Home Business The Easy way 791 Update http://www.blogmoneymiracle.com en-us EasyRSS
By Grant D. Robinson

Are you on pace to accomplish your important sales and financial goals this year?

The truth is, a good majority of US Organizations have been unable to grow their businesses this year. They are not reaching their sales and financial goals. Many have all but given up.

Is this you? Are you now looking to next year to be the year you shatter previous productivity, sales and revenue records?

It is a great idea to start preparing for your best year ever, regardless of whether you are on pace to meet your goals or not. You will need to prepare!

You have realized that it takes more than just setting a goal to accomplish it. The mere act of putting the goal on paper, sharing it with your managers, and giving the extra effort to accomplish the goal is really secondary to the preparation required.

Before you begin to work toward an objective, you must insure all of the past barriers that stood in the way of prior goal accomplishment are eliminated. If they aren't, the unfortunate fact is, you will fail to meet the objective once again… for the same reasons as before.

The following are the three keys market-leading organizations have used to grow their businesses. Consider these in order to take your organization to the next level of success.

A. Operational Systems

There are two types of systems in your organization. The first is your operational systems, including:

1. Vision & Mission 2. Financial & Budgeting
3. Production, Manufacturing & Distribution 4. Sales & Marketing

All four of these systems are in place for one reason: to efficiently grow your business. They are the standards to how your organization operates from day to day. More importantly, they are the standards to how your workforce operates from day to day.

To improve productivity this quarter and prepare for your best year ever, it is vital to analyze your operational systems. In the next month, recognize what current productivity barriers must be eliminated, what operating expenses must be reduced, what unique cultural standards must be maintained, and what marketing promises must be upheld.


B. Managerial Systems

In answering the previous questions, most organizations realize an important fact: Changes to operational systems are almost always made to improve the productivity of their workforce. But the truth is; these changes alone rarely help.

Organizations failing to accomplish their goals tend to make irrational decisions. They feel if they rewrite a vision, increase spending on technology, reorganize production procedures, or alter their marketing messages, workforce performance and profits will magically improve.

However, the opposite is usually the case. The changes usually end up harming efficiency, production and morale. The usual outcome is, those employees who performed the job they were hired to do before the changes, still do. Those who failed to produce before the expensive operational modifications, still underachieve.

The second type of system in your organization is your managerial systems. The five most important processes of your managerial systems are: recruiting, hiring, training, developing and retaining (productive employees). When you create a successful managerial system, your hiring success rate, employee motivation, and the effectiveness of your leaders will naturally improve.

To prepare for your best year ever, there is only one question to ask yourself: Why haven't we been able to hire, develop and retain TOP-Performing employees in every position.

C. Focus on People

Market leading organizations realize "people" are the key to growing a business and meeting goals. The more productive their individuals are, the more productive their teams have become.

A recent study of over 2,200 managers, by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, in Human Resource Executive Magazine found, “Of the hundreds of management functions, ‘Selecting Staff’ and ‘Retention’ are the second and third most important management functions in business today.” Recruiting was ranked fifth.

Since three of the four new hires fail to meet our expectations within the first year, managers are forced to constantly replace underachievers. Recruiting is the number one management expense in business today. Although selecting staff and retention are rated very important, they rank 36th and 44th in management effort and spending respectively.

Although executives understand the importance of Top Performers in every position, their time, energy and financial priorities have become operational. With the amount of organizations failing to meet their goals or grow their businesses, it should be apparent that this strategy just doesn't work.

Hiring Top Performers for every position in your company, the first time, is the only way to insure your productivity and profits will improve. Traditionally, Top Performers are five to eight times more productive then their counterparts.

You've probably learned the hard way; that no modification to an operational system will ever increase your organization's performance five to eight times. If you are like the most effective executives, you'll understand this and will double or triple the productivity and profits of your organization by giving your managers the tools to hire, develop and retain your greatest asset; your people.

Great customer service, work ethic, motivation, productivity, and sales success comes from employees that fit your culture, their team, and the job they were hired to do. Whether it takes developing your underachievers or replacing them with someone who will naturally produce; now is the time to focus on your people to prepare for your best year ever.

Grant D. Robinson is the President of People Values and the Author of the Market Leadership System. To improve your “Hiring Success Rate” of TOP Performing Employees, watch a free, 5-minute, on-line video at: http://www.peoplevalues.com.
]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Angela Bailey

Bill finished college in May. It was a beautiful ceremony, and the culmination of many hard years of study. “So what are you going to do now?” I asked him, over a cup of coffee in a local cafe. “Get a resume together and start looking for jobs” he replied. That’s the reply of about 99% of the people graduating from college. It’s the way we are socially programmed to think. It’s the same thing everybody else does. This doesn’t necessarily make it the right thing to do. I believe if you have a reasonable amount of intelligence and an entrepreneurial spirit, there are far better ways to make a living. People have the attitude that I need to work hard to support my family. In my opinion, it’s all for nothing, if you can only enjoy time with your family a small portion of your life. When I am gone, I don’t want my kids to know me as a good provider, I want to be remembered as a good father. I cannot be a good father when I am a serving and making another person wealthy and I am never around to interact with them.

Goals

The first thing you need to accomplish is to set some goals for yourself, I can’t stress enough how important goals are in your life, set personal goals and spiritual goals. Goals will give you something to shoot for. Write them down and read them everyday. Don’t set unrealistic goals (i.e. I want to make 20,000 a month in three months). Start small young man and meet the reachable goal. Then set another one and meet that. Be specific in your goals and structure the steps to meet them; don’t write a goal like…I want to be a millionaire. We all want to be millionaires, but we have to be a thousandaires first. There are plenty of books and articles on writing goals. Your first assignment or goal will be to write down a set of goals, the steps to reach them, and read them everyday. It will be the motivation to keep you on track.

Your Passion

What is your passion? What do you have or what can you create that others will pay you for? Can you create art that people would love to have hanging in their home? Can you create music that others would love to listen to? Can you write computer programs that others just can’t live without? Can you make beautiful websites? Can you write informational articles? There are no limits, choose something that you are very passionate about that others will pay you for, and then monetize it. At first, you might have to get a job while you monetize your passion. Take baby steps to start a goal to make an additional $10.00 a month with your passion. Once you reach it, bump it up to $50.00, keep this momentum going until you are able to quit your regular job and do your passion full-time. Then you will be successful






Obstacles

Ponder these next seven words carefully, “As you think, so shall you be.” Thoughts are things, if you think you can, then you will. If you think you can’t, then you won’t. Get rid of the obstacles that you have conditioned yourself to believe. It drives me crazy when you hear people sabotage themselves by blaming things that have happened in the past for the reason they cannot succeed in the future…I’m not smart enough, I never had a chance, I was raised in the ghetto, I’m too poor, I’m too short, too old, too young… enough with the excuses. Quit using other people and other events for excuses why you can’t do something or are unable to succeed; it’s all too easy to do this. The other choice takes a little effort and in reality the person down deep inside really doesn’t want to change or improve themselves, they just want to use excuses. Think about this parable; imagine yourself in the back of a truck riding down a dirt road. You are now standing in the bed of this truck looking out the back seeing the trail in the dirt from the tires. These tracks in the dirt are your past. Now think about what is moving the truck forward, it’s the engine. Consider this engine as the driving force of YOU, to improve your life, to become successful. Now ask yourself, do the tracks the tires are leaving in the dirt make the truck go forward? The answer, of course, is NO; so enough with the excuses of things that have happened in the past. It is now time to start moving forward.

Residual or Passive Income

When another company owns you, in other words trading your time for money, you only get paid while you are working. Wouldn’t it be nice to make money all the time? This is the definition of passive or residual income. The simplest example of this is having money in a mutual fund drawing interest. It doesn’t matter if you’re sleeping, eating, playing with your kids, or whatever, you are always making money. This is what you must set in place to make a living and be able to do what you enjoy doing. Again, going back to your passion; write a software program and put it on a web site where people can pay for it and download it, so it will generate money at all times. Put some photographs on a site that people can buy, create a web site that generates a massive amount of visitors and sell your ad space. There are thousands of ways to create residual income, try them out to see which ones work for you. Generate multiple sites, put different items on them, and get rid of the ones that don’t work, and keep and duplicate the ones that do.

Success and Failure

“Before success comes in any man’s life he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps, some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do.” - Napoleon Hill

“Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.”- Roger Crawford

“Defeat never comes to anyone until they admit it.”- Josephus Daniels

“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping-stones to success.”- Dale Carnegie

Keep in mind if you are not failing, then you are not moving forward, so don’t get discouraged, keep the ‘strong will’ going and you are destined to succeed. One of the biggest fears that will go through your mind is…I don’t have anything to offer others, maybe, getting a job is the best option for me. Don’t fall into this line of thinking; it is part of the social programming you are accustomed to. You already know that getting a job is not the option you want to take. Don’t listen to others who try and discourage you, “That is crazy talk, that won’t work, just get a job!” The reason so many people, including family members, try to discourage you, is that when you try to do something to better yourself, it makes others feel guilty. You’ve heard the old saying, ‘Misery Loves Company’; they try to discourage you. Learn to trust your Intuition, even if the whole world is telling you it can’t be done. Years from now, when you look back as a successful Work at Home entrepreneur, you will be grateful you had the intestinal fortitude to stay on the straight and narrow and become a success.

Angela Bailey lives in Houston, TX with her 4-year-old son. She does freelance writing and Internet Marketing for a living. Her hobbies include Yoga, Meditation, and Cooking. Angela's Blog lists legitimate work from home opportunities go to http://findworkfromhome.com.
]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
by Kanicen Nichathavan

Videoblogging is the next generation of posting ideas and products over the internet. Everybody knows about textblogging. Now they use videos for a better way of expression. This form of communication may entail a lot of resources, but it is all worth it. If pictures say a thousand words, videoblogging exceeds that by far.

A videoblog requires larger disk spaces on websites, a faster server, and a whole new set of programs to support it. Videoblogs can be fed through RSS. This is technology of syndicating your website to other RSS aggregators.

Videoblogging works with people on the internet expressing their selves. Now if you put this on a business prospective, you are up to a lot of benefits. Think of it as a powerful tool in making showing your prospective customers your line of products or your services. It’s just like showing a commercial all for free. And if you videoblog through RSS, then most probably you are getting your target market.

People like to see what they are going to buy. Some would like to see proof and be sure that they are getting their money’s worth before shelving their dimes on it. All of us know the influence of a thirty second commercial. The effect of videoblogging is similar to that. You show your product, people watch it. If they like it, they buy it. If you present it good enough, they’ll buy the product even if they don’t need it.

Now on the web, things are pretty much static, unlike in television in which all are moving. If you post something that is mobile, it would most likely catch attention. Now imaging your product parading in all it’s royalty through videoblog. You’ll get phone call orders in no time.

If your business is just starting up, you can create a videoblog right at your own home. All you need is your web camera, microphone, video software, and lights. For as long as you know how to use your camera, then you can create a videoblog.

Invest in a good web camera. The higher its resolution is the better the output. And you like to present your goods in the optimum way so get the best one possible. Make a short story, or just capture your goods in one go. Just make sure you are getting the best profile for each. Get those creativity juices flowing.

Lights are important in a production. Make sure you illuminate entirely the area you are going to use to create videoblog. The brighter the area, the crispier the images will be. You can also use lighting effects for added appeal to the presentation.

Should you require sounds for your videoblog, you need a microphone. Record you voice as a voice over for promoting the product and its benefit to consumers. Sounds are as important as videos on a videoblog. It is advisable to make your sound effects as enticing as the video.

Your video editing software can be any program. You need this to finalize your work. You can add sounds, delete some bad angles, or insert some still pictures in there too. Some programs are user-friendly and can be used even with zero knowledge on video editing. Even simple video editing programs should do the trick. Select your background carefully too. The light affects the presentation so make sure that the background and the light complements each other.

Videoblogging is a great tool but it also has it downside. It may slow down the computer so other may steer clear of it. Download time may also be time consuming especially if customer is still on a dial- up connection.

But don’t let those stop you. Let videoblogging be an alternative for you, though it is best to still keep the text and pictures present in your presentation to accommodate all possible viewers of your site.

Nowadays, the more creative you are in presenting your product to the market, they more you are likely to succeed. Videoblogging offers an interactive way of selling. You involve the customers. You instill in them the advantage of your goods. And at times, those are enough to make a sale.

Kanicen Nichathavan is the owner of Kanicen's Blog, Kanicen's Blog welcomes everyone who intends to share knowledge, interesting products, ideas and those who want to start Internet Online Business. You will find all kind of Internet Marketing Tools and resources. For Newbie and Internet Marketers this blog will be the best option for lowest prices of all kind of Internet Marketing Tools at http://www.kanicen.com.
]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Carol Solomon

If you want to market your business on the internet, building your business with email newsletters is an extremely important skill.

One reason that email newsletters are so effective is it keeps you, (and your service), in the minds of your potential clients. When your potential clients are ready, and they have a need for your service, they will contact you.

Connecting with people through email newsletters takes a special kind of skill. Email newsletters create familiarity and comfort with the readers. The main purpose of an email newsletter is to build a relationship with your subscribers.

REMEMBER: It is not your readers' job to remember you. It is YOUR job to make sure they do not forget you.

Since I like to respect your time (and follow my own advice), here are eight ‘quick tips’ to increase your success and profit in writing for email newsletters:

1. Spell it out. People want "step by step" instructions – it makes any task seem easier and more manageable. If you can tell someone "how to" solve a problem or manage a difficult situation in steps, your newsletter WILL be read.

2. Send it out often. Many coaches think they do not have time, (or words), to write a newsletter more than once per month. However, anyone who has survived to adulthood has enough material to write for a lifetime :-). Keeping it short and sending it out more often gives people more opportunities to contact you.

3. Give your readers a consistent product with a consistent format. Consistency builds trust and confidence. The number one reason people buy something is trust and confidence in the person making the offer.

4. Make many offers. Put an offer for your services in every issue and encourage people to contact you. Offer different products and services – for example, some clients want individual coaching, others prefer a group. I offer both.

5. Some people will never hire you, but they will purchase an ebook or a teleclass. Find out what your readers want and create it for them.

6. Offer something free (and valuable) – a free consultation, teleclass, or a special report. Even if your readers do not take you up on it, it is beneficial to offer something – your readers will remember that you offered a gift.

7. Don't forget how valuable your information is to people who do not have it. Most professionals underestimate the VALUE of what we know. Personally, I think that the work we do is BEYOND the value of money – how can you put a value on helping someone build a business or be more effective in their life and work?

8. Be patient. You are building a relationship with your readers. It can take about 1000 subscribers before you start seeing income. Once you get that first client Health Fitness Articles, you will never look back.

To get free (and short!) Tech Tips delivered to your inbox - go to Tech Tips for Coaches (http://www.techtipsforcoaches.com/). A few short years ago, Carol Solomon, Ph.D. (http://www.easycoachingwebsites.com/), had ZERO technical knowledge - in fact, she could barely send an email. She adopted the mantra "if other people can do it, then I can do it too." She now trains others who are challenged in the world of technology, but want to use the internet to catapult their businesses.

]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Robert Wilkinson

If there were one thing to make direct mail a reliable method to drum up new business, it would have to be the ability to test different versions of a pack to achieve a better return on investment. Having processed many mailings over the years, I can attest that clients rarely take full advantage of this feature. In fact, more often than not, clients do not test at all.

Not testing is commercial suicide! In today's competitive climate, if anything can be done to reduce the cost to acquire a customer, then it must be done. It is a no brainer. Research shows that in times of depression, those who continue to advertise are those that do well. It also shows those who continue to advertise also make the efforts to stretch their budget even further.

You decrease your direct mail costs by applying a little commonsense and by testing which will produce the best response. We will look at the example of a direct mail pack that comprises five parts in all.

The parts of the pack are as follows:

1) Envelope
2) Personalized Letter
3) Brochure
4) Leaflet/Order form
5) Business Reply Envelope

Looking at this, you would think that this is it, but we have forgotten the most important part of all:

6) The Data

Now there is enough here to get your message out.

Experience shows the most important part of the mailing is the data. We must test this part. A badly produced but well targeted letter will almost certainly produce a better return than a well-written badly targeted letter.

You may have a particular target audience already decided, for example, lawyers. You will be able to get lists of lawyers from more than one source to be tested. Equally, you will have the option of mailing to a named individual, or to a job title, so you can test that way, also. So far, that is at least four permutations, provided you use two data suppliers. It would be six if you used three suppliers. If you had not narrowed your field to one sector, then the choice of tests to run could be massively increased, but it is not practical to take it to the extreme.

Targeting is everything! You must get that right, and you can only find that out if you test.

Looking at the envelope, you have a huge number of choices available, also. You can send plain with a stamp, or printed with a message. You could make the material from an unusual paper, print in full color, or use different sizes. You could print different designs, or use different taglines and the like.

Depending on how your envelope is made, you may be able to run multiple designs for a minimal charge. The nature of some jobs is they are printed two or three on a sheet, so you will be able to produce equal quantities of more than one design. Even if it is not free, chances are it will not be that expensive for a plate change.

For the letterhead, you can change the material. Studies by paper merchants have shown a 20% increase in response just by changing to a textured paper. The copy itself on the letter can be changed, and offers can be changed. The number of options to test here is almost limitless.

Moving on to the leaflet, the same applies here as indicated for the letterhead. Copy, material, imagery; they are all fair game.

Finally, yet importantly, we move on to the BRE (business reply envelope). The choices here are limited. White or manila envelopes, perhaps, maybe even a coloured BRE. If it is not going to cost a lot, why not try it.

Using these methods over time, you can increase the effectiveness of your mailings. Always test, even when you think you have the perfect pack, continue to run a test campaign against it, even if the difference between the two is really quite small. If you continue to do this, your costs to acquire a customer should decrease and diminish.
Overall, the point is that there is an almost infinitely large and almost limitless opportunity for testing. Maybe, it is this huge scope for testing that puts people off, but I do not think it is. I think it is just a lack of awareness of what you can do. You do not need to complicate things; you can just run two packs with one difference between them and see how it goes.

Whatever you do though, do not commit commercial suicide and fail to test.

Robert Wilkinson is the owner of http://www.arhiann.com, a print, design, and direct mail business specializing in direct mail and envelope production for small and medium sized businesses.

]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Robert Wilkinson

If you use direct mail, it is in your best interest to get as much of it opened and read as possible. You may have spent a small fortune on the copywriting and the expensively printed brochure, but if you do not ensure that as many packs are opened and read as possible, then both copy and brochure are wasted.

There are two main schools of thought on how to avoid being binned. The first is to use disguise, and the second is to use persuasion.

Using disguise is mainly a business-to-business approach, but it works for business to consumer mailings also. Businesses to business promotional mailings are marked out so they do not appear to have been handled individually. This can be indicated by an envelope pre-printed with a postage mark, and the use of a window or address labels to show an address.

Try one or more of the following to give the envelope a more individual look.

Use stamps. They have to have been put on by hand, so it must be individual. There is no more obvious an indicator than a pre-printed stamp impression. When using a preprinted impression in conjunction with a window envelope it practically screams, advertising so do not do it.

Hand write the address on the envelope. This is probably only viable for higher value items and certainly get more attention this way. It does not have to be copperplate; it just needs to look as though it has been handled individually.

Use an unusual material for the envelope, say vellum or a textured paper. In tests conducted by a paper merchant, this alone increased responses significantly. The additional revenue generated by the mailing more than compensated for the additional cost for the special paper.

Again, do anything to make your mailing appear more individual and personal to the recipient. Probably the most important element is the use of stamps. This on its own can be enough to get you under the recipient's radar.

Secondly, use persuasive tactics. This is completely the opposite from disguise and is used mainly for business to consumer, but again it works for business to business too. In this instance, we mark it out specifically as commercial by using advertising images, copy, and headlines on the outside of the envelope itself. In this instance, it does not matter if you use a printed postal impression.

Unlike the previous method, which uses curiosity to get your envelope opened, we need to give the recipient a good reason to open the envelope. This can take a variety of forms, but as a couple of examples you can state a benefit, "Increase sales by 15%", or alternatively provide an incentive, "Reply by the end of the month and get 2 for the price of 1".

Be very clear and very specific about what the contents are going to achieve and remember you are only trying to get the envelope opened and read. Avoid anything vague. Do not expect to appeal to everyone using this method. You do not have that much room on the envelope and you cannot be all things to all people.

I hope you will achieve a strong enough response in a small percentage of recipients that they will open, and read the contents. Your persuasive copy will follow logically on from the envelope copy, and keep your prospect interested.

There is a lot of advice against this in business-to-business direct mail, and there is probably an element of truth in this. If you are mailing to an executive whose mail is screened then its likely good advice. However, there are plenty of owner/managers out there that still open their own mail, if the offer or benefit is clear enough, and of interest to open. You may well consign your mailing piece to the bin for the 99.5% of your prospects by doing this, but it was not about them, was it?

In summary, it is simple. Do not be run of the mill. Step away from the norm and make sure your envelope is overtly commercial with a clear benefit, or incentive, or alternatively make it look personal. If you do this, you are halfway to getting it read and that is more than half the battle.

Robert Wilkinson is the owner of http://www.arhiann.com a direct mail production company specializing in mailings for small and medium sized business.

]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Kanaga Siva

Free Membership, Free Submission, Free eBooks, Free Websites, Free Downloads, Free Classifieds, Free to Join; yes, anything Free has an incredible pulling power in both Internet and Affiliate Marketing.

It is simply amazing how this four letter word, ‘FREE’, can capture the imagination of the newbies, and also the most seasoned and experienced Internet Marketers, and Affiliate Marketers.

The Success of your Internet Marketing or Affiliate Marketing Business depends on several inputs such as Determination, Dedication and Motivation, among others. In spite of possessing these qualities, financial limitations can be a dampening factor in your endeavor to succeed. Therefore, an offer of free tools, free eBooks, free classifieds, etc. can be just the thing you have been longing for to boost your confidence and help you succeed in your business.

Even if you are not short of funds to operate your Internet or Affiliate Marketing businesses, the offer of free items that could be helpful to develop your Internet business is something no sensible entrepreneur wants to ignore. Why pay for something when you can get it for free?

It is important to note that in spite of the prominent display of the word Free, some items are not always Free, and some are useless; nevertheless, the urge and desire to try them out persists.

There are many scammers who capitalize on this, to make a quick buck. This is where the newbie has to be watchful and not fall prey to scammers.

Many genuine smart Marketers do take advantage of this inherent weakness of both man and woman and offer free items to promote their businesses.

There are several great free webmaster tools that are extremely popular with Internet marketers, Affiliate marketers, Internet home based business entrepreneurs, and other online entrepreneurs.

Similarly Free eBooks and Articles written sincerely with the sole purpose of educating the audience are also very popular and sought after by webmasters.

There are websites dealing exclusively with Free items that are very popular in the Internet.

Another Free item extremely popular with low budget business entrepreneurs are Free classifieds.

There are also several very much sought after Free to join affiliate programs that are long standing, safe and secure, and global in nature, who provide you with free tools, free web sites, and great support systems.

Thus the Internet abounds with all kinds of free items. Some have hidden charges. Some lead to scams. Some have both free and paid versions. Some are totally free with no strings attached.

Regular visits to the Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Altavista and studying these various free items will help you to weed out the Good from the Bad and the Ugly.

Great people do exist out there in the Internet World. They are prepared to share their knowledge and expertise with the rest of the Internet fraternity for Free. Webmasters and Online Entrepreneurs should indeed be grateful to these Individuals and Organizations who are constantly making the Internet experience much easier, cheaper, pleasant, and enjoyable for millions of Internet users.

The Incredible Power of the word FREE without doubt continues to captivate the hearts and minds of the Internet Marketing and Affiliate Marketing world, until a more powerful substitute is discovered.

Copyright © 2006 Kanaga Siva Kanaga Siva has a wealth of experience in Marketing and operating a successful Home Based Business. Visit his http://www.business-fromhome.com Website for Tips, Ideas and Advise to start and operate a Home Based Business.
]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
by Madison Lockwood

RSS is technology - a simple software program - that allows you to access web and blog content automatically. The acronym's most popular translation is "Really Simple Syndication. Once your browser or computer has an RSS reader on board, you can subscribe to any number of RSS "feeds." A feed is simply a way in which a reader may subscribe to website content - most commonly blogs or news sites. A news site, for example, may list their latest headlines or entire articles in their feed every time a new article is published. A blog would publish this feed as a series of recent posts.

Feeds are published by millions of publishers, from small individuals to large organizations like Newsweek. The value of a feed is that it brings the most current site content to you in a format that is easily scanned; further, you are spared the task of visiting each source site each day. This is typically done through the use of what is called an 'aggregator' or 'feed reader'.

Feed readers or RSS readers, are software programs that run on your computer (or PDA or phone); let you easily subscribe to feeds, and allow you to read through them efficiently. Some are relatively simple, showing the headline and summary. The fancier ones often work with (or in) your browser to make viewing the material look much like the source page. Once you have a reader on your computer, subscribing to a feed with is an easy click or drag from your browser. Sites that provide RSS feeds will usually have a button for that purpose.

There are several RSS feed formats as well as one with an entirely different methodology called Atom. Atom has become popular with some bloggers and blogging tools. Some aggregators can read both. The other acronyms you will see in "feedspeak" are XML, which stands for 'extensible markup language' and is the code standard for these simple text feeds. An 'OPML" file is a format for indexing hierarchical feed lists. If you dive into this web habit in a big way, your aggregator or reader may keep your subscription list in an OPML file.

An RSS feed is a great method for staying abreast of issues and topics that interest you. There are a number of feed "libraries," so to speak, from which you can learn what's out there in your areas of interest. Google has a built-in reader that makes the subscription process easy, as does Yahoo. Firefox has a downloadable extension for the purpose of aggregating RSS feeds, as well as a default ability to save RSS feeds as "live bookmarks" that update via the RSS feed. You can download a number of stand alone readers and aggregators; you can find them through a simple web search.

The whole RSS "movement" is a step towards utilizing the Internet more efficiently. The trick is to avoid overloading your email inbox with daily reports that you end up ignoring most of the time. For that purpose, there are sites like Feedster that will search millions of RSS feeds for articles that are relevant to your interests. Like any search tool, however, these services are hit and miss. They are still working off keywords and sometimes what they find is relevant, sometimes not. But if you want daily news broken into categories, it's great technology once you learn how to make it work for you.

About The Author
Madison Lockwood is a customer relations associate for http://www.apollohosting.com. She helps clients understand how a website may benefit them both personally and professionally. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, & VPS hosting to a wide range of customers.

]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Jeff Smith

You can now master the art of quickly and easily creating your own 5-10 page, viral special reports that will attract a mountain of high-quality partners, a truckload of traffic and a steady stream of sales for your online marketing business.

A technique we have used effectively for more than 5-years online is creating short, focused special reports turning them viral so that we leverage the effort of hundreds of list owners and website owners send us their traffic.

There are many advantages of writing viral special reports, but the best is that you spend hours to create a marketing tool that continues to send you highly targeted, hungry traffic months, even years, after release.

By releasing one viral special report each month for a year, you can be generating a stampede of traffic and sales to your online business.

You may have tried developing special reports in the past with limited success; here are five secrets that will turn your viral reports into red-hot traffic generators.

1. Have an exciting, attention grabbing and compelling title. When other people market your special report for you, the title is often the only link to your report they include, so it had better be good. Study great advertising, the top headlines

2. You have two customers - the end reader and your distributor. It's important that you write a report that attracts and offers value to your reader, but it's also important to remember that your first target are the army of distributors that will take your report and begin the viral outbreak resulting in massive traffic coming your way.

3. Brandable with your partner's links. Writing a report targeting a hot topic will itself attract some publishers, but what will really put your viral campaign over the top is making your report, ebook or written product brandable. Ideally, deliver your report in Adobe PDF format since it is the standard for delivering digital information products. So, how do you allow your partners to insert their affiliate links in your report in a scalable way where you do not have to be customizing every report manually? A number of PDF branding tools that allow you to accomplish this task are on the market. Look for one that is simple to use for your partners. By allowing them to re-brand links within your report, you are giving them a financial reason to share virally, your report with as much of their list and readership as possible.

4. Create a buzz factor - setup a forum category to discuss each report. In this age of Web 2.0 where user generated content is accepted as a major marketing weapon, setting up a corresponding forum, blog or file sharing site around your report is a great way to increase it's buzz thereby turning your report into a real viral home-run.

5. Create basic graphics to help partners present the report and increase conversion rate. Your partners will benefit tremendously (and be more likely to offer your report) if you offer them some professional graphic covers and banners so they can integrate your viral report easily into their overall site design. I know when I promote an affiliate product for someone; I like to have a choice of graphics depending on whether I promote through out blog, main websites, forums, or in my e-newsletter.

Viral special reports and viral e-books are proven methods that work to generate lots of traffic, leveraged income through partners and if you play your cards right, a viral explosion that can catapult you to market dominance within your niche.

Discover How To Instantly Develop High-Powered Viral and Paid Information Products That You Can Use To Build Your Own Online Marketing Empire. Visit the home of top Internet Marketer's at InfoMarketer's Zone (http://www.infomarketerszone.com/).

]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Paul Speziale

What's the biggest bottleneck in any business? Besides sales, this often-overlooked feature of any business could be causing you lost sales and your long-term success. Use these tips to reduce the most costly (and annoying) bottleneck with businesses today.

Imagine for a moment that you have just spent a small fortune on marketing...you have a sale that you want to advertise and you have produced full page ads in the local newspaper setting you back $20,000 a day, sent out thousands of flyers, produced signs, sent out press releases and you even went on TV.

The big day arrives and floods of people enter your store. You look at the people clawing at each other to buy your goods, while you eagerly wait to count your profits.

Then something bad happens...

A cashier takes a break to talk to his girlfriend on his cell phone, and she breaks up with him. He returns 15 minutes later disgusted, not caring about anything, right into the heat of the crowded store. He starts being rude to the customers, taking his time and tells some of the customers off.

Appalled, your customers leave the store, and the profits you were counting in your head have vanished into the smoke they came from.

So what happened?

What happened is what many believe is one of the biggest problems of any business today...the people that interface with your customers.

Usually they are the most underpaid, under trained people in your business. They are relied upon to handle all customer inquiries, complaints, joys and questions and basically close the sales. It’s not just in retail either. Any business that has prospects phoning and asking questions or placing orders has this problem.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard a story from a disgruntled long-time customer of some business that was driven away because the customer service person couldn’t accommodate their request, I would have lots of nickels.

And you know, the people that represent your business, the ones that interface with the customer everyday ARE your business to the customer. If they are mad because of some “7 dollar an hour…can’t wait to get home to go drinking” customer service representative, they will lump you and your product right along into their mental state. If you receive a brick in the mail one day, you may be having this problem.

So how do you avoid this bottleneck?

First, isolate whomever is having any contact with your customers.

1. Who’s answering your phones?
2. Who is on the floor greeting your customers?
3. Who’s answering the emails?
4. Who is responding to your white mail?
5. Who is placing the order?
6. Who is making the sales?

Second, you need to be constantly educating them and training them as to your specials, new products, etc. Make sure you have a networked computer system to take notes for telephone operators. There is nothing more frustrating then phoning one-customer service person, only to have to retell your problem to another one 10 minutes later after they mistakenly hang up on you.

Third, educate them on how to deal with people. Once they know why certain customers behave the way they do, they might not be rude with them or they can adapt their behavior to build rapport and guarantee the sale.

Fourth, give them a little negotiating power. Some customers will try to negotiate. Give the person some room with that, just to appease the customer’s desire to “get a good deal”. Often people will warm up when there is some negotiating room.

Lastly, perhaps give the people that deal with customers a small reward for their excellent people handling skills (in other words, closing the sale). It doesn’t have to be money. In fact, chances are it will be material things, not money. Find out what your employees want the most. It can be an IPOD, or a trip, your own products, or something to encourage them. Use incentives so they make the special effort with your customers.

Paul Speziale is a direct marketing consultant / entrepreneur based out of Toronto, Ontario. He has served all industries from manufacturers to retailers, from entrepreneurs to professionals. Besides helping clients, he is working on his own projects. He also volunteers his time for several worthy causes both local and global. You can reach him at: http://www.AnelloSolutions.com: Growing Your Business Through Low-Risk, Optimized and Results Based Marketing
]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Georgi Elias

Business people planning to set up a home business or home office have a huge variety of business systems to choose from today. Anyone starting out may be confused regarding which systems to purchase. Should they purchase service insurance? We will cover the basics of what every business should consider, focusing on Internet related home based businesses.

Working efficiently from home is an important element of any business, especially if you are planning to conduct any internet related business. Business owners should surround themselves with high quality systems to ensure they are efficient at what they do every day. Sufficient backup systems are needed to avoid lost time due to equipment failure.

A high-speed access line by cable modem or DSL is a priority, as is a router with a built in firewall, and Ethernet hub. The firewall will provide you with some protection against other users from the internet hacking into your own computer and network. The Ethernet hub will allow you to connect several computers, if needed, to the same access line. Many business owners are opting for wireless routers and hubs to allow them to place their computers anywhere in the home without having to worry about adding wiring. Users are cautioned to set up their networks with the security option enabled. Otherwise, your neighbors or even strangers near by can use your wireless network to connect to the internet.

A high-speed computer with the latest hardware and software is also recommended. It is amazing how fast technology is evolving. Six months after you made your purchase and set up your system, it will be outdated. Note that it will function and deliver service to you for many years; however, it will just not have the latest features, etc. available.

Depending on your business, you may need multiple telephone lines, a fax line, and several printers. Today for a relatively low price, you can purchase all in one systems that include a printer, copier, fax machine and scanner. Most printers that are ink jet deliver excellent quality and print a sufficient number of pages per minute, however if you will be doing a great deal of printing, you may want to consider a laser printer.

One final comment about the systems you purchase. If you cannot tolerate down time, many business owners will always ensure their data is backed up daily to avoid any significant loss of information. In addition, they will also purchase a service package Psychology Articles, which will guarantee repairs or replacement of their systems within a specified period. Finally, many owners will also have a second or third system available, so they do not lose productivity, if one were to fail.

Elias Georgi is an experienced and successful sponsor, mentor and coach for many thriving tested and proven home businesses. Visit his Website at http://www.eliasg.com/, Elias also runs his own exclusive-article directory (http://www.exclusive-article.com/).

]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Jason Lam

Keyword research is an integral part of any SEM initiative, whether it may be PPC or SEO, so it is important to do it right. It is also important to do it right from the start. Google spiders (the bots that indexes web pages) can take months before they cycle to your site, so if you target the wrong keywords initially, it could take months to fix.

We have briefly listed the top five things to consider before you begin your fun journey of keyword researching.

1. Define your targeted pages.

Recognize what goals you want to achieve. If you are looking to sell cars, you want to optimize the pages containing information on a specific type of car, or pages containing content that will lead them to buy a car. Pages such as the About Us page and History page will not need optimization since no one is specifically searching for those pages. Make a list of the pages you feel would provide a lead for your business, and target the keywords on those pages.

2. Speak the way your audiences speaks.

While the correct term to describe your product may seem obvious to you, you need to speak your audience’s language in order to show up for their searches. For example, if you are selling “GPS navigation systems”, a person may have searched for GPS systems. It may not be the most politically correct term (Global Positioning System Systems), but if this is the term everyone uses to find the item you are selling, you may need to consider it as a keyword to target.

3. Know your competition.

Sure, ranking number one for “cars” would drive up your web traffic exponentially. However, what are your chances of obtaining that ranking? Typically, one-word keywords are extremely difficult to optimize. Millions of pages on the web are already well optimized for it, without even knowing it, (unless you want to optimize for kukukabo)

If you are in a very competitive industry (in the internet world) such as gaming, gambling, insurance, and such, you may find it helpful to pin down your keywords to a further niche and targeted level. For example, if you are selling cars in Toronto, you may want to combine “Toronto” with “cars”, or if you are targeting a specific demographic, you may want to include that it in the keyword. You may find that the competition for that term drops significantly, thereby, increasing your chances of success.

By increasing your presence for these targeted key terms, you are in a better position to optimize for keywords that are more ambitious in the future.

4. Using the right tools.

By no means, are the following the only tools you should use. They are some popular free keyword research tools that are simple, straightforward, and ideal to help you get started in keyword researching.

Overture Keyword Selector Tool

- Type in your keyword and it will show you some popular related searches and its search volume during a one-month period

- Be cautioned however that the words within each key phrase are rearranged in alphabetical order. For example, if you search for New York Horse Racing, it would show up as Horse New Racing York

Google AdWords Keywords Tool

- Type in your keyword and it will show you the search volume, competition levels, synonyms, and display some useful data for budgeting when setting up your PPC campaign in Google

NLC Keyword Competition Index

While this is currently in development, we are providing a tool that shows you the competition you face for each keyword. This index will help you determine your chances of success at optimizing for each term. The NLC folks here are using it internally and its one of the best things for Search Engine Marketers since sliced cheese. We will provide more details to this tool in our blog in the future, so stay tuned!

5. Snoop on your competitors.

After having a good set of keywords, go ahead and search for them in Google. Take note of the top results, if they are selling or promoting what you are, these are competitors. Browse through their site and keep an eye out for keywords they are using. It may help to view their Meta tags and description by going into the page source code (View > Source).

6. Smooth Integration with page content.

PPC

While in PPC, you have the freedom to target more broad terms and loosely related terms. You must also consider that people who have clicked on your ad are expecting to see what they searched. If your site has no relevance to what their keyword was, you probably just wasted $0.50.

SEO

When choosing keywords for SEO, you need to be much more selective. Remember, you will need to put these keywords on your page, and if you want to do SEO well, these terms are probably going to be in very prominent areas on your page. Make sure these terms make sense and can fit well into the context of your content.

Remember, when doing keyword research for SEO initiatives; do not ONLY aim for the terms with highest search volume and lowest competition. While that is generally a good rule of thumb, you must not forget the main point of search engine optimization. You are delivering more web users to your site, but you will ultimately need your web content to speak to your potential customers. Using keywords that make sense, and are related to your content is just as important as choosing obtainable keywords.

Jason Lam is a member of the Search Engine Marketing group at non-linear creations; Jason has a wealth of experience in everything SEO, PPC and SEM while working with many clients from varying industries.

http://www.nonlinear.ca/pages/search-engine-marketing-toronto.htm
http://www.nonlinear.ca/pages/organic-seo-services.htm

]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Paul Linder

If you are running a business or providing a service, it is most certain that you will be alarmed at the rate, which your competition is growing. Yesterday, it was you and your school chums who were running the online store to sell tattoo designs (or used jeans or whatever) and today you see that two more people have opened up much better stores. Hey, they got all the products you are selling and something more. You are surprised. Tomorrow, it is certain that you will see a few more stores popping-up and you will be, yes, we all know, ALARMED!!

It is time for you to wake up from that comfortable couch and start singing those marketing songs about your business on all the available channels. If you are one among the royal lot, throw those investor backed marketing campaigns to woo your prospective customers. The bottom-fewer purses give you the freedom to experiment and take risks to utilize all media streams for promoting your business. However, if you are serious about each dollar that goes out of your wallet, you will be checking for the right cost-effective mediums for your business promotion, as the first step.

Search Engine Optimization and postings, Link Exchanges, Affiliate Programs, and Banner Advertising are some of those techniques that have been used for this purpose by most of the online business owners for a long time. Though this had been enough for your market presence and brand building a few years back, times have changed and these mediums have become so common that everyone is into it and so are your competitors. It is high time you think of a new way, a niche area for wooing in your customers, a system that helps you to easily express everything about your business and make your customer feel the way you want them to feel.

The answer is in a new system being built to utilize the latest technological advancement in Internet media transfer, Video Streaming. ClipsID (www.clipsid.com) is a new entry into the list of fast growing online video streaming sites. However, this system has been developed to answer the constant yearning in the market for a better business promotional system and the way the system works is a perfect match for anyone wanting to promote his or her business online.

What is ClipsID?

If the system has to be described in a single phrase, the best one would be "The Largest Internet Theatre for Online Video Advertisements". Business Promotion is achieved by automated marketing of promotional videos of businesses currently within the system.

According to ClipsID.Com, "ClipsID is a powerful way of promoting yourself or your business with the aid of video presentations. Upload your videos into the system and the system will assign a unique number to your video. This is your video's ClipsID. It is a simple number just like your telephone number". The uploaded commercial videos are displayed on the system in various areas inviting customer interests. In addition, viewers can search for videos, watch them and invite others. Since the businesses can link their business contact details with the video, the prospective customers can directly contact these businesses, thus providing immediate results.

Currently, anyone can register for a free ClipsID account, which gives a free account with 10Mb video upload space plus access to all business promotional features currently available. All the promotional tools are easy to use with minimum technical expertise.

How to Promote your Business with ClipsID?

Some Power Tools that we will be using are:

Upload Tool
Associate Business Links Tool
Video Banner Creation Tool
Email Signature Tool
Webmercial Showcase
Invitation System

Upload Tool

The first and most important step you need to take in making this new promotion tool to work wonders for you is to upload your promotional content into it. Just make sure that you have an eye catching promotional video of your product, business, or service. Remember, your response would be as good as your promotional video.

Once you have a promotional video, the rest is easy. Create a free account with ClipsID by clicking on the Sign-up button you can find on the home page (www.clipsid.com). All they ask you to enter is your email address (this is your username), a desired password and your first name. It is so very simple.

When you sign-in for the first time, you will be shown a welcome page with a button on it, asking you to upload your promotional video.

Clicking on it will pop-up the Upload Video tool, where in you can upload your promotional video. You have two options for uploading the video, a Quick Upload option as well as a Complete Upload option. I suggest you choose the latter (Complete Upload) option, where in the first step is to provide details about the video/your business.

Note that the first 28 characters of your title as well as the first 64 characters of your description are very important. Please read the Webmercial Showcase section to know more about it.

This upload tool accepts video in AVI, MPG and FLV format only. If you have any other video format, you can use the free ClipsID Encoder tool (available in the Downloads section) to encode it to FLV format and then upload it.

Read the Associate Business Links Tool section for completing the second step.

Once your video is successfully uploaded, the ClipsID system will process the contents and generate a UNIQUE identifier for your video, called ClipsID, which is a simple number just like your telephone number.

Once you have your ClipsID for your video, you can exchange it with your friends, customers and prospects, who will be watching your video just by entering this number on the ClipsID player.

Associate Business Links Tool

Now, direct all your viewers to your website or online business using the Business Link tool, which is the second stage mentioned in the Upload Video Tool earlier.

Copy your website (or online business system) address (URL), and paste it on the Business Links section appropriate column.

If you go through the various options available, it is now easy to associate any Internet link or email address to your video. Those viewers who are interested in your business can contact you or go directly to the online link where you want to redirect them.

When your promotional video is played on the player, your business link will be displayed as a click-able button on the player bar. The key is that it is really enticing for the viewer to see a button below the video being played that shows something like, "Order Now!" just below a video that shows the promotional video, below a product he would like to have, and not leaving without clicking on it.

When the button is clicked, the user is taken to the web-link you are associating with the video using this tool. The web-link will be opened in a separate window and this can be a direct link to your product details page, ordering page, or whatever.

Video Banner Creation Tool

Banner Advertising has given users a new avenue for putting promotional content as fast-paced advertising matter customized for the online crowd that can take prospective users directly to your online businesses. However, there is a single problem. Most of these ads were BORING!! In addition, making the viewers click on it is becoming hard.

Use the ClipsID generated earlier, for creating your own Video Banners. You can show your promotional video in the banner, and make your advertisement much more interesting.

It is very simple to create your video banner. Click on the "Generate Banner" link that will open the Banner Creation tool.

All you have to do is select your promotional video and ask the banner creation tool to make it as a video banner in the size you want. It generates the code and you can use it wherever you want to place the banner. It is that simple.

Email Signature Tool

Did you even know that your email client is your greatest marketing tool? Not your telephone, not your PowerPoint presentation. Without you even knowing, you are sending many pieces of digital information to a person who is analyzing it and forwarding most of them to others.

According to a research, around 68% of the emails sent throughout the world will have a lifetime of more than three hops from the originator. It means there is an elevated chance that your email might be copied or forwarded for two more people than whom you intended. If you know about the multi-level marketing basics, then you would definitely understand the chances that your emails would be read by people whom you might never have thought of.

Now you can leverage this hidden prospect for your Business Promotion, without much efforts and any irritation on the intended recipient.

Place a small HTML code generated by the Email Signature tool on the signature part of your email client. Each time you send an email, your video's ClipsID is sent as a link when clicked it shows your promotional video on the ClipsID player in a separate window.

Click on the "Generate Email Signature" link and select your video that needs to be associated with all your emails. Once you click on the Generate button, you will be provided with a set of HTML code that can be copied and pasted to the signature section of your email client.

This will be a single word link identifying your ClipsID. If your email client supports HTML content, the signature will be displayed as a click-able link.

Be sure that the majority of your email recipients are going to click this link and once they click, they are going to be shown your promotional video and most of them will want to see a video, which is unlike a promotional text message that will require efforts from their part to read it. So be sure that these viewers will sit back relaxed and watch your video.

Webmercial Showcase

The Webmercial Showcase is a selected catalog of promotional videos that will be displayed on ClipsID Home page, Search Page, Public Video page, and even on the Signature Video Display page. Listing your promotional video on this showcase means exposure to thousands of unique viewers for your advertisement video.

Webmercial Showcase contains a marquee like display of some of the promotional videos that has been uploaded to ClipsID, with part of title and description displayed below the video thumbnail.

To be listed on this Webmercial Showcase all you need to do is inform ClipsID about your wish. They have provided an almost hidden link on the Manage Videos page, where there is a small piece of text on the top of the form area, where in you can fill up your request and send to them.

Normally it takes less than 48 hours for your video to be listed on Webmercial Showcase.

Invitation System

Larger the number of Views for your promotional video, the larger would be the number of prospective customers that would be interested in doing business with you. How can you make some immediate viewer base for your video? The answer is ClipsID Invitation system that would help you to send invitations to your contact base telling more about your video as well as inviting them to view the video.

The process is very easy. Once you have your working ClipsID, create an Address Book of all your contacts and then proceed to the Invitation tool (you can find it in the Manage Videos section) for selecting your video, choosing the address book and for creating a small invitation message, which will be added as a personal note to the invitation. The tool will add the rest of the invitation message and then send it to all on your selected address book.

Conclusion

Therefore, by investing a small amount of time, you can use this innovative marketing system to promote your business to new heights.

It is a relatively new approach and hence it is the right time to experiment with this system. If you are stuck at any point of time, you can rely on the ClipsID support forum for your answers.

By the way, I am also interested to know more about your experiences with this innovative system. Please feel free to contact me at paul.linder@yahoo.com. I would be delighted to hear more about your experiences and share my thoughts.

All rights for the logo, name and other materials mentioned in this document belong to ClipsID.Com LLC (www.clipsid.com).

Paul Linder is a veteran in creating Online Marketing & Promotion campaigns with more than 12 years experience in advising medium to large-scale businesses the strategies for creating successful online businesses. He lives in San Francisco, CA mostly hugging his Dell 700m Laptop or iPod. He is currently working as the Vice President of http://ClipsID.Com and you can reach him at paul.linder@yahoo.com

]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Dee Cohen

Writing articles are effective ways to get one-way links to your site, as well as, to have people learn more about your website or service. There are ways to do this that can make you more successful versus having your articles be overlooked and not considered.

Shane Pearce has written the ‘Lazy Man's Guide to Article Writing’, which outlines some helpful tips. I was impressed with his tip that when you submit your article to an ezine publisher or a webmaster, you can offer that he uses his own affiliate link in place of your own. For instance, if you have written an article on motivation and have a link to a Clickbank ebook on motivation and goals, you can offer the publisher that he uses his own affiliate id instead of yours. What this means is that the ezine or website publisher will be getting a free article already written with a link that may give him some monetary income. You would still have your own information in your resource box at the end, so people can click to your website, as well. Think about what the website publisher you write to will get out of the exchange and find a way to make his or her life easier.

Other tips he gives are to read ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ to find out what people want to know about in terms of popular topics. Shane discusses how to make a viral ebook based on a FAQ niche that can be passed around. If there are frequently asked questions on a topic, it is a sign that the topic has an interest, as well as, there may be an interest in some guide or tutorial.

In addition, I like the sample autoresponder examples he uses with different ideas for a signature file at the end of one's article. I think he is very good at showing how to integrate a couple of affiliate links without being pushy. He recommends sending people to opt-in to a mailing list as part of your signature file.

Another section I found useful discusses how to create checklists and use them both for your website and in articles that lead back to your website. People like checklists. Shane discusses how to use these. They also help break through writer's block or paralysis because you can have a list of steps.

There are ideas given about utilizing both 2-tier affiliate programs and residual income programs that will help you keep you earning as your articles circulate around the net. Shane gives some interesting suggestions on types of sites that work for this.


I also like that Shane gives an example of a flop he did of an unsuccessful attempt at marketing. He analyzes it and compares it to something someone else wrote he feels was better expressed. It is a very interesting study covering various ways to get your articles noticed and published. I publish articles regularly but learned some valuable tips from this ebook.

Dee Cohen is an author and publisher at http://www.socialsitesmarketing.com/article-writing.html; you can visit to learn effective ways to gain traffic by writing free articles.

]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
by Michael Moshkovich

The age of Internet shopping is taking over the world, and even the brick and the trend is even affecting the brick and mortar store with more and more customers wanting to shop on the Internet. In order to stay competitive, a store must not only have a physical location, but it must be willing to have a website from which customers can shop. It's no longer enough to have a website for customers to see what the store sells, but it must offer an online storefront so that shoppers can make purchases from the privacy of their own homes.

In order for a merchant to have a successful online storefront, it's important that he install reliable and easy to use shopping cart software. For those who are new to online shopping and don't understand the purpose of the shopping cart, let us explain a little about the process. Before the introduction of shopping card software, an online shopper had to purchase each product he wanted individually unless the merchant had an order form where the shopper could include several items. As eCommerce became more popular, the importance of a better system became pertinent. If eCommerce were going to become the wave of the future, merchants would have to make it quick and easy for customers to place an order. Thus, the eCommerce solution was the development of shopping cart software that allows a shopper to make purchases and place them in a "shopping cart" much as you do at the grocery store and pay for everything when you have finished shopping and are ready to "proceed to checkout."

Shopping cart software has opened an entire new media for the online shopper, and as a result, eCommerce has exploded all over the Internet with the introduction of stores like Amazon.com who do not even have a brick and mortar store. Yes, they have a brick and mortar building, but that is a packaging and shipping facility only, not a store where you can walk in and purchase what you like. Amazon is probably the first store of its type on the Internet, but many more have opened since then. Today, instead of just books and videos, Amazon distributes products for a great deal of retailers including ToysRUs. The technology of the shopping cart software has opened up an entire new era of shopping throughout the world, and at the holidays, it's even bigger as people flock to their keyboards and monitors instead of the malls as they used to do.

How has the trend toward eCommerce shopping affected retailers with a concrete building, especially during peak seasons such as Christmas and Easter? For those who are innovative and determined enough to enter the eCommerce market, the seasons will show a boost in business, but for those who choose to limit their business to walk-in trade, they are likely to see a reduction in the sales volume compared to the previous year's figures. With people's busy schedules and the price of gasoline, online shopping is becoming more attractive to the average shopper, especially with the ease of using shopping cart software and the attractive online storefront websites that are available. Interactive websites draw customers to their products with music, games, animation, and other tools that catch the attention of a potential buyer.

New merchants should certainly not hesitate to add a shopping cart feature from the start unless your business is only one product and no choices such as color or size. For instance, if you are selling a book you wrote, and it's only in one format, then there is no need to have a shopping cart. If, however, you offer the same book in hardcover, paperback, and eBook format, a shopping cart may be a good idea in case a buyer wants to buy more than one copy in different formats. Of course, if you have a multi-product eCommerce site, to operate without a shopping cart is courting disaster. Some of the reasons for adding shopping cart technology to your eCommerce site include:

- It allows a shopper to save his purchases and return later to finish shopping

- A shopper can return to his shopping cart and increase or decrease the number of items he wants to purchase

- A shopper as an opportunity to remove products from his shopping cart without deleting the entire order

- Shopping cart software also allows the buyer to track what products he ordered and allows the seller to include shipping information

The shopping cart software makes it easier for the seller as well because he does not have to keep track of numerous orders, and it allows him to see everything a buyer ordered at one time. In many cases, a shopping cart is also connected to online inventory so that a seller knows if he has enough of the product to fulfill his orders. It also allows him to track what customers have bought and thus know what may interest a customer for the future.

Copyright (c) 2006 WebCart

Michael Moshkovich is a web developer and internet marketer who has written over 50 articles on SEO, shopping cart software and PPC marketing. To learn more about WebCart visit us at http://www.webcart.net.
]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Akhil Shahani

A well thought out game plan is a winning strategy in any battle! Your business is no less than a battle. Every moment, your competitors are trying to outsmart you. To win this war, you need a game plan for your business. In other words, you need a marketing plan.

A marketing plan is a highly researched, well-written document, which details all marketing actions necessary to achieve business objectives. It could be for a product, service, brand, or a product line. From time to time, you need to stand back and see if your plan is working, and whether your day-to-day activities line up.

So let us begin with the basics of writing a marketing plan:

1. Title Page - This must include the name of your company and the management team, which is instrumental in developing strategies.

2. Executive Summary - This is a quick overview of the main points in your plan. Although the summary comes first, it is best to write this last. This will ensure that you have not overlooked something and that your plan makes sense.

3. Current Situation - Here, you need to analyze both the macro environment, as well as, the current market situation. The macro environment analysis will give you an insight into the economy, and larger legal and technical aspects that can affect your business. The current market situation will throw light on the potential market segment, competitor landscape, industry structure etc.

4. Consumer Behavior - Present an analysis of your customers' demographic profile and buying habits, talk about key motivators, loyalty segments, and similar issues.

5. Company Analysis - This is your chance to do some 'blah-blah' on your company. Just kidding! Analyze the internal situation of the company in terms of its vision and mission, long-term business objectives, short-term goals, resource position, etc. This is also an appropriate place to do a thorough SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. This will help you identify the sustainable competitive advantages of your company, and understand the key success factors for your business.

6. Market Research - This chapter describes the process of data collection, method of analysis, and key findings.

7. Marketing Strategy - Step 1 - discuss product mix, product life cycle management, brand name, brand image, etc. Step 2 - analyze market share by products, customer segments, and geography Step 3 - it is all about money, honey! This is where you talk pricing strategy Step 4 - share your advertising and promotion plans Step 5 - put down your ideas about how you will distribute your product.

8. Implementation - discuss the nitty-gritty here. Chart out resource requirements, key deliverables, time frame, and other issues related to implementation.

9. Financial Summaries - include projections of income, break-even analysis, and payback period. List assumptions clearly.

10. Outlook - this contains predictions for the future and plans of action for alternative scenarios, if any.

11. Appendix - include all supporting material, tables and data.

Generally, a basic marketing plan will run into 30 - 40 pages. While you could abridge your report, make sure you do not overlook any important aspects.

Finally, we will leave you with a thought - if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail!

Hi, I am Akhil Shahani, a serial entrepreneur who wants to help you succeed. Over the years, I have run many successful businesses & made many mistakes on the way. I have created http://www.aykya.com to help you benefit from all I have learned on my journey. Please visit us & download our special 'Freebie of the Month' as a thank you for your visit.

]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Paul Tobey

Most web marketers would agree that the number one and most fundamental aspect of any successful websites are; "The more traffic, the better!" In keeping with that strategy, please let me share a few thoughts on how to actually accomplish this.

If you own a car, you can always count on being stuck in traffic. There are those who experience this on a daily basis; and for the rest of us who do not drive to work, hopefully, only occasionally.

Why is this a huge source of frustration and stress for most people? Drivers hate the very thought of being stuck in one place when they want to be in another place. Look at the people around you the next time you are in a traffic jam. Is everyone smiling and having a good time? Probably not...

How many of you want to know how to alleviate the upset and the anxiety associated with being stuck in traffic? Here is the thing, traffic jams are not going to disappear anytime soon! As long as our society relies on cars and trucks to get around, there will always be traffic! However, even though it sounds crazy, I personally have learned to love traffic jams. Here is why....

I have always maintained there are only two things you can do in any stressful situation; you either accept it or you can remove yourself from the situation. Beating yourself up or blaming someone else for the traffic jam only makes it worse. That is what most people do not understand. The traffic jam is not the problem; it is your resistance to it. It is that resistance causing the stress. The amount of energy you put into resisting your situation causes the stress, not the situation itself.

In the case of traffic however, it is obvious that you cannot remove yourself from it if you are already in it. So, the only other thing you can do is accept it, right? Complete 100% of acceptance of the situation is the only way to alleviate 100% of the stress. Now, I can hear your brain malfunctioning right about now and your saying to yourself, "how can I possibly learn to accept traffic?" Ah ha! Therein lays the secret to getting what you really want. Because that is, what life is about, getting what you really want instead of what you do not want, right?

What you really want is more success. Success means various things to many different people. It is still something that most people strive for daily, to achieve big things.

Success? In a traffic jam? You are saying to yourself, "now, I'm really confused!" You see, there is one place where a traffic jam is a beautiful thing...the Internet! That is what we call in the internet marketing business the key to any successful website, "lots and lots of traffic." The more traffic jams we can create on our websites, the better!

If you want more business success, start getting more traffic to your website. There are many things to consider when designing your site to make this happen; but without traffic, a website is useless.

Therefore, know what you truly want - more success. Now you know what to do to get it - generate more traffic to your website. However, the most important part of this 3-part formula is, knowing HOW to do it! Without knowing how to do something, you will never get the success you most certainly deserve. Business is about customers - the more customers you have, the more success you will have. Knowing how to get more customers to your website to create a traffic jam is a science and is definitely a learned skill.

Let's look at the many resources offered to you to generate the traffic you need to run a successful website; search engines, affiliate programs, content submissions, email campaigns, joint venture partners, link exchanges, blogs, pay-per-click advertising, and a whole host of other resources too numerous to mention here. If some of these things sound unfamiliar to you, my highest recommendation is to find out what they are and what you need to do to make them work. For the purposes of this article, we are going to focus on one thing; search engines. Why just search engines? Statistics have shown that 70% of your website traffic will be driven through search engines like, Google, Yahoo, MSN etc. Plus, it is free!

How do you make search engines work for you?

First, optimize your website to get a high search engine ranking. Select relevant targeted keyword phrases. Place those keywords strategically on your web pages. How do you know what keyword phrases to use? That is where many people make huge mistakes. They actually optimize their sites for keyword phrases that nobody is actually searching. HINT! First, find out what people are searching for; then build your web pages around those words. There are tools available to help you chose what search terms are relevant, such as; Google's free service called Overture, and WordTracker, which is a paid service.

After choosing your keywords, it is time to place them on your site. We call this keyword density. My suggestion, place one or two keyword phrases on each page in your; Page Title, Meta Description Tags, Meta Keyword Tags and a few times in the text of your webpage, for optimal results. This alone will significantly increase the ranking of your site for engines like Google and Yahoo. These engines think like people. They look for what is important on your website and how relevant your site is to what key phrases you are optimizing. Do not optimize your site for "free movie downloads" if you are selling cosmetics. Bad idea! You can actually be penalized by search engines for trying to trick them into sending you traffic.

Incoming links are the most significant factor in increasing your search engine optimization. Are you wondering how important this is? That is the million dollar, drop the gates, and release the hounds, key to the universe! Why? If you optimize your site with relevant keywords, which says, are you any good at what you do? Who has to say your products and services are any good? That is the way engines like Google think. They want to know from others if you do what you say, and if you are any good at doing it. How do they do this? By finding links to your website, on other sites, that promote what you are saying on your site. The more links into your website promoting what it is you do; the better!

Are you ready for the kicker? You mean there is more? Yep, there is more! If the last paragraph was a million dollar technique, this is definitely a two million dollar technique. Make sure that the links on other websites, which lead to your website, use your keyword phrases. Therefore, your links in from outside should look like this... Piano Music by Paul Tobey - where the link underneath "piano music" is the url of your site ie: http://www.paultobey.com. An engine like Google searches for the keywords first and then follows the link to see if it is relevant. If it is relevant, which in the case of the preceding example it is, then the ranking for the keyword search "piano music" will go up every time Google or another search engine, finds one of these links.

So, the next time you are sitting in traffic and you are agitated, stressed, and filled with anxiety, think of all the traffic your website will be generating while you are stuck in the car. Take a look at all the angry people around you, give a big smile, and say aloud to yourself, "I Love Traffic Jams."

Paul Tobey:

In addition to writing a number of articles about web design and search engine optimization the author owns a successful web design company in Toronto, Canada.

]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Steve Renner

One of the more important ways of increasing affiliate marketing bottom line and sales is with product recommendations. Many marketers know this is one of the most effective ways in promoting a certain product.

In affiliate marketing, you can increase your earnings in many ways. You can easily learn most of the techniques and tactics. No need to go anywhere, as everything you need to know, is available online, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

One of the more important ways of increasing affiliate marketing bottom line and sales is using product recommendations. Many marketers know this is one of the most effective ways in promoting a certain product.

When the customers or visitors trust you enough, then they will definitely trust your recommendations. Be very careful in using this approach. If you start promoting everything by recommendation, your credibility will actually wear thin. This is seen especially, when recommendations are seemingly exaggerated and without much merit.

Do not be afraid to mention things you do not like about a given product or service. Rather than lose any points for you, this will make your recommendation more realistic and will tend to increase your credibility.

Further, if your visitors are interested in what you are offering, they will be glad to learn what is good about the product, what is not so good, and how the product will benefit them. This is important; always mention the benefits.

When you are recommending a certain product, there are things to remember on how to make it work effectively and for your advantage.

Sound like the true and leading expert in your field. Remember this simple equation: Price resistance diminishes in direct proportion to trust. If your visitors feel and believe you are an expert in your niche, and trust you, they are more inclined to make that purchase.

On the other hand, if you do not show any confidence and self-assurance in endorsing your products, they will probably feel that same way and will go in search of another product or service, which is more believable.

How do you establish this aura of expertise? By offering unique and new solutions, they would not get anywhere else. Show proof that what you are promoting works as promised. Display prominent testimonials and endorsements from respected and known personalities, in related fields.

Avoid hype at all costs. It is better to sound low key and confident, than to scream and seek attention. Besides, you would not want to sound unprofessional and give your potential customers and clients, the wrong impression.

It is best to appear cool and self-assured. In addition, remember; prospects are not stupid. They are actually turning to experts and may already know the things that you know. If you back up your claims with facts and data, they would gladly spend hundreds, or even thousands of dollars on one of your promotions. However, if you do not, they may leave your site and look elsewhere. They may go to your competitors and see what they are offering.

While recommending a product at your site, it is also important that you give out a promotional item, like a free report. Most people are already familiar with the concept of offering freebies when promoting your own products, but very few people do this to promote affiliate products.

Before you give a recommendation to a product, it is a good idea to try to test the product and support yourself. Do not run the risk of promoting junk products and services. Just think how long it took you to build credibility and trust among your visitors. All it takes to destroy it is one big mistake on your part.

If possible, give recommendations of products that have your 100% confidence. Test the product support before you begin. Assure the people you are referring, when a problem suddenly arises, no one is left high and dry.

Have a look at your affiliate marketing and the strategies you are using. If you are not focusing using recommendations, you should be.

When developing your plan of action, consider using product recommendation and be among those successful affiliates who use this strategy to make a fortune.

Steve Renner (http://www.steverenner.com/) is a Best Selling Author and has been marketing online since 1998. He is the Director of Training and Marketing for The Affiliate Community, an Online Training and Resource Site for Affiliate Marketers of all Levels. He is a pioneer in the development of Hybrid Marketing and is an Expert in Internet Marketing and Affiliate Marketing. Sign up for a FREE Membership Today (http://join.affiliatecommunity.com/)! Get $1,000 in Training, and Resources.

]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Paul McCord

Right this minute, you are probably sitting on tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of commissions. Most registered reps have a database of current and past clients whose potential referrals are worth several thousand additional commission dollars per month. Yet, this resource goes virtually untapped for most advisors.

Why? Simply because most reps have not learned how to successfully convert their client relationships into referral relationships. Acquiring referrals from clients is not as simple as "doing a good job" and then asking for referrals. Generating a large number of highly qualified referrals from a client is a process that starts from the moment the prospect is met, not a one-time act after the sale has been completed. It requires an understanding of what a successful referral is based on, and how to exploit that referral to insure a successful contact with the referee.

Every referral involves the interaction of three people and four relationships among those three individuals. The strength or weakness of each of these interactions will influence the success or failure of the referral for the advisor:

1. The Advisor/Client relationship:
In order for the client to be willing to give a quality referral, build a strong bond of trust between the rep and the client. A client may give a "referral" to someone they do not trust, but they will not give a referral to someone they know well and respect if they do not trust the salesperson. If there is only a weak bond of trust between the advisor and client, the "referral" the client is likely to give will be to someone the client either believes will not meet with the advisor or someone the client does not know well or respect.

2. The client's purchasing experience:
Clients will not give high quality referrals if their purchasing experience did not meet or exceed both their expectations and their priorities. All clients enter purchasing relationships with certain expectations and priorities. Expectations and priorities are not the same. A client may expect to be kept fully informed during the course of the sale and may have certain product or service functionality requirements as his top priority. In order to receive a large number of high quality referrals, the rep must make sure that they meet or exceed both the client's expectations and priorities.

Despite the current parroting of the buzz phrase, "exceeding the customer's expectations," meeting and exceeding client expectations is seldom accomplished. Few people take the time and effort to discuss with their client what the client's expectations and priorities are-rather most reps, and companies, assume they know. At best, all they can knowingly accomplish is meeting or exceeding their expectations of what they think their client should expect.

3. The Client/Prospect relationship:
The trust and respect relationship between client and referee are of great importance. The stronger the bond of trust and respect between the client and the prospect, the easier it will be for the advisor to set an appointment with and then sell the prospect. In referral selling, a great deal of the rep's credibility, or lack thereof, is built on the trust and respect the prospect has for the client who made the referral.

If the client/prospect bond is strong enough, the rep is virtually guaranteed a sale. On the other hand, if the bond is particularly weak, the referral is little better than a cold call. Consequently, it is of utmost importance for the advisor to know as much as possible about the client's relationship, and likely bond of trust, with the prospect.

4. The advisor's initial contact with the referee:
Based on the client/prospect bond, the advisor must determine how best to contact the prospect to produce the greatest opportunity to acquire a meeting. The weaker the relationship between the client and the prospect, the stronger the contact method the rep should seek to employ. If the client/prospect relationship is extremely strong, virtually any contact method, including a phone call from the salesperson mentioning the client's name will suffice, but for a weak relationship, the rep must strive to use the strongest contact method possible. In descending order, from weakest to strongest, possible methods of contact include a phone call to the prospect from the advisor, an email from the client, a client letter, a client phone call, a client/prospect/advisor lunch meeting.

Fortunately, the advisor can control most of the above interactions. Only the client/prospect relationship is completely out of the rep's hands. Even then, the rep can compensate for a less than ideal client/prospect relationship through using a stronger initial contact method.

If you understand the foundation of a referral, you can quickly increase your referral-based business and begin to mine that gold mine in your client database.

Paul McCord
Nationally known author, trainer and leading authority on prospecting, Paul McCord's latest book Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income is available throughout the US and Canada. He also offers a free ebook Understanding Referral Generation: A Primer at http://www.powerreferralselling.com.

]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Donna Gunter

The creation of your first info product is the first big step toward implementing multiple streams of income in your business. It means you have something to sell prospective customers, to "size you up", as they consider purchasing your services. It means you can sell something 24-7 from your website that demonstrates your expertise. It means you are well on your way to creating a passive revenue stream for your business.

Your process does not have to be as detailed as I have outlined here. If you want to do a thorough job in the creation process, I suggest that you embark on all the steps.

1. Solution to a Problem. The best-selling information products provide a direct solution to a major problem of your target market. If you are a professional organizer, the problem might be how to clean, store, and organize holiday decorations so they are easily found and used from year to year. If you are a weight loss coach, the problem might be how to stay motivated when you have hit a weight loss plateau. Jot down some of the primary problems of your target market and the process by which you help your clients resolve these issues.

2. Determine Your Offering. Info products come in all types of formats, from ebooks, to ecourses, to recorded teleseminars, to podcasts, to special reports, to CD, and DVD sets. Take stock of your target market and determine what format would best fit their lifestyle. Are they virtual business owners who work from home at their computers for most of the day? Then an ebook or ecourse would probably work well for this group. Are there busy executives who travel frequently? Then you might consider a portable audio format. You can also combine formats to appeal to a variety of learning styles or lifestyles.

Moreover, cost is a major consideration. Do you want to create a physical product that has to be shipped, or would an electronic download work? There are much greater costs on your end to produce a physical product than an electronic one. You have to deal with product fulfillment, if you choose to sell a physical product. I tell my clients to start with an electronic version and test it out. If it is successful, move to a physical product, which has greater perceived value in the eyes of consumers.

3. Pricing. Pricing of info products is all over the map. Check out your competition (yes, there will be competing products on the same topic aimed at the same target market) and see what they are charging. You need to look at your contact database and assess the value of your information to them and determine what you think they will pay. You can survey your database to determine this info, or base it on comparable offerings in the marketplace. Many times my clients are hung up on the notion of comparing pricing for their info product to what they can find in the local bookstore. Generally, pricing for info products is higher than retail bookstores because the info being sold online is specialized for a target market and is delivered immediately upon order (if it's an electronic download).

The pricing strategy that also seems to sell better online is ending your price with a seven, like in $17, $47, etc. If you offer a high-priced product, consider offering payment via an installment plan, where you charge a bit more each month for the product than if someone were to pay for the product in full at time of purchase.

4. Technology. Do you have the technology in place to create and deliver your offering? If it is an ebook, you will need either a PDF writer program or ebook compiler software. For an audio program, you will need a microphone, audio recording, and editing capabilities. For an ecourse, you will need either autoresponder software or a direct to desktop solution. For delivery, you will need a shopping cart that can deliver electronic products or take shipping info for physical products as well as some type of merchant account to take credit and process credit cards. You will also want a sequential autoresponder service to follow up with your buyers.

5. Create the Product. This is typically the most labor-intensive part of the process, as you are actively recording, writing, or videotaping your information for the product. Some products are easier to create than others are, especially if you are recycling other content that you have into a new product. If you are starting from scratch, give yourself a full 3-6 weeks of steady work time for product creation. After creating the product, you may want to have it proofread and/or edited in some fashion by a proofreader or an audio/video expert.

6. Graphics. A picture tells a thousand words, and more importantly, info products sell better when the visitor has a graphic representation of this intangible info product item. If graphic design is not your specialty, find someone to design an ebook cover or podcast album art for you. You may want to have the designer create a website header banner for the product that you can use on your sales page. You can generally have both of these done for around $200. The more professional your image, the better-perceived value your product has.

7. Domain, Hosting, and Website. I believe that each info product should have its own domain name and sales page to be most effective. Domain names are inexpensive, so you could actually buy several for each product -- one that reflects the product name, for example, and one that reflects the result someone will receive after using your product. You can use the various domain names and websites for a variety of testing purposes as you go to sell your product. If your plan to create multiple info products, you will probably want to obtain a website hosting account that will enable you to host multiple domains from the same account. Another option is to forward your product's domain name to a "hidden" page of your primary site.

8. Copywriting. There is a specific formula to copywriting for one-page sales letter websites. The best way to get ideas for your sales letter is to create a Marketing Swipe file of other sales copy that you like. From your swipe file, look at the headlines, the introduction, the sub headlines, the listing of benefits, the product description, the outline of the features, the call to action (request to buy), the closing, and the postscripts. You will begin to see a pattern emerge when you look at 4-5 sample sales pages.

9. Shopping Cart. Once your product is complete, you need to upload the product into your shopping cart and set up the cart for purchases. This may mean you also will need to set up shipping and handling charges for physical products and integrate your shopping with your shipper of choice. If your state requires the collection of state sales taxes, you will need to integrate that as well.

10. Follow-up Autoresponders. Creating a series of autoresponders to follow-up with a customer after purchase enables you to stay in front of the customer and remind her about your other product/service offerings. Design a series of 3-5 autoresponders that will be sent out after a purchase to check in with your customer and tell her the next step she needs to take after her purchase. This might mean referring her to another info product, asking her to join some type of subscription service, or experiencing your service with a free trial.

11. Capturing Contact Info. Sadly, not everyone who visits your website will buy what you are selling. However, you can still capture their contact info by creating a free giveaway for those who may not be ready to buy. This might be a special report or free ecourse, and you follow the same steps outlined previously for creating this giveaway. You will also need to create 3-5 follow-up autoresponders here as well that will ultimately offer them your product once again.

12. Publish and Promote. Now, you are ready to sell. Publish your website and begin to promote your offering to your own database. You can create a buzz about your product by writing a press release, offering a free teleclass, buying ads on other websites or in other newsletters, publishing articles, creating podcasts, purchasing pay-per-click advertising, requesting colleagues to send out notices to their contact lists, and creating an affiliate program in which others can sell your product for a commission.

Creating your first info product can be a time-consuming process. However, once it has created Feature Articles, you stand to earn income from it for years to come. Start to expand your business offerings today with information products.

Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter help self-employed service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To sign up for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge-Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at Get More Clients Online (http://www.getmoreclientsonline.com/).

]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
By Paul Tobey

Most web marketers would agree that the number one and most fundamental aspect of any successful websites are; "The more traffic, the better!" In keeping with that strategy, please let me share a few thoughts on how to actually accomplish this.

If you own a car, you can always count on being stuck in traffic. There are those who experience this on a daily basis; and for the rest of us who do not drive to work, hopefully, only occasionally.

Why is this a huge source of frustration and stress for most people? Drivers hate the very thought of being stuck in one place when they want to be in another place. Look at the people around you the next time you are in a traffic jam. Is everyone smiling and having a good time? Probably not...

How many of you want to know how to alleviate the upset and the anxiety associated with being stuck in traffic? Here is the thing, traffic jams are not going to disappear anytime soon! As long as our society relies on cars and trucks to get around, there will always be traffic! However, even though it sounds crazy, I personally have learned to love traffic jams. Here is why....

I have always maintained there are only two things you can do in any stressful situation; you either accept it or you can remove yourself from the situation. Beating yourself up or blaming someone else for the traffic jam only makes it worse. That is what most people do not understand. The traffic jam is not the problem; it is your resistance to it. It is that resistance causing the stress. The amount of energy you put into resisting your situation causes the stress, not the situation itself.

In the case of traffic however, it is obvious that you cannot remove yourself from it if you are already in it. So, the only other thing you can do is accept it, right? Complete 100% of acceptance of the situation is the only way to alleviate 100% of the stress. Now, I can hear your brain malfunctioning right about now and your saying to yourself, "how can I possibly learn to accept traffic?" Ah ha! Therein lays the secret to getting what you really want. Because that is, what life is about, getting what you really want instead of what you do not want, right?

What you really want is more success. Success means various things to many different people. It is still something that most people strive for daily, to achieve big things.

Success? In a traffic jam? You are saying to yourself, "now, I'm really confused!" You see, there is one place where a traffic jam is a beautiful thing...the Internet! That is what we call in the internet marketing business the key to any successful website, "lots and lots of traffic." The more traffic jams we can create on our websites, the better!

If you want more business success, start getting more traffic to your website. There are many things to consider when designing your site to make this happen; but without traffic, a website is useless.

Therefore, know what you truly want - more success. Now you know what to do to get it - generate more traffic to your website. However, the most important part of this 3-part formula is, knowing HOW to do it! Without knowing how to do something, you will never get the success you most certainly deserve. Business is about customers - the more customers you have, the more success you will have. Knowing how to get more customers to your website to create a traffic jam is a science and is definitely a learned skill.

Let's look at the many resources offered to you to generate the traffic you need to run a successful website; search engines, affiliate programs, content submissions, email campaigns, joint venture partners, link exchanges, blogs, pay-per-click advertising, and a whole host of other resources too numerous to mention here. If some of these things sound unfamiliar to you, my highest recommendation is to find out what they are and what you need to do to make them work. For the purposes of this article, we are going to focus on one thing; search engines. Why just search engines? Statistics have shown that 70% of your website traffic will be driven through search engines like, Google, Yahoo, MSN etc. Plus, it is free!

How do you make search engines work for you?

First, optimize your website to get a high search engine ranking. Select relevant targeted keyword phrases. Place those keywords strategically on your web pages. How do you know what keyword phrases to use? That is where many people make huge mistakes. They actually optimize their sites for keyword phrases that nobody is actually searching. HINT! First, find out what people are searching for; then build your web pages around those words. There are tools available to help you chose what search terms are relevant, such as; Google's free service called Overture, and WordTracker, which is a paid service.

After choosing your keywords, it is time to place them on your site. We call this keyword density. My suggestion, place one or two keyword phrases on each page in your; Page Title, Meta Description Tags, Meta Keyword Tags and a few times in the text of your webpage, for optimal results. This alone will significantly increase the ranking of your site for engines like Google and Yahoo. These engines think like people. They look for what is important on your website and how relevant your site is to what key phrases you are optimizing. Do not optimize your site for "free movie downloads" if you are selling cosmetics. Bad idea! You can actually be penalized by search engines for trying to trick them into sending you traffic.

Incoming links are the most significant factor in increasing your search engine optimization. Are you wondering how important this is? That is the million dollar, drop the gates, and release the hounds, key to the universe! Why? If you optimize your site with relevant keywords, which says, are you any good at what you do? Who has to say your products and services are any good? That is the way engines like Google think. They want to know from others if you do what you say, and if you are any good at doing it. How do they do this? By finding links to your website, on other sites, that promote what you are saying on your site. The more links into your website promoting what it is you do; the better!

Are you ready for the kicker? You mean there is more? Yep, there is more! If the last paragraph was a million dollar technique, this is definitely a two million dollar technique. Make sure that the links on other websites, which lead to your website, use your keyword phrases. Therefore, your links in from outside should look like this... Piano Music by Paul Tobey - where the link underneath "piano music" is the url of your site ie: http://www.paultobey.com. An engine like Google searches for the keywords first and then follows the link to see if it is relevant. If it is relevant, which in the case of the preceding example it is, then the ranking for the keyword search "piano music" will go up every time Google or another search engine, finds one of these links.

So, the next time you are sitting in traffic and you are agitated, stressed, and filled with anxiety, think of all the traffic your website will be generating while you are stuck in the car. Take a look at all the angry people around you, give a big smile, and say aloud to yourself, "I Love Traffic Jams."

Paul Tobey:

In addition to writing a number of articles about web design and search engine optimization the author owns a successful web design company in Toronto, Canada.

]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
How can you achieve great sales with your product? In any campaign that you are about to launch, you need to put in efforts to influence the decision-making of your customers and to put them totally in the favor of your company. Well, basically, the whole idea is to play with the psychology of the consumers!

Let's look at some tricks you can use to influence the minds of the consumers. These tricks are useful not only to the ordinary sales person, but also to larger firms.

First, consider using mutual exchange, which is the most powerful trick. You can start off by giving freebies to the customers. Initially, the customer will accept it, but from the next time, he will feel obliged and will try to return the favor. For example, offer your product free initially. If the customer is satisfied with the product, he will pay for it the next time. This principle causes some confusion to some. To be effective, remember that the product should be given totally free without any condition to be fulfilled. For instance, it is definitely against the principle to quote in your sales line, "Spend over $40 and get a free download of an ebook!" The right sales tag should be "Download the ebook absolutely free!" If the ebook is really good and useful, the customer might think of buying other ebooks from your company, and even recommend your site to friends.

The next trick is to present something as if it is of high value, but it should cost only a small amount (or none at all) for the company to produce. An example is that of information. The whole idea is to attract the customer that you are revealing to them a big-time, valuable secret, which is not known to anyone at all. But beware that you do not turn the big secret into another advertisement.

Most customers do not reject free samples. And that's the next tip. Give out free samples to your targeted customers. However, bear in mind you should use good quality products only. Some companies have not been successful in using this tip because they distribute samples of poor quality or even rejected products! The customers have a bad impression of the product and will therefore not buy it.

Catch the customers with words that initiate immediate action. For instance, "One-Time Offer", "Offer While Stock Lasts" and "Last Day Offer", just to name a few. These are really motivating as the customer gets the impression that the offer is valid for a limited period only and the product is of a limited edition. What's next? The customer feels that he should go out and buy it before it is too late.

Another way to increase sales is to trick the customer into making a commitment, step-by-step towards the goal, without realizing it. How can we achieve this? To begin, when a customer requests information, provide him with the relevant details for free and make him fill out a form with his contact information. The content of the form can be getting offers and information about products in the future. A word of caution - no advertisement at this point! Once the customer provides his contact information, then will you start the advertisement about your products and services! A good example is to conduct surveys.

You can increase the sales of your products if you apply these tricks appropriately in your business.

CW Teo is an expert in personal development. He established SecretX University to help you learn all you need to know about Internet Marketing for FREE. Visit http://www.SecretXuniversity.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips791/user/index.php
A product launch can be extremely easy or it can be complicated beyond expectation.

For example, if you are simply creating a product based on a variation on a non-patented product, it may be fairly easy to launch the product. This is often seen with candy, baked goods and other edible items.

There are numerous companies on the web that revolve around confectionary items including brownies, cookies and candy.

Obviously, there may be other issues you need to address with the preparation of these products, but the actual launch of the product may not require significant research and development.

If your product is distinct and related specifically to an entirely new product you are developing, you may want to spend the time needed to file a patent on something that either does not exist or is an improvement on an existing application. You will also spend significant time (and perhaps finances) in the research and development of your all-new product. This is essential in assuring yourself and your potential consumers that the product is not only new and distinctive, but has been tested to demonstrate quality and longevity.

Perhaps the easiest way to instigate a product launch is by simply infusing an existing product you may have had available in a brick and mortar store into an online business environment. The long-term success of online businesses that were an outgrowth of an existing storefront is encouraging and part of the phenomenon that is known as the World Wide Web.

Everyone wants to rush a product to market. Take, for instance, various cell phones. Each generation of phone provides improved design and new applications. As soon as one company unveils a new design and features, it isn't too long before another company presents something new with similar features and a few new ones.

I suppose it is the nature of business to evaluate the successes of competitors and work to match and exceed the offerings they make available. This dynamic is a driving force in pushing business to new and greater places in both service and product offerings.

One of the advantages of a product that is more organic in nature is that you may find a more individual item that is not easily duplicated and may be more adept at making an emotional impact on consumers.

Let me explain. Hand-crafted or homemade items often have the potential to help us connect with a memorable past while creating positive feelings in the present. It could be something as small as a bag of salt water taffy from a seaside shop that simply reminds you of a trip to the ocean as a child and time spent with dad, mom, grandparents or other cherished family members. It could also be something like a hand-carved walking stick that reminds you of hikes with family or friends. Just the visual cue created by these (or similar) products may remind you of times you enjoy remembering.

Any business that can supply an emotional connection with a product launch will more than likely find steady success in their business endeavors.

A product launch is important in the development of your business. Learn every facet of the product, find ways to describe it and help your audience find a reason to connect with the product on an emotional level.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com. Start your own ebook business with BooksWealth at: http://w