HomeBusinessTips_SHi_140

Make Your Thank You Pages Do Double-Duty

By Alicia Forest

Leverage the page your website visitors see after they sign up for your list or make a purchase. This article shares four ways to utilize this space to increase your marketing and sales without having to do more work.

I have a question for you: When people sign up to receive your ezine or other Free Taste of what it is you are offering, where do they end up? Do they see a polite thank you page from you? Do they see the default confirmation page from your list service? Do they see nothing? Are left wondering if the registration went through? People who are signing up for your list expect to see a page afterwards as a normal part of the transaction. On that page, it is important to thank them for signing up and make them feel good about their decision. Also, if you are using a double opt-in for your list, let them know they need to confirm their subscription before they will receive the information they requested from you.

There is more you can do with this page, so why not leverage it? Here are a few ideas on how to accomplish this:

1. Add, Tell-A-Friend. Most people are happy to refer you to someone else they know who might benefit from what you are offering, if you will just ask them.

You can do this easily by simply asking them to point others to your sign-up page, or by using a simple referral software program, like TAFPro, which creates a simple form to fill in with a name and email address of the person whom they are referring. Once they hit send, an email goes directly to the recipient and a copy comes to you. This is a great way to add new subscribers to your list without you having to do more work.

2. Make another offer. The best time to make an offer to someone is when interacting with you. Someone who just signed up to receive information from you is likely to be interested in something else you have to offer. Use this page to make an offer on one of your lower ticket items in your funnel. By doing so, you will gain sales you would not otherwise.

3. Ask a question. This is a prime time to gather a little market research from your readers. Ask a simple question, like "What's your biggest challenge with X?" (X represents your niche, what it is that you are offering). Add an email link where they can send their answer, and then use this information as you continue to develop offerings for your target market.

Doing this also helps in starting to build a relationship with your readers, and it keeps you up-to-date as to what they are struggling with right now so you can offer the solutions they want.

4. Refer them elsewhere. Hook up with a colleague to start trading some thank you page traffic. On your thank you page, say something like, "I know you'll also benefit from (name of ezine), published by (name of publisher)." Then give them instructions on how to sign up. Your colleague would do the same for you on their thank you page.

I implement all four of these strategies on various thank you pages, which are helping me build a stronger relationship with my readers, find out what it is that they want my help with, build my list faster and easier, (while helping a handful of colleagues build theirs), and make more sales by making more offers.

I encourage you to leverage your thank you pages this way in your own business. Making them work double-duty for you will absolutely create the same results for you that I'm enjoying, Computer Technology Articles, so pick one and start working it today.

Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coach� and creator of "21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success System�, teaches coaches, consultants, and other solo professionals and online entrepreneurs how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your business, visit http://www.clientabundance.com/.

Make More Profits With a USP

by Larry Potter

What is A USP?

A USP is a unique selling proposition.

You MUST emphasize what makes you better than the competition. Let your customers know exactly how and why they will benefit from doing business with you, instead of someone else. Perhaps you offer a better guarantee than others do, or your service or product might cost less, maybe you offer special advice or knowledge that is not available anywhere else, or your customer service might be better than the competitions, or you might offer special incentives that no one else does.

The bottom-line, whatever your angle, when promoting your service or product is that you need to emphasize what makes you special or unique!

In addition, always give them information.

People search the internet for information, not to be sold something. They do not want to read a sales pitch.

You want to give each visitor to your home business site as much information as possible. When you take the time to educate them, you build credibility. Make your online business web site a valuable resource for your customers by giving them free tips and tools. This helps build your reputation while making your site one your readers will come back to, repeatedly.

This will help establish you as an expert in your field, knowledgeable, and trustworthy. In addition, once they trust you, they will buy from you!

One great way to provide information and establish credibility is with a free newsletter. Spinning graphics and neat colors will not sell your service or product---your copy will. One of the most important factors in determining the success or failure of your online home business is well-written, compelling copy. This will determine the success or failure of your online home business.

And never imply.

If you have an online home business, you should never imply what you want your visitors to do, rather you should explicitly state it. This is hard for some because they do not want to impose their wishes on anyone; they prefer to be polite. However, unless you are blunt with your visitors, you will see only mediocre or downright poor results.

Tell you visitor exactly what you want them to do, whether it be...

*Read an article

*Buy your product

*Subscribe

*Enter a contest

*Join your affiliate program

*Fill out a survey

*Click

Make sure you let them know!

Marketing experts have proven you will increase your home business sales by at least 80% simply by asking for the order.

Larry Potter is a recognized authority on the subject of starting a home business with little or no cash. More tips can be found here: Make Money At Warp Speed (http://urlcutter.com/WarpSpeedHomeBusiness) and if you are a merchant, you may wish to see if you can save 10-20% on your credit card processing by going to: http://www.articletrader.com/internet/online-business/www.BankMPI2623.com

Affiliate Marketing - The Importance of Mailing Lists

by Charlie Essmeier

A lot of people are taking an interest in affiliate marketing as a way to either make a living or to earn supplementary income. The growth of affiliate marketing isn't all that hard to understand, as it provides a way to make money from retail products without having to stock inventory, make direct sales to the public or handle returns in the event that the customer is unhappy with the product. With affiliate marketing, the sales process is entirely "hands-off."

While there is no work to be done along the lines of making direct sales, there is a lot of work involved in making the public aware of the products you are trying to promote. Two popular methods of bringing your products to the public's attention are to purchase pay-per-click advertising on the major search engines or to build a Website promoting one or more products. While these methods both work, they require regular, active work, and in the case of pay-per-click advertising, a regular outlay of cash as you continually try to draw new customers to your advertisements for your products. There is a better way, however, and that is to leverage the customers you already have by creating a mailing list.

Studies show that customers who buy a product are likely to buy another in the future. Since it is far easier to make a sale to a proven customer than it is to attract a new one, it makes sense to compile a mailing list of customers. That way, should you decide to promote a new product in the future, you can e-mail a sales pitch to your list and know that the message will likely be read by customers who are "ready to buy."

The best part of having a mailing list is that you can automate a lot of the process by using an autoresponder. An autoresponder is an online service that handles mailings and mail lists for you, usually for a small monthly fee. Two of the more popular services are Aweber and Get Response. These services allow you to create a simple form that appears on your Website, asking visitors for their name and e-mail address. You can usually entice them to sign up by offering a free report of some sort in exchange for the information. Once they fill in the form and click the submit button, they are automatically sent a confirmation e-mail, followed by a link to download the report you offered them. From that point on, unless they unsubscribe, they are members of your mailing list.

The power of a mailing list should not be underestimated. There are marketers who have one hundred thousand or more names on their lists, and whenever a new product comes to market, these "super marketers" have the inside track on sales through their ability to instantly contact their members. When you compare the ability to contact hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of people instantly with having to build a Website or buy ads, you can easily see how useful it can be to have a list of your own.

A popular saying in affiliate marketing is that "the money is in the list." It's nice to make a sale on the Web or via a pay-per-click ad, but your goal shouldn't be to make one sale; it should be to make many sales. With a mailing list, you have the ability to do just that.

�Copyright 2007 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro-Marketing.com, a company specializing in sites devoted to affiliate marketing and making money online.

7 Secrets to List Building Lift Off

by Tellman Knudson

One question that people often ask me is, "Tellman, I want to start list building like you suggest, but I don't know where to start."

OK. Let me give you the 7 simple steps to follow:

1. Choose your niche: What are you passionate about?

I mean, what really gets you going? What can you get excited about and what will keep you that way? It could be anything from knitting to knees. It really doesn't matter, as long as people are searching for terms that surround your niche, you should do well. First, figure out what it is you have a passion for.

2. Do some research: Write a list of words that are used in your niche and then, go to http://inventory.overture.com/ .

Type the words into the blank, one at a time, and see how many searches are done for the terms. If your primary keywords generate 3,000 searches or more per month, you probably have a niche to work with. If you see there are 20,000 to 30,000 searches, then you definitely have a winner.

Just be aware that the very heavily-searched niches are probably very competitive. You may want to start list building around a smaller niche

3. Create a unique domain name: Your domain name should have something to do with what you're list building around.

For instance, my site, MyFirstTraffic.com, is for my beginner's traffic course. Makes sense, right? It makes it easy for people searching to find my site and buy my product, and it makes it easy for the search engines to figure out what my site is about for indexing.

Just be sure the name you choose isn't too long or difficult for people to remember.

4. Choose a web host: The most important factor here is dependability.

Don't ever base your choice of Web host on price because the cheapest hosts may just close shop and leave you hanging. You also want to be sure they have nearly 100% uptime. It's impossible for a host to have no downtime at all because upgrades and repairs are always needed. Just be sure that they have a good uptime reliability factor.

You may want to delay buying your domain name until you choose a Web hosting company, too. Many of them include a domain name or two with your hosting package. If you're just starting out, you may not need a very complicated plan, but if you're starting a membership site, say, where you'll need to use PHP extensions, then, you'll want something a bit more expensive.

If you don't know what you need, you'll probably have a tech person working with you anyway, so you can always ask them for a recommendation.

5. Build a squeeze page: Now that you have an idea about the niche you want to pursue, you want to start list building.

In other words, you want to gather a group of people who are hungry for information or products in your niche. To do that, you need a squeeze page, which is nothing more than a great headline, 3-5 bullet points of copy detailing the benefits of joining your list, and an opt-in box, which leads to...

6. Your autoresponder: Autoresponders are services that collect and house the names from your E-mail marketing list.

They also send out your confirmation messages. When someone signs up for your list, they have to click on a link in the confirmation message, which verifies that they actually signed up to your list. Once they do this, you can send email to them anytime you want.

This double opt-in process is important. If someone accuses you of spamming, you can get yourself into trouble. You can lose your ISP or, worse, face charges for violating the CAN-SPAM act of 2003, if you're in the U. S.

Autoresponders protect you from spam complaints. Choose a service that you can afford, but also find one that provides uninterrupted service and maximum deliverability. If nobody gets your E-mail, how can they read it to buy something from you?

7. Put your list building page on your server: The easiest and quickest way to put your list building page up is via FTP because it makes uploading quick and easy.

Wise FTP and Cute FTP are two programs that you can use, but there are many others. Using FTP is something you should learn more about if you plan to do business online.

If you follow these 7 steps you'll be list building in no time. Choose a great niche, create a memorable domain name, build a squeeze page, get an autoresponder, and upload your page and BOOM! You're list building.

How easy is that?

List building master, Tellman Knudson, is CEO of OvercomeEverything, Inc. and he has built a massive, responsive list in a short time. Learn his "Get a List Quick" system when you visit MyFirstList.com at http://www.myfirstlist.com/)

The Art of Closing Sales Online: 101

By Cheow Yu Yuan

There is research stating that potential customer follow-up occurs 5 to 7 times before closing a sale online. If you have just one page that pitches your product, it will not be good enough.

So how do you actually follow up with your potential customers online? Usually, most people get their potential customers to fill in their personal information; like full name and email address first

If you do not capture your potential customers' information, when they do not buy on their first visit to your sale page, you may lose the opportunity to contact them in the future.

So do not pitch your product right away. Tell your customers you have some free information or reports for them, and they will need to fill in their personal information to access or download them.

If your potential customers are interested, they will be willing to give you their personal information, as long as you guaranteed their privacy.

Observe, it will be extremely important to get their email addresses so you can fulfill the research statistic of 5 to 7 follow-ups before closing a sale online.

It is ok that they are not interested in a particular product, at present, you may be selling to them now. You can always sell them other products in the future, as long as you can contact them.

You can also further segment your mailing list into two groups. The first group is "Potential Buyers". The second group is "People who have already bought something from you".

The first group consists of your existing customers where repeat sales are highly possible. As for the second group, you know that you will have to persuade them more often in order for them to buy from you.

In this way, you can send two types of emails to target the two different groups to achieve the best-targeted results.

About the Author
The author is the co-founder of HomeBizGears.com HomeBizGears.com strives to provide the resources and gears for you to start YOUR Internet Business.
HomeBizGears.com is also the publisher of the e-book "Your Perfect Guide to Start Internet Business". Do visit http://www.homebizgears.com for more information.

Please feel free to republish this article on your website, or distribute it to your friends or clients, as long as you leave the resource box intact.

Cheow Yu Yuan,
Co-Founder HomeBizGears.com

Creating A Great Autoresponder Letter Series

by Debbie Ducker

Your autoresponder letter series, if written correctly, can make you serious money on the Internet.

Studies have proven that most consumers buy only after repeated exposure to a product. This repeated exposure helps you to gain their trust enough that they will feel confident enough to buy from you.

Having an autoresponder system is the hassle-free, automated way to put your product in front of interested buyers enough times to move them from consideration to purchase.

Have information on every page of your site of how a visitor can optin for futher information, join your ezine or newsletter or any incentive you can think of to get them to sign up to your autoresponder series.

Following are some informative tips on creating autoresponder messages that sell your product for you. You'll learn what to say, how to say it, how to format it, and how to avoid having your messages sent straight to the SPAM folder unread.

Here�s a breakdown of what your messages should contain.

1. Subject line. The subject line is the first thing people will see when they receive your message. It must be compelling enough to keep them from deleting the message unread. Do your research good on this. Learn everything you can on how to write good headlines. But also don't use hype. Since the person receiving this message has requested it, then it is logical to keep the subject on topic to what they requested to receive in the first place. i.e. Here is the information you requested on _____...

2. The opening sentence. Keep this true to your subject. Expand on it without hype or pressure. Don't mention the sale price, or tell them they must buy your product. Keep it promise based. i.e. tell them what they will learn or gain via the information or service you are going to provide.

For example say your subject was: Thank you ~Name~, here is the information your requested on earning a living at home.

Your opening sentence might be something like this: You are about to learn the very same strategies I use to make a full time living from my home.

3. Introductory paragraph. Explain in a concise paragraph exactly what your product will do for the buyer. Tell them how your product or service will help them to also make a full time living from their home. Avoid using ALL CAPS or excessive punctuation!!! This looks amateurish and, in the majority of cases, get your message deleted.

4. Subheadings and further information. Write bullet point type headlines with either bold letters or one step better put lines above and below them to set them apart. Then expand on these headings in a paragraph or two underneath them.

==============================
THIS WILL BE YOUR SUB HEADLINE
==============================

With more information below it...

5. A call to action. After you have finished your sub headlines and the corresponding information. Use a pre- closing paragraph to tell the reader exactly what you want them to do. "Click Here to download this information instantly!" or "Click the link below, fill out the form to have this ~~Product~~ delivered to you immediately!" Whenever possible, point out the uniqueness of your product. Is it priced lower then competitors? Is it the only one of its kind? Also be sure to mention if it is a limited time offer. Anything that will give the buyer more incentive to take the above action--keeping it honest, of course. Never make something up just to get better results.

6. Closing Paragraph. Thank them again and also sum up what will be in the next message. "Watch your email closely during the next few days for a great Thank You gift I have set aside for you for taking the time to look at my product!"

7. DISCLAIMER. This is a short paragraph to remind people they are receiving your message because they asked to be on your list. It will keep them from clicking the �SPAM� button if they decide they aren't interested in your product, and keep your autoresponder and web site off Internet blacklists.

8. Unsubscribe link. This is critical to a successful autoresponder campaign. You must give subscribers the option to discontinue receiving messages from you, or you will be labeled as SPAM. Most autoresponder services will provide you with an automatic unsubscribe list for all your autoresponder series. All you have to do is make sure to include the link in your message.

One of the most powerful ways to get more traffic to your site can be your autoresponder series. Your well-crafted messages will send people in droves to your site to check out what you have to say. Just make sure you give them a good reason to go there, and great reasons to keep coming back, and you will build a rock-solid autoresponder campaign that keeps your profits rolling in.

A quick tip on how to format the messages; with today's advances in email, HTML is a good option if your autoresponder system allows it. One step better is to use one that has both plain text and HTML options so that when a person has HTML turned off for their email software, they will receive the text-only version. For the letters to look uniform and to avoid the auto-wrapping many autoresponder systems will use when adding your letters, I highly recommend not making the lines of your letters longer than 50 characters in length.

Kick- start your campaign by offering a free report or e-book via a lead capture page with your autoresponder sign up form attached to the autoresponder letters you create. It will keep a non-stop flow of people receiving your letters and coming to your site to buy your products.

Debbie Ducker is the owner of The Plugged-N Network.
http://www.plugged-n.biz
Members of this site are given a complete full featured HTML/Text autoresponder system for their own use,completely free.

Little Ones and the Work at Home Office

by Adam Terebeckij

I have often mentioned the need for balance between your family life and your business. This is a little bit trickier proposition for work-at-home parents, particularly those who have little ones pattering about.

But, there is some also benefit to working around and along with the little ones. The first of these major benefits is the fact that they force you to take breaks, whether you think you want one or not.

For most of us, it is difficult to get into our work first thing in the morning and, if we don't have an outstanding amount of self-discipline, we often find ourselves hurrying later to catch up on things that we got behind on during the early morning hours.

In these situations, taking a break to put Polly Pocket's dress on for the thousandth time, or fixing yet another glass of juice, might seem like a profound interruption to your work flow. However, if you take a moment to think about why you wanted to work from home, wasn't there something about this in that thought?

More important, however, taking short breaks throughout the day provides a renewal of energy and purpose and gives your child special memories that other children aren't quite so fortunate to have.

Second, the little ones (believe it or not) will help drive your schedule. If you are planning around lunchtime, snack time, nap time, etc., and have set times for these each day, you are mentally preparing for those times and working according to what needs to be done before that time.

It's like a mental turbo boost for your productivity. I don't know about your children, but my children are very quick to let me know it's lunch time, snack time, and -- goodness knows -- it's obvious if I'm late for nap time!

Third, having little ones at home with you while you work can be the most motivation possible to succeed. Knowing that, while you are busy for a large chunk of the day, you are still the one that is there to change the diapers, kiss the boo-boos, and soothe the heartaches of your little one, and not some day care provider in your stead, is one of the most priceless things you can imagine.

I didn't know how much it was going to effect me or how much I was going to love it until I was actually able to do it for myself. And, to be completely honest, I wouldn't change it for the world.

The fourth and final reason that it is good to have little ones afoot during your workday is this: exercise. If you are getting up and down on occasion and chasing the crayon-wielding, lipstick-wearing, cookie bandit around the house, you are getting out of your seat and getting a quickie cardio kick-start.

These little moments of activity really are good for you. We work at home parents tend to not get nearly enough of those moments, since we aren't walking to our cars and offices or climbing stairs to get into and out of the parking garage. We are missing out on exercise that others don't even realize they are getting. So, it's a fair trade and worth every single calorie burned while we are chasing the little ones around the office, silently praying that they don't have the document we hope they don't in their grubby little paws.

Yes -- your little ones can be distracting and down right destructive, if you aren't carefully supervising -- even if you are, for that matter. They can also be terribly sweet and loving and perfectly delightful to watch and enjoy as they grow and learn so much each and every day.

I feel as if were I were to blink long and hard, I'd open my eyes and they would suddenly be grown and gone. Imagine how much I would miss if I were to leave them with others and go to an office each and every day?

Adam Terebeckij is a seasoned Internet Marketing Entrepreneur and Private Real Estate Investor. His insight and information has helped countless individuals around the world. For more information on the TOP Work From Home jobs and Work At Home Business Opportunities visit: http://www.LegitimateBusinessOpportunities.com

Maximum Exposure on Low Cost Internet Ad

Make the most of low cost Internet advertising methods.

Advertising had long since been a major determinant of a business' success. This would include the presentation of the product / service to the consumers. What really matters is how it is presented to the target market to be able to capture it.

Whatever the package, the ad media also plays a great role in determining the success of the product or service awareness.

What may be its advantages over other proven medium like the best-selling TV ads?

Advantages

1. Low Cost

Even though the Internet ad might be viewed as "classy" or far-reaching, as compared to other medium, this is far cheaper than most. Internet Ad Packages are offered for as low as $29.99 for a one-month run-time period.

2. Capture market

Should your product / service aim to cater to the younger generation or the corporate-oriented ones, Internet ad would be best since they would always be "hooked-up" into the net surfing sites that might have a link to your very own. Result, a great number of "hits" on your site!

3. Hassle free

All you would ever really need is a PC (and some knowledge and bright ideas in forming your site) wherein you could open your site, search for the best Internet ad package, and check / update the status of your ad. You may actually never have to leave your home to advertise!

4. Updated ads

Unlike the TV ads that need to be updated on a regular basis, Internet ads may run for quite some time without the need for change. If so, change in the site is very minimal and may be done easily at home.

Disadvantages

1. Scope

Limited market may be captured if one would solely use the Internet ad for advertising. Although most people now are into the use of technology, i.e.surfing the Internet, still, majority of the average consumer still relies on the old form of advertising as a means of gathering information about certain products / service.

2. Additional cost

If one would enlist the help of another professional or establishment to produce the site for their product or service, this would entail additional costs on the part of the entrepreneur.

Given the stated list of advantages and disadvantages about low-cost Internet ad, an entrepreneur may now weigh in its applicability to his / her product or service.

"The aim of the Internet ad is to offer the widest range or "Maximum Exposure" of the brand at the least possible cost. Now, does that not sound good or what?

Rights, Rights and More Rights

If you’re selling a product with the resale rights to that product, it means your customers can sell the product to their customers but their customers cannot turn around and do the same.

When you purchase the master resell rights to a product, it means that not only do your customers have the rights now to sell the product to their customers but their customers now have the rights to do the same thing.

When you purchase “PLR” or private label rights, you have full permission to reuse, reprint and resell eBooks, articles, videos, audios etc. any way you wish. You can re-package the information, put your own name as author and do anything you like with them.

The most versatile of the 3 is private label rights.

PLR has emerged as a way to answer the huge demand for affordable web content. The content is accessed by large numbers of people who use it as they see fit. The result is that everyone pays significantly less for the same information.

Now before you start branding every piece of PLR content as your own, bear in mind the following;

1) You need to make certain the source of your PLR content is trustworthy.

Putting your name on inferior content can leave a bad impression on your readers.

Since they believe you wrote it, they’ll judge you accordingly.

2) You need to use PLR to create your own unique web products.

Duplicate articles are seen as a big problem for directories. The best way to avoid this

is to create products using PLR from various sources. Don’t just “carbon copy” one

article. Use bits and pieces from lots of different PLR sources and make a product that

is truly your own.

Right now, you can get a huge selection of high quality PLR content for your website, blog, eBooks etc. – and it won’t cost you a dime! Check out this amazing resource at tinyurl.com/ytf24c

________________________________________________________________________

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

Guaranteed Ways to Build Up Your Ezine List

by Suzanne Falter-Barns
www.getknownnow.com

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

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

1. Free Stuff.

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

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

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

3. Ad swaps.

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

4. Cross-registration.

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

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

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

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

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

7. Use discussion boards or groups.

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

8. Sponsor other people's contests.

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

9. Run quality content.

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

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

10. Allow reprints.

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

11. Create a survey or contest.

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

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

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

Ten Tips to Higher Response Ads

By Obono John

You are ready to launch that new product or promotion. You are really counting on a piece of advertising copy to come through for you.

You are looking for stellar results! In addition, you are determined to do everything in your power to get them. This means surveys, thorough testing, and ongoing refinement of your ad copy.

Hold the phone!

You finish your draft and run it through this 12-point inspection. Cover all these basics, and you can be certain you are off to a running start.

1 � Do You Have A Compelling Headline?

Does it generate curiosity or envy? Does it promise a benefit that will compel someone with an interest in what you are selling to keep reading? Remember, your headline is the ad for the ad.

When I write direct response ad copy, or a sales letter, or have a very important sales objective of my own, I normally write 25 headlines before I begin the body of the piece.

Then I will pick half a dozen that I think will work & test them. The best of the rest, I use as sub headings throughout the piece to propel readership, and draw skimmers & skippers back into the copy as they move down the page.

2 � Are Your Headlines Pleasing To The Eye?

I most often find that headlines work best when centered on the page, and present a balanced appearance in terms of the shape they create. Encasing them in quotation marks also serves to grab more attention.

Long, top headlines tend to reduce readership, but if they help qualify more effectively, they can improve sales! Try them, but look for ways to modularize the text using punctuation and spacing so your readers do not suffocate trying to read them. Sometimes a long, top headline needs to be two or even three separate headlines.

3 � Is Your Opening Provocative & Arresting?

Does it trip the reader, interrupting the internal turbulence of the day? Each line of your ad copy must serve to "sell" the reader on continued reading, especially at the beginning.

You are looking to build enough momentum and interest to convey the points necessary to generate a greater desire for the product than its price. The higher the cost of the product, the more words required.

4 � Are You FAB Balanced?

You must focus on painting a picture of your prospects future life, because of their purchase. Does your copy promise emotional benefits? Does it pledge the realization of positive feelings, or the relief of negative ones?

Does it show how to achieve these outcomes with concise descriptions of the features and advantages that will deliver them? Your ad copy must strike a balance between emotion and logic if it is to be effective.

5 � Are You Creating Excitement & Enthusiasm?

Demonstrate your personal belief in what you are selling. Will your message quicken the readers pulse? Is it upbeat, positive, & full of inspired energy? Is there a sense of WOW?

6 � Is Your Body Copy Highly Readable?

Remember simple is best. Keep sentences short. Use a plain 10-point to 12-point font. Keep paragraphs to a few lines. Use words that are comfortable and specific to the audience you are targeting. Inject subheads to break up text. Highlight important points.

7 � Do You Have High �YOU� density?

Remember to use the words �YOU� and �YOUR� to the hilt. Your reader is auto-translating to �ME� and �MINE�.

8 � Are you speaking intimately?

Can you get a strong sense of personality when you review your letter after being away from it for a while? Visualize yourself, or the character you are personifying, writing a personal letter to your perfect prospect. Never write to a crowd.

9 � Are you inspiring the reader�s imagination?

You must trigger mental images with your writing. The mind has difficulty distinguishing between vividly painted word pictures, and reality. Daydreams enchant, and emotions flow in their wake.

When you have emotion, you have desire. When you have desire, you have suggestibility. When you have suggestibility, you can direct action. Your levers are allegory (storytelling), metaphor, similes, verbs, adjectives, and specificity.

10 � Do you offer proof?

Specific testimonials and convincing guarantees worked into your ad copy are essential.

Obono John is the owner of http://www.butterflymarketzone.blogspot.com, The Viral Marketing Experiment.

How to Take the First Steps with Autoresponders

By Ian Simpson

One of the most effective forms of low-cost Internet marketing is using email to reach a targeted audience. While email marketing has undergone changes over the years, in particular, the outlawing of spam email, it still has great appeal and is one of the most widely used internet marketing techniques. It is quite simply the best way to keep in touch with your customers on a regular basis on autopilot. Providing you respect the spam laws and use email properly, you will have a trouble-free email marketing business.

Email marketing is more commonly associated with the use of an autoresponder service. It allows you to import your email messages into the autoresponder and send them out to your customers at a fixed date and time - you could have a series of messages sent over a period of weeks, months or even years, if you wanted. The exciting thing is that once the autoresponder has been set up, that part of your business will run hands free, allowing you to concentrate on other important things.

The costs associated with an autoresponder vary considerably from free up to $100 a month. Try to avoid free autoresponders where possible, although they are free, they come at a price! The price being the restrictions on usage, and they will nearly always carry an advert of some sort on your message, which can distract your recipient from the real reason, why they have received the message. In addition, it is not necessary to pay a silly price for an autoresponder, big companies may want to pay top price because they can afford to but as an individual, you do not need to. Excellent, cost effective autoresponder services can be obtained from aweber.com or getresponse.com. These are web-based programs so they will work for you 24/7.

You could of course, use a desktop-based autoresponder such as Mailloop. This type of program is a software application installed on your computer and it allows you to manage your email campaigns from your desktop. You need to be aware that you will need to leave your computer running all the time or else you will not be able to receive or send emails automatically. However, it is a great way to have a series of autoresponders for a one-time payment and no recurring fees.

So, having decided on using autoresponders for your email business, what do you do with one? Well, building up a customer database should be a priority. Initially, you will want to create a form for your website that allows potential subscribers to insert their details. When they agree to subscribe, they enroll automatically onto an email course that you will have loaded into the autoresponder. The course can, as long as you want it to be, sent automatically over a period of time - this is where the automation of your email business will come into its own. It is essential that any information you send to your subscribers is of value and instructive. It is no good sending rubbish; you will lose your subscriber quicker than you got him! Quality email courses you can use are found in the Turbomembership.com.

If you offered a 14-day email course on internet marketing, for example, then you could provide links to various marketing ebooks or resources. In each email would be a link to a different ebook. Of course, each link would have your unique affiliate code. The unique Turbomembership.com affiliate program provides quality marketing ebooks and software scripts that you can re-sell at 95% commission.

This is just one of the many ways you can use autoresponders in your email marketing business. Finding and using the right autoresponder service, setting up your autoresponder, and loading, it with quality information is just the tip of the iceberg where marketing is concerned. However, it is a good place to start and gain the necessary experience for future marketing projects.

Ian Simpson reviews and writes about software and informational products on the internet. Great marketing resources can be found at http://information4income.com/sfpr.

Network vs. Affiliate Marketing

By Andreas Sundstrom

Running a traditional brick and mortar business with an online presence, is one very good way to make a part of your living online. However, for the purposes of this article, we are going to assume that you do not have your own business. Therefore, I am going to discuss two of the biggest online moneymakers right now: online business opportunities and affiliate marketing.

Network marketing

The typical online business opportunity built around a network-marketing concept, inheriting the basic qualities of the offline business model that has been available for many decades. The basic idea is that you recruit two or more people, who in their turn recruit two, and in this way your efforts, (at least in theory), are greatly leveraged.

The main difference doing this online is that, utilizing the power of the Internet, you as a network marketer can literally reach people all over the planet.

The problem with the network marketing, or "mlm", concept is it sounds so good on paper - excessively good. Most people who join with a company of this type tend to get a dose of Mr. Reality rather soon.

They discover that recruiting new people, which is what mlm�s are all about - even if they try to tell you differently -, is not at all a simple process. There have been plenty of fraudulent businesses in this niche, and people tend to stay on their toes as soon as they hear the words mlm or network marketing.

To further complicate things, this business model is also based on you paying a set monthly fee - whether you make any money or not, which means many people who start this kind of business actually end up losing money.

It is definitely possible to make a good living in network marketing, but it is definitely not for everybody. "Getting in on the ground floor" is allegedly not always as good as it seems.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is similar to network marketing, in the sense that you will be promoting a product produced by another company or person. This can make life simpler for you, as the merchant usually takes care of all shipping and customer support issues. Amazon.com is probably one of the most well-known (and respected) companies utilizing the power of affiliate partnerships.

As an affiliate, your task is simply to refer new clients to the merchant. When these people buy something, you receive credit with a certain percentage of the sale.

Contrary to network marketing, acting as an affiliate marketer, is generally free. There are certain companies that have a hybrid structure between network and affiliate marketing, which require you to pay a start-up and/or monthly fee to market their products. Most affiliate programs are completely free to join. I would personally stay away from those using their affiliate programs as an income generator, in its own right, or "affiliate sharks�, as one marketer aptly named them.

Affiliate programs are a great way that anyone can start to make money online, without having to invest a lot of money, if indeed any at all.

However, there are certain strategies and marketing methods you need to be knowledgeable of, if you are to make anything but peanuts with your affiliate marketing.

Choosing the right affiliate program, and promoting it to the right people in the right way is an art form in its own right. The people who are good at this, generally referred to as "super affiliates", make a very good living doing nothing else than selling other people's products.

If you are looking to make an additional income from the Internet, or eventually even replace your current income altogether, affiliates marketing is a great way to get started. To achieve the success you desire, you should study and learn the same techniques �super affiliates� use on a day-to-day basis.

Andreas Sundstrom has made a full time living online for the past six years, largely thanks to the power of free affiliate programs. At his website http://www.webhosting-tips.info/affiliate/ he will share some of the most important super affiliate secrets.

Power of Learning = Earning!

By Damon Smith

Everyone in online marketing or affiliate marketing, earning an income, has to research all over the internet to get the information he or she needs to succeed.

I have seen people spend hours, days, weeks, months, and even years just to come out making little or no income at all. As a publisher online, for Hailey Comet Weekly, I have met some of the most powerful people that have made thousands, even millions of dollars with the time they have been online.

Some have done it in as little as a few months and then retired. Then you have those who work very hard every day, no matter how much they make to help others to do the same. Do you remember when the doublers programs hit the internet and people made hundreds even thousands over night? Do you remember what happened within two months of them hitting the internet? People that were dealing with Storm Pay were stuck holding an empty bag because they went under and all kinds of trouble broke out.

The only true programs that make money are ones that last. There are very few of these. One that has made it to the top is Success University, because of the people behind the program, not because they have specials all the time, but because there are REAL people to talk with and to learn and teach you. I have met with people that joined the so-called PAS program and paid out $3,900!

In addition, most of them did not get anything from it. Do you know why? Because there was no one to teach them how to market the program, to make a profit, and they ended up being burnt!

Look at this link, http://www.damonday.net

If you take the time to read it, you will not only see that this group of master marketers are online to help you make a living , but also to teach you how to talk with others in a way to make them buy from you, and learn to work together as a team.

Success University is just what the name stands for. They have been online for quite sometime. The companies that I own depend on the things that I learn online. I would only suggest what I know will work to my own list of people, and not something, that is gone the next day.

My own list of people in my newsletter trust me because they all know, over the past 9 years, that when I have something to tell them it is only the truth and not something that will break their bank accounts. I have been called "The Howard Stern" of publishing and my newsletter is in most of the biggest Co-Ops and directories and forums. The reason for my success is because of people like Damon Day (It is funny we both have the same first names)

However, a "FLY BY NIGHT" company Success University is not. Some of the biggest companies there are back it. It is not just for people who are into affiliate marketing but also for people just starting out online and do not want to lose a lot of money. I will tell you from the start that it takes money to make money. This one company can take your funds, and turn it into something to be proud of. Right now, they are running a $2 14 day trial offer, and the monthly cost is less then a night on the town. So do not miss something that will give you everything you need to earn online.

So take five minutes of your time and look. It will surprise you to see what some people will do to help others instead of just thinking of themselves and what they can get out of people that don�t know any better.

Example: http://www.damonday.net

If you talk with Damon, tell him that I sent you to him so he will know that after everything we have been through, I still believe there are good people online!

Damon Smith is the publisher of Hailey Comet Weekly eZine that gives you the truth about online marketing and advertising. You can check out his newsletter at http://www.haileyscometweekly.com and get some of the best insight info on how he went from nothing to earning thousands a month by helping others.

Brand Building 101: Does Your Business Card Build Your Brand?

By Krishna De

Are you losing credibility and damaging the brand of your business through lack of attention to one of your critical marketing tools in your business, your business card? Discover how your business card can enhance your brand and ensure that you stand out from your competition.

When we are at a networking event or meeting a client, exchanging business cards occurs.

Very often, without realizing it, we are assessing our colleague by their business card, and asking ourselves:

- Is the business card professionally designed?
- Is the business card crumpled at the edges?
- How does the weight of the business card feel - substantive or flimsy?
- Does it look like the business card was made on their PC - or worse, does it have a message at the bottom of the card to say where you, too, can access free cards?

I have collected thousands of business cards over my time in business. I am sub-consciously assessing the professional status of them and their business when I receive their business card.

We review someone's card at least 3 times:

1. Once on receiving it
2. A second time when we put it in our pocket, folio or bag as we leave the meeting
3. A third time as we make a decision to keep it, transfers the information into our data bank, or bin it!

Our business card is a critical part of our marketing collateral. If you cannot afford to put in place other marketing materials, short changing the investment in developing a professional business card is definitely not something we should do, if we are looking to develop a professional brand.

When meeting someone in person, alongside how you present yourself in person, your business card can enhance or devalue the strength of your brand, and it reveals how others perceive you.

Here are four tips to enhance your brand through your business card:

1. Ensure that you work with a professional designer to develop your business card. It is not whether you like the design; it is about whether it will represent your business effectively and professionally to your target audience.

2. Ideally, have your business card printed on 400g card and by a traditional lithographic printer. Yes, it is more expensive than digital printing, but the quality is worth investing in and a litho print gives far greater definition to your corporate identity and the color of your brand.

3. Matt laminates your card on the reverse for extra stability and style. Do not laminate both sides as people will not be able to write on your card - we often note down things to remember about the person we met on their card.

4. Use the valuable real estate on the back of your card to provide a call to action, for example, how to access your white paper or special report on your web site.

Take action:

Over the next 30 days, take the opportunity to review the business cards of your contacts and assess their card against yours.

1. What can you learn from other people�s business cards?

2. How could you take those learning�s and further enhance your business card?

Your goal is to ensure that your business card is a positive reflection of both you and your company, and it represents a strong brand.

Invest in your business card, distribute it widely and you will be sure of expanding your professional success.

Krishna De invites you to join her in conversation with experts from around the globe to discover how to build your brand and grow your professional services firm at http://www.bizgrowthlive.com/. You will also receive access to Biz Growth Express a weekly newsletter bringing you strategies, inspiration and tips to grow your professional services practice. Register today at http://www.krishnade.com/.

�Krishna De, Oneocean Ltd 2006. All rights reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article providing the article is printed in its entirety; you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in anyway and include the copyright statement.

Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization: Any difference?

By Mikhail Tuknov

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Biggest Secret in Internet Marketing

By Alex Nghiem

In the Internet marketing world, there are many misconceptions and outright lies. However, the biggest secret is one that is so obvious nobody wants to talk about, or even being aware. In this article, I share what I (and many world-class marketers) consider the biggest �secret� in Internet marketing.

At this point, you are probably wondering. �What is the BIGGEST secret?�

Before I share this secret with you, let me share a common mistake committed by 99% of Internet marketers. Almost all Internet marketers I know can quote you their opt-in rate and spend hours, days, weeks, and even months tweaking their landing pages to get the highest opt-in rate. This is accomplished by asking for as little customer information as possible and casting as wide a net as possible. This usually requires asking for only the first name and the primary email address.

In many industries, this results in optimizing for the wrong results. What do I mean by that?

I spend a lot of time in multiple industries other than Internet marketing (including real estate, art, etc.) and for a long time, I was focusing on increasing my opt-in rate, but rarely closed any sales (my sales for my products and my clients� products range from $997 to $25,000 per sale). When I thought about it, I realized that in all of these industries and especially at these price points, the sale is accomplished via the phone, not via the Web.

Thus, without realizing it, I was not collecting all the necessary information for me to complete a sale (that is, I was not asking for a phone number because I knew this would reduce my opt-in rate). Most of the �gurus� who are teaching list building do not take into account industries that conduct business primarily offline and/or the fact that high-end products are not closed via email alone. I am not sure any of them has ever tested their methods in offline businesses!

Now, I do a 2-step opt-in rate that allows me to have the highest opt-in rate on the first page and then ask for additional info (including the phone number and mailing address) on the �thank you� screen. This enables me to follow up via offline methods including postcards, direct mail, and even telemarketing.

What does this have to do with the biggest secret in Internet marketing? Simple�the most valuable leads often require you to follow up using offline methods. However, this contradicts almost all list building techniques being taught, which usually teach how to get the highest opt-in rate. In this case, I made more money by having a lower opt-in rate�but I got higher quality leads, which enable me to follow up via offline methods. Again, in many, many industries, the sales happen via the phone and in some cases via the fax and direct mail.

Therefore, before you spend too much time focusing on optimizing your opt-in rate alone, think through the sales process and figure out the best way to close the sale. Collect information for that to happen, even if it means a lower opt-in rate.

Now you know the biggest secret in Internet marketing. The next time somebody brags about their 50% opt-in rate, you will know that he/she is probably optimizing on the wrong thing and leaving WAY too much money on the table.

To get regular notifications on high-end product creation secrets, visit http://www.backendcashmanuscript.com/fromarticles

� Blue Samba Publications � All Rights Reserved
http://www.backendcashmachine.com

Alex Nghiem is the founder of Blue Samba Solutions, creator of the Backend Cash Machine, a proven system for enabling clients to make up to 10X by building a backend of high-end products. His system has been used in multiple industries including art, real estate, and many offline industries.

A Look at Slogans

By Sharon Housley

Let us look at slogans and how just a few words can say volumes. A slogan is a memorable phrase used in conjunction with a political, commercial, or religious advertisement. Slogans convey a deeper meaning. Slogans elicit emotions, or the slogan might paint a visual image that implies something more.

When considering a slogan or a tagline, keep in mind your objectives. What image do you wish to portray? Slogans should be short, but not to the point of being curt. Slogans should conjure positive images and distinguish the value your company or product provides.

The best way to analyze slogans is to look at a few.

Slogan: "The toughest job you will ever love" (Peace Corps)

Message behind slogan: This is much more than just a job; it takes heart to be in the Peace Corps; join the Peace Corps and you will be a better person. This job is not about money, it is about helping people.

Slogan: "Be Seen, Be Sold" (Shareware Promotions)

Message behind slogan: Being found on the Internet is not easy. Use us to be found on the Internet."

Slogan: "You could learn a lot from a dummy. Buckle up" (National Highway Traffic Safety Admin)

Message behind slogan: Learn from test dummies, be safe and buckle up.

Slogan: "Parents who use drugs have kids who use drugs" (The Partnership for a Drug-free America)

Message behind slogan: Model what you preach; do you want your children to do drugs? It is your responsibility to model appropriate behavior for your children.

Slogan: "This is your brain on drugs" (The Partnership for a Drug-free America)

Message behind slogan: Do you know what this stuff does to you? Taking drugs is stupid.

Slogan: "A diamond is forever" (DeBeers '1948)

Message behind slogan: Diamonds represent marriage; marriage should be forever. If you really want your marriage to last, seal it with a diamond.

Slogan: "It takes a licking and keeps on ticking" (Timex Corp)

Message behind slogan: It does not get any more durable than this, other watches cannot stand up, but Timex will endure regardless of the treatment.

Slogan: "For all you do, this Bud's for you" (Budweiser)

Message behind slogan: After a long hard day, drink beer to relax.

Slogan: "Where's the beef?�(Wendy�s)

Message behind slogan: Our competitors use small patties, but our burgers are big.

Slogan: "I love New York" (NYC)

Message behind slogan: New York is a special place, everyone loves NY, you should come and visit, you will love it too.

Slogan: "See what brown can do for you" (UPS)

Message behind slogan: We do more than just ship packages; we have additional offerings and can do more than just ship.

Slogan: "The few, the proud, the Marines" (US Marines)

Message behind slogan: We are a select group of very special individuals. Do you want to be elite? Take pride in representing the US.

Slogan: "Friends don't let friends drive drunk"

Message behind slogan: You will die if you drive drunk. It is your responsibility to protect your friends. Be responsible, do not let people drive drunk.

Effective slogans leave impressions in the minds of people who see or hear the slogans. Often slogans will have hidden meanings, or be a play on words. The goal of the slogan creator should be to create a memorable tagline that conveys a key benefit or differentiates the brand. Slogans will often help position the product or service in the marketplace. Slogans with just a few words can indicate superior value, excellence, or inspiration.

A business identity and image conveyed through a short statement will affect the way that consumers, competitors, and others in the industry perceive your business. Slogans will distinguish your company in a unique way. Words are powerful, and if used properly, they can be an important sales tool.

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

Direct Mail - Getting You Envelope Opened

By Robert Wilkinson

If you use direct mail, it is in your best interest to get as much of it opened and read as possible. You may have spent a small fortune on the copywriting and the expensively printed brochure, but if you do not ensure that as many packs are opened and read as possible, then both copy and brochure are wasted.

There are two main schools of thought on how to avoid being binned. The first is to use disguise, and the second is to use persuasion.

Using disguise is mainly a business-to-business approach, but it works for business to consumer mailings also. Businesses to business promotional mailings are marked out so they do not appear to have been handled individually. This can be indicated by an envelope pre-printed with a postage mark, and the use of a window or address labels to show an address.

Try one or more of the following to give the envelope a more individual look.

Use stamps. They have to have been put on by hand, so it must be individual. There is no more obvious an indicator than a pre-printed stamp impression. When using a preprinted impression in conjunction with a window envelope it practically screams, advertising so do not do it.

Hand write the address on the envelope. This is probably only viable for higher value items and certainly get more attention this way. It does not have to be copperplate; it just needs to look as though it has been handled individually.

Use an unusual material for the envelope, say vellum or a textured paper. In tests conducted by a paper merchant, this alone increased responses significantly. The additional revenue generated by the mailing more than compensated for the additional cost for the special paper.

Again, do anything to make your mailing appear more individual and personal to the recipient. Probably the most important element is the use of stamps. This on its own can be enough to get you under the recipient's radar.

Secondly, use persuasive tactics. This is completely the opposite from disguise and is used mainly for business to consumer, but again it works for business to business too. In this instance, we mark it out specifically as commercial by using advertising images, copy, and headlines on the outside of the envelope itself. In this instance, it does not matter if you use a printed postal impression.

Unlike the previous method, which uses curiosity to get your envelope opened, we need to give the recipient a good reason to open the envelope. This can take a variety of forms, but as a couple of examples you can state a benefit, "Increase sales by 15%", or alternatively provide an incentive, "Reply by the end of the month and get 2 for the price of 1".

Be very clear and very specific about what the contents are going to achieve and remember you are only trying to get the envelope opened and read. Avoid anything vague. Do not expect to appeal to everyone using this method. You do not have that much room on the envelope and you cannot be all things to all people.

I hope you will achieve a strong enough response in a small percentage of recipients that they will open, and read the contents. Your persuasive copy will follow logically on from the envelope copy, and keep your prospect interested.

There is a lot of advice against this in business-to-business direct mail, and there is probably an element of truth in this. If you are mailing to an executive whose mail is screened then its likely good advice. However, there are plenty of owner/managers out there that still open their own mail, if the offer or benefit is clear enough, and of interest to open. You may well consign your mailing piece to the bin for the 99.5% of your prospects by doing this, but it was not about them, was it?

In summary, it is simple. Do not be run of the mill. Step away from the norm and make sure your envelope is overtly commercial with a clear benefit, or incentive, or alternatively make it look personal. If you do this, you are halfway to getting it read and that is more than half the battle.

Robert Wilkinson is the owner of http://www.arhiann.com a direct mail production company specializing in mailings for small and medium sized business.

The Most Powerful Tool a Marketer Can Have

By P.V. Reymond

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is obvious you will have to face some problems traveling along your road. Then your mind will come to help you and you will find the solution in a short period. A powerful mind accomplishes results in the shortest time and with the least amount of wasted motion.

In order to be successful in Internet Marketing you have to focus your niche and to pay close attention to it. Ask yourself, what am I looking for? Keep it in the background of your mind and search for the answer. Knowing everything about you and about what you want, will help you to develop your business.

Keep your mind free; keep a sharp lookout, at every point, to see that you build into the foundation only those materials and that workmanship which will support a masterly structure.

Everyone has difficulty in the concentration of attention, workers in business and industry, students and even professors, complain of the same difficulty. Attention seems in some way to be at the very core of mental activity. Therefore paying attention to your niche and working only in this direction is crucial.

Using your mind as a tool is the most effective factor to be successful.

Copyright � 2006 PV Reymond.

P.V. Reymond is a marketer that built his business alone. He was growing inside the crowd, studying and learning how big marketers treat their customers, and how customers want to be treated. He came out from the crowd to teach people the whole process in how to build a profitable Internet Business with his Free Internet Marketing Education. If you are not making money online or you want to increase your income, then you should visit his site http://www.pvreymond.com.

Why is Content Important?

By Dechen Lau

Content is the soul of a website. Content is comprised of the words or text on a web page along with the graphics and structure of a website. Today Web content is the best tool for building relations with your potential customers. The look and feel of a site is crucial, but quality web content may be more important.

Two of the most popular methods of getting traffic from search engines include PPC � (Pay Per Click), and SEO � (Search Engine Optimization).

PPC:

Pay per click advertising on search engines allows you to choose keywords that you would like your site to appear for, when a search is performed. You decide how much you are willing to pay each time a person clicks on the search results. The more you are willing to pay per click, the higher your site will appear in the results for the keywords you choose. Pay Per Click is advertising provided by the search engine providers (Google, Yahoo! and others) where you PAY for top placement. Their strategies for placement differ slightly. Some search engines will give you higher placement if your ad has a higher click-through rate, (meaning more people click on your ad in ratio to the amount of times your ad appears); others give top positions to the highest bidder.

You already know surveys are excellent for finding out what your target market wants. However, if combined with low cost, quick and dirty Google PPC, surveys can also send many targeted prospects to your site every month.

In either case, you PAY. It is a quick way to be listed in the search engines and a smart way to get your traffic flowing. You could spend far more than is profitable for your business, if you do not know what you are doing.

Search Engines: While crawling pages of a website, search engines look for content more than anything else. Search engines can pick up quality content and it is the only factor that they emphasize and value most while ranking a website. For the benefit of their users, search engines try to find the best and most useful content on the Internet for any given set of keywords.

SEO:

Search engines are extremely competitive (in terms of placement). The major search engines account for over 90% of all traffic. With that though in mind, companies that are serious about earning a share of the internet market should be committed to securing top 10 rankings for the keywords or phrases that pertain to the products and services that they offer.

The best way to ensure a solid return on your website investment is to employ the services of a Search Engine Optimization firm with a proven track record of success, knowledge of current and cutting edge techniques, and experience working with the business community.

There are a lot of companies working �behind the scenes� to help website owners get plenty of traffic from the natural search engine listings. Natural listings mean the search engine has ranked you according to the value it believes your site will offer an individual searching for a specific word or phrase.

Understanding exactly WHAT the search engines want to see when ranking sites requires knowledge of the algorithms. These algorithms change all the time as search engine providers try to outwit the search engine optimizers trying to find loopholes in the ranking system.

Some SEO companies will promise you top spots for a certain cost. Some are honestly creating optimized websites � others may be using techniques that could possibly get your site BANNED from the search engines entirely, (once the search engine catches on). However, optimizing your website for better placement in the search engines is a technique that you should become familiar with and use to your advantage.

Both of these traffic methods have their pros and cons for generating traffic from the search engines. You will find out more about using them properly later on. First, you need to know what REALLY works�

Dechen Lau., is an Author, Speaker and Internet Marketing Consultant
http://www.powersuccessmarketing.com
http://www.powersuccessresponder.com

How To Get Higher Converting MLM Leads For Less

By Don Luttrull

If you are involved in an mlm or network marketing business, you have tried to find the best ways, online as well as offline, to get qualified people to your website or to the company�s website. There are many different ways to find qualified people who are actually looking to start a home based business.

You need to realize that most people who are looking for a home based business are not aware of what they are looking for and are simply gathering information. These types of people are the non-targeted leads you find being sold by countless mlm lead companies online.

These types of mlm leads have a terrible conversion rate. This puts your excited mood into one that causes you to start second-guessing yourself and the opportunity you are marketing. Quality mlm leads from an actual mlm leads company with proven results is what you need to build a successful mlm business, and to have the right mindset.

If you were to compare mlm lead companies, odds are you would start with your sponsor or up-line in the business you are currently marketing. This method is not effective to use. The result is your upline is simply trying to get a commission or a bonus off you by sending them to one of the low converting mlm lead companies.

You may take the above statement as being rude or labeling all sponsors, but in all honesty, most people in mlm and network marketing companies are following the same pack of people barely making any real income. You need to set yourself apart from the pack and become a leader in your company.

If a company sponsor is trying to teach you the correct methods to building your business but have not seen any real success himself or herself, then you need to find a new method in which to build your business. Mlm is mainly duplication of a proven method. If your sponsor is not seeing the large monthly income, then I personally would not try to duplicate their methods.

With all the many different ways to get mlm leads, which are done with pay per click accounts and even door-to-door methods, one truly proven method has the highest conversion ratio as long as it is done correctly.

You need to find an mlm lead company that has proven results and offers you a residual income that will pay for your leads as your downline signs up under you, for their leads also. There are a small handful of mlm lead companies worth comparing and sometimes they can be hard to sift through. Mlm lead companies are selling leads that have sold 1,000 times and will not convert for nothing.

If you are looking to build a solid mlm business, you should research and compare mlm lead companies. You need to look for a company that allows you to buy at minimum, 72-hour fresh leads. Along with being extremely fresh, you also need to find an mlm lead company that offers a monthly residual income plan. Having a matrix payout plan attached to a solid mlm lead company can end up paying out more then your mlm company is paying you.

Remember when researching and checking the many mlm lead companies out there, you will usually get what you pay for. Any company offering you 1,000 fresh leads a day for $20 is nothing but a fraud style company and will end up giving you a very bad name in the mlm community. Find a company that is successful and has mlm leads that are actually converting into real mlm sign ups and sales.

Don Luttrull runs a MLM lead comparison site. MLM and Network Marketers vote on which mlm leads company has the best conversion ratios and those companies are then ranked. To see who they have voted for go here http://www.comparemlmleads.com.

Direct Mail - the Deadly Sin of Not Testing

By Robert Wilkinson

If there were one thing to make direct mail a reliable method to drum up new business, it would have to be the ability to test different versions of a pack to achieve a better return on investment. Having processed many mailings over the years, I can attest that clients rarely take full advantage of this feature. In fact, more often than not, clients do not test at all.

Not testing is commercial suicide! In today's competitive climate, if anything can be done to reduce the cost to acquire a customer, then it must be done. It is a no brainer. Research shows that in times of depression, those who continue to advertise are those that do well. It also shows those who continue to advertise also make the efforts to stretch their budget even further.

You decrease your direct mail costs by applying a little commonsense and by testing which will produce the best response. We will look at the example of a direct mail pack that comprises five parts in all.

The parts of the pack are as follows:

1) Envelope
2) Personalized Letter
3) Brochure
4) Leaflet/Order form
5) Business Reply Envelope

Looking at this, you would think that this is it, but we have forgotten the most important part of all:

6) The Data

Now there is enough here to get your message out.

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

You may have a particular target audience already decided, for example, lawyers. You will be able to get lists of lawyers from more than one source to be tested. Equally, you will have the option of mailing to a named individual, or to a job title, so you can test that way, also. So far, that is at least four permutations, provided you use two data suppliers. It would be six if you used three suppliers. If you had not narrowed your field to one sector, then the choice of tests to run could be massively increased, but it is not practical to take it to the extreme.

Targeting is everything! You must get that right, and you can only find that out if you test.

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

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

For the letterhead, you can change the material. Studies by paper merchants have shown a 20% increase in response just by changing to a textured paper. The copy itself on the letter can be changed, and offers can be changed. The number of options to test here is almost limitless.

Moving on to the leaflet, the same applies here as indicated for the letterhead. Copy, material, imagery; they are all fair game.

Finally, yet importantly, we move on to the BRE (business reply envelope). The choices here are limited. White or manila envelopes, perhaps, maybe even a coloured BRE. If it is not going to cost a lot, why not try it.

Using these methods over time, you can increase the effectiveness of your mailings. Always test, even when you think you have the perfect pack, continue to run a test campaign against it, even if the difference between the two is really quite small. If you continue to do this, your costs to acquire a customer should decrease and diminish.
Overall, the point is that there is an almost infinitely large and almost limitless opportunity for testing. Maybe, it is this huge scope for testing that puts people off, but I do not think it is. I think it is just a lack of awareness of what you can do. You do not need to complicate things; you can just run two packs with one difference between them and see how it goes.

Whatever you do though, do not commit commercial suicide and fail to test.

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

Five Facts That Will Have You Re-Writing Your Website in a Hurry

By Aran Kay

To view where the facts came from to write this article, please click on the links below:

1. Jakob Nielsen for Sun MicroSystems (http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/)
2. Stanford Poynter Project (http://www.poynterextra.org/et/i.htm)

This article will highlight the differences between writing copy for the web and writing copy for print. Some of these facts go against intuition and against cultural norms. However, these facts detail how people read on the web.

There is no use in arguing against them. Instead, you should embrace them and use this knowledge to your advantage. Here is what the facts are and how they are going to affect your website.

1) Where Do Eyes Go First When Your Homepage Comes Up?

Contrary to what you might think, it is not towards the graphics or photos like in print advertising. Instead, your prospects eyes will first go to the copy, specifically, your headline and sub-heads. Therefore, your first chance to engage the prospect is through copy, not graphics.

Most web users look at a web page for only 3-15 seconds before deciding whether to stay or move on. The fact that they look at copy first has massive implications for your website. Fancy graphics will not make a prospect stay on your website. However, a strong headline and strong sub-heads will.

2) How Much Of Your Copy Do Users Actually Read?

The fact is that online users, on average, read 75% of the length of any given page. This is big news because most web pages will have the important conclusions, calls to action, and order information on the bottom 25% of any given page. That is a big no-no, because it will never be read.

You have to have your call to action and order information presented early on your web page to ensure it is read.

3) Why Do Most Banner Ads Produce Poor Click-Through Rates?

How long will an average user look at your banner ad? 1.25 seconds. That is just enough time to perceive one image or six words (based on college student's average reading speed of 350 words/minute).

Therefore, banner ads that have animation, taking 4-5 seconds to run through a cycle, or more than 6 words must be reconsidered. However, if you really must keep your animated banner ad because "it just looks so cool!" I would suggest that you at least keep your company logo visible throughout the entire animation sequence.

4) Why Is Reading Online More Frustrating Than Reading Print?

Reading from a computer screen causes a person's reading speed to slow by 25%, when compared to reading print. This means reading long copy online can be very frustrating. Break up the copy to help users through.

Have a few one-line paragraphs.

Use headlines and sub-heads to summarize information. Users who are tired of reading word-by-word can quickly scan the rest of your document.

5) Are Your Web Page Users Not Getting The Whole Picture?

If you have not made your web page truly scannable, prospects to your site may only be getting part of the sales message. Only 21% of online users read word-by-word. The other 79% scan a web page headline-to-headline, sub-head to sub-head, picking up only the larger, bolded, or italicized copy.

Your sales message has to be read by both scanners and word-by-word readers. Therefore, all your major selling points, benefits, call to action, and order info must be in easily scannable type.

Otherwise, your website will only generate 21% of the sales. In addition, for the money you put into your website, which is not good enough.

So, if online reading is so different from offline reading. Clearly, your web copy has to follow suit. Take home message? Make sure your website is performing on all cylinders. Have a professional web writer write your website. It will save you money in the end.

Aran Kay is a marketing consultant and freelance copywriter with experience working for Nintendo, Direct Energy, Kellogg's and more. He has written numerous marketing articles, and includes a selection of them on his web site. http://www.ProfessionalCopy.ca is also your source for "The 52 Best Marketing Web Sites." It is a great resource and yours FREE just for visiting his web site.

Can Anyone Make $150-$200 A Day From Using Articles?

By Shane Hunte

Why is article marketing so great? Why do the greatest marketers on the planet employ this method of marketing?

The greatest remain in the front seat because they know what works. The fact that they continue to use article marketing as one of their main methods of marketing shows. You guessed it, article-marketing works for them.

The possibilities for your articles are endless. It is an investment of time and not money, which makes it cost effective. All you need is patience and commitment and you will succeed with this marketing method.

The greatest marketers use this method because:

It is cost effective. Actually, let me tell you plan and simple, there is no cost to do this, it is free.

It builds credibility and expert status on the internet on any subject there is under the sun.

It drives floods of traffic to you promotions.

You reach a laser-targeted audience with you articles.

This method proves to give you quality back-links to your website, and subsequently, raise your website rankings, which equals more traffic.

These are just previews of the wealth that article writing can bring to you. Although these are not all the reasons, these should be enough reasons for you to use this method of marketing.

The most successful people have one thing in common; they copy the best, as we can see, the best marketers all said yes to article marketing as one of their most frequently used internet-marketing methods.

What is the magical blue print for writing articles like the big guns?

Here is the step-by-step blue print that the greatest use to build their articles at lightening speed:

Step 1. Plan your article.

This may sound elementary but very few people can write articles and they try to skip this step entirely.

When you plan your article, it makes it easier to write on the topic that you choose. You need to dedicate time for this step because it is the doorway for the other steps to follow.

Step 2. Brainstorm your article topic.

What are you going to write about and why? Do people want this information? Can you solve a problem that others have? Asking yourself these questions coupled with a little research can get you a long way.

Step 3. Brainstorming your article points and organizing them.

You have a good topic. Now, what are the points that you want to discuss on that topic? Organize these topics into the order in which you want to hit on them first, and then expand on it.

Step 4. Write selflessly about the topic to give quality information to your readers.

This often separates the good from the great. People want information that helps them solve a problem. We usually get the wrong idea with this form of marketing and dive into a sales letter for a product we promote.

You are not promoting a product right now. You are trying to build your credibility in the minds of readers.

This will make them trust you more. They will be more open-minded to your recommendations for your promotions. Sales letters not only will it turn off readers, it also turns off publishers to post your articles on their sites because it is not of value to their website traffic.

Step 5. Double check and triple check your article for mistakes.

You do not want your articles filled with spelling errors and other major or minor mistakes because this will make people not like your writing.

Publishers will review your pieces. If multiple errors show, then it will not be submitted to their audience.

Print out the article, read it aloud, and pass it to a close friend to read it for you, and provide and objective opinion on what they think about your article. Two sets of eyes are better to find mistakes. Use the feedback you get to write better.

Now that you have a simple blue print to follow, consider using it to write articles. Article marketing is the lifeblood for many great marketers out there and you should make it part of your marketing plans. It continuously adds $150-$200 a day to the pockets of those who use it. Maybe that alone could be your motivation to try.

Shane Hunte is an experienced internet marketer who makes a full time income online. If you to would like to learn the simplest way to make money online then learn article marketing. Go to http://www.internetrevinue.com/Jim_Edwards.html to find out everything you need to know today about profiting fast using your own articles.

I Love Traffic Jams

By Paul Tobey

Most web marketers would agree that the number one and most fundamental aspect of any successful websites are; "The more traffic, the better!" In keeping with that strategy, please let me share a few thoughts on how to actually accomplish this.

If you own a car, you can always count on being stuck in traffic. There are those who experience this on a daily basis; and for the rest of us who do not drive to work, hopefully, only occasionally.

Why is this a huge source of frustration and stress for most people? Drivers hate the very thought of being stuck in one place when they want to be in another place. Look at the people around you the next time you are in a traffic jam. Is everyone smiling and having a good time? Probably not...

How many of you want to know how to alleviate the upset and the anxiety associated with being stuck in traffic? Here is the thing, traffic jams are not going to disappear anytime soon! As long as our society relies on cars and trucks to get around, there will always be traffic! However, even though it sounds crazy, I personally have learned to love traffic jams. Here is why....

I have always maintained there are only two things you can do in any stressful situation; you either accept it or you can remove yourself from the situation. Beating yourself up or blaming someone else for the traffic jam only makes it worse. That is what most people do not understand. The traffic jam is not the problem; it is your resistance to it. It is that resistance causing the stress. The amount of energy you put into resisting your situation causes the stress, not the situation itself.

In the case of traffic however, it is obvious that you cannot remove yourself from it if you are already in it. So, the only other thing you can do is accept it, right? Complete 100% of acceptance of the situation is the only way to alleviate 100% of the stress. Now, I can hear your brain malfunctioning right about now and your saying to yourself, "how can I possibly learn to accept traffic?" Ah ha! Therein lays the secret to getting what you really want. Because that is, what life is about, getting what you really want instead of what you do not want, right?

What you really want is more success. Success means various things to many different people. It is still something that most people strive for daily, to achieve big things.

Success? In a traffic jam? You are saying to yourself, "now, I'm really confused!" You see, there is one place where a traffic jam is a beautiful thing...the Internet! That is what we call in the internet marketing business the key to any successful website, "lots and lots of traffic." The more traffic jams we can create on our websites, the better!

If you want more business success, start getting more traffic to your website. There are many things to consider when designing your site to make this happen; but without traffic, a website is useless.

Therefore, know what you truly want - more success. Now you know what to do to get it - generate more traffic to your website. However, the most important part of this 3-part formula is, knowing HOW to do it! Without knowing how to do something, you will never get the success you most certainly deserve. Business is about customers - the more customers you have, the more success you will have. Knowing how to get more customers to your website to create a traffic jam is a science and is definitely a learned skill.

Let's look at the many resources offered to you to generate the traffic you need to run a successful website; search engines, affiliate programs, content submissions, email campaigns, joint venture partners, link exchanges, blogs, pay-per-click advertising, and a whole host of other resources too numerous to mention here. If some of these things sound unfamiliar to you, my highest recommendation is to find out what they are and what you need to do to make them work. For the purposes of this article, we are going to focus on one thing; search engines. Why just search engines? Statistics have shown that 70% of your website traffic will be driven through search engines like, Google, Yahoo, MSN etc. Plus, it is free!

How do you make search engines work for you?

First, optimize your website to get a high search engine ranking. Select relevant targeted keyword phrases. Place those keywords strategically on your web pages. How do you know what keyword phrases to use? That is where many people make huge mistakes. They actually optimize their sites for keyword phrases that nobody is actually searching. HINT! First, find out what people are searching for; then build your web pages around those words. There are tools available to help you chose what search terms are relevant, such as; Google's free service called Overture, and WordTracker, which is a paid service.

After choosing your keywords, it is time to place them on your site. We call this keyword density. My suggestion, place one or two keyword phrases on each page in your; Page Title, Meta Description Tags, Meta Keyword Tags and a few times in the text of your webpage, for optimal results. This alone will significantly increase the ranking of your site for engines like Google and Yahoo. These engines think like people. They look for what is important on your website and how relevant your site is to what key phrases you are optimizing. Do not optimize your site for "free movie downloads" if you are selling cosmetics. Bad idea! You can actually be penalized by search engines for trying to trick them into sending you traffic.

Incoming links are the most significant factor in increasing your search engine optimization. Are you wondering how important this is? That is the million dollar, drop the gates, and release the hounds, key to the universe! Why? If you optimize your site with relevant keywords, which says, are you any good at what you do? Who has to say your products and services are any good? That is the way engines like Google think. They want to know from others if you do what you say, and if you are any good at doing it. How do they do this? By finding links to your website, on other sites, that promote what you are saying on your site. The more links into your website promoting what it is you do; the better!

Are you ready for the kicker? You mean there is more? Yep, there is more! If the last paragraph was a million dollar technique, this is definitely a two million dollar technique. Make sure that the links on other websites, which lead to your website, use your keyword phrases. Therefore, your links in from outside should look like this... Piano Music by Paul Tobey - where the link underneath "piano music" is the url of your site ie: http://www.paultobey.com. An engine like Google searches for the keywords first and then follows the link to see if it is relevant. If it is relevant, which in the case of the preceding example it is, then the ranking for the keyword search "piano music" will go up every time Google or another search engine, finds one of these links.

So, the next time you are sitting in traffic and you are agitated, stressed, and filled with anxiety, think of all the traffic your website will be generating while you are stuck in the car. Take a look at all the angry people around you, give a big smile, and say aloud to yourself, "I Love Traffic Jams."

Paul Tobey:

In addition to writing a number of articles about web design and search engine optimization the author owns a successful web design company in Toronto, Canada.

Creating Residual Income with Internet Marketing

By Duane Norland

Have you always dreamed of sitting at home, doing nothing, and raking in the money? If you think you can daily spend the time on the golf course, instead of sitting behind a desk, you need to check out http://www.getintocash.com/recommends/pif4p and see what you can do about turning your dream into a reality.

The truth is that very few programs out there are designed to make you rich overnight.

They require you to spend a couple of months (a few hours a day) doing the legwork to set up your business. You need to get a web page, get it hosted on the internet, advertise, set up a leads campaign complete with an autoresponder; that stores email addresses of you clients and periodically sends follow-up emails to close the deal, and an online banking system to collect the money and pay you.

I know this may sound a little overwhelming, but if you get involved with the right program, all of your initial work will continue to generate income for you for life.

Some systems help set you up very easily and point you in the right direction for generating leads and sending emails. This makes it very easy for the rookie and levels the playing field by allowing them to make the same income the pros do. Of course, with experience comes expertise and niches, which the rookie may not discover or understand, but the potential exists for all.

I personally discovered two programs, which compliment each other perfectly. Completely automated, the first generates residual income. Once it is set up, it perpetuates itself automatically. The best part is that it is FREE to join. You can imagine, that since it is free, you cannot expect to become a millionaire overnight (otherwise, you would pay excessively to join). However, when combined with the hard-hitting tactics for generating traffic of the second system, you will generate a healthy income in very little time. I personally use these two systems and only spend about 15 minutes a day at my computer. The rest of the day is mine to do with as I please.

You too can set up a healthy, residual, long-term income. Just visit these two sites:

http://www.getintocash.com/recommends/pif4p
http://www.getintocash.com/recommends/butterfly

Duane Norland is Founder of http://getintocash.com

Duane has been operating on the Internet for 4 years and has built up eight flourishing businesses and growing.

The Top 10 Ultra-Low Risk Marketing Methods Guaranteed to Squeeze More Profit Out of Your Business

By Paul Speziale

You can do many things to cut your costs and lower the risks when you market your business. Your marketing does not have to be the bottomless pit of your hard-earned money. Your marketing should give you a return on your investment. Follow these top 10 tips and start increasing your bottom line today.

1. Use Only Direct Marketing

Cost: Cost of Direct Marketing Education, Upside Potential: Unlimited

Direct marketing is marketing that is testable and therefore accountable for your money. Put a code on all your ads, coupons etc. so you know where they come from and can measure the response. Then you can use spreadsheets to calculate exactly what you need to be profitable. It is vital to crunch the numbers to see if a particular marketing idea you have makes business sense.

2. Find a Product That Fits the Market

Cost: Cost of product/service development, Upside Potential: Unlimited

Ninety-five percent of people out there develop the product first then find a market for it. That is a lot of wasted time and effort. Take the road less traveled and look for different ways to market something that is already hot, drastically reducing your risk of failure.

3. Test Everything

Cost: Marginal, Upside Potential: Unlimited

Now that you are using direct marketing, test everything. Test your offers, headlines (of your ads), messages, lists, mediums (newspapers, magazines, internet etc.). Most marketing is a few words away from being profitable and you will never know that unless you test.

4. Use Google Ad-words and the Internet.

Cost: Marginal (with daily budget), Upside Potential: Unlimited

Never before in the history of marketing has there ever been a more low-cost, low-risk and accurate way to test your marketing message. You can test different advertisements, different keywords, different web pages and different locations. You can sit in your office in Iceland and test your advertisement in a four-block radius around Trump World Tower in Manhattan.

5. Change the Way you Speak and Write,

Cost: Free, Upside Potential: Unlimited

Words offer the highest leverage possible. One word, "cost" creates a negative emotion in your prospects mind as they think of their hard-earned money leaving their pocket. Change the word to "invest" and they now think that they can earn more money from the money they give you. Look over the words you use in your business (ads, sales, flyers etc.) to see if they may cause negative emotions in your customers

6. Optimize Your Referral Program

Cost: Marginal, Upside Potential: Unlimited

Referral programs are your highest leverage marketing system out there. Take the time to put in an actual program and not wait until your clients think about it. Of course, that all presupposes that you under promise and over deliver...that always gets them telling their neighbors about you.

7. Up sell and Cross sell

Cost: Free, Upside Potential: Up to 50% more sales

Earn 10%-40% more on average with these handy devices. Some people, when they have made the commitment to buy, will buy more when reminded that they can. Do not be pushy about it. Check out godaddy.com, they are relentless with up sells and cross sells. Try to buy a domain and get your way to the end without spending another dime...just try it...

8. Use Bounce Backs

Cost: Cost of paper and ink, Upside Potential: Up to 50% more sales

With every purchase or order, include an offering for another product/service. You have already spent the money on the shipment or transaction. This is another form of low-pressure upsells /cross sells, but costs you only the cost of the paper and ink you used.

9. Use Sunk Costs More Creatively

Cost: Free, Upside Potential: Limitless

Do you have a voicemail system? Why play music, when you can give educational messages (that are interesting) about your products/services? Do you have invoices? Write some text about referrals or specials of the day. Do you have slow times? Hold a tele-seminar or actual seminar to educate and attract more business.

10. Increase Your Prices

Cost: Free, Upside Potential: Whatever you set your new price to be

Last but not least...The simplest method of them all. Increase your prices! Lots of businesses I talk to are afraid to do this and they will not do it. You do not have to increase them 200% (even though I know a case where a retailer did this and they did actually sell out their entire stock), but just do it 2-5% on select items. No one will notice. In addition, that's all profit for you. You are doing a disservice to your own bottom line by not charging what the market will bear. You would be surprised to learn how much people would value something. If they do not like the increase, try adding some educational information tool with it...now you are justified.

Paul Speziale is a direct marketing consultant / entrepreneur based out of Toronto, Ontario. He has served all industries from manufacturers to retailers, from entrepreneurs to professionals. Besides helping clients, he is working on his own projects. He also volunteers his time for several worthy causes both local and global. You can reach him at http://www.AnelloSolutions.com: Growing Your Business Through Low-Risk, Optimized and Results Based Marketing.