcard marketing in particular.

7. Create a postcard marketing budget that allows for multiple mailings.

Goals and Objectives

8. Gather your marketing folks together to define your marketing goals.

9. Avoid generalizations. Be specific with your postcard marketing objective. Determine the type of response you want, as well as the volume of response.

10. Set realistic goals and objectives. Get an idea of what postcards can do for marketers, and set your goals within those parameters.

11. Set objectives that are based on some form of response (as opposed to branding, awareness, or some other immeasurable trait). Postcard marketing is a response generator, not a brand builder.

Powerful Ideas

12. Create a reason for sending postcards before you send them (a promotion, a special offer, a news flash or announcement).

13. Come up with a big idea that will get people's attention. Avoid mediocrity at all costs.

14. Strive to be different from other postcard marketing messages you've seen in your industry.

15. Build value into your message and your offer...

16. Just realize that true value starts with the product or service, not the postcard.

17. Make it your goal to make people say, "Gosh, I'm glad I got this postcard."

18. Don't rely on yourself to come up with a big idea. Get your top "thinkers" together.

19. Seek outside input on your ideas. Run them by some of your best customers. Make sure that what you think is a "wow" isn't really a "yawn."

List Considerations

20. Obtain your mailing list from a reputable source.

21. Find out how often your list provider updates their data. Make sure your list is as current as possible to increase deliverability.

22. If you plan to use your in-house database, check the list for accuracy, duplications, etc.

23. Divide your mailing list into segments to allow for a more targeted message (current customers vs. prospects, for example).

Your Target Audience

24. Create an audience statement that outlines the people to whom you are mailing your postcards.

25. Expand your audience list to include their wants, needs, fears and concerns — everything you can think of that pertains to your audience.

26. Write down the various ways you (or your product) can satisfy their wants and needs.

27. Keep your audience statement handy as you develop your postcard message (next item).

Marketing Message

28. Pull out your audience statement from earlier. Craft your message in a way that bridges the gap between your audience and your objective.

29. Take your big idea from earlier (item #13) and inject it into your message.

30. Remember, the better your product (or the bigger your idea), the easier it will be to write about.

31. Create a message that solves a problem, presents a solution, and offers value.

The Postcard Headline

32. Create a direct mail headline that directly identifies your primary audience. Call them by name, if necessary.

33. Offer a strong benefit with your headline. Describe the value of the message and offer that follow the headline.

34. Write your headline clearly and honestly. Avoid the use of jokes, puns and complex language. Keep it simple so people get it right away.

35. Make your headline interesting. You can't bore people into contacting you.

36. Whenever possible, use numbers and other eye-catching specifics. Avoid generalities.

Postcard Design

37. Hire a professional graphic designer to create your postcard design. At the very least, start with a well-designed template and then customize it. Don't ever mail a postcard that reflects poorly on your organization.

38. Be original. Create a "purple cow," not just another brown one.

39. Design your postcard in a way that enhances your message and makes it more readable. Don't ever let the design obscure the message.

40. Create the kind of eye-catching postcard that bursts from the mailbox.

A Strong Offer

41. Create a strong postcard offer to motivate your readers and improve your response rates.

42. Build an offer that's related to your product or service in some way. Avoid offers that will attract unqualified prospects and "freebie hunters."

43. Make sure your postcard offer is relevant and valuable to the reader (your target audience).

44. Whatever you are offering, position it in a way that showcases its value.

45. Offer something different / better / more unique than what the "other guys" are offering.

46. With the offer in mind, revisit your headline to make sure it relates to the offer. Make the entire message cohesive and focused.

47. Follow your offer with a specific call-to-action (next item).

Evoking a Response

48. Tell people what to do next. Use your call-to-action to move the reader forward.

49. Make your call-to-action stand out from the copy around it.

50. Repeat your call-to-action on both sides of the postcard (using callout boxes or starbursts as needed).

51. Make it as simple as possible for people to respond. Give them more than one way to respond.

52. Restate the reason they should respond. Restate the value of your offer.

Testing and Tracking

53. Make sure you have a way to track and test your postcard response rates. You can't improve your results until you know what they are.

54. Try to learn something from each and every postcard you mail out. Change one element at a time to measure the difference in response. This is how you create "super postcards."

Further Education

55. Spend some time on the website below to further your postcard marketing education.

* You may republish this article online if you retain the author's byline and the active hyperlinks below. Copyright 2007, Brandon Cornett.

Brandon Cornett is the publisher of PostcardSmart.com, one of the Internet's largest libraries of postcard marketing advice. For more tips on direct mail marketing with postcards, visit http://www.postcardsmart.com

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By Leonard Bartholomew

I have not been happy with my full time jobs. You may not have been either. Being of sound mind and judgement, you may be on an adventure to change your fortunes. You wonder to yourself about the prospects of starting an online home-based business. What led you to this decision and what course of action do you take to increase the chances of being successful online?

Let's start with me and see if you can relate to my circumstance.

I started working when I was twelve years old. Didn't make much money and spent what I made on anything I could get my hands on. I worked for fast food establishments as a teenager, because that is what we all do at that age. It's hard work. There is not much appreciation at the workplace. You can be replaced easily, even though you think you may not be easy to replace.

Keep working hard and you may keep your job. This just sets the precedent for the rest of your life.

I joined the military in my early twenties. They pushed the concept of NCO (No chance outside), telling you that you have the best job available for your skill set ... for about half what you would make if your were doing the same thing in a civilian job.

Even so, you join their clubs and socialize (in the 80s, we called this drinking).

I got out of the military and finished a B.S. in Computer Science while unloading trucks, and setting records, for the largest employer in the United States. I'm a big guy. I've worked on training applications for a sister company to a Fortune 500 engineering and construction company, data collection applications for the largest vending and food distribution company in the United States, and cardiology computer systems for one of the largest employers in the Carolinas.

I continue to work for these companies and find myself broke, stressed out, disenchanted, and desperate. Being computer literate, and having used the Internet for about 15 years, I asked myself the question: "Why have I not tried to start an online home-based business? Len, you're smart enough to do something like this and you are not happy doing what you are doing now, why don't you try doing something different?"

So -- I did do something different, part time. I love this online home-based business so much that my biggest hope is to make it a full-time venture.

My market is other people who want to do the same, and who are asking lots of questions about how to do it.

I spend most of my spare time -- about two hours a day -- researching and writing articles. You can find them all if you search hard enough (search for my name in Google and look at the top). I don't have a lot at this point. I'm still pretty new at this. The results of my efforts are evident though; because I am already on page one of Google and MSN for some of my keywords after only 5 months of work.

I'm sure I'm making some other online home-based business owners very angry, because now they have to work a little harder to maintain their placement in the search engines. Oh well!

I don't get real fancy about marketing my online home-based business. I'm not spamming with because I don't do any E-mail marketing. I don't do it because I don't like the spam I'm currently receiving. I'm more likely to stop an E-zine subscription just because I'm receiving the same message over and over again. I haven't been able to figure out the science of Google Adwords, so I don't spend any money on ads.

That's for later -- when my business is more profitable than it is now and I can afford it. I've never been able to generate the kind of traffic with Adwords that I get from articles anyway.

Here are the things that I do on a routine basis, so far:

1. Articles - Write original content for the article directories and use Article Submitter Pro to submit them.

2. Search Engine Optimization -- Brad Callen's SEO Made Easy is a guideline to optimize articles and Web pages (online and offline optimization).

3. Linking Popularity -- Research external link partners and link to as many as is humanly possible. I also do a lot of internal linking.

4. Blogging - This is a great source for content and internal linking. I always link my posts back to all of my Web pages.

5. Article Directory - Owning an article directory is the fastest way to get internal back links. Every article contains a sponsor link back to the main web page.

6. Directory Submission - Directory Submitter has hundreds of internet directories for both one way and reciprocal links.

7. Forum Posting - Here it is again with the one-way links. I think the search engines just like to see the online home-based business owner engaged regularly!

8. Looking at junk E-mail. Sorry if I step on any toes here, but I made the mistake of submitting my Website to the FFAs (Free For All). They sent me a thousand E-mails in one day!

I didn't know! This has tapered off now. Something about reporting it as SPAM to Yahoo (Oops!). I got banned from one of them, but that's OK. I don't like it when someone E-mails me saying that my ads are not working. I wish SPAM would go away.

9. Take lots of pictures - Used effectively, photos in your article directory profiles and on your own Web pages is an extraordinary introduction!

10. Relax and enjoy it - My main Web page got 399 visits yesterday. The trend is up. My Alexa rank is down, which is a good thing.

11. Start thinking - you know, this might just make it!

Expect no support from friends or family. Look at the surprise on their faces when your Web page shows up on page one of the search engines. The online home-based business owner looks for a rescue that can only come from within and is expressed in the design of something like a Web page or an article. That and their friends in the forums who are going through the same thing. Relief from the markets of drudgery and slavery could be just around the corner with all that great help.

Leonard Bartholomew, B.S. Computer Science. Satisfy your craving for a home based online business of your very own.

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by Dean Mercado

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While websites are a key component of Internet marketing, they are not the“be all, end all”. So here are 7 killer Internet marketing tools that you can implement on a shoestring budget without having to have a website of your own.

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When most people think of Internet marketing, they think solely of Websites. Are they right or wrong? Well -- both. While Websites are a key component of Internet marketing and, in many cases, they are the only Internet marketing tool businesses use, they are not the “be-all, end-all”. They are not required for Internet marketing. I do highly recommend them as they are best-suited to sit at the core of your Internet marketing plan, the hub. so to speak -- but that’s a topic for another conversation.

Here are 7 killer Internet marketing tools that you can implement on a shoestring budget without having to have a Website of your own:

1. E-mail Marketing – When properly implemented, there probably isn’t a quicker, better, and less expensive way to stay in front of your prospects and clients than to leverage the power of E-mail. You can literally touch an unlimited amount of prospects and clients with a single click – how’s that for power?!

2. Blogs – Blogging is a great tool when you would like to step it up a notch and stay in constant contact with your prospects and clients. Some ideas on how to use a blog: post what’s new with you or your business, post informative content as a value-add to your clients, or hold an interactive forum with your clients geared towards understanding how to better serve them.

There are a handful of free or low-cost blog hosts out there that really make this process simple (e.g. Blogger and TypePad).

3. Article Marketing – This is a phenomenal approach to bringing notoriety, interest and, ultimately, leads for many types of businesses. You can use article marketing as a major differentiator or value-add, literally telling the readers why they should buy from you, instead of your competitors. Whether your clients are local, regional, national or global -- articles are portable and usable in all situations -- that's part of their charm.

4. eZines – Much like blogs and article marketing, eZines are a great way to stay in touch with your prospects on a more scheduled basis. They are probably the forerunner in helping you develop a list of prospects, so you can easily market and sell your wares.

5. Affiliate Programs -- Get others promoting and selling for you. This tool can become the equivalent of having both a full-blown marketing and a sales staff that gets paid only on performance. If they don’t promote and directly lead to a sale for you, they don’t get paid.

For the do-it-yourselfers, there are plenty of tools to help you set up this type of program. For everyone else, there are excellent service providers who can coordinate and manage this process for you (e.g. Clickbank and Commission Junction).

6. Viral Marketing – Again, a great approach for getting others to promote and help create a buzz about you, your business, your products and/or your services. The best, most genuine way to get this started is by creating raving fans out of your existing clients and then helping them help you spread the word.

7. Public Relations – If I tell you I’m the best at what I do, you’ll take it with a grain of salt. Maybe you’ll believe me, maybe you won’t. However, people tend to believe what they read. If a respected publication tells you that I’m the best at what I do, that usually holds more weight and adds instant credibility to me.

Spend some effort here. Become a resource for the press. You help them and they can significantly help you.

I highly recommend you spend some time with these. Explore how you can implement one, some, or all of these Internet marketing tools to help explode your business.

© 2005 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.

Online entrepreneur Dean Mercado, "The Motivational Marketer," is creator of the acclaimed 'Pumped-Up Networking' system geared to explode your business through professional relationships. To learn more about it and to sign up for his FREE eZine, the 'Marketing Minute' – a weekly multimedia eZine designed to give you a jolt of marketing wisdom in less than 5 minutes, visit www.OnlineMarketingMuscle.com.

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by Ron Bates

Internet Presence - Case Study: Recipe for Success

Learn how - anyone - can leverage this Case Study to build a visible Internet presence.

I'm constantly amazed at the number of business professionals unaware of how straightforward it is to build a visible Internet presence. I recognize there may be business professionals who also don't care about this – whatever their reasons. That's fine.

I'm writing this for business professionals who care about how they can leverage some very simple and non-technical concepts in an incremental attempt to impact either themselves or their businesses professionally.

In July, I spoke at the San Francisco Chapter meeting of the Marketing Executives Networking Group about leveraging online networking platforms and article publishing sites to build a visible Internet presence.

Many of the Silicon Valley Marketing Executives in attendance were amazed to learn how powerful online networking sites (e.g., Ecademy, et al.) and article publishing sites (e.g., EzineArticles, et al.) are to not only build a visible - personal - Internet presence, but they were also amazed to learn how you can leverage the exact same principles to drive a visible - corporate - Internet presence.

I used an online networking platform member as an example of how he's driven his website not just to the 1st page of Google, but the 1st hit in Google out of over 100 million hits, against the keyword phrase: Personal Success Program.

I decided I needed to build my own Case Study after this presentation. In short, here is what I did:

I drove a website against a keyword phrase to the 1st page of Google in less than 30 days leveraging the power of an online networking platform and article publishing site.

And, if I can do this (i.e., someone who doesn't know anything about Search Engine Optimization), anyone can do this.

What's the recipe?

Let me first start with the chronology.

I built my Search Advantage "Case Study" website.

I launched my "Case Study" website July 31, 2006, and leveraged a specific online networking platform to promote my "Case Study" website against the keyword phrase: Internet Presence (approximately 170 million hits).

My online networking platform content started to index quickly (Aug. 3, 2006).

My actual "Case Study" website started to index quickly, hitting the 2nd page of Google a week after launching (Aug. 8, 2006).

My actual "Case Study" website makes the 1st page of Google 10th hit (Aug. 16, 2006).

My actual "Case Study" website make the 1st page of Google 5th hit (Sep. 20, 2006).

Less than 60 days after putting effort into raising the ranking of my "Case Study" website (against the keyword phrase: Internet Presence), my "Case Study" website consistently ranks in the middle of the first page of hits in Google out of approximately 170 million hits. Incidentally, my actual "Case Study" website also consistently ranks in the middle of the first page of hits in Google out of approximately 347 million hits (against the keyword phrase: Search Advantage).

The specific details of how I leveraged these concepts to drive my "Case Study" website to the first page of Google are visible to anyone on the Search Advantage website.

Applying these exact same principles, substituting your name for the keyword phrase, will drive any content associated with your name higher in Google as well.

This capability is priceless. That anyone can have this kind of control over proactively creating not only a visible personal, but also a corporate Internet, presence is extremely powerful.

About the Author
Ron Bates, San Jose, CA, USA
rbates-im@executive-advantage.com

Ron Bates is an Expert in Mission Critical Retained Executive Search, and as a recognized expert in personal branding and building a personal Internet presence, Ron has been an invited speaker at venues such as the Marketing Executive Networking Group, British America Business Council, Expert Connections, and is a regular guest on Netshare’s "Ask the Coach". To learn more about Ron, just Google him.

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by Joe Cooper

Over the years, I have read thousands of books, articles, and newspapers, and listened to hundreds of speeches and lectures about all kinds of mumbo-jumbo. A topic that has always intrigued me is, "What does it take to truly be successful?"

I’m talking about, "How does one really pull himself up from his boat straps?" “How does one go from rags to riches?” “Is there a general set of circumstances one needs in his environment?” “Is it a combination of quality characteristics within an individual?” “Do you have to know the right people?” “Do you have to be lucky?” “If you have to be smart, why do I know people right now who are less intelligent than me, but who are twice as rich?”

I’ve been researching these questions and many others like them, to finally come up with a definitive list or combination of skills that I believe to be most important for one to achieve their business dreams, no matter what they may be.

There are three primary "ingredients" that I have discovered to be absolutely vital for your success. The great thing is that you have most of these ingredients right inside of yourself. You just have to bring them out, cultivate them, and use them.

1. The first necessity is earning your own Luck.

Okay, okay! I know what you rationalists out there are saying: “There is no such thing as luck!”

This is positively not true! I will prove it to you over the course of these lessons!

I have always been fascinated with the idea of luck, i.e. good fortune. I have always wondered why it befell some more than others. Over the years, I have had the privilege to get my hands on several very, very hard to find books (many that have been out of print for decades). I have learned that the majority of the content you find in today’s most popular positive thinking books has already been covered in books printed back in the 1920’s, or earlier.

One of the best (rare) books that I’ve been fortunate enough to get my hands on is a tiny little blue book called The Kybalion. It is a book on Hermetic Philosophy.

Hermetic Philosophy is not Greek Philosophy, but in truth, Ancient Egyptian Philosophy. History tells us that Greek disciples traveled to Ancient Egypt during Ancient times, to be educated and initiated into what was called the Mystery Systems.

Egypt is accredited as the birthplace of Hidden Wisdom. All nations across the Earth have borrowed from their knowledge. This includes the ancient civilizations of India, Persia, Chaldea, Medea, China, Japan, Assyria, ancient Greece and Rome, and other ancient countries.

The great founder of this philosophy was known as the "Master of Masters," Hermes Trismegistus (meaning "thrice great," "the great-great," "the greatest great"). He is said to have lived three hundred years in the flesh (take it with a grain of salt)!

The best Christian authorities regard him as a contemporary of Abraham of the Christian Bible. Some Jewish traditions go so far as to claim that Abraham acquired (was taught) some of his mystical knowledge from Hermes. The Egyptians deified him making him one of their gods called Thoth, the Great God of Wisdom. Years later, the ancient Greeks made him one of their many gods, calling him Hermes.

That is what he is popularly known as today.

Although the teachings have deteriorated over thousands of years, even to this day, traces of the Hermetic teachings can be found in all lands, among all religions. I don’t want to bore you with a long history lesson, so I’ll get on to explaining what all of this has to do with Luck.

Let's take a look at the relationship between luck and Universal Law. There are a lot of books that have been written on Universal Laws. Universal Law is, basically, the laws that govern all of humanity, nature, animals, plants, marine life, time, space, and everything in-between.

I have never read a better, more complete book on the subject than The Kybalion. The Kybalion explains that there are Seven Laws, or Principles, that govern creation. The seven laws and their basic axioms are:

The Law of Mentalism, which states that "The All is Mind; The Universe is Mental."

The Law of Correspondence, which states "As above, so below; as below, so above."

The Law of Vibration, which states "Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates."

The Law of Polarity, which states that "Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled."

The Law of Gender, which states that "Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine principles; Gender manifests on all planes."

The Law of Rhythm, which states that "Everything flows out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum swings manifest in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates."

The Law of Cause and Effect, which states that "Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to law; Chance is but the name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of causation but nothing escapes the Law."

These are the Seven Laws of the Universe, according to the teachings of Thoth (a.k.a. Hermes of ancient Greece). To find out more about them, read The Kybalion. It is a fabulous book that every human being would benefit from reading. It’s a little hard to find, but there are still copies out there for those of you willing to do a little digging.

If you want something in life, but find that you have not been able to attain it, the questions you need to ask yourself are "Are my thoughts and actions in harmony with Universal Law?" "Are my thoughts and action in harmony with what I want?"

A very important lesson I've learned is that, when we fail in life, it's not because we are "breaking the law." It's because the Law is breaking US. This is because the Law operates unceasingly, regardless of if we are consciously aware of it or not. The law suffers every fool.

The advantage you should take away from this article, then, is to stop working against yourself and to start working within the Law. Use it to your advantage.

Here's a quick example: Whenever you are evaluating a situation or sizing up events, problems, challenges, or designing goals, objectives, etc. always ask yourself, "What role does Universal Law play in what I am seeking?"

This is always the best place to start because, whether you are aware of it or not, Universal Law is forever operating unmercifully.

Now we know what Universal Law is: It is the operation of Seven Laws which we will go into detail right now. I will also explain why everyone is entitled to a "lucky break."

Universal Law does exist. We do not live in a chaos, but in a Cosmos sustained by fixed Law and Order. This is actually a major advantage!

Everything you want in life can be manifested by properly attuning your mind. You have to first know what you want and then mentally create it, inside of your mind, and by using your emotions, imagination, faith, will, intelligence, and zeal, and by doing it all with feeling (Mentalism).

In other words, you have to truly believe that you can achieve what you set out to achieve.

Once you have successfully created the desired circumstances and resources you’ll need (inside of your mind first), your subconscious mind will gradually start to create the external means of attainment (Correspondence). You’ll start meeting the right people, gravitating towards the correct resources, and generally start to always be at the right place at the right time, doing the right things!

It may not seem like you are on the right path, but persevere. There is no such thing as a "mistake" for those dedicated to success.

You will continue to consistently and passionately imagine and mentally affirm your desires. This will intensify your external manifestations, because you will nurture your mental images with emotion, visualization, will power, and deep desire (Vibration), which will further draw you to the right circumstances, people, places, and things, and draw the proper circumstances, people, places, and things to you.

You will generally be moving in "the right direction" you need to be going to succeed (Polarity). You will combine together the proper mental state within yourself (Feminine polarity) with the necessary action and physical effort (Masculine polarity) to propel yourself towards your objective at an even higher intensity and rate of speed.

You will sustain your mental focus and physical labor, regardless of the natural ebbs and flows of daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly cycles. You will overcome the ups and downs of your energy levels, mood swings, self-doubts, the natural "highs" and "lows" of existence, etc. You will overcome the adverse rhythm of life (Rhythm) by persistently staying focused mentally and staying loyal to achieving your goals.

Over a long enough timeline, if you sustain your mental focus and your hard efforts (Cause), through all of the cyclical, rhythmical controversy that none of us can escape, you will be rewarded, eventually, with a "lucky break" (the Effect).

To work this process until you achieve your goals entirely is to defy the odds (thus earning your "lucky break").

There is no telling how this "lucky break" will come about. But, all you need to know is that it is inevitable. This means it is 100% guaranteed to happen (as long you do your part). As sure as the sun comes up everyday, you will be rewarded with "a lucky break" and probably many "lucky breaks" along your journey towards your objective.

Luck is natural, but rarely perceived as such, because it is very difficult to mathematically predict. By appearance alone, it seems random at times, because you never know when it will pop up.

The best thing to know is that, when you do your part and stay dedicated to the natural operation of things, you will be rewarded. Chances are, you will be surprised at the timing of your lucky break but, nonetheless, you will receive it.

The Law of Luck, then, is that everyone is entitled to their own lucky breaks in life. No one has a monopoly on luck. Luck is earned. Over a long enough timeline, everyone is entitled to his or her lucky break. This is true, provided they work hard and are smart about how they work hard.

About The Author:

Joe Cooper has researched and experimented with over 275 home based business opportunities over 25 years. Discover more information about internet scam reporting at http://www.best-internet-home-based-business.net and http://www.best-internet-home-based-business.net/order_form.html

© Copyright 2006 Joe Cooper

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by Barbara Bellissimo

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Summary:

I'm talking about gratitude, not attitude! Do you express your gratitude enough? I know I don't. And I don't mean whether you write your thank-you notes on time. Do you take some time every day to feel fully grateful for what you receive? As a recognized expert at copping an attitude, let me tell you that copping some gratitude is much, much easier.

========================================

I'm talking about gratitude, not attitude! Do you express your gratitude enough? I know I don't. And I don't mean whether you write your thank-you notes on time. Do you take some time every day to feel fully grateful for what you receive? Think of it as writing a thank-you note to the universe (or God, or your higher power) for looking out for you.

Thanksgiving obviously creates the perfect opportunity to cop some 'tude. It's easy to feel grateful at this time of year. So -- I'm not going to talk about family holiday traditions -- you can get that out of any magazine in the supermarket checkout line.

I am going to encourage you to take a few minutes every day to be grateful. Being grateful sets the stage for receiving more of what you want. Being grateful also lets the universe know you are appreciative of what comes your way -- even when you feel like you've worked really hard for it, and the universe didn't really help at all.

Sound a bit too esoteric for you? Let's bring it down to earth. Here are some of the 'tude-building activities that work for me.

1. My gratitude practice includes taking time each day to write down five things I'm grateful for that day. Some days, I go over the limit; other days, two of my items are "breathing out" and "breathing in". I learned this practice many years ago, when I read Simple Abundance (www.simpleabundance.com) by Sarah Ban Breathnach. This list takes 2 minutes each day.

2. Another gratitude reinforcement comes during my meditations. After manifesting using my virtual crystal ball, I take a minute to express gratitude to the universe for listening to me, and for whatever I may receive. These meditations take 5-10 minutes a day.

3. Finally, I just found out about a great little site, where you can light a candle in gratitude (or for whatever reason you wish). It's at www.gratefulness.org. The site walks you through the process, and you get a tiny window of your candle burning on your computer when you're done. You can shut the window, if you want to -- your candle burns for 48 hours whether you display it or not. Lighting a candle takes another 2 minutes of my day.

"But I've had a horrible day (week, year, whatever)! What do I possibly have to be grateful for?"

Here are some of my gratitude journal entries from the last few months:

A great new client.
Mom's doing well.
Reading by the beach.
Early to bed.
Great workshop response.
My husband arrived safely.
Reconnecting with old friends.
Little tulips at the end of the road.
My heat works.
My daughter's sense of humor.

See -- it's not that hard. As a recognized expert at copping an attitude, let me tell you that copping some gratitude is much, much easier.

Give it a try yourself. Go ahead, cop some 'tude!

© 2005 by Barbara Bellissimo. All rights reserved.

Barbara Bellissimo is a women's life transformation coach, and author of the bestselling book, "Become Your Own Great and Powerful: A Woman's Guide to Leading Your Real, Big Life." Visit http://www.seasonsofsuccess.com to get her no-cost special report -- "Turn On Your Power and Lead Your Self to Greatness" -- and her easy-to-use tools and ideas for leading the real, big life you want--right now!

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by Suzanne Falter-Barns
www.howmuchjoy.com

There was once a time (and there still is, to a certain degree) when I would say 'Yes' to every opportunity, request, suggestion, good idea, and even mediocre idea that came my way. And let me tell you, it was exhausting.

It was like I had this automatic, knee-jerk reaction to accommodate any suggestion that came my way -- as if it were my karmic duty. I call this auto-response being a 'yes-dog'. Perhaps you know the feeling.

When you're a yes-dog, your entire being is all about making other people happy; you knock yourself out doing it. No task is too small -- you figure you've always got room in your psyche, your schedule or your soul to squeeze in one more thing that someone wants to fit in. God forbid you should say no -- for then that someone would be unhappy. Which would be unthinkable.

Like a lot of creative people, I'm naturally empathetic -- so I could literally feel other people's pain … an experience I simply wanted to avoid as much as possible. For many years, I thought it was up to me to please the rest of the world. I literally thought it was my job to be a 'yes-dog'.

These days, I'm taking a much more circumspect view. I've come to the realization that I simply can't live my soul purpose AND make the rest of the world happy all the time.

And I realize that being a yes-dog doesn't always make the rest of the world happy -- even in my little corner. The more well-known I get, and the wider my reach, the more I can see it. There is always someone, somewhere, who has a problem with what I'm doing. And therein lay the breakthrough.

I'm no longer uncomfortable with other people's pain. I mean, it's not like I relish it; but I don't run to avoid it. I've come to realize we all have a path, and a learning process we're going through. This means my entire job is nothing more than to be authentic, listen to my gut, and act accordingly. Not only will I not make everyone happy -- I can't!

If someone is upset by this, it's no longer a big problem. Rather, it's simply the way their path is rubbing up against my path; it's part of life, growth, and karma. So I have nothing to fear.

My friend Joan Sotkin has a saying, 'I don't always have to be the one who's uncomfortable here'. Amen! Since I've given up being a yes-dog, and let go of the need to be 'the one who's always uncomfortable', great things have begun to stream my way. My reach, my income, my productivity and my impact in the world
have gone up in quantum leaps.

Best of all, I've relaxed as I go about my business. 'No' is not scary -- it's empowering. And, ironically enough, the world has not turned on me in anger and resentment -- it's actually stepped right up to my door and truly embraced what I'm doing.

Are you a yes-dog? Take my handy quiz below to assess where you are. And may I suggest a step away from that easy little word, to one that can be equally empowering: "No".

The Are You a 'Yes-Dog'? Questionnaire

1. Do you find it hard to say no to your children, even when they're making unreasonable demands.
a) Always
b) Occasionally
c) Rarely
d) Never

2. Do you long to be able to tell your boss exactly what you think … but you just can't?
a) Always
b) Occasionally
c) Rarely
d) Never

3. Do you find it impossible to deny yourself 'forbidden' pleasures -- i.e. Ben & Jerry's ice cream when you're dieting -- even if you've made a decision not to indulge?
a) Always
b) Occasionally
c) Rarely
d) Never

4. Do your friends tell you that you're a pushover, and advise you to stand firm?
a) Always
b) Occasionally
c) Rarely
d) Never

5. Do you get a queasy feeling in your gut when someone asks you to do something that's just not a good fit for you … and then inevitably cave in despite your feelings?
a) Always
b) Occasionally
c) Rarely
d) Never

6. Are you uncomfortable asking for more möney or more responsibility around your work?
a) Always
b) Occasionally
c) Rarely
d) Never

7. Are you always the person who volunteers even when you don't want to?
a) Always
b) Occasionally
c) Rarely
d) Never

8. Are there things you long to do in life, but you simply can't find the time or the courage to get to them?
a) Always
b) Occasionally
c) Rarely
d) Never

Rate your answers:
For every a) give yourself 10 points. For every b) give yourself 7 points. For every c) give yourself 4 points. For every d) give
yourself 1 point.

If your score is 60-80, you're probably saying 'Yes' WAY more often than you want to. Consider getting some coaching on how to say no from a good friend, life coach or partner.

If your score is 40-60, your ability to say 'No' willingly is spotty … try pausing and counting silently to five before you answer.

If your score is 20-40, you've got most situations pretty well in hand. Try saying 'No' just a little more often and see what happens.

If your score is 0-20, you're doing great! Your ability to monitor when to say 'Yes' and when to say 'No' is truly inspiring.

©2005 Suzanne Falter-Barns LLC.

For information on how to find the time, energy, money to live your purpose in life, chëck out Suzanne's frëe ezine, The Joy Letter. Sign up at http://www.howmuchjoy.com/joyletter.html and receive our valuable report, 35 Guaranteed Time Savers. And get a daily blast of joyful tips from the Blast o' Joy blog at http://selfhelpsalon.typepad.com/blast_o_joy/.

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by Erich Sweaney

Newbies and Expert Internet Marketers all have one thing in common: Trying to get their Websites indexed through the top three major search engines quickly. For larger Websites, the task is even more daunting, and there are a few small but effective techniques that can assist in the indexing process.

Patience is a virtue and in today's internet marketing world patience and planning is a key.

Smaller one- or two-page Websites, also known as sales pages, are the easiest and quickest to get indexed in the three major search engines. Almost anyone can generally succeed by just manually submitting through each search engine's submission process.

Websites with a considerable number of pages will often immediately get their first page indexed, which therefore requires small effective planning strategies and a little bit of patience to become completely indexed.

Effective Key Planning Strategies:

(1) Prior to submitting your Websites to the search engines, establis link partners, which will cause the search engines to start indexing your Website.

Start planning out the basic Website structure so that search engine robots can easily flow through your Website and index each page.

(a) Have a sitemap linked from you main index page that thinks throughout your Website.

(b) If possible, ensure that each page is linked together, not just back to the main index page. This has been a successful technique in the past.

(c) Build and submit a Google Sitemap.

(2) Test your Websites design and structure using Google Sitemap Software such as SOFTplus GSiteCrawler (Freeware) that will try and index your entire Website.

If you're unsuccessful building a index of your entire Website, then further planning and design changes may be in order, to index your entire Website. If the software cannot index your entire Website, how will the search engine robots index your entire Website?

(3) Instead of manually submitting your Websites, submit your Website through directories and establish link partnerships. This will improve how often your Website is crawled by the search engines and how fast your Website is indexed.

Also, when establishing link partnership and directories, the higher their Google Page Rank, the quicker your Website will be indexed and more often your Website is crawled.

(4) Patience. The process the search engines will go through while indexing your Website is: First, the search engine will have to find your Website (hence, establishing partnerships with high Google Page Rank), then crawling through your Website and absorbing all the information contained, then ranking each individual page and, finally, your Website will appear in the search engine result pages (SERPs).

Erich Sweaney has been marketing online since 1999. http://www.es-solution.com - Discover the Power of Internet Marketing!

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by Tellman Knudson

One question that people often ask me is, "Tellman, I want to start list building like you suggest, but I don't know where to start."

OK. Let me give you the 7 simple steps to follow:

1. Choose your niche: What are you passionate about?

I mean, what really gets you going? What can you get excited about and what will keep you that way? It could be anything from knitting to knees. It really doesn't matter, as long as people are searching for terms that surround your niche, you should do well. First, figure out what it is you have a passion for.

2. Do some research: Write a list of words that are used in your niche and then, go to http://inventory.overture.com/ .

Type the words into the blank, one at a time, and see how many searches are done for the terms. If your primary keywords generate 3,000 searches or more per month, you probably have a niche to work with. If you see there are 20,000 to 30,000 searches, then you definitely have a winner.

Just be aware that the very heavily-searched niches are probably very competitive. You may want to start list building around a smaller niche

3. Create a unique domain name: Your domain name should have something to do with what you're list building around.

For instance, my site, MyFirstTraffic.com, is for my beginner's traffic course. Makes sense, right? It makes it easy for people searching to find my site and buy my product, and it makes it easy for the search engines to figure out what my site is about for indexing.

Just be sure the name you choose isn't too long or difficult for people to remember.

4. Choose a web host: The most important factor here is dependability.

Don't ever base your choice of Web host on price because the cheapest hosts may just close shop and leave you hanging. You also want to be sure they have nearly 100% uptime. It's impossible for a host to have no downtime at all because upgrades and repairs are always needed. Just be sure that they have a good uptime reliability factor.

You may want to delay buying your domain name until you choose a Web hosting company, too. Many of them include a domain name or two with your hosting package. If you're just starting out, you may not need a very complicated plan, but if you're starting a membership site, say, where you'll need to use PHP extensions, then, you'll want something a bit more expensive.

If you don't know what you need, you'll probably have a tech person working with you anyway, so you can always ask them for a recommendation.

5. Build a squeeze page: Now that you have an idea about the niche you want to pursue, you want to start list building.

In other words, you want to gather a group of people who are hungry for information or products in your niche. To do that, you need a squeeze page, which is nothing more than a great headline, 3-5 bullet points of copy detailing the benefits of joining your list, and an opt-in box, which leads to...

6. Your autoresponder: Autoresponders are services that collect and house the names from your E-mail marketing list.

They also send out your confirmation messages. When someone signs up for your list, they have to click on a link in the confirmation message, which verifies that they actually signed up to your list. Once they do this, you can send email to them anytime you want.

This double opt-in process is important. If someone accuses you of spamming, you can get yourself into trouble. You can lose your ISP or, worse, face charges for violating the CAN-SPAM act of 2003, if you're in the U. S.

Autoresponders protect you from spam complaints. Choose a service that you can afford, but also find one that provides uninterrupted service and maximum deliverability. If nobody gets your E-mail, how can they read it to buy something from you?

7. Put your list building page on your server: The easiest and quickest way to put your list building page up is via FTP because it makes uploading quick and easy.

Wise FTP and Cute FTP are two programs that you can use, but there are many others. Using FTP is something you should learn more about if you plan to do business online.

If you follow these 7 steps you'll be list building in no time. Choose a great niche, create a memorable domain name, build a squeeze page, get an autoresponder, and upload your page and BOOM! You're list building.

How easy is that?

List building master, Tellman Knudson, is CEO of OvercomeEverything, Inc. and he has built a massive, responsive list in a short time. Learn his "Get a List Quick" system when you visit MyFirstList.com at http://www.myfirstlist.com/)

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by Angela Stringfellow

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Instill new positive habits into your daily routine and discover the key to gradually becoming a better person with minimal effort.
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Do you know how long it takes to form a new habit? On average, it is said that it takes about 21 days, or three weeks, to form a habit. So, with the New Year approaching us, I thought it appropriate to talk about instilling new positive habits for those of us who set New Year's resolutions.

With that being said, also note that it takes about twenty-one days to break an old, bad habit.

So -- whether you're trying to start something positive, or rid yourself of a negative habit, the news is good -- three weeks. Three weeks doesn't seem all that long if you think about it, now does it?

With the three-week goal in mind, developing new habits or getting rid of old doesn't seem that intimidating. All you have to do is focus on those first three weeks, and after that, the going gets easier. Even if you don't have any bad habits you want to get rid of (if that's you, I'd encourage you to take a closer look, we all can improve somewhere), it's important to continue the self-improvement process by trying to pick up little positive habits here and there. It doesn't even have to be anyting major, such as vowing to get up three hours early every morning to do a high-intensity cardio workout. The little things are sometimes just as important.

Decide to make a habit of taking the dog for a walk each morning, or taking a bag of baby carrots to work to snack on instead of buying potato chips from the vending machine.

It takes three weeks to form a new habit, so if you pick a little thing here and there and work on it for awhile, you can pick up new little positive habits pretty frequently. When all those little positive habits start to build up, you can look back and be proud of all the positive changes you've made in your life.

Start small before tackling the big ones. Take five minutes each morning before you get out of bed, to think positive affirmations. This alone could make a tremendous difference in each day of your life, and allow you to start your day in a positive and happy mood. Once you've tackled several small things, you will start to feel more confident in your abilities to change your behaviors and you'll feel like you can do anything (and, of course, you can!).

The key here is to make sure you diligently follow through each and every day for the first three weeks. We want to make a new habit, so these things become part of your daily routine without you even thinking about them. We don't want you to do something and have to force yourself to suck it up and do it each and every time. We want it to come naturally, so you feel good about it.

Think about how good it will feel when a friend asks you how you manage to stay so fit, and you casually respond that you get up half an hour early every single day and go for a jog. Your friend will then praise you for being so driven and dedicated.

You can secretly chuckle because it's not that big a deal for you -- it's just what you do without even thinking.

Once you master a new habit, pick another one. Soon, you will find yourself doing all sorts of wonderful things that are good for you, and it's just your way of life.

Hopefully, picking a new positive habit will also eventually become a habit for you, and a part of your routine that you look forward to. It's a small step to take towards becoming the person you know you can be.

Angela Stringfellow is a life coach, and is Webmaster and owner of the Website Life Synergy Solutions (http://www.24success.com/), a site dedicated to being the best, most comprehensive guide to personal and professional development.

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by Jesse Boland

It's a sad fact that the average home business owner never earns a profit in their business. It has become clear to me as I meet more and more new business owners why it is that the vast majority of them are struggling to earn money with their businesses. They waste their time on the unimportant stuff and neglect the key activities that will begin to make them money in the home based business industry.

Given the lack of training provided by some companies, and given that the blind often end up leading the blind in business, I though it would be helpful to lay down some basic necessities for the new business owner to use as a blueprint to success in their home business:

1. Find a mentor or create what Napoleon Hill calls in "Think and Grow Rich," a mastermind group. A group of people who meet regularly to game plan and work out answers to problems that they or the other members are having. This group can be in person or via an online conference room. These types of people will guide you with their own successes and difficulties the have faced in business and provide you with a reality check about the level of desire, commitment, and dedication you must have to build a successful business from home.

2. Stay away time wasters. I mean ALL time wasters. If you often find yourself searching link exchanges for the newest way to "Get Rich Quick," or "Earn Money in 15 Minutes" you need to reexamine your level of dedication to the business you are trying to build. If I can impart only one pearl of wisdom to you it is this: there is NO "super simple" road to wealth. All wealth creation takes time, but some methods are just simpler or more effective than others. Set up a daily schedule and stick to it, you'll be amazed by how much more productive you will become when you follow a checklist.

3. Make "Work Time" actual Work Time. Just because you are sitting at your desk doesn't mean you are working. Wasting time may be fine when you're someone's employee, but when you are your own boss ask yourself whether you'd be happy with your own level of activity and productivity. Work time is not chat with your significant other time, call your mom time, shop on the Internet time, chat online time, or pay the electricity bill time. Work time should be scheduled in stone and given the respect it deserves. I promise, the amount of work you do in the beginning will make or break your business.

4. Just because you are on the phone with a prospect doesn't mean that they are the type of person you want to do business with. Sometimes it's hard to do it, but there are time when YOU should reject a prospect--they're just too much headache. These prospects are the feet dragging, penny-pinching, malcontents that complain about your program before you explain it to them, seem to get irritated by the minute details of what you are saying, and then ask "How long before I start making $50,000 a month?" These are not the type of people you want to work with, and in the end you will be much happier when you don't have to waste time with someone who wants you to drag them toward success. You'll make more money without them in your organization.

5. If you find something that works, stick with it. Too often I find new business owners that want to "reinvent the wheel," as the old cliché says. They go into business with someone who has achieved a high level of success, but won't follow directions when given advice that will earn them income if carried out. It's ridiculous how many people will not follow simple directions. The people who make it the biggest in the home based business industry are those who follow directions the best. And on the flipside: never take advice from someone who is more screwed up than you. It's amazing how many people will chime in with their two cents on how you should build your business or why it's never going to work, or why it's a scam. Let them have their day jobs and their opinions, I'm just happy not to have to make that commute to work anymore.

Regardless of what opportunity you are in, wasting time is truly the scourge of virtually every new and struggling business owner. The fasted route to success is by following in the footsteps of those who have achieved a level of success that you want to achieve, and are willing to instruct you on their methods for building a home based business. All you must do is clean out your ears, be willing to follow directions, ask someone for the answers to the hard questions. But most of all you must respect your time, and respect your teacher's time as if it were your own. When people begin seeking you out for answers you will begin to truly see why your time is so valuable.

About The Author
Jesse Boland
Founder: Octopus Marketing Group--Helping The Average Person Earn True Wealth and Happiness In their Lives
Office for Free Business Consultation: (208) 267-5127
http://www.octopusmarketinggroup.com
http://marketingpredator.veretekk.com

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By Daniel Janal

Teleseminar programs are are the number one most versatile method of building businesses available to consultants, authors, entrepreneurs, and marketing and training firms, period. How can you maximize you teleseminar’s return on investment? This question was raised on Great Teleseminars' newly-launched blog, "Daniel Janal’s Great Teleseminar Tips", http://www.greatteleseminars.com/blog.

One of the ways is to offer transcripts from the seminar. If you aren't offering your customers the opportunity to order transcripts of your teleseminars, you're missing out on a golden opportunity to increase your income by a big factor.

Transcripts can add another $10-$100 dollars to your bottom line for each transcript ordered. If you have 100 people on a call and 20 people order the transcript, at $15, that's another $300 in your pocket. The rates you charge should depend on the quality of your content (more for harder-to-find information) and the audience (more for corporate markets with site licenses).

What is a transcript?

Quite simply, it is a word-for-word printed account of your teleseminar. As we talk much more informally than we write, it is a good idea for you to clean your transcripts up for grammar and style.

When you look at a seminar transcript, you might see that you've re-started sentences, stumbled over words, or have become redundant. By editing your transcript, you can make yourself sound masterful.

By editing your transcripts, you can also add other material that you forgot to include in the seminar. You might have great thoughts that come to mind, but you couldn't fit them into the live teleseminar.

Now, you have the opportunity to add those gems to the transcript.

You can also add additional sales and marketing materials to the transcript, to provide you with opportunities for additional income. Of course, any site you have mentioned during your talk will be a live hyperlink, so you should be sure to include your affiliate programs if they are relevant to the session.

How do you sell transcripts?

There are several ways to sell transcripts.

1. Offer the transcript as part of the initial ordering options.

2. Offer the transcript as an upsell, after they order the seminar. This is what marketing guru Alex Mandossian calls the "Want fries with that?" strategy. He reports a very high conversion rate when he offers the transcript on the up-sell page, or order confirmation page.

If your shopping cart doesn't have an up-sell page, I highly recommend using http://www.MyEasyOnlineStore.com

Dan Janal has been called the Larry King of Teleseminars. He is the president and owner of Great Teleseminars Audio Production Studios, http://www.GreatTeleseminars.com and PR Leads, http://www.prleads.com . He has produced more than 500 teleseminars for speakers, authors, trainers, coaches and businesses.

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By Chris King

I have attended - and still attend - many teleseminars, listened to tapes generated during teleseminars and read the transcripts from others. Here's how you can reap the rewards of attending a teleseminar, along with tips on teleseminar etiquette.

We are surely in the middle of an information explosion - and, between you and me, I love it. We are bombarded with content -- some helpful and some a waste of time. One of the approaches to sharing information is the use of interactive teleseminars. These are live seminars conducted over the telephone using TeleConferencing bridges and handled just like a telephone conference call.

The advantages are that there are no long commutes to a central meeting location. Participants may connect over the telephone from all over the world, plus they provide an incredibly cost-effective and time-efficient way for callers to enjoy all of the benefits of traditional, in-person seminars with the added value of convenience.

Teleseminars I have attended vary in cost from free to around $60. In all attended, however, I have paid for the long distance charges. Most last from an hour to an hour and a half, and with the competitive long distance phone charges today, this adds up to very little (less than parking downtown for a couple of hours).

Usually, one signs up and pays on-line - if there is a fee - then receives the phone number to call (the Bridge line number) and an access code. Most I have attended have been led by professionals who know the value of sending an E-mail reminder the day before.

Several send handouts before and after, so the knowledge sharing is tremendous.

Here are some tips for you to observe when you attend a live teleseminar (note: these apply especially if you are part of a smaller group. There are many I have been on recently that have huge groups on the line):

* Don't use speakerphones, cell phones, or computer/Internet telephony.
* Schedule uninterrupted time, and do not multi-task while on the call in order to benefit fully.
* Disable call-waiting.
* Use your mute button (or *6 on your phone) except when making a comment or asking a question. This will cut out the background noise.
* Call in on time, or just a couple of minutes ahead. And, if you need to leave before the end of the teleseminar, let the leader know. Simply hanging up is equivalent to walking out of the class.
* When commenting and/or asking a question, announce your name and where you are from, "Hi! I'm Chris from Cleveland, and I wondered …" Always be brief and to the point
* Avoid cross-talk between class members which interrupts the flow of the class.
* Pay attention, take lots of notes and have fun. This is a great way to learn!

Chris King is a professional speaker, storyteller, writer, Website creator / designer, free agent, and fitness instructor. Sign up for her eclectic E-newsletter, Portfolio Potpourri, at http://www.PowerfulPresentations.net You will find her information-packed E-book, How to Leave Your Audiences Begging for MORE!, at http://www.OutrageouslyPowerfulPresenter.com and her business Website at http://www.CreativeKeys.biz

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By Alexandria K. Brown

Can I share a secret with you?

Teleseminars are some of the easiest money I've ever made.

Chances are, you've attended a teleseminar lately. Why not produce them yourself? These seminars by phone are fun and easy to do.

Giving FREE teleseminars is a fabulous way to promote your business, help your prospects get to know you better, increase your E-zine subscribers, and jack-up sales. I offer a free monthly teleseminar that gives people an introduction to what I teach (how to get business via an E-zine). These calls generate me tons of new E-zine subscribers and sales for my home study courses.

Giving PAID teleseminars promotes your business and generates revenues as well. I do one paid teleseminar at least every two months on a different marketing topic, and sometimes I invite a special guest. Each of these events grosses me between $5,000 and $10,000.

You should also consider offering an "intensive" or "bootcamp" series of multi-week teleseminars. You can break up aspects of one topic or do a series on multiple, related topics. My former "4-Week E-zine Launch Telebootcamps" went for $497 and sold out every time.

To get started, you'll need:

1. A bridge line. For less than 30 people, FreeConference.com has worked fine for me. (Yes, it's FREE.) For more people, or for paid events, I use a paid line, such as from Great Teleseminars, because they come with personal service and an operator if anything goes wrong.

2. An automated way for people to sign up. I use, LOVE, and wholeheartedly recommend AutoWebBusiness. It's an online shopping cart program that comes complete with E-mail autoresponders and link tracking. It also lets you do coupon offers for special groups, and you can automatically track commissions for affiliates.

3. A way to record your teleseminars. You'll want to provide the audio for people to listen to later online, or you can make CDs. Record yourself with inexpensive software like Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge Studio, or hire someone to do it for you. I use AudioStrategies (http://www.AudioStrategies.com).

But -- there's a LOT more to it...

How do you get signups, especially if you have a small list?
Where can you advertise your teleseminars?
What days and times will get you more people?
How much should you charge?
How can you get expert guests on your calls for free?
How should you prepare handouts and visuals?
Do people really want CDs, or are they happy with online audio?
WHERE do you start?

To learn MY step-by-step formula for producing teleseminars that REALLY make you money, see my program, "Insider Secrets to Making Money With TELESEMINARS."

Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," publishes the award-winning 'Straight Shooter Marketing' weekly E-zine with 20,000+ subscribers. If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have more fun in your small business, get your FREE tips now at http://www.EzineQueen.com

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By Carly Anderson

Imagine you are about to professionally speak to 30 people on a teleconference call where you can only hear and cannot see the participants. Therefore, you can't read the reactions of your audience to what you say. You only have your ears, your imagination and intuitive senses to guide you.

What's the best way to structure the talk, to leave a lasting and memorable impression with the listeners?

You can begin by distinguishing between a learning-focused and a lecture-based teleconference call. The number one mistake people make is in thinking all teleconference calls are the same. They most certainly are not and it’s important to know the differences, so you avoid the mistake of planning and implementing all your calls in the same way.

The most popular category of teleconference calls that business professionals such as coaches, consultants and speakers are interested in is those used for telelearning. The most common names for these calls are teleseminars, teleclasses, teleforums, teleprograms or teleworkshops. A structured curriculum is created and delivered as a once-off teleclass or progressively delivered over a series of teleseminars to form a teleprogram.

There are other ways to use teleconference calls, such as for telemeetings and group coaching. You can also use webinar technology to deliver a Powerpoint style presentation so that, at the same time people are listening on the phone, they are connected via their computers to a visual presentation.

Participants in telelearning calls are typically limited to smaller groups of between 6 and up to a maximum of 30 people for the duration of the program, so that meaningful interaction can take place. While 30 people is a lot to interact with, over the course of a 4-, 8- or 12-week teleprogram, there will be those who can't attend in some weeks, which naturally lowers the number of participants on the call.

A lot of professionals confuse telelearning calls with a telelecture, where there is a speaker who delivers a speech, much like a speaker would at a live event.

The larger the number of people on the call, the more technical issues become a factor.

If you've ever been on a telecall with a lot of background noise, you'll know how annoying this can be and the reason for the speaker using a listen-only format. The downside to cutting out the voices of participants is there is little or no participation with the audience, so the speaker needs to know how to be very engaging in order to captivate an audience they cannot see or interact with.

Telelectures have limited appeal and are usually treated as a verbal download of a lot of information. Generally, the focus is on the speaker delivering their information and there is little skill involved, although there can be, if the speaker engages some of the same core facilitation skills used to make teleseminars memorable.

Conversely, a teleseminar or learning-based teleconference call is interactive and focuses on including the participants in fun and engaging ways, as well as working to ensure participants are inspired to act on what they learned after the call is over.

People who enroll in and attend your teleconference programs want to be inspired and engaged. It takes no skill to lecture at people for an hour, and the last thing participants want is to be bored by a teleleader who sounds monotonous, or hasn't taken the time to structure the telecall for their success.

Avoid the #1 mistake of boring people with a lecture-based format. Instead, structure teleconference calls to be interactive and inclusionary, for a memorable experience that has people coming back to more.

Carly Anderson is an expert on communicating via teleconference calls using teleclasses and teleseminars. She is the author of Teleseminar Leading Secrets. For a free 7-part audio/written ecourse visit http://www.teleseminarleadingsecrets.com.

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by Theresa Cahill

Online Website owners know that buyers don't just come to their sites, they must be enticed to visit and purchase.

For many, the sum total of promoting their Website revolves around "advertising." But ... did you know that there is much more to pulling in customers than advertising alone can do?

According to Wikipedia, a simplified definition of marketing is: "...the ongoing process of moving people closer to making a decision to purchase, use, follow ... or conform to someone else's products, services or values."

In a nutshell, "... if it doesn't facilitiate a 'sale,' then it's not marketing."

Does advertising facilitiate sales? There's no doubt that an effective online or offline ad works. However, the difference between advertising and marketing, especially online, is advertising involves a cold market process. You must be persuasive using text and graphics to create an interest in someone, an interest they were not actively aware they had. You must create that interest from scratch to get that all-important site visit.

Marketing, conversely, seeks out the warm market. Your warm market is in the mood, it is actively searching for what you have to offer.

Bringing the two of you together is the sole focus of a great marketing campaign.

Philip Kotler's definition explains:

"Marketing is human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange process."

Simply put, your buyer was already looking, now all you need to ensure that purchase is a sales-converting Website.

So -- does advertising alone cover enough ground to accomplish this goal? Not on its own.

Market research, product development, the management of the life-cycle of that product, pricing, and promotion are but a few aspects defining the term "marketing."

Strategic Internet marketing is geared toward defining, creating, growing, developing, maintaining, defending, and "owning" your market.

How does one "own" their market?

On the 'net, the one sure-fire way of dominating any market is exceptional placement in the search engines. When an Internet shopper heads to Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AltaVista ... wherever ... they have one goal and one goal in mind ... find what they are looking for.

Website owners who know what they want to accomplish also know they must strive to rise to the top of the search engines, and do so quickly.

Hundreds of thousands of new Websites pop up daily. Millions, if not billions, of Web pages already exist - before your site even hits the launch pad. Conquering and butting your competition out of the prime search engine positions needs to be your focus.

"If you build it, they will come" only works in the movies. Take the steps needed to make your Website a success.

Advertising is necessary. Marketing is critical!

Copyright 2006 - All Rights Reserved

Theresa Cahill has over two decades of online and offline marketing experience. Teaming up with Jeff Greer, of Everenterprise, they put their talents and experience to work assisting business, home business, and store-front owners in promoting their Websites. You are invited to receive a preliminary and free strategic Internet marketing site evaluation at http://www.Market-For-Me.com

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By Joel Walsh

Think you know how to write a business Website homepage? Keep reading, to make sure.

You probably think you already know what a homepage is. But, if you’re like many business Website owners, you really don’t.

The homepages of many business Websites are suffering an identity crisis. They're trying to do the job of several Web pages, and doing none of those jobs well.

What a Business Website Homepage is Not:

* A homepage is not the place to dump a long description of your business. That’s for the "about us" or the "company information" page. On the homepage, this information will just bore most people.

* A homepage is not the place where you list and sell all your products (unless you only have one or two). You should have a special "products and services" page for that, and preferably a shopping cart or catalog. Trying to make people buy right on your homepage is a little pushy. The homepage will also get over-crowded as your offerings expand. Instead, just include a list of product categories with links to inside pages, along with direct links to your biggest sellers.

* A homepage is not the place to include the full text of your announcements and press releases. Just include a teaser paragraph of each article on the homepage, with a link to the Web page with the full text. If people want to read the full text, they can. If they don’t, you haven’t bored them to tears.

* A homepage is not your company president’s or owner’s personal blog. It’s OK to rant, rave, or preach the need for world peace. Just don’t do it on wesellwidgets.com .

As you’ve probably noticed, a good Website has multiple pages. You should have special Web pages for special topics: an "about us" page for company information, a "products and services catalog," "the president’s blog," etc. When you advertise or send out links to your site, you should link directly to the most appropriate page, rather than just the homepage.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you don’t need a homepage, just that you don’t need it to do every single thing you want your Website to accomplish.

Important Points to Consider

Target audience

Your business Website’s homepage must be all things to all the people who type your URL in their navigation bar, whether it’s their six-hundredth visit or they just happened to catch your Web address painted on the back of your car.

Content

For the benefit of new visitors, a homepage must provide a snapshot of who you are and what visitors can do on your Website. Your first one to three paragraphs should give a quick overview of what visitors can do on your site. For example, you could include a short paragraph each on "buy widgets," "learn more about widgets," and "meet other widget enthusiasts," with links to your shopping cart, informational articles, and message board, respectively.

For returning visitors, the homepage must serve as a touchstone for navigating the site, announcing new developments and pointing out especially popular or useful pages. For these visitors, you don’t have to write anything new especially for your homepage. Anyone who's coming back to your site is already interested and is going to want to jump right into the deeper pages of your site, rather than linger on the homepage, wondering whether it's worth their time.

That's why your homepage should include teasers for the inside pages of your site. For instance, you could have a tip of the week, linked to a Web page on your site with an article explaining it. Good navigation (list of links to the four to eight most essential web pages on your site) is also a must.

For both new and returning visitors, always give a prominent place to a featured product or service (or two or three), with a picture, one- or two-sentence description, and a link to its own Web page, or to its place in your "products and services page," catalog or shopping cart.

You should also always feature a satisfied customer. It's great if the satisfied customer can send you a picture of himself or herself. But, no matter what, always include a testimonial quotation, and a link to a case study or customer story on its own separate Web page, which you should definitely find time to write or have written for you by a Website content provider.

Title

Don’t title your homepage "Welcome to [name of your site]." Don’t include that message anywhere on your homepage, in fact. It’s a waste of space. This was normal in 1996, but it’s pretty passé now. Everyone already knows they’re on your site. What you need to tell them is what they can do there. Try something like "Buy, Study, and Discuss Widgets," instead.

Also make sure your title incorporates any keywords you think people might use to search for your product or service on the Internet. Search engines decide how to categorize pages largely based on the homepage title and first heading text.

Length

Ideally, the first few paragraphs of the homepage (the ones aimed at new visitors) should not be more than 100-350 words total. The teasers for inside pages targeted to returning visitors should not be more than about 100 words each.

Making Sure Your Website Has the Best Homepage Possible

Before your homepage goes live, test it out on a few people. Don’t just ask your volunteers how they like your homepage. Courtesy may prevent you from getting an honest response. Instead, ask them to find how to buy your latest product or if they understand what’s the most important development in your company recently. If they can navigate to the correct page within about eight seconds (the average human attention span on the Web), you’ve done well.

You may just want to hire a Website copywriter, online copywriting firm, or Website content provider to create your homepage for you. After all, you wouldn’t build your own office building, would you? Of course, that’s not an entirely fair comparison — more people will see your business Website homepage than will ever see your office building!

About the author:

Joel Walsh is the head writer for UpMarket Content (http://upmarketcontent.com), a Website content firm serving business sites. You can find more information on writing a homepage, including a template, along with the rest of the seven essential Web pages for business Websites, such as the "about us" and "product and services" as well.

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5 Steps To Not Let The Power Of A Paycheck Stop You From Starting Your Own Business

by Pamela Stewart

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Fear of losing financial stability is the number one thing that stops people from starting their own business. Learn 5 key steps that will move you from fear to confidence as you evaluate your chances as a successful entrepreneur.

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I recently ran a survey and asked people the question: "If you are not happy in your current work situation, then why haven't you changed it?" The top-rated response was "fear of losing
financial stability."

The financial stability of a paycheck is a big fat illusion. If you are an employee, you probably have a salary, which is divided in monthly or weekly paychecks. Because you get the same amount in each check, you may believe that you have a stable source of income and can live your life without fear of financial instability.

This is dangerous thinking that puts your financial life at risk.

Layoffs, downsizing, mergers, takeovers and incompetent managers are a well-documented part of corporate life. I have seen all of them in my career as a corporate employee, and even more in my career as a corporate consultant. I have been witness to conversations where managers had to lay off long-time employees with no notice. These employees were shocked, hurt, scared and angry. This work was horrible and gut-wrenching, but I learned something very important from it: Never rely on your status as an employee to insulate you from financial instability.

So, if this reason has stopped you from starting your own business, follow these steps to see if any of your fears are warranted.

Step 1: Get crystal clear how much money you will need to start up your venture

· If you have written an effective business plan, you should be able to predict how much money you will need to start and sustain your business. You haven't written a business plan yet? You better get cracking at it. In addition to clarifying your idea, it will force you to organize your thoughts, financials and start-up plans, which will only help you to make it a reality. Good sources are Rhonda Abram's The Successful Business Plan, Rich Dad's The ABC's of Writing Winning Business Plans and the free resources of SCORE.

· Make a budget of your monthly living expenses. This will give you a picture of your overall cash needs.

Step 2: Meet with a solid, professional, well-researched and well-recommended financial planner

· While I don't believe the illusion that a full-time job = security, I don't want you to make a foolish decision that will adversely impact your family and financial health. You need to look at implications of leaving your corporate job in the areas of insurance, investments and retirement benefits. Get the whole picture before you make a quick move. I recently spoke with a smart, competent and capable government employee who wants to start his own business, but has just 5 years to go until retirement. While I think he has what it takes to be successful on his own, I would never counsel him to quit without consulting a professional financial planner and doing tons of research to test his business plans.

Step 3: Set specific financial goals to meet your cash needs

· Savings: how much of your paycheck will you have to save per month in order to meet your goals?

· Raising cash: How much cash do you need to raise from outside sources including investors? (note: although some people recommend it, unless you have no alternatives, I don't recommend borrowing money from your family and close friends. There are too many emotionally-charged issues around relatives and money, and you could damage critical relationships that you need for personal well-being. That is just my 2 cents.)

Step 4: Get creative about funding strategies

· There may be ways that you can cover the costs of start-up expenses by bartering with friends and colleagues. Do you want to start a coaching business? Maybe you can barter some coaching sessions with your accountant.

· Clean out your house of unused valuables and hold a sale. If you live in a warmer climate, have it outside. If not, jump on eBay. Convert things that take up space in your house to money that you need to fund your dreams.

Step 5: Learn everything you can about your new venture

· Write a solid business plan and get honest feedback from knowledgeable experts.

· Read every book you can get your hands on about your business topic.

· Google websites, blogs and online forums to learn about your marketplace.

· Identify very successful entrepreneurs in your field and follow their work, study their business models and ask them what it has taken to be successful.

· Attend teleconferences, webinars and in-person classes.

· The more that you know about your business, the greater chance you have at being successful at it.

It takes a huge amount of work to launch and grow a successful business. Don't get scared off by a perception of financial risk. If you do very careful research and make sure you have a viable plan, you can have some concrete data to weigh your important decision. Whatever you do, please do not be lulled into complacency by your regular paycheck.

© 2005 Pamela Stewart. All rights reserved.

Pamela Stewart is a seasoned corporate consultant with a new mission in life: help corporate warriors to become thriving entrepreneurs! To take a free assessment, "Test Your Small Business Start-up IQ," and get other valuable tools, go to http://www.ganas.com/freestuff. Read Pam's blog at http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com.

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by Charlie Cook http://www.marketingforsuccess.com

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Most teenagers don't communicate to you everything you need to know, and the same goes for most marketing. Learn how to get your message across. No promises about your teenagers communication.
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My kids taught me a lot about marketing communication when they were teenagers. My son had me playing 20 questions. When I asked what he'd done at school or out with his friends the night before, I'd get one of two classic teenage responses; "Stuff" or "Nothing". I'd have to pepper him with questions to learn any more.

With my daughter, I could hardly get a word in edgewise. She's a great storyteller, but she wanted to tell me everything about everyone. Neither of them were really giving me what I wanted.

If these had been sales calls and I'd been a business prospect instead of a devoted parent, I'd have ended the conversation or walked away. I'd have thought, "Great people, but they don't understand my point of view or my problems."

Does your marketing turn prospects off with too little or too much information?

Do you approach your marketing from your customers' point of view?

Is your marketing generating the leads you need to grow your business?

If a prospect asked you what you do, you'd never respond by just saying "Stuff". But, what do you say? Do you tell them that you're in advertising, or that you are a lawyer, accountant, designer, entrepreneur, franchise consultant, realtor, trainer, or software developer? Statements like this don't start a conversation fully explain what you do or how a prospect could benefit from your products or services. These one- or two-word answers are the equivalent of your teenager telling you they've been doing "Stuff".

Don't make your prospects play "20 Questions" with you to understand your business. Give them a clear, succinct marketing message that describes how you can help them and why they need you.

Once you've got their attention with your marketing message, follow it up with the information they need, a clarification of the problems you solve, the solutions you provide and a reason to contact you. Make it easy for your prospects to get what they want from your marketing materials, whether you use ads, brochures, a web site or other media.

- Define your prospects' most common concerns and the problems they want resolved.

- Present the solutions your provide in the context of these problems.

- Explain why they need you, from their point of view.

- Anticipate and answer their questions.

I was on the phone with Marilyn, who wanted to know what her firm could do to spread the word and get more clients. Last year they made over a million dollars, but so far this year they haven't gotten the number of inquires they need to continue to grow the company. What's getting in the way?

While I was talking with Marilyn, I typed her firm's URL into my web browser to take a look at the way they are promoting themselves. I had two reactions when her site came up in my browser. One, it was very attractive and professionally done. Two, after looking at it for a few minutes, I had no idea what the company actually did, who they helped or how.

There was a lot of information on the site, but it wasn't telling me what I needed to know. It took me another ten minutes and a number of questions to find out what her small business software development and computer-networking firm did.

Your prospects don't have the motivation of a parent talking to a teenager. If its hard for your prospects to figure out whether or not you can help them from your marketing materials, they're gone. Don't expect them to decipher unclear copy or hunt through your web site to find the information they need.

Generate more leads and sales by using a marketing message, supporting marketing copy and a coordinated marketing system that helps your prospects understand why they need you and how you can solve their problems.

- 2005 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved. -

The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals, small bu