Home Business The Easy Way - EBo Update http://www.blogmoneymiracle.com en-us EasyRSS
by Phillip Davis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Above all, it will be human.

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

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

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

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

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

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By Corecubed

The First Step towards making your web site work is an important marketing tool.

Establish your web site's purpose and function.

The Internet is an ever changing, global marketplace, and library. People research and purchase products or services, read to gain more knowledge, and sometimes browse for pure entertainment. In figuring out the best way to display your business on the Internet, you must first answer the following questions:

What do you want your web site to provide?

• Provide information only? A web site can make inquiries about your services easier, or attract inquiries from prospective employees.
• Sell a product or service? Do you want to sell something that is unique or something that is cheaper than competitors are?
• Provide an "after hours" storefront for your loyal customers?

How do you want your visitors to function while at your site?

• Do you want to survey potential customers to see what features and/or benefits most interest them and at what price?
• Do you want to offer a private log in area for your distributors or customers to purchase items, obtain product information, or access technical support?
• Do you want them to download a demo or coupon, subscribe to your newsletter, look up the nearest store location, or actually order a product?

What do you want your web site to provide? How do you want the visitor to function while browsing your site? These are key questions to answer when designing a site, and the key to making the web site fit into your overall marketing/sales strategy.

Understand your customers' online user behavior.

Forrester Research studies predict that U.S. e-commerce will grow at a 19% compound annual growth rate over the next five years. Most significantly, online retail will reach nearly $230 billion, and account for 10% of total U.S. retail sales by 2008. These figures represent how to gain a lot of revenue from successful online exposure. In the realm of web site marketing, a company has to keep up with their customers' online knowledge to compete. In addition, these numbers do not reflect the growing tendency for Internet users to use the web for product or service research prior to purchase.

In today's high tech world of e-commerce, nearly every business plan includes some form of web site marketing tactics. However, most companies do not have the in-house expertise, time, or resources to build web sites. They make the most of their online presence with a design professional who understands their unique product or service, and show how it will display on the web. At the same time, the companies' online users are wasting less time on web sites that fail to meet their online expectations. How does your business stack up? Do you have a web site? Did a technician or a marketing/design professional who understands sales design it? Did you specifically relate marketing strategies to your products and/or services?

Integrate your sales and marketing techniques.

A web site can be a functioning, revenue-producing tactic of your business plan or it can serve as an extension of your brand as a useful brochure. Here are some web site types that Corecubed has designed, integrating the companies' sales and marketing tactics into the site design:

http://www.smithmanus.com and its subsidiary http://www.suretyplace.com, are good examples of revenue producing ancillary activities for a service business.

Brook Smith is the President of Smith-Manus, a company that specialized in bonds for the waste industry. He wanted to simplify the intake process for customers. As part of his marketing strategy, he agreed to an updated look and feel for his company that will incorporate into a web site, which allows potential customers to download all necessary forms from the site. This saves the potential customer time by not having to wait for office hours, and faxed or mailed forms, and saves Smith-Manus time by reducing the time from inquiry to sale for those customers who qualify.

http://www.merithealth.com is a hospital management company specializing in purchasing urban hospitals and using management techniques to run a more efficient, and patient and community centered facility. Corecubed created a new logo and a new corporate look and feel for Merit Health, which will translate into their web site. This on-line brochure is a branded extension of the company's commitment to quality and serious management.

http://www.cardkitchens.com is the official web site of Cardinal Kitchens. It extends their custom countertop business to the home do-it-yourself market, which they were missing by only using contractors to sell their products. This web site is creating a new division within Cardinal Kitchens that works directly with the public if no contractor is involved, or it works with the contractor to assist the customer with the many available design choices for countertops.

http://www.dwsilks.com now displays their high quality silk foliage lines on-line, instead of only on paper. Sold through an exclusive distributorship, this on-line catalog now allows their buyers to preview items immediately available, rather than wait on the production and printing processes that the company used to rely on solely. Look for more advances in direct sales efforts of specialty products currently not available anywhere.
D & W Silks is learning from their web traffic. They have some niche markets they can tap and not disturb their current customer base and distributorship.

Corecubed provides high-impact marketing campaigns, corporate identity, and collateral design services with confidence and style. Our clients include home care and home health providers, contemporary glass artisans, and venture capital/financial advisors. A marketing design and public relations powerhouse based in Louisville, KY, Corecubed puts together the best possible team for you, the client. Lead by Merrily Orsini, a renowned expert in branding and strategic marketing specifically for the home care industry, and staffed with dedicated, highly skilled designers and writers, Corecubed has the skill and expertise to manage your marketing and PR campaign from start to finish. Contact us today at 1-800-370-6580 or visit our web site at http://www.corecubed.com for more information.

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By Wendy Cardona

You have your home business and your ads are being shown over the internet, newspapers, etc. You are now waiting for something to happen. You want results from all the work you have put into your web site!

Reciprocal Links

One way to get results is by reciprocal links. This means that another website will have a link page where your web site appears. People can click on your link and it takes them directly to your web site. You also have a link page set up where the other site's name can be clicked on to go to its site. Alternatively, you can have one-way linking where their web site only appears on your link page. Linking also helps the page rank of your web site. Page rank measures not only how many links point to a web site, but the "quality" of the sites providing the links. I use the LinkMachine. I have been quite pleased with the results. Best of all, the LinkMachine is free and easy to use.

You can keep track of your link popularity by downloading the Link Popularity Check. This free tool will show you how many links your website and/or blog are getting. You can see the results of all the work you are doing as your link popularity grows. This will help you persevere with your home business and give you incentive not to give up.

Blogging

Another way to get results for your home business is by blogging. A blog is an online publication where you post your thoughts and business articles. At the bottom of each article you provide a resource box to direct the readers to your web site. Make sure you also have a link on your web site going to your blog. If you have interesting articles and information on your blog, potential customers will return repeatedly. Do not forget to "ping" your blog each time you post your articles and information. Pinging your blog will alert blog search engines that new material has been added to your blog. A popular pinging service is pingomatic.

Use the search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN) for more information on any of the topics I have mentioned in this article.

Owning a home business is a day-to-day commitment. This is your business and its success depends on you.

Wendy Cardona is a stay-at-home mom. Go to her website for the best home business ideas and opportunities at http://www.HonestHomeBiz4u.com For information and articles on how to succeed with your home business visit her blog at http://www.HonestHomeBiz4u-homebusiness.blogspot.com

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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.
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By Mikhail Tuknov

The world over, organizations are employing low cost techniques in different business processes. Production work is being outsourced to churn out low cost products. Consultancy is taken from a distant nation to bring in quality and reduce service costs. Educational tutorials are taken through e-learning systems.

The common thread to these is the - INTERNET, which is helping them to connect easily and deliver in time. In this scenario, companies have shown keen interest in their website. They now take them as virtual offices that should look good in design & content and should reach millions and billions of people worldwide. So International marketing has come to the limelight and metamorphosed into Internet Marketing.

Internet Marketing is done in a variety of ways, the most noticeable being Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO has given a new life to websites. It is making their presence felt in a galaxy of websites scattered over the virtual world of Internet. SEO has more to do with rankings that are noticed, than just listings at any page of a search engine result. Here is how SEO can benefit your organization:

Benefits, plentiful!

You can battle with your competitor on a level playing field no matter whether he belongs to a Fortune-500 club or is a small entity. The natural (or organic) listings in Search Engines get more clicks than the paid "Sponsored" links. Only SEO makes this difference. Even if bigger competitors pump in more money to get top listed through paid links, they cannot beat a well-marketed SEO website. It is a truth and it matters!

Rankings bring traffic.

Higher rankings get significant traffic. A website receiving top ranks is known to get business enquiries in abundance, particularly when the keyword is competitive. SEO gets you at the top and maintains it there all the time. It assures you a constant flow of new prospects and new business. All that may be done at a salary of an average single employee. It is worth investing!

Opportunities are on the Internet.

It is often seen that a brand's associates / affiliates rank higher than the brand itself. This is all because they bagged the first opportunity and held to the SEO bandwagon long before the Brand realized SEO's importance. Results; there has been phenomenonal business through the Internet. All thanks to Search Engine Optimization!

Businesses spend on email marketing, online banner advertising, paid search engine listings, and others to reach exponentially growing Internet users. SEO outclasses all of them. It is estimated to be costing 5-6 times lower than banner advertisement ; has best ROI than paid links, when worked for a longer period and highly effective than 'spam' labeled email marketing. No doubt, SEO is effectively better than the best.

Experts like Forrester Research put SEO, one up, than Email marketing. In one of their surveys, they state "search engines reach valuable, motivated, and ready customers. To capitalize on search as a marketing tool, marketers should shift acquisition email and ad dollars to search...." Google earns billions of dollars by selling ads through paid advertisement (sponsored links). The earnings are increasing year-by-year. All these are clear indicators of the importance of search engine importance and the related marketing. Should we say more!

It has been found that search engines, though being the top method to find sites on the Internet, is allocated a marketing budget by only a small percentage of businesses This gap between recognition of the benefits of Search Engine Optimization and actually doing it is anybody's' opportunity. By grabbing it, you can give your business a competitive advantage.

Mikhail Tuknov, search engine marketing specialist is founder of Infatex (Search Engine Marketing Company). With an extensive background in Internet marketing, Mikhail Tuknov offers SEO, PPC, SEM services.
http://www.infatex.com/

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by Phillip Davis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Above all, it will be human.

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

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

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

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

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

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By Ken Mathie

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

Here's why:

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

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

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

1. Capture Addresses

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

2. Use ASCII Text Only

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

3. Use Wide Margins

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

4. Deliver Your Most Important Information First

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

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

5. Make The Subject Line Your Headline, Too

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

6. The Shorter the Better

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

7. Test

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

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

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

8. Use Autoresponders

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

Writing an Autoresponder Message that Gets Results!

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

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

1. Focus on the reader, not yourself

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

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

2. Make it personal.

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

3. Be sure to Emphasize the benefits.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5. Offer useful information.

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

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

6. Use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. Don't Break the law.

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

9. Read feedback people send to your autoresponder.

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

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

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

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By Corecubed

The First Step towards making your web site work is an important marketing tool.

Establish your web site's purpose and function.

The Internet is an ever changing, global marketplace, and library. People research and purchase products or services, read to gain more knowledge, and sometimes browse for pure entertainment. In figuring out the best way to display your business on the Internet, you must first answer the following questions:

What do you want your web site to provide?

• Provide information only? A web site can make inquiries about your services easier, or attract inquiries from prospective employees.
• Sell a product or service? Do you want to sell something that is unique or something that is cheaper than competitors are?
• Provide an "after hours" storefront for your loyal customers?

How do you want your visitors to function while at your site?

• Do you want to survey potential customers to see what features and/or benefits most interest them and at what price?
• Do you want to offer a private log in area for your distributors or customers to purchase items, obtain product information, or access technical support?
• Do you want them to download a demo or coupon, subscribe to your newsletter, look up the nearest store location, or actually order a product?

What do you want your web site to provide? How do you want the visitor to function while browsing your site? These are key questions to answer when designing a site, and the key to making the web site fit into your overall marketing/sales strategy.

Understand your customers' online user behavior.

Forrester Research studies predict that U.S. e-commerce will grow at a 19% compound annual growth rate over the next five years. Most significantly, online retail will reach nearly $230 billion, and account for 10% of total U.S. retail sales by 2008. These figures represent how to gain a lot of revenue from successful online exposure. In the realm of web site marketing, a company has to keep up with their customers' online knowledge to compete. In addition, these numbers do not reflect the growing tendency for Internet users to use the web for product or service research prior to purchase.

In today's high tech world of e-commerce, nearly every business plan includes some form of web site marketing tactics. However, most companies do not have the in-house expertise, time, or resources to build web sites. They make the most of their online presence with a design professional who understands their unique product or service, and show how it will display on the web. At the same time, the companies' online users are wasting less time on web sites that fail to meet their online expectations. How does your business stack up? Do you have a web site? Did a technician or a marketing/design professional who understands sales design it? Did you specifically relate marketing strategies to your products and/or services?

Integrate your sales and marketing techniques.

A web site can be a functioning, revenue-producing tactic of your business plan or it can serve as an extension of your brand as a useful brochure. Here are some web site types that Corecubed has designed, integrating the companies' sales and marketing tactics into the site design:

http://www.smithmanus.com and its subsidiary http://www.suretyplace.com, are good examples of revenue producing ancillary activities for a service business.

Brook Smith is the President of Smith-Manus, a company that specialized in bonds for the waste industry. He wanted to simplify the intake process for customers. As part of his marketing strategy, he agreed to an updated look and feel for his company that will incorporate into a web site, which allows potential customers to download all necessary forms from the site. This saves the potential customer time by not having to wait for office hours, and faxed or mailed forms, and saves Smith-Manus time by reducing the time from inquiry to sale for those customers who qualify.

http://www.merithealth.com is a hospital management company specializing in purchasing urban hospitals and using management techniques to run a more efficient, and patient and community centered facility. Corecubed created a new logo and a new corporate look and feel for Merit Health, which will translate into their web site. This on-line brochure is a branded extension of the company's commitment to quality and serious management.

http://www.cardkitchens.com is the official web site of Cardinal Kitchens. It extends their custom countertop business to the home do-it-yourself market, which they were missing by only using contractors to sell their products. This web site is creating a new division within Cardinal Kitchens that works directly with the public if no contractor is involved, or it works with the contractor to assist the customer with the many available design choices for countertops.

http://www.dwsilks.com now displays their high quality silk foliage lines on-line, instead of only on paper. Sold through an exclusive distributorship, this on-line catalog now allows their buyers to preview items immediately available, rather than wait on the production and printing processes that the company used to rely on solely. Look for more advances in direct sales efforts of specialty products currently not available anywhere.
D & W Silks is learning from their web traffic. They have some niche markets they can tap and not disturb their current customer base and distributorship.

Corecubed provides high-impact marketing campaigns, corporate identity, and collateral design services with confidence and style. Our clients include home care and home health providers, contemporary glass artisans, and venture capital/financial advisors. A marketing design and public relations powerhouse based in Louisville, KY, Corecubed puts together the best possible team for you, the client. Lead by Merrily Orsini, a renowned expert in branding and strategic marketing specifically for the home care industry, and staffed with dedicated, highly skilled designers and writers, Corecubed has the skill and expertise to manage your marketing and PR campaign from start to finish. Contact us today at 1-800-370-6580 or visit our web site at http://www.corecubed.com for more information.

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Need more traffic on your website? You may want to consider buying it. When you buy traffic, you are almost guaranteed to get traffic. Many of the services that dedicate their businesses to building traffic for other websites offer a guaranteed number of visitors on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, making this one of these easiest and fastest ways to get traffic on your website.

If you have never heard of buying traffic before, or if you want to learn more about how it works, here are some frequently asked questions about purchasing web traffic buying that can help you to better understand its benefits.

What Kind of Businesses Buy Traffic?

Buying web traffic is not necessarily a new Internet marketing concept. In fact, there are many online businesses that have been doing it for years. Though many of these companies are established already, they are not the only types of businesses who use such services. Sometimes the only way that a new, unknown site can get traffic to their website is by buying it. Competing with large sites is tough, and sometimes, search engine optimization techniques aren't enough to boost a new site's rankings in the search engines.

Where Can You Get Traffic?

There are many online services that sell website traffic. To find a sampling, simply type "buy traffic" or "get traffic" into any Internet search engine. You will be faced with so many different options that you will have a hard time choosing which service to go with.

If you are looking for referrals, consider visiting forums that have members who are online business owners or web developers. Many of the people who post in these forums may have already used one or two traffic-building companies. In most cases, they will be able to offer you information on their experiences.

If you are unable to get a referral, don't base your decision on cost alone. There may or may not be a difference between a traffic-building service that offers 10,000 visitors per month for $20.00 and one that offers 10,000 for $30.00. Always inquire about services, as well as costs. Good questions to ask include:

How do you bring traffic to my website?

Do you ever use spamming techniques?

What type of traffic will be targeted: specific countries, specific languages, etc?

Can you guarantee that I will get traffic?

Will you provide me with stats?

Do you offer customer support?

How much will you charge me if I want to buy traffic?

Why is your service better than others?

Where Do Visitors Come From?

When you buy traffic, most of the visitors you get will be from banner ads, pop-ups, pop-unders, and layers ads. The ads are placed all around the net. When a web visitor clicks on the ad, they will be taken directly to your website.

Is Traffic Guaranteed?

This is a tough question to answer because it depends on the service that you use to buy traffic. Some services guarantee that you will get traffic and others do not. Even if they do guarantee traffic, they cannot guarantee sales. They cannot even guarantee that when you get traffic, it will stay on your site for more than one second.

This is very important to remember when deciding whether or not to buy traffic. Whatever you decide to do, make sure to track your traffic, your sales, and your overall results. Once you have analyzed everything, you will be able to easily determine if buying traffic is in your best interests.

Cliff Posey, owner of CRP Marketing, owns and operates http://webbusinesstoolsonline.com. Cliff Posey has also operated several other successful web businesses including Love Song Cards and Radio Career Consultants. The content in this article was developed from his experience in these businesses.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_EBo_162/user/index.php
by Cher K Markov

Ads are of different types. Whatever may be the type of ad, it is clearly meant for some sort of business. In our day-to-day lives, we are exposed to hundreds-- maybe even thousands-- of commercial messages per day in one form or another. It may be from the boring, copy-laden radio commercial to the easily skimmed, forgettable newspaper ad, to the billboard on the side of the bus to the logo on the side of the building and finally to those annoying pop-ups you see on every other website.

A research conducted by the University of Washington in the year 1999 showed that an average American is exposed to 500 to 1,000 commercial messages a day. That's anywhere from 182,500 to 365,000 commercial messages that a person will view for a year alone. That was way back in 1999. What could be the situation now in this digital era?

Definitely, the customers are sick to death of pop-ups, fly-ins, and pop-unders. This could be a real worry to the business persons as the traditional ads are annoying in nature. Alternately, one should look for the next generation ads like Peel Away Ads. These are now very crazy on the internet and are used by the corporate multinational companies to attract the online consumers because of their pleasing way of being non-annoying in nature.

Peel Away Ads is a new breed of ad technology that is not only pleasing to the eye, but also effective in drawing the customer’s attention, causing them to click. The working of the peel away ads is simple in approach.

Based on proprietary technology, a small animated "peel"-- also known as “Curl” or “Dog Ears”-- is displayed on the top right corner of a web page. If a website visitor moves the mouse over the corner or page peel, a large clickable ad is displayed. When the visitor moves the mouse away the ad rolls back up and leaves your web page viewable.

Don’t be under the impression that there is a lot of web designing in the secret of displaying peel away ads. This is done with a simple software script that is easily customizable. So from now on, every webmaster can have these next generation ads in their websites at an affordable cost in line with Big Corporations.

Cher K Markov is an Internet Marketer that writes articles on various resources. She has made a good review on webmaster tools like Peel Away Ads (http://hubpages.com/hub/Peel_Away_Ads_Script) that really work in modern day business for the website owners. She also invites you to visit the popular Home Based Business Opportunities that make money online at http://makemoneyonline.onlinedownloads.org.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_EBo_162/user/index.php
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.
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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.

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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.
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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.
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By SeoAmitPatel

Even in this era of technological breakthroughs, many website owners have a wrong idea about web directories. They think these web directories are simply a way to gain a one-way incoming link. Inclusion in the different web directories is seldom perceived as more than a one-time entry event. The aim, be listed, and obtain the inbound link, for better or for worse. Traffic from some mainstream directories is almost always low and rarely seen as part of the equation. The dormant capability of the directory listings as a source of potential link partners not considered as a strategy at all, which is not a wise move.

In reality, web directories have far more possibilities concealed within their listings than it is generally believed. Many webmasters and search engine optimization experts ignore the less obvious value residing in the numerous categories.

By looking beyond the single link and searching abilities of a web directory, a website owner can have unrestricted access to innumerable potential link partners, waiting to be added. These partners you will find, without much effort, in the major internet directories and in the copious niche directory listings.

Not all web directories are adept in searching for links. The DMOZ (also known as the Open Directory Project), The Google Directory, and The Yahoo! Directory are the directories, which one should use in order to carry out link research tasks.

It will not be an exaggeration to compare the web directories to a gold mine of linking partners if one can get the full potential out of appropriate strategies. Any enterprising and prospecting webmaster can successfully use the web directories as an effective link building tool. It is expected that the readers will now be able to avail this opportunity after reading this article.

The Author SeoAmitPatel is a SEO Expert who owns a SEO Company http://www.theseoworld.com and which is working a major SEO Project http://www.gii.in
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By David Fishman

You have had your website up and running for a while and the major search engines have yet to recognize the site. You are not alone. Many sites have a hard time becoming indexed. Sometimes it is due to being new or possibly it is just a matter of bad luck. Fortunately there are options in the quest to be indexed and one, if not a combination of a few, will get your website the attention it needs by being indexed by the major search engines.

First method to consider is search engine submission. Sounds easy, right? All you have to do is sign up and your site is indexed. Not exactly! For most of the search engines, simply filling in the requested information on the submission form is enough to get the ball rolling. This method is useful everywhere except when dealing with Google. As the most popular and largest search engine, they tend to be a little pickier. The key to becoming indexed by Google is to get link exchanges from other sites that are indexed by Google. Otherwise the powers that be see the unlinked site as of little value.

Another way to help your website get noticed is pay per click advertising. This one will not actually help get the site indexed, but it may increase traffic to the site. That could increase revenue and make your site more appealing to other webmasters that may allow links to be placed. And that does help with search engine indexing.

While on the subject of links, these little blurbs on someone else’s website can be incredibly useful in getting attention from the major search engines. One way to receive links is to politely request a link exchange of the potential webmaster. Often you will discover that if space on the site allows, the other website owner will request that you place a link on your site back to them. While search engines have gotten wise to this practice, it will up your website’s exposure to the general population. The notion of registering with web directories will help gain the respectability needed to be recognized by the search engines for indexing. Some directories charge a fee for inclusion and others will accept payment to place your listing quickly or higher on the page. If finances are a major concern, there are some web directories that don’t charge for inclusion. It will help with the indexing issue; just not as quickly as the directories that charge.

It can be incredibly time consuming to build up the necessary links to get attention from the search engines. There are programs available that will help you set up a request letter and submit the requests to other websites with similar content to yours, saving you a lot of time. While there is a monetary charge associated with this type of software, it can save the webmaster hours of work and frustration.

While working to get your new, or slow-moving, existing website noticed by the search engines for index inclusion, remember to be patient and get those vitally necessary inbound links.

David Marc Fishman is a link marketer and owns the site http://linknetics.com.

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By Andy West

Are you ready to start making some serious cash? Sick and tired of trying online businesses that seem destined to fail from the start? Then it is time to look at setting up your own AdSense websites for profit. Many people fail to realize that making money online is very simple, if they know where to look. It is true that the money seems to trickle down on the internet in terms of commerce. This is especially true when discussing AdSense websites. Think about how many investors have poured money into Google, and then picture how many millions of people advertise with Google each day. The numbers are mind-boggling. This is why AdSense websites can afford to pay you a ton of cash, if you know how to set up your sites for profit. There is literally an endless amount of money to make with AdSense websites. The person, who takes the time to learn about the trade, can utilize the tools and tips needed to bring home big profits from AdSense websites. Without a doubt, the most consistent way to make money online today is through affiliate marketing. AdSense websites provide you with an easy way to get involved with the Internet's top affiliate, Google's AdSense.

Simply setting up a website, putting the AdSense websites to work for you; will not cut it, and certainly will not make you rich. The key to AdSense websites is the keyword placement, and the building of content and quality. Realizing what is in a secret recipe, one must first understand how AdSense websites really work. Advertisers typically pay Google to put their ads in areas where customers might be searching for them. Then, the advertisers pay more money to have the customers click them. When the AdSense websites are set up for ease of use for a customer, chances are they will get a click. Each time an AdSense website ad gets a click, you will receive a payment for that click, typically a few cents to a dollar per click. This is how AdSense websites work, and how thousands of people have been making a small fortune for years off Google.

One product that works well is adsensegold, a unique e-book that explains how AdSense websites can make you a lot of money. The one time fee of less than $100, accounts for all that one needs to start making money with AdSense websites. It is a great way to get a solid body of knowledge on what works with AdSense websites, and what doesn't. Further, adsensegold is owned and operated by an AdSense guru that has made a fortune using the same techniques.

In addition, a site adsense-powerpack provides a large amount of AdSense websites for you to use for your profit. The websites are unique and custom made. One can utilize them to make major cash from AdSense websites each day.

Whatever the product, it is important to look at unbiased customer reviews of the products before purchasing them. With AdSense websites, it is necessary to check out a site like Review Place where customers chime in about the quality of a product, and its overall ease of use. Visit Review Place. Users can get information about the price, and quality of many AdSense websites, and related products.

Making money with AdSense websites can be an easy task, if you follow the road carefully, and look for the best deals possible. It is not always necessary to purchase a product to make money with AdSense websites, but it can greatly help increase your chances for success.

Andy West is a freelance writer for ReviewPlace. For more information and reviews of AdSense Websites, please visit ReviewPlace at http://www.reviewplace.com/cat-375-InternetBusinessTools--Google-Adsense-Website-Tools.html.

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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.
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By Karl Stadler

If you are prepared to work hard and take a small risk, then an online business opportunity is waiting for you. Discover for yourself the possibility of creating additional income online.

You are reading this article because it just might be possible for you to make money online, or you might be considering a home based business. Either way, you came to the right place. If you are new to the subject of earning income online, read on and I will show you the basics of being successful on the internet.

I have felt the sting of starting up an online home based business. I know the pain of failure, but now I know the feeling of success. It required testing numerous opportunities, spending quite a few dollars, nearly throwing in the towel and returning to the day-to-day grind of nine to five, just before success came knocking on the door. I am glad I opened that door and pushed harder. The first thing to remember to be in the position to create a six-figure income online from your home is ‘too many secrets are not really secrets anyway’. There are opportunities for everyone. Creating an online income is not just for a ‘select few’.

You can make a very nice income the moment your online business takes off, but to start you need to be realistic in your approach. Allow time for yourself and allocate time for your business. At the beginning, it will take hard work and commitment from you, but when it starts to pay off, it pays handsomely. If you are faint hearted or looking for a get rich quick scheme, then a trip to the casino might be a much better idea than an online home business.

There are many opportunities on the internet for you to create your own business. The challenge, however, is finding the right online business opportunity. You are looking for an opportunity that is legitimate, profitable, easy to start up and just as easy to run and maintain.

Some of the best opportunities to make money online are becoming available as the internet expands globally. This is evident for searches that the major search engines are handling every day. With this growth, more and more people are eager to explore the new possibilities to supplement their income or create a full time income enabling them to quit their nine to five jobs.

The opportunities are just waiting to be taken by anyone willing to take a small risk and do a little hard work. The people who are making it are just regular people like you with a dream to create a better life for themselves and their families.

There are different models of online businesses and then there are the ones that work. Most of the internet sales are downloadable information products, information that people need every day. To the online business owner this means no stock and immediate delivery to the client and money in your bank account.

You do not even need your own product. Most of the online business owners are selling products as affiliates Business Management Articles. It is just a matter of learning and applying the basics.

The great news is that there are legitimate business opportunities available for you. Starting your own online business can be the best life choice you will ever make.

Explore legitimate work from home businesses. It might be the right opportunity for you to make your dreams come true online. Click on the link now to find out how you can start today. http://www.viralbiz.net/jobs.php .

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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.
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By Michael Moshkovich

Email marketing has been one of the greatest things to happen to smart business owners. The number one reason people use the internet is to send email. The second reason people go online is to find information. With a well thought out email marketing course, you can do both. Let us look at how you can use an email-marketing course for a more profitable business.

1. You will need an autoresponder. An autoresponder allows you to automate your follow-up by capturing name, email addresses, and automatically sending them pre-written messages. You can Google search and find all kinds of autoresponders. Make sure you are getting one from a reputable company; it is the primary tool used.

2. Your email-marketing course should focus on a specific topic. Write about a problem your audience has and then over a series of messages, solve their problem.

3. Keep your emails informational. One sales letter after another does not solve their problem, but asking and answering questions that they have, will. Remember they are researching information and you are giving it to them.

4. Naturally, work the products and services into the content of your messages. This may mean you do not mention a product or your website address until your signature at the bottom of the email. By doing it this way, you give your potential customers a way to find you in a non-threatening manner.

5. Write professional content. If you cannot do this yourself, hire someone to do it. Many people make a full time living selling products by email. If your email-marketing course is written poorly, no one will pay attention to it and will never buy anything from you.

6. Consider selling digital products. No matter what your product is, you can add to it by selling digital products to download instantly. EBooks are great for this because you find thousands of them that relate to the topic of your course. Another idea is to give away a brandable copy of an eBook free. Brandable means that it has your i.d. number in it for a product you sell. You have a chance to make a sale, when people read the eBook. Make it a viral marketing tool by allowing people to give the eBook away free, as well.

In summary, you can use an email marketing course to make more money if you do it right. You might subscribe to a few courses by email yourself. Create a swipe file and put any good ideas you see in it for future courses of you own.

Michael Moshkovich is a web developer and internet marketer who has written over 50 articles on SEO, shopping cart software and PPC marketing. To find out more information about WebCart's seo friendly shopping cart software visit our Website, (http://www.webcart.net/). For additional shopping cart tips, visit the webcart eCommerce Blog (http://www.webcart.net/shoppingcartsoftware).

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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
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By Stephen Wright

This article provides specific details for becoming a home based business and Internet marketing guru through careful and selected networking opportunities. Accomplish this ability through an on-going process of networking.

Becoming a home based business and Internet marketing guru is not something that happens overnight. It takes significant dedication to develop your knowledge, skills, and abilities. During the course of this evolutionary process for yourself, you must develop the relationships and respect of your peers and potential clients/customers. Accomplish this through an on-going process of networking.

Networking in this manner includes spending time in various home business forums, relevant groups, boards, loops, and discussion exchanges. Appropriately, each of these has a primary purpose or relevance focus designed to facilitate and enhance the field of Internet Marketing through ideas, promotions, and topic exchange.

You must personally participate in a significant manner in these sorts of activities and venues. You have the "opportunity" to market yourself, your ideas, suggestions, input, advice, and counsel in support of and in a contributory manner to the field of running a Home Based Business and Internet marketing, as well as to the betterment of others --- your peers. All of which is critical to building a proper foundation of service to others.

There are countless numbers of groups for any given topic or subject area of interest. In addition, the best part, many are free to join. The array included popular Internet topics such as; Internet Marketing Ideas and Tips, eBay buying/selling, Work at Home, Employment, Web Hosting, etc.

As you start the effort of building your "online resume", a word of caution: time management can be critical. It is not uncommon to hear or read about the toll taken on unsuspecting web marketers who get totally and utterly immersed in spending time on the Internet that it can quickly have a detrimental impact on their personal and physical well being. The internet can be time consuming and addictive in nature, compounded by the significant amount of distractions continually vying for our attention while interacting on the Internet. You must find ways to allocate your time and resources, allowing ample time both on and off the web!

Diversification is a key element in building yourself and your abilities. This means continuously taking information and feedback you gain from the networking activities, to be applied back with other activities. For example, gaining information and input from a product development forum allows you to give information as a more informed user on a user forum, exchanging information on similar issues. This allows you to utilize your skills, knowledge and abilities, and continually refine your knowledge base. This also helps build credibility among various groups and users. It is a known fact that people do business with those whom they know or trust. Being successful with a home based business is not different.

Using this approach allows others to see you in a supporting role, not necessarily as one just "interested in profits and making a buck!" Networking in this fashion allows you to establish yourself as a knowledgeable fellow entrepreneur, not as someone only out for self-promotion or worse yet "a Spammer"! The trick to subtle self-promotion is a graciously accepted practice. Shameless and abrupt advertising will get you no-where. Once you have this level of respect and credibility, the revenues and profits will not be far behind. If you want real success Free Reprint Articles, get started networking your way there today.

Stephen Wright is President & CEO of www.InternetMarketingUSA.comWeary from failed programs, tips and makes them rich advice? Get it ALL, step-by-step, the gory details, and the handholding to Get You Rich. It is all waiting for you: http://www.internetmarketingusa.com/pips.html

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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

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By Michael Hayes

Are you a small business struggling to develop your online presence? Regardless of the specific nature of your online business, there are common elements that need regular attention it to prosper. Two essential parts of this process are covered in this article:

1) marketing the online business, and 2) detailing the web site processes and content to achieve the highest possible sales conversion rates.

Maximize traffic to your web site

How long has it been since you last spent time driving traffic to your web site? Do not be left behind. Traffic does not come to your site automatically, search engines and directories send it. Moreover, if you do not optimize your site to convince Search Engines such as Google that you have relevant content, then your site will be largely ignored. Consider implementing a combined strategy:

* Set up reciprocal links from other sites with a higher Google PageRank than yours. One way to do this is to find web sites, forums, or blogs that are related to your market segment, without directly competing with you, and submit articles to them with a link back to your own web site. It is these incoming links that search engines love and your PageRank will rise accordingly. Business and trade directories are another good source of potential traffic. The more relevant you can find the better. An example of this approach could be a small business specializing in a particular form of natural healing. A useful strategy here would be to submit quality articles to an industry site that covered all forms of natural healing, outlining the benefits of your particular specialty. People visiting this high profile site already have an interest in natural healing, and may well be interested in your specialty when guided by an informative article. The benefit to the site accepting your submission is that your article, and others like it, helps to broaden their appeal. If done well, this really is a win -- win situation.

* Dedicate specific pages on your web site to focus on particular themes. Do not make the mistake of trying to cover a grab bag of topics on the one page in the hope that one of them will stick. An experienced web developer, or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialist, will be able to help with this process by analyzing your visitor statistics and suggesting themes based on key words and phrases that people are actively searching. After you write an article based on their suggestions, they will then edit it to maximize its appeal to Search Engines.

* Consider paid advertising on a "cost-per-click basis". Google and Yahoo are good places to start, but there are many others. Many of these systems are based on a bidding model where the more an advertiser is prepared to pay for a click, the more prominently the advertisement will be featured. When used carefully, they can be a good way of generating a quick response. This can be important for owners of new web sites while they are waiting for their natural search engine traffic to gain momentum.

Develop a marketing strategy for the next three months

The reason marketing activities should be planned well in advance is to give yourself plenty of time to get in the necessary stock, or if you have a service based business, assemble the relevant resources. For example, if new stock is involved, you will need time to source it and upload the details to your web site. If you are launching a new service, you may need to add an extra page to your web site outlining its benefits and engage additional staff to perform the service. All these things take time. The good news is that by planning you will save yourself a lot of stress.

Detailed planning

This is the 3Ps -- only this time they are Plan, Plan & Plan. Look at your marketing campaigns collectively, and then individually. What do you really want to achieve? Consider planning for the next three campaigns and write a sentence for each one that clearly spells out its main purpose. These are your core propositions. For example, the first could be to clear stock or promote an older service; the second could be designed to tie in with an event such as Easter, while the third could be used to launch a new service or product range. Whatever they are, I suggest that you keep them simple and only have one core proposition per campaign. You will run the risk of confusing yourself and your customers if you try to do more.

Newsletters

It is very common for an online marketing campaign to revolve around a newsletter. If this is the case then all aspects of the mail-out needs to be very carefully planned, drafted and tested.

* There are many sorts of newsletters, however those promoting e-commerce ventures usually have one primary purpose: to drive traffic to an online shop selling products or services. The question is, how best to achieve this. Detailed coverage of the core proposition in the actual newsletter may not be the best approach. Rather, write the copy in such a way that it provides just enough information to whet your customers’ appetite, coupled with a clear link to the remainder of the article stored on you web site. In this way, you stand a good chance of achieving additional sales when customers click through and become re-acquainted with your complete range of offerings.

* In drafting your copy, do not waste time singing your own praises. You or your business may have done some great things, but sadly, customers are not interested. What they want to know is what is in it for them. Keep this as your focus and you will not go wrong.

* Pay particular attention to the subject line of the email newsletter. Remember, with many customers this may be all they read before they look for the delete button. Try to make it compelling but avoid any hype that may trigger junk mail filters.

* HTML email newsletters are acceptable to most customers these days. They present well and they can feature images, but make sure they are correctly constructed. If you are creating your own HTML newsletters, view them in Internet Explorer and Firefox before you send them out. You may be surprised how differently the common web browsers can present the same HTML document. Sometimes with unfortunate consequences. If you are not confident in this area, then seek help.

* Ensure that you comply with all relevant anti-SPAM regulations. If you are not familiar with them, make it your business to find out. In many cases, the penalties for ignoring such regulations are high. At the very least you should always include details outlining who you are, why the person is receiving your email newsletter, and how they can unsubscribe should they wish to do so.

* Before you send out an email newsletter to your whole mailing list, test it, and test it again! That means checking that the content is correct, links work, images display correctly, personalized information is merging correctly, and unsubscribe links are fully operational.

Your mailing list

Mailing lists must be maintained. In addition, I do not use the word "must" lightly. With legislation in place to prosecute those who play fast and loose with their mailing lists, this area requires careful attention by all e-Commerce operators. The technical aspects of list maintenance and email campaigns are beyond the scope of this article, but if you have any doubts, you may be better to consider a hosted solution. A quick search on the Internet for "email marketing" or "email marketing services" should yield results. Constant Contact is one such service that I have used with good results. In general, it is safer to avoid purchasing lists unless you are very sure they are genuine opt-in permission based lists directly relevant to your market segment. Build your own. It may take longer but the result is a list of customers who are genuinely interested in your products or services. Conversion rates with your own list are always going to be higher.

Your online shop

So far, the focus has been on getting customers to your online shop. Now it is time to make sure that when they do, they have a pleasant experience, which encourages them to make a purchase.

* Do the advertised products or services as featured on your web site match up exactly with what you have in stock? If not, take steps to correct this. If the product is not currently available then delete it, or just disable it, if your software will allow. That way you will only have to enable the entry when the item returns to stock. Perhaps, it may be that your published information does not accurately describe the product or service, or the image shows the wrong model or color. If any of these examples apply to your website, then make a point of correcting the detail prior to a mail-out.

* As I have mentioned above, do not be tempted to leave items on display that are temporarily out of stock. You know that they are coming back in, but your customers do not and deliveries can often be late. Online customers have every right to expect that what they see lines up with reality, so it is not surprising that they become very upset when their firm order suddenly becomes a "virtual" one.

* Check the navigation of your site to make sure that all links are operational. Customers quickly find poor navigation frustrating ... and frustrated customers leave.

* Review your terms, conditions, FAQs and freight. I hope there will be first time customers because of your mail-out who will want to check these things. I know this can be boring but do not gloss it over. Put your customer hat on and pretend that you are reading the information for the first time.

* If you have a contact form on your site, test it. You should also place test orders using all the available payment methods your site offers. The last thing you (or your customer) want is a dysfunctional checkout system. In fact, nothing erodes buyer confidence faster.

Finally, good luck with your e-commerce ventures. E-commerce is not rocket science Article Submission; it is just another form of business. Additionally, constant attention to details counts in all forms of business.

As "The Online Shop Designer (TOSD)" Michael Hayes draws on over a decade's experience designing, developing and managing e-Commerce and CMS web sites for small business owners. In doing this he strives to deliver appropriate, manageable solutions that support his client's business goals, and avoid the "technology tension" that so often occurs.

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By Mikhail Tuknov

For many casual internet users, the terms SEM and SEO rarely enter their minds when they are busy jumping from one website to another. However, these terms establish much of what comes out on the results page whenever we type a word in the search tab of any accessible search engine. These terms are also responsible for all those advertisements and pop-ups that link us to even more websites, whether they connect to our original search or not. So just what are SEM and SEO?

In the simplest way possible, SEM and SEO are tools which website creators, especially those who are promoting and selling a certain service or product, use to gain a lot of exposure and a better ranking for their website. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, the simplicity ends there.

To make it a tad bit complex, SEM and SEO are not the same.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM), deals with how a website markets to gain exposure in the different search engines available on the internet. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), deals with how the web creators develop and redevelop the content, quality, and structure of their entire websites. When an internet user types in a particular word in the search tab, their websites have a better chance of appearing on the first few search engine results pages (SERPS).

To make it even more complex, although the functions of SEM and SEO seem different, they are more effective when used together. Since the main function of SEM is to gain further exposure for a website, the common means for attraction are more online advertisements, blogs, internet articles, partner and sponsored websites, and anything that can catch the eye of the internet user.

SEM also makes use of PPC (pay-per-click), and paid inclusion to push a website’s visibility. Lastly, it is also an important process in SEM to submit the name and URL of a website to different search engines and web directories, if only to inform them of the website’s existence. This is carried out to ensure the popularity of a website.

So how does SEO come together with SEM? Despite having all the advertisements provided by SEM, truly the SEO allows the internet user to easily and conveniently find what he is looking for. Since the function of SEO is to gain a better ranking in the SERPS, the web creator has to constantly optimize his website in order to cater to the needs of the internet user; making it easier for spiders or web crawlers to judge whether the website’s content is relevant to the words being searched. Optimization is not a simple and easy task. It involves having to restructure the website regularly, (by editing the html code and meta tags, changing content, reorganizing the site map, developing an easier navigational structure, etc.), to adapt to the rapidly changing demands of the internet user. Still, when done properly, not only does SEO help a website become more useful and therefore, more often visited by the internet user, it also helps gain more exposure since it increases the website’s chances of gaining a better rank in the SERPS.

Both SEM and SEO success rely heavily on the words or context which Internet user’s type in when they search for something on the internet. Take PPC under SEM, for example. PPC is an ad that is triggered by a particular word or context used by an internet user. Once a particular word or context is searched, a corresponding PPC ad for a website comes out. SEO works in the same way. The web creator inputs a particular Meta tag (or keyword) in his html that he believes many internet users will use when searching for information; information, which the web creator’s website may contain.

Although all of these processes involving SEM and SEO are tedious and time-consuming, it all boils down to knowing and serving the target audience. A web creator must be discerning enough to know what the internet users need and want, and at the same time, he must have the real passion to inform and provide the internet users with the right service and product.

Mikhail Tuknov, search engine optimization specialist and a founder of Infatex (Search Engine Marketing Company). With an extensive background in Internet marketing, Mikhail Tuknov offers SEO, PPC, SEM services. http://www.infatex.com/

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By P.V. Reymond

In Internet Marketing, many tools exist to build your business or increase your income. You can find lots of software, books, or videos, but you have to know how to use them.

Before you begin to use them, you need to have clarity. There is a tool you may not know very well. It is the most powerful tool that we all have; it is the mind.

Nothing can compete with your mind. You have to use it well. With your mind, you will be able to control everything. Did you know that Yoga experts can stop the beat of the heart or have surgery without anesthesia? Maybe someone does not believe it but it is true and in Internet Marketing, it is the same. If you are using your mind in the right way, you will get good results, and you will have a high percentage of success.

In order to achieve your goals you need to concentrate and have a clear vision of all the ways you have to travel. You have to create the conditions for good concentration, removing all marginal distractions possible, and ignoring others.

It is important to prepare a long-term plan, and divide it into levels, and each level into a systematic process. When you achieve level one, you go to level two, and so on. In this system, your mind plays a fundamental role because there is no software able to build your system. You are the only one that can build it, because you know what you want and where you want to go. This is the point; your mind is your guide. It controls the whole process and it is stronger than any other tool you have.

The essential thing is to maintain an attitude of mental activity, and to avoid anything that will reduce this and make you passive. Thinking and applying systematically will help you to grow; you will discover the power of your mind. Train your mind.

Do not be afraid to make a mistake. Remember, nobody learns from the mistakes of others; you have to try to believe in you. Put such fears to rest! You only have to think, think, and think; and in this way you will learn how to act an