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The Internet has changed our lifestyle to such a great extent that we rely on it for every little thing we are involved in. In fact, it is one of the best ways to get connected with our family and friends, as we are constantly swinging between the pendulum of time and work. The latest method of staying connecting is social media optimization. It is, in fact, a perfect way to churn out endless profits. Moreover, the internet is a huge platform for sharing information and interacting.

Social media optimization has become one of the most popular methods through which one can interact and gain knowledge on various serious and miscellaneous topics and issues. It has, in fact, raised the level of internet services by enhancing the visibility of the site and at the same time getting the site a higher rank amongst the famous search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo. Social media optimization, however, involves carefully planned and laid-out strategies that help many websites in gaining popularity and more business. What exactly is social media optimization? Well, it is a set of methods that generate publicity through the internet and connect online communities and websites together.

Social media optimization is possibly the best method to attract traffic to your website. Today, many businessmen prefer business conducted through social media optimization as it gives an edge over various other publicity methods. In fact, search engine marketing firms have certainly made social media optimization an excellent medium of interaction. With the evolution of information technology, net savvy people frequently visit a number of websites to get knowledge and the appeal of social media optimization is that it acts as an interactive platform. You have most likely come across videos uploaded on various sites that also offer blogging services, forums and discussion panels that further enhances the effect of social media optimization. In addition, social media optimization uses viral marketing techniques that spread their word across the web.

In this instance, the sole purpose is to get people talking about a product, service or an idea. The conventional method of word-of-mouth serves as the publicity vehicle that in turn popularizes the website amongst the users. The various other techniques utilized by social media optimization include video and photo sharing, social bookmarking and blogging. In social media optimization, the emphasis is laid upon the elevation of the link-ability of the website that encourages the inbound links. Social media optimization additionally creates tags and book marks for the website so that it becomes user friendly and is accessed 24 hours a day. With this, the user is able to bookmark it easily as well as go back to it whenever required without any hassle or trouble. Hence, the visitor attains a comfort level with the website. As a result, the website will get recognition and simultaneously gain popularity amongst the internet users. The purpose of social media optimization will be achieved. Therefore, the website will be able to create its own space amongst various search engines and also earn a rank as a top website.

Steve Waganer has specialization in Web Marketing. He is expert in Search engine optimization,Search engine marketing, [http://www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com/social_media_optimization.html]Social media optimizationTo get the SEO tips from SEO firm for your website to get high rank and top position in major search engines visit http://www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
StumbleUpon has been one of the leading referral traffic social media networks which you should be using to boost traffic to your site/blog. You might not know that within a day if your site/blog is being stumbled by others, you might be drawing hundreds or thousands of visitors who are interested in what you have to offer. The more people who give a thumbs up and a review, the higher your chances are for your article to be exposed to others.

When you are stumbling another article, make sure that you also drop a review with relevant tagging. By dropping a review, the user will know you have given a read and he might drop by your profile and stumble sites that may belong to you as well. It will appear on your profile so that it looks more like a blog, and whatever review you give will tell others how good this article is and they will stumble further. Tagging is important as well. With relevant tags on the review, it will be sent out to others who are interested in this topic to give it maximum exposure.

Stumbling your Articles

Remember that you should try to avoid stumbling your own article, unless it is something that you think could benefit both your users and the readers on StumbleUpon-- then stumbling your own article would attract more people to see what you have.

Aim to be a Top Stumbler

This does not happen in a day, but it takes time to reach that status. Set a goal to become the TOP 50 STUMBLERS and start to stumble websites, photos and videos equally. Make sure you do not give only thumbs up and no reviews because a top stumbler does not only thumbs up, but gives a review and tagging as well.

What StumbleUpon Doesn't Want You To Know

I will now share what StumbleUpon does not intend to let you know on how you increase your status and also how you can work your way to a Top Stumbler.

Stumble more Videos and Photos

Would I be biting my own tongue if I said that stumbling more videos and photos can increase your ranks more than stumbling websites? According to my observations, a majority of the Top 50 stumblers actually have less pages stumbled on than many others but still gets ranked in the Top 50... why is that so?

The photos and videos they stumbled made a lot of difference, and it could be the way for you to become a Top Stumbler. Have you stumbled enough Videos and Photos to make this myth come true for you? If you have yet to, then do it quickly.

All in all, you need to learn how to stumble better -- don't just give a thumbs up and leave the site!

Etienne is an author and blogger who gives tips and tricks on how to make money online and strategic blogging and traffic tips. Learn how to increase targeted traffic at http://www.etienneteo.com/.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
Before you can put any of these rules to use, you may want to understand a little more about the differences between social media marketing and social media optimization.

SMM = Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is strategically using the big social sites to spread your brand name or drive traffic back to your web presence.

SMO = Social Media Optimization

Social Media Optimization is adding key elements to your websites or content that make them easy to spread across the big social sites.

Rohit Bhargava Developed Social Media Optimization Rules 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

1. Increase your linkability

Linkability is the willingness of other websites or articles to link back to your site. One way to increase your natural Google listing is to increase how many authority sites link to you, so to increase your linkability with social media optimization is to make your site more informative and useful to others. You can do this in many ways; blog, white papers, press releases, keyword targeted articles, RSS feeds, etc. This is the most important step in Social Media Optimization and should be your first priority.

2. Make tagging and bookmarking easy

The act of tagging is to bookmark the website to social bookmarking websites. For example, if you like the content or services provided at a website, you tag it. This will show others that you approve of this site and they will check it out, making viral traffic. To include social media optimization tagging on your site, you can add tagging links such as Digg, Del.icio.us, Technorati, etc. Also, add the tagging links to other pages in your site (not just the homepage) and when visitors click the tag button, make sure that there is a suggestion box to help your visitor list a relevant tag as well as notes.

3. Reward inbound links

As I mentioned before, one way to increase your natural listing with Google using social media optimization is to get more back links. You can do this by rewarding people/websites that link to you (inbound links). Inbound links are links that send people to your site from somewhere else. One way to reward people for linking to your site is to have a “Recently Linked” section that lists all of the websites that have linked to you.

4. Help your content travel

Social media optimization focuses on providing useful content to your market. When you publish content such as an article, video, or audio file you must help it reach as many people on the web as possible. You can do this by submitting to relevant high traffic websites. When the word gets out about your great content (no matter what format) you’ll receive backlinks to your site.

5. Encourage the mashup

To mash up is to use two websites' content and mash them together. For example, YouTube makes it easy to mash their content (videos) onto your site. In addition, because it is so easy, you have added a video to your site that has a Youtube logo on the video as well as a link back to YouTube. So to encourage a mashup with social media optimization is to make it easy for other websites to use your content and reference it to drive traffic back to your site.

Jeremiah Owyang Developed Social Media Optimization Rules 6 and 7

6. Be a User Resource, even if it doesn’t help you.

One thing all visitors appreciate is honesty. With social media optimization, you should include links to other websites that will help your visitor reach their goal or find the information they want. Do this, even when it doesn’t benefit you. By linking to competitors or information not created by you, you reap the benefits of having the all inclusive information on a particular topic. In the end, more people will link to you because you have lumped all information (or links) on a topic in one location.

7. Reward helpful and valuable users

Valuable users are your best friends. A valuable user can be determined in many ways; they may send traffic to your site, add valuable content to your site, or assist visitors at your site. No matter what they're doing, if it benefits you, your site, or your service, you need to reward them. This could be by sending a personal message thanking them for their dedication. Other ways to reward your valuable users is to create a rewards systems, advertise for them or promote their efforts on your homepage.

Cameron Olthuis Developed Social Media Optimization Rules 8, 9, 10, and 11

8. Participate

With Social Media Optimization you can participate by joining on the conversation about your topic (or targeted keyword). Simply posting articles and sharing content isn’t going to keep the buzz going. You should continue to share information on other websites. This participation will share your knowledge with more people. One way to do this is to find people that are blogging on your topic and to give input on the conversation. Also, participate in forums or other social groups that are discussing your topic. Read comments on your articles, videos, and audios and respond to them.

9. Know how to target your audience

Social media marketing is about sharing content/information. Not everyone is interested in your topic, so be sure to do your marketing research and post your information and knowledge where it will be understood and appreciated.

10. Create content

Content is considered to be any form of information that benefits a visitor. Content can be a white paper, article, video, audio, widget, etc. Your job is to find a piece of content that will spark interest in visitors. No matter what market you enter, there is always a form of content that they will share with others. Find out what it is and give it to them. This will, in turn, have them coming back for more useful content. If this happens, then you know that your social media optimization is successful.

11. Be real

Internet users are searching the web for specific content. If you are providing content that links back to a website, be sure that the website is relevant. You will not be rewarded for coaxing a visitor to a site that has nothing to do with the content they just read (or watched, depending on the type of content you provided).

Loren Baker developed Social Media Optimization Rules 12 and 13

12. Don’t forget your roots, be humble

It’s easy to let popularity get to your head. When you become the shining star in your market be sure to recognize those that helped you get to the front of the pack (this ties into #7 a little).

13. Don’t be afraid to try new things, stay fresh.

Anyone on the internet knows how quickly things change. Keep up with new media content, new types of websites, and new interests in your market. By staying on top of new information you can maintain top rankings.

Lee Odden developed Social Media Optimization Rules 14, 15 and 16

14. Develop a Social Media Optimization strategy

Social Media serves multiple purposes. You need to identify what your purpose is and then publish content that will promote that purpose. Some purposes for Social Media Optimization include: branding, reputation, charity, increased traffic, increased sales, credibility, etc. Make sure that as you develop content that you are publishing and creating with that purpose in mind.

15. Choose your SMO tactics wisely.

Of all the content available on the web, only about 10% of people on the web are content creators. The other 90% are consumers and are willing to share your content. Make your content easy to consume and spread. Also be sure to create content that will have the most impact on your original purpose.

16. Make Social Media Optimization part of your process and best practices.

We all know that there are specific Search engine optimization tactics that every website should include. Just as you include keywords in your title tags and keywords in your H1 tag, you should find ways to include social media optimization aspects into the building of your website. This can be small details like including social bookmark tags on your site or encouraging incoming links with the “Recently Linked” list I covered in #3.

17. Don't be afraid to let go of a message or idea and let others own it.

Finally, when you create a movement, spark an idea, or develop a new topic don’t be afraid to let others run with it. Collaboration is key. Others can improve upon your original idea and give you credit for the start. Be sure to give credit where it’s due.

Justin Brooke started with just a $2/day marketing budget and grew his business past 6 figures in just 1 year. At just 25 years old he has been Vice President of a multi-million dollar company and nominated "Best Marketer of 2007" by the American Business Awards. Justin's award winning [http://www.mpyremarketing.com/free_lead_gen.html] social media optimization company wants to handle your [http://www.mpyremarketing.com/free_lead_gen.html]social media marketing needs.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
Whenever we hear of internet confrontations, we think of crazy people online doing whacky stuff. That is not always the case. "Internet beef" is among the bulls with extremely sharp financial horns. Yes, we're talking about the top internet companies "on steroids" ! Google, YaHoO, Microsoft, eBaY, MySpace and the underdog slowly taking over- Facebook.

MySpace is reported as losing a slight grip on new user signups, due to prohibiting it's users from promoting their URL addresses and e-commerce business on their personal pages. Savvy web publishers desire to utlize the power of MySpace, not just to ask people to buy something, but it's also a great backlink from MySpace to have your domain name linked to. If you go to Alexa and type in MySpace to view their traffic rank, you'll see that it ranks at 6. A ranking of that number on Alexa simply equals out to be well over a billion times over in logins, logouts and new user signups daily. MySpace also prohibits the use of widgets in loading your personal content into and placing it on your page. If you have any kind of affiliate links, Google ads or anything that generates income for yourself, your MySpace account will be instantly deleted.

Google is reported to have bought more companies. Their secret plans are to create search engine friendly widgets, so that they can embed and offer these tools to users of the affiliate-owned companies they have been purchasing left and right. As Google knows they are late, Facebook has Google by the balls in creating social networking applications so that users can increase the social networking effectiveness of their personal pages. And, if you think about it, Facebook will soon have MySpace on its knees. Today, Facebook offers over 8,000 widgets. Google plans on firing back soon with their new social network called "Open Social".

These companies are all at war to grab our loyalty. They offer so many free services. If you look into the deeper picture, the more free stuff they offer, the more ad revenue they generate for their company. If you think hard enough, the same ad revenue they generate, you can too for yourself. How so? They use Google Ad Sense & affiliate links just like everyone else. The key is to network with people, use free widgets to syndicate your content, write good search engine copy, signature forums with your URL links, build many personal social pages and backlink them with your content. More content equals more traffic which equals more money for you, just like how the big boys do!

Shawn Drewry is the CEO of http://www.DrewryOnline.net

He was born & raised in Brooklyn, New York & has been in the working world for 10 years, including corporate America. As much as he did well in his jobs, someone somewhere he worked with or even the employer themselves found some reason to wrongfully terminate him. He has learned the hard way to become an independent person, breaking the shackles of traditionally following the working class.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
Here is one method that you can use to get traffic to your web site. It relies on choosing some niche keywords based on your web site theme. The process is fairly simple and can be expanded to get tons of traffic to your site. Here is how.

It is often tempting to chase after popular themes and then select the major keyword as your target. However, this is not a great move-- well, not in the beginning anyway. You first have to build your credibility with the search engines before they will place you near the top.

The key is to choose a keyword phrase that people are using in popular search engines (such as Google) but have very few web sites that cater to that keyword phrase. How do you find such valuable keyword phrases? Here’s how!

If you use a software tool such as Good Keywords or the Google AdSense tool, it will return you many different keyword phrases. Look for specific phrases that look a bit odd. One of the ones that I look for are those that are book titles. Sometimes the words are jumbled but after you have gone through a few of them you will easily recognize them because initially they seem to make no sense. This is often because the words in the title of the book have been sorted into alphabetic order.

If you choose this phrase and set up a web page targeting that phrase, you can then produce a few paragraphs on the book based on reviews at any of the popular online book- sellers, such as Amazon. You can then have affiliate links to the major booksellers and receive an affilaite commission from them.

I have used this technique to target books on Poker which have attracted traffic where I can offer either the book of their interest or to one of the gaming clubs or to my other web pages on Poker.

A book with a similar title is “Liar’s Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street”. The tools indicate that it was searched for in Overture (Yahoo) 12,043 times in one month, so probably 120,000 in Google. Yet depending on how it is entered, Google shows that there ar only 997 sites that cater to that phrase. That’s pretty good odds for you to get a high ranking in the search engines. You can then offer your new-found traffic links to products and services related to the finance industry – a high-paying industry.

If you can find other books related to this them, then you can aggregate the traffic through links to your home page. Eventually you will raise your page rank to a fairly high level.

This is a method that is easy to implement, yet can be refined on an ongoing basis to improve the natural search traffic to your web site.

Ron Skruzny is a webmaster at http://www.criticalmass.biz, a site devoted to Search Engine Optimization. Apart from more articles on SEO, the website also offers lessons and links to a whole range of SEO related resources. If you want to get an increasing level of sustainable web traffic then http://www.criticalmass.biz may have just the right information to help you.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
By Esther Smith

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(C) Copyright, 2006 Esther Smith

About the author:

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

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By Wil Schroter

Business Start Up Funding

Startup companies often get frustrated when they are unable to find investors willing to fund their new idea. They don’t realize, that in order to get an investment, they need more than just a good idea and the promise of future profits. What investors are looking for is a “silver bullet” in the business that ensures their small investment will yield a huge return.

Business Start Up Funding - You Need a Silver Bullet

The silver bullet is the aspect of your business plan that proves your company is able to grow quickly. For example, you’ve proven that 100 customers are willing to pay $99 for your newly developed product. To sell more at that price, you’ve got a silver bullet, if all you need is additional cash to build 1,000 more items.

Investors are compelled to make investments in startup companies that have proven some aspect of their business model “works” and that what they really need is more capital to make it work better, or to sell more products.

When entrepreneurs wander around in search of business start up funding to find the silver bullet in their business plan that becomes an unattractive proposition. In this scenario, you’re asking an investor to put money into a treasure hunt, not into a business. Until you demonstrate you can sell something (at a profit), you do not have a business worthy of investment. Therefore, you need to re-focus your efforts on finding your silver bullet.

Investors Love Paying Customers

Every business model is different, and as a consequence, the silver bullet of one business may look somewhat different than another. The common thread, however, is that each of them shows your investors, you have found a facet of your business that works well and simply needs business start up funding to be exploited.

A great place to start is with paying customers. Even a few customers create proof that there is an active buying market for your product that could be even bigger, if you had the capital to reach more of them.

Notice, you’re not telling an investor, “if we build it, they (customers) will come”. What you want to say here is “we built it, and they already came”. This puts you in a much stronger position to suggest that if you are capable of repeating the process provided, you will have more business start up funding.



Understanding Conversion Works, Too

Maybe you don’t have 10,000 paying customers but have found, on a more modest scale, that for every $1 you spend in marketing, you can earn $2 back. This information is a silver bullet, too. In this case, you’ve proven that you understand how to acquire a customer for less than they are spending, which is a big deal!

This may seem like an obvious necessity for any successful business (let alone one looking for business start up funding), but there are plenty of companies that overlook this point. If you haven’t proven that you can profitably acquire a customer, perhaps this is a good place to start.

Analyze the costs involved in acquiring your first batch of customers. Try to project this cost out to the next round of new customers and the round after that. Try this for those next customers and see if your results match up with your predictions. Once you feel comfortable that you understand your cost to acquire customers, you can begin to identify specific capital needs to accelerate that process.

Speed Things Up

Speeding up time can also be a good reason to ask for business start up funding. If you find that it takes you two months to service a customer now, but with additional capital you could service a customer in two weeks, (and therefore earn revenue in a shorter time) you’ve found another silver bullet.

Investors are always hungry for businesses that could be even more profitably, or grow faster, if just a little more capital was applied. Creating a strong case for this use of capital will make it easy for investors to understand your needs.

Read, Aim, Fire!

Perhaps you only have one of these silver bullets ready to present to investors. That’s fine, as long as you have prepared a strong argument for why this one single factor will have such a great influence in your growth.

Presenting your case to investors isn’t about coming up with as many reasons for investment as possible. It is not about quantity. It’s about quality. What you need to demonstrate is that you have key factors in your business that have a demonstrated track record for growth, but you need capital to accelerate that growth.

If you’re in the process of raising business start-up funding right now, step back and take a second look at your PowerPoint presentation. Does it clearly articulate the fact that you know how this investment is going to ramp up the value of your startup? If not, try taking another pass with the focus on finding your silver bullet. That’s the type of ammunition your investors are really looking for.

About The Author
Wil Schroter is the Founder and CEO of the Go BIG Network, the largest network of startup companies and entrepreneurs. He is also the author of the new book “Go BIG or Go HOME”, download it for FREE at http://www.GoBIGnetwork.com.

Get your business start up funding at: http://www.GoBIGnetwork.com.
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By Casey Gollan

You know what I find funny?

Most people start a business so they can enjoy the benefits of the ‘extra’ money and wealth that owning a business can create.

Yet many business owners have no idea about understanding their own financial statements, and that’s where their money is!

To me, it’s such an irony.

And it’s something that I definitely rectify with every client I work one-on-one with.

By the time they’ve finished with me – they know their financials like the back of their hand… in fact they showing their accountants a thing or two…

Over the years I have noticed that most small business owners don’t look at or understand their financial statements.

This can be for any number of reasons.

Maybe your accountant hasn’t taken the time to explain it to you.

Maybe you don’t want to learn them; after all, who understand Math at school, or enjoyed doing it?

In my experience I have found that the typical business owner starts a business because they have the drive and the personality to influence and convince people.

I have found that on most occasions, not all, that this type of a personality doesn’t enjoy doing paperwork and financials.

And that’s okay… but to make it as a successful business owner, and add another million or so to your business - I suggest that you really become excellent at reading and understanding financial statements.

Because the best and wealthiest business owners do.

As with any area of your business – you should know what you’re doing – but it doesn’t mean you have to do it.

So employ people to do your financials – but you’ve got to have the knowledge and the experience to know that the people you are employing are doing it properly.

And this is certainly the case with your businesses and your personal financials.

If you don’t know how to read and understand them, you’ll wind up in big trouble with them at some point in your career… be assured of that.

So start now.

Don’t fall into the trap of LEAVING it to your accountant. It’s the biggest mistake you can make. You should be doing it WITH your accountant.

If you have an accountant now that you have started with, chances are that your business is heading into areas that they are not as competent in. When you started your business –it was small and you probably weren’t making great money. For this reason, you probably hired a ‘lower end’ accountant at that time.

And that’s fine. You just need to know that as your business grows this ‘lower end – accountant’ may not have the skill-set to cope with your growth.

It’s like different levels of sport.

Take football for example.

There’s local football, inter-district football, state level football, and National Level football.

As the level increases – so does the expertise needed by the players, the coaches, and the administrators.

And so it is with Businesses.

It’s the same with me.

My skill-set is excellent with taking $1 million businesses up to $2 to $5 million. I can work with businesses that are smaller than that, or that are bigger than that – but I’m perfectly suited to the niche of taking $1 million business to $2 to $5 million.

So I concentrate on businesses in that niche.

Above this mark, or below it comes a whole new set of skills that I don’t particularly want to be involved in.

Now back to you…

You’ve got to take an active role in creating your financials.

Ideally, you should know all your expense categories so that for any payment made in your business you know which category it should go into.

You should know all your allowable tax deductions; like the back of your hand.

It’s your business, your money, and your life – so control them.

You should also have up to date and accurate financial statements.

Some of these statements you should be looking at daily. Some weekly. Some monthly. Some quarterly.

You should be actively involving your bookkeeper and your accountant in this analysis. Then you are all up to date and focused on growing the business.

It’s what all top business owners do, and it’s what helps them to continue to grow and prosper – so that they can not only grow their business – but also enjoy the rewards that only a well-controlled and profitable business can provide.

On my ‘1-on-1 Business Coach Program’, I’ll take you through a process that will have your head spinning with how easy it is for you to understand your accounting reports. And how easy it will be for you to understand your financial position.

I’ll also take you through the best ways to work with your accountants so that you are kept up to date and accurate and so you know exactly what’s going on in your business at all times.

It’s such a refreshingly simple ‘demystifying’ process. All of my clients love it once they’ve learned it because they really know where every cent of their money goes. It gives them more control and understanding of their business.

They all realize just how important knowing their financials is for their business growth and success.

Know your financials like the back of your hand.

Copyright © 2006 by Casey Gollan. All Rights Reserved

http://www.caseygollan.com.au - Business Coach, Mentor And Growth Specialist - Casey Gollan, Business Coach, Mentor And Growth Specialist. Grows $1 Million p.a. Small Businesses Into $2 to $5 Million p.a. Businesses Over a 2 to 3 Year Period.
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by Pete Grundner

Let me first say that Google Adwords (Google pay per click), when done correctly, will give you the best return on your money compared to other online advertising options. At the same time, if you don't know how Google evaluates your campaign, it could cost you a fortune.

Let’s first examine how Google is different from other search vehicles.

Most search engines base the placement of your ad on how much you pay per click, i.e., the one who pays the most for a specific keyword will be positioned in the #1 spot.

Not so with Google. In an attempt to deliver more relevant content to its readers, Google uses several parameters to determine the order in which it serves up its ads. Not knowing or ignoring these parameters can cost you big! And, unless your enterprise has very deep pockets, it can even mean the difference between success and failure.

When doing a pay per click campaign on Google, your ad position will be based on keyword selection, ad relevance to those keywords, bid price, average click rate, how long visitors stay on your site, and even the match of your landing page to your ad and keyword.

Essentially, you could be paying the most per click and be listed in the #5 position! Or, vise-versa, you could be paying less than the top 5 bidders and be in the #1 spot!

When setting up your Google Adwords (pay per click) campaign, all these elements will affect your position in the ranking, so make sure that:

• Your keywords are not too broad
• Your ad relates to your keywords (keyword grouping is important)
• Your bid price is at least competitive
• Your click rate is good (above 1-3% is great, below 0.5% is a killer)
• Keywords you choose match the content on your landing page
• You use text instead of Flash. This is very important…using Flash landing pages without text will affect your ad position in a negative way (Google perceives pages with no information the same as pages with non relevant information).

The more you adhere to these parameters, the lower your cost per click and the better your conversions will be.

I appreciate Google's well thought-out ranking policies. When searching online for info, I hate nothing more than clicking on an ad that sends me to a page that has little or nothing to do with what I am researching. If I don't see relevant information within a few seconds, I'm gone, and irritated about the waste of time!

Look for our next article, where we’ll cover "The biggest mistake when doing Google Adwords." Sign up for our "Marketing Insight" E-zine and be the first to view it.

This article is brought to you by Peter Grundner at P&T Enterprises.
For more information, please visit www.how2succeedonline.net and www.myedconline.com

Peter Grundner, a top advertising and marketing professional for over 20 years, has been responsible for the success of many companies, including a recent stint as Director of Marketing for a Website that was acquired by a large publisher for tens of millions of dollars. He is now a full-time Home Business Entrepreneur and founder of www.myEDConline.com & www.How2SucceedOnline.net.

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by Lensmaster Lewis Smile and Citizen Squid

MySpace is one of the most popular Websites on the Internet and, if harnessed correctly, it can send more traffic to your Website than the search engines currently do -- and you can do this at very little cost and with surprisingly very little time commitment.

SEO was the buzz word of yesterday. Social networking and Web 2.0 are the buzz words for tomorrow.

Here is how to harnass it correctly and get 1,000,000 friends fasat:

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1. THE SIMPLE.

Join MySpace.

This is obvious. To get 1 million myspace friends, you must first join MySpace. It is free, and it's simple to sign up.

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2. THE BEAUTIFUL.

Create an attractive MySpace profile.

MySpace allows you to create a profile page for yourself. Having a MySpace profile which takes a full minute to load just won't cut it if you want to grow your friend numbers.

On your profile editing page, you are allowed to insert HTML code, in order to change certain aspects of the page, or to completely revamp it.

If you want to completely revamp it, you will need what is called a MySpace overlay. An overlay is the simplest way to make your page attractive, clean-cut, simple, and user-friendly. If you don't already know what an overlay is don't worry too much. If you do know what an overlay is, make use of one.

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3. THE SLOW.

Start adding the people you know.

If you visit the profile page of someone you already know, you will not only be able to add them as your friend, but you'll also be able to see who they have as friends and you'll be able to add them, too.

Add someone you know, then find one of their friends who you also know, add them, them add one of their friends, etc etc. Do this with only people you know until you get to between 30 - 50 friends.

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4. THE TURBO-CHARGED.

The problem with MySpace is that you have to add friends one-by-one. Trying to get a meaningful number of connections using this method is painfully slow at the best of times, so programmers have created numerous software applications which will speed up the process for you and allow you to type in the location, gender, age, interests, etc, of your target friends and it will add them for you. Automatically.

I recommend the application Badder Adder. You can get a free trial at http://www.bwcard.co.uk . The full version is $47. It gives you unlimited upgrades, and will let you "chain" accounts together."

This means, basically, that you can send more than the 450-friend-requests-per-day limit. You just set it to go, and it does the rest.

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5. THE COMMUNICATION.

The key to getting up to 1,000,000 friends is also by commenting on other people's profiles. A link to your own profile is then set up and people interested in your picture can click and add you.

You can use Badder Adder to send out comments to all of your myspace friends in bulk, so you don't need to do them one-by-one anymore. So long as you don't spam other users and you treat them with respect, this feature alone will get you incredible visibility on myspace and should provide a constant stream of friend requests.

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If you do each of these 5 points, your MySpace page will explode in popularity and will be seen by thousands of people every day.

What will this mean for you? More affiliate sales? More CD sales? More book sales?

You'd better get started!

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Lewis Smile is a Squidoo Lensmaster and Citizen Squid, and has written about how to get one million MySpace friends on his lens at http://www.squidoo.com/1000000-million-myspace-friends. His lens also features a Badder Adder Review.

To find out more (for free) or to contact Lewis, go to: http://www.squidoo.com/1000000-million-myspace-friends

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One of the oldest and most effective ways to market yourself online is through local small business directory listings. Small business Internet marketing requires starting with a listing of your small business in the major general directories then listing them in niche and industry-specific directories appropriate to your small business. It is a time consuming process to list your small business in the right directories, but a necessary one to ensure good rankings for your website.

The most essential directory for your small business to be listed in is DMOZ, also called the Open Directory Project. All the major search engines, and most of the minor ones, rely on DMOZ, located at www.dmoz.org, for information on websites. Google gets information on every website it crawls from DMOZ.

You should also list your small business in Google Local and Yahoo Local. All you need to do to get listed with Google is to go to Google, click on the Local link and find the "add your business link." For Yahoo, go to Yahoo, click on "Directory," then click on "Submit Your Site" at the bottom of the page.

You can find other directories online by using Google or Yahoo. Type in "directory of directories" and you'll get a list of small business directories, both paid and free, listed by state, industry, niche, and other categorizations. I recommend that you list in every directory that applies to your business. Here is a short list of local small business directory opportunities to help you attract local customers for your business:

http://www.dmoz.org
http://dir.yahoo.com
http://www.joeant.com
http://www.jayde.com
http://www.avivadirectory.com
http://www.goguides.com
http://www.botw.org

Some directories, like the Yahoo directory, charge, but it is well worth what you pay to be listed. Once you are included in Yahoo's small business directory, you can bet your website will be indexed in the search engine as well.

There are three primary considerations for your small business when listing in directories online:

The directory's PageRank

The directory's age

Is your small business category available?

PageRank is important for SEO purposes. Internet marketing pros all recommend getting inbound links from websites with high PR. A website with a PR higher than yours will benefit you with valuable inbound links that will give you a boost in the search engines as well. The age of the directory makes it more valuable because you know that if the directory has been around for more than two years then it will likely be around next year. You can get information on PageRank and the age of various directories at http://www.seocompany.ca/directory/web-directories.html.

Don't waste your time trying to get listed in a directory that doesn't offer a category you'll fit into. Be sure to browse the categories at any small business directories you consider before you list your business.

Two great sources for finding web directories for your small business Internet marketing efforts are www.dir-search.com and www.best-web-directories.com. The Best Web Directories website is perhaps the most comprehensive website for finding business directories online. If you want to find local customers through small business directories then I recommend these two resources for finding the best places online that list small business directories for your Internet marketing efforts.

One thing you'll need to keep in mind – all directories are different. Nevertheless, you should write your business directory listing before you submit to any directories. Your local small business directory listing shouldn't be too long, but it should include all the pertinent information: Your business name, your name, address, phone number, website address, e-mail address, and a short description of your business. In your business directory listing, be sure to use the best keyword two or three times to make your small business listing optimized for the search engines.

To find industry-specific or niche directories, go to DMOZ or one of the other general directories and search for your industry by keyword. Then do a keyword search at Google and Yahoo along with the keyword "directory." This should return a good listing of directories for your industry or niche.

One other source for listing your local small business is your local chamber of commerce's website. When you join your local chamber, they should list your website on theirs for free. The traffic you can get from this one source can be well worth joining the local chamber, and almost all of the traffic will be local customers looking for your type of business. The Yellow Pages online and www.merchantcircle.com are two other sources to consider for local small business Internet marketing. More and more people are looking online for small businesses to do business with and relying less on print publications like the Yellow Pages. That's just one more reason to look for local small business directories to be listed in.

Caroline Melberg is President and CEO of Melberg Marketing. She has over 20 years of experience creating exciting marketing campaigns for some of the most successful companies in the world. She publishes the popular eZine, "Blue Chip Tips: The Secrets of Blue Chip Marketing...Revealed!" Learn more today at http://www.melberg.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
The popularity of web video on blogs has soared over the past year, and there is good reason why. Some may ask why web video is so popular on blogs, and there are many answers to that question. First, the purpose of a blog is to share information with others. The majority of computer users are usually literate; however this is not always the case. Web video will provide an opportunity to hook their attention and give them a grasp of the concept without having to understand a word. Second, there are a lot of internet users who are simply too busy to read a website’s information- web video creates the opportunity to hook their attention which may have otherwise been lost on your wording of the blog/website.

For many people reading blogs or websites is something they do while doing something else- take the example of an office worker who is working but flicking back and forward between your blog. Whether the individual is just doing other things on the computer, or they are actually away from the computer but watching the video as if it were television, the individual that is doing the viewing is able to multi-task in a way that they would have been unable to do without the video on the blog. This simply helps to smooth out a person’s life so that they can do other things at the same time, should the individual be in a hurry or want to multi-task. You are creating the opportunity to reach more potential viewers and customers!

Not everyone who is reading your blog will have the attention span to absorb the information you want them to, nor will they be able to absorb it in a timeframe that they want to. When an individual is not able to read something quickly, they may not be as inclined to work on reading a blog that they may otherwise be interested in reading. In order to make up for this, many people will post web videos on their blog sites in order to capture the attention of an individual that may be either viewing the videos on the blog or reading the blog itself. If a person sees a web video that they are interested in, they may be more likely to read the blog or website that coincides with it, even if they struggle with reading- all because they enjoyed your video content. A Blog without web video would be neglecting such potential viewers/customers.

Now that you have decided to incorporate web video into your blog, the next logical step is to submit your video to Youtube as well. This will drive traffic and interest to your Blog based solely on the video you are displaying on your blog. The way it works is that when you submit your video to Youtube you include a list of tags- which is the same thing as keywords. When users type in these keywords, depending on the relevancem, your video will show up. This means that you have a captive audience interested in the material in your web video, which if they choose to visit your blog or website, will more likely result in a sale or positive traffic flow. So, join Youtube today and follow the steps to upload the video you are displaying on your Blog.

The next step is to drive search engine traffic directly to your Youtube video. I believe the best way to do this is via social bookmarking. Join Onlywire.com and submit the address of your Youtube video to all the popular social bookmarking directories. Again you can include tags which will drive traffic to your video based on the key search terms in relation your Blog web video. This will essentially cast a ‘web’ of links on social bookmarking directories to your video. Onlywire is a fantastic website that will allow you to drive free traffic to all your Blogs and Websites.

We live in a fast paced lifestyle, and people expect to be entertained and engaged immediately. Utilizing web video software on your blog will only increase your chances of attention and potential sales if that is what you seek to achieve via your blog.

Want an easy way to put Web Video on your Blog or Website? Please visit: http://www.easywebvideosoftware.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
By Lili James

Who doesn't love a beautiful gift basket stuffed with sweet smelling beauty products or cheeses with jams and all kinds of different treats? The booming gift basket business brings in more than $1,000,000,000 (one billion) each year to florists, home based gift basket business, gift stores, and through other sales that are related to the business. Gift baskets are a unique gift giving idea that becomes more popular each year thanks to new categories and new interests and available products.

You can sell themed gift baskets -- bed and bath, gifts for children, wine lovers, chocolate lovers, a day at the beach, champagne and caviar, first day of school, Valentines Day, Christmas gift baskets, Easter baskets, 4th of July, etc. -- at gift trade shows, through mail order, Internet auction, etc, At local flea markets you can set up an area where people can put together baskets with products that they choose from your available items -- and you can charge per item or charge a flat fee per basket.

To get your business started you can get business cards and brochures printed that illustrates your available gift baskets and other products.

# You can compile a mailing list of potential customers that you can send a brochure to.
# Give business cards to people in your neighborhood, at work, at the gym, at church, on the train or bus,
# Distribute your cards and brochures to corporate office buildings -- especially during the Holiday seasons
# Take out ads in local newspapers and magazines
# Give sample gift baskets to local radio stations to be awarded as prizes
# Take candy filled dishes to several businesses along with some business cards and brochures

When you have gotten your business organized,

# Go to trade shows to show and sell your baskets and other products to the buyers and other customers at the show.
# Personalize your baskets by designing, printing and using your own labels.
# Spend one hour a month showing others how to make gift baskets -- sell your products at the class to make more money and to steadily grow your business.

Get started with your gift basket business and get your piece of the 1,000,000,000 pie.

http://www.necessaryinfo.info/

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By John Dow

In the past few months, I decided to re-dedicate myself to increasing my SEO on several of my web sites. Most have been around quite some time and have good page rankings, but have slipped in position on many of my most effective keywords.

Like many, I have Google Adwords campaigns running that produce sales. It's been easy to ignore my basic Search Engine Optimization and keyword positions. Moreover, Google has been up to its favorite pastime of making changes to its ranking algorithms, which has had an impact. In addition, right now Google is the big dog so you have little choice but to listen to the music.

If you have the basics covered (good content, relevant keywords, H1 tags, etc.), that will take you so far. However, in the last few Google updates, the linking (quality of links, not necessarily quantity) has become the dominant factor. Do links increase the value of the site to the searcher? I'm not going there, its Google's playground, so you have to abide by their rules.

Web site promotion is an ongoing battle, especially with the search engines. Web site search engine traffic has a habit of ebbing and weaving due to natural cycles. In fact, the Internet cycles are starting to look more like retail cycles every year. Throw in the different algorithms that each of the big three use and it becomes quite a challenge.

Besides paid advertising, search engine traffic is the only other good source of targeted visitors, and hopefully buyers. Therefore, although I do not depend on search engine traffic, it is still a big source of daily traffic and provides potential buyers. So doing your basic SEO chores is not very exciting but is definitely necessary.

SEO is also a moving, constantly changing target. In addition, thanks to Google's Adsense program, there are 1,000s, if not 100 times that, new web sites created every day. New web sites are as rain drops during a cloudburst.

For those of you who have never heard of it, Adsense refers to publishing Google's AdWords client advertisements on a web site. When someone clicks on one of the displayed ads, the web site owner is paid a fee or commission. Now that sounds easy to do, but there is the small item of getting traffic to click the ads, and hence, all the new competition for traffic.

Just the other day, I was doing some research on one of my keywords for a website that had fallen on hard times in rankings. In the area above the search results on Google, a blue line shows info on how many results came up out of how many possible results. I keep good records and the last time I did some checking that figure was a possible 5,344,882 web sites that have my keywords.

Now 5 million is a lot, but now the info showed 61 million possible web site results. Whoa, no wonder my position has changed. I now have 12 times the number of competitors. I have records back to 2003 on this web site so I went back and I looked, and in 2003, I had a mere 950,000. Therefore, in three years it went from 950,000 to over 61 million.

Holy Cow Batman, that's incredible. However, I have a feeling that is just the beginning. The competition is going to continue to grow. In addition, this is not a major product area; this is a sub niche web site. Thank you Google Adsense. I have to believe that many of these web sites are Adsense oriented without even looking.

Ok, it's time to do some serious resuscitation on this poor downtrodden web site. The fastest way I know to breathe some new life (or initially launch a new web site) is content and links. I've already done the basic on page optimization so more content, and off page, linking is my best bet. Content will be easy, I have a ton of new stuff I can add from multiple sources.

I can write some new articles and post them on some popular article sites too. I could also do some new interviews with industry experts but my niche is limited, so that my not apply to this web site. Google likes both of those methods and neither will take too much time. I can also do some new links (the text on the link is important too - use keywords in the actual link) on my other related sites.

Now links outside of my other sites are going to be an issue. Links always seem to be a problem. Your web site link partners should have both a good page ranking and very relevant content. Then you also have to have something of value to the web site that will be linking to you.

You can join one of the link web sites, although I usually don't since there is an outside chance of trouble. Alternatively, you can do the Google search on your keywords and email to like web sites. My web site has a good page rank so I should be able to pick up a few that way.

I can also buy some links on some directory sites. There are some good ones at reasonable prices. Look for a good interior ranking (on the category page you will be putting your link). The going rate is anywhere from $10 to $50 per year.

In addition, always keep in mind it is the quality of links, not quantity. They need to be PR4/5 and above with matching content. I figure 10 new outside links, and maybe another 10 pages of new content each month for the next 90 days will help my rankings quite a bit.

Therefore, you really should keep an eye on your organic search engine listings. In addition, even though you may not depend on it for all your traffic, it should be a part of your ongoing web site promotion plan. Just getting 10 new links and 10 new pages of viable content a month can have a big impact.

SEO involves a lot more than just content and links but that is a good starting point. In addition, both these are very easy to do for anyone. There are more sophisticated SEO tactics, which I'll cover in another article soon.

John Dow owns http://www.WebSiteBluePrints.com, a website that specializes in web site tools and marketing. Check out a great software tool by clicking here Web Site Blue Prints.

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Web 2.0 offers the next generation of online marketing tools, enabling businesses to harness the power of the Internet to reach customers in unique and varied ways.

Web 2.0's primary focus is getting people together to share their expertise and thoughts through social interaction. Web 2.0 principles embrace those tools and services with social networking applications.

Just as the open source movement changed the face of software development, so has Web 2.0's open source content model changed online marketing-- a change which has the potential to accelerate your business' profits.

Think YouTube, MySpace, del.cio.us, Technorati, Digg and Flickr. These are only a few of the more popular services which have revolutionized the way businesses are reaching their online target markets.

If you are considering jumping into Web 2.0 marketing, use the following tips to help you integrate Web 2.0 into your marketing arsenal.

1. Simple but not easy: Contrary to many claims, Web 2.0 marketing takes hard work and creativity to stay ahead of your competition. Your content will have to be tended to and updated continuously. Make sure you dedicate enough time and budget to keep multiple projects running. Like any marketing strategy, time and patience are critical. Committing to a long-term strategy is ideal.

2. You have to be appealing: Adding fresh and interesting content should be a priority. News becomes old fast. This is when you will have to step up your creative activity. Experiment with podcasts, quirky background information, and news about upcoming events.

3. Check your spin at the door: People who engage in social networks do so either to share knowledge or gain new knowledge, not necessarily to buy something. Recycling old information without offering anything valuable up front is detrimental. There's no getting around it-- you must give first before you can get. If your first response is to sell, people will take notice and you will eventually be pushed aside.

4. You must stay active: Web 2.0 marketing is a two-way street that allows a business to interact with a buyer on a familiar level. You can join in by including videocasts, blogs and wikis on your own site. But, creating your own social network is only half the story. You have to be willing to seek out and participate in other active online communities.

5. Authenticity required: The internet is conducive to anonymity on every level. However, using web 2.0 marketing makes you part of a community. Misuse of that very anonymity that encourages participation can hamper or ruin your plan. You have to be willing to encourage participation without encouraging abuse.

6. Get thick skin: Not everyone will say positive things about your business. Quite the contrary. You will more than likely have to prove yourself before you're given the privilege to participate, much less sell. The way in which you handle critics will go a long way towards demonstrating your poise under difficult situations. No one likes a cry baby.

7. Multimedia rules: Traffic statistics on video sharing sites tell a tremendous story about where consumers are spending their time online. With bandwidth costs continuing to decrease, consumers' appetite for the multimedia experience will only grow. This presents an amazing opportunity for those businesses willing to invest in the latest online communication technologies.

Web 2.0 is still in its infancy. Consumers have already shown they are willing to participate in open source communities. Content, especially multimedia content, will continue to be the deciding factor in whether a business succeeds or fails online. Are you ready for the Web 2.0 marketing challenge?

Relativity is pleased to offer [http://www.relativitycorp.com/]Web 2.0 Advertising - Web 2.0 Marketing - Web 2.0 Promotions - iMedia services to the internet business public. You can download a free e-book with our latest insights into the Web 2.0 marketing world by signing up to our list at [http://www.relativitycorp.com]http://www.relativitycorp.com. We look forward to providing you with fresh creative information and insight into this emerging industry.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
By Jessica VanderHaar

Deciding to start your own Internet Home Based Business can be an exciting and scary time. There are many opportunities offered on the Internet. Many are legitimate from reputable and honest work at home Internet business vendors. Unfortunately, there are also some fraudulent schemes.

A popular home business opportunity being advertised on the Internet is Medical Billing. While being a medical biller is a legitimate home based business, one must be careful of the schemers who are just out for your money and leave you to fend for yourself in an industry where you have little chance of succeeding.

It starts by you responding to the ad for the medical billing work at home business. You will receive a phone call pitch telling you about the burgeoning health care system crisis. Typically, the pitch includes statements about claims piling up and just waiting to be processed. Your opportunity lies in processing these claims electronically, which is not being done often. This is where you make your money.

Doctors, they say, outsource their billing to you. You can work in Accounts Receivable, Insurance Claims, Physician/Dentist practice management. They claim that you do not need experience as training is included and you get the added bonus that their sales staff will put you together with health care clients to get you started. The sad truth is that your investment - $2500-$9000 is seldom recouped. In order to come close to recouping your investment and/or make a profit, you will need to find your own clients. The training you receive is sub-par. The problem with Medical Billing, as it can be a legitimate business, is that the market is saturated and the competition is fierce.

Make careful considerations when choosing a Medical Billing company to partner with. It is best to locate a company in your area, get hired on as a medical biller, receive their training, and then work towards moving to a home based operation.

Another legitimate work at home business opportunity commonly distorted by schemers is Surveys for cash. There are many survey companies you can join that give you the opportunity to get paid for taking surveys. What you must be mindful of are the websites that say they offer you a home internet survey business opportunity but really only offer you the opportunity to pay upfront money for a listing of those survey sites that will pay you to take their surveys.

Most of the firms they provide for you in their list are firms you could have found for yourself by doing your own search on the Internet. Often, the firms on their list aren't current. The fees charged for the initial directories can be up to $100. What you get for your investment are out of date lists, with incorrect information, poor navigation, inadequate contacts and pages that don't work.

There are some websites that the consumer advocate agency recommended as legitimate paid survey work at home Internet business opportunity firms. These sites do charge upfront fees of up to $60.00. The difference between these firms and the schemers are these firms actually have staff dedicated to helping you find survey clients and assignments. These firms offer a 100% money back guarantee and actually honor that guarantee.

Will paid survey sites make you rich? Probably not, but you can earn a decent income. Most survey sites offer payment for surveys taken anywhere between $15-$25 and some even offer payment of $75 for a completed survey. Time to complete a survey can range from 5-30 minutes per survey. Income potential is up to you. It depends on the amount of time and effort you wish to put forth. A 20-hour week could provide you with a median monthly income of $1600. Again, this won't make you rich but is definitely a good income for something with so many benefits - little to no overhead, no dress code, no rush hour traffic, no training or experience required and hours you determine yourself.

One of the major points of having an Internet home work income business is to be in charge of your life. An Internet home work income business is about working the schedule you want to work, wearing the wardrobe you want to wear, setting up the home office you want to have, and being your own boss. While no one (or at least no one legitimate) would ever tell you that an Internet home work income business is a breeze to start and make a lot of money at, those who have been there and done that and succeeded will tell you it’s wonderfully stimulating and satisfying – no matter what the financial outcome.

Jessica VanderHaar is the Webmaster / Owner of the Best Internet Home Business Website: www.affiliatehomepro.com

To Join Her Newsletter "The Home Pro Digest - All About Making Money Online" send a Blank Email to affiliatehomepro@getresponse.com

View their website at: http://www.affiliatehomepro.com
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by Paul Speziale

“There is no harder job in the world than copywriting, yet there is none more rewarding...both financially and emotionally. It truly is the world’s best kept secret job.”

First of all, there is some confusion about copywriting...let me dispel the most common myth:

What Copywriting is NOT

“Copywriting” is not “Copyrighting”. Copyrighting is the act of securing the copyright on a piece of work. A copyright is just the legal right to reproduce the work.

What Copywriting IS...

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, defines copywriting or the act of writing copy as:

Copywriting is the process of writing the words that promote a person, business, opinion, or idea. It may be used as plain text, as a radio or television advertisement, or in a variety of other media.

I agree with this definition, but copywriting goes much deeper than that...It is both a science and an art.

Where You Can Find Examples of Copy

It’s generally used in advertising and marketing and is primarily used to sell goods and services, but it is also used to communicate with people.

You can find it in all ads that you see everyday...

That includes: the Internet, newspapers, magazines, billboards and radio...on the package of things you buy, on the back of your milk cartons, and even the bible! More on that later...

The Problem With Copywriting and Why It’s So Important

The act of copywriting is the most mis-understood skill in any business, yet at the same time it’s the most important.

Here’s why:

It’s really just words on a piece of paper.

It makes it even more mis-understood when a copywriter asks for thousands of dollars and it only took them a week to prepare it.

But, when written correctly and sent to the right people, it has been known to turn a mediocre business into an industry giant very rapidly.

Your words, reproduced thousands of times, leverage your message to thousands of people...and it costs only fractions of a dollar per letter to distribute it.

A well-crafted, persuasive letter is one of the most powerful forces in the world today.

You know, while the National Enquirer won’t even win the Nobel Prize in Literature, they write with simple language and very effectively target their audience...they have over 15 million readers after all. With all the complaints they get, no one has ever complained they write too clearly.

Words on a piece of paper have been known to create wars (or prevent them), to sell millions of dollars in goods, to express emotions and so on...

I said earlier that copywriting was in the bible...St. Paul, the Catholic saint, used copywriting to communicate the word of God to other people. He spread the message without ever having to be there personally. He was one of the earliest copywriters.

The president’s speechwriter is a copywriter...he or she has to be very careful about the words they use.

The Role of a Copywriter

The role of the Copywriter is to write copy. Simple.

To write copy, a copywriter must research their a) intended audience and b) their subject matter. Then they must put pen to paper and create a message that will communicate their subject matter to their intended audience.

The copywriter must also pay attention to how the copy

a) Looks: if the copy looks too overwhelming, no one will read it.
b) Flows: if the ideas and words in the copy connect together properly.

In the end, what does a copywriter produce? The length and type of copy can vary...they can produce letters 30 pages long or as short as one sentence (or a word or two).

Writing 30 pages is definitely a skill, where if you want to sell something, it has to be extremely interesting so that someone will read it...

What about writing a sentence? Sometimes that can take months of digging into volume after volume of dry product data and material to uncover the one phrase that can best describe the product.

Every word counts and is worth its weight in gold

In both cases, every word counts...the copywriter must agonize over every word because not only are you paying for the space you use (in a magazine for example) to distribute the copy, but the very words themselves can either persuade your audience to listen to you and buy your products...or completely turn them off.

Because of the complexities and the needs for copywriters...there has emerged a wide range of copywriters...they range from artists and English majors to people in sales.

The difference between the two, I will discuss in my next article: “The difference between your “everyday copy” and “copy that sells”

Conclusion

Copywriting has been around for hundreds of years in various forms. Only in the last 100 years or so has it been used so widely to sell goods and services. Yet, despite all this, it still remains one of the most mis-understood, but important aspects of any business.

Everyone should know the basics of it and use that skill in their business.

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.
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Black Hat SEOss will definitely impress you with all the aces up their sleeves, but if you do not want your website to be black-listed by popular search engines such as Google, then it is recommended that you try other better options that are available. Generating traffic to your website is no doubt important, but if you have long-term business plans then you need to realize that what is even more important is building and maintaining the credibility of your website. It is only when credibility is maintained that you can you hope to retain users on your website and, most importantly, motivate them to buy products or services that you might be selling through your website.

So, what is the best way of building credibility? Well, the truth is that there are many ways of doing that. However, if you are looking for the best solution, then I will recommend that you opt for forums that act as the perfect platform for user interaction. You see, when you start a forum on your website, what happens is that users develop positive perceptions about your website-- something that helps a lot in building the desired level of credibility. Since forums are places where users are allowed to share their views and experiences, both negative as well as positive, it naturally leads to a feeling of communion amongst those who throng your website. This helps a lot because users then feel more at ease while using your website or when buying products and services that you might be offering through your website.

Building credibility through forums should be your first priority because by doing so you not only increase traffic to your website, but also reduces costs and improves profitability of your online business. This becomes a possibility because when you have a successful forum, you no longer have to invest huge amounts on Internet marketing or hiring writers, bloggers, and SEOs. All the marketing and content gets done automatically by forum members without you having to spend a single penny. Even the mundane SEO tasks such as keyword optimization get done in the process and that, too, without raising the hackles of search engines, something that is always a possibility with SEO-assisted optimization techniques. You see, when users discuss topics related to your website, it automatically leads to the requisite keyword insertions, something that the search engines are most likely to take notice of in a positive way. That’s the magic of forums!

So now that you understand the importance of building credibility through forums, it is all up to you how well you implement that on your website. However, before you actually start a forum, you need to take certain precautions because just like any other technique, forums too have their limitations and disadvantages, especially when not used in the prescribed manner. You may be planning to get the best forum software, but believe me, if you do not know the tricks and techniques involved, you will not be able to make much progress even with the most advanced software programs. So, instead of risking your investments, I would recommend that you first learn the intricacies and the tricks of the trade.

Ryan Chua is a professional IT and Onlne marketing consultant for the past 5 years. Ever since running his own traffic and profit-generating websites, he has been teaching others how to do the same for their own online endeavours. For more information, visit http://www.ForumSecretsRevealed.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
The Internet is continuously evolving. It has been incorporating all current technology into its domain and has thus stood the test of time and storm. From video conferencing to class sessions delivered online, it has touched almost every aspect of life. But none has been as popular as Instant Messaging, which gave birth to smiley icons, a product of man’s quest to make cyberspace as social as possible.

Smiley icons are sequences of characters and symbols which represent different facial expressions, human feelings and sometimes even social gestures. They were first developed in an attempt to make the web as humanly social as possible. Later on, however, they were extended to represent all forms of humor, nationalism, celebrities and all kinds of things. And yes, it is still developing.

So, what are the most popular classes of smiley icons?

Emotions: Smileys are used to represent most human emotions. The most popular ones are smile, frown, wink, laugh, mock, tongue sticking out, etc. These are very frequently used in chat rooms and online forums.

Cartoons: From smiley icons of fat guys scratching their pot bellies to other weird symbols, there are a whole bunch of cartoon smileys that may have quite a lot of appeal to you and your lifestyle. All you have to do to get these smileys is search them online and follow the instructions to download them.

Ideologies: Since people of all faiths, creeds and nationalities partake in the discussions at the forums and chat rooms, some smart guys came up with smiley icon that represented religious symbols, socio-political identities like national flags and others. If you have been wondering how that guy that you always meet in the chat room gets to display a waving US flag, now you know.

Celebrities: Celebrities are more like gods nowadays. There are people who have made a fortune just writing about them. So it shouldn’t surprise you that we now have some emoticons that represent them. From politicians like former president Jimmy Carter :(=) to celebrities and TV characters like Pamela Anderson &:-)3 or Alladin @:-) , there are many classes of icons that represent most things we care about, and these icons are continuously evolving.

If you want to master the arts of the internet world, you have to learns its ways and be a part of its cyber culture, which includes understanding and rightly using smiley icons to deliver warmth to your online posts and break the ice created by the screen.

Craig Thornburrow is an acknowledged expert in his field. You can get more free advice on smiley icons and animated smiley faces at http://www.smileyicon.net and http://www.smileyicon.net/animate-your-messenger-conversations-with-animated-smiley-faces.html.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
When you are beginning your internet network marketing business, it is likely that you will be on a shoestring budget. One of the first things that you need to do with internet marketing is to build your own list. This list will be comprised of targeted prospects that are interested in the niche market that your business focuses on.

Participating in forums is an excellent way to quickly begin generating targeted traffic. Responsible and targeted forum marketing can help you do this. You need to find forums related to your niche market. Posting frequently and answering members' questions is the first forum marketing tip. Put your unique selling proposition in your signature with a link to your website. If people like what you have to say, they will visit your website. This article discusses six forum marketing tips to help you build that targeted list.

Forums are online communities where members interact with each other through posts. A distinguishing characteristic of a forum is its specificity. Forum threads are very topic-specific. These threads discuss one topic only.

Here are six forum marketing tips to help you generate ongoing targeted traffic.

1. Determine your expertise and find appropriate forums that you can join. Look for active forums that have topics related to your business or expertise. Create new threads there, offer your knowledge, and help others--frequently. This will build your integrity and expertise.

2. Create a linked signature and include it at the end of your posts. Do not use an affiliate link.. You can use this to sign your posts. This signature must lead to your web site. The traffic you generate from it is very highly targeted.

3. Manage your forum affiliations. Do not try to post replies or threads in every forum. Find five to seven forums where you will become active and then ramp up so you make at least five forum posts daily.

4. Create interesting threads on the latest 'hot' topics. You will see that a lot of people are talking about a certain problem and are trying to find the right solutions for it. You can create a thread which offers your solution in a step-by-step format. This will continue to build your integrity and expertise.

5. Reply to existing topics with quality answers. Look for questions which people post because they want to know more information about it. Reply to the topic with a quality answer. If you do this often, people will look to you as an expert and will start to respect your opinions. They will then enter your prospecting funnel to get more information from you because they trust you.

6. Use a system to save and track your forums and posts such as Forum Fortunes, which saves a lot of time because it saves and tracks all of your posts and forums.

Following these forum marketing tips will help you establish yourself as an expert, develop trust and build relationships. Many people will contact and join you because of the information, help and assistance you continue to provide.

Jon Roussel is a successful internet marketer in Beverly, MA. He helps people succeed with a home-based business that will generate a long-term reliable leveraged residual income. Learn more at http://www.jonroussel.ws, Jon Roussel's Website.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
There are many effective little techniques that encourage forum posting. One of the tricks that helps to encourage forum conversation is to end some of your posts with leading questions. "What do you think?" "How do you do it?" "Does anyone know how to ____?" Questions give an easy opening for the next person to post, just as they help foster conversation in real life.

If you start a new thread, it often is more successful if your first post is short and asks a question, as opposed to being several paragraphs in length that cover a topic more thoroughly. This is kind of surprising because you might have thought a longer post would be more intriguing, but try it and see! You'll notice a difference. So, even if you've thought about a topic a lot, try not to say much in the first post. This lets other people be "experts" too, and they will enjoy the conversation.

In writing classes they often teach you to write strong. Strong writing is well thought out, authoritative, doesn't use the word "I," has good grammar, spelling, and punctuation. But on a forum, it can intimidate others so that they won't post. If instead you say, "I think," "Gosh, how do you spell that?", include personal stuff, and so forth, it makes the writing less formal and more like you're sitting across the cafe table from an old friend! This makes others comfortable so they are more likely to open up.

Compliments about what someone posted before you also helps many of the readers to be comfortable posting because they interpret it as a friendly, gentle place. Whether face to face or online, other people will like it when they receive positive comments or are asked questions. It simply makes people feel like they are being listened to, and we all like that!

Timing is also important in encouraging good conversation on a forum. It's better to post two or three responses at a time every three or four hours, than to sit down once each evening to post because it keeps the forum fresh and people get the feeling someone is always there for them to talk to. If they check in an hour or two after they posted and they see responses, well, of course they'll be more likely to get involved in the forum than if they have to wait a day for a response.

Social network users, visit http://www.wishafriend.com/ac/holidays/christmas/ for Christmas MySpace comments. You can also find Christmas MySpace graphics at http://www.wishafriend.com/graphics/holidays/christmas/, and find Christmas Layouts at http://www.wishafriend.com/layouts/christmas/ to add to your profile.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
With the present trend in marketing and online business, competition to get the a higher and better ranking is getting stiffer and a lot more complex. In order to attain the best traffic on the net, a lot of marketers and businessmen are engaging into so many highly tremendous methods of marketing. One of the most sought-after marketing tools that many are trying to experiment on is the search engine optimization, particularly the off page optimization process. You may be asking, why search engine optimization? What features does off page optimization have to be considered as one of the most sought-after marketing tools? Well, the answer to that is very basic and fundamental - traffic driven by back links.

Back links are the most essential means of generating traffic on a site nowadays. A lot of marketers and business people have seen the strong potential of off page optimization to obtain successfully numerous quality back links on a site more than its contemporaries. Back links are link addresses that you are able to generate from sites that wish to start a connection with your site. Usually, this happens under the method of SEO that requires it to be done outside the main content of the site - thus, off page optimization.

One of the best ways to get back links is through the use of the forum. If you are able to publish your message on the forum sites where you are a member, you are given the opportunity to include on the message some of your relevant information such as the company name which you represent, as well as a bit of personal information such as your name and your e-mail address. You will be given this opportunity when forum masters see your contribution to the forum site as something that is indispensable. In order to continue getting such opportunity, you continue to submit postings that contain relevancy and pertinence.

As additional information, if you are serious about generating more back links from forum sites, engage yourself into more than one forum site and allot time for each individual site. In that case, you have far better opportunity to gain mileage with considerably more net users.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to forum traffic success, 'Secrets of Generating Traffic With Forums'

Download it free here: http://www.secrets-of-internet-success.com/2ezforums.html Traffic Generation With Forums

Sean Mize is a full-time internet marketer who has written over 1,574 articles in print and 11 published ebooks.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
What is this mystical thing called Web 3.0 that everybody is waiting for? It's like the silhouette of a stranger through the dense fog. Man or Monster? Friend or Foe? That is the nature of predicting the future. From afar, everything looks good. From up close, it's a mess. The good news is we can affect the future, the future is not some inevitable result assigned to us.

What will Web 3.0 look like? Let's start with how the web has evolved and go from there.

What happened?

In the old days, you really needed to read a whole book to get all the nuggets of knowledge from an author. With search engines, you can get to what you need faster and faster. So more people can now publish more ideas. Referred to as Web 1.0, static websites have sprung from every corner of the world.

Fast forward to today. The core of Web 2.0 is the latest generation of user-contributed content.

The unit of communication has shrunk dramatically. Instead of publishing a book or article, we can publish a simple blog. Just a few words and we're done.

The speed of publishing has increased dramatically. It's now lightening fast, from the author's very first thought to the moment the reader understands it.

Multi-user collaboration has become massively parallel. Forums, chats-- people are communicating everywhere.

With Web 2.0 applications, anyone can easily set up a blog or a shop on eBay. Or even join the major Web 2.0 sites like Wikipedia, Facebook, and Digg. These sites provide dynamic user-contributed content. People now flock to Web 2.0 sites because they can find any idea, or any community.

What's Missing?

So if things are so good, what's wrong?

Well, Google often returns a whole bunch of garbage, because it can't read our minds. That's because search terms aren't expressive enough. Search terms are not sufficient to provide your meaning, your context. There are billions of pages out there now, with text that can only be understood after being read by humans. So with search results, we must wade through pages and pages before we get what we're looking for.

So to solve this problem, why not make these billions of pages contain the meaning, not just the words? Why not create an engine that understands your meaning, instead of just today's simple search terms? Will that work?

What's Not Happening?

Web 3.0 has been touted as the savior. So what is it?

It's been 6 years since the prediction of the Semantic Web evolution, with RDF, OWL, SPARQL, RIF, metawebs, and ontologies. It's a deep mess. You have to be either crazy or a genius to figure that stuff out. Another faction has Web 3.0 pegged as becoming a service, somehow transforming unstructured information into structured information. Somehow, if machines talk to each other more effectively, people can access the right information quicker. That's wishful thinking.

Why will this grand vision of Web 3.0 involving intelligent machines never happen? Because humans will never be surpassed by machines in judgmental intelligence. To be interested in certain things-- that is a uniquely human trait. To belong to groups-- that is another human trait. Because a machine-generated solution, regardless of how advanced, cannot replace humans. In the end, only humans can help other humans.

What's Next?

Web 3.0 is about ideas and knowledge. It's not about shopping or entertainment. Technology-wise, we're ready for the next generation of the web, the real Web 3.0. We have everything we need to create that vision. Let me describe that vision.

Different words have different meaning to different people. Different people are identified by different demographics. There's no need for the machine to understand all that meaning stuff. As long as people understand, and communicate with the smallest possible unit of related meaning: The question and answer.

By simply matching questions with other similar questions, and by grouping the answers from all the experts, users are given access to the best possible knowledge available from all perspectives. You can thus learn at a much faster rate, bypassing the uninteresting noise for the interesting nuggets of knowledge.

Are You Ready?

If you could benefit from a more accurate search by providing accurate demographics, wouldn't you?

If you could benefit from a more accurate search by asking what you're interested in, wouldn't you?

If you could benefit from a more accurate search by answering what you know, wouldn't you?

If you could benefit from a more accurate search by rating what you like, wouldn't you?

The next generation of the web will make use of what we like, what we know, and what we've done to give us what we need. Based on our recent search history. Based on our demographics. Based on our ratings, our questions and our answers.

Given your usage, the system should know what you're interested in, and should show you questions based on the community you naturally belong to. So you will not have to avoid people you find annoying ... the system will segregate you naturally. Also, other people similar to you will, through their ratings, constantly be finding things that are interesting to you. This system is adaptive, so that as your interests change, your search results change with you.

The good news is Web 3.0 is here. And it's simpler than anybody would have thought. The bad news? It's just not what anyone expected.

We are trying to start our vision of Web 3.0 at http://www.helpglobe.com. Come join us!]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
So you need to test your new product concepts against prospects, customers, or the trade. Concept testing explores consumers' reactions to a proposed product, message, or ad.

But you have limited time to get voice of the customer reactions and insights about your concepts. And the target segment is difficult to recruit into a traditional focus group room.

Product and marketing managers face these problems all the time. The good news is that online bulletin board focus groups can help you with concept testing.

What are Online Bulletin Board Focus Groups?

The purpose of online bulletin board focus groups (BBFG) is to gain qualitative insights about prospects and customers. You want to understand their perceptions, attitudes, opinions, and behaviors about a topic.

A bulletin board focus group consists of a moderator, 10 to 20 respondents, and observers.

Moderators, respondents and observers meet on a bulletin board focus group web site. But they don’t need to meet at the same time. They can login any time during a BBFG session.

Bulletin board focus groups typically run for three days. The moderator posts questions and concepts, and respondents post their comments. Observers watch.

How Bulletin Board Focus Groups Work

The moderator recruits, screens and invites respondents to a bulletin board focus group.

But, rather than meet face-to-face, participants login to a secure (https) bulletin board web site, using a username and password.

The moderator sets the ground rules, builds rapport, and launches questions, concepts, and probes using a moderator’s discussion guide.

The moderator controls what respondents see, and when they see it: questions, concepts, and respondents’ responses.

Respondents post their comments: opinions, perceptions, attitudes and descriptions of behaviors.

Observers can direct the moderator to probe respondents’ answers. By the way, the respondents cannot see the observers.

Transcripts are immediately available for analysis. You get instant word-for-word quotes and insights.

Qualitative Product Concept Testing

This is how you use bulletin board focus groups for concept testing.

The moderator presents concepts on the BBFG web site. This is where you can show products, ads, messages and web sites. The moderator shows concepts using several formats: written descriptions, images, video clips or web sites.

Respondents mark-up concepts, using mark-up tools available with BBFG technology. For example, they can highlight words and images they like and dislike. And they can add their comments about specific items in the concept.

You gain valuable voice of the customer information about your concepts. You see specific words, sentences and images that respondents like and dislike. They reveal their feelings and thoughts about your concepts.

You can see if customers’ perceptions about concepts match up with your perceptions.

Another useful BBFG tool is “uninfluenced answers.” The moderator can control when respondents see other respondents’ posts. With the uninfluenced answer feature turned on, respondents must answer a question before they can see answers from other respondents about the question. The moderator can reduce group bias, using the uninfluenced answer feature. Uninfluenced answers are an ideal tool for concept testing.

Benefits of Bulletin Board Focus Groups

Using bulletin board focus groups, you can assess customers' or prospects’ reactions to product concepts, ads, messages and web sites quickly. You get rich, voice-of-the-customer, word-for-word quotes and actionable insights.

Plus you avoid travel time associated with traditional face-to-face focus groups and save thousands of dollars in travel expenses.

You can even interview busy executives, subject matter experts, professionals, and on-the-go people who don’t have time to attend face-to-face focus groups.

Also, you get better geographical respondent representation than face-to-face focus groups.

BBFG is a viable research tool. Seventy-one percent of U.S. adults use the Internet (early 2007), according to PEW Internet Research. That is about 160 million U.S. adults.

BBFG is one of the fastest-growing market research tools today. Many companies are turning to professional moderators who use it.

Bulletin board focus groups are effective for concept testing. Test new product ideas, ads, and messages, and gain valuable customer insights. Use insights to develop new products and marketing programs.

Copyright © 2007, Henk Hoets. All rights reserved.

Henk Hoets is an RIVA trained professional focus group moderator and qualitative marketing research consultant.

Henk has moderated hundreds of focus groups and in-depth interviews for major corporations, and small and medium businesses.

He is the founder of Hendriks Research, a qualitative marketing research firm. He also is a former product and marketing manager and 20-year veteran of the wireless industry. He holds an MBA.

For more information about online focus groups and focus group moderating, please visit http://h-focusgroups.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
When used correctly, forums offer new as well as experienced business owners the perfect platform for promoting new ideas and products. They're also a great way to acquire one-way links. While forums have their benefits, they also have the potential of creating huge damage to your business. One wrong thread could send a lot of bad press to your site as well as to your email account.

Forums can be a great place to learn new ideas and bounce ideas off other people. But they require a lot of time. More often than not, it's far better to spend that time concentrating on marketing your business rather than trolling the forums.

The following five points underscore why spending time in forums can be hazardous to your site's health.

1) It's not a matter of if but when you'll get flamed

The problem with forums is that you never know when things are going to get out of hand. Without any reason or warning, you can become a flame target.

I can guarantee that at least one person will not agree with you. This isn't so bad as long as the dialog takes place within the forum. But these online arguments can get out of hand and spill over into blogs, other forums, and through email.

2) Link bandwagons and useless comments

One of the low points of any forum is that 95% of the posts tend to be completely useless. Many posters are only participating in the hope of getting some mileage from a forum. For people who own a similar business, posting on a forum is the perfect way to gain some exposure and get one-way links to boot. Many times, they don't add any value to the forum.

Then there's the typical flood of "I agree" comments. These "valueless" comments can suck an excessive amount of your time.

3) Everyone's an expert

There's an old saying, "If everything is important, then nothing is important." I believe this applies to forums as well.

The problem isn't for lack of experts. The problem is trying to decipher the real experts from the flack. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to differentiate good advice from bad. This is somewhat like the blind leading the blind. Misleading advice abounds. It takes time to acknowledge the good experts from the "wannabe" experts. Time better spent elsewhere.

4) Old and stale information

People post comments and information based on what they've read or heard about. Unlike a typical publication, with its overabundance of editors, assistant editors, and fact checkers, forums are open source. You have to do your own fact checking.

Another problem is information that's just plain old. What may have been true a few years ago may not apply today. For instance, web rings were very popular in the late 1990s. Now, they're simply known as link farms. But there's plenty of information-- old information-- that shows up in search results concerning web rings; much of it in forums.

5) Writing truthful, thoughtful comments is a fad

While some forum discussions have their golden moments, many threads are one sided or between two or three parties. I liken it to two groups of people, each standing on opposite walls in a gym screaming at each other. Unfortunately, many times the good comments get stuffed underneath the bad, disrespectful, disparaging comments.

While forums certainly have their place, they shouldn't be an all too often hangout. Most webmasters would find they can achieve their site goals faster and more efficiently if they focused on their sites rather than the forums.

Jerret Turner, CEO of LinkAcquire.com, can help you build one-way links for better search results. Visit him at http://www.linkacquire.com. Download a free copy of Jerret's new work, The Little Linking Instruction Book, by visiting http://www.linkacquire.com/signup.html.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
This is one article in the series of "InfoPreneur Secrets" which discusses tips, tricks, techniques and secrets to be a successful info product creator and marketer. This article will discuss the importance of leveraging the resources of others to literally explode your sales without much additional effort on your part.

Let me ask you a question:

What’s better than ONLY YOU promoting your product and generating sales for your info product?

Answer: Hundreds, even thousands, of marketers marketing your product FOR YOU for free!

Let us look at one of the most successful internet marketing products ever, ‘The Rich Jerk’. This is the ultimate example of a marketer effectively leveraging the resources of others.

I bet ‘The Rich Jerk’ himself doesn’t make a whole lot of sales, but he has thousands of affiliates promoting HIS products for HIM in exchange for a percentage of the sale. It’s the perfect business model for both the affiliate and the vendor.

The affiliate gets money without having to create a product. The vendor makes sales of his product that he wouldn’t otherwise have made.

The Rich Jerk is one of the must sold internet marketing info products simply because he has a huge affiliate force.

I’d rather have one thousand affiliates promoting my product passively than just have me marketing my own product aggressively.

You are limited in what you can achieve on your own. Remember that. But with the help of others, you can accelerate your internet marketing efforts by LEVERAGING the resources of others.

James Penn is an experienced niche marketer who has developed and profitably marketed a library of niche info products and reports. To discover how to create an insane passive income online by creating tiny reports, visit http://www.shortreportprofits.com

James also runs a blog which details his trials and tribulations of being an internet marketer. He posts his tips, tricks, techniques and secrets that will help YOU to make money. Visit his blog at http://www.teenagemarketer.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
The majority of Internet Marketers are always looking for some additional places to promote products for free and get some free traffic. But when thinking about this, did you ever consider "Forum Marketing"?

There are loads of Internet Marketing Forums and even highly specialized forums for almost any niche market. They all serve many purposes. First of all, they are an informational resource, but did you know that they can also help you to grow your business?

- By contributing posts with valuable information and by being active in the forum, you can easily brand yourself as an expert in your niche and everybody likes to buy from experts rather than from the "average Joe".

- By posting regularly to these forums you can also generate a flood of backlinks to your site.

- By promoting your website with your signature tag, you will get a lot of free traffic to your sites and sales you never would have made without that.

The first trick to doing this successfully is to properly utilize the signature tags of your postings, because it’s only this little signature tag that is promoting your website, product or service. Look at the terms of every forum to make sure your signature lines comply with the rules. Then make your tag eye-catching, sticky, create it like an email headline so that it attracts the reader to click the link and read more.

And please: don’t contribute just "Me, too!" posts or silly questions.

The second trick is the information value of your post. You have to really show some expertise to the forum members to get them interested in what you have to offer and to encourage them to click on your signature lines.

Follow these simple steps and do not to blatantly advertise your business, but contribute valuable content and in a short time, you will see fresh and targeted traffic coming to your site. You have built trust and credibility within the forum community and this will pay! Not only will you make more sales, you will have backlinks from an authority site with a high Page Rank and that means additional search engine traffic!

The critical point in forum marketing really is: do respect the community, be patient and contribute value to place yourself as an expert. And do not even think to spam the forum using some tricky software tools. You will be banned immediately.

If you do it the right way, forum marketing will become a powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal.

Gitte Dabek is a home business expert. She is running a website listing and rating legitimate home business opportunities. If you are interested to read more about the Top Home Business Opportunities, visit her at http://www.top-home-business-opportunities.net.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
This is one article in the series of InfoPreneur Secrets which discusses tips, tricks, techniques and secrets to be a successful info product creator and marketer. This article will discuss how to effectively persuade authorities in your niche to joint venture with you in promotion of your info product.

Joint ventures are powerful things. They enable you to leverage the resources of other people to generate profits for yourself. What a great business model! Other people promote your products, you keep half of the money.

Here are some tips to get people to JV with you:

* First contact – The first time you contact a potential JV partner should not be asking for them to promote your product. You first need to build a relationship with them. Your first email could either introduce you and your business, or it could offer your potential partner assistance. Offer to write some articles for them or to help them with any tasks they don’t want to do. If you help them initially, they’ll be more likely to promote your product later on.

* Personalize your JV email – Once you feel you are ready to contact a potential partner, make sure the email you send is personalized. Refer to their websites and their activities. Use their name throughout the email.

* Create an offer too good to refuse – Make an offer to your potential JV partner so good they won’t be able to refuse it. You could offer them some unique articles if they promote, you could offer them an increased affiliate commission, you could offer them a reciprocal mailing (i.e. you promote one of their products to your list).

Approaching JV partners is an art form. It’s impossible for me to sum up everything in this short article, but hopefully it will help you when you approach your next (or first) JV partner.

James Penn is an experienced niche marketer who has developed and profitably marketed a library of niche info products and reports. To discover how to create an insane passive income online by creating tiny reports, visit http://www.shortreportprofits.com

James also runs a blog which details his trials and tribulations of being an internet marketer. He posts his tips, tricks, techniques and secrets that will help YOU to make money. Visit his blog at http://www.teenagemarketer.com

This free report from Dr. Mani may help you with approaching JV partners - http://ezinemarketingcenter.com/jv-deconstructed.pdf.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_BTj_171/user/index.php
Instant Noodles are probably one of the greatest inventions of all times. The strange thing is that they really are not instant and really are not a new invention. They are just the same old noodles in a new package and marketed a little differently.

There has to be a lesson to be learned when this product is given a closer inspection. Here is something (the noodle) that is hundreds, maybe even thousands of years old. Yet it is now one of the most profitable food niche markets in existence today. Whether it is ramen, canton, bihon, pancit or whatever name it is known by locally, the concept is actually very amazing.

Anyone can purchase these same noodles for much cheaper if they buy them in bulk; bulk in this case being buying them by the kilo or by the pound. Throw in a little bouillon cube and voila, instant success.

So what is the lesson to be learned here from this marketing wonder? Is it that everybody needs to find a product that is hundreds or thousands of years old? That is hardly the case. The whole point is that anything can be sold and profited on if it is packaged correctly.

Who was the first one who packaged the noodles in portions that were suitable for one person? While nobody may know their name, it is certain that it could be looked up. Either way, if they patented the idea, there is a strong chance that they are not among the working-class people anymore.

Somebody once said that everything worth being invented has already been invented. This is probably not the case either. The sad fact of the matter is that most people will not ever come up with a patentable idea that will allow them to retire in the lap of luxury.

The whole idea behind marketing; whether it is marketing an idea, a product or information on the internet, or providing something tangible in a store; the concept is the same. Marketing and recognizable packaging has a lot to do with it, but it is mostly in the presentation.

These people offered nothing at all that was new. They repackaged it and advertised it as a convenience. Given the hectic pace in the world today, that concept is what sold the product. They knew what buttons to push to get people to buy.

It can be said that not everybody is going to have a life-changing idea or concept. That does not mean that they cannot get rich with the proper marketing. Finding a product that can be sold is an important factor. Creating a need or a desire is as important to success as is creating a sense