Home Business The Easy Way - CGo Update http://www.blogmoneymiracle.com en-us EasyRSS
By Deon Plessis

If there is one subject not nearly enjoying enough attention in online marketing, it is the art of choosing a niche market. The niche market you choose to work in will make or break your online business. It is as simple as that. The challenge, however, is in choosing a niche market. Although, there are no real cold facts, good guidelines can serve as a first-rate guide when choosing a niche market for your online business.

There is nothing worse than spending months building a website or developing a product that was doomed from the start. What I mean by this is that if you start a website, a newsletter, or a product in a niche that is not profitable, you simply will not make any money from it. A profitable niche does not only rely on the fact that there are customers who are willing to buy the products, but also on the fact that there is a demand for what you have to offer.

Most affiliate marketers are after the 'golden nuggets' - those niches with high demand and very little competition, and although there is nothing wrong with this, it is not the only consideration when choosing a niche market. Here are some of the most important factors to consider when choosing a niche market and some suggestions for actually finding it.

- The niche must be profitable.

This means there must be a big enough market of people willing to spend money on the products and services in that particular niche. You also want to make sure there is not too much competition in that particular niche, as this makes it harder to turn out a profit. Ideally, you want competition, but not too much. Competition is a sign of profitability in that particular niche and it is a healthy factor. A simple way to seek out a niche that fulfills this requirement is to do keyword research and to match the most profitable keywords to the most profitable products.

- The niche must interest you.

Although there is nothing wrong with jumping into a profitable niche on curing athlete's foot, the challenge in any niche is longevity. In most niches, your success will rely on your persistence and staying motivated long enough to keep on keeping on until you succeed. Finding the inspiration to build a website on athlete's foot can proof to be more challenging than you think. When you are interested in a subject, your enthusiasm reflects in very subtle ways and building a business based on a subject you love seems almost effortless.

If you build a niche business based purely on profitability, it is only a matter of time before someone will come along that actually loves the subject and who will eventually kick you off the top spot. A very useful course of action is to come up with five to ten things you really love; markets that you would love to work in. Do this even before you start doing any of your keyword and profitability research. Start looking in these markets for profitable niches. You are bound to find something that is not just interesting, but also highly profitable.

- The niche must be scalable and have a decent lifespan.

As you do your niche research, you will most certainly come across some extremely popular niches that, at first sight, would seem like 'golden nuggets'. Before you jump in though, it is well worth a closer look at the lifetime of that particular niche. If you are building a niche about the Soccer World Cup in Germany, you should know that it is bound to lose popularity as soon as the event is over. Similarly, many niches based on specific products have a limited lifespan and even though they would do well for a while, they might die an early death and along with that, your paychecks would die.

When choosing a niche market, look for something that has the potential of long-term success. Similarly, you want to make sure that your niche has the potential of growing. Most niches do and there are always related products you can add and attach to your niche. If you are in very competitive markets this might be quite difficult. It typically happens when you find a very tight niche with only a couple of keywords in a very busy market. If it is too tight, you can really smother yourself and hamper your potential future growth.

Choosing a niche market really is an art and it takes experience to anticipate which niches have real potential. There is no surefire way of knowing before hand whether a niche will be profitable, but you can get very close and at least make an educated guess. Many private label sites actually specialize in doing the market research for you and apart from sniffing out the profitable niche markets, they also give you the content with which you can easily build a website or even compose your own ebook. Not only does this take a lot of the guesswork out of it, but it also takes a lot of the work out of it. You can build a site in no time and even if the niche turns out to be a dud, at least you did not spend weeks working on it.

Article by Sincere-Advice.com For more information on discovering highly profitable niches and getting all the research, product creation and website content done for you, please visit http://www.sincere-advice.com/nichemarkets.html for more information.

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By Calvin Woon

Have you ever wondered how the rich manage to acquire so much wealth? The secret of the wealthy is not that they have more money but that they have more time and freedom. Because many of their streams focus on building a residual income, they have more time to spend on anything they want.

So what is all this comparison between linear and residual income? Income paid once for every hour you work is linear. Hence, income from a salary is linear. You only are paid once for your effort. However, with residual income, you work hard once and it unleashes a steady flow of income for months and even years. You are paid repeatedly for the same effort. You are paid while you are sleeping, while you are watching a movie, 24 hours a day.

Now doesn't that idea sound nice to you?

So what are the various forms of residual streams of income?

Here's a list of the many types of residual income you might want to explore:

1. Savers earn interest

2. Songwriters earn royalties on their songs

3. Authors earn royalties from their books.

4. Insurance agents get recurring commissions from their sales

5. Investors get dividends and interest from their stock.

6. Game designers and software creators get royalties.

7. Entrepreneurs get business profits.

A residual income is the recurring payment, which is received at intervals. Residual income (also called passive income) is normally a recurring income, which continues to be paid to you as time progresses for all your efforts that you have taken long before.

You can tap into tons of other forms of residual income Question is: 'How many of them do you already possess?"

If not, how much exertion are you willing to put into the effort to achieve them? Now personally, I feel that the Internet provides numerous opportunities for us to create for ourselves residual income streams.

There are a number of methods for generating residual income on the Internet. Some among them are creating a product and selling it repeatedly using an automated system, forming copyright materials, revenue creating assets, and network marketing. A residual income allows a person to get away from the worries of spending 8 hours a day in the office. It also provides financial stability.

Hence, one should always seek to create residual streams of income for oneself in order to attain the financial freedom that everyone so desires. In addition, the Internet is one platform, which provides many residual income opportunities

Calvin Woon is an online entrepreneur who is dedicated to helping others earn money online too. To claim your Million Dollar Interview Report plus other gifts and obtain more information on building a residual income, visit http://7WaysToEarnMoneyOnline.com/success.htm

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By Patrick A Chan

Why do we want to start a Home Based Business, not only a home-based business, but via the internet? The Internet has indeed allowed us to do many things from the comfort of our own home or anywhere in the world with internet access!

Thus, more and more people are asking themselves what they should not do at all if they ever get involved in a home based internet business! Why do they ask? Like any science experiment, we would all want to know the certain precautions we need to take in order to do them safely and correctly... Who decides on the precautions to take? Well, it would be someone who cares enough to ensure that the experiment would yield the expected results!

Being an ex-teacher, I understand the value of taking precautions... Usually precautions are given in the Teacher's Guide by the relevant authorities. However, there will be times when extra precautions not mentioned in the guides need to be raised by the teachers themselves so that the students are aware of any potential hazards or self-sabotages...

Now, here is a list, not an exhaustive one, which according to me needs to be observed by anyone who is serious about starting a home based business online. There are apparently much more that cannot be sufficiently covered because the Internet serves a Global community... Anyway, I just hope that this basic list would set you thinking and headed on the right path towards success!

1. Do not pretend to be an expert in every area! There are so many aspects to be taken into consideration when it comes to running an internet business. We seriously need to be humble about the things we do not understand or know and employ the assistance of those who have the expertise!

2. Do not jump into any business opportunity without first doing a thorough check on the company's profile. This is not an easy step to take, especially so, when even legitimate companies may be misrepresented or abused by scammers! I have received many emails offering me opportunities by "myself" too! LOL Get yourself a well-informed mentor/advisor to guide you.

3. Do not be distracted and mind your own business! There are so many opportunities offered online! Many people will Try This and Try That... Have you heard of Jack who is into all trades? Yes, he is no master... Just a slave in the making! Distractions offer you chains unseen by the naked eye if you are not careful... Decide on your primary business! Look after your own business and you will prosper! Are you thinking of multiple sources of income? Sure, if you are ready and have built yourself a good foundation! If not, be wise about things and do one thing well at any one time =)

Replying to anonymous spam emails can be a distraction. Well, most scammers just need a response from you to start a whole army of emails marching your way until your inbox needs changing! These test emails are usually not addressed to anyone in particular or are addressed to a hidden list that has been collected using "spydees" etc. You will probably not be able to find your email address in the recipient's field. So, why reply and invite distraction?

When you are doing anything that is not helping you market and grow your business... it is a distraction!

4. Do not send an email when your computer is infected by a virus, trojan, spyware, adware and the like. You would not want your sensitive information to land in the wrong hands. Get yourself protected using an antivirus/internet security software!

5. Do not forget to track what you are doing. This is especially vital prior to each marketing campaign you run... This will ensure that you know where to spend the best dollar and where not to spend at all!

6. Do not be discouraged! There will be people who will try to steal your dreams or trample upon them! Your loved ones especially! You need to be focused in what you do. Every setback sets you up for more success! To know what works and what does not is the key to doing only what works for success! Simple enough?

7. Do not limit your mindset! I chose this to be seventh on this list because it is very important! A mindset limited by any situation, opinion, or anything is going to generate limited or no success... E.g. if you are desperate to earn an income and all your bills are piling up... being desperate stems from a limited mindset. Learn to see new possibilities out of your situation instead of allowing yourself to be depressed and defeated! Overcoming negative emotions is not easy, but it is possible! Anyway, entertaining negative emotions will not move you in any positive direction! Manage your emotions and a better mindset can emerge to help pull you through any tough spots!

Another area of a limited mindset is often manifested in the amount of time, energy, or money we are willing to commit in order to succeed. Sometimes, the opportunity of a lifetime does not come "cheap"! A limited mindset would view a golden opportunity as time-consuming, energy draining, and "expensive"... It does not allow us to see beyond those limiting factors into a future that will reward us with success unlimited! Thus, we have people that regret during their dying moments not taking enough risk in their life... most people statistically regret that!

8. Do not give up on yourself! You are your own worst enemy... When you quit on yourself, you quit on everything! Sometimes, we cannot see any fruit of our labor being produced... Be patient! Persevere! People may give up on us, but we must never let what they think of us become our reality! We create our own future! We just need to fix our vision, work consistently towards fulfilling it, and never give up! Having said all that, we need to recognize what we need to quit thinking, doing, or saying anything that works against our vision and core desire!

9. Do not reinvent the wheel especially when you are new. Reinventing systems takes time, energy, and money... It is wiser to stick with proven systems especially when you are just starting out fresh. Sometimes, having a lousy looking website up quickly can profit you more than having a painstakingly reinvented website up after a long time! Use existing systems that work! Simplicity is the key!

10. Do not be ill prepared. This is the last on this list, but it is definitely not the least! Do your due researches first and always check your business processes before you implement it... Doing research and checks before implementation helps to minimize a lot of headaches! If you like headaches, then ignore this last item. ;-)

Well, I hope this list will help you move quickly in the right direction! Remember this: Only you can slow yourself down...

Patrick Chan who has been making money online since 2002 is willing to help anyone who finally wants to succeed in every aspect of life. Join his successful Singapore team in the quest for success from the comfort of your home via the internet (http://success.homelysuccess.com/). Also, check out his buddy Ewen Chia's Autopilot Profits System In A Box (http://auto.homelysuccess.com/) that can definitely enhance anyone's online business!

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By Mohd Sharulnazeri Bin Mohd Ali

Do affiliates really make money just promoting the affiliate program using the adwords or other PPC service? That is the most frequently asked question when the newbie enters the affiliate marketing business and wants to promote the product or business using the adwords or other PPC service. They have heard many stories about the affiliate's success using PPC.

When we research this question on the internet, we will find much discussion regarding this matter. Some are making money and some of them are losing money. The truth about PPC is to help the affiliate or other business to make money, not lose money, provided they have some knowledge in PPC campaign and planned strategy. Many of them lose money because they are blindly using the PPC without any study or necessary preparation, such as keywords and ads.

One question always asked by the internet marketers is, "Do the affiliate marketers make more money from the vendors?" The answer is "YES". Affiliate marketing business provides flexibility and freedom to the affiliate marketers so they will not be limited to one niche only. They can select from several niches that suit the markets. By this factor, the affiliate marketers can generate multiple sources of income from several niches. However, one of the advantages of being the vendor is having a huge pool of affiliate marketers helping you to promote your products. However, let us not forget the commissions they have to pay to the affiliate marketers. The vendors earn from quantities and bear most of the cost of creating and maintaining the business.

You need to ask yourself these two questions:

a.)Do you want to be in this business?

b.)Do you want to work for someone else? With most jobs in the world, there are a learning curve, and remember, learning and practice will make you perfect.

Sharul is one of the successful marketers. Learn more about affiliate marketing business at http://www.affiliate-marketingtips.blogspot.com and get the free adwords coaching at http://www.intincome.biz

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By Ed Turner

You have probably heard about the benefits of working in a home-based business. No need to worry about daycare, if you are not feeling well you do not have to call in to work and maybe the best part is no Boss, or hectic commute to the office. Therefore, what can you do and how would you get started. Well, the answer is simple.

Why not try sending out custom-made greeting cards. There are tons of greeting cards out there. The last time you went to buy one you could not find what you were looking for. Alternatively, maybe you needed a card sent to a secret admirer and need a carrier service. Wouldn't it have been nice if there were someone who could help? Now there is and it is you.

Greeting cards have been around since ancient China, and come in a variety of styles and designs. Such as the ones you see at your local store; anniversaries, baby showers, condolences, congratulations, friendship, get well, happy birthday, holidays, I'm sorry, thank you, thinking of you, weddings and wedding anniversaries, and, of course, Love.

Let's face it; the greeting card industry has come up with a card for every occasion and every need. However, sending out these mainly generic cards sometimes does not express our true feelings. This is where a custom greeting card business would come in handy. You would simply go on line, select your card, insert your greeting and with the click of the mouse, you have sent a card.

Some of the better home-based businesses rely heavily on the Internet. Just think of it, sitting at home in your pajamas if you want and working, while enjoying your favorite drink with the radio playing your favorite music in the background. Oh, now that would be the life.

If you are wondering if it is truly possible to run your own greeting card business and make money at it, the answer is simply, yes. This is where the old saying, "What you put into it, is what you get out of it," comes into play.

When it comes to creating these unique cards, you determine what occasion it is for, or who will be getting the card. Once you know that, then you jot down what type of design you want the card to have. This in turn leads into what the card needs to say or what you want it to say. If you know to whom it is going and what it is for, then the design and any ideas you have, you can take care of later.

So imagine that one of the cards you send out is touching with a kind word to get someone through a tragedy or help celebrate a wonderful anniversary of senior citizens. In addition, of course, these individual orders are one of one kind of deals. What about the big orders though? Well, this is when you get a chance to shine. You take that email or phone call that says I need a hundred and fifty cards for a specific function, and you follow the same guidelines as before. The big difference here is that you have everything you need online to send out cards, and you do not have to go to the Post Office. You can send out any number of cards with the click of the mouse. These are real cards with a stamp and envelope.

Now that is truly a home-based business. So why not give working from home and the greeting card business a chance! You have nothing to lose!

Ed Turner is an independent distributor of Send Out Cards. He is working to build an on-line business to improve retirement or speed it up. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Please visit his website for more information (http://www.edlinsales.com/).

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By Tim Spencer

Private Label Right's articles, ebooks, and software are products that the original creator has decided to give up their copyright to and sell in such a way that the buyer can modify them in any way they like, and pretty much do what they want with them. This gives the buyer virtually endless ways to make money.

Private label rights products, also known as PLR, are also a great way for the novice marketer to make money on the Internet.

So what are some of the ways to make money with private label rights products?

Here are five to get you started.

1) Create an ebook from related articles. Paste them into a word processor, each article forming an individual chapter. Add some nice graphics and a table of contents and you have a saleable product. You can also monetize it by putting in links to affiliate products or your own website. You can sell your new ebook either from your own site or through auction sites like eBay.

2) Create individual web pages for a website. Search engines love relevant content on web sites and by modifying the articles slightly, your content will become unique to you and help with your rankings, drawing people to your website. If on your pages you have links to related products, the visitors will look and possibly buy.

3) If you bought a PLR ebook or two, you could take each chapter out and create an autoresponder ecourse with them. You can then use this to entice people onto your mailing list, and over the course of time build your own credibility with prospects, and building trust with them to the point where they will trust your recommendations on products to buy.

You could also strip out the content of PLR ebooks to create web pages for your own blog or website.

4) You could use PLR articles to create a short report that you give away, and allow others to give them away too, creating a viral marketing effect, increasing traffic to your blog, website or affiliate links. If you also made parts of your report rebrandable, you will increase people's willingness to pass your report on.

5) PLR software is a bit more difficult because if you do not have software experience you may have to hire a programmer to do the branding for you. Having said that though, if you branded the software correctly, you could easily use it to draw traffic to your own website by getting it listed in many of the download site that are available online.

These are just five ways to make money with private label products. You can profit from private label rights products in hundreds of ways. The only limitation is your own creativity!

Discover why many people do not find ways to make money with private label rights products. Free report shows you why and how you can http://www.create-an-income.com/info/plr

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By Zachary Scott

If you have a home based business, there are chances you also have a website or a blog. The key to making money with these is generating traffic. The more traffic, the more you will get money. Here is some information on how you can get that traffic. I wish I had read an article like this when I was starting out. It would have helped me to start making more money much faster.

The first way, but mind you, it takes a long period, is to use SEO. What is SEO? SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. In other words, you have to optimize your website, so it will be Search Engine friendly. You want search engines to pick up you site and be in the top results when someone searches something specific to your content. To do so, you must do the following:

-Use META tags
-Use a keyword rich content
-Registering to search Engines.

There are other steps to SEO, but for a beginner's guide, they are not of importance yet. I do not want to give out too much information and loose you. So let us take apart the different things I named. First, the META tags. In your webpage code, you have (...) .In is between these to elements of code that you will put your Meta tags. The two most important being:

1-

This is where you will put the description of your website. Put some keywords that have to do with your site, but it still has to be a readable description. This brief text shows when your website comes out on Google to describe your website.

2-

This one is also very important. It contains all the keywords you can think of that can be in your site. What I mean, is that you put every search phrase or word, you think a person might type in Google that might relate to your site content. Once you have found your list of keywords, put them, as much as possible, in your website. The more your keywords are present on your site, the better ranking you will get.

Do not forget, to make sure your website will be crawled; you should register it with most search engines. Search Google, with the term "Add Url" and you will most surely find at least where you can add a URL to Google. Do this with Yahoo, MSN and any other search engines.

Another way to get traffic to your website is to use traffic exchange. Traffic exchange is simply what is says, an exchange of traffic. Every time you visit a website through the traffic exchange program, they will send someone to your website, and vice versa. This is another great way of getting free traffic; most of the time you must sign-up, usually with no cost, except to receive a newsletter occasionally. I suggest this method, since it is not expensive at all, and if done effectively, you can get plenty of traffic.

The final way, I will suggest for you to get traffic to your website is quite simple: forum advertising.

All you need to do is find forums on the net that have to do with your website. In those forums, start participating, talk to as many people as you can. Try to get some credibility. At the same time, in your signature (You can update this in your user profile on most forums), just put a link to your website. You will see, the more you get implicated and credible, that more people will visit your website.

In conclusion, I just want to make sure you do not forget some important information. When you get some traffic for your website, you are using some bandwidth. Inform yourself with your host what your monthly-allowed bandwidth is, because if you do not, you might get a bill that is higher than you expected. Bandwidth is chargeable when you surpass what you are allowed to use. I just thought a heads-up was of great importance.

Do not forget, this is only an introduction to different ways for beginners to get free traffic. If you have some income to spare, there are other ways to get traffic; such as, buying mailing lists, or buying guaranteed traffic, and such. This is not the subject of this article, so I will not get into them. Most paid services have customer support that will be more than glad to help you out!

The author of this article runs http://bloggingto-thebank.blogspot.com/, which is his blog that is intended to help people make money online.

He has been making money online for some time now, make sure to read all the articles for their content and you might want to sign-up for the free ebook that develops more on the subject of this article.

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By David McGimpsey

Imagine you want to open your own bricks and mortar department store. How much money do you need?

You tell your friend and he offers you an empty building in the best part of town. You ask how much rent he wants and he says, "Don't worry, it's free for as long as you need it." Now you have the premises, no money down, any money to spend.

You call the credit card company. You ask how much will it cost for merchant facilities. They say, "We will give them to you for free, just give us a small bit of money when you sell something."

This process goes on for some time.

Now you have a rent-free department store, credit card facilities and staff that will work for nothing. All you need is stock. This will be hard because the department store is big and you do not have much money.

No Problem.

You find some wholesalers that will loan you display stock. They even let you pay for each order after you make the sale, and they will handle customer delivery for you. What nice guys! It does not get much better than this.

Then you wake up.

If only life was really like the dream, you just had. Wait a minute, it is.

You can do all this online. In fact, you could have your own online department store up and running in a few short hours.

In addition, it gets better. The customers are already out there looking for you. No worrying about location for you.

This is how it works:

1. Set up an eBay account.

2. Link your eBay account to a PayPal account.

(So far, we have not spent anything, but we already have our premises in the best part of town and merchant facilities.)

3. Locate some wholesale drop ship companies.

4. Create your eBay listings and your department store is complete (you probably already have customers).

Life is simple after all.

For further reading, visit our Drop Ship Companies and eBay resources (http://www.online-home-business-advisor.com/drop-ship-companies.html).

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by Robert Wilkinson

If there's one thing that makes direct mail a reliable method of drumming up new business, then that would have to be the ability to test if different versions of a mailing pack achieve a better return on investment. Having processed many mailings over the years, I can attest that, more often than not, clients don't test at all.

Not testing is commercial suicide. In today's competitive climate, if there is anything that can be done to reduce the cost of acquiring a customer, then it must be done. It's a no brainer.

You decrease your direct mail costs by the application of a little common sense and by testing, which produces the best response.

We'll take the example of a direct mail pack that comprises five parts in all.

The parts of the pack are as follows:

1) Envelope
2) Personalized letter
3) Brochure
4) Leaflet/Order form
5) Business reply Envelope

Looking at this, you might think it's complete -- but we've forgotten the most important part of all:

6) The data

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

You may have a particular target audience already decided ... for example, lawyers. You will be able to get lists of lawyers from more than one source. Those sources can be tested. You'll also have the option of mailing to a named individual, or to a job title, so you can test that too. So far, that's at least four permutations, provided you only use two data suppliers. It would be six if you used three suppliers.

If you didn't narrow your field to one sector, then the choice of tests to run could be massively increased -- but there really isn't any need to take it to the extreme.

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

Depending on how your envelope is made, you may be able to run multiple designs for a minimal charge. The nature of some jobs is that they are printed 2 or 3 or up on a sheet, so you will be able to produce equal quantities of more than one design. Even if it's not free, chances are that it won't be that expensive for a plate change.

For the letterhead: you can change the paper. Studies by paper merchants have shown a 20% increase in response just by changing to a textured paper. The copy itself on the letter can be changed. Offers can be changed.

The number of options to test here is almost limitless.

With the leaflet, the same applies as for the letterhead. Copy, material, imagery; they're all fair game for testing.

Last but not least, we move on to the BRE (Business Reply Envelope). There's not a huge amount you could test here. White or manila envelopes, perhaps? Maybe even a colored BRE? If it isn't going to cost a lot, why not try it?

Using these methods, over time, you can increase the effectiveness of your mailings. Always test, even when you think you have the perfect maling pack, continue to run a test campaign against it, even if the difference between the two is really quite small. If you continue to do this, your costs to acquire a customer will continue to fall steadily.

There is an almost infinitely large and limitless opportunity for testing if you look. Maybe it's this huge scope for testing that puts people off, but I think it's just a lack of awareness of what you can do.

You don't need to complicate things. Just run two mailing packs with one difference between them and continue to replace the poorest performer.

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

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By Jo Han Mok

If you're ever bored and want to stir up some trouble, go to an Internet marketing forum and post a question asking how well E-zine advertising fares in comparison to other marketing methods.

The answers you get are likely to be diametrically opposed. This is not only because each marketer has his own product to sell and it is in his best interest to justify the purpose of that product, but it is also because there has been a genuine debate raging for the past few years about the effectiveness and direction of E-zines and E-zine advertising.

There are those who posit that E-zine advertising is dead or is near the bottom of a very steep decline. They see the average person as being overwhelmed by superfluous emails on a daily basis, some coming from friends and others coming from businesses and E-zines.

In their eyes, this amounts to a continuing decrease in attention paid to any emails that look business related, even if they specifically subscribed to them.

Additionally, they argue that many people forget that they joined lists and eventually begin to ignore emails coming from that address. And all of this is true, which is precisely why it is important to take it into consideration when you are conducting E-zine advertising campaigns.

So -- how can you affectively advertise in E-zines and reap a profit from affiliate products?

There are a number of different ways, of which, I will cover three below:

1. Target E-zines that are related to your specific affiliate product.

Create a viral report that is related to your affiliate product. Purchase sponsor ads in reputable E-zines and send all of those interested to a page where they can download your viral report for free. This report will have an embedded affiliate link, which will generate sales on your behalf.

2. Create a persuasive solo ad.

Again, start off by purchasing solo ad space in cheaper E-zines -- ones that are responsive, but have a low subscription count. Test your solo ads to determine your approximate conversion rate with the given affiliate product. Once you have a rough handle on your profit margin, attempt to market your solo ads in larger publications, including e-zines with subscriber bases of over 100,000. Keep in mind that this will be expensive, but it will also pay off, if you did your homework in the previous steps.

3. Last, consider targeting high-end online publications with your ads.

These will include ones that don't normally include their sites in E-zine directories, such as authority sites that publish a monthly E-zine in PDF format. These often have high response rates and will similarly draw the best response if you use them correctly.

Jo Han Mok is a #1 bestselling author and frequent featured speaker at Internet Marketing bootcamps and conferences. Visit his website for a simple step-by-step plan to profit online in 21 days or less! http://www.SuperFastProfit.com.

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By Leonard Bartholomew

Publishing an e-zine, often thought of as a great Internet marketing tool, can also be your best internet home based business opportunity. An e-zine can make money online. While an e-zine is not necessarily the same as an electronic newsletter (the latter is generally longer) for the purposes of what each of them can do for your bottom line and your Internet networking, we are going to assume they are identical.

Publishing an e-zine can be a very enjoyable internet home based business. To know that you can write about yourself and your business, you can work at any hour of the day and night, and you are imparting your wisdom to people who have actually asked for it, and will benefit from it, can be a very satisfying experience.

We are all experts at something. Take stock of what you have done over the years and what you have learned. Think about what you enjoy doing and what you do well. Surely, there is something you do better, and that you know more about than anybody else does. That is the focus of your new e-zine or newsletter.

As an internet home based business, your e-zine will take some patience but there are few businesses, of the thousands and thousands out there, which make any money right off. This is true despite some of the hyperbolic stuff you read on the Internet about spending a few dollars to buy someone else's internet home based business opportunity and then all you have to do is sit back and watch the money roll in from day one.

No matter what the internet home based, business opportunity is - unless it is some sort of scam - that is just not going to happen.

With your e-zine, you will spend several months building your subscriber base. Once it reaches about 1000, you can start selling advertising, or sponsorships to relevant businesses. They will probably jump at the chance to tap into your highly targeted market for their products. Of course, you can also sell your own products and services as well. What you want to be very careful about is not selling advertising or sponsorship to a competitor. The advertisers on the ezine should enhance, and not compete with your internet home based business products and services.

Once you have a steady following for your e-zine, you can start charging for a subscription. Alternatively, you might run two ezines, one condensed free one, and another paid one that offers more help, more advice, more resources, and so forth.

The message is that if you have an expertise, a product, an opportunity, an idea, an industry, or a service, then you know more about it than most other people. If it is a product or idea or service that enough people want to know more about, you can make a lucrative internet home based business out of publishing an ezine and helping others learn.

Leonard Bartholomew, B.S. Computer Science. Leonard is a Cardiac Computer System Administrator for a large hospital chain in the Carolinas. He invites you to investigate the best internet home based business opportunity (http://www.moxie-drive.com/) the internet has to provide today.

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By Mark Seyster

I must admit that I have been playing a bit of hooky, lately. I guess I just needed a little bit of "mental" as well as "physical" rest. To do this I escaped to the wilds of New Hampshire during the past week to do some skiing. I brought one of my daughters along to make it a father/daughter trip, also. The conditions and the company were excellent. As they say, "Just what the doctor ordered".

The point behind this story, I believe most of us can relate to the fact that our lives are much faster paced, hyper-paced, than they used to be! The reasons for this are varied, but the fact remains that they are. Many of us are overworked and stressed out with what seems like a million things to do and not enough time to do them. Can you relate to this? Does this describe your life? Unfortunately, it seems like this is the norm for us. One area that highlights this frenetic, fast-paced life is the in-box of your email account. This is the new home (vs. the nightly dinnertime phone calls) where constant bombardment with all sorts of solicited (non-spam) and unsolicited (spam) information arrives.

If you are like me, most of the time you probably do not bother to open and/or read the majority of these emails. You quickly reach for the delete key and poof - they are instantly gone!

My advice to you, as hard as it may be to take with the limited time we all seem to have, is to take a couple of extra minutes to screen these emails. The reason I am recommending this to you is that buried amongst the majority of plain old garbage can be some real gems. Just like the old-time miners sifting through tons of dirt to get to the small bit of gold. I have discovered a few of these gems that contain excellent, quality information, in just this manner, when I was not looking for them.

Below are a couple of the ecommerce advice gems that I have come across in the past few months, by following my own advice, that may be of interest to you:

Practical Ecommerce

Kerry and Joy Murdock in Grand Junction, Colorado, USA launched practical eCommerce magazine in July 2005. Its mission from the start has been to provide down-to-earth articles and advice to help smaller businesses succeed online. This editorial content was originally delivered primarily through a monthly, printed magazine, but it now (2007) includes this website, podcasts, and an email newsletter (EcommerceNotes), as well as the printed magazine, which is now bi-monthly.

Real folks are behind this company. We are a small business ourselves, and we take seriously the notion of helping other small businesses decipher the complexities of migrating online or improving their online operations.

Web Marketing Today

Dr. Ralph Wilson formed Wilson Internet Services at the very beginning of the commercial Internet in 1995 to help small to medium businesses and organizations learn how to use the Internet effectively.

For a complete ecommerce solution see:

I wish you the best in your success!

Mark@original-new-england-enterprises.com

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By Zachary Scott

If you are reading this, it is probably because you want to start Affiliate Marketing, or because you have heard it is a good method to make money online, or you have already started and tried but have not figured out how it all works.

What is affiliate marketing? Affiliate Marketing is to market via promotions, websites, ads, and other vehicles of promotion, products for other companies, and to receive commissions for each sale these promotions have directly caused. This may seem complicated but I will give you a classic example, which will clarify things for you.

Example case of an affiliate Marketer You put a banner ad for a television on a website. A person clicks on that ad, and is redirected to XYZ Company, on the product page of the television. The person then buys the television. Since you have an affiliate agreement with XYZ Company, you get Xpercentage of the sale.

It is simple really! You get commissions for sales you give to vendors.

Now you are probably asking yourself a great question that I would love to answer!

How do I become an affiliate marketer? There are two ways to become an affiliate marketer. The first is searching the net for different companies, and looking for an affiliate program on their sites. You can then register with them. Some of them will require a phone call to verify your identity and such, others not. It is an effective way, but it is harder to compare.

Another way to get into the Affiliate Marketing business is to register with a third-party website such as Clickbank or Commission Junction. These are great, because they will let you choose from hundreds, if not thousands of different products relevant to what you want. You can even search in these products to find what you want and choose between competitors. If you think this will cut into your commissions, you are wrong. You can get up to 75% commissions on sales from these third-party websites. Therefore, I personally suggest this option further, at least for beginners.

Why should I use Affiliate Marketing? Affiliate Marketing is great because you only have to promote and wait, really! Of course, the more active you are in promoting, the more money you are going to make. Truly, the best thing about this though, is that you do not have to worry about a lot of the "back end" stuff. I am talking about customer support; billing issues. In fact, you do not have to know a thing about the product you are selling, except for the basics to be able to promote it well.

I hope this helps anyone asking oneself what Affiliate Marketing is, and others who were wondering where to start out.

The author of this article runs http://bloggingto-thebank.blogspot.com/, which is his blog that is intended to help people make money online.

He has been making money online for some time now, make sure to read all the articles for their content and you might want to sign-up for the free ebook that develops more on the subject of this article.

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By Carol Stack

Working at Home is Not for Everyone

One of the most difficult aspects of working at home is to focus on what really needs to be done for the business. There are many things needing done, like yard work, laundry, and childcare. Some days you realize the day is gone and you did not get anything done for your business.

How can you work at home and focus on your business when there are interesting things to watch on television, or snow to shovel off the driveway, or the phone is constantly ringing?

Some people are not able to work at home, and the only choice for them is to get a small office somewhere away from home, as soon as they can afford it. However, for those who can get work done, there are things to do to minimize distractions.

First, set a certain time each day when you will focus on your business. Let the family know that this is your time to work and that you must not be disturbed.

That can be hard for children to understand, especially young children. One woman was able to make a game of it.

She told her children that if they let her focus on making sales calls from her home office, that every time she made a sale she would put a quarter in a jar. When there were enough quarters in the jar, the entire family would go out for pizza or to a movie.

That idea worked great for her. It was a reward for the entire family. It got to the point where the children could hardly wait for their mom to go into her office and make some calls.

However, what do you do with a phone that hardly stops ringing. You do not want to miss a call. It might be your child trying to get hold of you for an emergency.

The simple solution is to get an answering machine or voice mail. That will take care of 99% of the calls.

For family emergencies make sure your children and spouse know your cell phone number, and then keep your cell phone with you. Also, let them know that during your work hours they should only call for emergencies, the same, as they would do if you had an office job.

What About the Neighbors?

Neighbors and friends can pose problems, too. They often think that because you are home you must be free to be involved in all sorts of activities or to chat.

This can be one of the hardest things to deal with, but you must somehow make them understand that you are working at home and that you are not retired. Most people can understand that, especially today when more and more people are working at home.

Are You the Type to Work at Home?

It takes a certain kind of person to be able to work at home. Not everyone can do it. You have to be able to view it as if you were going to an office job and diligently be able to guard your work time.

You have to be able to forget all the other things that need to be done around the house. Focus strictly on what needs to be done to grow your business for a certain number of hours every workday. If you cannot do this, do not feel bad. As soon as you can afford it, go out and rent office space.

Grab lots of free reports and information on starting your own online publishing business at http://www.selfpublishinghelper.com.

Carol Stack was once stuck working in a cubicle like millions of others around the world, but now enjoys working at home online. She lives with her husband and three children. Carol enjoys home schooling, internet marketing, and writing. Visit her site to discover how you can make money at home.

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By Calvin Woon

Have you ever wondered why some people are able to make money online while most struggle? There are actually some reasons why people fail to make money online and I have compiled some of the reasons below:

1. They get distracted easily and lose focus. In other words, people cannot stick to what works. Instead of having and focusing on a few affiliate programs that work for you, they simply hop from one work at home business opportunity to another. That really should not be the way to go about it, if you seriously want to make money online. You need to focus all your efforts and resources on one good solid program in order to make the most out of your internet business and make serious money online.

2. They do not apply the information they have learned. Most people read book after book and attend seminar after seminar. Most have lots of information stored in their heads. However, knowledge without action is useless. However, applied knowledge is power. So you have to apply what you have leaned about making money online to your internet business. Keep taking action and you will soon achieve your goals and start to make money online.

3. They misunderstand the concept of 'working from home', thinking that they can just relax at home and make money. Undoubtedly, the aim of owning a home based internet business is to free up your time in the future so that you can accomplish the greater things in life. However, it does not mean you can just sit back, relax right from the start, and expect to make money online. You have to work, and put in both time and effort. Over time as profits start to kick in, then can you spend less time on it?

4. They are not passionate in their business. Now, we are bound to face obstacles and failures in our quest to make money online. Without the passion in what one is doing, one will easily lose the focus and motivation once the going gets tough. Hence, you have to find a niche market you are passionate about in order to truly be able to make money online.

5. They have not fully grasped all aspects of the business. In other words, these people do not know their business well enough. People never get to know their business inside and out. They do not know what differentiates them from the rest, how their business helps to serve the public and what strategies to use to make it better. If one does not know his/her business well enough, it is going to be tough to sustain the internet business and enable one to make money online.

Bear in mind the above five reasons which cause people to fail to make money online. Avoid them. You could be well on your way to making serious money online.

Calvin Woon is an online entrepreneur who is dedicated to helping others earn money online too. To claim your free gifts and more information, visit http://7WaysToEarnMoneyOnline.com/success.htm

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By Bob Crane

Ok, your spouse has orders to relocate again, and now you will have to leave your job and find a new one at your new destination. When you first started moving around it was exciting seeing new things and making new friends but sometimes it gets hard to get back on track, especially with finding another job. You just never know what the job outlook is in the area that you are going to and if you will be able to find something with the hours, you still need to take care of your family.

A portable internet based network marketing opportunity would really work great in that situation because it can be operated from anywhere in the world which has an internet connection, and a telephone, if possible. Getting started in your own network marketing business is easy. Just find one that offers a product that you like and can believe in and has international exposure. Once you find a product and a company that you like, then you have to find a sponsor in that company that you would like to work with. It would be up to the sponsor to train you on the workings of the company and get you started on marketing the product and business yourself. In the event they transfer you to a place where making phone calls was prohibitive, you would need your sponsor to help you with that until you were able to get back to an area where you could make your own calls. It is important to find a sponsor who understands your situation and is willing to help you out when you need it. That is really the essence of network marketing, people helping people.

As your network marketing business grew, you would begin to receive a decent income from your business to help you no matter where you lived. You could also work with other military dependents and show them how to have their own business, also. If they decided to come on board with you, then you would become their sponsor, and so on. Much of the company communication is done through conference calls that could be e-mailed to you if you were outside of an inexpensive calling area, and then you could listen to them when you had time.

Building your own network marketing business with your friends on base would allow you to keep in touch with them long after you moved again. When I was in the military, I made several friends, but after several moves, we just drifted apart. If we had been working together on a network-marketing project, we probably would still be keeping in touch now. There are many benefits to starting your own network marketing business. Start exploring them today.

Bob Crane is a Nutrition Consultant/Trainer involved in developing a one of a kind new Internet Work at Home Goji Juice Business System. http://www.1vitalityavenue.com Check out the Goji Super Juice. To Find Out How Bob Can Help You Get Started In Your Own Home Business You May Contact Him at: http://www.domesticbiz.com

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by Mike Potter

"The domain name is 21st century real estate," says Warren Adelman, president of GoDaddy.com, the world’s largest domain name registrar. "The economy is being increasingly driven by the Internet sector." The smart investors with big money are now jumping into this market. Major investors like Ross Perot and Howard Schultz (Chairman of Starbucks Corp.) are investing millions of dollars in the domain market.

You know these guys are not going to put millions of dollars into some fly-by-night idea. How can the average investor get started in domain investing even when it looks like all of the “good names” have already been bought up?

The secret to investing is not buying up domain names hoping that someone is going to type your name into their browser window. Instead, to make money with domain names, the secret is buying expired domain names.

Every day, around 30,000 domains expire, for one reason or another. Often, the Webmaster just doesn’t have the time to update his Website, or he's just lost interest. Sometimes, the Webmaster simply forgot to renew.

Many of these Webmasters have put considerable work into developing their Websites and domains. They've created a large link structure with thousands of links, they've achieved Google page rank, they've listed with Yahoo or DMOZ, or they've invested into other forms of off-line marketing.

The average investor is able to leverage the work already put into a domain to create large profits.

One place to find expiring domain names is etrafficwiz.com. Here, you can find traffic indicating information about the domain (links, Alexa rank, etc) and register to purchase the domains in a private auction before they go into the public market. The program is easy enough that the average person is able to evaluate and purchase these expiring domains and turn them into cash!

There are several ways to make money from an expired domain that gets traffic. Redirecting targeted, profitable traffic to other sites you own is one. If a domain name has traffic already, you can redirect it to one of the sites you already own.

Buying domains relevant to the topic and keywords of a previously-made site is a quick, easy, and cheap way to increase your Website traffic.

Or, you can use parking services for passive income. If you don’t have an existing Website you can still make money from domain investing. The parking services host your site for free and display ads on your site. When a visitor clicks on an ad, you get paid. It's that simple. One example is Sedo.com.

You can also resell domains for fat profits. Just like in real estate, you can buy a domain name under market value in a private auction, then sell it for a profit in the open market. Find a great name like FunnyAds.com and you could be cashing in on a $100,000 paycheck.

Another trick is to build a site to take advantage of the current traffic. Imagine how much easier it is to launch a Website when you are already receiving traffic from an existing link structure or a domain that is already listed with the major search engines. You would be able to save a ton of time, money, and energy.

Another way to cash in: redirect traffic to affiliate programs. Affiliate programs will supply you with links to existing Websites. When someone makes a purchase, you get paid. Just redirect the traffic the Website is already receiving to an affiliate program and watch the cash roll in. Commision Juncion (cj.com) is one of the top affiliate program directories and it's free to join.

Or, you can hold onto domains while they increase in value. You can simply hold onto your domain while you watch prices, demand and value rise and supply go down. Don’t forget to park your domain in a free parking house, to make money while you hold your domain.

The fact is, domain names are becoming a limited resource. Domains are like virtual real estate: as the supply goes down, the value of the real estate goes up.

Smart investors are buying domains that have great potential and are making a nice paycheck while waiting for the value to increase. Check out etrafficwiz.com for more information of how you can invest smartly in domain real estate.

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by Shrinivas Vaidya

Do you know that all you need is 95 characters to survive on the Internet? The online world is not at all different from the usual offline world -- what we call the real world. Google, the busiest search engine on the Internet, started to sell advertising space on the search engine result pages in March, 2002. Instead of talking about this system, I'd like to try to answer a few questions.

* How does the system work?

It's very simple to understand. You go to Google.com, do a search and, when the search results show up, apart from the normal search results, Google also shows the ads of those advertisers who have decided to pay for that particular keyword to Google. The "paying" process in this case is a "bid" because pricing and position are determined on an auction basis.

* How much are the bids on keywords?

This is very difficult to answer. It's like real estate rates ... they entirely depend upon demand and supply of information for which the keyword is associated to.

But, one very important point here is that Google AdWords is a Pay Per Click system. This means it costs nothing to just show your ads on the Google search results pages. But, if someone clicks on your ad, Google will charge your credit card the bid mount that you have selected.

* What kinds of ads can I write?

These are normal text ads, limited to 25 characters for the title, 35 characters for the first description line, and 35 characters for the second description line. These total just 95 characters (including spaces). That's it. You get just 95 characters to show your creativity and drive traffic. Below these words, Google will also display the Website address you're advertising.

* How much time does it take to show up the ads on the search result pages?

Instantly. The moment you save your ad in the account panel, your ad becomes "active" and, depending upon the demand for the keywords you have selected, you start receiving traffic to your Website.

* How many keywords can I bid on for a given ad.

It entirely depends upon how much targeted traffic you want to your Website. It's quite obvious that bidding on more keywords will expose your ad to more search results and, thus, you can expect more traffic.

The AdWords system has a facility to create ad groups within your account and each ad group can take up to 1000 keywords.

This was a simple overview of the Google AdWords system for beginners. I hope it will help encourage you to study, in depth, more AdWords strategies that can create wonders for your online business.

Copyright, Shrinivas Vaidya

AdWords is the registered trademark of Google Inc.

Learn how ordinary people are earning a loads of cash with AdWords. Subscribe to a FREE 5-day FREE e-course and get the insiders secrets that can double your Website traffic by spending less even on highly competitive keywords. Visit http://www.PayPerClickWonders.com to start TODAY.

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By Ken Mathie

There is only one 'right' way to use email lists for marketing purposes and that is to use it with a list of prospects who have contacted you first. This is what is called an Opt-In list. What it means is the consumers have opted to include their email address in a mailing list which means that your mails are not considered spam because they were 'opted' for.

Here's why:

Your contacts will not complain about receiving valuable information from you. They welcome the opportunity to receive many different types of emails such as:

* last minute' reminders
* special offers
* hot information about new products
* news 'from the very hub' of their industry
* product/website updates
* even links to affiliate 'like' sites

Here are some more key tips to keep in mind when trying to build your own email hot list.

1. Capture Addresses

You can only email your customers if you have their addresses, so start collecting them now. Make sure there is a prominent place for an email address on all customer response forms you use both online and offline. It helps when you use software that is designed to hold multiple email hot lists, so you will only have to input the information once.

2. Use ASCII Text Only

Keep it simple. Include lots of white space in your messages. Use headlines and sub-headlines. Don't overuse words that are in all capitals. Make it easy for the readers to scan and to read.

3. Use Wide Margins

Limit yourself to 55/60 characters or less per line, because it is simply more attractive to the reader and it helps you to point out anything that you want to draw attention to.

4. Deliver Your Most Important Information First

Key benefits and sales points must be communicated in the first screen people read because many readers do not read an entire email, whether they opted in for it or not. If you save the good stuff for the end of the email, or try to capture a reader's attention by leading into it, you will do nothing except lose business.

Think about it; would you want to have to hunt around for the best part?

5. Make The Subject Line Your Headline, Too

This is what people are going to see first. If your headline is strong, crisp, and compelling, they'll open your email. Concentrate on this all-important element. For example, if you are offering a free gift with purchase, your subject line could read "FREE gift for you!" I don't know about you, but this would get my attention if it is from a web source that I signed up for.

6. The Shorter the Better

Unlike other kinds of sales writing, where long copy outsells short copy, the standard for email sales letters are different. Think about the way you sort through email, especially when you have a backlog of messages. The time you spend online is generally short. Respond to this new business medium by keeping your emails just as short.

7. Test

Keep a good record of your responses by testing one element of your email at a time. Start with the subject line. Test headlines, body copy, layout, and the PS at the end. Successful marketing copy is always tested, one element at a time, to make sure those things are running smoothly and to get rid of the stuff that is not working.

Today, the largest companies online,including Apple, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! and many, many more are using acceptable and responsible commercial email. If they can do it, YOU can do it too.

Start building your opt-in email lists today! I would suggest that you keep it simple to begin with, and build a growing text file of email addresses. But, ultimately, you will want to personalize your messages, because it substantially increases your response. Gather as much information as you can when people contact you, such as the reader's name, and apply it
to the email, but, at a minimum, capture their name and email address. In time, this list will become highly profitable for you. The list is the most important aspect of any successful email marketing campaign.

8. Use Autoresponders

When you are contacting your clients through emails that require a reply from the reader or a sign up or order form etc. you should be sure to include an autoresponder that will let your client know that their email was received. You can find many different types of software that will do this for you. If for no other reason; than so that you can free up some of your time.

Writing an Autoresponder Message that Gets Results!

The autoresponder is fast becoming the hardest worker of Internet marketing. With theautoresponder, you can deliver your sales message or other information to all of your clients very quickly. And you can deliver it 24 hours a day to any Internet email user in the world. This must sound awesome, right? But, you might be wondering how you can create an
autoresponder message that gets real results.

Here are some methods of power communication that will give you the success that you crave. I know this because I have used them. It is great for emails, letters, mailbot copy, World Wide Web content, ads and more.

1. Focus on the reader, not yourself

Your message should be about the customer's needs and how your product will fulfill those needs, not about how wonderful you are and how great your product is, because, in the end, it is all just your own opinions and it turns people right off.

Don't focus on yourself and your life too much. Take a look at my first few paragraphs above. How many times did I talk about "you" and "your" as opposed to "I" and "me"?

2. Make it personal.

As with any sales letter, you have to write your autoresponder message as if you were having a one-to-one conversation. Pretend you're sitting down to talk to a friend. Allow your message be friendly, animated and informal. You can even use some slang, if it's appropriate.

3. Be sure to Emphasize the benefits.

Rather than thinking of yourself as selling a product or a service, think of yourself as providing real services to your clients. You want to know what the benefits to these services really are here. This is what you should be asking yourself:

"What does the customer get out of my product?"

The answer should be something like "more time," "more money," "more fun," "an easier life," "better health," or "greater safety."

Benefits and features are two different things. Feature are: "This computer has a Pentium 4 processor." A benefit is more like this: "Lightning-fast Pentium 4 processor means you get more work done in less time."

4. Include a "Call to Action" in your response

You need to know exactly what you want the reader to do after reading your message and then tell them to do it. Ask yourself these questions:

What do you want? Do you want a reply by email? A visit to your Web site? An order called in to your toll-free number?

Let the user know what responses you want, and let them know in a compelling, urgent, benefits-oriented way. Include complete contact information, and triple-check it for accuracy.

5. Offer useful information.

One good autoresponder strategy is to offer a free report that offers useful information but including a sales message and an "advertorial" approach.

For an example, distribute a report, "10 Tips for Selling on the Internet and the Web." Tell the user how to order your book on the subject, etc. You can even include an order form. Readers will not resent your pitch because they got so much value from the report.

6. Use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.

You tell the world whether you're a professional or an amateur by the quality of your marketing communications. Take the time to edit your autoresponder message for errors. If you're terrible at grammar etc. get someone who can edit it for you.

7. Create a better layout to make it easier to read.

Since a mailbot message is delivered in plain ASCII text, your design capabilities are going to be very limited. Here are a few tricks you can use to make your message a bit more readable:

* For a headline, use ALL-CAPS and insert a blank line before and after it.

* Use short paragraphs, say 5-7 lines at the most (100 words).

* Set out all of your material in bulleted lists -- its easier to read.

* Use "white space with catchy headlines" to center important material and call attention to it, like the following does:

Now available:
Solid strategies for "Affiliate Marketing"!
Send any message to ken@profitdot.net

Warning: Don't get fancy with your script fonts because not all computers are the same.

8. Don't Break the law.

False advertising is still illegal, even if you're on the Internet. In many countries, pyramid schemes (MLM) and chain letters are illegal. You should assume that all tax and licensing laws in your town, state, province, country and so forth still apply. If you're not sure about something, check.

9. Read feedback people send to your autoresponder.

A good autoresponder system will send you a copy of the request every time someone sends for your report. With most systems, the user doesn't have to type anything in the body of their message when they send in the request; however, they usually do. By reading the message and replying to the user personally, you may increase your chances of selling to that person because it shows that you are listening.

If you create a strong, well-written, persuasive message, your autoresponder can help you increase your sales and fulfil any and all of the goals of your email marketing effort, which will certainly make it a whole lot more worth while.

PMCezine.. Home Biz News & Tips. Weekly up-to-date powerful strategies to outsmart, out market and outsell even your toughest competition. Receive your six free egifts when you subscribe. http://www.pmcezine.comet/

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By: Paul Wolbers

Here is a simple guide for getting started with PPC advertising. You should find it to be complimentary to your overall marketing program and a good start to finding traffic while you continue to build your natural search engine placement.

- Research Your Keywords -

Don't waste your money bidding on words or phrases that will attract the wrong audience or too broad of an audience or you will quickly go through your advertising budget with very little return on your investment.

Use a program like Wordtracker that can assist you in creating a list of keywords and phrases that will relate to your topic. You can easily find out which words have a large amount of competition as well as the current bids for those words.

When you have made your keyword and phrase list, develop a simple Ad that is both clear and descriptive. Use proven advertising copy words like "How to..., "Discover", "Save", "Free" and "Easy" in your description. Create curiosity while providing enough information that you will not attract under qualified traffic.

Use each keyword or phrase you are bidding on in its own description rather than giving the same ad copy to every word. Test your campaigns and stick to your budget.

Figure out how many customers you need in order to make a sale and based on that figure, you can work out how much you are willing to spend to attract customers through pay per click advertising.

If your product sells on average for $20 and it takes 100 visitors to make a sale, you can afford to spend 20 cents per visitor to make a sale. Obviously you would want to spend less in order to make a profit, so by bidding 10 cents per key phrase, you would spend $10 to make a $20 sale with a $10 profit. This is just a rough example.

Remember, PPC is only one piece of your marketing strategy, so while you may spend more using pay per click when you first start, eventually your content and hyperlinks will attract free visitors organically, which will offset your cost per sale ratio.

Paul Wolbers is an Affiliate SEO Marketer. Visit his website for more great tips, tricks and tactics designed to help you succeed online. http://www.PaulWolbers.com

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By Ernie Zelinski

All things considered, word of mouth is still the most important means of marketing any product or service. Word of mouth is created by getting your product or service in the hands of people who will appreciate it and will talk to friends and associates about it.

The best way to get people talking is to give your product or service to key individuals, including talk-show hosts, columnists, celebrities, and chat-line addicts who are going to mention it to many people, who will mention it to even more people.

With the right product or service, the more you give away, the more you end up selling. I have now spent approximately $40,000 giving away over 12,000 copies of my books. There is no doubt in my mind that this has played a big part in helping me to sell hundreds of thousands of my books.

But let's not dwell on my own case, because I have one that is much better. A few years ago, Marlo Morgan self-published a book called Mutant Message Down Under. Three years later, Morgan had sold 270,000 copies.

This is a remarkable figure for any self-published book, but the most extraordinary fact was Morgan had given away over 90,000 copies of her book in three years. She donated the copies to prisons, women's shelters, and other institutions.

Giving away almost one hundred copies each day for three years straight is not something even major publishers would consider, but it paid off for Morgan. Her impressive sales were a result of the word-of-mouth advertising generated from the copies she gave away. Better still, when the book finally came to the attention of HarperCollins, the publisher paid Morgan a $1.7 million advance to take over publication of Mutant Message Down Under.

Giving away your product or service for free may seem like a silly way to try to make a living. There is no better way to create word of mouth, however, as Marlo Morgan proved. Many people end up buying your product or service after hearing about it from someone. The key is to give your product to the influencers of this world. By influencers, I mean the "big mouths" of this world who know a lot of other influential people and will recommend your book to everyone they talk to.

If you can't get word-of-mouth advertising happening after giving a lot of your product away, likely your product is not distinctive enough. Do whatever it takes to make your product more distinctive. The subsequent word-of-mouth marketing from giving a lot of it away will do wonders for your bottom line.

NOTE: This article is adapted from the book Real Success Without a Real Job (Ten Speed Press) by Ernie J. Zelinski.

Download the free E-book (in PDF format) with the first chapter of Real Success Without a Real Job at: http://www.real-success.ca/free_ebooks.html

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By: Elizabeth Gordon

Are you looking for ways to get people talking about your brand? An increasing frustration with traditional media has driven businesses and marketing firms to start employing more creative means of getting customers attention beyond the traditional media outlets. You may hear this referred to as viral, word-of-mouth or buzz marketing and this method is attaining broad popularity as an inexpensive and highly effective marketing method.

What is Viral Marketing, Word-of-Mouth, or Buzz Marketing?

Viral Marketing is a way of capturing attention of consumers and the media to the point where talking about your brand becomes interesting conversation. Generating a buzz is based on either customers' personal experience with brands or what other people have told them about these brands. When this experience becomes interesting, your brand and what your company is doing become a source of entertainment, and your brand becomes newsworthy.

Basically, it's unconventional, it's economical and it's powerful. Buzz marketing is about starting conversations. In a nutshell, buzz marketing is about getting people talking and getting the media writing about your brand. With Buzz Marketing, you stop talking at consumers, and start talking to them.

Why does buzz work?

Today's noisy advertising environment has forced marketers to become more creative and some say even slightly devious with their methods. Consumers are subject to constant information overload and are wary and distrustful of companies due to scandals and scams they have heard about or been victims of in the past.

All of that buyer's remorse from past bad purchase decisions has built up and created a wall of sales resistance that they psychologically throw up whenever faced with something that appears to be a marketing message or sales pitch. Conversely, consumers like to rely on friends and peers for product and service recommendations and will do less shopping around and are more apt to act based on recommendations of people the know. This has long fueled efforts to increase customer referrals for companies.

Another way to enter a customer's mindshare is through buzz marketing, which is simply the process of sharing information through the natural social networks of your target market that helps them in the decision-making process. That way, instead of coming from a faceless and distrusted corporation, the marketing message instead seems to emanate from the most powerful endorser possible: your coolest friend.

How is it different than traditional advertising?

Most marketing, advertising, and PR employs a push strategy, where you push your message out into the marketplace at people, typically when they are not seeking it. Many people do not enjoy or appreciate this approach. Good marketers know that using a pull strategy to market their products and services can result in close rates at least twice as high as a traditional push strategy. Doubling your marketing effectiveness is certainly worth paying attention to. Buzz marketing is powerful because it gets customers to seek you out.

Why is this a good time for Buzz?

Marketing today is in a state of turmoil. Industry leaders say traditional marketing campaigns, based on mass media advertising, are not working anymore. And the facts back them up. A 2004 study into advertising effectiveness by Deutsche Bank in the US consumer packaged goods sector found that only 18 percent of television advertising campaigns generate a positive return on annual investment, while the Harvard Business Review reports that for every dollar invested into traditional advertising for consumer packaged goods, the short-term return on investment is just 54 cents.

Marketing in the business-to-business sector fares no better. An astonishing 84 percent of B2B marketing campaigns actually result in a fall in market share and brand equity. Word of mouth connections are highly influential.

A 2004 UK survey of 10,000 consumers by consultants CIA:MediaEdge found that 76 percent cite word of mouth as their main influence on their purchasing decisions, compared with traditional advertising's mere 15 percent. In the US, NOP (now GfK) research shows that 92 percent of Americans cite word of mouth as their preferred source of product information. Studies show that when it comes to generating excitement about products, word of mouth is 10 times more effective than TV or print advertising.

Younger consumers, who are still forming their brand preferences, are among the most coveted by marketers. These days, they spend less time planted in front of the tube and are more skeptical about the messages they receive there. Therefore, a recommendation for a product or service from a trusted friend is more memorable and convincing than the cleverest television ad and more likely to be turned into action.

What are the benefits?

Many are saying that buzz represents the future and will surpass traditional ads in regards to maintaining consumer brand-interest. "If I can involve one person really deeply in my brand in 50 cities, vs. 50 people in one city, I'll take the former every time," says Mark Hughes, author of Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff. Jon Berry of research company Nop World, and author of The Influentials, argues that word of mouth is worth more than twice what it was in the 1970s in affecting consumer purchases, and it's 150 percent more influential than newspaper and magazine advertising or articles.

Another benefit of buzz marketing is the ability to break through customers' natural defense mechanisms that they typically have up when receiving marketing messages. Customers think of you more like a friend and less like a business trying to sell them something, and that is a great place to be.

You're speaking face-to-face, which gives you attention and mindshare. Another reason word of mouth works so well is credibility. When your friend, neighbor, co-worker or a family member tells you about a great movie, product or service, you believe them. They're not being paid to pitch the item and so you give them full credibility. That's why having a great product matters so much: If you can really wow people, they will tell their friends and neighbors.

Such face-to-face attention creates superior memory retrieval. In a study of two groups presented with advertising information with the brand removed, only 49 percent of people recalled advertising based on a visual cue, while 70 percent recalled advertising from a thirty-second musical cue. Given the right context of attention, audio stimuli can be far superior to visual.

Buzz marketing is one of the hottest trends in marketing today. By applying these 18 techniques in your business you'll see people buzzing about your brand.

Here's how to do it:

1. Start with your initial or existing base of satisfied customers. While enrolling new consumers, a successful buzz marketing strategy bases itself on the impact these consumers could have on the next potential customer. Providing a positive customer experience establishes trust. This trust is rewarded with consumers acting as buzz marketing agents, literally working for brands free of charge. The consumers who are first to climb aboard then become evangelists of your brand.

2. Pick a target market you can find. Where does your target market hang out? If you're selling hot pink lipstick, you might find that your main customers are at the corner of Pine and Main Street, wearing stilettos and pleather. Make them easily definable and be able to name the specific areas where they go, so you can target your target market.

3. Find the thought leaders. Every social culture has its thought leaders. Building a successful buzz campaign hinges on finding the right carriers for the message: influencers who are obsessed with staying one step ahead of their peers. You must find, connect, and collaborate with the people who influence your brand, lead opinions, and spread word of mouth. Look for opinion-leading individuals who frequently offer or are elicited for category-related advice. Thought leaders are the 10 percent of society that help influence the majority of all purchasing decisions. They are not necessarily the customers who spend the most money with you, but they are the most important people you can reach, because your target market takes their advice from them. They hold a social power that will amplify the affect of your word of mouth campaign.

After finding influencers, make sure that you develop ongoing, two-way relationships with them, from giving them a trial before the product is available to the mass market, to going back a step and getting them involved in your research and development. Try to give them experiences that exceed expectations. This will generate goodwill and advocacy that will go a long way toward kick-starting positive word of mouth and wider interest in your product, service, or campaign.

4. Again, find the influences and give out freebies. Think outside of the box. Rather than blitzing the airways with expensive TV commercials, give out freebies to select people who are trendsetters. Targeting the influential people you will get more visibility for your product or service by others who are their friends or assistants and who will buy based on the trendsetters. It is worth it to give out what you can for free that will allow customers to experience how great your brand is.

5. Use fake shoppers. One way to get closer to your customers is to show up right under their noses without them even seeing you. Often, buzz marketers cover their tracks, at least initially. Slip into the conversational pathways of the target market and those who heavily influence their peers.

6. Work at a grassroots level. Get out there and hit the streets. Buzz requires manpower, whether it's volunteers, paid representatives, or evangelists that just can't stop talking. Create a culture around your brand, something that people can stand for, support and be proud of. Get into their neighborhoods. The most successful buzz marketers start on the streets, in the places people live, eat, work, socialize, etc..

7. Piggyback off an existing trend or cause. Look for a trend that your target audience is currently interested in, such as environmentalism. If you can show them that you are interested in the same things that they are, you'll make fast friends and get them talking.

8. Go to the point of sale. Stage an impromptu demonstration, create a display that will attract your customers or have actors put on a show around your product. If you are going to get people talking, get them talking as close to the point of purchase decision as possible.

9. The more unusual and shocking the better. Traditional ad campaigns have lost some of their punch while quirkier campaigns have generated huge grassroots followings for their brands with laughably low marketing expenditures. Use what people naturally like to talk about by creating a messages that contain one or more of these 6 elements.

The taboo (sex, lies, bathroom humor, etc.)
The unusual
The outrageous
The hilarious
The remarkable
Secrets (both kept and revealed)

10. Be completely believable. When you have your consumer do marketing for you, it is credible, less expensive and enormously believable.

11. Make it personal. Using the viral strategy on a humdrum product category will not yield your best results. Buzz marketing still seems to work best for the relatively narrow range of products and services that consumers care deeply about because of their physical intimacy, technical complexity or status-enhancing potential.

12. Create a sense of scarcity. Lure those key consumers with coveted items -- whether hot news, loaner cars, or cool gadgets -- that are in short supply, and let the buzz begin.

13. Be bold and extreme. Companies that play on the extremes of being either totally authentic or blatantly unoriginal are memorable and different. Although a buzz campaign may have fictional elements, the premise should be true to the brand. Make sure your buzz campaign fits with your overall ad strategy. Similarly, being totally irreverent can get people talking as well; just make sure consumers don't feel duped. Be sure to test your humor out on a sample of your target market first.

14. Leverage the Internet and buzz with blogs. From large corporations such as GM and Microsoft to entrepreneurs, businesspeople of all kinds are using blogs as a tool to connect with customers and internal audiences in new ways. They're generating unprecedented buzz, and exponentially amplifying word of mouth marketing. A single successful blog can attract tens or even hundreds of thousands of visitors. Done right, they can give back loyalty, goodwill, and valuable feedback. The best part is they often spread that message to others within their sphere of influence through blogs, instant messenger or e-mail.

15. Don't overlook quality and customer service. Make sure that your product, service or brand is of a quality level that stands out next to competitors. The last thing you want is to have all this talk you generated turn into complaints. Customer service should be given extra attention while you are working a buzz campaign. Good service and superior quality are so unique they create an inherent buzz of self-propelling word of mouth and customer recommendations.

16. Do something innovative. Buzz is great for anything new and innovative, but if your product is not innovative in itself, then put extra creativity in the execution to generate that buzz.

17. Measure as much as you can. Connected marketing is not about control; it's about management. You cannot manage what you cannot measure. The initial contact may look spontaneous, but it's anything but, and the back end of your campaign should be meticulously planned and the results carefully measured. Marketers are even attempting to quantify how often their message will be passed along and how many downstream consumers they need to influence before a fad is born. Obviously, using online capabilities will make this kind of measurement more easily and precisely monitored. At the very least it will show you whether or not your efforts paid for themselves. Best case scenario: you can determine the exact ROI.

Figure out what types of data do you want to collect, the measurement of recommendation rates, what specific actions should be taken post-measurement, and what influences the recommended rate and how marketers improve recommendation rates.

18. Integrate the campaign with the overall marketing strategy. It is time to develop internal and external connected marketing strategies that integrate product development and marketing activities in innovative ways, enabling consumers and businesses to connect and collaborate with each other as respected partners in order to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. Don't fall into thinking that, if you get buzz, you don't need any marketing. Buzz marketing should be one part of an overall integrated marketing communications plan. Good buzz is the best thing you could wish for. But, in most cases, distribution, advertising, promotion and other traditional concepts are essential to translate the goodwill surrounding your product into sales.

The focus should be not on whether something is classified as traditional or guerrilla, mainstream or viral, but on whether it works. Focus on results, and don't get caught up in any single marketing ideology. It is best to start little fires in lots of places and fan them afterwards.

Implement these techniques and watch the buzz get started. For more information about how you can create a marketing buzz, visit www.flourishingbusiness.com.

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by Big Mike McDaniel

Your business card can be your most powerful advertising and marketing tool. Get your card into the hands of people who can do business with you and profit is sure to follow.

This little card is often taken for granted and not given the thought it deserves. Since it plays such a big role in the impression you make, it, and you, should not make mistakes.

Here are some common business card mistakes:

Printing them yourself.

It's not much cheaper and it looks like you did it at home, no matter what kind of printer you use. All it is, is faster.

Not carrying them with you.

Pocket, coat, briefcase or purse, you should have a number of fresh, clean cards ready to distribute. And you should be able to get your hands on one quickly and easily.

Searching all over for them.

You should be able to "whip one out" without digging out your wallet and thumbing through pics of the kids, or plunging to the bottom of your purse past the hair spray. "Let's see, I've got one here somewhere, no, that's a card I got yesterday, no, that's my kid's picture, here it is, no, that's not it either.." You should be able to quick-draw your card faster than an old west gunslinger.

Saving a buck with the magic marker.

Blotting out a changed phone number, address or email and hand writing in, or worse, cutting up computer labels with the new information is bush league. Yet, every day, some hapless wannabe loses a sale by acting like Donald Duck's Uncle.

Handing them out recklessly.

The exchange (business relations are TWO-way) of cards comes after some degree of conversation. Beware the boob walking about the room handing out his card like Santa's gifts at the lodge meeting.

No system for retrieval.

Once you get 'em back to the office, you must have a system to find and use the information when you need it. Customers and prospects should go into your computer without delay. The others require some thought. Develop a system to store them so you can find them again. (hint: think categories!)What about that one from the guy with one blue eye and one brown?

© 2007 BIG Mike McDaniel BIG Ideas

Group BIG Mike (http://bigideasgroup.com/) is the Small Business Advertising Expert and author of "Business Cards -- Front to Back," the book that explains how to make your business card the most powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. To learn more, visit Business Card Book (http://tinyurl.com/j6ol3).

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By Sande Saimon

You're standing in line to check out at a store. You finally find the courage to strike up a conversation with the person behind you. You chat about life and, because you are a distributor for a network marketing company or direct sales company, you gently lead the conversation in the direction of “What do you do?” “Do you work outside the home?” “Are you happy with your current situation or are you looking for something more?”

You then hand your new acquaintance your business card and ask them to take a look at your website and/or give you a call.

These are business cards that you may have created yourself or you may have had them made up from a company like VistaPrint. These little pieces of cardstock tell people what company you represent – or the name of your business. It tells people your name, website address, phone number – and it may have a logo or a pretty graphic on it.

Your new friend is polite. They say, "sure I’ll take a look at your site" – they glance at your card, put it in their purse or wallet where it is generally forgotten until the next time they decide to clean out their purse. Then it’s usually dumped in the trash because they can’t even remember where they got it from.

Were they interested? Maybe ... maybe not. What happened? Why didn't they go to your site like they said they would?

Well, for starters – whether or not they were really interested at the time, they are not going to hurt your feelings by telling you they’re not. It’s much easier to agree and then toss your card. It’s human nature and you can’t fight that. But you can generate interest. How?

If you want people to look at your business card and pay attention to what you have to offer – tell them something they want to hear.

• What are you offering them?

• What are you going to do for them?

• What do you provide that they can’t get somewhere else?

• Do you want them to join your team?

• Do you want them to buy your products?

• Why should they spend their time going to your website?

In other words -- What’s in it for them?

Giving them a prospecting card instead of a business card tells them right up front what’s in it for them!

It’s the same basic card available from the same locations you buy your business cards from now – a prospecting card just has different information on it – it’s designed to pull people in the direction you want them to go.

Get your prospect’s attention.

• Ask them important questions.

• Are they happy with the job they currently have?

• Do they need more money?

• Wouldn’t they rather stay home with their children?

• Are they tired of the rat race?

• Do they want more free time?

• Are they worried about retirement?

• Are they concerned about their financial freedom?

Make them curious – what do YOU have that they don’t?

• More money?

• More free time?

• Work from home?

• Spend time with family?

• Incredible products?

Offer them something for Free! Everyone loves a bargain & you can’t get a better bargain than free.

If one-side is good, double-sided is better! Use double-sided prospecting cards. They may cost a bit more, but are definitely worth it. The back of the card is where you hook your prospect or customer. I’ve never seen a person look at a business card that doesn’t flip it over and check out the back of the card – a blank back is wasted real estate!!

• Go to my website for a free gift.

• Sign up for my business newsletter and I’ll send you “this & that” for free.

• Click here and I’ll send you my latest eBook that will show you how to make $$$ from home.

• If you are selling items – the back of the card is where you offer them % off their next purchase or a Buy 10 and Get 1 Free Special.

The above is truly important because while they are on your site you want to capture their contact information so that you can send them information periodically. You want them to fill out a form, sign up for something -- then you can start dripping information to them about your business & products.

Now that I've told you want to DO, let me make a couple of suggestions for what NOT to do.

Don’t use “free” business cards.

• Free business cards from some online printers will put their information on the back – “Get free business cards by visiting our website.”

• It gives the wrong impression. If you are doing so well in your business, why are you using free business cards?

Don’t use home printed business cards. If they look like you printed them yourself, don’t use them.

• Check to make sure your printer ink is waterproof. How many printers out there use inks that run.

• Flimsy, lightweight cardstock looks cheap.

• Perforations are a dead give-away that you printed them at home.

• Again, it gives the wrong impression.

If you want someone to join your team, etc., give the impression of wealth. Your potential partners are not going to know that you didn't realize that the free logo info would be on the back & you didn't want to waste them. Or that you created the cards yourself because you like creating them. They will just make the assumption that you can’t afford to buy cards from a printer.

So; to recap:

• Use a prospecting card instead of a business card

• Get your prospect’s attention

• Tell them something they want to hear

• Make them curious to learn more

• Give them something for free

• Give them a reason to come back for more

• Use double-sided cards

• Don’t use free cards from printers if they put something on the back saying that they were free

• Don’t print your own cards at home if your printer ink will run, your cardstock is flimsy or you can see perforated edges – it gives the wrong impression.

You will find that handing out these cards to prospects – or using them for guerilla marketing strategies -- will result in more calls & more visits to your website by people wanting to hear what you have to say!

Sande Saimond owns a successful Home Based Business with Scent-sations Mia Bella Gourmet Candles. http://www.MiaBellaGourmet.com. A self-admitted computer geek, she also owns & operates a web hosting company at www.WorkingFromHeartandHome.com, a website building company at www.GreatBigSmallSites.com & an autoresponder service at www.OnlineDistinction.com. When she doesn’t have her nose buried in a computer screen, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Tony, and their two "boys," rescued racing greyhounds, Phantom & Archer.

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by Kirk Bannerman

For reasons that I no longer remember, I kept sort of a diary during my first full year of working at a home-based business. It was nothing close to being a complete daily diary. It was more just a collection of scribbles about things that I felt were worthy of note at the time.

Since several years have passed since I wrote that diary, I decided to revisit these notes, out of curiosity.

In no particular order, here are some of the things that I made note of:

Choosing the path...

in the beginning, my enthusiasm was very high (perhaps too high?) and I was chasing off on several different home-based business opportunities at the same time (exhibiting the "dog in a meat market" syndrome, I suppose) and not focusing my efforts enough to be successful at any one of them.

I finally reigned myself in and focused on a single work at home business opportunity.

In other notes, I find reference to emotional and/or psychological issues that I experienced and are probably typical for most people when starting a home based business. When working at home a person can, at times, experience a feeling of isolation which is probably brought on by the lack of interaction of a work force environment.

There were also periods of doubt in the early going ... did I pick a viable business opportunity? ... am I doing the right things to develop my business? ... when will I start making a profit?, and
so on.

Many of the entries in my so-called diary had to do with the proverbial "two steps forward and one step backward" thing and the ever-looming temptation to become discouraged. Although I
didn't appreciate it at the time, it is now obvious that as long as you have more steps forward than backward, you will eventually get ahead!

Isn't hindsight wonderful?

Other entries reflect the fact that relatively minor events can seem huge in the early stages of developing a work at home business and can really contribute to an emotional roller coaster ride. For example, if you are just starting out and you have two customers/clients and you lose one ... that's a 50% drop! However, if you fast-forward in time to the point where you have hundreds of customers/clients and you lose one ... that's just a mere fraction of 1%! Same event, just at a different point in time.

Looking back on it now, some of the stuff I recorded now seems humorous, but I'm pretty sure that was not the case at the time I made the notations.

Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and coaches others seeking to start their own home based business. Visit his Website at http://www.business-at-home.us for more details.

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by Chiun Masters

It's the 21st century, and you're already aware of the rapid changes and development that your industry is going through, almost on a daily basis. It's becoming more and more competitive, and you need to grab every advantage that you can possibly get over your competitors.

The Internet seems like a good way to reach out to more customers and close bigger sales, but how would your small company stack up against the hundreds, or even thousands of companies selling products and services similar to yours online?

If you want to grab yourself a piece of real estate on the Web, you basically start by creating your company's Website. Your Website serves as your company headquarters, in a virtual sense, and just like in the real world, it is where your potential customers go to visit and learn more about your company and what it has to offer.

It's also commonplace for businesses to closely monitor their competitors' Websites, to see what they're up to and to learn anything they can.

In short, it's all about information. The Internet isn't called the "Information Superhighway" for nothing, you know.

But, having a company Website is one thing; promoting your business and marketing your products and/or services is a whole different matter. People need to know that your company is on the Internet; otherwise your Website would be pretty useless. Even so, you need to remember that almost everyone, from billion-dollar Fortune 500 conglomerates down to a tiny florist in Idaho, is bent on making its presence felt on the Web.

So -- how can a small company like yours compete?

One of the most widely-used and most effective methods that Webmasters and Net-savvy businessmen use is link-building. Used effectively, it can be one of the single best techniques you can have for getting people to your Website, and thus promoting your company's products and/or services.

First, it's important to know that 85% of the people looking for a particular type of business look for it using a search engine like Yahoo!, MSN and Google. It's like the equivalent of a phone directory. And -- those people usually don't bother looking for companies beyond the first three to four pages of the search results. That's why it is most critical for a company to be listed in the first few pages following a keyword search.

Because major search engines now consider link quality and link popularity as part of their ranking algorithms, link building has become more critical than ever. Simply put, if you don't have links, you won't rank well for competitive keywords.

Links are one of the most useful, and therefore one of the most important ways, for visitors and potential customers to find your site. With quality and efficient link building, the search engines can find your company faster and rank you higher on their search results, so people can find you easier.

It's all about getting traffic to your Website. By traffic, I mean people.

If a Website is new and needs immediate traffic, they can get advertising with one of the three biggest search engines, Google, Yahoo! or MSN. Each search engine offers a unique program in which Websites appear in search results for specific keywords. This is the fastest way to get immediate traffic.

But, just getting advertising on these search engines won't be enough to get you the results you need. If you're serious about getting the most out of link building, it's recommended that you find a good, reliable SEO or link building company to handle these jobs for you. These companies already have the experience and the expertise to produce quality links for your Website, and some of them also provide advertising for the major search engines as part of their package, so you'll be getting the most out of your money.

Another good reason to outsource this part of your online business is the savings. Companies routinely outsource payroll processing, accounting, sales and marketing tasks -- just to name a few -- in order to cut costs. Outsourcing converts fixed costs into variable costs, releases capital for investment elsewhere in your business, and allows you to avoid large expenditures in the early stages of your business.

Aside from reducing labour and training costs, companies can also get new projects started faster with outsourcing. Experienced businessmen already know that companies who do everything themselves -- research, marketing, manufacturing, distribution -- have higher expenses, all of which have to be passed on the customers.

To sum it up, link building is one of the better and more reliable methods of getting traffic to your Website. However, more traffic doesn't necessarily mean more sales. It all depends on the quality of the links you have. Outsourcing link building jobs to reputable and experienced companies will help your company get permanent, legitimate and relevant links for your targeted traffic, and will also help your site achieve higher search engine rankings.

All this for a fraction of the cost it will take for your company to handle the job on its own, plus the obvious benefits of having knowledge and expertise on the job. If you're serious about putting your smaller company on a more even stage with the big guys, this is one great way to go.

Chiun Masters is a contributing writer and researcher for MaxWeb, www.HelpWeNeedGifts.com, and other assorted Websites. He loves searching the Net for unusual gifts, aside from spending time with his other interests such as blogging and lurking around in forums.

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by Wendy Betterini

Have you ever had a really great idea and then later saw someone else putting it into action? Even more perplexing is when you never told anyone about the idea, yet somehow, someone discovered it and acted on it before you could.

Maybe you had an idea for a blockbuster new ebook that would make all your financial dreams come true, or you came up with a great home business model that would have had reps flocking to your door - and now someone else is sucking up all the glory.

It's an awful, sinking feeling to see someone else profiting from your idea - I know, I've been there! However, don't let it discourage you into hanging up your entrepreneur hat. Here are three ways to turn the situation around:

1) Vow to take action. The worst thing about seeing someone else put your idea into action is knowing that you could have done so too, if only you'd been more proactive. Maybe you were struggling with an overloaded schedule so you put the idea on the back burner for awhile, or you were uncertain about your own ability to do a good job with it - and someone else saw the potential and swooped in on the opportunity.

The first step to salvaging the situation is acknowledging that you could have done better, and vowing to do better next time. While it's impossible to act on every single idea you have, you can make a stronger effort to take even small actions on the really good ideas. Remember that small actions done consistently add up to great results.

2) Take a different angle. Even if someone put your idea into action, they probably didn't do it exactly the way you would have. Give some thought to different angles you could take on the same idea. This works especially well with information products, because there are so many facets to each topic. Open your mind and think about opposing views and unique perspectives you can use to turn your idea around and make it fresh again.

3) Make it bigger and better. Think about ways to build on your original idea and expand it. Think about great sequels to best-selling ebooks (or print books, for that matter). Think about improvements and modifications that could refine the idea and take it to a new level of success. Consider alternative marketing techniques that could make all the difference in the popularity of your product or idea. Whatever you do, don't limit yourself. Push past your doubts and be willing to aim higher in your goals.

The truth is, there are limitless numbers of ideas just floating around, waiting to be realized. If you open your mind, more than a few good ones are bound to fall right in. Begin keeping an idea journal so you can record the great ideas as they come. Engage in frequent brainstorming sessions to see if you can either come up with more ideas, or improve upon the ones you already have.

Create a detailed plan for the ideas you want to work on first, so you won't feel overwhelmed or confused by how to proceed. A good way to do this is by considering the outcome you're trying to achieve, and then working backwards. Which action steps will be needed to accomplish the outcome? Make a list of these steps, and put them in a logical order of progression. You'll then have a detailed roadmap leading to the success you're trying to create.

Finally, and most importantly, begin taking action! Even if you can only spare 15 minutes a day, you will feel more productive and make steady progress on the tasks you've set for yourself. Simply focus on taking one step at a time and, before you know it, you'll be the one sucking up all the glory, while someone else slaps their forehead and says, "Hey, that was MY idea!"

Wendy Betterini: learn more about home business, telecommuting, balancing a career and family under one roof, and all aspects of working at home at http://www.CreativeWorkAtHome.com .

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by Maria Markella

One thing is certain in this cruel Internet marketing world: Competition is huge. Especially when trying to write that classified ad to promote a sale, or that adwords ad. Here are some things to keep in mind when writing ads. Follow these rules and make your ad stand from the rest.

Before I begin, I'm sure you've heard that you've only got a few seconds to capture a prospects' attention and make the sale.

Is that enough time to convince someone that your product or ad has something special about it? It's not. That's why you should be extra careful when writing those small ads. Not only do you have to capture your reader's attention, but you have to convince them that your ad will lead them to what they're looking for.

Here are some tips:

Writing killer ads tip#1: The headline.

Maybe you've heard that when it comes to small ads, the headline is the most important part of your ad. Try to keep your headline to 6-8 words. Try to present what your product will help the customer do in a clear and concise way.

Do not capitalize your headline or you'll scare your customer. Many people will even think you yell at them. Instead, capitalize the first letter of every word. Also, use descriptive words to make a clever call to action through the rest of your ad.

Writing killer ads tip#2: Do you have something free to offer?

Maybe a report or an ebook to help you grow your prospect list. This is important. Try to use this free offer to grab your reader's attention. Mention the free offer when writing your ad.

We all like free stuff. I don't know about you, but when I see a small ad with a free offer, I could easily click on it. That's also the case for most Internet users.

Writing killer ads tip#3: Unless you are a successful copywriter or Internet marketer or someone who is otherwise exceptionally talented at writing ads, you need to imitate the successful players.

There are thousands of ads all over the Web. Almost any Website utilizes Google adsense. Those ads are Google adwords ads and they have been approved by the Google staff. Take some time to look at what others are writing and how they choose to promote their products. Pay attention to those ads that are pointing to popular Websites or big companies. How do they write their ads?

Writing killer ads tip#4: Always test the results of your ads. Over and over again.

Don't just write an ad and wait for customers to click and purchase the product. Sometimes, ads needs revising. Try to make small changes and re-test. If you get better results, then use that change you've made to revise your other ads, too.

It's a good idea to test and make changes to one ad at a time. That way you'll easily spot the magic change that made the difference.

Writing killer ads tip#5: Always proof-read what you write. Also, make sure the links are working correctly.

We all hate careless spelling mistakes and non-working links. Even if your ad is really eye-catching and conv