Home Business The Easy Way - TBe Update http://www.blogmoneymiracle.com en-us EasyRSS
by Paul Fisher

It took seven months to get my last Web project, the One Million Masterpiece, online.

The site is complex and needed the development time, but in the last few days I’ve had a yearning to see if I can still turn around a project in 24 hours. Back in the early days of the Internet boom, I’d sit in my bedroom and knock out HTML Websites all night long. But, almost ten years on, can it still be done in a time where profitability and interactivity are the key measures?

So -- it’s 7 a.m. and I’ve got a plan. The new pressures I face in life (work responsibilities, family, etc.) have been dealt with, and I have a clear 24 hours ahead of me.

An idea for a site has been kicking around in my head ever since I sold a site last year. This site was a very specialized software comparison site that generated referral commissions and Adsense income. It was an excellent earner and I’ve wanted to recreate that success, but on a larger scale.

So, last year I bought the domain name "shoutdown.net," with the intention of building a software comparison-style project. I want the site to be in the informal blog style, where the posts are product summaries (written by me), and the comments would be reviews submitted by other people. I’d also throw in a rating system, and add a way of attaching news releases or other relevant pages to each product post, plus a way to link related posts (for example, different versions of the same software).

So, the idea is there, it’s 7:30 a.m. and my first job is to select some mp3’s to get me through to lunch. Here goes…

08.00 By the time I’ve chosen my music, switched off my Google desktop bar and responded to essential E-mail, it’s already 8 a.m. Crap.

So, my first job is drawing out a schematic of the database that will power my site. What information do I want to keep and how will I organise it? I’m having five database tables. For ease, I’m calling them level1, level2, level3, etc., because I see them as levels of information about each software product – the top being category information and the bottom being the reviews and ratings.

09:15 Took me quite a while to get the structure clear, but now I’m sketching out the home page on paper. I’ve looked at a few blogs that I like and have basically copied their layout, for ease. I’ve also worked out the sizing of my main columns and rows and know the positions of the adverts, main blog posts and navigation.

I still like to work on paper at this stage – I’m an artist at heart!

09:55 OK, let’s get on the computer. I’ve fired up Paint Shop Pro and my first job is to work out a color pallet. I want three colors, so I blob different combinations on a blank white image until I get the right combination – orange, purple and grey. I then make a note of the hex codes for each color on a post-it – this will save LOADS of time later.

While I’m in PSP, I’m going to mock up a logo, as I already know the size of image I need from my plan. Actually, I really like the logo, so it will probably be permanent.

10:21 Time to start on the site. I’m using a single HTML page at the moment with a linked css file. Using some basic tables and css, I’ve laid out the top bar, the post area and two columns (one for ads and one for navigation). I’m sticking to a tried-and-tested blog layout.

I always use Dreamweaver, but always hand code. Why use Dreamweaver then? Well, I find the preview quite accurate, but, other than that, I have no idea – just habit.

11:38 I’ve just finished the main site layout, including place-holding text that will eventually be dynamic. I’ve left space for some ads on the site, so I’ve justed logged in to Adsense to generate the code. All I need to do is use the colors on my post-it to get them fitting in nicely. I’ll also take a look around for some other nice banners in my affiliate accounts.

12:43 That took longer than planned. Time for lunch

13:17 OK -- time to fill up my database with some data, then I can start writing the php code that will populate the pages. I’m going to sign up for a few software affiliate accounts and write some sample reviews on the software. At the moment, I haven’t got time to write really good reviews but, in time, I intend to fully try each title and write some good stuff (positive and negative). For now, I’ll be brief.

15:20 Let’s get back to the site. I’m going to sort out the navigation side bars first, and then I’ll split my single page up.

16:45 This isn’t working. I’ve got a very limited knowledge of php, so I’m having trouble dynamically generating category headings and software lists dynamically. It’s taking too long to sort out so, for now, I’m going to simply print a list of all software titles in the database. I’ll make up for it by also providing a list of software categories, plus a list of the most reviewed software.

16:58 I’m going to split up my single HTML page now into a header, body, nav and footer, and use a php 'include' to pull the pages together. In total, I will only need three main template pages for the content of this site – the home page, a category page and a product page.

18:24 I’ve finished the layout of the three pages, including all the code that pulls info from the database. Everything’s working pretty well and I’m please with the simplicity. My next job is to create an rss feed of the posts and reviews, but first I need some DINNER!

20:04 After some pasta and TV, I’m ready for this rss feed. It’s pretty easy to create a php page that will pull the necessary code and place it in the rss 2.0 layout. Once I’m done, I’ll just save the php file as xml and ensure that my .htaccess file remembers to parse xml files for php code.

21:36 I checked that the rss feed was valid using a standard validator. It took a little time to sort out the date formatting, to be honest.

21:57 I’ve been developing using Firefox to test the layout, but I just checked the site in IE and noticed the background color was dodgy. It was a css error – fixed it.

22:15 OK -- back to content. The reviews, at the moment, are boring, so I’m going to add some images and expand them a little. I’m also going to add some reviews that I’ve been collecting over the last few months.

The good thing about buying the domain and posting up a test Website for six months is that the search engines have already crawled the site and, hopefully, this will help me avoid the Google sandbox.

02:30 I’m absolutely knackered. I’ve just spent the last few hours trying to get the navigation system working, but with no luck. The problem is that I’m trying to dynamically generate an information tree (apparently, that’s what it’s called, after much research) but I just can’t get it working. I’m giving up.

04:49 OK -- I’ve just created a rating system which will only accept one software vote per IP address. Seems a bit buggy, but I'm really, really tired and can’t be bothered to go through it again now.

So -- what’s left to do? I need to create forms to input reviews, news and bookmarks, but I’m just too tired to continue. So much for 24 hours. But, actually, I’m really pleased with the result.

On the surface, the site looks like any other blog, and you might question why I decided to hand-code the entire thing. Well, I have some ideas for some advanced functions, but I’ll only be able to implement them if I know the site inside-out. Plus, I just like the challenge.

I wont have time to work on the site all week, but I’m already planning my next 24-hour session – marketing. I’ll be sure to keep you updated on that, and how the site is doing generally!

Paul Fisher is an entrepreneur whose ventures include theonemillionmasterpiece.com arts project, a restaurant chain and several successful websites. View his personal blog at http://www.thepaulfisherblog.blogspot.com.

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By Bob Crane

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

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

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

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

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

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By Tracy Yates

Do you use private label rights products in your online business? If you do not, or have been on the fence for a while, this article will help you hop off the fence and finally get started integrating private label rights into your business.

Before you can fully comprehend the importance of what private label rights products bring to the profiting table, you need to have a clearer understanding of what they are.

A product that offers private label rights is one that places total controls into your hands from the word GO! With them, you can claim authorship of the product, place an abundant amount of affiliate links within them for easy back-end profiting, break them apart, and create smaller portioned products such as electronic courses, bite size ebooks, or even articles. Beyond that, you can also combine them together and make an entire product.

Essentially, you are in control of the product, its presentation, and retain all the credit for it. In addition, you also collect all the profits from selling your new creation. In addition, you get to do this without all the headache of making the product from "scratch". You make a few adjustments to it, and away you go.

In contrast, having a product with resale rights, no matter the status of those rights, simply does not give you the creative freedom that private label rights does. With a resale rights product, of course, you can resell the product, but you cannot make any changes to the bulk of it, except a few select places for your affiliate links or name, as an authorized reseller.

However, with private label rights products, you are free to explore every aspect of change within that product and put your own unique look and feel to it without restriction. Therefore, building your own collection of resalable products you can claim as your own creations is a far more easily established goal.

Beyond that, you could use them to generate almost "instant" content in the form of articles within your business web site, freely available for your site visitors to read, to which you could easily place Adsense codes for multiple profit streams. The possibilities are virtually endless due to the freedom that private label rights provide you.

While some may argue the ease of using private label products, the truth of it is still there. This is as plain as day for you to see. Many people will try and "down play" the importance of what private label rights can honestly provide to your online business by making the process of using them overly complicated. This is simply a "scare" tactic to lower their own competition within their market.

Private label rights are an excellent way to create your own specialty line of products. If you are brave enough to seek them out and put them to work for you, using them will expand your profits, bottom line.

Consider adding them to your online business arsenal.

Tracy Yates is an established Internet Marketer with over 4 popular web sites and more than 25 infoproducts to her credit. Visit her private site here: http://www.tracyyates.com to discover more about her. Her current endeavor is taking the private label rights industry by storm and causing a HOT FUSS. . . All to benefit YOU!

Find out more at http://www.originalprivatelabelproducts.com

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by Wendy Maynard

A Website is one of the most powerful marketing tools that you can implement. You can update it immediately; it is unique to your business; it can be seen by thousands of people who are searching for EXACTLY what you have to offer; and it works as your sales force, 24/7. It also can be expanded and changed over time.

Make sure that your Website includes content that will keep your prospects coming back. This is called a “sticky” site. Things like articles, tips, and quizzes not only show off your company's expertise and skills, but they are interesting and can educate people about a wide variety of topics.

Here are some things you can do to enhance the "stickiness" of your site:

1. Update Your Portfolio: If you have a portfolio of your work (photographers, architects, landscapers, designers, writers, etc.), keep your "latest and greatest" work current. Send an enthusiastic E-mail to your customers, to let them know when you update it.

2. Write Articles: You are an expert in your field. Customers are hungry for the information only you can provide. Give them helpful advice and tips. On your homepage, let Website visitors know about this section.

3. Add a Discussion Forum: Your Website designer can help you add a discussion forum. This allows visitors to communicate with each other, and your staff can provide helpful answers.

4. Create a "Links" Page: Customers like being able to find out more information regarding their purchasing decisions. With a links page, you can map the way for them to visit other related Websites. People will return to your site as a resource, to access this compilation of links.

5. Publish an E-zine: Publishing an E-zine will help position your business as an expert in your field. It sets you apart from your competitors and instills confidence and trust in your readers, making it easier for them to do business with you. You can archive your articles on your Website on an ongoing basis, to refresh your content for business.

6. Ask Your Site Visitors What They Want: Is there something in your business you are considering? Do you want some feedback on a service? Why not ask for your customers’ opinion? You can post an online opinion poll and, down the road, post customers’ responses.

7. Start a Blog: If you are committed to posting regularly, a blog can be a great way to build relationships with your customers and leads. You can give them advice about services or products, you can offer them helpful advice, and you can give business updates. Best of all, a blog is easy to set up and update!

8. Publish "Audio Bytes": There is so much great technology you can easily incorporate on your Website. One example of this is easy-to-record audio. You can create audio reports or radio shows, to give your visitors helpful advice.

Copyright 2006 Marketing Maven

About The Author:

Wendy Maynard, your friendly Marketing Maven, publishes REMARKABLE MARKETING, a weekly marketing E-zine for business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs. If you're ready to skyrocket your sa1es, easily attract customers, and have more fun, subscribe at http://www.gomarketingmaven.com/ezine.html.

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By Tim Sales

It is very difficult to achieve real MLM success if you are afraid of talking to people about your business. Use these four guidelines to achieve confidence when talking with prospects. They've worked for thousands in my own MLM business. I know they will work for you.

Why do you have a "chicken list?" Because you fear you don't communicate easily or well.

A "chicken list" is the list of prospects that you're afraid to call. Often people think they will call their "chicken list" after they get successful. But, they need these people in their MLM business to create the success.

This is a "Catch 22."

The phrase "Catch 22" is from a novel by Joseph Heller, written in 1961. The pilot was afraid to fight in World War II. He feigned insanity. But the doctor said that if he were truly insane, then he wouldn't mind endangering his life by going into the war.

If he were sane, then he would be capable of following orders to fight the war. Thus the phrase "catch 22" came to mean, "a situation that trips one up no matter which way one turns."

You need the people on your chicken list to create the success you need in order to contact your chicken list. How do you get around this catch-22?

Your fear of the chicken list is based on your feelings that somehow, people are above you because of their status. If you were to examine this more closely, you would discover it is not that the people are any better than you; it's lack of confidence in your ability to communicate easily.

If you knew you could communicate easily and effectively without making any mistakes, you could...and would...call anyone without hesitation. You would have confidence. You would have certainty. And there's NOTHING more rewarding than having that feeling.

Communicate means: a. To convey information about; make known. b. To reveal clearly.

Easily means: a. Free from worry, anxiety, trouble, or pain. b. Requiring or exhibiting little effort.

The reason I bring this up is there are a group of characteristics an MLM business professional must have in order to truly have success in speaking with prospects. I call these characteristics the 10 Communication Qualities.

Having full knowledge of these qualities and having the proper and correct MLM training to learn them, you will be amazed at how much smoother conversations will go with your prospects.

The fifth communication quality on my list is to, "Communicate easily - no tension, strain, fakeness, sounding rehearsed, stuttering or hesitating."

Let's look at each one of these issues:

Tension & Strain: (The definition for tension and strain is very similar so they are
combined here.)

a. To be subjected to great stress. b. A great or excessive pressure, demand, or
stress on one's body, mind, or resources.

When communicating, tension and strain are stress created by the mental activity of feeling unprepared, or fear that you will sound "stupid" to others. If you've ever been asked to suddenly speak in public, you know what this mental activity feels like.

It creates a very uncomfortable feeling, of "being on the spot", and not knowing what to say. It’s the reason someone's voice "squeaks and quivers" when talking. This communicates an unprofessional, “new to the subject”, uncertainty to the prospect.

The solution to tension and strain is to familiarize oneself with all situations that can arise on a call when talking to prospects. Be familiar with all situations regarding your MLM business opportunity and also the products you sell.

Know what you are going to ask the prospect to do; invite for product, invite for business, send to a website, or get on a conference call, etc. When you are clear about what you're going to do and say, you will greatly reduce tension and strain.

Fakeness: a. To represent falsely; pretend to. b. To fabricate.

People sound fake when they use a lot of fluff words like, awesome, incredible, unbelievable, fabulous, wonderful, special, state-of-the-art, etc. These types of adjectives demonstrate a clear bias on your part. I'm not suggesting you be a boring communicator; by all means, be excited. You don't have to use fluff or puff words to describe your excitement. This normally indicates a cover-up of real content.

Sounding rehearsed: a. One that is not authentic or genuine.

Rehearsing what you're going to say is NOT WRONG. However, if you talk with a prospect before you've rehearsed enough - you will sound rehearsed; which IS UNPROFESSIONAL. When you've received a phone call from a telemarketer, you could tell he was reading from a script. It didn't sound very genuine and when you detected that he was reading from a script. You wanted off the phone. That's what you want to avoid with your prospects.

Stuttering and hesitating: a. If you hesitate, you do not speak or act for a short time, usually because you are uncertain, embarrassed, or worried about what you are going to say or do.

Stuttering and hesitating loops us back to the first issue I discussed above which is Tension and Strain. It is the fear of saying or doing something the prospect won't agree with that causes us to hesitate and stutter. The solution for stuttering and hesitating is similar to the solution for tension and strain; is very familiar with all the situations that can come up on your invite call.

Have you realized the simplicity of this yet? Your willingness to talk to your “chicken list”, or lack of, is based on your ability to communicate easily. You need to become familiar with all aspects of your MLM business and company to communicate easily.

Tim Sales helps network marketers gain the confidence and skills to be an MLM success. Discover what you must know to become a true network marketing professional. Sign up for his free MLM training newsletter and listen to free training at http://www.brilliantexchange.com.
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by Elaine Currie

Self motivation is essential to success, but sometimes it is difficult to maintain. If our self motivation lapses, it is a struggle to restore it. To avoid this unnecessary struggle, we can use tricks and rewards to maintain the positive mental attitude that will enable us to forge ahead towards our goals.

No matter what goal you are aiming for, staying motivated is a challenge for everyone at times. Even though you have set those goals for yourself, it will be hard to stay focused at times. Using self motivation techniques is a great way to ensure that you stay positive and have the mental attitude needed to achieve your goals.

One of the best things that you can do is to map out a plan detailing your goal and the steps that you will take to achieve your dreams. It is also a good idea to regularly reassess your plan and make sure that you still feel that your original strategy is the best one. There is nothing wrong with changing your plan if you feel that changes will improve it, the plan is not carved in stone and should always be considered as a flexible tool. Life is full of unexpected surprises and this can mean your initial steps will no longer lead you to where you want to arrive, you can change your written plan to take any surprise changes into account.

Making your written plan is the first step. After that, you might find that you still need sources of inspiration and encouragement.

Self motivation techniques, such as breaking your plan into small tasks that you can achieve daily, will help give you a sense of accomplishment as each task is finished. This is a great technique and will help you avoid feeling overwhelmed or feeling that your goal is too hard for you to accomplish.

Remember, the way to eat a whole elephant is one bite at a time. Make a written list of tasks for each day and cross them off, one by one, as you complete them. Each time you cross off a completed item, your spirits will get a boost that will encourage you to tackle the next task on your list.

Rewarding yourself after you complete your tasks will also help keep you feeling mentally positive and optimistic. The reward can be anything -- a coffee break or ten minutes to chat to a friend on the phone. The reward doesn't need to be anything big but, by giving yourself an incentive, you will have something to help motivate you to take the next step towards reaching your goal.

Procrastination is called "the thief of time" for very good reasons. Procrastination is an easy habit to adopt and a very hard one to break, so it is best to have a scheme in place to avoid it all together.

Avoiding procrastination is one of the simplest and biggest ways that you can increase your motivation and remain focused on taking the necessary small steps towards achieving your goals.

Making written lists (and following them!) is an excellent way to avoid procrastination. Try taking your yearly goals and breaking them down into manageable monthly chunks. Next, break the monthly lists down further into weekly parts. Finally, make daily lists that involve small steps towards your yearly goals.

By working on your yearly goals in this step-by-step fashion, you will reduce the opportunities for being tempted to procrastinate. Once you get into the habit of following your daily task list, the temptation to put things off will be overridden by the desire to see all the items crossed through by the end of your working day.

When you finish your daily tasks, be sure to reward yourself. If you finish earlier than normal, award yourself some extra time off to spend as you please. If you are keeping to your step-by-step plan, there is no need to put in extra hours. The days of procrastinating and then needing to work longer hours will be over.

List making sounds simple (and it is), but it is a powerful way to keep yourself on track day by day, to accomplish your ultimate goals.

To read more articles by Elaine Currie visit http://www.elainecurrie.com or her Work At Home Directory at http://www.huntingvenus.com.

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By Leah Lee

In many cases, business owners can come up with several traditional ways to improve their bottom line. Some may cut expenses, relocate for cheaper lease options, or even cut back on employees. With many corporate budgets being so tight, consider corporate gifts. How can this expense improve the budget? How can you justify spending money on gifts when it is not necessary? In this article, we will find sure-fire answers to these questions and analyze the facts and benefits behind corporate gifting.

We all know that a business thank you gift is no scientific evolution. Corporate gift giving is a payment, which benefits potential clients, partners, employees, employers, and associates. So far, the benefit does not seem to be for the business owner. In this case, why should corporate gifting be of any value? Well, here some good reasons to chew on:

• To keep employees.

Employees are expensive. Recruiting employees is expensive because you have to spend money on advertising and/or agencies to find the employees and test them for employability skills, personality compatibility, drugs, and criminal background. Training employees costs even more money. A valuable employee knows how things work, because of the years with the company. Finally, employee turnover is bad for morale and occasionally brings with it nasty law suits, not to mention all of the problems caused by understaffing. Therefore, it makes sense to invest a little money in corporate gifting. Go ahead; get your exemplary assistant a fancy leather business card holder or even a nice gift the whole family would enjoy, like a picnic basket. Rest assured, these noble alms will make your employees feel like you have gone out of your way for them and you appreciate them.

• To keep clients.

Finding good clients can be just as expensive as finding good employees. Once again, you often have to revert to extra advertising and/or networking. You may have to go through several new clients to find one, as good as, the one you have lost. Then you have to spend time educating them and breaking them in, or getting used to their policies. In the mean time, your business is less stable, and that can cause all sorts of problems. Losing a client is also bad because they may take their friends with them. Therefore, when you lose one client, you lose a lot. Keep your good clients by treating them well, doing good business, and giving them that grand slam corporate gift basket, or even, company engraved business gifts. It only makes sense.

• For good public relations.

If you are nice to people, they will spread the word, and it will give your company a good image.

• Just to make people feel good.

Some people believe there is no room for altruism in business. That is a shame. When they start to put money first and people second, it withers their souls. They would do best to remember what is important.

The making of business gifts have been standard practice in all sectors of business and helps to build and establish lasting relationships for development. When a company has invested in implementing and maintaining a corporate incentive program, it benefits everyone. Employees generally feel appreciated, which in turn increases moral, clients feel important, and you plant a seed of good will. If you are generous in business, generosity will come back to you. Now, take all these factors and add them up. With long term employees, clients that will return to you for services, and the public who will spread the word of good cheer for your enterprise, it all adds up to a black bottom line.

Leah Lee is editor for Corporate Snobs.com. For more unique business gift ideas, visit us today!

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by Martene Carlsen

Before you read this article: I'm not an expert - this is just a short (and hopefully amusing) account of my own experiences with starting up a Website! I WILL, however, give you some very useful links to the REAL experts at the end of this article.

BUT -- DON'T SKIP TO THE END JUST YET! I still have a lot of funny, insightful and useful information to give you along the way.

About 8 months ago, I got a great idea! "I'm gonna' make a Website with flash greeting cards that people can send to all their friends!"

No, I didn't think I was the first person to get this idea. I'm not THAT naive! However, I was naive in a lot of other ways about what it takes to build a Website – but I'll get to that later.

Anyway, I thought this was a great idea for ME; I love making little animations in Flash, I love thinking up little stories, I love working for myself (as opposed to working for a boss - but you can read about that on my Website!), and I thought it would be really cool to have a Website that people from all over the world would visit and use.

WOW! Sort of my 15 minutes of fame, I guess. AND, if somewhere down the line, I could make just a liiiiiiiittle money on it; GREAT! And I'm not talking millionaire money, just enough to cover my expenses.

Okay okay -- and maybe a liiiiiiittle bit more than that : )

Being able to afford red wine in bottles instead of cartons would be nice!

I started working on ideas (I had lots of them!) for ecards, and then I started making the very first card (that I intended to send to my parents on their 50th wedding anniversary as a "test," to see if other people would think my cards were as funny as I did).

Then, a funny thing happened (no, not on the way to the Forum); my mother (who has absolutely no knowledge of the Internet or ecard Websites or anything of an electronic nature, and who knew NOTHING of my idea of starting my own ecard Website) had cut out an article from their newspaper for me. It was the (success) story of a British artist, Jacquie Lawson, who at the tender age of 57, created an interactive flash Christmas ecard and emailed it to her friends and yada yada yada -- now he has a VERY profitable subscription-based ecard Website.

And we're talking MILLIONS of dollars here, folks!

I thought: "My God! This is a sign! This must be what I'm put on this planet to do! It's my calling!"

You see, my mom has NEVER EVER given me any newspaper clippings about ANYTHING before -- so why now, why about this? It MUST be a sign! I'm not a religious or superstitious person, but this was just a little too much to be coincidental, I decided!

So, I kept working my lower-part-of-my-body (no, not my legs!) off. I finished the first card JUST in time for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary and emailed it to them on the morning of their big day.

It was a big success : ) It was a card with two bored cats picking their noses (I know -- it doesn't really sound like the kind of card you would send to your parents on their 50th wedding anniversary, but - what can I say? It worked great!) - check it out here: http://www.carlsencards.com/ecard-01-happy-birthday-bored-cats.htm.

I have changed the message to "Happy Birthday."

So -- wanting to be serious about the whole thing, I needed a domain and I decided on the name carlsencards(.com) and purchased the domain. All the great keyword-stuffed URLs were, of course, taken (always good to have your most important keywords in your URL!). So, I thought I might as well promote my name a little.

If that was a wise decision, I still don't know - the jury's still out on that one. Then again, who would have ever thought that "yahoo" or "google" were great names for Websites?! I rest my case.

But -- here is the first lesson to be learned; choose a less competitive market if you can! Not something like... say; ECARDS! Search for "ecards" and you'll get 34,500,000 results in google! Good luck getting to the top of THAT list! I don't want to state the obvious, but... I do anyway; it's also a good idea to choose a product, a service or a theme you're interested in yourself and LIKE working with.

For the next 6 months, I worked on my site. Every weekend, holiday and vacation, I got up around 6 a.m. so I could get to work on my BIG IMPORTANT PROJECT! I had decided that 20 cards would be enough to launch the site. This ecards site is all about QUALITY, not quantity, you see. I put a lot of work into each card; first the story, then drawing and animating, then composing and recording the music and sound effects, and, finally, putting the card on my site.

A card takes 2-4 days to make, so it took me about 6 months to complete the 20 cards I thought would be enough for starters.

I intended to keep making cards after the big, GRAND opening, so the site would continue to grow and my users ("my users" - Oh, I like saying that: MY USERS! I have USERS!) would have new cards to send every time they visited my site. And - for your information - I still make cards. Every free minute I have is spent working on my ecard Website. But, I like it!

And -- here's another lesson to be learned (but I already knew that); people expect Websites to change, be updated and grow ALL THE TIME. It's like children! You can't just have a baby and then expect it to grow up all by itself.

Or, so I've heard. I don't have children myself. Not the human kind, anyway! Only the furry, four-legged kind with whiskers. But, they need caring and looking-after, too!

Then, the big day arrived; I was finally ready to launch my site. And -- here's where I was REALLY naïve: I thought that all I had to do was send ecards to all my friends, and they would love the cards and find them utterly cute and funny and they would send cards to all THEIR friends, who, again, would love my cards and send cards to... I think you get the picture.

Lesson to be learned: That happens like ... once in a blue moon. Or, once in 10 blue moons. Okay, it happened for Jacquie Lawson. It happens SOMETIMES in real life. But, it certainly didn't happen in MY real life. Only in my dreams!

Hmmmm, what to do, what to do ... I definitely wasn't ready to give up just yet (another useful lesson: don't give up!). So, I searched the Internet and found a site that listed free stuff of all kinds.

Hey! I have free stuff on my site, maybe I can get them to link to my site! Wow, they were way ahead of me on that one; they actually had a button that said "Submit site." Great!

I submitted my site, but - oh - what's that? "Reciprocal link" - what is that? Oh, so I have to link to you, and you'll link to me. Hmmmm, sort of like "I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours." Oh -- but that'll ruin my great site design! There must be other ways.

Lesson number ... I've lost count! Anyway, lesson to be learned; reciprocal linking is hard to avoid. I have later learned that one-way links are better, but to get things started and to get people to visit your wonderful site, it's a good idea to find sites that will link to you and generate some traffic. And so what if you have to put a couple of little buttons and text links on your site? So, I exchanged links with a free stuff site, and - WOW - people OTHER than my 20 or so friends visited my site!

We're not talking several thousands a day. Actually, not even hundreds. But, around 60-80 a day, which is way better than 3-4. Now we're cooking! Yes, but the cooking started to slow down after a week or so.

Okay, now what? I guess I just have to find a couple more sites to exchange links with.

So, again I searched the Internet. Lo and behold, there are lots of sites that list free stuff out there! And, to make a long, boring story a little shorter; I exchanged links with about a dozen free stuff sites and I did get a little traffic.

But, there must be other ways....!

DIRECTORIES! There are (probably) hundreds of thousands of directories where you can get listed -- most do not require a reciprocal link. Or a yearly fee to list your site. Again, I spent hours researching and googling (I know google don't like us to use that word - to "google," but it's such a GOOD word) the words "free directory submit site." And, if there was one thing I learned, it was that I still had a LOT to learn about promoting a Website!

SEO! What the hell is see-oh? Oh ... it's "S-E-O!" Search Engine Optimization - still have no idea what that is.

So, I researched - isn't the Internet a wonderful invention? Oh, my; keywords, href title tags, alt tags, text content, file names, keyword density ... I thought I'd done everything I needed to do in that department by just placing some nice keywords in the meta tags (you know; title, description and keywords)! But, noooooooooo, search engines don't care about that anymore. Now you have to put your keywords into all those other tags AND the content. And you have to choose your keywords VERY carefully (google has some nice tools that can help you research and find the right keywords - link at the end of the article).

Aha! Wish I had known that BEFORE I started building my Website! Another very useful lesson! I won't explain exactly how to do all this, but I'll give you some links to great sites that explain this much better that I ever could. I just want you to know that this is something you have to do.

Okay, so that's it! NOW I'm all set to attract millions of visitors.

Well, what's your pagerank, Martine? My what? My "pagerank"? Where can I get that? Can I buy it on ebay? Oh no, pagerank is something you EARN, so to speak. But how? Get lots and lots of QUALITY inbound links - preferably one-way links (meaning that THEY show you theirs, but YOU don't have to show them yours! Well, actually THEY show everybody YOURS, but you don't have to... You know what I mean). Google likes that! And you do what google likes, because most people find sites by searching google. And they seldom get past page 1 or 2 in the google results.

So -- how DO you get to the top of google's search results?

Good question. Very good question. Very few people know a lot about that and a lot of people (like me) know very little about it. But, people like me (who know just a little) have a good excuse, because IT'S A SECRET! Only the people who work for google - actually only SOME of those people REALLY know what google likes the most and thereby goes to the top of the list.

And you know what? It doesn't pay to try to find out, because they CHANGE IT all the time!

Google uses something called algorithms to determine which sites to put on the top of the list (if you're interested, you can find tons of information on that on the Internet). And they keep changing these algorithms.

Yes, I think that's really sneaky, too. But it does serve a purpose. Otherwise clever - even more sneaky - Webmasters would find out and take advantage of this knowledge and get THEIR websites to the top of the lists even though their sites are not the most relevant. See the point?

So, I guess that's okay. But, it certainly doesn't make MY life easier! I have to guess and try out different keywords and keyword placements and keyword density until I just give up and say "That'll do, little piggy. That'll do!"

That was a quote from "Babe," and if you're not familiar with that movie; RENT IT, BUY IT, SEE IT!

Another thing google likes is a nice, simple sitemap. It makes google's job a lot easier. But, that's no biggie, this site will do it for you: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com - and let's all give a big hand to xml-sitemaps.com for helping us out with that one!

So, to sum it all up: - optimize you site (this is the SEO part) - doing this from the very beginning is a lot easier than after you have created 167 pages! I know from experience. And this includes making a sitemap.

Get lots of inbound (one-way) QUALITY links (that'll give you pagerank and a higher position on google's search results).

Directories are good. But don't get them all at once; getting too many links too fast will seem like spam to google, and you don't want that to happen!

Get some links to your site that can generate some traffic (it's okay to reciprocate some links - I think!). And it'll be good for you self-esteem to see that your site gets visitors that are NOT closely related to you : )

And do what I'm doing right now; write funny/informative/useful articles and submit them to sites all over the Internet.

And -- remember to include your name and URL : ) That's sort of the whole purpose of doing this. Not that I didn't write this article to amuse you. I did. Of course I did!

And, finally - and this just might be the best and most important advice of all; stay the hell AWAY from the "Guaranteed 100,000 Visitors $15! Very Cheap Traffic" sites! 100.000 unique visitors - YEAH, RIGHT!

Don't do it! It's a scam, it's a waste of money and google doesn't like it! You may even get your site banned from google by doing that. I know it's tempting, but so is robbing a bank and getting $2 million in 4 minutes. But it still doesn't pay in the long run.

So, I guess that's it. I hope you had fun reading about my experiences promoting my Website. And I hope you learned a little as well. Good luck with your Website!

Here' s the list of REALLY useful sites with REALLY useful information that I used (and still use) promoting MY website:

Great tools: http://www.iwebtool.com http://www.selfseo.com http://www.seobook.com http://www.webuildpages.com http://www.seocompany.ca http://www.xml-sitemaps.com http://developers.evrsoft.com

Keyword tools: http://www.google.com (search for "google trends") http://www.google.com (search for "KeywordToolExternal")

Lists of directories: http://www.submithelper.com http://info.vilesilencer.com http://searchenginewatch.com http://strongestlinks.com

... so has my Website become a great success with thousands of visitors every day? Well, my site is still very new, so it's too early to say. But, I hope and I believe and most of all. I still work hard on promoting my site and adding new cards every week! Who knows? Beware, Jacquie Lawson, there's a new kid in town!

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by Dean Mercado

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While websites are a key component of Internet marketing, they are not the“be all, end all”. So here are 7 killer Internet marketing tools that you can implement on a shoestring budget without having to have a website of your own.

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When most people think of Internet marketing, they think solely of Websites. Are they right or wrong? Well -- both. While Websites are a key component of Internet marketing and, in many cases, they are the only Internet marketing tool businesses use, they are not the “be-all, end-all”. They are not required for Internet marketing. I do highly recommend them as they are best-suited to sit at the core of your Internet marketing plan, the hub. so to speak -- but that’s a topic for another conversation.

Here are 7 killer Internet marketing tools that you can implement on a shoestring budget without having to have a Website of your own:

1. E-mail Marketing – When properly implemented, there probably isn’t a quicker, better, and less expensive way to stay in front of your prospects and clients than to leverage the power of E-mail. You can literally touch an unlimited amount of prospects and clients with a single click – how’s that for power?!

2. Blogs – Blogging is a great tool when you would like to step it up a notch and stay in constant contact with your prospects and clients. Some ideas on how to use a blog: post what’s new with you or your business, post informative content as a value-add to your clients, or hold an interactive forum with your clients geared towards understanding how to better serve them.

There are a handful of free or low-cost blog hosts out there that really make this process simple (e.g. Blogger and TypePad).

3. Article Marketing – This is a phenomenal approach to bringing notoriety, interest and, ultimately, leads for many types of businesses. You can use article marketing as a major differentiator or value-add, literally telling the readers why they should buy from you, instead of your competitors. Whether your clients are local, regional, national or global -- articles are portable and usable in all situations -- that's part of their charm.

4. eZines – Much like blogs and article marketing, eZines are a great way to stay in touch with your prospects on a more scheduled basis. They are probably the forerunner in helping you develop a list of prospects, so you can easily market and sell your wares.

5. Affiliate Programs -- Get others promoting and selling for you. This tool can become the equivalent of having both a full-blown marketing and a sales staff that gets paid only on performance. If they don’t promote and directly lead to a sale for you, they don’t get paid.

For the do-it-yourselfers, there are plenty of tools to help you set up this type of program. For everyone else, there are excellent service providers who can coordinate and manage this process for you (e.g. Clickbank and Commission Junction).

6. Viral Marketing – Again, a great approach for getting others to promote and help create a buzz about you, your business, your products and/or your services. The best, most genuine way to get this started is by creating raving fans out of your existing clients and then helping them help you spread the word.

7. Public Relations – If I tell you I’m the best at what I do, you’ll take it with a grain of salt. Maybe you’ll believe me, maybe you won’t. However, people tend to believe what they read. If a respected publication tells you that I’m the best at what I do, that usually holds more weight and adds instant credibility to me.

Spend some effort here. Become a resource for the press. You help them and they can significantly help you.

I highly recommend you spend some time with these. Explore how you can implement one, some, or all of these Internet marketing tools to help explode your business.

© 2005 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.

Online entrepreneur Dean Mercado, "The Motivational Marketer," is creator of the acclaimed 'Pumped-Up Networking' system geared to explode your business through professional relationships. To learn more about it and to sign up for his FREE eZine, the 'Marketing Minute' – a weekly multimedia eZine designed to give you a jolt of marketing wisdom in less than 5 minutes, visit www.OnlineMarketingMuscle.com.

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by Deon Melchior

Have you been thinking about breaking into the online business world? Don’t yet have a product and aren’t sure what products you should carry? Have you thought about becoming an information publisher on the Web?

Maybe you're wondering what the heck an information publisher is. It’s exactly what it says. It’s a Website that publishes information, quality information that is a valuable resource for your readers.

The problem with starting a product site is that they require a great deal of your time and the investment can be rather high since you will need secure checkouts, and a method of processing credit cards. The learning curve for this type of site is also rather steep. It can be difficult to choose a product that will do well online. You're going to have to spend some time doing your research if you take the physical product route.

It is generally believed that the products that do best online are products that consumers do not need to see, touch, or smell in order to make a purchase. So -- products such as books, CD’s, or DVD’s will usually do better than clothing.

But why not skip the whole hassle of product Web pages and become an information publisher? But you might be wondering how you choose a topic and how you're going to make any money.

The first thing you need to do is figure out what you are an expert in. By expert, I don’t mean you need to be a doctor or an engineer. I mean what subject do you know lots about? Do you have a hobby that you are a real pro at -- perhaps your job or career has made you an expert on a specific topic.

If you are an expert in more than one area, then you have options and you should do some research to see which topic generates the most traffic or interest. To make money, you need targeted traffic and, in a minute, I’m going to explain how you're going to make money.

Once you’ve decided what your site is going to be about, you need to design it. The layout you choose should be easy for your readers to navigate and it should use colors that are easy on the eyes. You’ve probably come across those psychedelic sites that make your eyes hurt and quickly hit the back button. Your Web site needs to provide an environment that is inviting and comfortable for the reader.

If you have no Website experience, that’s okay. Most Web hosts offer a range of templates that you can use to design your site and they also do not require you to have any html programming skill. You type it like you want it and the software converts it to a language that computers can read. It’s really quite simple.

You still could be wondering -- what the point of information publishing is and how you are actually make any money. After all, that’s what this venture is all about right?

The answer to your question lies in two words – Google and Affiliates.

Providing you design a site that is rich in content and keywords, you’ll be able to make money using both Google and affiliate programs. Of course, you’ll need to be patient. It takes some time to earn your page rank and to get traffic to your site, but once you're rolling, you’ll be generating income.

Google offers a program called Adsense. You need to sign up for the program and then you need to place some code on your Website that will allow Google to display ads that are related to the topics on your site. When visitors arrive at your site, if they click on one of the ads being displayed, you get paid.

You’ll want to take some time to learn what ads work best, what type of flexibility you have, and how to earn the most income. There are some excellent free resources online and there are some very good E-books available.

Affiliate programs are a little different. You need to look for companies that offer affiliate programs that you think would do well on your Web site. Each affiliate program offers its own set of rules and commissions that it pays. When you find an affiliate program that you think would do well, you need to apply to their program. There are Web sites like Linkshare or Commission Junction that host many companies that offer affiliate programs. They are a good place to start.

Make sure you read all the terms and conditions that the affiliate program has set out. Once accepted, you will be provided with both text and banner links that you display on your Website. If a reader clicks one of your affiliate links and purchases a product from that company, you earn a commission.

An information site is a lot less work than a product site. Don’t get me wrong -- an information site still needs your time and attention. Contrary to what you may have heard, you don’t get rich on the Web just by putting a Web site up.

But -- why not work smarter rather than harder? An information site allows you to do just that.

Before you begin, you should also take some time to understand how keywords work and their relevance to your site. The result will be success in generating good ad placements and income. You’ll be a pro in no time.

Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit - http://www.articleclick.com .

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By Elias Georgi

As a business grows and matures, there are a number of stages that evolve.
Home business operations are no different in this regard, so it is important to understand these stages, prepare for them and avoid disruption to your customers as well as disruption to your revenues. We will review these stages briefly in this article.

A home business, or a business started within a major corporation develop through various stages. You can summarize these as follows - Business Concept, business evaluation, launch preparations and launch, start up and initial operations, and evolution beyond the entrepreneurial stage. Each of these stages is critical and be given the appropriate attention deserved to ensure success. In addition, different skills are required during start up, for example, compared to more mature operations and year over year revenue growth.

A company's life cycle is divided into two major activities. Initially the focus is on start up, securing funding, building initial services and products, and delivering those products and services. The search for customers can be all-consuming. Everyone in the company, whether it is a one-person operation or a company of five, must multitask and do what is necessary to launch and build the initial customer base. The skills required at this stage are more entrepreneurial and imply strong commitment and faith to the concept the company is built around.

Once the company or home business has reached year over year growth cycles and is well on the way to becoming stable and generating revenue, the entrepreneurs typically do not do well in this environment. Hiring professional managers with experience in the areas that your home business has decided to specialize in will ensure continuing success. By this time, your business has grown well beyond a home based business and needs to expand into regular business quarters.

This is also a major step for many businesses and be managed well to maintain excellent customer support to customers and ensure that revenues continue to grow. Entrepreneurs typically love to tinker with the business. Professional managers will focus on the processes and systems needed to ensure success. Most home businesses have also evolved from having several advisors to help them along to deal with a board of directors, especially if there are outside investors involved.

Recognizing these phases and knowing when to begin the transition from one phase to another is part of enabling your home business to evolve into a successful company. Failure to address the issues as you grow Free Reprint Articles, will often severely limit the growth potential of the company over the long term.

Elias Georgi is an experienced and successful sponsor, mentor and coach for many thriving, tested and proven home businesses. Elias offers proven Internet opportunities and strategies. Visit his Website: work at home business opportunities (http://www.eliasg.com/), he also runs the article directory (http://www.exclusive-article.com/).

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By Alicia Forest

As an online business owner, you know you must stay in touch with your email list on a regular basis to have a successful and sustainable business. Publishing an ezine is one of the most effective ways to do so, but sometimes that can feel overwhelming and cumbersome. This article gives you five alternatives to putting out an ezine.

I often hear from my clients and ezine subscribers that they are not sure they can commit to writing a regular ezine as a way to keep in touch with their list, even though they know they "should."

My response is usually something like, "if it's going to be an albatross, then don't do it!" They know they must stay in touch with their email list on a regular basis to have a successful and sustainable business. They are stumped. What are their options?

Here are five ideas I typically share with them:

1. Evergreen Ezine

I first learned of this concept on a teleclass last year, and it seemed so simple. I was amazed I hadn't thought of it myself - which is usually the reaction I get from my clients.

An evergreen newsletter is one where content is applicable all the time. It is not based on trends or on what's hot in your industry now. It is solid need-to-know information based on principles or strategies that rarely change.

To create an evergreen newsletter, you simply gather your content for as many issues as you plan to publish, create each issue, and then drop each one into an autoresponder system to go out automatically at whatever interval you set.

This method takes a bit of work on the front end, but then you 'set it and forget it' until you run out of issues. Then you can let it simply repeat or create a new set of issues by repeating the process above.

2. Ecourse

You can create an ecourse, which is simply a series of emails sharing valuable information with your reader over a time period.

This is a method I use myself. When you sign up for my mini-ecourse, you also get a subscription to this ezine. I could simply offer the ecourse as a stand alone, though, if I did, I would add more days to the series (say from its current 5 to 26) and send them out every couple of weeks as a way to stay in touch with my list.

You set up an ecourse in an autoresponder service, so it's another 'set it and forget it' option once you finish the initial work.

3. Audio Tip

If you prefer to talk than type, then consider an audio tip. When I coach clients who are just starting their written ezines, I remind them it doesn't have to be longer than one valuable tip for each issue.

The same is true if you prefer to create an audio keep-in-touch vehicle for your list. A colleague of mine sends out a 1-minute audio (and video) marketing tip each week and it's incredibly successful.

The easiest way to create and publish audios online is through an inexpensive service like AudioAcrobat.

4. Blog

A blog can be a great alternative to an ezine IF you love to write and are willing to post regularly, if you use search engine optimization to increase your blog's exposure to your market on a continual basis, and if you put a subscription form on your blog so your readers know when you add a new post.

You can start free blogging, at blogger.com or very inexpensively, with Typepad, (which is the service I use for my personal and business blog).

5. VIP List

Invite people to sign up to receive special offers from you. Many of us do this in our personal lives for places we frequently shop (a quick look at my inbox reveals offers from Eddie Bauer, Old Navy, Red Envelope, etc.). People will sign up to receive discounts and other special offers from you if you invite them to do so.

It's best to use this strategy with a group of people who have already gotten to know you, say from a live event or if you have a blog, where you stay in touch with people by posting on a regular basis.

BONUS TIP: If you're writing a regular ezine now, you can add one of these methods as another way to stay in touch with your list. Some people who are on your list may not always read your ezineFree Reprint Articles, but may listen to a short audio or may prefer to read brief posts at your blog instead. Giving your list options as to how they receive your message will increase your ability to connect with more people in your niche.

Copyright 2006 Alicia M Forest and Client Abundance

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/.

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By Steven Gerber

Selling is one of the best ways to earn money. Actual selling can be difficult, especially if you need to go to different places, carry your products, and offer it face to face with your customer. Some are even ashamed to do the actual physical selling, because they do not want to face rejection.

Selling, nowadays, is done through physical product selling, and through affiliate programs. Have you heard of that term before? If you are new on the net, it simply means selling a product or service through commission basis. However, this involves online selling, unlike the physical selling that most people dread.

If you have your own website, it is much easier to start an affiliate program. It is an opportunity that you must not ignore. It can offer you a considerable sum of money, if you know what it is all about, and how it works

Here are important things that you should know before you join an affiliate program:

1. There are different types of affiliate programs; including the pay per sale, pay per click, and pay per lead, bounty, and two-tier.

Once a customer buys a particular item, you will be paid a commission by 'pay per sale'.

The 'pay per click' type pays you every time a customer visits the site, and it does not matter if the customer made a purchase or not, however, you will earn more if the customers purchase something. With a PPC type, companies pay at the range of .05 dollars to .15 dollars.

You are paid a one-time fee only for each customer that visits the site; the payment is usually between two dollars to five dollars. If a customer signs an application, you will get the higher yield.

If you refer a customer, you will get a finder's fee. In the future, if the customer makes any purchases, you will no longer receive a commission, and this is called a bounty.

If you make direct sales, you get a commission; and if your sub-affiliates generate sales, you will also obtain a commission out of their sales, this is called two-tiered.

2. The benefits of an affiliate program include: Bringing prospects to visit your site. You will not deal with people such as wholesalers, brokers, customer service, employees, technical support, process orders, warranties, and many more. You do not need to stay on your computer to keep track of the site. You are free to go for a vacation, rest, etc.; and you can do it from anywhere as long as there is an internet connection.

After weighing all these factors, it is time to decide if you will join an affiliate program. Once you decide to join, the company will give you a URL or a link. This links are used to gain access to the company's website.

This will allow the company to monitor your website, and the payment or commission that should be given to you.

Affiliate programs make money, so why not join the force. The internet is just there waiting for interested people who are willing to venture into different business opportunities. If you are capable, and can become an effective affiliate Computer Technology Articles, act now and join.

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

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By Steven Gerber

If you want to produce a profitable web site, then affiliate programs are the ideal approach.

Certain affiliates of companies or corporations are looking for help regarding their marketing. The affiliates' money weighs greatly on the commissions taken from the players’ registrations, and most often; these affiliates do not know how to carry this alone. Thus, they need an instructor to get the proper methods in affiliate programs.

This instructor is the internet itself. The affiliates, who study the procedure, simply visit the web sites and search on the programs concerning affiliate marketing. These web sites along with the programs are presenting the various schemes of marketing that the affiliates can apply to boost their lower commissions.

These affiliates expect to widen their knowledge regarding marketing, if they will search the web sites further, and the affiliate marketing programs.

For instance, the use of a banner is the largest element of affiliate marketing programs. Then, the web sites and the affiliate marketing programs will detail everything to the affiliates.

The affiliates can utilize a banner on other web sites to employ traffic to the site of their mother company where they are an affiliate employee. This is the main thing covered by the affiliate marketing programs and sites.

These web sites and programs are stressing the use of banners because it performs a vital function in employing traffic on the sites endorsed by the affiliates.

The assistance of banners in employing traffic is very effective, though this is not the sole scheme to augment the affiliates' commissions. The web sites and programs cannot deny the fact of the success it brings compared to the others.

These affiliates are always searching for possible ways to boost their earnings and turn it into bulk profit, to increase their commissions as affiliates. Likewise, they are also finding ways to learn the strategies in marketing their works as affiliates.

Hence, when these needs occur, they immediately search for the offers on the internet that could help them. This occurrence directly means a profit for the websites and affiliate marketing programs owners.

The affiliates, on their own, utilize these affiliate marketing program web sites as an advantage as they look for guidance in boosting their incomes.

There are numerous ways to boost the affiliates profits; ways that are not entirely familiar for the affiliates. These designed web sites increase their knowledge and help them to grasp a deeper understanding, and with this knowledge, they were able to generate more money.

These programs and web sites instruct the affiliates on various things that are concerned in increasing their profits. Through this, it is not impossible for them to accumulate commissions as gambling affiliates.

These web sites and programs have been a great help in boosting the affiliates status in marketing. Even today, these programs and web sites earn more income as they assist these affiliates into profitable commissions.

It is a give and take process, as the web sites and programs feed the minds of the affiliates about the competent marketing strategies and skillsScience Articles, which later turns into revenues or their commissions. These web sites and programs likewise earn them turnovers.

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

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By Karl Stadler

Some AdSense sites are performing well and others just exist in the abyss of cyberspace. Make sure your AdSense site is the successful one and keep it out of the abyss.

What makes AdSense work? There are many ideas, as there are theories. Some maintain it is the placement of the ad on the page, some say integrate it into the page, and it must have the look and feel of the webpage. It should be at the top, in this format, and so the secrets continue.

There is only one secret to AdSense success; it is nothing more than traffic. Without substantial traffic, your AdSense pages will not make you money. There is proof of this statement, just look at the click through rate you are receiving on your current pages. You will immediately notice that it takes many visitors to generate a click.

If things go really well, you could have as high as fifty percent and upwards CTR. This is possible, has been done and proven, but it will not just happen on any old page.

Placement of the ad does play a role but it is not as big as many would like you to believe. Information on the best placement of AdSense code on your page is no secret and is free information on Google. It is called a heat map. It will show you exactly where to place your ads for maximum exposure and CTR.

The problem with most AdSense driven sites is exactly that, they are AdSense driven. Nobody seems to care about the visitor landing on the page, becoming click machines supposed to make you money. According to most AdSense sites, they are there for you and not the other way around. No second thought is given to the surfing experience of the visitor.

You have been made to believe that you need a multitude of sites and use all sorts of templates and secret positioning tactics for maximum income. Therefore, every second some would-be AdSense millionaire is putting up thousands of crappy pages all over the internet to get those AdSense clicks that will elevate them to the illusive four and five figure AdSense earners. They tend to forget the internet marketplace is probably the most dynamic market there is, and changes every day. Certain elements remain the same. You have to be able to broaden your thinking and think out of the box.

Let us go back to the least important person for most AdSense publishers, the visitor to the page. These poor souls land on your pages through either generic or PPC traffic. Either way, you have the possibility t they might be clicking on one of your AdSense links. The only driving force for the visitor to click your link is he found the information on your page that related to his search. After going through your page, he will click on one of your links in AdSense to further his search.

Now AdSense displays relevant ads on your page based on the content of the page. If the visitor is not finding what they are looking for, how do you expect AdSense to find related content ads to place on your page?

By considering your visitor and actually providing for them, you are also insuring for yourself that the correct AdSense ads will be displaying on your pages, and hence will deliver a good CTR. Just putting up one thousand new pages with some template or other automatic page-creating device will certainly not hit the mark.

You would probably be better off with ten well designed and optimized pages, not only for the search engines, but also for your visitors Business Management Articles, and you might be able to ensure a profitable AdSense campaign.

There will always be elements that remain a constant no matter how dynamic the market. Utilize these to their best effect, and change with the dynamics and be as profitable as you can. To get the real information visit http://www.yourenterprize.com/adsense/adsense-secrets.htm

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By Donna Gunter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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By Elaine Currie

Working at home gives you the freedom to use your time in a flexible way. With no boss to set deadlines for you, it is up to you to ensure no element of time wasting creeps into your flexible schedule.

If you are new to working at home online, one of the hardest things you have to do will be to learn effective time management. Time is too precious to be wasted. It is essential to remain focused on the task you set out to do and complete that task before starting another. There will be numerous distractions inviting you to wander off course spending a little time in some completely unplanned activity. For anyone working at home, there will be distractions; such as a ringing phone, a parcel delivery, a demanding child, a bright day that just begs you to wax the car, a dog that wants walking, etc.

When working at home online, in addition to all the normal domestic distractions, you contend with the Internet's own array of distractions. If you thought controlling domestic life while working at home was complicated, the early days of working online will seem like trying to perform delicate surgery in the middle of a three-ring circus. Offline distractions will quietly tempt you to wander off course. The distractions you will encounter on the Internet positively clamor for your attention.

Working at home provides the freedom to make your own schedule and the flexibility to work any hour of day or night you choose. The main attraction of working at home is there will be no boss breathing down your neck. In the absence of deadlines set by a boss, it is up to you to use self-discipline to get your work done.

When you work for yourself, you will undoubtedly start with every intention of managing your time sensibly and following a schedule that will enable you to balance work and family life. Working at home online involves more than just good intentions. It requires planning, determination, persistence, and unwavering self-discipline.

When you first start working at home online, you will be tempted to check your website at regular intervals. You will be tempted to check your sales figures several times a day. You will feel the need to check in at your favorite forums, and your email inbox will have an almost irresistible attraction. It is natural to feel like this. Each of these detours from your planned day will not take long on its own. If you add up the time spent on each one, you will be looking at an hour or more wasted each day.

Those self-inflicted time wasters are a danger in themselves, but the danger lurking within them is worse. Every visit you make to a forum and every email you read can contain a link that you will not be able to resist clicking. This is where working at home online has unique dangers you would not experience if you had an offline home business. Clicking any one of those links can lead you to a website full of information that looks as if it might be of benefit to you. There will be offers of tools to save you time, e-books to educate you, and advertising that promises to make you a fortune. Your decision to read just one email can lead you down a path that costs you another half hour in wasted time.

The problem with these online temptations is they tend to arrive disguised as something to help you in your home business. Ironically, many will claim to save you time while you are building your business. You will develop an instinct that enables you to ignore these offers because you have seen it all, (or something very similar) before, but the early days are a dangerous time. Your best defense in the early days is self-discipline. The solution is not always easy but it is simple: make a plan and stick to it. Have a list of things to do each day and make yourself work through the list systematically. The best way to do this is to use a system of small goals and rewards to keep you on the straight and narrow path until good time management replaces those bad habits.

If you fail to exercise self-discipline and resist the temptation to wander the Internet back roadsFree Reprint Articles, you will find yourself spending long hours at your computer with nothing to show for the time spent apart maybe from a touch of eyestrain.

Do you earn money working at home? For more time management tips and useful home business resources, visit Elaine Currie's Work At Home Directory (http://www.huntingvenus.com/).

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By Karl Stadler

Is AdSense Arbitrage just an old hype revisited for the profit of a few or does it have a future as a successful online business?

'Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.' Henry Ford. This quote holds true for anything you attempt. It is all about the belief you have in yourself to achieve success.

When speaking about the subject of AdSense arbitrage, you will find eyebrows rising. It looks upon it as a 'black hat' method of making money as an online business. This is due to a bad name it acquired from people who misused the system.

Fortunately, this is now behind us largely, thanks to the Google slap down on landing pages.

AdSense arbitrage has become a viable business model for a sustained online income, provided, of course, you know what you are doing and don't go against the system but work toward the betterment of the system.

AdSense arbitrage is not a new concept or secret idea that has just arisen; it has been around for a while. The concept behind AdSense arbitrage is simple, you buy advertising from adwords or another PPC engine, and you send the traffic to a landing page of your own with AdSense advertising. People click on the AdSense ads and you are paid. Your profit is made up of the difference between what you pay for the click and are paid for the click on your page.

This may seem relatively easy to achieve, but there are some points you need to consider very carefully before placing your ads and landing pages.

1. You have to research your keyword and make sure it will be profitable. To get an indication of the profitability factor of your keyword, make use of the Overture bid tool. Type in your keyword and look at the difference in the bid prices between ad one and ad ten. The higher the difference in bid prices between the first ad and the last ad the higher your chances of success. This is not a clear indication that it will be profitable, but it is a good indicator of what is going on in that specific area of the market linked to the keyword. Based on this information, you should then research the keyword further.

2. Target your landing page to the visitor who clicked on your ad. Optimize the page for the keyword you chose, or else the wrong AdSense ads will be displaying on your page.

3. The content of the landing page should be no less that 300 words and must be relevant to the keyword and adwords ad you placed.

4. The AdSense ad placement is of optimal importance to ensure a high click through rate and successful AdSense arbitrage.

Like in any business online and off line there is a risk factor. It is the same with AdSense arbitrage and there are many who have gotten it wrong and given it up as a bad business idea.

Then of course, there are those who persisted and believed in what is possible and now are reaping the rewards of a good monthly income from AdSense arbitrage.

I would like to go back to one more quote, and it holds true for every thing you do.

'Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently’. Henry Ford. He built cars and made it happen, you can make your business happen Free Articles, and it is entirely your choice.

Find the underlying cause of the business and see how AdSense arbitrage will benefit you and your online business with a sustained long-term income. Visit http://www.yourenterprize.com/adsense/adsense-arbitrage.html .

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By James Bradley

Creating a content rich link directory is a powerful tool used by any web owner. Building relevant backlinks is a great way to boost your Search Engine Optimization and increase your overall targeted traffic...

It is a well-known fact that adding incoming links to any website is a great method of promotion and search engine optimization. Quality links can increase your page rank and ultimately get you consistent traffic and sales at seemingly no cost. Nothing comes free; the creation of a quality link directory for your website is no different. It will require time and careful planning to get the most out of this valuable tool.

Keep these tips in mind to create a powerful content rich link directory for your website.

1. Do a little planning. The first thing that always leads to success is a clear game plan. Decide what needs to be accomplished and how you can get the job done. Make lists of keywords and link categories relevant to that of your own website. Avoid using categories that are not related.

For instance, if your site is a work at home affiliate web page you would not want to include the categories health & beauty, science, automobiles, etc. To increase your Search Engine Optimization, relate your links to the overall theme and content of your website.

2. Don't become a link farm. Search engines hate "link farms". If each page in your link directory has too many links to other company web sites, your site may be labeled a link farm. Keep the amount of links on each page low, I suggest 15-25 and no more.


3. Ensure every page is keyword rich and has a few links back to your home page. Content is so important for a powerful link directory so keep it filled with keyword rich titles, meta tags, paragraphs, etc. relevant to that pages theme. This will increase the quality of your content and improve the quality of your link directory as a whole.

It is also important to include links back to your home page. This will increase your search engine optimization as the web spiders register more backlinks to your home page.

4. Use link directory software that checks links automatically. There are a lot of different programs and web sites that offer linking services. Be sure to check into them before choosing, some offer many "instant" links for a monthly fee. These links usually do not provide much help, if not hurt your SEO, so be wary.

I suggest using linkmarket.net. There are more than 60,000 potential link partners in every category of the online business world. Links are checked automatically and I have found that at $24.95 a year you cannot go wrong! There are many other programs and services, and finding one that works for you will require a little research on your end.

5. Keep it up! Simply following these simple steps and setting up your link directory is far from the end. You will want to test and retest many different aspects of the linking world. You want to be sure everything works correctly and is content rich before visitors and search engine spiders arrive.

Taking some simple steps can ensure that your link directory works smoothly and increases your Search Engine Optimization. Keep in mind that getting the best links will require some requests from you to other web owners Article Search, and be sure the software you use automatically checks links for effectiveness and removal.

James has been involved in advanced internet marketing and home business opportunities for the last 4 years within the frame work of a multi national billion-dollar company. He is a graduated student of http://www.homeincomeuniversity.com

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By Steven Gerber

If your affiliate-marketing program is not generating as much cash as you expected, you may be doing it wrong or you do not have the right affiliate-marketing program. You should look for the best affiliate program that will make you earn a substantial amount of income.

It is a fact that many people who have chosen the best affiliate-marketing program have earned a lot of money. They even considered leaving their regular jobs to concentrate on the affiliate marketing program business.

You may think the best affiliate program is not easy to come by and they can cost too much, but the best affiliate program is not really, what it seems. You will find that the best affiliate-marketing program is widely available on the Internet and may only cost you a small amount of money and some are even free.

Many people do not really see that a particular affiliate-marketing program is the best even if they always cross paths with it on the Internet. Therefore, in order to recognize that an affiliate-marketing program is the best, you should know how to look for one.

There are three features you should look for in an affiliate-marketing program, to know that it is the best kind, and will generate an excellent amount of income for you.

The first feature to look for in an affiliate marketing program is it should be easy to duplicate. Choosing an affiliate program should not just be easy to implement and get results in terms of income, it should also be easy for you and others to duplicate. Obviously, the reason for this is so you can duplicate your success and with this, you can duplicate your income.

The second feature you should look for in an affiliate program is it should have tasks that have to be repeated everyday. This feature is a sign the affiliate-marketing program is one of the best. It has an income earning potential. With repeated tasks daily, you can expect this program will get you the best results from any marketing program.

The third feature that an affiliate-marketing program will have is it will take in many people who will otherwise not even give it a second look. Many people who see affiliate programs like this tend to think, will this affiliate program work? In fact, affiliate programs like these are what super affiliates use in order to profit a lot of money from and spend little for it. People usually ignore these things.

So, the next time you are looking for the best affiliate-marketing program, consider these three features and look for them in an affiliate-marketing program. You will see that it is widely available on the Internet. All you have to do is find the one that is suited to your website.

By having a good affiliate-marketing program, you will be able to earn a lot of money from it. You should also expect that it will require little maintenance and will generate a substantial amount of income for you and your family. Who knows, maybe this is the answer to all your financial needs. With the best kind of affiliate marketing program Science Articles, you will be able to earn a lot of money, and worry less about maintaining your website.

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

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By Elias Georgi

One of the fundamental choices many new successful home business operators must deal with is how to continue growing their income levels once they have found their way through the initial stages of start up and growth. Expansion of your operations usually involves more space and hiring people to assist in growing their business.

A decision to expand operations cannot be taken lightly. You have been very successful operating your home business out of your home and income has met your expectations, yet you feel there are more opportunities available. These are fundamental decisions every successful entrepreneur must make since it involves more responsibility.

One of the most significant items to consider is the increase in overhead costs; rental of space, additional equipment, additional supplies, and inventory, as well as employees to pay. These are a few of the items to consider as part of your decision to expand your work at home income level.

The increase in sales and revenue must be able to carry these expenses. The first step is to evaluate how much additional revenue must be generated to cover the increased cost. Margin levels may change, so it is important to assess this level as well. Many entrepreneurs fail to ensure there are sufficient levels of margin to cover their expenses and provide them with profit.

Leveraging your business with increased sales is definitely the way to go. With the proper levels of assessment and planning, entrepreneurs will be able to facilitate the success of their initial business to evolve into a large business operation. As you expand, there are items you overlooked that were not factored into the cost of operation.

For example, training of new employees or subcontractors is also considered overhead and missed by many. Training materials, as well as, time to learn the various tasks need to be allocated and paid for. Many employees are there to earn a living, not to build a business. When quitting time comes, they leave their jobs even though there may be customers waiting for service or work piling up. Entrepreneurs who are invested financially and emotionally often have a very difficult time adjusting to these attitudes.

Finally, you may decide to use a bank loan to leverage your business and grow it. Your bank may request income statements and you must be able to show progress financially month over month towards profitability, in addition to paying your loan. Neither the entrepreneur, nor the bank relishes this role as investor; they will sometimes become quite involved in daily operations from a financial perspective.

Managing these types of issues takes more and more time from daily operations and productionFind Article, which also must be accounted for as you expand your home business income levels.

Elias Georgi is an experienced and successful sponsor, mentor and coach for many thriving, tested and proven home businesses. Elias offers proven Internet opportunities and strategies. Visit his Website: work at home business opportunities (http://www.eliasg.com/), he also runs the article directory (http://www.exclusive-article.com/)

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By Steven Gerber

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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By Steven Gerber

Sometimes staying at home has its own advantages. Not going to work on the other hand may pose other problems. For instance, where will you get the money to finance your daily expenses? Some people may just laugh about this fact, but staying at home does not necessarily mean that you cannot earn money.

Yes, you heard it right. You can actually make money even if you do not leave the house. How you might ask, it is through reseller programs. Many people are attracted to take part in many forums on the net, and most people are into affiliate marketing. Why not participate in a different venture like reseller programs.

If you have second thoughts, then first familiarize yourself with what reseller programs are. It is simple; a reseller program means that you will be a retailer for a certain company. So how do you do this? Start by signing up for a reselling program. The company, which supports the program, will tell you what products you are going to sell, and the equal charge for each item sold. In most cases, you will need your own website, and this is where you are going to sell your products. If a certain customer is interested, put all his/her personal information in your control panel, and the hosting company will be the one to set them up for a particular program.

There are also companies that provide a website, and you will just build it according to your preferences and set the prices. This is much better because the website is already there, and you just need to make little improvements so the site will suit your preference.

There are free programs, while others require you to pay membership fees or set up fees. Do a bit of research on the different reseller programs. You can find one that will work for you.

Reseller programs are potential income generators, especially for those who want to conduct a living in their homes. Although this is less popular compared to the affiliates, it also offers opportunities for earning income. You just need to get things done in the proper manner. It requires low maintenance but produces high profit for financial independence.

Being a reseller does not make you an employee of a certain company. You act independently. You will be paid based on the sign ups made and this will done on a recurring basis. This means you can do the work at your most preferred time.

Before signing up for any reseller program, there are certain things to consider.

First, identify what you want to resell. Almost all hosting companies prefer outsourcing so they can focus more on running their business.

Then choose among the programs available on the internet. Make sure you choose one having a positive record and already well established. Do not jump at offerings, which promises high yields, yet is not well experienced or established.

After choosing the program, its time to attract prospects Psychology Articles, and the best way is to look for smaller firms or individuals.

Hosting companies prefer reseller programs because they are able to cut down costs on staffing and/or equipments. They only need to pay a minimal amount in exchange for your services. It would be best to find a particular situation in which you will be comfortable to resell in order to be successful in this venture.

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

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By Mal Keenan

Increase Your Google AdSense Income with Simple Two Minute and Highly Effective Changes...

I have been adding Google AdSense to my websites for a couple of years now with great success. It is amazing how AdSense earnings can turn into another significant monthly income stream with little effort on your part. Once the ads are added to your site, there is little or no maintenance.

Some internet marketers are earning $100s and even $1000s per day with AdSense. Although I have not reached that level, I have learned a little over the years to make the most profit from the AdSense ads on my pages.

Here are my five most effective ways to maximize your AdSense earnings:

1. Blend the Ads in with your Site - Create colors for your ads that will blend in with the colors on your website. The idea is to make the ads look less like ads and more like another part of your site. To do this, make the AdSense ad border and background the same color as your website background. Also, make the link text the same color as your website link text. This small change should significantly increase your AdSense click thru rate.

2. Place the Ads Correctly - Place the ads in a prominent position on your website, no point placing the ads where they will not be seen by the vast majority of your websites visitors. The most effective places to position your ads are at the top centre of your site and at the top right hand-side. Website visitor eyes tend to move from top centre to top right so anywhere in this area is good and of course, you can find the most appropriate ads to fit well in these areas.

3. Choose the Most Profitable Ad Format - Through testing it has been found that the most effective Google AdSense format is the (338x280) large rectangle. This ad will outperform all the others, but do not sacrifice the design of your website by squeezing one of these ads in where it will not look right. Placing a large rectangle in the centre of the page is more preferable to putting it in one of the side columns where the layout will be affected.

4. Wrap Your Content - Through proper formatting, you can wrap the content of your site around the ads. This is especially effective when wrapping a website article around a (338x280) ad. If you visit any of my sites that have articles on them, you can see how this looks. For instructions on how to do this, go to Google, and search-("wrap text around Google AdSense").

5. Maintain Relevant Content - Although Google's automatic script for targeting ads to the content of your site is often first class, there are times when it does not match the right ad to your content. The way to avoid this is to place good quality targeted content on your pages. If you are creating websites specifically to earn from Google, then make sure to focus the keywords around one topic. Placing various keywords on a variety of unrelated topics will result in untargeted ads on your site.

The most important point when placing Google AdSense on your websites is to stay within Google's terms of service, which you can find on their site. Many people have lost their AdSense accounts through flirting with dodgy practices in order to increase earnings. This may pay off in the short term, but Google will always catch you in the end.

Mal Keenan is editor and publisher of Home Business Tips Newsletter: Latest home based business ideas (http://www.home-business-tips-newsletter.com/). To Find Out What Was My Greatest Lucky Break in My 6 Years of Frustration, check out: Real home based internet business (http://www.freeadvertz.com/).

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By Steven Gerber

Many people prefer to start a home business on the Internet to provide extra cash or to provide extra income for the household. Aside from their regular jobs, people today are now also starting home businesses. With the increasing prices of basic commodities, you would want some extra money to keep up with the household expenses.

However, you should consider many online businesses. The number of online businesses available tends to create confusion as to which online business is the best kind of business to become involved. One good online home business that you can definitely earn money from is through affiliate programs.

Affiliate programs are now one of the things you will constantly see and hear on the Internet. Because you do not actually need to sell anything, this kind of business is ideal for someone who does not have enough capital to start a home business. In addition, this kind of home business is a good moneymaking venture, recommended for everyone.

You do not have to have an MBA to start this kind of business. All you need is a website with a particular theme. For example, if you are a fitness expert, you can take advantage of this knowledge not only in the gym as a fitness trainer, but you can also use this knowledge for an affiliate program business. Try to build a website that has a fitness-training topic. You can compose an article about fitness training and post them in your website.

After making a website about fitness, you can now choose an affiliate program representing the same niche. It can be about fitness supplements, such as protein powders or pills, or it can also be about fitness equipment. This will be like a banner or advertising on your website. Once someone clicks on that banner or advertising, the visitor is directed to your affiliate company's website where all the fitness products are displayed for them to buy. They will enter the website with your name as the person who referred that person to the company's website. If they purchase something, you will automatically earn a commission for every product purchased.

Now you know how affiliate programs work. Now you have to learn how to let people online know that your website exists. You have to advertise your website in order to generate targeted traffic. One way to do this is by publishing articles related to your website's niche in popular article publishing websites. You have to remember that you should include your website's URL in order to let them click on the link included in the article and instantly direct them to your website.

Since your article is related to your website's niche, you can be sure that people who are reading your article is interested in visiting your website. This means you will be increasing the chances of generating targeted traffic and decreasing spam traffic.

Remember the key to affiliate program is laser-targeted traffic. This is why you should advertise your website well. Spend a little money on programs that will improve your chances of generating targeted traffic. There are many ways you can generate targeted traffic Free Reprint Articles, and making articles, and publishing them on article publishing websites is just one of them.

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

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By Mark Spall

Most marketing gurus now agree on two key facts that apply to almost any business:

* it takes at least seven ‘touches’ to turn a prospect into a sale.
* it costs at least seven times as much to secure a new customer as to keep an existing one.

Which means every successful business needs to have three tools at its disposal:

* One to secure the loyalty of its customer base.
* A second, to deliver those seven ‘touches’ after a prospective client first makes contact.
* A third, that allows existing satisfied customers to pass referrals to friends, colleagues, and contacts.

In addition, one simple marketing technique can do all three jobs – efficiently, measurably, and cost-effectively. That tool is a carefully crafted and targeted newsletter.

Groaning at the thought of the effort required on your part. Then groan no more! There are companies out there that will design, write, and deliver your newsletter! All you have to do is service the extra business that will generate from your client base.

Knowing there are people who will do the painful stuff for you, read on to find how newsletters make such a difference.

It is a fair bet that someone out there right now is ready to buy what you are selling. However, they will buy from your competition, either because they do not know you, or because they have forgotten about you.

With newsletters, you can reach out on a regular basis to your customer base. This valuable content will raise your profile, encourage repeat business, generate referrals, and be a permanent reminder of your brand and the value you offer.

…but it has to be professional!

Keeping your existing customers should be at the front of your mind. In fact, it should be the first thing you think about when you are looking at the marketing budget. This is where carefully targeted spending can and will deliver the best return on investment.

A quality newsletter, delivered just often enough (but not too often), and offering something genuinely interesting or valuable to your customers, will ensure that customers are:

* reminded about your company, and its products and services, at regular intervals
* inspired and excited by stories from other satisfied clients
* informed about new offerings – and, perhaps, given valuable introductory offers
* encouraged to pass on your details to friends and colleagues

Many businesses make the mistake of writing a newsletter ‘in-house’, – but its common knowledge that unless a business specializes in copywriting and design, it can accidentally create a lasting negative impression, and do more harm than good.

For example:

Imagine: You have just opened a bookstore. Your first customer comes in. They probably will only say ‘hello’ to you. Then they will start looking at the books – browsing. If you are very lucky, they will buy one. More likely, they will put the book back on the shelf, and depart without more ado.

So how would you respond?

Well, you could say ‘Excuse me, are you planning to buy a book?’
You could say, ‘This isn’t a library, you know.’
Alternatively, you could say, ‘That’s an interesting one, isn’t it? Have you seen his latest?’

In other words, you could actively encourage that customer to come back and keep browsing until they find something they want to buy.

A good newsletter is just like that. It was not written to sell your product directly – or at the very least, not all the time. It was written to encourage active browsing. To make your visitors come back to your website, repeatedly, until they are ready to buy. Think about that bookshop again. Suppose, as your browser was leaving, you said this: ‘I can see you’re a keen reader. Would you like to sign up for our free newsletter?’ Why is that so important? Well, think about it. If the customer says ‘yes’ you’re going to get their name and address. You are going to be able to send things to them – and get a better idea of their likes and dislikes.

In addition, you will know that when there is a new thriller on the market, that first customer will be eagerly awaiting the chance to buy it. The equivalent tool on your website is a form inviting visitors to sign up to the newsletter – and it should be there on every page. Because what you really want, is that visitor’s e-mail address – along with their permission to send them your newsletter. In marketing terms, that is pure gold. In the course of time, you will be able to build up an ever-growing list of people who are actively interested in what you do. You really could not ask for much more!

Therefore, your first contact with that customer was not a sale. It was that friendly invitation to sign up for your newsletter. The sale came much later – possibly after six or seven newsletters.

To sum up:

A good newsletter can:

* Secure the loyalty of existing customers – and remind them about the full range of products/services you offer
* Win the confidence and interest of potential new customers who have paid only one visit to your website
* Make it easy for existing customers to pass referrals to people they know who are likely to be interested.

Mark Spall is a Business Coach and helps his clients with practical advice on how to develop their businesses. More on using newsletters to power drive your business can be found at http://tinyurl.com/ylaqew.

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By Delia Passi

Salesperson Rick escorts prospective customer Sandra to the door, and shakes her hand, then turns back to his office.

Rick (to himself): “That went great. I managed to hit every selling point and ask all the important questions. I am sure she is confident that we have what she wants. She will go home, get permission from her husband and probably bring him back, and sign the papers. If I don’t hear from her by the end of the week, I’ll follow up.”

Sandra (to herself): “What a waste of time, and like I have time to waste! I do not think he listened once to what I was saying, or maybe he was too preoccupied trying to get through his pitch. I hope I find someone soon who will be the right person to help me find the right car and the best deal. This is so frustrating.”

Selling is a communication process. Communication means the transmission of ideas or information. With women, the communication process becomes a bit more complex than just making your pitch or gathering information. It is apparent through my many years of training salespeople that selling to women is harder than selling to men. Women take longer, need more input, expect service that is more attentive, and require more follow-up. I have heard the same story repeatedly: Women are tougher customers to do business with