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The Secret to Attracting More Abundance

by Judith A. Wentzel

Do you have all the money you desire? Are you just making ends meet, living from paycheck to paycheck?

You can have a life of abundance. It can easily come to you, if you know how.

Having a job I adore, a loving relationship, and the life I desire allows me to lead through example. It enables me to show you how to attract what you desire into your life, just as I am doing in mine.

My life wasn�t always this great. I have had a lot of hard times and experienced more than my share of tragedy and heartache. It wasn�t until after my children had grown and moved away that I would discover what many other people already knew.

If you desire abundance, you must see abundance already in your life. Sound a bit ridiculous? It really isn�t. Let me explain.

In order to attract abundance, you must first have an abundance mindset. If you change your thoughts, you can change your life.

You may be thinking that you have an abundance mindset and have been focusing on more money, landing a better job, etc. Have you been thinking about having enough money to pay your bills off or get out of debt? If that has been your focus, it�s no wonder you haven�t attracted the money you desire. I�d bet you have continued to struggle with bills and incur debt. By simply placing these two negative thoughts (bills, debt) into your focus, you have subconsciously attracted more of the same types of issues/events to you.

An abundance mindset focuses on the lifestyle you would have living with abundance. Instead of thinking about the lack, focus on having plenty of money to manage all of your needs. Focus on having more than enough money for the things that you want.

Perhaps one of your desires is to be able to take a vacation. Focus on taking that vacation. Feel how wonderful it would be to do the things you desire. By thinking about taking a vacation and having more than enough money for the entire trip, you are focusing on what you truly want and developing a mindset that is in harmony with your desires.

Developing an abundance mindset may not be easy at first, but with a little practice, it will become your normal way of thinking. You will soon begin to see little signs of abundance coming into your life.

I suggest you take note of everything you experience, no matter how small, and be appreciative of it. For example, finding a penny on the sidewalk or getting a great parking space would be two examples of abundance. Having someone treat you to lunch is another.

When you begin to notice and appreciate the small things in your life, it will also help place you in a more receptive and allowing mindset. Keeping an abundance or gratitude journal is a great way of reminding yourself of all the abundance in your life.

Besides, if all of us would take just a few minutes out of our day to reflect on the nice things we have experienced, we would soon realize the abundance already present in our lives. It would brighten our outlook, raise our emotions, and allow us to be more of a magnet for attracting more of the same things to us.

Having a life coach can be extremely beneficial when it comes to learning how to attract your desires -- especially if they are trained in the Law of Attraction. Even Tiger Woods has a coach. Many coaches, myself included, offer complimentary consultative sessions so that people can experience the many benefits that working with a life coach has to offer.

Why not take that next step? Discover for yourself how easy it is to change your thoughts and change your life. You won�t be disappointed.

�2007 Judith A. Wentzel � Law of Attraction Coach, Life & Business Coach, EFT Practitioner & Image Smarter Marketing Specialist. Assisting individuals and small business owners to unleash the power within and skyrocketing their lives and business since 1997.
http://www.JudithWentzel.com
http://www.UsingLawOfAttraction.com
http://www.ImageSmarterMarketing.com

7 Tips For Bringing Your Online Store To Your Customers

by John Young

"I�m amazed at this! I put very little effort into this online business, and already I�m making over $14,000 a month!"

We�ve all heard these testimonials in ads for �starting your online business.� We are then offered a "turnkey" Website already designed and filled with widgets to sell on the Web.

The ads lead us to believe that hordes of customers will flock to our site, wallets in hand, ready to avoid the downtown mobs. We�re promised an overnight fortune with little or no effort. We purchase the site and set up the store, only to find that reality falls well short of expectations.

The "SNAFU" Of Online Marketing:

Perhaps one of the greatest disappointments for the novice online marketer is to discover that the effort she has put into designing and publishing a monetizing Website may very well be wasted because no one comes to it.

In the real world (as compared to the virtual one), a business is generally set up by first renting space (hopefully in an area with heavy traffic, such as a shopping mall or on main street), designing and setting up the store, filling it with inventory, displaying the merchandise, and advertising to bring in customers with wallets ready to buy.

While location is important, most effort is directed at bringing the customers to the site, not the other way around.

In the virtual world, however, one has to bring the Website to the customer. Every potential customer sits in front of the same computer � essentially the same physical location for ALL businesses on the Web.

The business that can effectively bring itself to that customer will succeed. All others will fail.

7 Ways To Bring The Store To The Customer

Let�s say you do a search for a Google keyword such as �luggage.� You�re likely to come up with tens of thousands, if not millions, of potential Websites, some selling luggage, others giving product reviews.

Will your site be among the ones Google or Yahoo finds? Not too likely, and if your site doesn�t appear in the top 10 or 20, on page one or two, the potential customer is not likely to go to page 3. Expecting her to find your site on page 150 is pretty much out of the question. She simply isn�t going to go there to find your store.

Consequently, you MUST bring it up in the search ranks � to her, where she is sitting, in front of the computer.

Ranking Your Site

Today, most people find what they're searching for using Google.

Google ranks your site primarily by how many links are located on other sites pointing to it, and the context in which your link is found. For example, if your site is about dogs, and your link is found in the context of dogs, that link will be more valuable than if it is found in some other context or in no context.

Bringing your store to your customers by improving your rankings requires a few techniques, and a lot of hard work. Here are seven suggestions for methods that are not �Catch-22,� i.e. don�t require traffic to get traffic.

1. Writing and marketing articles.

Google and other search engines rank a Website by how many �one-way� links point to it from other sites. Writing an article and publishing it in the many E-zine barns (and having it picked up by online E-zines specialized for your keywords) is an excellent way to get these one-way links

2. Reciprocal linking.

Find other Websites with similar subject matter to your own. Contact the Webmaster and arrange to post a link to your site in exchange for reciprocating -- posting a link to theirs on your site.

3. One-way links.

Do a search on your keyword and �add URL� or �add your site.� You will find sites you can add your link to.

4. Join a forum.

You can get banned by putting a link to your site in your posts, but if you put it in your bio and then post information frequently on the forum, you can go up in Google rankings.

5. Blogging.

Set up your own blogs with links to your sites to gain Google rank. Free software exists to do this.

6. Search Engine Optimization

Make your site �keyword rich� by including a written introduction with searchable keywords in it, optimize the site and submit it to the minor search engines. Software exists to help you with search engine optimization. Google analyzes rankings in minor search engines when assigning site rank.

7. Advertising with Google Adwords.

Adwords can put your site in front of the customer � on the right side of the search page, not on the left. People read from left to right, and will see the results of their search on the left first. Depending on your bid for the keywords, your ad may appear at the bottom of a stack of Adwords advertisements. Adwords can bring in sales, but costs can get out of hand and ultimately be disastrous.

Work Smart ... and Hard

Ninety-five percent of all Internet businesses fail. Articles have been written simply stating that this is due to lack of �hard work� on the part of the owner, who thought she was going to have a �turnkey� business that would immediately reap �astounding profits.�

While this may be true, there�s an old saying: �Work smart, not hard.� In the case of an Internet business, you're going to have do both. You're going to have to work smart by knowing the most effective means of bringing your store to your customers, and work hard �

John Young is a writer and editor living in Santa Barbara. He is inviting submissions to his new E-zine, Explode Your Affiliate Checks at http://www.explodeyouraffiliatechecks.com devoted to all phases of online marketing. He has a second site at: http://www.ebook-marketing-software.com .

Getting Hooked In the Advertising Industry: Learn From Yanik Silver

By Mario R. Churchill

The world of advertising seems to be a magnet. It attracts those who dream to be in the advertising industry filled with high compensation, a fun and lax environment, and being acquainted with known personalities.

Those are just a small part of being in the advertising industry. The whole part of it entails dedication to work; wherein, you will have endless nights of brainstorming to meet the deadline. You will experience reproach from your superior because you did not meet the quality of work they expect from you. You see, it is not all about fun. It is being responsible with your craft and your attitude as a worker.

Learning is an essential factor for you to get hooked in the advertising industry. You need to gain knowledge. The initial acquisition of knowledge is from your stay in the academe. You need to nurture learning by reading.

Yanik Silver is well known in the advertising industry as a great copywriter and marketing consultant. His books can help you reach your dreams to become good as either a copywriter or marketer.

"Instant Internet Profits"

You can go over this book if you want to learn more about the products or services, which will be appropriate for you to sell. In addition, you will also find tips on how to make effective sales letter in this book. Other add-ons are guidelines on how to relate to your audience by the attitude you convey as well as the materials you utilize.

"Surefire Sales Letter Secrets"

Reading this book will help you be familiar with writing different types of sales letter. A sales letter is not applicable to all people. There is a distinct sales letter depending on your target audience.

Surefire Sales Letter Secrets is a book, which will guide you with the proper letter template and content so you will get that sale you wish to have.

"How to Make Instant Sales and Immediate Profits Using Cheap Fax Advertising"

Yanik helps you out find other means to disseminate advertising materials such as using fax broadcasting. Moreover, the book will also help you reduce the advertising cost you allot for every project you promote.

The book will also help you understand the advantages of fax broadcasting and how it can greatly help you achieve good business.

The above-mentioned books are some of Yanik Silver's work; to help you become familiar with some aspects in the advertising industry. There are still other books to read; all you need to do is research for those. To know more about the written work of Yanik Silver, you can search the internet. The bookstore is another venue to find books written by Yanik Silver.

Do not be magnetized by the reputation of the advertising industry. Being overwhelmed will most likely make you fall. Organize your thoughts first, and ask yourself; if being with the advertising industry is what you want.

After careful assessment, now decide if you are well fitted in the said industry; if yes, then it is high time to learn how to play the game copywriters and marketers play.

Do not stop learning. Apt knowledge is your key to get hooked with the advertising industry. Knowledge is still your best friend if you want to keep your career in the industry.

Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information checkout http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com and http://www.killercopywritingblog.com.

Pay Per Sale Affiliate Programs - Still The Best Option For Advertisers?

by Theo Swan

Pay Per Sale affiliate programs have been around since the beginning of the affiliate marketing business and, due to its obvious fairness, it is still a popular commission model. The number of programs offering this commission model are plenty-- far more than any other model available online.

The reasons for its popularity are many, but a big reason is advertisers' full control over the margins. With any other commission mode, the advertiser needs to calculate the conversion ratio, number of sales and size of purchases very carefully to eliminate the risk of overpaying for clicks, leads or impressions. With the PPS model, advertisers know they will only pay a specific percentage of each sale, meaning every new affiliate - no matter how successful - will contribute to the revenue of the affiliate program.

Advertisers using other commission models stand a much greater risk of having a new affiliate join, only to see him send nothing but non-converting traffic, thus getting paid for nothing. PPC, PPL and PPM are also much more open for fraud, often in the form of auto-generated visitors (i.e. from a script) or other ways of generating impression, clicks or in some cases even leads. For newly-started affiliate programs, showing limited cash flow, other commission models can prove difficult in the beginning. Often it takes a while to get the ball rolling, and paying for anything but sales can cost a bit of money before you get some back. Be sure to calculate how long you can afford to pay for a certain amount of visitors if no one actually converts into a buying visitor.

There will, of course, be plenty of referred visitors who convert into sales, but there are no guarantees. If you were to use a PPS model, paying ONLY For sales, you would never have to pay a commission unless you were seeing a positive cash flow. This is true for the affiliate program as a whole, as well as on an individual affiliate level. Your affiliates won't get paid until they actually makes a sale, thus making the advertiser money in the process.

Some affiliate programs offer a fixed commission instead of a percentage, and if the commission is the same on sales for different amounts, the percentage will differ from one sale to another. Try to find an approximate percentage of commission to calculate the expected revenue for each affiliate sale. Calculating the minimum and maximum revenue is important as well, in order to keep track of the revenue of the affiliate program and its commission model.

Theo Swan - Writing about affiliate marketing and how to make your website stand out. Read more about converting traffic, or find a new program, at http://www.affiliateranker.com

Getting Indexed, A Little Patience?

by Erich Sweaney

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

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

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

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

Effective Key Planning Strategies:

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

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

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

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

(c) Build and submit a Google Sitemap.

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to Add Value to Your Web Site and Profit Online With Affiliate Programs

by Makabongwe Maseko

Most people don't know how to make money with their websites or blogs, and if they do, they don't make a large percentage of sales from the from the visitors they do get. The result? Less profit after all the hard work invested in promoting their websites.

For those of you who don't know where to start or how to make money online, I've supplied a basement for you to find an affiliate product to promote and a proven method to make sales and avoid wasting more of your precious time trying to find that surefire way to make money online.

How To Add Value To Your Site With Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are a great way to add revenue to your website or blog. Even if you have an information site that does not sell a tangible product, you can make recommendations to affiliate programs and get revenue. Affiliate programs also add value to your site by offering additional resources to your visitors.
Joining an affiliate program is very quick and easy and you can get approved immediately. Most affiliate programs offer banners, tools and support to help you market their products and services. When you are approved you will get a personal identification number or code so your sales can be tracked and commissions awarded to you.

You can find almost any type of product to promote as an affiliate marketer. Online programs have a track record of being successful and have become popular with the webmaster community and hardcore wealth-builders.

Profiting As An Affiliate Marketer

You may be wondering where you can find a good affiliate program to promote. There are hundreds of online opportunities you can find if you do an internet search for "affiliate programs". You may know by now that the affiliate programs listed on the first page of your search results are well-established and popular, so you may want to start off by joining one of these.

To make (and maximize) profits, you will definitely need to capture the email addresses of your site's visitors who are interested in the affiliate program you promote. Why? Site visitors most often won't buy the first time they are introduced to a product. Do you usually buy a product the first time it is introduced to you? By capturing your visitors' email addresses, you can remind your customers about the product you offered as well as offering more products to them in the future. With time, you will develop a large email list of people who are interested in your product. As your list grows, so can your profits-- email lists can be sold to others who offer products like yours. Since these lists practically build themselves, ever dime you make through sales of that list will be 100% profit! The larger the list, the higher the value, and this means only more profits for you.

Knowing which affiliate product to promote and how to promote it does take a little bit of practice. Try promoting different products in various niche markets and track which products seem to make the most sales for you. This is where email capturing really comes at hand because you can now sell that good seller product your email list. But do keep track of customers you have offered the product so you don't offer the same product again.

Get more information and tips on money matters by visitng the Money Issues Information Guide at http://money-issues.information-guide.org/. Don't forget to bookmark the blog for future reference!

Take Me by the Hand and Help Me Make Some Money

“Take Me by the Hand and Help Me Make Some Money”

Only a person who’s successfully accomplished what you’d like to accomplish can be a true mentor.

Only a person who’s now standing where you’d like to be has enough knowledge to bring you there.

Those two points should be kept in mind when considering investing in a “start from scratch” internet business course. You need more than information, more than resources, more than software. You need real people to help you with real problems. Problems such as:

“I’ve got a business idea...Will it work?
“Can somebody please critique my sales letter headline?”
“I need help choosing a price for my new product.”
“My advertising isn’t working...Can somebody critique it for me?”

And the course you choose should give you:

Tools to choose a profitable business model – Examples are network marketing, viral marketing, direct sales, affiliate marketing etc.

Tools to find or create in-demand products and services to sell from your website.

You can sell digital products (like eBooks which cost nothing to create and

nothing to ship) or you can sell physical products (like clothes, or electronics).

Tools that create a professional website, designed to convert maximum visitors into satisfied paying customers – With the level of software innovation now available, you can easily do this yourself or hire someone to do it for you for a nominal fee.

Tools to drive 1,000’s of eager, qualified buyers to your website – This has to do with getting traffic, both free (the best kind) and low cost. It also involves “target marketing” or marrying the right message with the right market.

Tools to automatically collect email addresses with follow up on your best leads – This will involve auto responders. This is an automated business tool that keeps in contact with your customers.

Tools to recruit an online sales force – This involves the creation of “affiliates” who’ll be happy to help you sell your products for a portion of the profits.

Tools to automate your online business and make it “hands free”.

If you can find an internet course like that...you’ve found “pure gold”.

Although he’s not an alchemist, Derek Gehl, CEO of the Internet Marketing Center, has successfully created “pure gold” To check out all the exciting details, go to tinyurl.com/2sdosx

________________________________________________________________________

Marsha Sneed reviews quality business opportunities and online resource tools that can be used effectively by newbies and experienced marketers alike to reach their marketing and financial goals. She can be reached at jcsneed@onebox.com.

Guaranteed Ways to Build Up Your Ezine List

by Suzanne Falter-Barns
www.getknownnow.com

Learn tips on how one ezine owner built her list to more than 75,000 names in just a few years. (She bought only 4000 of them.) Guerilla tips from Suzanne Falter-Barns and Jenna Glatzer.

Want your E-zine list to catch fire and really start to fill up? Jenna Glatzer took her own list from the hundreds all the way to 75,000 in 7 years by simple, steady marketing, and using many of these techniques. (Jenna bought only 4000 0pt-in names along the way.) Here are some tips we provided, and some I've pulled from my own experience, building my list for The Joy Letter to 17,000 over five years.

1. Free Stuff.

Pick genuinely useful fr.ee stuff that you know your audience wants and needs. For instance, my brand new
E-zine, Expert Status, attracted 600 readers in just a few weeks by offering a report, "25 Top Self Help Literary Agents." The practical freebie works. Jenna Glatzer offers two free E-books/reports to subscribers on agents who are receptive to new writers, and on writer's markets. She notes: "Before I
did that, my subscriber numbers were in the hundreds, not thousands.

2. Put a subscribe box on every page of the site.

This has worked for both Jenna and me. Mine is parked in the left hand column of the site. Experts advise putting a simple sign up box (with freebie mentioned) in the top left hand corner, as that's where the eye naturally travels first. A simple sign up box that requests only E-mail address works best.

3. Ad swaps.

Exchange plugs for your E-zine with another Website, to run in each other's E-zines. Be sure to mention those freebies! Doing this on a regular basis with a rotating selection of Web partners will keep your subscription page busy.

4. Cross-registration.

I've found subscribers by having a plug for my E-zine on the thank you page of a comparable (but not directly competitive) Website. This offer is made to folks who just signed up for an E-zine, and are therefore deemed 'in the mood for more.' Offer a swap with your site, and try not to list more than about two other E-zines. Also, make a point of including only really good, reliable publications that reach your target market.

5. Give away a bonus for other sites to use, based on your E-zine.

A popular Web marketing technique is the special one- or two-day promo that offers big bonus lists when you buy a certain product on those particular days. (I cover this promo technique in more detail in my E-book/binder, "Get Known Now; How to Build Your Platform as a Self Help Expert.") So, collect some of your best E-zine essays, pack 'em up in a downloadable PDF-based E-book, and offer it as a bonus these sites can use in their special promos. Don't forget juicy descriptive copy about your E-zine, and a subscribe link at the end of your E-book. I've gotten hundreds of new readers this way, and much traffic to my site.

6. Announce E-zine 'events' on PRweb.com and other PR sites.

There's an entire world of web-based press release distribution services out there, some of which are low cost or even free. So, use them. But be sure to only plant press releases that are truly newsworthy, and thus likely to get press attention. Even if the media don't use your words this time, they'll hopefully
file you as an expert for future use.

7. Use discussion boards or groups.

These are sites frequented by gangs of people interested in the same thing. Avoid the unmoderated sites, because they're likely to be spam targets that generate little bonafide traffic. Boards found on member
sites are the best. Don't spam the board with your subscribe message. Instead, offer some genuinely helpful info. Then sign off with a signature line that includes E-zine and subscribe info. You can find some of these groups at groups.yahoo.com, topica.com, mail-list.com, and listfool.com, for starters.

8. Sponsor other people's contests.

Jenna Glatzer gives away products like her paid newsletter, "Absolute Markets Premium Newsletter," to writers' groups, contests, and conferences that request it, regardless of size. I've tried this too, to good effect. Simply run an announcement in your E-zine that you'd be happy to sponsor comparable events. Ask them to provide a URL for an event description, so you know it's legit. Then offer up your gifts, and ask for a plug for your E-zine and for them to talk up your dazzling freebie, as well. Jenna notes that
groups she sponsors "often send out ads for us to their lists � just as a thank you."

9. Run quality content.

There's no substitute for heartfelt writing plus solid information about a subject that matters.

Jenna writes: 'The main reason our list stays so big is our 'letter from the editor' � Each week, I chronicle my writing life and my triumphs and failures � when an article is killed, when I'm having trouble finishing a book � And I share personal things, too, like when my grandfather died�. People write: 'I feel like I know you so well.' And I think that's why they stay on the list, even when their mailbox fills up with dozens of other writer's newsletters.

10. Allow reprints.

Allow any newsletter that wants to reprint your articles to do so. I like to have an E-mail requesting permission, so I can enter their info into a big database I use to track where I can send more articles in the future. I end each article with the line: "You may reprint this article in your own E-zine or Website. Simply send an E-mail requesting permission to EMAIL ADDRESS. Please be sure to include our full
bio box at the end."

11. Create a survey or contest.

This would be one of those newsworthy 'E-zine events' I mentioned above in point # 6. Make it a fun, relevant question that you could really develop a good, newsy story from. I did a survey asking people what they fought with their spouse/partner/boy or girlfriend about. The results made for the kind of reading offline media enjoy running short, 100-word pieces about (fillers.) I made sure to attribute the survey to my E-zine, "The Joy Letter," with a mention of the site's basic URL. You can get the technology to run your own survey and collect responses at surveymonkey.com (for a fee) or bravenet.com (for free.)

I think I could actually go on and on here. The possibilities seem to be endless. If you try even half of these techniques on a regular basis, you'll find your subscriber rates double and even triple. Here's to building your list � the foundation that much of your traffic and success rely on.

Suzanne Falter-Barns' Website at getknownnow.com offers tips and tools that help you build your platform and get known as an expert in your field. Sign up for her free E-zine, "Expert Status," and receive her free report, "25 Top Self Help Literary Agents."

The Basics Of Podcasting

by Madison Lockwood

Podcasting in its simplest form is the uploading of MP3 files to the internet, where they can be accessed by the majority of the online universe with little more than a modern browser. You might consider a podcast to be an audio blog, although podcasts are basically standalone units of communication and not limited solely to “audio.” The term is also applied to short video pieces that are uploaded for general consumption; that is becoming more common, but the term was born as a reference to the audio format. Although the term stems from Apple’s iPod line of products it is generic in nature and refers to any MP3 (and increasingly, video) file provided via one Internet channel or another.

To that end, the number of channels that are now using podcasts is nothing short of phenomenal. They are used in educational formats (distance learning programs) and by the mainstream media. Business Week Online is an example of excellent utilization of the format. They provide professionally conducted interviews with both news makers in the business world and with experts on topics like developing technology. It is both an extension of their current events function and the features section of the magazine that focuses on broader industry analysis.

Every major news outlet online – ABC, ESPN, Fox, CNN and so forth – use podcasts to augment their print-and-graphics webpage formats. You can find them on political websites and blogs, often carrying the candidate’s message but more often carrying the opponent’s gaffe. This particular phenomenon has led to the practice of campaigns hiring “trackers” to trail their opponent from public event to public event with a video camera, hoping to catch a misstatement, a contradiction or some sort of unfortunate occurrence that can be distributed via the assortment of political websites and blogs that clog the web today.

You can now “subscribe” to podcasts that are delivered via an RSS application automatically to your computer. “Pod-casters” are individuals or information distributors of some sort that provide an ongoing series of podcasts. Podcasts very quickly found their way to the marketing and advertising industry, which as adopted them for widespread use on the Internet. Video podcasts in particular have become the most recent form of “pop-up” advertising on the web. You can be clicking through a commercial site and suddenly you are watching a commercial.

The proliferation of podcasts that are web casts of mistakes, poor behavior or just plain foolishness began with people in the public eye but now extends well beyond the currently and formerly famous. Because these snippets of audio and video are so widespread and move across the digital network so quickly, one begins to feel uneasy. What if someone catches me falling off a bicycle and thinks it looks funny enough to share?

When email entered our society, it provided a screening device to communication that was somehow comforting. Podcasts and to some degree the whole social networking phenomenon create the opposite effect. It’s easy to feel exposed, regardless of the fact that you’re still one person using one computer.

For a technical explanation of the various methods of podcast delivery, take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting. They provide an excellent and extended explanation of the various software options and delivery choices that you can make in allowing podcasts into your life. For a fairly comprehensive directory of podcast feeds and sources, try http://www.podcast.net/. As a good resource for news in the podcast universe and also for a directory, there’s http://www.podcastingnews.com/

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

Successful Home Business - The Secret To Organizing Your Business The Easy Way

By Arindam C

The secret to making your business successful is to get yourself organized as soon as possible. Whether it is part-time or a full-time business, you will need to operate it just like any other business; in other words, you must give your home business the same amount of time and attention as you would to any other type of business. To operate your home business efficiently, you need to have certain systems in place, otherwise, it becomes disorganized and you feel lost. In this article, I will tell you how to organize your business the easy way!

How did I find out this truth? There was a time when I was myself a disorganized home business owner. I joined a lot of membership sites, purchased a lot of products and subscriptions, and even before I could take control of all that, my inbox was full of receipt numbers, passwords, invoice numbers, download links, etc. I got completely crazy over it and that was why I decided to get myself organized.

Now there are basically three things you need to organize. First off, if you are like me who have purchased a lot of products and memberships, record your receipt numbers, passwords, usernames, etc, in an Excel(tm) database. Then name it 'My Account Manager' or whatever you like to call it. When you need a product simply look at this database to find out the required information.

The second thing that you need to track is your monthly expenses and income. While tracking monthly expenses and income is a must for tax-assessment, you need it even more to monitor the performance of your business. You need to monitor how much you are spending and how much R.O.I (return-on-investment) you are getting on your expenditure. Without tracking and monitoring your expenses, how will you be able to know whether your business is making a profit or loss, whether it is worth running, and above all, what you need to change to maximize your profits and minimize your expenses?

I use a cashbook to track my monthly income and expenditure, but it is ok if you do not know how to use a cashbook. An Excel(tm) database will do just as well. Record you monthly and yearly income and expenditure in an Excel(tm) database and name it ' My Income and Expenditure Manager' or whatever you like to call it. There is a lot of accounting software packages available in the market, like Quicken(tm), Quick Books(tm), etc, and if you can afford it, then I would suggest that you purchase one of these software to make your tasks easier.

The last thing you need to track is your advertising campaign. Now, I am sure that many 'gurus' have told you how essential it is for a business owner to track his ads. Do not make the mistake of thinking that a well-written ad will pull in a huge income for you. Not all ads work all the time and even some well-written ads need to be monitored to see whether they are working or not. Keep an Excel(tm) database of all your ad campaigns and name it ' My Ad Manager'. Once you see which ads are making you profits and which are not, you can dump the poorly performing ads and continue with the successful ones. If you are not tracking your ad campaigns, then you are literally throwing money down the drain!

I hope this article convinces you why organization is extremely important in business, more so if you want to run a profitable business venture. What you may not know, however, is where and how you can find profitable affiliate business opportunities. For more details on lucrative home business opportunities, and to learn how you can start earning money from home the easy way, simply visit our website.

Arindam is a home business expert. For more such Home Business tips please join his free e-course at:
http://jobs4all.biz/focus
You can read more such tips at: http://jobs4all.biz/newszine

The Social Bookmarking Phenomenon

By Madison Lockwood

We are quickly evolving from a digital world where information was THE marketable commodity to a communications market. New methods of communicating, networking, and socializing become the new consumers of online attention and time, introduced to us on a rapid-fire basis. Blogs, wikis, RSS newsfeeds, podcasts, video socialization are built around applications like YouTube...all of these are recently formulated methods of communication that seemingly overnight have developed millions of participants.

One of the networking methodologies evolving from Internet architecture is the phenomenon of "social bookmarking." One of the more popular sites is del.icio.us. On this site the notion is that you, the web surfer, share interests with others who have web access via your bookmarked URLs. It's the same concept as bookmarking favorites with your browser, but the collection of favorites has a coding system and is shared with others. You build a library of URLs that reflect your interests and you consider worth visiting. You add a personal "tag" with a keyword that characterizes the site.

You can "subscribe" to tags so you can see every new post with that tag. That in turn can take you to the poster's entire list of favorites, which may prove to be a new trove of information for you, and del.icio.us, allows you to go through the same exercise with podcasts, which are now scattered across the Internet galaxy like asteroids.

Others on the web have access to your library and to your personal interests. Utilizing a web based application (in this case, del.icio.us), participants are able to search through sites that others have bookmarked, using not only a standard search term but the tag that has been used to characterize the site. Tags form a collective body of URLs and thus, a body of knowledge - and collective access to those tags forms a community of people with common interests. Included in the process is an optional personal profile, which provides your email address and allow others to communicate with you personally.

The drawback to this format is that a tag search is going to get you every commercial website out there that has laid claim to the same keyword. It takes a lot of scanning and scrolling to find sites that have been tagged by individuals instead of search engines.

There are several platforms out there for social networking. Flickr (www.flickr.com) is a site that uses uploaded photos for networking purposes instead of URLs. You can upload your travel experiences, travel photos and travel interests along with your profile at www.43places.com. Wists (www.wists.com) is a "social shopping" exchange where the bookmarks are all about commercial shopping sites. The level of personal communication allowed by social networking sites is up to you: on 43 Places you can post your photo but refuse personal email. You can also hold the line at public access to your favorite’s library on del.icio.us.

Other social bookmarking platforms (or tools) as they are called, include:

- Backflip
- Blinklist
- blogmarks
- Connotea
- de.lirio.us
- feedmarker
- Jots
- Lookmarks
- Scuttle
- unalog
- Spurl
- Simpy
- Wists
- Yahoo! My Web 2.0

They all have an assortment of tricks and widgets that make their sites a little different. Some of them have fairly sophisticated search methods for their subscribed users; some allow you to "bundle" tags for search purposes; most provide lists of the most popular bookmarks and the recent posts. It's all an interesting experiment in 'distance sharing'. Making use of it for professional (research) or personal uses simply requires taking the time to become comfortable with the methodology and then learning how to get maximum usage out of the tagging system.

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

Information Products - Free Vs Paid

By Shouvik Mazumder

There are many membership sites on the web. Some of them are paid, some are free. All these membership sites provide information on a range of topics in forms of ebooks, softwares, videos, teleseminars, podcasting etc.

In addition, there are many ebooks available on the net (both for free and for payment) containing information on various topics.

Now have you ever considered, “why does an ebook or membership site provide information for free, while others are providing the same information only after receiving some payment?”

The answer is quite simple: The information is NOT the same.

There is a gap (and this gap can be quite wide) between the quality of information for the free and paid versions. This is what makes the paid version a paid version.

When you read a free ebook on anything, you always feel you are missing something important. Reading a paid ebook does not make you feel like that.

You may feel you can find much information, about a topic, by yourself, within a short period, by searching through search engines. But, in reality ............ you are going the wrong way.

This is simply NOT possible. Not all the information is available via the web. I know because I have tried to do this myself, and failed. Even after spending 1 month on searching a topic, I have gotten more information on that topic, (which I never got earlier through searching), through other marketers.

When you try to gather information on any topic through searching (in other words, when you try to get information for free), you perform the following tasks:-

1) First, you write down some keywords related to your topic

2) Then you go to your favorite search engine and enter those keywords in the search box.

3) After that, you read information on the resulting webpages.

4) Then you decide which information will benefit you.

5) Lastly, you arrange your gathered information in a step-by- step, easy-to-read format.

Now, believe me, doing all these steps will take a lot of your time and energy. What if you can not give the time required? Further, if you suddenly encounter more valuable information about that topic, it will be very difficult for you to rearrange the whole thing.

Therefore, here is the importance of paid version of information over free version of information. Paid version of information is ready for you to read and digest. You don’t need to search for anything. The research is already done for you, by the information product developer. The information product developer is charging you for this.

The info product developers are always at a distance. They know they need to put valuable information into their info product that must benefit the readers, and which would justify their charging. They spend their time on thorough research, and then spend carefully craft their information product. They include valuable tips within their info product, which you will not get from anywhere else. They are a master over a certain topic. Their vast exposure on that topic reflects on the quality of the product they create.

A General Approach: From Free To Paid

In general, to sell their information products, many information product developers first create a free version of the information product, (like a free report) on the theme of the paid version. Next, they input a “useful, but incomplete approach” within that report. This means they first discuss some problems and solutions within the free report relating to the theme of the paid version, not fully disclosing everything). Then they create urgency in the mind of the readers of the report to buy the paid version from them so that the readers can get all the solutions for all the problems on that topic.

This is a good way to sell. The readers know they can trust the author and his recommendation, as they have already read his report. The author, on the other hand, can be certain of creating some credibility in the mind of his readers, and hence can expect some sales.

This article is composed by Shouvik Mazumder. To get a special report on "Information Product Marketing", click below:
http://www.realtimedeal.com/shouvik/infoezine.html

Automation - The Key to Success Online

By Izzy Camacho

If you have been looking into selling products online, then you have probably heard some "expert" recommend that you create a web site, fully automated to help you make money 24 hours a day. While that might sound great, they often forget to tell you HOW to do this.

Well, I'm going to tell you right now, in this article!

First, what IS a Fully Automated Web Site? A Fully Automated Web Site can be defined as one equipped with an integrated suite of both e-commerce and internet marketing tools allowing you to be the most profitable with the least amount of effort.

Most e-commerce systems are equipped with the following essentials:

- A shopping cart.
- Acceptance and processing of credit cards.
- A maintenance system that allows you to add/change products.
- An order-retrieval system that enables you to fulfill orders.

However, what most of them are lacking are marketing tools. If your website hits it big and you don't have the proper tools in place, then you will be a slave to e-mail and order processing. I'm sure that's not what you intended.

There are several marketing strategies that are essential in the creation of a successful e-commerce web site:

- Email marketing (broadcasting) of prospects/customers
- Effective use of autoresponders (generate automatic email messages)
- Online Newsletter
- Online Form / Survey to capture your prospect's email address
- Electronic Product Delivery (if you sold a digital product)
- Advertisement (Ad) Tracking
- Back End Sales
- Affiliate program

Now, if you had a system to support the integration of ALL of these marketing tools, in addition to the necessary e-commerce essentials, then you would have a Fully Automated Web Site. After all, it has been shown that it often takes 7 or more ad exposures before prospective customers actually make a purchase. Consider the following scenario:

A prospect clicks on an advertisement in an online magazine.

These action increments a counter for this particular ad to help you determine how well it is working. They do not decide to buy as of yet, but join your newsletter. They are now considered a prospect. You begin to send them a monthly email newsletter. Additionally, an autoresponder kicks in to thank them for joining the newsletter, as well as, scheduling them to get email twice a month for the next 90 days, reiterating your product benefits, and inviting them to purchase.

Upon sending them one of your "juicy" offers that they couldn't refuse, they finally purchase. They will automatically be removed from your prospect list and added to your customer list.

Based on the particular product or service they have purchased, they will receive a series of emails every two weeks for the next 6 months offering complimentary products.

This will be the engine that will drive your back end sales and keep your customers coming back to your web site.

Being able to play out a scenario such as this using one integrated system, would be impressive, don’t you think?

The internet big boys do this with expensive e-commerce platform suites produced by vendors such as IBM, Microsoft and Oracle.

Having your system automatically perform these follow up tasks frees you to spend more time on your business, your health or your family!

=====> What can you do to create a fully automated web site?

Fortunately, there are ways you can automate your website similar to the way the big boys do. The best and most cost-effective way would be to sign up with one of the handful of Application Service Providers available on the internet, which provide a shopping cart integrated with a full suite of marketing tools. Normally, the shopping cart and tools are very flexible and can be incorporated into any website.

=====> Are there any other ways to automate your business besides working with a total solution provider?

You can accomplish some level of automation without an integrated shopping cart system. However, it will require manual intervention and of course, it would be incomplete. I believe the most important asset of your e-commerce business is your email lists. Therefore, concentrate on the implementation of a good autoresponder/list server system to "enhance" your present e-commerce website. There are several good ones on the market.

Look for providers that allow you to:

- Create multiple lists.
- Add prospects via a web form, email, or manually through a management console.
- Send out an unlimited number of autoresponder messages.
- Send out an unlimited number of email broadcasts.
- Set up and distribute a newsletter.

When setting up your autoresponder system, create one list for your "prospects" and another one for your "customers". Now, here's where you come in: when a person orders your product, you will have to perform the extra task of logging into your autoresponder system and manually remove them from the prospect list and add them to the customer list. This action will then trigger your customer autoresponder series of messages to be sent.

Remember, the key to building a successful e-commerce web site is to automate your marketing engine, as much as possible, and drive your prospects and customers back to your web site. This will certainly create a money magnet e-commerce web site for you!

© Izzy Camacho

****************

To learn more about website automation and to download the complimentary ebook, "Easy Ezine Marketing", visit Izzy Camacho at http://www.internet-marketing-made-easy.com/Automation.htm.

Izzy Camacho is an accomplished software developer with approximately 20 years of experience. He has a degree in computer science from a distinguished university. For the last several years he has been involved in the creation of web site applications for corporate America.

7 Steps to Creating Your Own Podcast

By Donna Gunter

Listening to podcasts is not something I enjoy or take time for, frankly. I am a visual learner and prefer to read something rather than listen to it, as I find reading a much quicker way to gather the info that I need. However, with the proliferation of audio listening devices, like the whole iPod family and other mp3 players, I have to acknowledge that I am in the minority, I believe. The world is listening to a wide variety of audio files, much more so than ever before in history, and I need to get on the bandwagon or be lost in the dust.

What is a podcast, anyway? A podcast is an audio file that you create in .mp3 format. You can upload it with an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) file to your server for your target market to download any number of programs created to receive or subscribe to your audio file. You can listen to it at your leisure on the computer or a personal mp3 device.

Why should you create a podcast? I think it serves as a marketing tool for the solo service professional, who might want to do one of the following:

--create an Internet radio show, or talk show, in which you create content-rich broadcasts for your target market

--conduct a teleclass series in which you interview experts who have solutions to problems faced by your target market

--promote a printed book, ebook, or CD/DVD series by releasing promotional snippets to a wider audience

--provide short and valuable expert tips to your target market (my Get More Clients Online, podcast consists of the weekly article I write for my newsletter)

Many podcasts are about an hour in length, especially when they consist of recordings of radio shows or teleclasses. However, I think the listening threshold for most people is about 10 minutes. This means your podcast needs to be 10 minutes or less in length. If it is longer, you really have to grab their attention in the first 10 minutes to keep them listening for the full amount of time.

Good content and a good speaking voice are essential to maintaining interest. Do not make your podcast one long advertisement for your services or products -- share some useful information with your target market to help them solve their problems. You need to have a good speaking voice. Nothing is worse than listening to someone read a speech with a monotone delivery. So, for maximum impact when you record your podcast (especially if you're just recording yourself), get up and walk around, smile, gesture, or do whatever you normally do when you deliver a speech. Modulate your voice, much in the same way you would when you have a 1 on 1 conversation with someone -- put feeling and emotion into your words. I pretend like I am talking to my best friend, and that helps me with a livelier delivery.

What are the steps to creating a podcast?

1. Listen to a few podcasts to get a feel for what others are doing. To listen, you will need a podcatcher (podcast reader), which permits you to subscribe to podcasts in the same way you subscribe to blogs. I favor iTunes as my podcatcher of choice, which is a free online download. You will also need to find podcasts. The quickest way to do that is via podcast directories, which include the iTunes store. Podcast Alley, one of the most popular podcasting sites, has a large podcast directory, and Yahoo Podcasts has a podcast search. To find others, simply search online for "podcast directory."

2. Plan your podcast. Who is your target market? What do they want to listen to? How will your podcast be unique from others in your industry? What is your format (interview others, host a teleclass, or record yourself)? How long will your podcast be? How frequently will you deliver your podcasts?

3. Record your podcast. Many people choose to record their podcast with a free piece of software called Audacity. It has an easy learning curve and advanced features for more experienced podcasters. Mac users might want to check out Garage Band. For best recording sound, do not use the microphone that came with your computer or the one built into your laptop. You will want to get a more professional one, such as the ones offered at Plantronics or Radio Shack.

4. Save and upload your podcast to your server. Once you have created your podcast in an mp3 file, now you have to save it, and upload it to a server, via an FTP program (like CuteFTP) so that it is readily available. You can upload it to your website, or use one of the many podcasting hosting services available. The problem with uploading it to your website is that audio files are space hogs, and you can quickly exhaust all the storage capacity of your hosting account, not to mention your monthly bandwidth capacity if your podcast is popular and is downloaded frequently. That is why I use a fee-based audio service hosting company, Audio Acrobat, which offers me generous storage and bandwidth capacity for a semi-annual fee. Another popular podcast hosting company is Hipcast.com.

5. Create your podcast feed. You can create your podcast feed from scratch. However, I recommend you use a feed service to do so. If you use a podcasting hosting service, this feature is included in your service package. For everyone else, the quickest way to create your podcast feed is through Feedburner.com. This same service creates RSS feeds for blogs. The advantage of creating your podcast feed from this site is that you can create a browser-friendly feed, track your circulation, and enhance your feed with its SmartCast technology.

6. Publish and promote your podcast. If you use a podcasting hosting service, the service will publish your podcast and notify various podcast directories about the availability of your new podcast. Alternatively, you can enter the info directly into the major podcast directories. You will also want to promote the podcast on your website, blog, and in your email newsletter. One of the easiest ways to do this is to add feed subscription buttons (called Chiclets) to your sites. You will have to cut and paste the HTML code into your templates to create the chiclets. You can get directions on how to publish subscription buttons from the various podcasters you want to feature. Lastly, you will want to create "album art" for your podcast, or a graphic representation that many podcatchers upload with the mp3 file. Album art may be from 170x170 to 300x300 pixels square at 72 dpi. Any graphic designer can help you create this graphics file.

7. Make money from your podcast. Advertising on podcasts is still new, but some companies like Fruitcast.com or PodcasterAds.com are places to start. Another option is to place Google AdSense listings on all of your sites to list your podcast, or seek sponsors for your podcasts, just as you would for a radio show.

Do not let the audio world pass you by! Podcasting is a very inexpensive way of helping you get the word out about what you do and what you offer to the world.

Copyright (c) 2006 Donna Gunter

Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed service professionals learn how to get more clients online. To sign up for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.GetMoreClientsOnline.com. Read about running an online biz at her blog, http://www.getmoreclientsonlineblog.com or subscribe to her Get More Clients Online Podcast at http://dgunter.audioacrobat.com/rss/get_more_clients_online_podcast.xml

The Incredible Power of Free In Internet and Affiliate Marketing!

By Kanaga Siva

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Copyright © 2006 Kanaga Siva Kanaga Siva has a wealth of experience in Marketing and operating a successful Home Based Business. Visit his http://www.business-fromhome.com Website for Tips, Ideas and Advise to start and operate a Home Based Business.

Web Conferencing Is A Benefit to Business Big or Small

By Jane Wyvern

No matter the kind of job you have or business you own, it seems like meetings are a part of life. They are necessary to make sure vital information is shared and employees are kept in the loop, but they can be a major expense to the employer.

This is especially true for corporations that need to fly employees across the globe for face to face meetings with other employees or clients.

Thanks to the internet and the latest innovations in communications technology, meetings can now occur over the internet via web conferencing. Today’s web conferencing solutions are state of the art, thanks in part to the availability of high-speed internet access.

Corporations can hold meetings and the employees don’t even need to leave their offices. All they need to do is hook into their web conferencing application;--this works well—similar to face-to-face meetings.

The savings in time and money to business owners is quite substantial when you add up travel time, overtime, and person-hours away from the job to attend meetings in an offsite location.

Productivity and efficiency remain at peak levels and the company saves money at the same time. It is no wonder web conferencing has taken the business world by storm.

It isn’t only big business that benefits. Small businesses and startups who work from home can now compete on a global scale thanks to web conferencing and the ability to communicate instantly with anyone on the planet that has access to internet technology.

There are a couple of options to consider when it comes to web conferencing. The choice will ultimately depend upon the budget of the company. In any case, the money saved by utilizing the web conferencing solution will pay for itself in no time.

For higher end solutions, there are full featured stand alone video web conferencing applications. For most small companies however, initiate a simple web conferencing program over the internet, which saves the expense of purchasing equipment and dedicated communication lines.

Web conferencing is a particular boon to those who work at home. It is relatively inexpensive to set up a web conferencing system utilizing a home computer and high speed internet line. Web conferencing provides a link to employees who work from home and gives those with a home business a more professional outward appearance.

Jane Wyvern is an established freelance writer. You can find more of her writing at http://www.webtalkcentral.com and http://www.webhostmatters.com.

Using Your Web Stats to Sell

By Aviva Brown

After you have a website, you start to learn a lot of tips and tricks for doing business on the web. One of the best marketing tools you have is on your server, and you would be amazed at how many people don't use it. That tool is your website statistics. If you have never examined your web stats before, you are missing a real gold mine of information. They are usually found in the control panel section of your web hosting company. Most web hosts will email them to you if you can't access them yourself.

Learn Important Pages Viewed Information

You are most likely familiar with your "hits" on your web stats for finding out how many people have visited your website. Most stats programs will not only tell you how many visitors you have had to your site, but what pages on your website they visited, how long they stayed on a particular page, and what page they last viewed on your website before they surfed on.

Valuable Keywords and SEO

If you're interested in search engine optimization for your website and you aren't sure what keywords to use for your site; there is usually a section in your web stats file that shows you what keywords a person entered to find your site and what search engine they used. You can put those keywords around your website on various relevant pages to increase the search engine optimization of your site. That will not catapult your website to the number one position on Google overnight, but it will increase your rankings if done correctly.

The Magic of Referrers

Another great feature is the referrer section. Know what sites or search engines are referring your website visitors. Referrals can come from other websites, news groups, clubs and forums, or even competitors - if people are being referred to your website, find out by whom. In many cases, someone who had a great experience with your firm will be referring your company to someone on a message board that is looking for a similar product or service.

Use Your Web Stats

If you notice people are leaving within a few seconds of hitting your index page. Look at it in a few different browsers because they are not all created equally. What loads like a champ in Internet Explorer may look like garbage in Firefox or Opera browsers; or it simply may take too long to load. If you notice people are leaving at a point in your shopping cart - either your shipping is too high or your program may be faulty. Find out what items are getting the most looks and promote those to bring in more visitors.

Now that you know how your web stats can work for you, jump-start your Internet business today.

Aviva Brown recommends that you promote your website by submitting it to http://www.avivadirectory.com/.

Creating an Email Newsletter from Microsoft Word

By Craig Bucknall

Do you need an easy way to update your customers with your company news? Try adopting an email newsletter or e-Newsletter on a regular schedule. It can keep them informed, and it may even generate more business.

An e-newsletter combines the benefits of company information and marketing opportunities with little cost to compose and savings realized by using email technology rather than traditional postal means.

Some things you need to consider when preparing your e-Newsletter;

• Frequency – Make a plan to publish your newsletter on a regular basis

• Content – Keep the content focused on the audience, don’t try and oversell any product or service as these emails tend to get deleted very quickly.

• Size – Try to keep the newsletter to 3 – 4 bullet points, in short attention grabbing sentences that lead to full stories on your website.

• Bandwidth – Try not to over indulge your newsletter with too many graphics. Keep in mind many users still have low speed internet connections, and large image sizes will have an impact on downloading. Try to keep your newsletter to less than 60Kb

In this article I will show you the easy way to create a newsletter based on tables in Microsoft Word ready for importing into your email program for distribution.

Step 1: Open a blank word document and insert a table with 3 columns and 6 rows. I recommend merging the top 3 cells and the bottom 3 cells into header and footer rows. You can easily add the company logo on the header row and your address details on the footer row.

Step 2: Merge the left side rows of the remaining rows into 1 column.

Step 3: Add your logo image or Business Name to header area and Address details to footer area. Do not forget to add email and website URL links here, as well.

Step 4: Formulate a welcome message to introduce your newsletter and its content.

Step 5: Keep the information in the newsletter brief and to the point. If you have more information on your website, make sure you link directly to that article or news/product item on your website. Introduce bullet point’s news snippets with links in the left side column.

You have now created A HTML newsletter that looks like a webpage. Modify colors and graphics to suite your corporate colors, etc. You now have a simple easy to edit Word Document ready for publication via email.

Save the document for future editing, and then selecting the entire table, copy and paste into an open blank email.

Tip: Send the email to a friend, or your free email accounts (hotmail, gmail, etc), to see how the finish product will look when your customer receive it.

If no formatting issues are found after test email is sent, send the newsletter to your predetermined list of contacts.

Remember: Frequency is the key to gaining new and repeat business, so compiling and sending regular updates will help educate your customers on your products and services.

Craig Bucknall is the owner and Managing Director of the Sydney based Website Design studio Bullie Graphics. See their website for more information about http://www.bulliegraphics.com.au website design also checkout the http://www.bulliegraphics.com.au/blog website design and seo tips blog.

RSS Feed Tools

By Jack Doren

Difference between RSS Submit and RSS Feed Submit.

Let's compare the two solutions...

a] Both tools are desktop software, which essentially submits your feeds to the appropriate places online. As such, both tools provide the same functionality.

b] RSS Submit will submit your feeds to 78 engines and directories, while RSS Feed Submit covers 75. Not much difference here, although it seems that RSS Submit might be doing a better job at keeping their tool updated (I've been using them since April and already have received many updates that made the software easier to use and added new engines and directories).

c] Certain search engines and directories require more information than can be provided through a fully automated submission process. RSS Submit tackles this problem by first asking you to fill-in a longer form. It will automatically take you to each of the manual submission sites, where it already pre-fills the forms and only asks you to confirm manually. RSS Feed Submit makes this even easier, first requesting that same information, but then doing all the work automatically. The only question in my mind is the quality of submissions. How do they compare to each other?

d] Ease of use is a strong factor. RSS Submit takes the game here. It allows you to submit multiple feeds at the same time, save them in the management interface, and track how many times you submitted each of them. RSS Feed Submit allows you to do one at a time.

e] As far as expanding the basic functionality of the tool, RSS Feed Submit is the clear winner. It allows you to add new search engines and directories by yourself, even tackling those that would otherwise require a manual submission. This is a great user-interface for adding new sites.

f] The final differentiating factor is the price, with RSS Submit starting at $44.95 for the Personal Edition, and RSS Feed Submit selling for $29.95.

Source:

http://www.rssdiary.marketingstudies.net

Jack Doren

I am working on http://www.softwareriviewblog.com. I usually publish articles regarding latest software tools of different categories which are mentioned in my weblog. I am also handling article marketing of this Blog.

Ecommerce: Have Cart - Will Shop

By Scott Lindsay

You will need a shopping cart application to facilitate ecommerce, in order to sell products or services online. While your customers simply want a way to make a purchase, if they are interested in your product, you will have already considered tough choices

For Instance...

If you want a full solution for invoicing, statements, receipts, and company financial history, there are solutions to cover all of this with an application for a shopping cart connected to company financial data. One such company is COREsense based in New York. This service requires less redundant work, because data entry on sales to a separate accounting software application is not required due to the full integration of financial data. For most companies, this solution will fall outside normal budget constraints.

If a shopping cart does not fit your budget, you have a couple of solutions that might work depending on your technical expertise. OSCommerce is available at no cost. This product is a fully customizable solution for a shopping cart, but it does require personal programming. In many cases netrepreneurs will hire a programmer to set this shopping cart up for them.

If you have no up-front budget for a shopping cart, PayPal makes one available at no cost. However, they do retain a fee, as well as, a small commission on each sale. The power of PayPal may make this a trusted source for online transactions for your customers.

Yahoo and eBay provide shopping cart services, at $30-40 per month, and offer a few features unavailable with the low-cost or no-cost checkout solutions.

There are other online solutions for cyber transactions with the tipping point based entirely on the size and needs of your online business. If you are a large company with thousands of online transactions, it may ultimately be less expensive to purchase a shopping cart system requiring a monthly fee. In the end, the fees and commissions associated with no-cost carts could outpace a standard monthly fee from other ecommerce transaction solutions.

Your customers have a choice in where they shop online and you have a choice in how you manage online transactions. Spend some time checking out the services offered and how the fees will affect your bottom line, both now, and as your company grows.

As with all ecommerce sites, your business will not do well if it is difficult to checkout. Make sure the transaction solution you choose allow your clients to make a purchase easily. If the process if too difficult, the prospect may bow out before the sale is complete.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with http://HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com

Free Article Directory Submissions Without Being A Spammer

by Mary Hanna

Successful free article submissions to directories on the internet are an effective way to market your article and get more traffic to your websites. Submitting to an article directory is a great way for people to find a free article written by you. There are a few problems with this system, but you can overcome them and become more proficient in marketing articles. The trick is to submit your articles without being considered a spammer.

The weakness of the article submitting techniques is; it is very time consuming. I have submitted articles in three different ways: by Hand, with Article Submitter, and Instant Article Submitter software. Many directories require a login, ID and password, so each directory must be visited and a login established before submissions are accepted.

When submitting by hand, you have to cut and paste each section of the article into the individual directories. There are a lot of sections; first the Title, then the Category (very important – I’ll get into this later), Author, Author email, Website Address, Keywords, Article Summary, Article Body, and About Author box. That is nine cut and pastes to submit to ONE article directory. If you wish to submit to 150-200 directories, a good part of your time is spent doing grunt work which does not allow you to pursue other avenues of traffic generation.

Now we come to the "semi-automated" submission software programs. Yes, they are easier, some more than others, but you still must go to each directory individually. It is crucial that you select a Category for your article. If this is not done, the article directories will know you are using automatic submitting software and will treat your article as SPAM. Many directories especially frown on the "Automated Article Distribution Services" for just that reason. Therefore, you will not be published and not only have you wasted your time writing your article but you may be classified as a spammer.

Within the "Article Submitter" Software, they have 138 auto-fills, and 25 manual-fill directories listed. A visit to a majority of the directories must be done first in order to establish a login. You have the option of adding other article directories on your own, which is a nice touch.

The software will open to a page with a form for "User Information". There are typical information requirements you would find in any sign up sheet like, name, company, email, website, etc. Then hit the tab for "Articles" where you will place the article for submission. You will fill in the Title Section, Article Body (including About Author), Summary, and Keywords. Then choose the "Websites" tab. You can "select all" or pick and choose. Click on "Auto Fill" and it will take you to your first directory. A flaw here is that you can only have one article posted in the article section at a time.

Sounds easy, right? Well with "Article Submitter" you must be very careful. Once you have chosen your Category, check each section. This software does not always put the right information in the right box and it leaves some boxes blank. Again, if the directories feel you are using software carelessly, they will delete your article. The manual sites are just that, manual top to bottom. It took me a full day for each article, so it is still a time consuming process.

Then my partner found "Instant Article Submitter" which I have tested thoroughly. It is by far the easiest and quickest available at this time. Set up is still a bit tedious. Once again, you have to establish your logins, but only once. I found them much more accurate in filling in the necessary submission forms. Yes, you still must choose your Category, but only once, for each niche.

They have 100's of Article Directories listed, but there is a tab where you can mark your "Favorites". At first, I was a little intimated, but it is easy to follow and saves you a lot of time. I submitted to over 150 directories in about 4 hours and that was my first time using the software, so I was on the learning curve. Be careful not to hit the "Next Site Button" until after you have the confirmation that your article has been acknowledged.

Therefore, that has been my experience with these three systems for submitting articles to an Article Directory. I do not recommend hand posting – it is much too difficult.

For me the most convenient and least cumbersome was Instant Article Submitter for getting my articles out there to many Article Directories in the least amount of time.

Copyright © 2006 Mary Hanna All Rights Reserved.

Mary Hanna writes eBooks, Software Reviews (for people who are technically challenged like her) and Practical Articles on Internet Marketing, Cruising, Gardening and Cooking. Visit her websites at: http://www.WebMarketingReviews.com http://www.eBookSecrets-Exposed.com and http://www.CruiseTravelDirectory.com.

This article may be distributed freely on your website and in your ezines, as long as this entire article, copyright notice, links and the resource box are unchanged.

Autoresponders 101

By Scott Lindsay

A difficulty that standard brick and mortar stores face is in providing follow-up to their customers. When you make a purchase with a normal retailer, your contact information might be used to send sales flyers or an invitation to a �customer only� event. There is very little personal contact with the customer, although a growing number of these stores may ask for email address or other contact information to alert you to upcoming events.

With online marketing, this scenario is quickly resolved using autoresponders (sometimes referred to as auto responders). If someone sends your company an email, an autoresponder can send a return email instantly to advise them their question will be addressed very soon.

This idea has been expanded to include an autoresponder message when a customer concludes an online sale. Once the credit card information is completed and authorized, an autoresponder message is executed providing an immediate thanks for the sale and confirms their order. Generally, these messages are in rich text (html) and can provide pictures, company logos, and other unique design features. Customers will also find contact information and a tracking number in most cases.

Most opt-in mailing lists also provide autoresponder messages that welcome the new member and provide control functions for changing their subscription when they need to.

Online business can take advantage of the many uses for autoresponders by utilizing multiple email addresses for a variety of business applications. Each email address should be set aside for a specific business purpose so an autoresponder message can be put in place that is specific to the intended purpose of the email address.

One of the functions for an autoresponder is important for online business because they can independently send out a series of timed messages that provide a broad overview of your business and provide a welcomed means of learning more about your business.

In essence this means if you have a series of six messages that you plan on sending to customers over a six-week period, you can set up autoresponder software to automatically ship these six messages once a week, for six weeks. On the same day, your software could be sending out each of these six emails to customers who purchased from your online store at separate times. Autoresponders can take the guesswork out of follow up by insuring that every contact you receive will automatically receive a return email.

While this is a broad overview on the subject, hopefully, you gain an understanding that autoresponders provide a meaningful and many times, multiple step mechanism for developing, maintaining, and keeping your customers.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with http://HighPowerSites.com at http://www.highpowersites.com.

AdSense Used As a Web Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Detection Tool

By James Yaqins

Abstract: In addition to Google AdSense, advertisements in the business environment have played a role. Sometimes, they can use their web search engine optimization conditions (SEO) detection tool! If your website of just doing a column optimization, but just joined the Google AdSense advertising code, AdSense refers to the content of the advertisements, and may be 'food for thought' from the information.

If your website joined the Google AdSense, look at the Google advertising on their website. There are some surprising discovery and enlightenment; for example, found a new competitor, or some of the new trends within counterparts. The Google AdSense advertising in the business environment has been playing the role of relevant articles. In addition, Google AdSense advertisements and sometimes even their own web search engine optimization used as a tool for measuring the conditions!

AdSense website used as a search engine optimization (SEO) tool. This is my columns on the front page of a web site observation and the analysis found. Google�s AdSense discovered in the course of the trial, the front-page columns online marketing a new observation. Although the text of a lot and seldom changes, it also believed that, the body had been included, and web pages related to the themes of the word. However, the website of AdSense advertisements are often not normal; the advertisement bore little relation to the core content pages. In addition, visit the website, by Alexa toolbar shows, and related sites, are not directly related to the web page (Alexa website statistics and information can be used as a reference tool). According to the information analysis, preliminary assessment is the theme of the website homepage. Meta labels or website content may exist some problems search engines cannot make an accurate judgment of the core content of the website.

According to this idea, words are related to the website, so many checks Meta found that the problem is the label "page description" content, to a certain extent. Since the adoption of a common template, the website of the "page description", and the theme of the website, website content is not much correlation. Simply modify this issue shortly after a big improvement on the aforementioned issues.

This is why I use AdSense advertising, search engine optimization tool, for measuring the website as an example. However, this "search engine optimization tool for measuring" has certain limitations, are not effective for all website, Moreover, a strong correlation between advertising pages there AdSense advertising or not. Another possible situation is that theme and content of the website pages contain keywords. Corresponding advertisers do not put in advertisements or it is not suitable for advertising in this area, of course, impossible for advertising, Google advertising alone cannot determine the site of the phenomenon to a simple search engine optimization, only as a reference to a certain extent.

If your website or the website of just doing a column optimization, but just joined the Google AdSense advertising code.

AdSense refer to the content of the advertisements may be some food for thought from the information.

James Yaqins own http://www.kersearch.com, this is a free articles search engine and directory for search engine marketing. See more articles on the search engine marketing, please click http://www.kersearch.com

Successful Online Business: Possibilities

By Scott Lindsay

Building a successful online business is more than simply attempting to place a product on a webpage with the belief that visitors will be drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

If you spend a little time on the web, you will find many such sites with very little in the way of visual interest or compelling reason to explore the product any further. Many of these sites appear to have been created in the mid 90’s, with only marginal skill in website creation. That is not to say they receive no business, after all, their entire website is still up and running. However, if you turned away from the site quickly, chances are many others have too.

The idea of a successful website takes strategic thinking, planning, and execution. The development of an online marketplace requires research and marketing. You need to find a niche and learn to market to that niche. It may also be advisable to discover a niche that is actually of interest to online buyers.

You will likely need to learn certain online software applications and terms that allow further development of your site for easy navigation. The successful optimization of keywords and phrases allow your site to rank higher in the search engine results.

There will be security issues to address along with ezine options, RSS feeds, and the best use of autoresponders. A good website will also make use of affiliate programs for residual income and determine a course of action for a finely crafted website design.

As you roll out your website, you might want to include phased-in plans for video streaming as a means of demonstrating your product or services, or podcasting with experts in the field.

If all of this seems a little too much for you, please understand the reason I bring up so many different marketing tools is to spark the idea that there is as much that is a part of the development of an online business as there is in establishing a brick and mortar storefront.

It may seem easy – even tempting – to throw a site together, but without a plan the site is likely to perform on a mediocre level, at best.

Take the time to visit some of the more successful online stores. As you look through their webpages, you will gain some idea of the things that work on an e-commerce website. A well-defined purpose for your website will go far in determining the initial launch and success of your foray into web-based sales.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with http://HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com.

What Are Content Rich Websites

By Sharon Housley

What are Content Sites?

If you are like many of those starting out with intentions of making millions online and struggling to capture the attentions of the large search engines, you are in good company. Times have changed, and due to the low cost of entry, the online world is becoming very competitive for businesses starting out. Unless a website has a regional appeal or caters to a very niche product or service, it is rare that a webmaster can create a website that is only focused on selling.

What is the answer?

The answer is content. The concept is not new; it comes down to the simple concept of bartering, give something in order to get something. In this case the trade off, is free information in exchange for website traffic and search engine ranking. The key is to create a website with content that other webmasters, bloggers, and publishers will want to link to. In order to generate interest and incoming links that result in web traffic, you will need to provide unique content. Related content drives traffic; understanding what makes one website a standout when others fail is the key to building a content rich portal.

How do I use content to sell my stuff?

First off, the content you provide must be of interest to potential customers. If you are selling a product, why not provide dimensions, customer ratings, reviews, warranty information, additional product suggestions, color or size charts. In addition to additional product information, consider your demographic, and find content that will be of interest to individuals (or businesses) that you feel typify a potential customer. It is also best if the content you provide relates to the product you are promoting.

Lets take a look at some content rich examples:

Gourmet Living (http://www.gourmet-living.com )

How does the site Gourmet Living focus on selling cooking items, use content to promote their products, and sell their wares? Gourmet Living uses recipes to draw in individuals interested in cooking. The topic (recipes) relates closely to the products they are selling (cookware and gourmet cookbooks), additionally the recipes target their potential audience, those with an interest in cooking. The Gourmet Living website uses additional food preparation tips and articles that discuss gourmet cooking to generate additional interest.

Recipe Directory - http://www.gourmet-living.com/recipe-directory.htm

Tips for Food Preparation - http://www.gourmet-living.com/category.html?category=preparing+food

Along with articles that discuss gourmet cooking - http://www.gourmet-living.com/gourmet-articles.htm

Dog Pound (http://www.dog-pound.net)

How does Dog Pound, a website promoting products for dog care, use content to generate website traffic? The Dog Pound website has educational articles related to dog breeds and training. In addition, the dog pound website has videos of common dog breeds, cute pet photos, and free recipes for dog treats. My recommendation would be to take the photo section a step further, encourage individuals to send in their favorite doggy photos and conduct a dog beauty contest.

Articles about dog training - http://www.dog-pound.net/dog-articles.htm

Videos with dog breeds - http://www.dog-pound.net/videos.htm

Dog Treats - http://www.dog-pound.net/other-dog-treats.htm

Photos - http://www.dog-pound.net/dog-photos.htm

Security Port (http://www.security-port.net)

How does security port, a website that does not sell anything and profits from advertising, use content to attract traffic and promote their website? The security port focus is on aggregating a host of security resources, from security glossaries to security forums. By creating a topical portal with information relevant to security, they are providing one stop shop for security information.

Searchable Security Databases - http://www.security-port.com/security-databases.htm

Security Blog - with related security news - http://www.security-port.com/blog.htm

Security Articles - http://www.security-port.com/security-articles.htm

Remember, at the end of the day, all of the advertising campaigns and attractive affiliate programs will only result in traffic spikes, which will be transient. Generating a content rich website that is useful, educational, or entertaining will attract and retain customers. While it is hard to assemble a content-rich site that motivates others to link to you, it is certainly not impossible. Keep in mind that search engine rankings influence the amount and quality of a website's content. Provide content that will make webmasters want to link to your website.

Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition, Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.

Three Powerful Affiliate Marketing Tactics to Effectively Close the Sale

By Mal Keenan

What Mistakes are you Making that are Seriously Hampering your Affiliate Marketing Business? Find out How to Avoid Profit Crushing Errors...

My main aim as an affiliate marketer is to get the most profit out of the market I am promoting. Over the years through trial and error, I have perfected what I believe to be three of the most important strategies for gaining nice profits from whichever internet market you decide to enter.

So, let us get started...

Strategy Number One - You should absolutely set up a website for your affiliate products. Sure, every product will come with its own affiliate page, customized with your unique affiliate links, but smart marketers know that this is not enough. It is very important you set up your own website for your affiliate products. This includes registering your domain and hosting, plus creating or paying for a simple web design - complete with the affiliate images that most affiliate programs provide.

Setting up a website may seem like too much hard work but believe me; it pays off in terms of future profits, if you put in the initial effort.

It also pays to create a different page within your website for each affiliate product or service. You could write an article or review page highlighting the benefits of using your recommended service with a link to your unique affiliate page.

Setting up a blog geared towards your affiliate market is the perfect way to implement the above strategy.

Strategy Number Two - Next on my list of essential strategies is to place an opting form on your website offering a free report outlining the benefits of your service. The majority of sales are between the fifth and twelfth contact between you and your prospect.

If a prospect visits your site and then clicks off never to return, you have missed many more opportunities to close the sale. This is where the opt-in form comes in. If you manage to entice website visitors to offer their email address, then you can follow up via an email autoresponder as often as you like or until the prospect unsubscribes from your list.

Short 7-day reports are quite effective and if you provide useful information, you may have a customer for life. Capturing a prospects email address is one of the most important tasks in affiliate marketing and internet marketing as a whole.

Strategy Number Three - Drive TARGETED traffic to your site. No point in paying to send general website visitors to a site built around the topic of "Exotic Birds". If you are sending visitors to an "Internet Marketing" site, it is pointless to write and submit articles on "Travel in Italy". Do you get the point? It is essential that you target your visitors to your affiliate-marketing niche, if you are going to close the sale. This point may seem obvious to some Article Submission, but many IM newbies spend countless hours and dollars focusing on website traffic that is simply not interested in what they have to offer.

The three strategies above are extremely effective and even more so in a tight niche market. If you employ the advice, you are well on your way to becoming a successful affiliate marketer.

Mal Keenan is publisher of Home Business Tips Newsletter. Check it out for tips on how to get Started Earning a Full-time Income from Home: Free home based business income opportunities Newsletter (http://www.home-business-tips-newsletter.com/). To Find Out What Was My Greatest Lucky Break in My Six Years of Frustration check out: Starting home based internet business (http://www.freeadvertz.com/).

My Number One Internet Marketing Strategy (For Producing an Online Income)

By Titus Hoskins

Here is my number one Internet Marketing Strategy for producing an online income. It is so simple it actually works! Discover how this one marketing technique can also help you succeed online and work from home...

I am often asked, "How does one start an Internet Income?"

"Where do you begin? What do you need to start?� In addition, these questions are often followed by, "How did you get started?� These questions are popping up more often now as my name and sites become better known. However, I still get some very skeptical looks whenever I mention I work full-time on the Internet. For many people the Net is still a place chock full of 'quick-rich-schemes' and 'con-artists', where someone is ready to rip you off at the very first opportunity.

Of course, the reality of working on the Internet could not be further removed from this unflattering image. In my case, I make it a point to only deal with top name companies such as Dell, Sony, Toshiba, Amazon, Apple, Google... or top web marketers with solid reputations such as Marlon Sanders, Neil Shearing, John Reese, Ken Evoy...

In addition, I quickly learned Money Talks! It does not matter who you are, where you are operating from or how small or big your online sites/activities are, if you can generate through your online marketing efforts monthly sales in the 100-200k range for any company - you will be noticed. And your sales don't have to be in that price range, if you can generate any sales through your web site or sites, you can start to build a business online and work from home.

I come from a background in art and education but nothing compares to working on the web from the comfort of your own home. The freedom is very liberating. Once you start earning a nice income here, there is no going back. Money talks in many ways! However, how do you get started? How do you begin? I believe my own very modest success comes from one simple strategy. It has to do with learning, more importantly; it has to do with HOW we learn.

One key strategy I have learned and it is quite simple: always learn from the inside. Get as close to the source as you possibly can. No matter the field or subject area, get as close to the real experts in that field as you can possibly get. It is something all artists do instinctively! This very simple strategy has proven to be very effective for me. There is no reason why it cannot also work for you.

Here is how it is done: instead of buying the latest marketer's info product/ebook/webcourse... you join their affiliate program first! You will receive marketing information, countless free audios/training materials on this marketer's products and methods. You will get the inside information on how these marketers operate and how they are working the Internet.

You will also probably receive great discounts for any products that you do buy. You will receive updates, invitations to web seminars, free promotional material, if you are well known, or are a valuable affiliate, you will receive free copies or products to review.

What is even nicer, once you start generating sales, this affiliate relationship often develops into a personal relationship with the owner or company. You get to know the owner or the affiliate manager on a personal level and this opens many doors for other business opportunities.

This simple strategy works great. I apply it almost every day in my own marketing and even in my own life. For example, around each New Year, everyone is talking about making resolutions and setting goals, both for their businesses and in their personal lives. It is an important topic. I wanted to learn more.

As I make it a point to seek out the top person or person in any field, I wish to learn about (in this case) goals or goal setting. The name that immediately came to mind was Gary Ryan Blair. He is known as the GoalGuy! What more can you ask for? Gary Blair has made goals his business.

He also has an excellent affiliate program, which you or anyone can join. In addition, by joining Gary Blair's affiliate program, you will receive valuable information on goal setting and strategic planning from the inside, if you really want to learn about Internet Marketing, how to build websites, how to earn money from the web... just find the Top Guy in that field.

My suggestion for the top person is Ken Evoy.

Ken Evoy, of SiteBuildIt and Make Your Site Sell fame, is the perfect person for learning about the whole web marketing game. One of the best ways to learn what Ken knows is to join his affiliate program first! You get tons of free marketing info and products. You will learn how his system works. You will also learn how Internet Marketing really works.

Perhaps the main reason I chose SBI is its great online community. If you want to succeed at something, you must 'hang-out' with people who are succeeding in that particular field. Might sound a bit simplistic but there is more truth in this philosophy than most people realize.

If you want to be a jackass, associate with other jackasses! If you want to be a millionaire, associate with other millionaires! If you want to be an Internet marketer, you must associate with other Internet marketers! It is kind of a no-brainer but many people do not do this. I repeat, if you want to be a web marketer Article Submission, you hangout with web marketers and learn from the inside.

A simple Internet marketing strategy works, one that has served me well as I continue to build my online business. This can also work for you.

The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous niche websites, including two sites on Internet marketing. For the latest and most effective web marketing tools try: www.marketingtoolguide.com For the latest Internet Marketing Strategies go here: www.bizwaremagic.com 2007 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

How to Create Effective Autoresponders to Keep in Touch with Your Prospects

By Donna Gunter

Creating an effective series of autoresponders helps. You begin to develop a relationship with prospective customers, highlight your expertise, and ultimately convert prospects into customers. The autoresponder enables you to send a personalized automated reply to customers via email 24/7 without any intervention on your part, past the setup stage. Below I have listed the type of information you can include in your autoresponder series.

I often suggest to clients they use the power of business automation found in sequential autoresponders as an effective method of keeping in touch with their contacts. An autoresponder is an automated email response or series of responses that you have previously written and uploaded into an autoresponder service. The autoresponder enables you to reply to customers via email 24/7 without any intervention on your part past the setup stage. For example, you might send an automatic reply to a new newsletter subscriber, to someone who has requested a free giveaway on your site, or to a customer who has just purchased your newest information product.

Where do you find a sequential autoresponder service? Sometimes they are bundled with shopping cart software. Alternatively, you can purchase a stand-alone service in which you can set up autoresponders and send out your email newsletter, as well.

The two features that are essential to have in autoresponder software are personalization and tracking ability. For greater effectiveness, you should be able to personalize your autoresponders both in the subject line as well as in the body of the email. Do you open email more quickly when you see your name in the subject line or when the body of the email mentions your address or city of residence? This personalization feature permits you to send automated emails appearing personalized, especially for the person receiving the email. I constantly receive both phone calls and email responses from prospects who are the recipients of these automated emails, which leaves me with no doubt about how important it is to personalize your responses. The second feature, tracking ability, enables you to see how many and which recipients opened your email, how many emails were not delivered, and the ability to see how many recipients clicked on any links found within the email.

My clients agree to the use of sequential autoresponders, but then wonders, "What do I say in them.� Factually, you tell your clients the only limitation is their imagination. However, I generally recommend online business owners plan a sequence of 7-9 emails to go out over a series of 3 weeks. In this sequence, you need to check in with how the prospect/customer is doing with the call to action that got the prospect on your list. Point out other pieces of free information on your website that would be useful to the prospect. Recommend their own or affiliate products that would be of interest, and then request another call to action of your prospect.

Here is my outline of follow-up autoresponders I send out when someone has requested a report from one of my sites:

Immediate send: Confirmation of and thank them for their request, and remind them how to download the toolkit.

2 Days Later: Ask them what they think about the toolkit, point out some of the info they might check out immediately, and request a testimonial.

5 Days Later: Offer another gift. I give them the URL of my articles directory and info about how they can syndicate my articles on their website at no charge and the benefits of doing so.

7 Days Later: Ask them to complete a survey. I created a short 30-second survey through SurveyMonkey.com that I ask them to complete. This helps me better understand what problems my target market has.

9 Days Later: Recommend a product. I change this offering occasionally and either recommends one of my products or a product for which I am an affiliate.

16 Days Later: Offer another gift. I tell them about my podcast and blog. I tell them why they should subscribe and how to do so.

19 Days Later: Ask me a question. I give them the opportunity to personally ask me a question about online marketing and let them know that I will respond to it in my blog.

23 Days Later: Make a special offer. I introduce them to my coaching services and offer them a special rate to try out my coaching.

Other offers you could make in your follow-up autoresponders include inviting them to a discussion forum or a free teleclass, have them subscribe to your ezine, or send them to download or view a free audio recording or video.

Creating an effective series of autoresponders helps you begin to develop a relationship with prospective customers, display your expertisePsychology Articles, and ultimately convert prospects into customers.

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