Home Business The Easy Way 689 Update http://www.blogmoneymiracle.com en-us EasyRSS
By Jim Mack

Every day, millions of entrepreneurs get up, go to work, and they go no further than their own home. A home business is one of the most popular ventures for those who want to earn money, but also desire the freedom and flexibility that can only be achieved through working at home.

At day’s end, the most important thing that we have is our family. In an effort to spend more time with them, many entrepreneurs set up an office in a spare bedroom or even in the family room. This option is especially beneficial for those who have children and feel the need to be at home with them. Today, many families prefer to live in a suburban or country setting to allow their children the safety of playing outside or riding their bicycles. The problem is these areas are not commonly associated with a large job market, which means a longer commute for those who work away from home. For many, a home business is the answer to living in a safe area, eliminating the need to commute and still maintaining a steady income.

Family freedom is achieved through setting aside important time to share in special moments and always making sure to be there when you are needed. A home business allows for all of these things, but with a twist. It’s still possible to take your little ones to softball practice or pick them up from school, but it’s also possible to earn a full-time living while doing so.

If you work for someone else, what happens if you want to take a vacation? How early do you have to provide your request and what will happen if something later comes up and you need to change the date of your trip? If you’ve already requested a vacation from your employer and that request was approved, what happens to the vacation plans? It’s not always so easy to change plans when you are working on someone else’s time clock. If you want the freedom and flexibility to choose your schedule, arrange family outings and vacations at a time that is convenient for everyone, have the peace of mind to know that plans change and you need to be able to change with them, then a home business is the way to go.

Working at home is not just about being there to clean up little spills, run errands or even picking someone up from school. It’s more than that. It’s about taking care of your children when they are sick and need you. It’s about being there when one of them calls from school and wants to come home because they are hurt. It’s also about being there for the special moments that deserve your presence. Whether it’s your toddler’s first step across the carpet or their first step into kindergarten, these are the moments that shouldn’t be missed and won’t be missed, if you are in control of your own schedule.

Jim Mack is a home business professional that is dedicated to help his team succeed http://www.giantcashcow.com, the BEST home business out there today. To find out more about Jim go to http://www.giantcashcow.com ]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips689/user/index.php
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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By Stuart Elliott

Wow, what a strange question!

This question, however, has nothing to do with seeing your prospect as a mythical person, like the dragons in fairy tales of old. It asks whether you really know your prospect.

Actually, there is some truth to both sides of the question. A lot of would-be marketers think they have found a killer product and write a sales letter to match, only to find out later (to their cost) that there is no market for that product.

But, what I really want to discuss today is…

Do You Breathe The Same Air As Your Prospect?

I mean, do you really know your prospect? Do you talk the same talk as him/her? Do you live the same life as him/her? In short, can you honestly say that you can identify with your prospect?

When you write a sales letter, not only do you have to know your product intimately, you have to taste it, feel it, own it and use it. But…

You have to also KNOW your prospect intimately.

Too many marketers today, whether they be Internet or Offline marketers, locate a product or service that they think will sell. They research it in depth and start to write a sales letter for it, but fail to put the same amount of effort into identifying who they are writing the sales letter to.

"You may have the best product in the world, but how can you write a killer sales letter for it if you don't know who will buy it?"

You must learn everything there is to know about your target market: what their needs are, what their desires are, how they think, how they talk and, yes, even how they dress.

For instance, say your product is the latest high-tech skateboard. You've researched it endlessly and know that it will benefit your prospect because it is lighter and stronger, thus giving him/her more speed -- and it will never break. How do you think your prospect will react if you walk up to him/her wearing a suit and tie, then try to talk to him/her in language that would be more suitable for the annual financial meetings of a fortune 500 company?

Or -- say you're selling a top-notch financial product. How do you think your prospect would react if your opening words were "Yo, Dude! What's the juice?"

I can tell you that he/she would probably laugh in your face. You certainly wouldn't hold much credibility in his/her eyes.

Far better if you took the time to learn your prospect's habits, then approached him/her wearing similar attire that he/she would wear. Immediately, you'd start to fit in. Now, when you talked to him/her about your product and use familiar language, he/she will listen with open ears and be begging you for a chance to try out your product, because you're talking to him/her on his/her level.

Don't be misled into thinking there is no need to worry about clothes when addressing prospects via the Internet, either. A photo of yourself adds instant credibility to your sales letter but, of course, that photo must show you in attire that matches the minds' eye of your prospect. For instance, a picture of you sitting there in your underpants wouldn't do much for your credibility if you were selling stock market advice, would it?

So -- the next time you sit down to write a sales letter for that killer product you've identified, take the time to research your buyers, let them live inside your head for a while before you put pen to paper.

That way, when you do write your sales letter, it will talk the same language and walk the same walk as your prospect. Thus, you will gain his/her respect immediately he/she starts to read it.

Also make sure there is a market for your product. You don't want to be selling skateboards to dragons, do you? (Remember, dragons can fly, so they have no need for a skateboard!)

About the author:

Stuart Elliott is a world class copywriter. Drop by http://howtowritekickbuttcopy.com to pick up a free copywriting power guide.

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By Michael B. Pavlish

#1. START WITH WHAT THE PROSPECT WANTS

Most marketing falls short for one reason: it focuses on the product or service. The inevitable result of this line of thinking is a list of FEATURES that may or may not be of interest to anyone except the marketer. Start, instead, with the benefits the prospect wants. This requires research, interviews, brainstorming and multi-industry experience to look at what’s selling through the eyes of the potential customer. But this is the only way to develop the best CUSTOMER BENEFITS that make sales and profits SKYROCKET!

#2. FORGET WHAT YOU’VE ALWAYS DONE

To get a response breakthrough, forget about what has always been done … and what everybody else in the industry does. That’s tunnel vision. Look at your copywriting efforts with a fresh set of eyes and a wide-open mind. The fact is, if a business keeps doing what it’s always done, it'll keep getting the same results. Remember, the 8-word battle cry of a dying company is, "That’s the way we have always done it." Be different … be bold … be original. Use your imagination to create a breakthrough.

#3. PROMISE TO GIVE THE PROSPECT EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTS MOST

Great copywriting is great salesmanship in print. The best salespeople find out what the prospect wants most … and then promise to deliver it. Write as if you were the prospect. What benefit does the prospect want most from this product? What end result? What hidden benefit? What would be the ultimate benefit? Once the most important benefits are determined, start with them and keep stressing them throughout the copy … and prove them with specific facts, a guarantee, and a no-risk offer.

#4. MAKE A GREAT OFFER

The offer includes the product, product name, price, terms, payment options, ordering information, bonuses, and guarantee. The right offer can double, even triple response, so it pays to put a lot of thought into this … and continually test.

#5. CREATE A “DYNAMITE” HEADLINE TO GET MORE RESPONSE

Legendary copywriter John Caples saw response to an ad increase by 19½ TIMES simply with a different headline and no other copy changes. The headline must feature the benefit(s) the prospect wants most in a specific, easily digestible, believable way. Try to use the proven magic copywriting words "guaranteed," "new," "secret," "fast," "easy" and "free." It also helps to include a strong offer in the headline. For example, if it’s known that your prospect’s main desire is to save time, and the product will do that for them, tell them boldly and specifically, like this: "SAVE 6 HOURS EVERY WEEK … OR YOU WON’T PAY A DIME!"

#6. USE AS MUCH COPY AS IS NEEDED

Don’t try to write "long" or "short" copy. Instead, focus on the benefits the prospect should know and write as much or as little as is needed to convey all of these benefits. Don’t be afraid of longer copy. When the copy is full of excitement and benefits that the reader wants, he will read every word of it and the response will be much higher.

#7. USE AN AUTHORITY, EXPERT OR CELEBRITY IF APPROPRIATE

More people will read, believe and order from copy when it comes from someone they perceive as an authority. For example, one company selling health products recently tested the exact same sales letter coming from the company president vs. coming from an M.D. The M.D. letter pulled 62% more orders!

#8. USE TODAY’S VISUAL SOCIETY AS AN ADVANTAGE

We live in the MTV society where people’s attention span is about as short as a newborn baby’s. To get maximum response, copywriting must look very easy to read and be visually appealing. In addition, it must be exciting, up-beat, passionate and enthusiastic! It must get the reader excited and interested enough to act NOW!

#9. WRITE THE CLOSING PARAGRAPH AND P.S. FIRST

By the time most writers get to these critically important pieces, they’ve run out of gas and can barely get them written. For high-impact copy, write these first. Be sure to close hard in both of these, telling the reader what he’ll lose if he doesn’t respond now.

#10. COVER ALL THE BASES – WRITE TO A PERSON WHO:

Requires a large benefit promise to get their attention.

Doesn’t like to take risks.

Is skeptical.

Is not very self-motivated.

Must be thoroughly convinced and excited to take the action you want.

#11. TELL THE READER WHAT TO DO

Many people who are interested will never respond to the copy due to inertia. They just haven’t been motivated enough to take action. The way great copy motivates them to action is with benefits, excitement and by TELLING THEM EXACTLY WHAT THEY SHOULD DO over and over again throughout the copy. We live in a world of slogans and images. We are inundated by ads on TV with vague slogans that say "Just Do It," and we’re left wondering just what it is we’re supposed to do. In direct marketing, such appeals are doomed to failure. We must be specific, never vague. We must repeatedly and unashamedly ask for the order or the phone call or whatever specific action we want.

#12. BE CREATIVE, BUT DON’T BE CUTE

Most copywriters try to be too clever … to be humorous … to get attention with "clever" photos, headlines and copy. Response from this type of "clever" copy is awful. The only reason people buy anything is to gain an advantage, or to get a benefit they want. To be successful in marketing, use creativity to focus on how best to present the end-user benefits of the product or service.

These are the 12 copywriting secrets that can double the response to your advertising and marketing.

About the author:

Mike Pavlish is a successful copywriter who has sold products and services for almost every type of business since 1978 and the author of a best-selling E-book. For information, go to http://www.profitboosterscopy.com .

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By Esther Smith

It doesn’t matter whether you are E-mailing a prospect, composing an ad, or writing a sales letter to promote your newly published E-book – correct grammar and spelling are important. Good or bad, it leaves a lasting impression on the reader and says a whole lot about your credibility.

Consider the company who claims they can put my program at the top of every Search Engine for $97. When I check their site, I notice it's ranked #3. I sigh and roll my eyes: if they can put my website at the top why isn’t theirs ranked up there?

Credibility: it’s something we earn. It’s not a given.

If your sales letter is supposed to convince me to buy your E-book, you ought to have the basic skills of a writer. Offer it to a friend to read for errors in grammar or spelling. If none are available, pay for a professional editor. Anything is better than presenting your offer on a sales page that looks like a fifth grader wrote it.

It won’t attract a buyer and it sure won’t attract a possible sales-affiliate, like me, to promote it.

Programs that offer "spell check" capabilities, such as Notepad or Word Perfect, leave no excuse for the novice writer today. Set up your sales letter and E-book, for that matter, in one of these programs, so that grammatical errors and misspelled words will be underlined for your correction.

This is not 100% flawless, however, as these services will not pick up homonyms – words that sound alike but are spelled differently. Hair and hare sound the same but, if you use the wrong one in your sentence, spell-check will not pick it up because it is a real word, even if it’s the wrong one.

One can only imagine trying to read your E-book when the sales letter promises, “… we will offer you a peak at secrets never before revealed”. And further advises me that I should “not waist any time in ordering as the price will be going up after midnight.”

Homonyms give us the most grief as writers, but if you find yourself falling into this grammatical pit, make yourself a list and hang it over your desk. Before long, you will have sidestepped any chance of misusing these words.

Actually, you will smile when you come across others who are still clueless.

Next, I’d like to address your misuse of words like "loose" and "lose." Loose means not tight! Lose means to lack the possession of, to come to be without. please don’t tell me I will “… loose inches in a matter of weeks”.

Also a word on the dreaded apostrophe – avoiding it entirely is not a solution. For example, when you say, "… your going to love the results." Actually, you do not mean "your" but "you are going to love the results." Why not use the apostrophe and join the two words: "you’re going to love the results." Use "it’s" for "it is," and "that’s" for "that is." Try "they’re" for "they are," and "can’t" for "cannot."

Imagine thousands of people buying and reading your E-Book. They love it and write to you about how it has helped them with their weight problems. They even E-mail all their friends and recommend your E-book.

Sound far fetched? Not at all – it can and will happen to you!

As a fellow writer, I hope this hasn't discouraged you -- and that you will keep publishing E-books.

In all fairness, let me add that you are far from an isolated case. More writers than I care to mention need the same advice. If you're reading this article, your next effort will be better and attract more buyers; one of them will be me.

(C) Copyright, 2006 Esther Smith

About the author:

Smith writes and publishes numerous Articles and a weekly syndicated newsletter. She offers editing and/or re-writes by contacting her here: editor@thepermanentventure.com , and she teaches would-be entrepreneurs the long-term value of leveraged incomes: http://thepermanentventure.com/2up.htm Start young, retire early!

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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 Martene Carlsen

Before you read this article: I'm not an expert - this is just a short (and hopefully amusing) account of my own experiences with starting up a Website! I WILL, however, give you some very useful links to the REAL experts at the end of this article.

BUT -- DON'T SKIP TO THE END JUST YET! I still have a lot of funny, insightful and useful information to give you along the way.

About 8 months ago, I got a great idea! "I'm gonna' make a Website with flash greeting cards that people can send to all their friends!"

No, I didn't think I was the first person to get this idea. I'm not THAT naive! However, I was naive in a lot of other ways about what it takes to build a Website – but I'll get to that later.

Anyway, I thought this was a great idea for ME; I love making little animations in Flash, I love thinking up little stories, I love working for myself (as opposed to working for a boss - but you can read about that on my Website!), and I thought it would be really cool to have a Website that people from all over the world would visit and use.

WOW! Sort of my 15 minutes of fame, I guess. AND, if somewhere down the line, I could make just a liiiiiiiittle money on it; GREAT! And I'm not talking millionaire money, just enough to cover my expenses.

Okay okay -- and maybe a liiiiiiittle bit more than that : )

Being able to afford red wine in bottles instead of cartons would be nice!

I started working on ideas (I had lots of them!) for ecards, and then I started making the very first card (that I intended to send to my parents on their 50th wedding anniversary as a "test," to see if other people would think my cards were as funny as I did).

Then, a funny thing happened (no, not on the way to the Forum); my mother (who has absolutely no knowledge of the Internet or ecard Websites or anything of an electronic nature, and who knew NOTHING of my idea of starting my own ecard Website) had cut out an article from their newspaper for me. It was the (success) story of a British artist, Jacquie Lawson, who at the tender age of 57, created an interactive flash Christmas ecard and emailed it to her friends and yada yada yada -- now he has a VERY profitable subscription-based ecard Website.

And we're talking MILLIONS of dollars here, folks!

I thought: "My God! This is a sign! This must be what I'm put on this planet to do! It's my calling!"

You see, my mom has NEVER EVER given me any newspaper clippings about ANYTHING before -- so why now, why about this? It MUST be a sign! I'm not a religious or superstitious person, but this was just a little too much to be coincidental, I decided!

So, I kept working my lower-part-of-my-body (no, not my legs!) off. I finished the first card JUST in time for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary and emailed it to them on the morning of their big day.

It was a big success : ) It was a card with two bored cats picking their noses (I know -- it doesn't really sound like the kind of card you would send to your parents on their 50th wedding anniversary, but - what can I say? It worked great!) - check it out here: http://www.carlsencards.com/ecard-01-happy-birthday-bored-cats.htm.

I have changed the message to "Happy Birthday."

So -- wanting to be serious about the whole thing, I needed a domain and I decided on the name carlsencards(.com) and purchased the domain. All the great keyword-stuffed URLs were, of course, taken (always good to have your most important keywords in your URL!). So, I thought I might as well promote my name a little.

If that was a wise decision, I still don't know - the jury's still out on that one. Then again, who would have ever thought that "yahoo" or "google" were great names for Websites?! I rest my case.

But -- here is the first lesson to be learned; choose a less competitive market if you can! Not something like... say; ECARDS! Search for "ecards" and you'll get 34,500,000 results in google! Good luck getting to the top of THAT list! I don't want to state the obvious, but... I do anyway; it's also a good idea to choose a product, a service or a theme you're interested in yourself and LIKE working with.

For the next 6 months, I worked on my site. Every weekend, holiday and vacation, I got up around 6 a.m. so I could get to work on my BIG IMPORTANT PROJECT! I had decided that 20 cards would be enough to launch the site. This ecards site is all about QUALITY, not quantity, you see. I put a lot of work into each card; first the story, then drawing and animating, then composing and recording the music and sound effects, and, finally, putting the card on my site.

A card takes 2-4 days to make, so it took me about 6 months to complete the 20 cards I thought would be enough for starters.

I intended to keep making cards after the big, GRAND opening, so the site would continue to grow and my users ("my users" - Oh, I like saying that: MY USERS! I have USERS!) would have new cards to send every time they visited my site. And - for your information - I still make cards. Every free minute I have is spent working on my ecard Website. But, I like it!

And -- here's another lesson to be learned (but I already knew that); people expect Websites to change, be updated and grow ALL THE TIME. It's like children! You can't just have a baby and then expect it to grow up all by itself.

Or, so I've heard. I don't have children myself. Not the human kind, anyway! Only the furry, four-legged kind with whiskers. But, they need caring and looking-after, too!

Then, the big day arrived; I was finally ready to launch my site. And -- here's where I was REALLY naïve: I thought that all I had to do was send ecards to all my friends, and they would love the cards and find them utterly cute and funny and they would send cards to all THEIR friends, who, again, would love my cards and send cards to... I think you get the picture.

Lesson to be learned: That happens like ... once in a blue moon. Or, once in 10 blue moons. Okay, it happened for Jacquie Lawson. It happens SOMETIMES in real life. But, it certainly didn't happen in MY real life. Only in my dreams!

Hmmmm, what to do, what to do ... I definitely wasn't ready to give up just yet (another useful lesson: don't give up!). So, I searched the Internet and found a site that listed free stuff of all kinds.

Hey! I have free stuff on my site, maybe I can get them to link to my site! Wow, they were way ahead of me on that one; they actually had a button that said "Submit site." Great!

I submitted my site, but - oh - what's that? "Reciprocal link" - what is that? Oh, so I have to link to you, and you'll link to me. Hmmmm, sort of like "I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours." Oh -- but that'll ruin my great site design! There must be other ways.

Lesson number ... I've lost count! Anyway, lesson to be learned; reciprocal linking is hard to avoid. I have later learned that one-way links are better, but to get things started and to get people to visit your wonderful site, it's a good idea to find sites that will link to you and generate some traffic. And so what if you have to put a couple of little buttons and text links on your site? So, I exchanged links with a free stuff site, and - WOW - people OTHER than my 20 or so friends visited my site!

We're not talking several thousands a day. Actually, not even hundreds. But, around 60-80 a day, which is way better than 3-4. Now we're cooking! Yes, but the cooking started to slow down after a week or so.

Okay, now what? I guess I just have to find a couple more sites to exchange links with.

So, again I searched the Internet. Lo and behold, there are lots of sites that list free stuff out there! And, to make a long, boring story a little shorter; I exchanged links with about a dozen free stuff sites and I did get a little traffic.

But, there must be other ways....!

DIRECTORIES! There are (probably) hundreds of thousands of directories where you can get listed -- most do not require a reciprocal link. Or a yearly fee to list your site. Again, I spent hours researching and googling (I know google don't like us to use that word - to "google," but it's such a GOOD word) the words "free directory submit site." And, if there was one thing I learned, it was that I still had a LOT to learn about promoting a Website!

SEO! What the hell is see-oh? Oh ... it's "S-E-O!" Search Engine Optimization - still have no idea what that is.

So, I researched - isn't the Internet a wonderful invention? Oh, my; keywords, href title tags, alt tags, text content, file names, keyword density ... I thought I'd done everything I needed to do in that department by just placing some nice keywords in the meta tags (you know; title, description and keywords)! But, noooooooooo, search engines don't care about that anymore. Now you have to put your keywords into all those other tags AND the content. And you have to choose your keywords VERY carefully (google has some nice tools that can help you research and find the right keywords - link at the end of the article).

Aha! Wish I had known that BEFORE I started building my Website! Another very useful lesson! I won't explain exactly how to do all this, but I'll give you some links to great sites that explain this much better that I ever could. I just want you to know that this is something you have to do.

Okay, so that's it! NOW I'm all set to attract millions of visitors.

Well, what's your pagerank, Martine? My what? My "pagerank"? Where can I get that? Can I buy it on ebay? Oh no, pagerank is something you EARN, so to speak. But how? Get lots and lots of QUALITY inbound links - preferably one-way links (meaning that THEY show you theirs, but YOU don't have to show them yours! Well, actually THEY show everybody YOURS, but you don't have to... You know what I mean). Google likes that! And you do what google likes, because most people find sites by searching google. And they seldom get past page 1 or 2 in the google results.

So -- how DO you get to the top of google's search results?

Good question. Very good question. Very few people know a lot about that and a lot of people (like me) know very little about it. But, people like me (who know just a little) have a good excuse, because IT'S A SECRET! Only the people who work for google - actually only SOME of those people REALLY know what google likes the most and thereby goes to the top of the list.

And you know what? It doesn't pay to try to find out, because they CHANGE IT all the time!

Google uses something called algorithms to determine which sites to put on the top of the list (if you're interested, you can find tons of information on that on the Internet). And they keep changing these algorithms.

Yes, I think that's really sneaky, too. But it does serve a purpose. Otherwise clever - even more sneaky - Webmasters would find out and take advantage of this knowledge and get THEIR websites to the top of the lists even though their sites are not the most relevant. See the point?

So, I guess that's okay. But, it certainly doesn't make MY life easier! I have to guess and try out different keywords and keyword placements and keyword density until I just give up and say "That'll do, little piggy. That'll do!"

That was a quote from "Babe," and if you're not familiar with that movie; RENT IT, BUY IT, SEE IT!

Another thing google likes is a nice, simple sitemap. It makes google's job a lot easier. But, that's no biggie, this site will do it for you: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com - and let's all give a big hand to xml-sitemaps.com for helping us out with that one!

So, to sum it all up: - optimize you site (this is the SEO part) - doing this from the very beginning is a lot easier than after you have created 167 pages! I know from experience. And this includes making a sitemap.

Get lots of inbound (one-way) QUALITY links (that'll give you pagerank and a higher position on google's search results).

Directories are good. But don't get them all at once; getting too many links too fast will seem like spam to google, and you don't want that to happen!

Get some links to your site that can generate some traffic (it's okay to reciprocate some links - I think!). And it'll be good for you self-esteem to see that your site gets visitors that are NOT closely related to you : )

And do what I'm doing right now; write funny/informative/useful articles and submit them to sites all over the Internet.

And -- remember to include your name and URL : ) That's sort of the whole purpose of doing this. Not that I didn't write this article to amuse you. I did. Of course I did!

And, finally - and this just might be the best and most important advice of all; stay the hell AWAY from the "Guaranteed 100,000 Visitors $15! Very Cheap Traffic" sites! 100.000 unique visitors - YEAH, RIGHT!

Don't do it! It's a scam, it's a waste of money and google doesn't like it! You may even get your site banned from google by doing that. I know it's tempting, but so is robbing a bank and getting $2 million in 4 minutes. But it still doesn't pay in the long run.

So, I guess that's it. I hope you had fun reading about my experiences promoting my Website. And I hope you learned a little as well. Good luck with your Website!

Here' s the list of REALLY useful sites with REALLY useful information that I used (and still use) promoting MY website:

Great tools: http://www.iwebtool.com http://www.selfseo.com http://www.seobook.com http://www.webuildpages.com http://www.seocompany.ca http://www.xml-sitemaps.com http://developers.evrsoft.com

Keyword tools: http://www.google.com (search for "google trends") http://www.google.com (search for "KeywordToolExternal")

Lists of directories: http://www.submithelper.com http://info.vilesilencer.com http://searchenginewatch.com http://strongestlinks.com

... so has my Website become a great success with thousands of visitors every day? Well, my site is still very new, so it's too early to say. But, I hope and I believe and most of all. I still work hard on promoting my site and adding new cards every week! Who knows? Beware, Jacquie Lawson, there's a new kid in town!

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by Cynthia Minnaar

With the ever-increasing number of Web sites on the Internet, why not take advantage of this simple method of being able to personalize and distinguish your Website from others?

If you bookmark a page with Microsoft IE, you will notice some sites have a special icon associated with their respective bookmark, thus differentiating or branding site A from site B.

Think of it as a form of Internet marketing.

It dawned on me recently how easy it was for me to locate Web sites that I had bookmarked so they appeared in My Favorites menu, with a little icon displayed next to the Website name, so I decided to find out if I could put one on my own Website, to make it stand out in the My Favorites menu and, thus, make it easier for whoever bookmarked my site to locate it.

I started my search on Google and discovered that the little icon that replaces the IE logo (in IE) is called a Favicon (pronounced fav-eye-con) and it's short for Favorites Icon, or it's sometimes called a bookmark icon.

The Favicon also shows in the address bar. Notice the red Y! symbol that appears in the left-most area of the address bar in Internet Explorer when you open Yahoo!, or the butterfly in MSN.

What a great way to personalise your site!

You will require IE 5.0 or higher and a favicon.ico can show up in at least three different places in Windows:

1) In the Favorites list, selectable on the Start menu;

2) In the location bar of the browser, when you're visiting the Website;

3) On your desktop, if you first bookmark the site, click Start, Favorites, hold down the control key and click on the bookmark, to drag it to the desktop (it copies the icon as a shortcut).

The favicon.ico can also show up in the following two places:

4) On the taskbar, if you bookmark the site, hold down the control key, then right-click on the bookmark and drag it to the task bar, it copies the icon there;

5) On the links bar, if you bookmark the site, hold down the control key, then right-click on the bookmark and drag it to the Links tool bar, it copies the icon there.

If you search the search engines for "favicon," you will find that many sites come up offering favicon tutorials, online tools to create favicon icons, free favicon icons and installation instructions.

A favicon should be 16 X 16 pixels with 16 colors and the file name must be favicon.ico. Ideally, you should search for a program that allows you to create favicons online.

Remember, if you do not save it as favicon.ico, it will not work. Do not make the mistake of just shrinking an image to icon size and renaming it with a .ico file extension. That will not work, either, because it is not a real icon file.

Don't be surprised if your own favicon does not show up in your own browser when you open your site, as sometimes this can take up to a few days, and it might even disappear again, only to reappear.

I had fun creating my own personal 16 x 16 pixel image in MyImager and then found a site on Google that created a favicon.ico file. I uploaded my image and clicked on "generate favicon," and that's how easy it was.

I then uploaded the favicon.ico file to the root Web directory, in the same location as the index.html page of my hosted Website and -- bingo! I now have a Favicon and have personalized and distinguished my Website from others. Creating such an icon adds to the professionalism of your site, marking you as a Web designer who attends to detail.

So, now, when someone bookmarks my site with a browser that supports favicons, my favicon will appear, as opposed to a default image (a logo for Internet Explorer), which is used instead, if no favicon.ico has been provided.

I am sure, if you look through your own Favorites Menu, you will notice that the bulk of the images are the IE logo.

The favicon allows the Webmaster to further promote his or her site, and to create a more customized appearance within a visitor's browser. Often, the favicon reflects the look and feel of the Website or the organization's logo.

Have fun creating your Favicon!

Cynthia Minnaar works from home online and invites you to visit www.cyns-home-biz.com for Web income generating ideas and opportunities, articles and marketing tools.

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by Paul Fisher

It took seven months to get my last Web project, the One Million Masterpiece, online.

The site is complex and needed the development time, but in the last few days I’ve had a yearning to see if I can still turn around a project in 24 hours. Back in the early days of the Internet boom, I’d sit in my bedroom and knock out HTML Websites all night long. But, almost ten years on, can it still be done in a time where profitability and interactivity are the key measures?

So -- it’s 7 a.m. and I’ve got a plan. The new pressures I face in life (work responsibilities, family, etc.) have been dealt with, and I have a clear 24 hours ahead of me.

An idea for a site has been kicking around in my head ever since I sold a site last year. This site was a very specialized software comparison site that generated referral commissions and Adsense income. It was an excellent earner and I’ve wanted to recreate that success, but on a larger scale.

So, last year I bought the domain name "shoutdown.net," with the intention of building a software comparison-style project. I want the site to be in the informal blog style, where the posts are product summaries (written by me), and the comments would be reviews submitted by other people. I’d also throw in a rating system, and add a way of attaching news releases or other relevant pages to each product post, plus a way to link related posts (for example, different versions of the same software).

So, the idea is there, it’s 7:30 a.m. and my first job is to select some mp3’s to get me through to lunch. Here goes…

08.00 By the time I’ve chosen my music, switched off my Google desktop bar and responded to essential E-mail, it’s already 8 a.m. Crap.

So, my first job is drawing out a schematic of the database that will power my site. What information do I want to keep and how will I organise it? I’m having five database tables. For ease, I’m calling them level1, level2, level3, etc., because I see them as levels of information about each software product – the top being category information and the bottom being the reviews and ratings.

09:15 Took me quite a while to get the structure clear, but now I’m sketching out the home page on paper. I’ve looked at a few blogs that I like and have basically copied their layout, for ease. I’ve also worked out the sizing of my main columns and rows and know the positions of the adverts, main blog posts and navigation.

I still like to work on paper at this stage – I’m an artist at heart!

09:55 OK, let’s get on the computer. I’ve fired up Paint Shop Pro and my first job is to work out a color pallet. I want three colors, so I blob different combinations on a blank white image until I get the right combination – orange, purple and grey. I then make a note of the hex codes for each color on a post-it – this will save LOADS of time later.

While I’m in PSP, I’m going to mock up a logo, as I already know the size of image I need from my plan. Actually, I really like the logo, so it will probably be permanent.

10:21 Time to start on the site. I’m using a single HTML page at the moment with a linked css file. Using some basic tables and css, I’ve laid out the top bar, the post area and two columns (one for ads and one for navigation). I’m sticking to a tried-and-tested blog layout.

I always use Dreamweaver, but always hand code. Why use Dreamweaver then? Well, I find the preview quite accurate, but, other than that, I have no idea – just habit.

11:38 I’ve just finished the main site layout, including place-holding text that will eventually be dynamic. I’ve left space for some ads on the site, so I’ve justed logged in to Adsense to generate the code. All I need to do is use the colors on my post-it to get them fitting in nicely. I’ll also take a look around for some other nice banners in my affiliate accounts.

12:43 That took longer than planned. Time for lunch

13:17 OK -- time to fill up my database with some data, then I can start writing the php code that will populate the pages. I’m going to sign up for a few software affiliate accounts and write some sample reviews on the software. At the moment, I haven’t got time to write really good reviews but, in time, I intend to fully try each title and write some good stuff (positive and negative). For now, I’ll be brief.

15:20 Let’s get back to the site. I’m going to sort out the navigation side bars first, and then I’ll split my single page up.

16:45 This isn’t working. I’ve got a very limited knowledge of php, so I’m having trouble dynamically generating category headings and software lists dynamically. It’s taking too long to sort out so, for now, I’m going to simply print a list of all software titles in the database. I’ll make up for it by also providing a list of software categories, plus a list of the most reviewed software.

16:58 I’m going to split up my single HTML page now into a header, body, nav and footer, and use a php 'include' to pull the pages together. In total, I will only need three main template pages for the content of this site – the home page, a category page and a product page.

18:24 I’ve finished the layout of the three pages, including all the code that pulls info from the database. Everything’s working pretty well and I’m please with the simplicity. My next job is to create an rss feed of the posts and reviews, but first I need some DINNER!

20:04 After some pasta and TV, I’m ready for this rss feed. It’s pretty easy to create a php page that will pull the necessary code and place it in the rss 2.0 layout. Once I’m done, I’ll just save the php file as xml and ensure that my .htaccess file remembers to parse xml files for php code.

21:36 I checked that the rss feed was valid using a standard validator. It took a little time to sort out the date formatting, to be honest.

21:57 I’ve been developing using Firefox to test the layout, but I just checked the site in IE and noticed the background color was dodgy. It was a css error – fixed it.

22:15 OK -- back to content. The reviews, at the moment, are boring, so I’m going to add some images and expand them a little. I’m also going to add some reviews that I’ve been collecting over the last few months.

The good thing about buying the domain and posting up a test Website for six months is that the search engines have already crawled the site and, hopefully, this will help me avoid the Google sandbox.

02:30 I’m absolutely knackered. I’ve just spent the last few hours trying to get the navigation system working, but with no luck. The problem is that I’m trying to dynamically generate an information tree (apparently, that’s what it’s called, after much research) but I just can’t get it working. I’m giving up.

04:49 OK -- I’ve just created a rating system which will only accept one software vote per IP address. Seems a bit buggy, but I'm really, really tired and can’t be bothered to go through it again now.

So -- what’s left to do? I need to create forms to input reviews, news and bookmarks, but I’m just too tired to continue. So much for 24 hours. But, actually, I’m really pleased with the result.

On the surface, the site looks like any other blog, and you might question why I decided to hand-code the entire thing. Well, I have some ideas for some advanced functions, but I’ll only be able to implement them if I know the site inside-out. Plus, I just like the challenge.

I wont have time to work on the site all week, but I’m already planning my next 24-hour session – marketing. I’ll be sure to keep you updated on that, and how the site is doing generally!

Paul Fisher is an entrepreneur whose ventures include theonemillionmasterpiece.com arts project, a restaurant chain and several successful websites. View his personal blog at http://www.thepaulfisherblog.blogspot.com.

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by Brandon Hall

As Web 2.0 becomes less of just a buzzword and more of a reality, the types of sites webmasters need to publish will increasingly become more important. In other words, mini-sites are slowly dying and cookie-cutter article sites are on the way out as well.

Web surfers will become more value-focused and web companies will become larger.

Over the next few years, expect larger conglomerates to be buying up profitable websites in their chosen markets. Expect smaller sites to either be bought or driven out of business.

My intention is not to scare you, but this outcome is inevitable.

Large businesses have always taken two approaches to their desired markets. They either buy their competition, or they push them out of business.

You want to be prepared when this trend begins on the Internet.

Being a webmaster and online marketer, you should be preparing for one of two scenarios: To position yourself for a buyout to a larger company, or to become the larger company that dominates your chosen market.

Whichever route you choose is entirely up to you, but I would suggest that it would be in your best interest to begin focusing on authority sites. You can either start building them, or you can start turning your current sites into them. Whatever your approach may be, I assure you it will help you sleep better at night.

What Is the Definition of an Authority Site?

A fairly comprehensible authority site definition was put forward by Jason Dowdell, of Global Promoter. Jason defined it this way: ... "Authority sites are sites that have been linked to and referenced on other web sites covering the same subject matter and they also will have hundreds if not thousands of pages covering that subject matter and nearly every facet of it...."

That definition is one man’s opinion, albeit a good one -- but let us go directly to the source. Many search engine optimization and search engine marketing experts believe Google has derived their primary algorithm from a document titled, "Hilltop: A Search Engine based on Expert Documents."

The PageRank formula, as we know it today, was derived from this paper, and the authors -- Bharat and Mihaila -- define an authority site in the text below:

"We believe a page is an authority on the query topic if and only if some of the best experts on the query topic point to it. Of course in practice some expert pages may be experts on a broader or related topic. If so, only a subset of the hyperlinks on the expert page may be relevant.

"In such cases the links being considered have to be carefully chosen to ensure that their qualifying text matches the query. By combining relevant out-links from many experts on the query topic we can find the pages that are most highly regarded by the community of pages related to the query topic. This is the basis of the high relevance that our algorithm delivers."

What we have reprinted above is the foundation of the PageRank system and the determination for deciding which sites will be authorities. I highly recommend you read and re-read the full document until you understand every aspect of it.

What Are the Components of an Authority Site?

Allow me to present you with a diagram at: http://www.contentdesk.com/authoritymap that dissects your typical authority site. As you can tell from the diagram, a considerable number of components and systems must be in place for the authority site to function profitably and reap the benefits of the "Authority Site Formula."

The Authority Site Formula = Visitor Optimization (VO) + Content Optimization (CO) * Creative Marketing (CM)

A simple question must be asked. What do 99.9% of authority sites provide? In a sentence, an incredible amount of original content and a superb visitor experience. The search engines want you to succeed and they want you to make money, but you have to play by their rules. In the future, focus your efforts on visitor optimization and content optimization instead of search engine optimization.

What Is the Anatomy of an Authority Site?

About.com is the definition and was the original authority site. Their site has a generic domain name and hundreds of subdomains on different topics.

Your authority site should take the same approach, but not on such a general level. If you launch an authority site, it should be geared towards a well-defined and large market. After you launch the site and generate some traffic, you should create subdomains that cover specific areas inside that larger market.

For example, Diabetic-Resources.Com is not an active site; but if it were, then a typical authority site setup would be something like:

* http://supplies.diabetic-resoures.com
* http://diet.diabetic-resources.com
* http://insurance.diabetic-resources.com
* http://symptoms.diabetic-resources.com
* http://treatment.diabetic-resources.com

Using this approach, you are able to target your general market while generating more targeted traffic pertaining to related sub-markets.

As a rule of thumb, the index pages on your domains and subdomains should be more focused on content, but the article and commentary pages should be more focused on advertising. Just do not ever lose sight of the most important aspect of your site, which is visitor experience otherwise known as visitor optimization.

What Does It Take to Create an Authority Site?

You want to create a site that generates thousands of visitors a day mainly through the major search engines, and would ultimately be the one-stop source for information in that particular market.

Your site must employ three traits to become an authority site. Let’s discuss all three necessary aspects:

Dynamic: You should have as many RSS feeds as you can muster to incorporate throughout your site. Your visitors need to be able to receive RSS feeds for any keyword, category or archive as well as create their own. One feed is no longer enough to satisfy your visitors.

Interactive: You should be engaging the minds of your visitors at all times using surveys, commenting and feedback. Make these features easy for your visitors and your site will grow exponentially. Why? Because they feel like you actually care about them. Interaction is a powerful tool and creates a sense of community on your site.

Consistent: You should post to your blog often, and you should always provide quality and original content. That doesn't mean you need to produce 800-word articles three times a week. Your goal should be to become a news master. You need to be an ..."authority..." on the news happening in your niche.

If you follow the steps and guidelines listed above, then you will be on your way to being the owner of an authority site.

About the Author
Brandon Hall, Johnson City, TN, USA
brandon@contentdesk.com

Brandon is a staff writer for Content Desk Publishing Group. Content Desk is teaching people how to build authority sites that will dominate their niche. For a 21-page free guide on creating authority sites visit: http://www.contentdesk.com/freeguide/.

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by Phillip Davis

When Cingular decided to create a cellular phone for young children, they needed a name that would resonate with both them and with their parents. The result was Firefly – a name that not only fits the product (it lights up when in use), but also one that has deep meaning. Many parents can fondly recall summer nights spent chasing the elusive lights as they danced across a fresh cut lawn or meadow.

When a technology company needed a name for their new PDA a few years ago, they could have used Pocket Link (the code name for the device while it was in development). Instead, they went with a much more appetizing name … The Blackberry.

When United Parcel Service wanted to instill a deeper sense of their brand identity, they simply turned to their earthy corporate color . . . "What can Brown do for you?" Verizon named their newest phone Chocolate. And the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment shares its name with a friendly, wiggly little worm . . . Caterpillar.

What do these highly memorable names have in common? They are all richly grounded in human experience. As such, they are much more anchored in our brains. They trigger the areas of sight, sound, taste and touch. These types of names, then, provide a much bigger palette to paint a mental picture of our products and services. They allow us to borrow on the attributes inherit in the words themselves. That’s why Apple is much more approachable, consumable and human than Compaq. And that’s why we process Amazon on a whole different level than Books-A-Million.

So -- what keeps companies from using these great words to evoke deeper levels of meaning and greater connection with their brand? The answer usually comes down to fear. That fear may take many forms, such as, “No one else in our industry is doing that!” and, “No one will understand our product if we don’t explain it in the name.”

On a more practical level, the fear takes the form of trademark issues. Many car companies have simply given up on great names such as Cougar and Mustang in favor of alphanumeric solutions… i.e. Q45, E Class, XR7, etc. Rather than risk a fight, they take safe, coined, emotionless words and use massive marketing dollars in an attempt to instill the very attributes that a great name can instantly provide at much less expense.

The fear also takes the form of limited thinking … that all the great names are taken and gone. But, creativity knows no such limits. There are always new ways to create, invent and evoke. It may take time. It may take effort. But, the rewards are worth it. In the end, you will have a name and a brand that truly mean something. It will be a name rich in texture and ripe with meaning.

Above all, it will be human.

Is this the best and only way to name a business or product? Of course not. But, it’s one naming strategy that deserves more priority and consideration in the light of so many artificial names.

Do your customers crave meaning and experience in their lives? Do they want to connect at a deeper level? Then meet that need by creating names, tag lines and experiences that are great – great because they are genuine, grounded and organic.

That way, you’ll not only grow, you’ll thrive and prosper.

About the Author
Phillip Davis, Pisgah Forest, NC
Phil@PureTungsten.com

Phil Davis is President of Tungsten Brilliant Brand Marketing. Phil’s life goal of “creating environments where people thrive” reflects his desire to assist in personal, professional and business growth. Phil founded and ran a full service ad agency for over 17 years and now works full time as a business naming and branding consultant. Phil resides with wife Michelle and four energetic offspring outside Asheville, North Carolina Website: http://PureTungsten.com Email: Phil@PureTungsten.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 Rick Carbone

Establishing your own E-commerce site is not what it used to be. There are thousands of competitors that are competing for a bigger share of the market. Every method you can find to augment your sales will be beneficial.

Let's face facts; we are in this for the money. Altruism is not the primary motivation to put a website on the Internet to provide information for the world, even though there are some sites that provide information for the sake of providing free information to others.

I have just started to provide free information sites on a variety of topics that are near and dear to me, just for the sake of providing information to others. There is no monetary gain. For the most part, the majority of my websites are commercial in nature and are profitable. The majority of sites, though, are out there to turn a profit. I don't think that profit is a dirty word, either.

It is common knowledge that, without traffic, we have no business. Like any business, without any customers, you will not have any sales. No sales, no money and no site. Traffic represents all the people that get a chance to see what you have to offer. The more people who see your products, the more people there are to buy them.

No one puts up an E-commerce site and doesn’t expect a profit. We have startup capital that needs to be recouped. With consistent traffic, we at least have a fighting chance to achieve that probability. Monetizing your traffic would optimize your chances of making the best out of it.

Traffic Types

The Internet has proven to be a very reliable source in finding what was deemed to be non-existent. The Internet has made the world a smaller place; you can advertise a product from Asia and find a buyer from North America in an instant. This has made the Internet the most desirable place to do business, in my opinion.

Generating traffic, however, is not an easy task on the Internet. You have to contend with a great number of sites to generate decent traffic flow. However, if done successfully, this opens up a plethora of possibilities. Of course, one of those benefits is monetizing your traffic flow.

Therefore, to get to the core of it, the creating of more traffic, you need to understand the types of traffic available.

I break down traffic into two basic categories: Organic and Paid.

Organic traffic is homegrown, so to speak. It's the traffic that comes from non-paid sources. This is search engine traffic, or link traffic from sites to which you have reciprocal links. Search engine traffic, although free, is a time-consuming process for the patient and assiduous. Link traffic is an arduous task as well, but quite rewarding.

The best method of obtaining a good and constant flow of traffic is the organic method. The only issue is that it does take time to accomplish, but the rewards are great and, of course, inexpensive. The traffic itself is free; however, the time and energy expended and, perhaps, software used, may cost something. There are many different sources of organic traffic:

# Search engine listings
# Reciprocal links
# Writing and submitting articles
# Free classified ads
# Self promotion

All of these sources take time, but can be implemented for free.

Paid traffic comes in many forms. Pay-per-click is the most popular today, due to its instant results. Advertising takes on many forms and probably the best and most widely used is banner advertising. There are many that argue that banner advertising is a waste of time and money, as you will either pay for impressions (the number of times the banner is shown) or for clicks (the number of times someone clicks on your banner.)

Honestly, unless you have a good bankroll, don't jump into advertising as a first method of getting traffic to your site and product.

The argument for pay-per-click advertising is you will find out quickly if your product has a market; and, if it does, pay-per-click can be very rewarding. Do the math ahead of time by estimating your cost and the number of clicks on your ad and how many convert to sales. This is very important, as you may have a very decent click-through rate, but a poor conversion to sales rate. This equates to losing money over the long run.

The argument for organic traffic is strong, but not instantly rewarding. It's your call as how you will proceed.

About the Author

Rick Carbone, East Setauket NY United States
rcarbone@homebusinessresearch.com

Rick Carbone is the owner of several home business sites. In particular, http://HomeBusinessResearch.com has been on the Internet since 1998 helping many who wish to start their own home based business. In addition to the HBR site, he also owns and manages http://myarticlepro.com, http://payperclickknowhow.com and http://www.myownhomebiz.com , all providing information and products for online home businesses.

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By: Deam Rass

Your Website is only good if it has these three components implemented:

1. Targeted Traffic – You want to have visitors that are pre-qualified for your offer.

2. Engaging copy – The good copy should attract visitors’ attention and pull them into your offer.

3. Tools to convert visitors into sales – Your visitor should perceive the buying decision as a low-risk action.

Let's go over the most important aspects that, when applied synergistically, will take your Internet sales to the next level.

Bring the traffic

What to keep in mind when optimizing for search engines and basics of Pay-per-Click campaigns. Harnessing the power of E-mail marketing and newsletters (do not confuse with SPAM).

Hypnotic copywriting

How to write a copy that will attract the reader's attention and then pull them into your offer.

Get your visitors to take action

Strategically placed "calls to action" will retain your Website visitors and many of them will come back for more.

Search Engine Optimization

One of the most effective ways to bring targeted traffic to your Website is through the use of search engines. Those who came from search engines are the best kind of visitor! They are already looking for what you have to offer.

Optimizing for search engines is a multi-tier on-going process. Search Engines continue to evolve, so your Website must evolve with them.

These are a few things to keep in mind when optimizing for search engines:

• Keyword density - Use keywords you want to rank on search engines in your Website text copy wisely. Place them in the Website's title tag and use them a few times throughout the page. However, overdoing it may result in a ban of your Website from the search engines alltogether.

• Linking with other Websites - It makes sense to participate in link exchange with non-competitive Websites in your industry. Not only can this bring you immediate traffic, but you will gain long-term benefits in the search engines.

• Update the content often - Create a news section on your Website and add articles regularly. Search engines love Websites that grow with relevant information.

Per-Per-Click

While search engine optimization may take months to bring you desired results and is considered a long-term investment, Pay-Per-Click, on the other hand, allows you to bring hot leads to your site immediately.

Using the Pay-Per-Click search engines and an advertising campaign can effectively maximize traffic. Pay-per-click is also the ideal way of testing your Website.

e-Mail Marketing

Never send out unsolicited E-mails - we all hate SPAM and your prospective buyers hate it, too. On the other hand, picking a good newsletter to place your advertising in is a good idea. There are thousands of e-Zines, categorized by interest and industries. When choosing an e-Zine, ask yourself these questions:

• Where do they get their subscribers and are all subscribers opted-in? These are verified subscribers who want to receive their newsletters.

• What are your advertising options? People tend to click more on text links vs banners. It's even better is if you can use a small article educating prospects about your business, instead of placing a banner.

• When advertising via a newsletter keep in mind, that it takes at least 4 consecutive issues before readers will click on you advertisement. Brand recognition will play a very important role in this type of advertising.

Create Your Own Newsletter

Creating your own newsletter is efficient and a low-cost way to keep in touch with your existing clients. If you have important information to share, then you're almost obligated to have a newsletter. You will gain trust with your subscribers and they will reward you by buying. You also can create a new stream of revenue by selling advertisements in your newsletter.

Hypnotic Copywriting

Is your Website generating the inquiries and sales you want?

You could be missing out on selling opportunities because your home page isn't using effective sales copy and a structure designed to get your prospects to pick up the phone and call you for more information.

Your copy must be written in such a way that you attract the reader's attention and then pull them into your offer.

The basic rules to writing effective copy on the Website are:

1. Interrupt qualified prospects to pay attention to your marketing by creating an important and relevant header.

2. Engage by promising that the information forthcoming will facilitate their decision-making process.

3. Educate by identifying the important and relevant issues that prospects need to be aware of, and then demonstrate how you can provide the solution against those issues.

4. Give your prospects a low-risk offer to take next step in the buying process.

Fail to accomplish this and you are wasting your marketing investment. Not only have you lost a chance to land a new customer, you may have steered the sales opportunity right into the hands of a competitor.

Get Your Visitors to Take Action

Calls to action will help you make the most of your Website. A strong and effective call to action should literally persuade a site visitor looking at your Web page to take action.

It pays to spend some time thinking carefully about what call to action you want on every single page of your Website and what you really want people to do on your Website. It's amazing how many companies forget that people need to know (and want to know) what to do next and get easily frustrated online when it's not obvious.

You can use calls to action, such as these listed below, not only to get your customer to take action, but to help direct your customer around your Website and encourage them to get off the home page and explore more of your Website:

• Sign up to our newsletter
• Contact us for more information
• View more information about our Search Engine Optimization Services
• Get your free quotation today!
• Buy / book / email / phone now

Making Calls to Action More Effective

To make your calls to action stronger and more effective, you can use incentives in order to get your site visitor to take action. Incentive calls to action can be styled like these:

• Sign up to our newsletter for free tips and advice on marketing your business.

• Contact us today and get your free copy of Industry Report.

• Book before the end of May and receive 2 pairs of shoes for the price of 1!

Deam Rass | Toronto Search Engine Optimization Specialist

Over the last 7 years in the industry his Search Engine Optimization in Toronto - ASF Design Inc helped and continues to help dozens of customers to generate millions of dollars in Internet Sales.

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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 Josh Neumann

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So you've heard the rumors-you can make a fortune with an online business. You've also heard you can just sit on the beach, sip your lemonade and watch the money come pouring in. For those of you, I've got some good news and bad news.
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Now, I have to admit, I was VERY hesitant to share this information with you. After all, I don’t want to give away my biggest secrets for the whole world to see! However, after giving it some thought, I decided everyone should have the same chance that I do. I’ve got to tell you, though -- very few, if any of the top marketers I’ve listened to have revealed this information. If you’re ready for a breakthrough with your online business, than you MUST read this!

So -- you want to make money with an Internet business. You've searched the Web, looking for that perfect product. You've heard the rumors -- you can earn a fortune on the Internet, without spending a penny, and without lifting a finger.

I got some good news and some bad news. The good news is, you can earn a fortune. The bad news is, it’s not easy. In fact, in the beginning, it can be downright gruesome!

You'll spend long hours optimizing your site, reading manuals, and just plain learning your way through the Web. (It’s called the Web for a reason). There is nobody out there, despite the outrageous claims, that has earned a fortune without spending a dime and without lifting a finger! I got some more news for you -- you're not going to be the first, either!

You see, the Internet, like life in general, rewards the diligent. If you study hard, apply yourself, and get to work, you can and likely will make a killing with your Web business. I'm just warning you in advance -- it’s not going to be easy.

This information is not for the faint of heart. Most on the road to Internet riches fall by the wayside within the first few months, if not earlier. They get lost in a sea of information. Where should they start? What should they market? Where should they advertise? What kind of Website do they need?

The list goes on and on and on.

Now, I'm not going to cover everything here (I wouldn't be able to if I had a thousand pages!) but I will try to give you the most important pieces of information you'll ever hear in Internet marketing. It took me hundreds of E-books and pages and pages of information before I found this out, so this will save you some serious time on your learning curve.

There are two keys to making money on the internet:

Key #1) The money is in the E-mail list.

Quite simply, your income is generally as big as your opt-in E-mail list. Most Websites don't have a place to capture their visitor’s names and E-mails. This is HUGE! Think about it. If you're selling a high-ticket item (which I highly recommend) for, say, $1,000 or more, and you had an opt-in list of 10,000 people, even if only 100 ended up signing up (1%), you'd still make some SERIOUS CASH.

The list is huge -- it is the difference between success and failure on the Internet. And, yet, so few marketers understand the importance of this! They view success or failure based on whether a visitor buys the product or not.

Studies have shown that it takes the average consumer about 7 or 8 exposures to you before they are ready to buy. Very, very few ever buy on their first visit to your site -- particularly with a high-ticket item.

Key #2) If you want to generate a HUGE E-MAIL LIST, then you need to learn search engine optimization (SEO). This is the key to making money on the Internet.

You won’t have a list without this. Forget Google Adwords. It’s very expensive, and gets much less views than optimized sites. The marketers who are really making the big bucks are the ones with the top-ranked Websites, especially with competitive keywords.

Unfortunately, the how’s of getting your site highly ranked are WAY beyond the scope of this article. However, there are many great resources out there to show you the way. Just remember these two keys, and you’ll be WELL on your way to making it big with your online business!

Josh Neumann distributes vacation packages online, and helps others make a fortune with their online business. You can visit his website at www.handsoffcash.net.

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by Adam Eason

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Just imagine if, before you use any techniques or strategies for improving your motivation, you had 4 main pillars installed in your life that underpinned your motivation and enhanced your capacity to be motivated throughout your life.
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I want to give you four wonderful pillars for motivation, four main themes to underpin a healthy sense of drive and inspiration.

- The first main pillar of motivation is to gain recognition from peers.

When soldiers in wartime give up their lives during combat, why do they do it? Is it because of patriotism, a belief in the cause they are fighting for, or a fear of court martial if they do otherwise?

Perhaps all these things play a part, but extensive research has shown that what really motivates a soldier to fight well in combat is the desire for the respect of the person who is fighting right beside him. This is much more important than medals or other forms of public recognition.

This is similar to what motivates salesmen on the floor of a car dealership, students in a classroom or a team of lawyers trying to win a case.

In the English Premier football league, all the players will tell you the best award that they want to receive is the acclaim of the others players and to receive the players player of the year award.

Think of ways that you can develop recognition from your peers to enhance your motivation. The apply them to your life.

- The second pillar of motivation is recognition from respected experts or authorities.

In my own life, I love the fact that a wonderful multi-selling author in the US has helped me, guided me and become my friend professionally and personally. I desperately wanted to earn his respect.

Has there been someone like that in your life? It is important to realise that a respected expert does not have to be someone who is known far and wide throughout the world. You are the one who establishes the qualifications, though very often people whom you find impressive will be equally impressive to others.

Once you've met such a person, or even if you have just seen them from a distance, or perhaps read an article about them, stop hesitating and politely approach them and introduce yourself. Unless you happen to catch them at a particularly difficult moment, most successful people are eager to help others and to pass on what they've learned.

The great thing about establishing a relationship with a mentor is that you eventually come close to that person and you can sometimes hear them advising you when they are not actually around.

Think about how you can get recognition from a respected expert or authority. You can really stretch this concept to be good parents, local teachers, councellors, as well as business people; interpret this in the best way for you.

- The third pillar of motivation is family.

Although the approval of peers and experts may be important to your career, in your life, nothing compares to the influence of your family.

Let me explain what I mean by this with an example of my own; when I had come off stage, speaking at an event in Dublin last year, a man approached me and asked me for some advice on the best way to stop smoking. He knew that I was the author of The Secrets of Self-Hypnosis, and wanted assistance.

My immediate response was to ask him what his reasons were for wanting to stop smoking and he said the following to me:

"My wife is pregnant with our first child and I want to have more after that. I want to be able to enjoy playing and having fun with my children and I want to be a healthy influence on their lives, too."

I spent some time talking to him about some specific techniques and strategies. I have not heard from that man, but I know that he was driven by his family and am sure of his success. Think about your wealth goals; so many of us want to be able to rpovide for our family and for them to have what they want.

So -- think about the ways in which you your fmaily can motivate you and get that lodged into your mind.

- The fourth pillar of motivation is something closely related to number three: sharing the wealth and wisdom for the good of your fellows.

To illustrate this pillar, I'd like to tell you a story I love about Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish immigrant who founded the United States Steel Company in the early nineteen hundreds.

When Carnegie died, a yellow sheet of paper was found in his desk on which he had written a note to himself when he was in his twenties. This note illustrated the main purpose of his life. It read:

"I am going to spend the first half of my life accumulating money, and I am going to spend the last half of my life giving it all away."

During his lifetime, Carnegie's fortune was estimated at four hundred and fifty million dollars -- the equivalent to four and a half billion dollars today. In addition to building Carnegie Hall in New York City, he founded libraries in hundreds of small towns all across America and participated in dozens of other philanthropic activities as well.

When we look at these four pillars of motivation, what do you really see?

The thing that I immediately notice is that they all involve other people, whether they are peers, mentors, family members, or simply fellows of the human race. Ironic isn't it?

To be successfully motivated, you need this very internal, very unique thing called your motivation. To acquire that innermost quality and set it to work, you need to recognise other people as reasons to believe.

Adam Eason is a UK based, renowned consultant, speaker and best-selling author. Please visit his Website for a vast range of personal development resources and to receive your amazing, free, instantly-downloadable hypnosis session for ultimate relaxation -- and the sensational free ebook 'The Happy Brain Manual,' filled with techniques, tips and strategies to make more of your brain: http://www.adam-eason.com .

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by Sally A. Connolly

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"To follow without halt, one aim; there is the secret of success. And success? What is it? I do not find it in the applause of the theater; it lies rather in the satisfaction of accomplishment." (Anna Pavlova)
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Any success in life involves a blending of mind and heart with action. Only by committing our intellect, will, time, and energy can we achieve that Olympic gold, that certificate of appreciation, or that "A" on a spelling test.

When we look at high achievers in any field or endeavor, we see common elements. Whether we want to follow their lead and go for the gold or whether we want to set less ambitious goals or none at all, the model is there and the decision is ours.

The ABC's of winning:

A: An accomplishment or goal. We conceptualize an achievement, such as running a three-minute mile, winning an election, or losing 20 pounds of excess body fat.

B: Belief in the goal. We recognize our objective as achievable, that is, within human grasp. Playing Rachmaninoff's concerto or growing a 1000-pound pumpkin must be, for us, a real possibility.

C: Confidence in our ability to achieve the goal. Believing we can succeed builds gradually from birth. When even our minor accomplishments are recognized, approved, and rewarded by those significant in our lives, our self-confidence grows. We internalize their views and feelings; and when these positive self-images combine with an inherent talent, accomplishment is unlimited:

"When I was a child, my mother said to me, 'If you become a soldier, you'll be a general; if you become a monk, you'll end up as the Pope.' Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso."

Believing in, first, the achievability of a goal and, second, our ability to reach the goal, sets the stage for action and becomes for us a self-fulfilling prophecy:

"If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right." (attributed to both Henry Ford and Mary Kay Ash)

D: Defining the goal as worthy of pursuit and deciding to work for it. At this point, our values enter the picture. Is it more important to become a firefighter or an American Idol? Our value system shapes our personal decisions about what is and what is not worth pursuing.

Kaitlyn, six years of age and in the first grade, outdistances her peers on the track. Her red shoe markers -- earned for every five miles completed -- are multiplying quickly. Will she see her newly-discovered ability as worthy of her passion and dedication? Will she choose to devote time and energy to pursuing track records or other unrelated accomplishments?

What she deems worthy will direct her decision.

E: Setting an effective step-by-step action plan and exerting effective effort. The stories of the most accomplished persons illustrate the time and energy needed to perfect a golf swing or become a prima ballerina.

"Practice makes perfect," our mothers told us. Vince Lombardi put it this way:

"The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work" (Vince Lombardi)

Sustained effort requires a passion and zeal truly our own. What once may have been the dream of others for us, translates into accomplishment only when the burning desire becomes lodged deep in our heart.

"Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire." (Arnold H. Glasow)

F: Following through with constancy of purpose and dedication and allowing failures to be only temporary setbacks. Tenacity and persistence are messages many children hear around the dinner table and on the playing field: "The Connollys don't quit," "Don't give up, and don't give in." or "Quitters never win, and winners never quit."

Success, thus, means following the lead set by exemplars of excellence.

First, look carefully at your interests and find something you are passionate about. Look realistically at the skills you currently possess, as well as your potential. Rather than a headlong, helter-skelter dash, set a plan and bolster your self-confidence by focusing on minor accomplishments. Don't be surprised by setbacks, and don't be fearful of them. Detours on the road to success are only temporary glitches. Work through them and keep your eyes on the ultimate goal.

Follow the roadmap you have set and visualize success while you enthusiastically devote time and effort. Enlist the aid and support of family and friends. Telling them about your plans can help keep you on track. In addition to the emotional support, you may need their support in other ways.

And, most importantly, never give up.

Sally A. Connolly, a retired school counselor and teacher, is editor of A BOY FROM LAWRENCE: The Collected Writings of Eugene F. Connolly (2006). Midwest Book Review says this verbal scrapbook of a teacher’s spiritual journey is “filled with such treasures. It is recommended for those in need of comfort, illumination, redirection, grace, or prayer.” For more information, go to http://www.freewebs.com/aboyfromlawrence.

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by Elaine Currie

Self motivation is essential to success, but sometimes it is difficult to maintain. If our self motivation lapses, it is a struggle to restore it. To avoid this unnecessary struggle, we can use tricks and rewards to maintain the positive mental attitude that will enable us to forge ahead towards our goals.

No matter what goal you are aiming for, staying motivated is a challenge for everyone at times. Even though you have set those goals for yourself, it will be hard to stay focused at times. Using self motivation techniques is a great way to ensure that you stay positive and have the mental attitude needed to achieve your goals.

One of the best things that you can do is to map out a plan detailing your goal and the steps that you will take to achieve your dreams. It is also a good idea to regularly reassess your plan and make sure that you still feel that your original strategy is the best one. There is nothing wrong with changing your plan if you feel that changes will improve it, the plan is not carved in stone and should always be considered as a flexible tool. Life is full of unexpected surprises and this can mean your initial steps will no longer lead you to where you want to arrive, you can change your written plan to take any surprise changes into account.

Making your written plan is the first step. After that, you might find that you still need sources of inspiration and encouragement.

Self motivation techniques, such as breaking your plan into small tasks that you can achieve daily, will help give you a sense of accomplishment as each task is finished. This is a great technique and will help you avoid feeling overwhelmed or feeling that your goal is too hard for you to accomplish.

Remember, the way to eat a whole elephant is one bite at a time. Make a written list of tasks for each day and cross them off, one by one, as you complete them. Each time you cross off a completed item, your spirits will get a boost that will encourage you to tackle the next task on your list.

Rewarding yourself after you complete your tasks will also help keep you feeling mentally positive and optimistic. The reward can be anything -- a coffee break or ten minutes to chat to a friend on the phone. The reward doesn't need to be anything big but, by giving yourself an incentive, you will have something to help motivate you to take the next step towards reaching your goal.

Procrastination is called "the thief of time" for very good reasons. Procrastination is an easy habit to adopt and a very hard one to break, so it is best to have a scheme in place to avoid it all together.

Avoiding procrastination is one of the simplest and biggest ways that you can increase your motivation and remain focused on taking the necessary small steps towards achieving your goals.

Making written lists (and following them!) is an excellent way to avoid procrastination. Try taking your yearly goals and breaking them down into manageable monthly chunks. Next, break the monthly lists down further into weekly parts. Finally, make daily lists that involve small steps towards your yearly goals.

By working on your yearly goals in this step-by-step fashion, you will reduce the opportunities for being tempted to procrastinate. Once you get into the habit of following your daily task list, the temptation to put things off will be overridden by the desire to see all the items crossed through by the end of your working day.

When you finish your daily tasks, be sure to reward yourself. If you finish earlier than normal, award yourself some extra time off to spend as you please. If you are keeping to your step-by-step plan, there is no need to put in extra hours. The days of procrastinating and then needing to work longer hours will be over.

List making sounds simple (and it is), but it is a powerful way to keep yourself on track day by day, to accomplish your ultimate goals.

To read more articles by Elaine Currie visit http://www.elainecurrie.com or her Work At Home Directory at http://www.huntingvenus.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 Brandon Hall

As Web 2.0 becomes less of just a buzzword and more of a reality, the types of sites Webmasters need to publish will increasingly become more important. In other words, mini-sites are slowly dying and cookie-cutter article sites are on the way out as well. Web surfers will become more value-focused and Web companies will become larger.

Over the next few years, expect larger conglomerates to be buying up profitable Websites in their chosen markets. Expect smaller sites to either be bought or driven out of business. My intention is not to scare you, but this outcome is inevitable.

Large businesses have always taken two approaches to their desired markets. They either buy their competition or they push them out of business. You want to be prepared when this trend begins on the Internet.

Being a Webmaster and online marketer, you should be preparing for one of two scenarios. To position yourself for a buyout to a larger company or to become the larger company that dominates your chosen market.

Whichever route you choose is entirely up to you, but I would suggest that it would be in your best interest to begin focusing on authority sites. You can either start building them or turning your current sites into one. Whatever your approach may be, I assure you it will help you sleep better at night.

What Is the Definition of an Authority Site?

A fairly comprehensible authority site definition was put forward by Jason Dowdell of Global Promoter. Jason defined it this way: "Authority sites are sites that have been linked to and referenced on other Web sites covering the same subject matter and they also will have hundreds if not thousands of pages covering that subject matter and nearly every facet of it."

That definition is one man’s opinion, albeit a good one, but let us go directly to the source. Many search engine optimization and search engine marketing experts believe Google has derived their primary algorithm from a document titled, "Hilltop: A Search Engine based on Expert Documents."

The PageRank formula as we know it today was derived from this paper, and the authors, Bharat and Mihaila, define an authority site in the text below:

"We believe a page is an authority on the query topic if and only if some of the best experts on the query topic point to it. Of course, in practice, some expert pages may be experts on a broader or related topic. If so, only a subset of the hyperlinks on the expert page may be relevant."

"In such cases the links being considered have to be carefully chosen to ensure that their qualifying text matches the query. By combining relevant out-links from many experts on the query topic we can find the pages that are most highly regarded by the community of pages related to the query topic. This is the basis of the high relevance that our algorithm delivers."

What we have reprinted above is the foundation of the PageRank system and the determination for deciding which sites will be authorities. I highly recommend you read and re-read the full document until you understand every aspect of it.

What Are the Components of an Authority Site?

Allow me to present you with a diagram at: http://www.contentdesk.com/authoritymap that dissects your typical authority site. As you can tell from the diagram, a considerable number of components and systems must be in place for the authority site to function profitably and reap the benefits of the "Authority Site Formula."

The Authority Site Formula = Visitor Optimization (VO) + Content Optimization (CO) * Creative Marketing (CM)

A simple question must be asked. What do 99.9% of authority sites provide? In a sentence, an incredible amount of original content and a superb visitor experience. The search engines want you to succeed and they want you to make money, but you have to play by their rules. In the future, focus your efforts on visitor optimization and content optimization instead of search engine optimization.

What Is the Anatomy of an Authority Site?

About.com is the definition and was the original authority site. Their site has a generic domain name and hundreds of subdomains on different topics.

Your authority site should take the same approach, but not on such a general level. If you launch an authority site, it should be geared towards a well-defined and large market. After you launch the site and generate some traffic, you should create subdomains that cover specific areas inside that larger market.

For example, Diabetic-Resources.Com is not an active site; but if it were, then a typical authority site setup would be something like:

* http://supplies.diabetic-resoures.com
* http://diet.diabetic-resources.com
* http://insurance.diab