Home Business The Easy Way - FSi Update http://www.blogmoneymiracle.com en-us EasyRSS
StumbleUpon has been one of the leading referral traffic social media networks which you should be using to boost traffic to your site/blog. You might not know that within a day if your site/blog is being stumbled by others, you might be drawing hundreds or thousands of visitors who are interested in what you have to offer. The more people who give a thumbs up and a review, the higher your chances are for your article to be exposed to others.

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

Stumbling your Articles

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

Aim to be a Top Stumbler

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

What StumbleUpon Doesn't Want You To Know

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

Stumble more Videos and Photos

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

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

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

Etienne is an author and blogger who gives tips and tricks on how to make money online and strategic blogging and traffic tips. Learn how to increase targeted traffic at http://www.etienneteo.com/.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
The Internet has changed our lifestyle to such a great extent that we rely on it for every little thing we are involved in. In fact, it is one of the best ways to get connected with our family and friends, as we are constantly swinging between the pendulum of time and work. The latest method of staying connecting is social media optimization. It is, in fact, a perfect way to churn out endless profits. Moreover, the internet is a huge platform for sharing information and interacting.

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

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

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

Steve Waganer has specialization in Web Marketing. He is expert in Search engine optimization,Search engine marketing, [http://www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com/social_media_optimization.html]Social media optimizationTo get the SEO tips from SEO firm for your website to get high rank and top position in major search engines visit http://www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
By Steven Gerber

Computers are one of the most amazing inventions ever made by man. Because of this gadget, many improvements have been made. Moreover, it does not end there. The introduction of the internet enhanced the use of the computer. Communications were vastly improved, and different businesses are finding the net a very useful tool in conducting their business.

Affiliate programs are making their way in the internet world. It is a great business opportunity for any individual who desires to earn unlimited income. It does not matter if you have a present job, or if you are just staying at home. As long as you have an internet connection, you can be an affiliate.

Is there an exact way to master affiliate programs? There are many sources on the internet, which say they can teach you ways to master affiliate programs. However, do not believe in those deceptions, oftentimes they are too misleading. Look for a good source, one that is true, and already tested.

Affiliate programs are great because you do not need an initial investment to start such a venture. People with no business capital are easily attracted to this kind of business opportunity. You will be part of a particular company's sales force, and you will be working on a commission basis.

E-commerce sites run affiliate programs to enable them to increase sales figures. Affiliates usually have their own websites where they place banner/button ads and text ads on email messages that promote the products of the e-commerce site. The affiliates are paid with a certain percentage of each sale they are able to make.

Affiliates program is a practical business. You can do it part time, or if you are serious about it, you can do it full time. If you exert your efforts on it full time, you are guaranteed to earn more money than the casual affiliate.

Before deciding to become an affiliate, you must first establish your own website. This is where you will display all promotional information of your 'mother' company. Casual affiliates use email newsletters to get leads for the company but having a site is much more advantageous, especially to the serious affiliate.

The next step is to find an effective way to drive a large number of possible subscribers to your site. You might consider purchasing a list of emails or ads to increase traffic to your site. If in the real world, you are always avoiding traffic, well on the net, you will be looking forward for it. You can also combine traffic and newsletters. However, make sure that you follow the company's regulations regarding email marketing.

Hundreds or even thousands of companies offer affiliate programs. There is a need to choose one particular affiliate program that catches your interest. In any venture that you undertake, you must love what you are doing. In addition, if you know the products that the company offers, then it will be easier for you to sell it to other prospects.

The business opportunity that you have been waiting for may lie within these affiliate programs. Do not be scared of the competition on the net, if you can survive the challenges that you are about to face, then it means you deserve the money that you are earning. If you are competitive enough, you will earn a great deal of money.

Steven Gerber is a professional copywriter & marketing consultant. He is a student of Dan Lok, the World's #1 Website Conversion Expert, & in Steven's totally biased opinion simply THE BEST. You will find the latest internet marketing techniques & tricks at: http://www.websiteconversionexpert.com.

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If you have a small business blog, or are thinking of starting one, you should be aware of the ways you can use your blog to drive traffic to your Website. It's simpler than you think.

The first thing to understand about your blog is that each entry is counted as one Web page. Even if you have your blog set to display 10 blog posts on the same page, each of them is counted as a separate Web page by the search engines. That's why it is important to treat each blog entry as an SEO tool. The following tips should be kept in mind for each blog entry in order to optimize them for the search engines and drive more traffic to your Website from your blog:

1. Optimize each blog post around a single keyword
2. Make sure your keyword is in your blog post title, preferably at the beginning
3. Use subheads or tags that also use your keyword
4. Include 1-3 keyword links (anchor text) in your blog posts
5. Sign every blog post with a signature link that uses your keyword
6. Use bold and italics effectively to emphasize certain keywords and phrases
7. Be sure to ping the directories
8. Include tags for all of your blog entries
9. Use categories effectively
10. Make links appear natural by linking to internal pages of your Website

Because each blog entry is a separate Web page, the search engines will crawl them and index them just as they do your Web pages. Optimize each one heavily around a specific keyword related to your Website and that's an extra doorway into your Website for each page indexed at the search engines. Also, by adding anchor text to a couple of those keywords and pointing those links to relevant internal Web pages of your Website you are improving the SEO effect of your blog entry. A poll of top SEO experts by SEOmoz revealed that a majority of those SEO experts said these type of keyword links are among the top 10 most important SEO factors for ranking Web pages. Don't give up on keywords and anchor text.

You'll also want to include keyword tags with each blog entry. Those tags will be used by the search engines to index your pages appropriately for your keywords. Also, social bookmarkers will find it easier to tag your blog entry if they like it and this makes it easier to share among their social group.

Your blog category should indicate an important element of interest as well. Unlike tags, you should only choose one category for each blog post. Don't use "main" or "uncategorized." Those are too generic. Use a specific keyword-related category as that will make your blog posts more crawlable by the search engines.

There are more than 100 blog directories that you can ping to let them know you have updated your blog. I suggest you do this every time you update your blog. With WordPress (as well as with many other blogging software platforms) you can input each directory into a field and the software will send out an automatic ping each time you update your blog. If you are not using WordPress you should go to Ping-o-Matic and use it to ping your blog for free.

Finally, if you sign your blog posts with a keyword-rich signature that points to a relevant internal page of your Website, this will make your Website more crawlable and give you another anchor text link. Use something like, "Find Out More About Keyword." Then add another link that points to your home page.

The important thing to remember about keywords and links, whether on your blog or your Website, is to make them appear natural. The benefits are enormous.

Caroline Melberg is President and CEO of Melberg Marketing. She has over 20 years of experience creating exciting marketing campaigns for some of the most successful companies in the world. She publishes the popular eZine, "Blue Chip Tips: The Secrets of Blue Chip Marketing...Revealed!" Learn more today at http://www.melberg.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
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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Locating the right products to sell online or off-line, one must clearly understand what people want to purchase. The right choice of product, service or idea followed by the demand in the current market and the competition or market share determines the product, service or idea's longevity in the market.

"What should I sell? What products are best-sellers?" Many people ask these questions and many are trying to find an answer so they can make an informed, intelligent decision. If one truly wants to know the answer to these questions, research is the way to find it.

There are all kinds of triggers and false evidence along the trail to mislead one into thinking they have an idea that is in high-demand. Understand this; a product, service or idea must satisfy the needs, wants and expectations of the customers or it will be a flop.

There are five basic key factors to consider before launching a product, service or idea; the need, want and expectation key factor, the competition key factor, the interest key factor, the advertising key factor and the analysis key factor. Let us get started, shall we?

Need is the fundamental question consumers ask themselves before each purchase. Another name for Need is the "qualifier or gatekeeper" factor in a purchase. Want is the next question a consumer will ask, also known as the "determiner" factor in the decision-making process. Expectation pulls both the need and want together to determine its value or worth to the consumer. Expectations and wants are closely related and are invaluable when products, services and ideas are similar.

Following the basic demand concept will clear the path to understanding the importance of use, language, understandability and affordable pricing. These ideas are applicable to Internet Marketing, Teleseminars, Webinars, Blogs, Pod casts and the list goes on.

The internet is no longer just a way to keep in touch, but a tool, when used properly, that will change the way businesses advertise. The demand concepts are basic and equally important to online and off-line marketing.

The second key factor to consider when searching for a product to sell is competition or market shares. Competition level or shares in the market mean the ratio of the brand sales versus the market sales. Consumers decide the competitive frame when exercising their power to buy, while companies define its target competitors.

Therefore, choosing the right segment of the market where one can have a leadership or competitive stance is critical. The objective of business is not just to satisfy the needs and wants of the consumer but to profit as well. Otherwise, the competition will satisfy the needs and wants of the customer.

The third key factor consideration when searching for the right product, service or idea to sell is the level of interest. Interest paints the whole picture and determines where the demand and competition numbers will fall. Simply put; no demand, no competition and no profits. The research must continue in order to find the right product to sell.

The fourth key factor consideration is advertising. Learning how others are advertising the product will help determine if a product, service or idea is marketable. If there are a good number of similar products in the market, this is possibly a good match.

The final key factor consideration in the process is analyzing and evaluating the data collected. Now, weigh all the key factors and determine marketability of a product, service or idea.

Summary of the key factors:

(a) Enough demand, enough purchasers

(b) Not too much competition, enough profits to share

(c) Not too much advertising keeps down the price and competition

(d) Enough interest, combined with high demand, means good market share

Dwayne Golden, founder of the Best of Best Teleseminar, hosts a free conference call Thursday Nights at 9:00 PM. The number is 218-486-3695, access code 153388#. The beauty of teleseminars is that you get valuable information without leaving home or doing a search online and receiving more than you need or not enough information.

This is how I built my businesses and got questions answered through teleseminars with Les Brown, Jim Rohn, Dwayne Golden, Dr. Fran Harris, Jeffery Combs, Jerry Clark, Artemis Limpert, Myron Golden and many others just to name a few.

Robin D Haywood, in February of 2006, ventured into her first Network Marketing Company and reached the top-paying level in less than a month. In August she made the decision to retire from Real Estate which had been a part of her life since l989.

Now she and her husband Ken are Internet and Network Marketers, Business Coaches for the Married Folk and e-Motional Speakers. After attending the Dwayne Golden Internet Marketing Boot Camp, a $3500.00 course, Ken will soon retire from his 6-figure government job. RK Haywood Enterprises Incorporated (RKHEI) formed in 1996 and the non-profit focuses on troubled youths as well as mentoring, coaching and training programs for Veterans. They both served in the Army and are disabled Veterans.

Get more information on the next Dwayne Golden Internet Boot Camp coming on October 26 and 27. Find out how you can attend the Boot Camp FREE! Just call or email them.

Yours in prosperity and success,

Robin D Haywood, CEO

301-335-1609.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
By Paul Levesque

All businesses that out perform their competitors have two key characteristics in common: a highly energized workforce, plus hordes of delighted customers that keep coming back. Two nice things to have - but of course everyone knows the reason so few businesses enjoy a clear competitive advantage is because these two things are so difficult to achieve. If it’s really that difficult, shouldn’t those few businesses that manage to pull it off be absolutely exhausted by the effort? When you take a closer look, (as I have), at those rare businesses that consistently achieve both objectives - flashpoint businesses, as I refer to them - what you invariably see is just the opposite. Employees at all levels seem perpetually fired up, as if every day they’re engaged in some kind of fun group activity. Is there some big secret about "energized workers" and "delighted customers" that these flashpoint businesses understand, and everyone else seems to have missed?

There most certainly is. It has to do with what most people consider the basic difference between "work" and "play". The first step on a shortcut to competitive advantage is to understand the specific elements that make play so much more satisfying than work.

Play Element 1: Challenge

Achieving better bowling scores would be easier if the bowling pins were closer. On the other hand, who would pay to go to a bowling alley where anyone could knock down all the pins every time with ease? Knocking them all down over and over again would quickly begin to feel like the kind of repetitive, pointless activity most bowlers experience at their jobs, and go bowling precisely to get away from it. To be fun, it has to be a real challenge—that’s key.

In most workplaces, there is not one single well-defined “mission” that takes precedence over everything else. Instead, there are all kinds of tasks, objectives, and deadlines that often make workers feel they’re being pulled in a dozen directions at once. For many, the only real challenge on the job is resisting the temptation to quit.

Contrast this with flashpoint businesses, where the one crystal-clear overriding mission is to draw business away from competitors by attempting to delight every customer every time. In these businesses, the reason it looks like workers are having fun is because in many ways their work feels like a game with a single, challenging, shared objective.

Shortcut to Competitive Advantage, Part One: Challenge everyone in your business to think of -outperforming the competition through superior “customer care” as the primary objective that overrides all others at all times.






Play Element 2: Rules

Every play activity has it own elaborate set of rules. In a new game, even before play begins, all the rules are carefully spelled out. These rules add to the challenge, and keep the game fair for all.

In the work setting, the rules are often vague and unclear. They may even seem to shift and change from time to time, based on different situations as they arise. Workers often feel reluctant to take initiatives, unsure if doing so will later earn them praise (for “thinking outside the box”) or rebukes (for “breaking the rules”). They tend to adopt a play-it-safe approach.

By comparison, most flashpoint businesses spell out their values and their priorities—the rules—over and over again. “Your goal is to delight the customer, but not by doing anything that harms the organization in any way.” “We want to pull business away from our competitors, but never in an unlawful or underhanded way.”

Shortcut to Competitive Advantage, Part Two: Ensure that your workers understand how the game is to be played—how, for example, you will be giving them opportunities to come up with their own ideas for enhancing the customer experience. Clarify what constitutes a “foul” or a violation of the rules.

Play Element 3: Scoring

In play activities of every kind, there exists some sort of scoring mechanism that lets the players know immediately how well they’re doing. This immediacy is critical. How popular would bowling be if the pins were in the dark, and players never found out their score, how well they played, until it arrived in the mail weeks later?

This is what it feels like for most workers on the job. They don’t find out how well they’re doing until the “quarterly reports” come out, or until their annual performance evaluation meeting.

Things are different in flashpoint businesses. There, spontaneous positive feedback from happy customers becomes the number-one scoring mechanism. At the same time it also serves as the number-one employee motivator, the basis for endless internal celebration and recognition.

Shortcut to Competitive Advantage, Part Three: Harvest immediate positive customer feedback by every means at your disposal, (especially informal face-to-face conversation), and direct as much of this feedback as possible to your workers.






Play Element 4: Satisfaction

Bowlers know before every game that they won’t succeed in knocking down every pin every time. Players in every kind of game know they’ll never achieve a perfect score—but this does nothing to diminish their attempts to do so. When their score tells them their performance has moved closer to the unachievable goal, their feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment is profound. There’s shouting, ‘high-fives’ and every kind of exuberant victory dance imaginable.

Flashpoint businesses also know they won’t succeed in delighting every customer every time. When the feedback indicates they’ve moved closer to that unattainable objective, the same kind of cheering and celebration erupt. It’s something that’s almost never experienced in the majority of workplaces, and it’s something that’s almost routine in flashpoint businesses. They once again have beaten the opposing team, once again the dance of victory unites all of them in their shared accomplishment—and in their shared determination to repeatedly play the game, and strive together to win another round.

Shortcut to Competitive Advantage, Part Four: Create a culture of celebration that maximizes workers’ sense of accomplishment with every “rave review” from delighted customers. This is the motivational fuel that quickly gains the most powerful competitive edge in any business—and helps sustain it over the long term.

Customer-focus consultant Paul Levesque’s latest book is, Customer Service From The Inside Out Made Easy (Entrepreneur Press, 2006).

Copyright Paul Levesque. All Rights Reserved.

Paul Levesque is available for speaking engagements through http://www.keynoteresource.com 1-800-420-4155. Paul Levesque has more than 20 years' experience as an international customer-service consultant. He has helped hundreds of corporate and small business clients become more customer-focused.
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by Charlie Cook
http://www.marketingforsuccess.com

========================================
Summary:
Want to hit your revenue numbers this year? Discover
which numbers to pay attention to.
========================================

Everyone wants to see growth in sales and net revenue. It's important for small business owners to set income goals and to watch sales results, but too much emphasis on these numbers can prevent you from reaching your goals.

Using your revenue figure to guide your marketing is like driving by looking in the rear view mirror the whole time. That number tells you where you've been. It doesn't tell you how to get where you want to go.

There are a couple of key numbers and ratios to keep in front of you that will help you get to your sales 'destination'.

Like an Iowa farmer growing soybeans, you've got to carefully plant seeds and nurture plants to maturity to ensure a good harvest and a good profit. The amount of seed you plant and the percentage that germinates and grows well determines your farm's profitability. The same is true in marketing and sales; the number of leads you generate and the number you convert to sales determine your income.

These are the two most important numbers to pay attention to in marketing. Use them to evaluate your marketing and determine how many sales you'll generate:

1. The number of qualified prospects in your database.

These are people who've told you they have a concern or problem you can help them with and who want to hear from you again.

2. Your prospect-to-client conversion rate.

The percentage of qualified prospects you convert to paying clients.

The math is simple; the more qualified prospects you have and the higher your conversion rates, the more revenue you'll generate.

Your sales will stay frozen at present levels if you focus on how much revenue you're making and ignore the importance of building your list of qualified prospects. You could double your business in the next few months by building your database of qualified prospects and improving your conversion rates.

Marketing Numbers

You don't need to be a math wiz to become an expert at marketing math. Pay attention to these numbers on a weekly basis;

- The number of people who saw your ads, read your articles or received your mailings.

- The percentage of these people that responded to your ad or article. It's not how many ads you run, but how many people pay attention to your ads that matters.

- The percentage of respondents that actually gave you their contact information and added themselves to your database. These are the people who have identified themselves as qualified prospects who are interested in learning more.

If you're marketing through your Website, it's incredibly simple to identify these numbers daily and weekly to track the success of your marketing. Here's how;

1. Look at the number of unique visitors to your Website daily or weekly.

2. Divide this number by the number of people who contacted you. This is your conversion rate of site visitors to qualified prospects. If your site is set up correctly, at least one out of ten people should be contacting you and adding themselves to your list of qualified prospects. If you use Google Ads to drive visitors to your site, you can send visitors to specific landing pages and increase your conversion rate to 20% or even 25%.

What should you expect from your Website? For every hundred unique visitors to your site per week, 10 to 25 should be sending you an E-mail requesting more information about your products and services. Each month, your list of qualified prospects and your sales should grow.

Before you finish this article, make a commitment to apply this simple marketing math to grow your business. Set a goal for your business. Look at how many qualified prospects your marketing is currently generating.

Write this number down, then put a diagonal line across it and next to it write down the number of qualified prospects you want to add to your database each week.

I've been doing this little exercise for two years with my current Website. My goals for acquiring qualified prospects get larger each month as my business grows. My latest goal is 500 new prospects per week. This translates into 6 to 7 percent more business each month. With a little planning, you can see your business grow just as fast.

2006 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals, small business owners and marketing professionals attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up
to receive the Free Marketing Strategy eBook, '7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business' at http://http://www.marketingforsuccess.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
PPC, also known as Pay-Per-Click, is the best and the fastest way to increase your affiliate earnings.

Given below are some pointers that provide you with some very basic information that would be necessary for those who are new to pay-per-click to get started.

1. Be thorough in your keyword research: This is a vital step in successful PPC marketing. In order to pull quality traffic to your website that will result in sales, you need to know what the keyword phrases you need to bid on are. You can sign up for WordTracker, or you can make use of Google's free keyword tool.

You can expect higher bids for the more competitive keywords. However, as you browse through the list you will observe that there are some keywords that are not heavily targeted. They may result in a successful campaign.

The best advice when it comes to PPC is to know your target market and affiliate programs thoroughly. This way you can make pay-per-click ads that use keyword phrases those in your market would be likely to search for and increase your affiliate earnings.

2. Never ignore good advice: PPC is a game whose rules are constantly changing. This makes it difficult to gain expertise, unless you keep in touch with those who already have a good grasp on the game.

You should also buy and read books, subscribe to special newsletters that offer information on the topic, and stay up to date with the latest pay-per-click trends by seeking the advice of those who are already in the know.

Seasoned players would also find it to their advantage to constantly keep an open mind, in order to gain new knowledge to further increase their affiliate earnings. The worst thing you can do is to restrict yourself to a set pattern of thinking.

3. Keep testing: This is the most important step in successful advertising. You need to know which ads are working and which ones are not. The beauty of PPC is that the medium makes it very easy to measure your success.

Measurements and audience response can be gauged by creating split ads. Make sure that you direct one group of users to a particular page, and the other to its counterpart. The changes could be in the form of adding a value proposition or just changing the font style or size. Just be sure that you only change one thing.

Testing helps you to understand what is working and what isn't. You might also want to consider joining an ad tracker service that allows you to determine which ads are converting sales and which ones are sucking out your revenue.

4. Aim to get quality traffic: Keep in mind that traffic in numbers is not that important. True, more traffic will increase your probability of a sale; however, it is pointless creating an ad that draws numerous visitors if no one buys the product.

Let's say that you manage to send nearly 1,000 visitors to a sponsor or affiliate program. You buy those visitors from a pay-per-click search engine for 10 cents each, costing you $100 total.Say you made three sales. What you really paid is $33.33 per sale.

You spent $100 to make 3 sales. Three sales cost you $33.33 each. If you had made 10 sales from the same amount of traffic, your sales would have cost $10 each.

Obviously you would want to spend your time in targeting traffic that will result in clicks that ultimately result in sales, otherwise you are wasting your advertising budget.

To avoid losing money, test your ads, create a few ads in the beginning and measure their success prior to bidding on more keyword; create a different ad campaign for each keyword, and do not bundle your ads together.

Allen Thomason has been an entrepreneur for 4 years, and is an accomplished online marketer. To learn more about internet marketing and how Allen can help you, visit TheProfitCombination.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
by John Hirth

You know this one ... you've identified what they need, maybe even found out how much they are willing to pay. Now it's time for that infamous "trial close."

"If I can show you a way to solve your problems, will you buy my product?"

They answer "yes" and you believe you've got the deal. Then, you come back and make your presentation and, when you ask, "so -- are you ready to buy?" the prospect says, "I like it, but I'm going to have to check on some other options."

Now you ask, "what went wrong?" Weren't they listening, or did they just out-and-out lie?

Think about it... when you asked, "if I can show you a way to solve your problem, will you buy my product?" what was the prospect thinking? Usually, they're in one of two positions: ready to buy and favorably disposed to your offer (in which case, you would have gotten the deal), or not ready to buy -- still needing more information.

I believe that, by asking that closing question, you often end up forcing your prospect to "lie" -- a strategy that, half the time, will back-fire!

Here's why.

If they were really ready to buy when you asked for the "trial close," I think you would have gotten the order. However, in this situation I don't think they were that far along. In fact, they probably needed more information, hoping that your presentation might provide it.

What they would really like to say is, "I'm not sure I'm ready to make a decision," but they're afraid if they tell you that, you won't give them the information they need. So they lie and say "yes," to get what they want.

It's not that they are "bad people" -- it's that you're a "bad" sales person!

What will work much better is what we refer to as an "open close." Your question is a closed-ended question, only giving the prospect two choices.

Use an open close like, "If I show you a solution to your problem that you believe will work, what would you feel comfortable doing next?" With this open close, there is much less pressure and the prospect will more likely tell you the truth. They haven't been put in a corner, forced to pick one of only two answers.

Now can tell you anything.

The true "sales master" understands that, "to close or not to close," is really the prospects' choice and, by giving them more options with an "open close," you will raise your winning percentages!

Now that I've shown you a better way to close -- will you use it?

Instead of thinking about closing business, think about "opening" new business. With that thought in mind, "open closing" should be much easier!

John E. Hirth is President and founding principal of Selling Dynamics, a sales force development, sales training and sales process consulting firm dedicated to increasing sales revenue and corporate profits. Email: jeh@sellingdynamics.com Website: http://www.johnhirth.com .

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By George Ishee

The answer might surprise you - Develop a pro-active "human proof" referral system and use it all the time! It is that simple.

When I ask most people, "how do you successfully grow your business," they often tell me, "it is by word of mouth or referrals." Yet when I ask them what system (or methodology they use) to obtain referrals, they do not have one. It is a random process at best.

Statistics show that today, it takes six more times the effort and money to get a new client to buy from you, as it takes to get a second order from an existing customer or a referral. So why do people not ask for referrals from everybody they sell?

The reason is that there are emotions involved. Most people do not feel comfortable "asking" for referrals. Here is a rule - If you do not ask for a referral, you will not get many. When asking for referrals do you ask like this, "Do you know of anyone that might like our services?", and the answer you get is usually "no not at this time, but if I do, I will be sure to tell them about you".

We have found that when you put an automated system in place that asks for a referral, every time to everybody that buys, your referrals go up and so do your sales. You can usually expect to obtain at least one new "referred customer" from every five new customers asked. That's a 20% increase in business without spending a dime on marketing or advertising.

So what should you say to get a referral? Here is the key - People think in pictures; so when you ask for a referral, it paints a picture in their mind of whom they can refer. Ask them "Do you have any clients that might like to take advantage of the savings and or quality services you just received? If you could take a moment and scan through your rolodex and see if anyone comes to mind that you could refer, and then put their contact information on this form".

In addition, you should have a series of 3 - 5 steps mapped out that lead up to asking for the referral. It should look something like this.

1) Send a thank you letter or email,

2) Follow up with a quick phone call,

3) Follow up with another email to ensure everything went well after you delivered the product or solution.

4) Finally, send a letter or email with a script saying: "Dear (customer), based on our previous communications, I know you are happy with the product, service and follow up. I would like to ask a favor. Would you be kind enough to refer up to three people that you think might be interested in receiving the same quality and savings that you have experienced? Check your rolodex or any clients you have dealt with in the last 30 days and put them on the form I have provided. I have attached a simple form. Again, thanks for being our customer and putting your trust in us."

5) Put a note on your calendar to call them in 4-5 days and ask for the referrals if you did not receive them.

6) Put it on an automated process system. Every new customer that calls you, and purchases from you, it will ask for a referral every time...Without Fail! You need to ask every new customer because:

• They just made the decision to choose you instead of the competition!

• People want to tell other people about their good decisions!

• You have just provided them with a valued solution and are on the top of their mind!

• You have not had a chance to mess it up yet!

By automating, the process of politely asking for referrals at your customer satisfaction stage of relationship, you will obtain at least one new customer via referral for every four customers asked. It is like buying five customers and getting one free!

If you want to increase your sales by 20% without spending a dime on marketing or advertising, implement a system, which is automated, and "human proof". To learn more, review the digital brochure at www.plumtreemarketing.digbro.com or call 770-352-0662 for a free 30-minute business evaluation to improve your referral system.

George Ishee is known as a sales funnel guru and works with mid to small companies, to automate the process, to increase leads, referrals, and sales on a consistent basis. To learn more visit our digital brochure at http://www.plumtreemarketing.digbro.com or call 770-352-0662.

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If you want to have a website, then you will need to buy a domain name. This is the address for your site. Users will need to type it to enter your website. Your domain name is very important to let people know what type of business you have just by hearing your domain name. Choose a wrong domain name, and nobody will come to see you.

Buying a domain name using a domain name service is cheap. It takes about $6 to $20 per year. But domain names are also a golden opportunity to make easy money. You may have heard about some people running "internet real estate" businesses. They buy a domain name, then later sell that domain name for a large profit. For example, the domains Loans.com and Wines.com were each purchased for $3 million each. But there's another way to make big profits with domain names that most people aren't aware of. So what is this ticked to fast cash? Expired domains are where it's at.

Many webmasters invest their time, effort and money to promote their site and gain quality traffic. Many of them lose interest, basically abandoning their site while at the same time leaving that site active. This means that although they still own the domain, they're not promoting it anymore. They've already done the hard work, so their website continues to bring in traffic by itself. By taking over have those domains when they expired, you can get a pre-built base of customers. Once you've acquired the domain (and its traffic) you can either rebuild the site, or redirect the traffic to one of your own.

Try to find an expired domain that relates to your business. To make the task of finding that perfect expired domain even easier, there are services that will help you to find an expired domain like www.ExpiredTraffic.com or www.DeletedDomains.com. You can buy expired domain names there and then build up your site using these domain names. This way, you can get a lot of traffic easily.

Once You Turn On This Plug-And-Play In-A-Box Money System, It Can't Stop Sending You Cash! Ewen Chia's Autopilot Profits, A COMPLETE Set Of Easy To Follow, "Do-This-Then-Do-That" Step-By-Step Video Tutorials! at http://SuccessMyBirthRight.com]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
By Laura Koehne

Usual advice to entrepreneurs focuses on practicalities like learning to evaluate the market, write a business plan or raise money. But this assumption that we’ve already found the perfect idea or business opportunity is just plain wrong!

As a kid I dreamed that someday I would have my own business. In my 20’s I kept my eyes open, freelanced a bit and even had a little web start up with a friend that turned out to be more of a hobby than a sustainable venture. I completed an MBA and studied entrepreneurship, and along the way I wrote a number of appealing business plans. Unfortunately, none of those businesses were appealing to me.

Truth was I didn’t know what my dream looked like. I was surrounded by great opportunity but I hadn’t spent enough time honing my receptors to know which opportunity was right for me.

What was missing was the atypical business advice: To find my perfect business opportunity, I had to find myself first. I needed to assess ME before I could even look at the market!

How will you recognize the idea or business opportunity that is the perfect fit for you? Do you know what gives you the passion and energy that you’ll need to start a business? Steel your courage and get ready to dive in: knowing yourself objectively, good and bad, inside and out, is essential for recognizing your perfect opportunities.

Here are some unconventional ideas to help you prime your entrepreneurial pump:

1. Specialize – in Yourself

Take the time to inventory your most important values and goals. Evaluate your strengths as well as your blind spots. Remember that it’s not easy to read the label when you’re inside the bottle, so solicit help from friends you respect and who know you well. My friend, Jim, was stunned to realize that not everyone loved talking to people the way he does. He had discounted his talent for networking because for him it’s as natural as breathing and he assumed everyone could do it. These overlooked gifts are often our easiest, most energizing and valuable skills.

2. Generalize – in the World

You’re an expert in your field, no doubt, but don’t forget that there is a whole world out there. Be curious and pay attention to different industries, trends and patterns. Many of the biggest breakthroughs come from making connections between previously unrelated needs. Visit the newsstand once a week to pick up a publication you would otherwise never read. Watch the ideas start flowing. Collect the ideas that are most intriguing to you. Are there any patterns?

3. Take a Vacation

Taking a break from your routine is needed to reconnect with your creativity, insights and passions. Have you ever been driving a car or daydreaming in the shower when suddenly an amazing revelation pops into your head? A relaxing vacation can have the same effect on a grander scale. Give yourself time to dream.

4. Prepare Your Financial Attitudes

You’ve heard all the advice about preparing your bank account for the big leap, but you must also tune up your money attitudes. An off-kilter relationship with money can derail your entrepreneurial dream. My client Lori, whose business was slipping, examined her beliefs and found she wanted to protect money, and thus failed to take needed risk. Now that she’s more comfortable with money, and bolder, her business is thriving! Appreciate money as you would a business partner and create a good relationship with it, before you start the company.

5. Kick Butt at Work

While you develop your entrepreneurial dreams, redouble your commitment to your current job. Do great work for co-workers and clients. Develop relationships and a sterling reputation. So what if these people are not among your first customers, they can become your greatest advocates! Do your day job to the best of your ability and be someone that others are proud to refer.

6. Befriend Your Fears

We all have them – big, tummy-knotting fears or little nagging, “I’m not good enough” worries. Learn to recognize the limiting perceptions or attitudes that may become speed bumps on your way to success. When acknowledged, these fears become allies that will actually make you more successful: Business owner, Lisa, is a creative visionary who shivers at the thought of implementation. For sure, she will want to hire a crackerjack implementer for her team. Seek opportunities that minimize the effects of your fears, or consciously prepare to accommodate them with additional training, specific people in your team or advantageous alliances.

7. Discover – and Live -- Your Personal Brand

When people’s perception of you is in sync with the real you, life gets a whole lot easier. Act consistently on your values and beliefs, and people will recognize what you stand for, what you can be counted on to do, and how you will do it. This makes it easy for others to introduce you to the perfect people, the perfect companies, and perfect ideas. An authentic personal brand gives you a high likelihood of finding the perfect opportunity. After all, your unique dream comes from who you really are.

Laura Koehne, founder of THRIVE Against the Grain, coaches you to take the road less traveled with complete confidence. She holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from University of Maryland and has realized her entrepreneurial dream by helping others find theirs. For coaching, guidance and additional exercises to help you prepare for your chance of a lifetime, visit her website at http://www.ThriveAgainstTheGrain.com and subscribe to Laura’s DoWhat!? monthly eZine.
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By Mario Churchill

It is an unavoidable fact that businesses will encounter problems once in a while. It may be a problem in marketing, in sales, or in personnel. Whatever it is, you need to solve it fast in order to keep your business on track and avoid losing a lot of money.

Having problems in your business may seem very frustrating. With simple problem solving techniques, you can solve your problems in no time at all.

For example, if your competition is selling more than you, you need to analyze all the related factors of the problem with your company, or why your company isn't selling like it used to. Determining the problem is the first step in all kinds of problems that you need to solve.

With big business problems, face the facts; you will need help in order to solve it faster. Here is a guide you can use in your problem solving techniques to know how to solve problems more efficiently:

-The first thing you need to consider is identifying what problems you are facing. Whether it is about marketing or about sales, you first need to know what the problem is in a specific department. It may be lack of sales or it may even be problems with inefficient employees. Whatever it is, try to know what is causing it.

-Once you identify the problem, you need to set up a meeting with the people who are responsible. Then, you can ask them about their opinions on the problem. Try to ask them what is wrong with their respective departments and try to let them list the things they think need to be improved.

-After they write all the things they think have a problem, discuss it one by one. Ask them how and why they arrived at that particular problem, and what their opinions are to properly solve the problem.

-Now that you have their opinions, you can now decide what to do about that particular problem. Knowing what is causing the problem will enable you to arrive at the right decision in solving the problem.

These are the things you should consider when solving a problem in your company. You will know how you can solve the problem by making the right decision.

If you still need information to arrive at a good decision, then you should look for it. One way to solve the problem is by imagining how you can cause the problem. For example, if you think you need customers, imagine how you can scare them away. By doing this, you can determine why you don't have enough customers and solve it.

These are some of the things you should keep in mind in order to solve the problem in your business more effectively.

By getting the right information about a particular problem, you will be able to solve it at a much faster rate. You can really improve how your business is running and also improve the way you deal with problems.

Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information checkout http://www.ideacenter.com and http://my-updates.info.
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Becoming a top stumbler is the ultimate goal when you use StumbleUpon. I have not reached it yet, but I know it's out there.

I believe that if you follow just a few steps every day, you will reach this peak. Yes, "top stumbler" and "top stumblers" are keywords in StumbleUpon, but don't confuse them with becoming a Top Stumbler. Top Stumblers are chosen by the moderators of SU.

My friend, Brian, from NowSourcing.com, wrote an exceptional article on the flocking behavior and the effect that any social media site has. People are curious about other people, and like people flock together where there is good content. This is what makes StumbleUpon such a marvelous site.

To get Top Stumbler means that:

1. You are posting frequently,

2. You are tagging your posts with "top stumbler" and "top stumblers",

3. You have close to-- if not over-- the 200 friend limit, and

4. You are using the "Stumble" button to view other web pages from other Stumblers.

The average number of votes for a Top Stumbler is around 18,000. These are the three basics that were written about previously, plus the additional task of stumbling pages yourself. The mechanisms will take over and you will get Top Stumbler on the basis reviews as well as votes.

Previous articles on Secrets of StumbleUpon are linked in the author's information at the end of this article for your convenience so you can read up on the basics:

1. Introduction

2. Fresh Content

3. Tagging Your Posts

4. Making And Keeping Friends

Some clarification on #4:

Reviewing a person's site and then contacting them with a request to be added to your friends list is the easiest way to make friends. There is a wide choice of friends in StumbleUpon, even though it may not be the largest social site around. There are 3,698,021 registered Stumblers, so this should not be much of a problem.

I would not recommend making a person your friend until they show up as having subscribed to your pages in the friends tab, otherwise you end up with a lot that will just need to be deleted. Also, check their active date on their pages tab. I usually let them go for about a month and then "Remove Friend". Anyone not interested in the pursuits that you are interested in is not going to be much help to you.

Also, use the "Send To" button to "force stumble" your friends. Put in a brief message to get their attention. When they hit the stumble button, your page will show up. Guaranteed traffic! Takes about 30 minutes.

Eventually, you will also start getting pages sent to you from your friends. Help them out by voting! And remember this when you get a thumbs down. A thumbs down counts as a vote. It is a good thing, not to be taken badly. You expect others to take your thumbs down graciously when you give it out, don't you? You will not make many friends if you do the knee-jerk reaction and get defensive.

I appreciate the opportunity to share the information I have learned with you. This is by no means is the last post on this subject as long as I am a SU user, even though-- from a basics point of view-- this may be considered the last of this series.

The cumulative visit statistics from StumbleUpon for each of these posts:

1. Introduction - 291 (submitted on 10/1/07, 22 days)

2. Fresh Content - 692 (submitted on 10/2/07, 21 days)

3. Tagging Your Posts - 1702 (submitted on 10/13/07, 10 days)

4. Making And Keeping Friends - 1737(submitted yesterday 10/21/07, 1 day)

Anyone else see a trend?

Leonard Bartholomew, B.S. Computer Science, Is A Cardiac Computer System Administrator As Well As An Authority On Developing Home Based Internet Businesses Part Time. Read the series of articles on Secrets of Stumbleupon at http://www.moxie-drive.com/blog/2007/10/secrets-of-stumbleupon-becoming-top.html.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
By Annie Jennings PR

If you are a book author, expert, or wish to brand yourself to the media and are in pursuit of media placements, Annie Jennings PR recommends you develop a media site, or author/expert showcase site developed especially for the media.

Choose a website name that is easy to type and contains no unusual spellings. You want to keep the site simple and easy to use. Limit or eliminate any challenges the media might have. The first step is to name the site in a way that makes it easy and obvious.

The name of your media website, for example, could be: www.YourName.com, www.YourNameCredentials.com, www.yournamePHD.com, or if www.yourname.com is not available, buy the .TV extension meaning you would buy the www.yourname.tv.
By naming your website after yourself, the media assumes they are going to the site to find out about you, the expert or author, and of course, they are right.

It is certainly OK to have more than one website; in fact, I recommend it. Each site should have a specific strategy, that is, what do you want the visitor to do? This is also called a conversion strategy.

With a media site, you want the media to be able to obtain all the information they need to book you for the media opportunity.

With a business site, you want the visitor to find out all about your business and hire your business.

With an e-commerce site, you want the visitor to find out all about your products or services and buy them.

Observe, all three types of sites have a unique strategy. The media website should not be combined with any other type of site; especially, with an e-commerce or sales site. It seems odd that you would want the media to buy your products or services, right?

CONTACT INFO

Each page should have a header area containing the essential information about you. This should include a short list of topics or a broad category name such as "Relationships" and your contact information.

I advise against using email as the only way to get in touch with you. Why? It is not instant and does not leave the media with certainty that you will respond. How do they know you will even get the email? So they must continue their search for the perfect expert and you will most likely lose the media placement.

Certainly, never use info@, as that seems like it goes to an unmanned inbox. You can use your real email address. It will sound more convincing. Be sure the email goes directly to your blackberry. You can even let the media know that the email goes directly to your blackberry and you will respond shortly.

But ALWAYS give out a telephone number if you want media placements. You can use a cell phone or even an answering service that contacts you the second the media calls them. The best choice is the most direct route to you!

YOUR BIO PAGE

If you have credentials, let the media know right away. The more credentials and accomplishments you have in your area of expertise, the better your chances are of being chosen by the media for the placement.

Also include all of the topics you can discuss, as well.

Be sure to lead with a great color picture of you – one that is engaging, well groomed, and offers the viewers a glimpse of your personality.

Do not use your driver's license picture!

Your bio page should be conversational in nature and not a copy and paste of your C.V. or resume. The idea is that you want you bio to tell a story about you, your expertise, who you are, and in the end, answer the one question the media has, which is, are you the perfect expert for them?

YOUR MEDIA APPEARANCES PAGE

A Demo: Short video of previous author or expert media appearances. Sending your demo DVD overnight just takes too long! No kidding. Create a short DVD as a starter demo with clips of your BEST MOMENTS. Don't have the long version of each segment as the first demo the media sees. They can always look at the rest if they like the first starter demo enough to want to know more about you.

An Audio Clip: Let the media hear you in action, but first, be sure to map out what they are going to hear. Start fast, engage fast and deliver some awesome talking points.

I highly recommend hiring a pro to help you develop and record a high-powered, blockbuster, short audio; especially for the media, packed with what they need to hear to choose you from a great engaging personality, to an action-packed pace, to lots of great information.

Your Print And Online Placements: Include a list of your most prestigious placements; including, the month and issue date of the article. If the original article is online, then by all means, link to the article.

Your Topics & Areas Of Expertise Page

Your topic page should include a list of the topics you can discuss along with titles of tips, sheets, or links to tips, sheets, or articles you have written.

The reason why you want to actually link to tips, sheets, and articles (such as Ten Smart Career Moves or Why You Should Never Ask Your Boss For A Raise On A Business Trip) is because this gives you the chance to showcase your knowledge in a variety of areas.

The idea is to present yourself and your experience in the most powerful way possible, creating certainty for the media that they are making an excellent choice in choosing you!

Annie Jennings PR has booked thousands of media placements with over 20,000 authors and experts. Annie is the creator of advanced publicity strategy, media websites, online press kits, platforms, advanced branding, HOT 35! BIG CITY & national shows radio campaigns. Free "How To Create An Online Media Kit" at http://www.anniejenningspr.com/onlinemediakit.htm Free Website Consults Audio at http://www.anniejenningspr.com/publicitypro.htm.
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When used correctly, forums offer new as well as experienced business owners the perfect platform for promoting new ideas and products. They're also a great way to acquire one-way links. While forums have their benefits, they also have the potential of creating huge damage to your business. One wrong thread could send a lot of bad press to your site as well as to your email account.

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

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

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

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

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

2) Link bandwagons and useless comments

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

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

3) Everyone's an expert

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

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

4) Old and stale information

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

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

5) Writing truthful, thoughtful comments is a fad

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

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

Jerret Turner, CEO of LinkAcquire.com, can help you build one-way links for better search results. Visit him at http://www.linkacquire.com. Download a free copy of Jerret's new work, The Little Linking Instruction Book, by visiting http://www.linkacquire.com/signup.html.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
One of the things that many Internet marketers do is run forums. Let's face it, getting a nice active forum going can be the key to making a nice income online. The problem with running your own forum, unfortunately, is that you're going to have to deal with forum spam. It's a big pain in the backside, trust me on this. So how do you deal with it? This article is going to give you a few no-nonsense methods to deal with forum spam.

The first thing you need to do is get moderators. There is no way that you're going to be able to run a forum on your own, especially if it gets popular. Moderators are a must in keeping a forum clean. Offer your moderators incentives to do the job. Maybe give them the right to occasionally post ads, especially if you're running a non-ads forum.

The next thing you need to do is use Captcha to keep forum spam down. This will at least stop the spam robots from posting. Yes, there is automated software that will post spam without the person having to go to the forum physically. By using Captcha, the robots will be stopped cold in their tracks.

For the real live human spammers who don't seem to want to give up, there are a few things you can do in order to discourage them.

The first thing is to ban their IP address. In many cases, these people are running off of a static IP address. In the cases where you're dealing with people who are using computer cafes to do their spamming, this isn't going to be much help. But you will cut down slightly on spam by banning IP addresses.

When all else fails, turn the forum into a paid access only forum. This will definitely keep the spammers away. While you may end up losing some of your members, the really serious ones will stay and you'll end up making an income directly from your forum. If you don't want to go that route, you can try disabling signups to your forum for a few days. This will discourage many spammers and hopefully send them on their way.

Dealing with forum spam is not fun and it's a war that isn't easily won. However, by following the above tips, you can greatly cut down on your forum spam.

To YOUR success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of busting your behind for peanuts online? Go to my web site and find out how I earn a monthly income that exceeds 5 figures and how I can help YOU do the same. Get your free report at http://www.mysecretarticles.com/report.html.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
When you are beginning your internet network marketing business, it is likely that you will be on a shoestring budget. One of the first things that you need to do with internet marketing is to build your own list. This list will be comprised of targeted prospects that are interested in the niche market that your business focuses on.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jon Roussel is a successful internet marketer in Beverly, MA. He helps people succeed with a home-based business that will generate a long-term reliable leveraged residual income. Learn more at http://www.jonroussel.ws, Jon Roussel's Website.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
The Internet is continuously evolving. It has been incorporating all current technology into its domain and has thus stood the test of time and storm. From video conferencing to class sessions delivered online, it has touched almost every aspect of life. But none has been as popular as Instant Messaging, which gave birth to smiley icons, a product of man’s quest to make cyberspace as social as possible.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Craig Thornburrow is an acknowledged expert in his field. You can get more free advice on smiley icons and animated smiley faces at http://www.smileyicon.net and http://www.smileyicon.net/animate-your-messenger-conversations-with-animated-smiley-faces.html.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
There are many effective little techniques that encourage forum posting. One of the tricks that helps to encourage forum conversation is to end some of your posts with leading questions. "What do you think?" "How do you do it?" "Does anyone know how to ____?" Questions give an easy opening for the next person to post, just as they help foster conversation in real life.

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

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

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

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

Social network users, visit http://www.wishafriend.com/ac/holidays/christmas/ for Christmas MySpace comments. You can also find Christmas MySpace graphics at http://www.wishafriend.com/graphics/holidays/christmas/, and find Christmas Layouts at http://www.wishafriend.com/layouts/christmas/ to add to your profile.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
What is this mystical thing called Web 3.0 that everybody is waiting for? It's like the silhouette of a stranger through the dense fog. Man or Monster? Friend or Foe? That is the nature of predicting the future. From afar, everything looks good. From up close, it's a mess. The good news is we can affect the future, the future is not some inevitable result assigned to us.

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

What happened?

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

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

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

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

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

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

What's Missing?

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

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

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

What's Not Happening?

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

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

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

What's Next?

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

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

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

Are You Ready?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We are trying to start our vision of Web 3.0 at http://www.helpglobe.com. Come join us!]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
Black Hat SEOss will definitely impress you with all the aces up their sleeves, but if you do not want your website to be black-listed by popular search engines such as Google, then it is recommended that you try other better options that are available. Generating traffic to your website is no doubt important, but if you have long-term business plans then you need to realize that what is even more important is building and maintaining the credibility of your website. It is only when credibility is maintained that you can you hope to retain users on your website and, most importantly, motivate them to buy products or services that you might be selling through your website.

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

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

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

Ryan Chua is a professional IT and Onlne marketing consultant for the past 5 years. Ever since running his own traffic and profit-generating websites, he has been teaching others how to do the same for their own online endeavours. For more information, visit http://www.ForumSecretsRevealed.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
With the present trend in marketing and online business, competition to get the a higher and better ranking is getting stiffer and a lot more complex. In order to attain the best traffic on the net, a lot of marketers and businessmen are engaging into so many highly tremendous methods of marketing. One of the most sought-after marketing tools that many are trying to experiment on is the search engine optimization, particularly the off page optimization process. You may be asking, why search engine optimization? What features does off page optimization have to be considered as one of the most sought-after marketing tools? Well, the answer to that is very basic and fundamental - traffic driven by back links.

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

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

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

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

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

Sean Mize is a full-time internet marketer who has written over 1,574 articles in print and 11 published ebooks.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
This is one article in the series of "InfoPreneur Secrets" which discusses tips, tricks, techniques and secrets to be a successful info product creator and marketer. This article will discuss the importance of leveraging the resources of others to literally explode your sales without much additional effort on your part.

Let me ask you a question:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

James also runs a blog which details his trials and tribulations of being an internet marketer. He posts his tips, tricks, techniques and secrets that will help YOU to make money. Visit his blog at http://www.teenagemarketer.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
So you need to test your new product concepts against prospects, customers, or the trade. Concept testing explores consumers' reactions to a proposed product, message, or ad.

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

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

What are Online Bulletin Board Focus Groups?

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

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

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

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

How Bulletin Board Focus Groups Work

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Qualitative Product Concept Testing

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

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

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

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

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

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

Benefits of Bulletin Board Focus Groups

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Copyright © 2007, Henk Hoets. All rights reserved.

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

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

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

For more information about online focus groups and focus group moderating, please visit http://h-focusgroups.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
This is one article in the series of InfoPreneur Secrets which discusses tips, tricks, techniques and secrets to be a successful info product creator and marketer. This article will discuss how to effectively persuade authorities in your niche to joint venture with you in promotion of your info product.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This free report from Dr. Mani may help you with approaching JV partners - http://ezinemarketingcenter.com/jv-deconstructed.pdf.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
A new and innovative product can be marketed to literally millions of people almost overnight in the world today. However, if none of those people have any interest in the product, it is still not very likely to sell well. Correctly identifying the demographic target of the market will solve that problem. Once the demographics have been defined, it will be easier to know where and to whom the market will be directed.

There are numerous sites on the internet for sending an advertisement to thousands or even millions of people. Many (or very likely most) people who have tried this know how difficult it is to get any discernible results from this type of campaign. While the ad may indeed go out to thousands or even millions of people, only a very small percentage of those people will ever look at those ads. Even then, the average return rate on random ads is less than one-half percent.

No matter how those odds are stacked, the odds are negligible at best. If the web site is brand new and the only interest is to generate generic traffic that is not likely to return, just to get some numbers, this may be a viable alternative, but for advertising, marketing and becoming successful with a product, it just will not work; at least not most of the time.

If the proper steps have been followed, the product is already under development or has already been completed and is just waiting on the next step to be completed. Either way, there should be a pretty good idea by now who the target audience is. Targeted marketing will always fare better than blind or blanket campaigns that try to cover everybody and everything.

This process may actually take some research and some insight. Many products can be targeted to multiple audiences, all of whom may be very receptive to the product. However, different demographics will respond differently to the actual marketing campaigns. For example; an eighty year old woman who happens to use the same shampoo as a fourteen year old boy is not very likely to respond the same way to an ad that is targeted to the teen. Quite the opposite may happen, actually, and the one customer will be forfeited for the sake of the other.

The idea is to figure out everybody who is going to be using this particular product. Each one of these demographic groups should have their own advertising campaign and marketing in place. By addressing separate markets differently, nobody will be alienated and the list of customers can be expanded rather than narrowed down. It is always better to have too many customers than not enough.

It is important to have as much information as possible about each group that is being targeted. Will the teenagers being targeted all be sports stars or will they be the ones less prevalent and more subtle in their appearances? Will the grandmother figure be an avid outdoors person with an active lifestyle or one who prefers to sit at home knitting while listening to the records she has from her youth?

All of these factors become more and more important as the targeting becomes more specific. Certain people will identify with one thing while it may not even be readily recognizable to someone else. While diversity in advertising is always a good idea, it is not helpful when it isolates more people than it is bringing into the market. By knowing who the target audience is, and knowing specifics about them, they can be more effectively pursued and sales increased accordingly.

As the marketing and advertising are expanded, further markets can be explored. However, at the beginning of any project, your time and resources are usually going to be stretched pretty thin. Concentrating on one market at a time can help alleviate some of the stress involved and provide a quicker return of investment. Ward Tipton has been writing SEO and SEM materials for over three years now and has recently become involved in providing new and unmatched materials by an actual Work Team comprised of professional writers, technicians, engineers, editors, Internet Marketers and a gathering of talent heretofore unmatched in the world of Internet Marketing. Visit http://wardtipton.com .]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
Launching a new product is often the joy of entrepreneurs. However, many entrepreneurs start this process by shooting their efforts in the foot, then wondering why their ambitions are only limping along.

In order to avoid this common error, entrepreneurs must come to understand a couple of facts that seem very cruel to most egos. One fact is that, at the launch stage, no one cares about your new product but you. The second fact is that you must find a way to change fact number one.

Sure, I know what just popped into your head. You thought, "Well, I will just advertise my product and let the money roll in." That sounds good, but if we could somehow convene a committee of the owners of failed product launches of times past, you would find that they thought the same thing at the beginning of their campaigns. They did just that. And not only did they NOT make money; they lost money they already had in hand.

There must be an educational process implemented at the launch of any product. Just coming out of nowhere and telling consumers to buy your product is rarely successful.

Much like the age old question of which comes first chicken or the egg, there is the question of which comes first advertising or developing consumer’s interest in your product. Many people think these are the same but they aren’t.

When you present information online about a new product you must consider the web surfers patience and tolerance for reading what you have to say about your product. Since there is no distance in cyberspace, web surfers can leave websites very quickly. Bore them and you loose them. Entertain them and they will read every word of your promotional material and be happy to do it. They’ll absorb your product’s info in the process.

The question that remains is how to entertain them long enough to get your product information into their head. Flashy websites won’t do it anymore. They are a dime a dozen in this template-driven Internet age. You must have a hook. Listing your website in entertaining areas of the Internet can be a great way to get your product noticed and appreciated for what it has to offer to consumers.

Lately, companies both large and small have employed this angle in the physical world. Baseball games, football games, basketball games etc. have been inundated by ads and product introductions. Employing these tactics online are a lot less expensive and a lot easier to implement.

There are multiple ways of doing this. One of the most interesting means of introducing a product to the public is to immerse your product introduction into entertaining websites, but even greater than that is to make your introduction documentation itself a part of the entertainment.

Websites allow product launch materials to capture the full attention of prospective buyers by making the introduction materials part of a game the consumer is already playing. Users look for spelling and other errors to report them to the owner. They read every word, catching the full impact of the sales pitch and learn all of the feature intricacies of the product in question.

One of the side benefits of employing this type of technique is the perfection of sales materials. This makes product offers even more appealing to future customers.

John Reed is an internet marketer that embraces innovation in marketing. You can learn more about low cost marketing innovation at http://www.errormarketing.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
A quest that has lately arrived in many cyber-minds is how to use videos to achieve the social riches of online media and revolutionize traditional Internet marketing. This article revolves around a similar discussion. A step ahead of your competitors in online marketing is to make use of images that show action and motion. Online Videos are in vogue; they have hit the mainstream and are the most effective and enhanced approach to target an audience for effective communications and marketing. The idea here is to convey messages to an audience in the most exact manner rather than just leaving them to struggle with their individual understanding.

The web is a global space, and the never-ending nature of enlargement in its functionalities is very demanding. Online videos are facilitating conversations between clients and consumers over the Internet. The growth is announced to be 71% this year as per e-marketer projections. Many websites have experienced unprecedented success in the field of serving as video directories, video search engines, video sharing, video exchanging, video editing etc. And if television was an idiot-box, Internet is breaking it free via the medium of online videos. Unlike the television, videos and ad-videos online do not vanish away leaving the viewer to wait for it, until the publisher decides to broadcast it again in the loop. Also, the audience is not compelled to watch an advertisement that is not of its interest. Advertisers are more than happy about this modernization as they do not have the fear of their ad-budgets dissolving and their advertisement budgets being wasted on an audience that has no interest in what they are selling. We are talking about pulling vs. pushing.

Websites, web logs (blogs), video publishers, sharing sites, news sites, and video search engines get to do business by collecting quality video content that is easily available. They can choose videos as per the site’s suitability and publish it further by building and integrating their own value-added services. Splash Vision is one of these sites; an impressive, eminent and illustrious site offering easy and remarkable features to encode, upload, host and view videos or photos of maritime and water related lifestyles. Online videos have blown heavy winds across the Internet. The strategy is reinventing the traditional efforts of marketing & promotion, PR & awareness; a breakthrough innovation highlighting an unconventional spectrum for direct and effective communication.

It is an explosion; a massive explosion, indeed. Networking by video sharing has hit the mainstream and is changing the ideologies of conventional marketing against online audio-video. Through this medium of online videos, you can target thousands of specific users with a common lifestyle who are willing and ready to dive in directly. Quickly skim through http://www.splashvision.com/ and you will instantly see the advantages and the necessity to be a part of it.

Clifford Smith writes for Flippingmad; where you can find all you want to know about luxury life styles and living large. Please feel free to use this article in anywhere you feel it fits or on your website. If you use this article, please include the resource box and send a brief message to let me know where it appeared: [mailto:aquaaddict@gmail.com]mailto:aquaaddict@gmail.com.]]> http://miraclemoneyblog.com/homebiztips/HomeBusinessTips_FSi_190/user/index.php
I have been working online since 1995. In all the years I have been marketing online, I never thought that getting first page search engine ranking would be so easy. Then, about 6 months ago, I came across this website about marketing online with free video hosting sites.

My first thought was that I don't know how to make a video and I don't have any type of cameras either. But I kept reading and I am glad I did. I have been getting first page results with video marketing for the last 6 months. The best part was that I didn't need to have any type of special equipment. I had created my first video within 1 hour of signing up with this video posting service.

Here is a Little Test That I Started June 25th, 2007

I found an affiliate product online the 25th and created a free blog. This blog was not advertised any place, only with videos I submitted June 27th, 2007. It took me a little under two hours to create a video and submit it 6 times with 6 different keywords. When you post your video with software that sends it to 38 free video hosting sites this is what happens; 6 x 38 = 228-- that is how many free video hosting sites I posted my video to. Plus 12 public social bookmarking sites. 12 x 6 = 72. Now add 72 + 228 = 300 postings. That landed me first page results within 10 hours.

I submitted the same video 6 times with different keywords and these were my results:

1st keyword submitted 6/27 - first page within 10 hrs.

2nd keyword submitted 6/27 - first page within 10 hrs.

3rd keyword submitted 6/27 - first page within 28 hrs.

4th keyword submitted 6/27 - second page within 40 hrs.

5th keyword submitted 6/27 - first page within 47 hrs.

6th keyword submitted 6/27 - I found it on the 14th page within 47 hours. I found it on the 4th page
under video search. I thought, no big deal, I will just create a few more videos and post them with the 6th keyword and have first or second page ranking within 48 hours.

Do you think I could have posted that many times without the template that this video posting company offers? I know for a fact I co