By - Suzanne Morrison
<)))
I have been a member of the IAHBE (International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs for 3 years now and have found it to be an invaluable resource for the latest home business related news, tutorials, tips sofware and books, as well as a great way to get your hands on a number of great books, audios and software for free!
The International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs was launched back in January 2002 and has thousands of members from all round the globe.
I've put together a brief FAQ style review of the IAHBE so you can decide whether or not it is the right online business resource for you and your home business.
What are the benefits of an IAHBE membership?
The main benefit of the IAHBE is the massive wealth of information and resources for your home business. Your membership includes the following:
1) An Intropak worth over $1000
Everyone who joins the IAHBE receives a pack of gifts, valuable discounts and information worth over $1000. At the time of writing this includes:
- A free book "The Home Business Revolution's Greatest Entrepreneurs"
- A free subscription to the Home Business Connection magazine
- A free audio cassette "Underpaid and Overtaxed?"
- Free 30 day trial of Affiliate Mastery
- 15 Free Leads
- Five books by the Fortune Now author and world renowned business speaker and trainer, Tom "Big Al" Schreiter for the price of one
- Generous Discounts on various other books, advertising, business cards and more
2) Access to the IAHBE Learning Center
This is a huge password protected collection of articles, audio tutorials, seminars, business E-Books, software for both PCs and Macs, marketing courses and various other resources to help you with your home business. The IAHBE includes both US specific information and international information.
3) Freebies each month
The IAHBE membership also includes physical freebies each month. For example, this month the membership included a book worth $26 "The New Culture of Desire" by Melinda Davis and a year's subscription to the magazine "PC Magazine" worth $131!
Are there any disadvantages?
Although the majority of the resources in the IAHBE website can be used by anyone regardless of where they live, the free magazine subscriptions are generally only available to those who live in the USA and the free books do have a higher shipping charge for those who are not based in the US. Despite this, there is still lots of useful resources for international members to make their membership worthwhile.
What is the cost?
The cost of the IAHBE membership is US$29.95 per month. If you are a member of SFI this will also qualify you as an Executive Affiliate (EA) for the lifetime of your membership, which will allow you to earn extra commission.
Are there any guarantees?
There is a 30 day money back guarantee. If you dislike the IAHBE you can just cancel your membership within 30 days, no questions asked and you will receive a full refund.
How do I sign up?
Just visit the IAHBE website or become a member of SFI and purchase the IAHBE through the affiliate store.
About The Author
Suzanne Morrison works full time from home and is the webmaster of Home Business Ideas. You can find out more about the IAHBE here.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
What is Preconstruction Real Estate Investing?
By - Karen Kusumakar
<)))
Investing in pre-construction real estate is one of the most profitable investing opportunities available in the market today. Even though it’s a fairly old strategy, very few investors have a good understanding of it. Preconstruction real estate investing can be best explained with an example:
A developer is planning to build a 100 unit condominium development in a very popular location. The developer has already worked out the numbers and thinks that the project will make a handsome profit. Since he doesn’t have the required amount of capital to complete a project of such magnitude, he approaches banks to request financing.
But before banks lend out millions of dollars to the developer, they want to know that the project has the potential to sell after completion. Since there is no way to know the future and banks like to reduce risk as much as possible, they require the developer to pre-sell a certain number of the units (usually 25%-50%) before they will lend money. In this example a bank agrees to finance the developer if 40% of the units are sold before construction begins.
There are very few home buyers who are going to commit to buying something without actually seeing it with their naked eyes. So the developer has no choice but to approach real estate investors who understand the risk and reward of such ventures. In order to reward these investors for their risk, the developer gives them a 10% discount off the appraised value (after construction value) of the condos if they sign a purchase agreement (contract).
This creates a win-win situation where the developer is able to secure financing and the investors are able to get built-in equity by getting the property below appraised value. The investors who buy these condos before the construction is completed are called pre-construction investors, and this investment strategy is called preconstruction investing.
In this example it was a development from the ground up, but the term “pre-construction investing” can be used for any purchase made before the actual completion of a real estate development. The development may be from ground up or just a renovation project i.e. A condo conversion project where preconstruction investors buy before the renovation is complete is also an example of pre construction investing.
In general, pre construction pricing is 5% - 15% lower than the market value of the finished property. Sometimes the developer may offer other financial incentives instead of a price discount. Some examples include cash back after closing, closing cost credit, free upgrades, rental guarantee or lease back, paid property taxes, waive assessments waived, management fees waived, etc. However, in most cases the developer will offer a combination of a price discount and other financial incentives in order make the deal sweeter for preconstruction investors.
After the construction or renovation is complete, pre construction investors’ have two options to exit. Either they sell their property and make a quick profit, or they can hold the property as a long term investment and build equity. Sometimes investors can also profit by assigning the contract to a fellow investor for a small profit even before assuming title to the property.
Below is summary of the process of preconstruction investing:
The pre construction investor buys a house, condo or townhouse from a reputed developer in the preconstruction phase at a price discount and/or other financial incentives.
The pre-construction investor waits for the construction or renovations to be completed.
After completion of the construction or renovation, the preconstruction investor sells the property immediately for a profit. Or the pre construction investor holds the property to build additional equity due to appreciation and by paying off principal using the rental income. In some cases, exit by assignments is also possible.
About The Author
Karen Kusumakar is the co-founder of Preconstructionfind.com and is an expert at bringing profitable pre construction projects to real estate investors. For a current list of preconstruction condo & home opportunities please visit http://www.preconstructionfind.com
<)))
Investing in pre-construction real estate is one of the most profitable investing opportunities available in the market today. Even though it’s a fairly old strategy, very few investors have a good understanding of it. Preconstruction real estate investing can be best explained with an example:
A developer is planning to build a 100 unit condominium development in a very popular location. The developer has already worked out the numbers and thinks that the project will make a handsome profit. Since he doesn’t have the required amount of capital to complete a project of such magnitude, he approaches banks to request financing.
But before banks lend out millions of dollars to the developer, they want to know that the project has the potential to sell after completion. Since there is no way to know the future and banks like to reduce risk as much as possible, they require the developer to pre-sell a certain number of the units (usually 25%-50%) before they will lend money. In this example a bank agrees to finance the developer if 40% of the units are sold before construction begins.
There are very few home buyers who are going to commit to buying something without actually seeing it with their naked eyes. So the developer has no choice but to approach real estate investors who understand the risk and reward of such ventures. In order to reward these investors for their risk, the developer gives them a 10% discount off the appraised value (after construction value) of the condos if they sign a purchase agreement (contract).
This creates a win-win situation where the developer is able to secure financing and the investors are able to get built-in equity by getting the property below appraised value. The investors who buy these condos before the construction is completed are called pre-construction investors, and this investment strategy is called preconstruction investing.
In this example it was a development from the ground up, but the term “pre-construction investing” can be used for any purchase made before the actual completion of a real estate development. The development may be from ground up or just a renovation project i.e. A condo conversion project where preconstruction investors buy before the renovation is complete is also an example of pre construction investing.
In general, pre construction pricing is 5% - 15% lower than the market value of the finished property. Sometimes the developer may offer other financial incentives instead of a price discount. Some examples include cash back after closing, closing cost credit, free upgrades, rental guarantee or lease back, paid property taxes, waive assessments waived, management fees waived, etc. However, in most cases the developer will offer a combination of a price discount and other financial incentives in order make the deal sweeter for preconstruction investors.
After the construction or renovation is complete, pre construction investors’ have two options to exit. Either they sell their property and make a quick profit, or they can hold the property as a long term investment and build equity. Sometimes investors can also profit by assigning the contract to a fellow investor for a small profit even before assuming title to the property.
Below is summary of the process of preconstruction investing:
The pre construction investor buys a house, condo or townhouse from a reputed developer in the preconstruction phase at a price discount and/or other financial incentives.
The pre-construction investor waits for the construction or renovations to be completed.
After completion of the construction or renovation, the preconstruction investor sells the property immediately for a profit. Or the pre construction investor holds the property to build additional equity due to appreciation and by paying off principal using the rental income. In some cases, exit by assignments is also possible.
About The Author
Karen Kusumakar is the co-founder of Preconstructionfind.com and is an expert at bringing profitable pre construction projects to real estate investors. For a current list of preconstruction condo & home opportunities please visit http://www.preconstructionfind.com
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
7 Steps Of Mega Adsense Earners
By - Andrew Daum
<)))
The Google AdSense program is like finding money in the street.
Kids in High School are making thousands of dollars a month with Adsense... Housewives, Retiree's, Mom and Pop's who've never made a dime on the Internet have created full time incomes by simply placing AdSense Ads on their web site or blog.
Then you have the "Super AdSense" earners. We have all heard of them... the Elite few who are on track to make half a million dollars a year or more promoting AdSense sites.
Do not be mistaken though... these people are not building like your Mom and Pop's do. They have systems in place that create sites for them... people who build sites for them... they have outsourced and automated many of the tedious tasks such as posting to blogs and searching for keywords.
While most people cannot emulate everything these Super AdSense earners do... many of them you can.
Here are 7 Required Steps you can implement today to copy their success.
1) Starting today... treat your AdSense business like it is a REAL business and track what you do.
Begin tracking what you are doing that works... as well as what you are doing that does not work. This will keep you from making the same mistakes over and over, and you can repeat the steps that have worked in the past. As simple as this step seems... most people do not know the reason(s) to their success or failure.
2) Utilize the latest tools and software available.
The Super AdSense earners are not any smarter than your average person. I know many people think they are... but for the most part, they are regular non techie people.
They are smarter in one respect though... they use the latest tools available to them to automate most of the tasks involved with researching and creating sites. They use the latest keyword, site creation and search engine optimization tools available. The tools they use are their secret weapons.
3) Quit chasing the Mega Dollar keywords.
You cannot compete with the search engine experts who create sites for the $80 payout keywords. You may get lucky every now and then... but in the long run, you are better off building sites for the low to mid range payout keywords. The competition is less, and your chance of success is much higher over the long term.
4) Choose broad niches and break it down.
Choose a broad subject as your main theme (lets use computers for an example). From there... break it down into as many sub niches as possible.
Using Computers as the example... you could build sub niches/sites like laptop computers, computer hard drives, computer keyboards, etc, etc. You could literally build hundreds of sites around one major theme and stay totally focused. Once you have exhausted every possible sub niche of that major theme... choose another main theme and repeat the process.
5) KISS
Keep your sites easy to navigate and forget the fancy graphics that distract your visitors attention. Unless you are just building AdSense sites for the fun of it and to impress your friends... the purpose of having the site is to have people click on one of the ads, right? Then keep the site layout simple... dump the scrolling banners, dancing chickens and colored scroll bars... they are distractions.
6) What is the purpose of your web site?
Your web site cannot be everything to everybody. If you have a full fledged ecommerce site, with products for sale... links to other products, it is not a good site for AdSense. If the primary focus of the site is to sell products... let it do that.
Do not distract or confuse your visitor with to many options or choices. The best AdSense sites are AdSense only content sites that sell nothing. They are sites that "Tell"... not "Sell."
7) Be consistent.
This is not one of those deals where you build one site and you are done. Refer back to Step #4. You must continuously build in order to be successful.
Think of it as planting a crop that you will harvest in a month or two, and the sites you build are seeds. Once the seeds have grown and matured... you will reap the harvest. The more seeds you plant... the larger the harvest.
To sum it up... utilize the tools available to automate as much of the process of building sites - doing research and building keyword lists as you can. This alone will help keep you organized and on track. Be consistent in building... treat it like the business it is and you will reap the rewards of your harvest.
About The Author
Andrew Daum is the Publisher of the New Traffic Tools Newsletter. You can subscribe by visiting his web site at; http://www.newtraffictools.com/ and receive updates when the latest to be released traffic building software is available.
<)))
The Google AdSense program is like finding money in the street.
Kids in High School are making thousands of dollars a month with Adsense... Housewives, Retiree's, Mom and Pop's who've never made a dime on the Internet have created full time incomes by simply placing AdSense Ads on their web site or blog.
Then you have the "Super AdSense" earners. We have all heard of them... the Elite few who are on track to make half a million dollars a year or more promoting AdSense sites.
Do not be mistaken though... these people are not building like your Mom and Pop's do. They have systems in place that create sites for them... people who build sites for them... they have outsourced and automated many of the tedious tasks such as posting to blogs and searching for keywords.
While most people cannot emulate everything these Super AdSense earners do... many of them you can.
Here are 7 Required Steps you can implement today to copy their success.
1) Starting today... treat your AdSense business like it is a REAL business and track what you do.
Begin tracking what you are doing that works... as well as what you are doing that does not work. This will keep you from making the same mistakes over and over, and you can repeat the steps that have worked in the past. As simple as this step seems... most people do not know the reason(s) to their success or failure.
2) Utilize the latest tools and software available.
The Super AdSense earners are not any smarter than your average person. I know many people think they are... but for the most part, they are regular non techie people.
They are smarter in one respect though... they use the latest tools available to them to automate most of the tasks involved with researching and creating sites. They use the latest keyword, site creation and search engine optimization tools available. The tools they use are their secret weapons.
3) Quit chasing the Mega Dollar keywords.
You cannot compete with the search engine experts who create sites for the $80 payout keywords. You may get lucky every now and then... but in the long run, you are better off building sites for the low to mid range payout keywords. The competition is less, and your chance of success is much higher over the long term.
4) Choose broad niches and break it down.
Choose a broad subject as your main theme (lets use computers for an example). From there... break it down into as many sub niches as possible.
Using Computers as the example... you could build sub niches/sites like laptop computers, computer hard drives, computer keyboards, etc, etc. You could literally build hundreds of sites around one major theme and stay totally focused. Once you have exhausted every possible sub niche of that major theme... choose another main theme and repeat the process.
5) KISS
Keep your sites easy to navigate and forget the fancy graphics that distract your visitors attention. Unless you are just building AdSense sites for the fun of it and to impress your friends... the purpose of having the site is to have people click on one of the ads, right? Then keep the site layout simple... dump the scrolling banners, dancing chickens and colored scroll bars... they are distractions.
6) What is the purpose of your web site?
Your web site cannot be everything to everybody. If you have a full fledged ecommerce site, with products for sale... links to other products, it is not a good site for AdSense. If the primary focus of the site is to sell products... let it do that.
Do not distract or confuse your visitor with to many options or choices. The best AdSense sites are AdSense only content sites that sell nothing. They are sites that "Tell"... not "Sell."
7) Be consistent.
This is not one of those deals where you build one site and you are done. Refer back to Step #4. You must continuously build in order to be successful.
Think of it as planting a crop that you will harvest in a month or two, and the sites you build are seeds. Once the seeds have grown and matured... you will reap the harvest. The more seeds you plant... the larger the harvest.
To sum it up... utilize the tools available to automate as much of the process of building sites - doing research and building keyword lists as you can. This alone will help keep you organized and on track. Be consistent in building... treat it like the business it is and you will reap the rewards of your harvest.
About The Author
Andrew Daum is the Publisher of the New Traffic Tools Newsletter. You can subscribe by visiting his web site at; http://www.newtraffictools.com/ and receive updates when the latest to be released traffic building software is available.
Monday, June 25, 2007
The Art Of Building Your Downline – How Numbers Add Up
By - Alan Johnson
<)))
First of all, I’m not going to waste your time (or mine, for that matter) by illustrating the history of MLM, or by insisting on other general aspects.
If you have no idea what MLM represents, if you are unaware as to the meaning of the terms “upline”, “downline”, “referrer” or “referral”, then you need to be doing some serious reading (I suggest bookmarking this article, and documenting yourself on MLM in general before reading further).
OK, you know what MLM is all about, and want to start earning some money.
You see headline after headline, promise after promise: “earn thousands of dollars monthly by simply referring your friends”/”achieve financial freedom by joining our program”.
Before joining any MLM, you need to stop fooling yourself into thinking you will become rich overnight and understand what exactly you are getting yourself into.
After all, you can’t win at a game without knowing the rules, can you?
Are high earnings possible with MLM programs? Yes.
But, things look a lot easier on paper than they are in practice.
A 4-figure income is possible, even 5-figures are not out of reach, but don’t think you will ever even get close to such earnings just by inviting a couple of friends to join under you and leaving things at that.
As you know, MLM stands for “MultiLevelMarketing”. What does the term “MultiLevel” suggest?
Exactly, the fact that you earn not just from people you invite directly, but also from the ones your referrals invite, and so forth (the actual number of “levels” is different from program to program).
The name of the game is having a healthy downline, in other words, having active referrals (referrals capable of promoting/ referring).
Do you think you can succeed by simply inviting a couple of people to join under you and leaving it at that?
Think twice, you have about the same changes of “getting lucky” as you do at winning the lottery.
The bottom line is that very few members of your downline, if any, will actually prove to be active promoters, and just standing by will not do you any good.
If you want a solid downline, you cannot expect things to work themselves out, because they simply won’t, and your earnings will reflect that attitude.
“Passive income”, doesn’t mean that you earn money for doing absolutely nothing, it means that, if you do your job right, at a certain point, your downline will naturally increase, without you actively participating in the process.
Note the wording: “at a certain point”
It’s reaching that “certain point” that separates winners from losers.
And what exactly is your job, as the referrer, you ask?
It most certainly isn’t inviting people to join your downline and leaving things at that.
Your job is training your downline, offering them all the tools and support they need to become active promoters. Don’t assume your referrals are born promoters, assume the contrary and train them to become such, the results will be well worth your efforts.
How to train them?
First of all, they need your full support. By e-mail, by phone, by video conference, by whatever means necessary. Don’t turn your back on them, answer all of their concerns calmly, patiently and don’t keep them waiting too long. Fast, quality support can and will get you far.
Secondly, set yourself as an example. Show them how it’s done, explain your techniques, share your results. Nothing encourages referrals to be active more than having their upline as an example.
Also, add a community “feel” to your downline, make your referrals feel right at home. Set up a special forum for them to interact with another, and, of course, with you, hold conference calls, anything you can think of that could encourage them to stay in contact with you, aswell as with their own referrals.
Another important aspect: not all of your referrals are expert web-designers, in fact, you will find that a lot of them would like to promote their referral link online, yet have problems with starting a website. As you imagine, if you provide them with the tools, you have another active member as a part of your team.
Be supportive, be unique (you have to, if you want people to choose you as their upline over another person), be understanding and calm, and your odds at success are looking better and better.
About the Author: This articles has been brought to you by Alan Johnson, experienced web marketer and owner of AglocoVIP – build your downline with the leading agloco promotion team
<)))
First of all, I’m not going to waste your time (or mine, for that matter) by illustrating the history of MLM, or by insisting on other general aspects.
If you have no idea what MLM represents, if you are unaware as to the meaning of the terms “upline”, “downline”, “referrer” or “referral”, then you need to be doing some serious reading (I suggest bookmarking this article, and documenting yourself on MLM in general before reading further).
OK, you know what MLM is all about, and want to start earning some money.
You see headline after headline, promise after promise: “earn thousands of dollars monthly by simply referring your friends”/”achieve financial freedom by joining our program”.
Before joining any MLM, you need to stop fooling yourself into thinking you will become rich overnight and understand what exactly you are getting yourself into.
After all, you can’t win at a game without knowing the rules, can you?
Are high earnings possible with MLM programs? Yes.
But, things look a lot easier on paper than they are in practice.
A 4-figure income is possible, even 5-figures are not out of reach, but don’t think you will ever even get close to such earnings just by inviting a couple of friends to join under you and leaving things at that.
As you know, MLM stands for “MultiLevelMarketing”. What does the term “MultiLevel” suggest?
Exactly, the fact that you earn not just from people you invite directly, but also from the ones your referrals invite, and so forth (the actual number of “levels” is different from program to program).
The name of the game is having a healthy downline, in other words, having active referrals (referrals capable of promoting/ referring).
Do you think you can succeed by simply inviting a couple of people to join under you and leaving it at that?
Think twice, you have about the same changes of “getting lucky” as you do at winning the lottery.
The bottom line is that very few members of your downline, if any, will actually prove to be active promoters, and just standing by will not do you any good.
If you want a solid downline, you cannot expect things to work themselves out, because they simply won’t, and your earnings will reflect that attitude.
“Passive income”, doesn’t mean that you earn money for doing absolutely nothing, it means that, if you do your job right, at a certain point, your downline will naturally increase, without you actively participating in the process.
Note the wording: “at a certain point”
It’s reaching that “certain point” that separates winners from losers.
And what exactly is your job, as the referrer, you ask?
It most certainly isn’t inviting people to join your downline and leaving things at that.
Your job is training your downline, offering them all the tools and support they need to become active promoters. Don’t assume your referrals are born promoters, assume the contrary and train them to become such, the results will be well worth your efforts.
How to train them?
First of all, they need your full support. By e-mail, by phone, by video conference, by whatever means necessary. Don’t turn your back on them, answer all of their concerns calmly, patiently and don’t keep them waiting too long. Fast, quality support can and will get you far.
Secondly, set yourself as an example. Show them how it’s done, explain your techniques, share your results. Nothing encourages referrals to be active more than having their upline as an example.
Also, add a community “feel” to your downline, make your referrals feel right at home. Set up a special forum for them to interact with another, and, of course, with you, hold conference calls, anything you can think of that could encourage them to stay in contact with you, aswell as with their own referrals.
Another important aspect: not all of your referrals are expert web-designers, in fact, you will find that a lot of them would like to promote their referral link online, yet have problems with starting a website. As you imagine, if you provide them with the tools, you have another active member as a part of your team.
Be supportive, be unique (you have to, if you want people to choose you as their upline over another person), be understanding and calm, and your odds at success are looking better and better.
About the Author: This articles has been brought to you by Alan Johnson, experienced web marketer and owner of AglocoVIP – build your downline with the leading agloco promotion team
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Increase Links Naturally with Link Popularity Building (LPB)
By - Wendy Suto
<)))
Businesses can gain a competitive edge with Google and other significant search engines through relevant link building strategies. The search engines track links in ranking algorithms while crawling the Web. It is advantageous to grow the number of incoming links to your company’s site alongside effective search engine optimization techniques.
There are numerous link building solutions.
1. Free and paid link directories
Link directories all provide either one-way or reciprocal links. Some are free, while others are paid only. Link directories are beneficial because Websites that place your link on their site without requesting a link back to their site are considered more valuable than reciprocal or link exchanges, in the eyes of major search engines. There are many reputable directory sites that are well trafficked by potential buyers for your product. You will find one-way and reciprocal link directories by typing into any search engine search box, keywords like “submit a link”, “add a URL”, or “add link”.
Some small business owners will only link to sites that link back to their site. This creates reciprocal links pages and triangular link patterns. Reciprocal links do not improve a Website’s rankings, and should only be done to give value to site visitors. This is not a savvy SEO tactic or a wise link building practice. Stay clear of SEO companies who use these link exchange strategies; they are not considered real SEOs by other professionals in the field.
2. Corporate Blogging
This is an ever growing Internet trend gaining in popularity with businesses – corporate blogs. Blogging started as personal spaces for individuals to share their thoughts and the events around them, like an online diary. Corporate blogging is then defined as another way to publish business-related content and gain more visibility for your company on the Web. By offering information and sharing knowledge, a company can quickly establish itself as a leading industry expert, get information to customers quickly, increase sales, attract journalists seeking news releases, and attract new customers looking for relevant information.
3. Article Directory Submissions
Article directories are sites that house free reprint articles, allowing authors (people like you) to become known as experts in a field or industry. These sites help authors gain one-way link popularity because others seeking free articles to reprint on their newsletters, Websites, blogs and in print can find them here. Reprint articles can only be used elsewhere if providing a link back to the author’s Website. You also receive free advertising and promotion.
4. Press releases
Submit your company’s news releases to sites like PRWeb.com and PRNewswire.com to allow journalists and bloggers to find important information about your company, its products and services. These releases also build links coming to your site, and attract attention from prospective buyers.
5. MySpace.com
This is a tremendous opportunity for free publicity, through networking with prospects from around the world. Place your business profile, your company logo and business pictures, commercials and videos, write comments on other myspace.com profiles, receive email, instant message, and search for prospective clients. MySpace.com also has a business section that is cost effective and a great way to share your business with people searching for a certain product or service. This is another way to increase your link popularity.
6. Yahoo! Answers
This site is relatively new, and lets people in all industries become an expert in their fields. Answer questions in categories related to your expertise. Choose a subject from an extensive list of categories. Create a profile on Yahoo!, and you get to list up to 3 other one-way links. Yahoo! Geocities offers free a Website template and tools to build a simple Website. All these avenues add a host of easy ways to increase Internet visibility for your business.
7. One-Way Links on other Business Sites
Even with these link building strategies, having one-way links are considered much more valuable than link exchanges, also called reciprocal links. One way links from other related business sites or blogs with pertinent subject matter to the Website is an excellent way to drive traffic to your site. Although it is time consuming asking other sites to link to your site, these methods will assist in building stronger link popularity interest among the major search engines.
8. Business Networking Sites
FastPitchMedia.com and LinkedIn.com are two business networking sites that give professionals and business executives many resources under one place. These one-stop shops give professionals a lot of excellent exposure for free, by housing a database of business owners linked to each other’s online networks. Try something new! Create a profile through these sites, and you will reach other decision makers, stay in touch with others in your network, fill a key position, and keep contact information current.
About the Author
Wendy Suto is president and CEO of Search Circus, Inc., an ethical SEO firm specializing in website link popularity and organic search engine optimization, blog marketing, Web site copywriting and article marketing solutions. As a certified search engine optimization consultant, she teaches SEO seminars in Cleveland, Ohio.wendy@searchcircus.com
<)))
Businesses can gain a competitive edge with Google and other significant search engines through relevant link building strategies. The search engines track links in ranking algorithms while crawling the Web. It is advantageous to grow the number of incoming links to your company’s site alongside effective search engine optimization techniques.
There are numerous link building solutions.
1. Free and paid link directories
Link directories all provide either one-way or reciprocal links. Some are free, while others are paid only. Link directories are beneficial because Websites that place your link on their site without requesting a link back to their site are considered more valuable than reciprocal or link exchanges, in the eyes of major search engines. There are many reputable directory sites that are well trafficked by potential buyers for your product. You will find one-way and reciprocal link directories by typing into any search engine search box, keywords like “submit a link”, “add a URL”, or “add link”.
Some small business owners will only link to sites that link back to their site. This creates reciprocal links pages and triangular link patterns. Reciprocal links do not improve a Website’s rankings, and should only be done to give value to site visitors. This is not a savvy SEO tactic or a wise link building practice. Stay clear of SEO companies who use these link exchange strategies; they are not considered real SEOs by other professionals in the field.
2. Corporate Blogging
This is an ever growing Internet trend gaining in popularity with businesses – corporate blogs. Blogging started as personal spaces for individuals to share their thoughts and the events around them, like an online diary. Corporate blogging is then defined as another way to publish business-related content and gain more visibility for your company on the Web. By offering information and sharing knowledge, a company can quickly establish itself as a leading industry expert, get information to customers quickly, increase sales, attract journalists seeking news releases, and attract new customers looking for relevant information.
3. Article Directory Submissions
Article directories are sites that house free reprint articles, allowing authors (people like you) to become known as experts in a field or industry. These sites help authors gain one-way link popularity because others seeking free articles to reprint on their newsletters, Websites, blogs and in print can find them here. Reprint articles can only be used elsewhere if providing a link back to the author’s Website. You also receive free advertising and promotion.
4. Press releases
Submit your company’s news releases to sites like PRWeb.com and PRNewswire.com to allow journalists and bloggers to find important information about your company, its products and services. These releases also build links coming to your site, and attract attention from prospective buyers.
5. MySpace.com
This is a tremendous opportunity for free publicity, through networking with prospects from around the world. Place your business profile, your company logo and business pictures, commercials and videos, write comments on other myspace.com profiles, receive email, instant message, and search for prospective clients. MySpace.com also has a business section that is cost effective and a great way to share your business with people searching for a certain product or service. This is another way to increase your link popularity.
6. Yahoo! Answers
This site is relatively new, and lets people in all industries become an expert in their fields. Answer questions in categories related to your expertise. Choose a subject from an extensive list of categories. Create a profile on Yahoo!, and you get to list up to 3 other one-way links. Yahoo! Geocities offers free a Website template and tools to build a simple Website. All these avenues add a host of easy ways to increase Internet visibility for your business.
7. One-Way Links on other Business Sites
Even with these link building strategies, having one-way links are considered much more valuable than link exchanges, also called reciprocal links. One way links from other related business sites or blogs with pertinent subject matter to the Website is an excellent way to drive traffic to your site. Although it is time consuming asking other sites to link to your site, these methods will assist in building stronger link popularity interest among the major search engines.
8. Business Networking Sites
FastPitchMedia.com and LinkedIn.com are two business networking sites that give professionals and business executives many resources under one place. These one-stop shops give professionals a lot of excellent exposure for free, by housing a database of business owners linked to each other’s online networks. Try something new! Create a profile through these sites, and you will reach other decision makers, stay in touch with others in your network, fill a key position, and keep contact information current.
About the Author
Wendy Suto is president and CEO of Search Circus, Inc., an ethical SEO firm specializing in website link popularity and organic search engine optimization, blog marketing, Web site copywriting and article marketing solutions. As a certified search engine optimization consultant, she teaches SEO seminars in Cleveland, Ohio.wendy@searchcircus.com
Friday, June 22, 2007
7 Search Engine Optimization Strategies That Work!
By - Michael Fleischner
<)))
Although the concept of SEO can be somewhat complex, there are a number of basic search engine optimization practices you should note before starting any SEO related activity. These basic principles are essential for any web page or website for which you are attempting to optimize. Keep in mind that these are just some of the fundamental SEO practices you should consider.
1. MetaTags
Metatags are simple lines of code at the top of your page (source code) that tell the search engines about your page. I recommend that you be sure to include the following meta tags: title (no more than 7 words and unique for each page), keywords, description, author, and robots tag. The robots tag instructs the search engines to read all or some of your website.
2. Create or update your sitemap
Developing a site map is a simple yet highly effective way of giving search engines the information they need to crawl your entire website. This ensures that the engine has an up-to-date record of your pages and content. The key to improving search engine results is making it easy for your website pages to be located and crawled. There is free software on the web (like www.xml-sitemaps.com) that helps you generate a sitemap. Once you create a sitemap for your website, submit to Google and Yahoo. Additionally, place a link to the site map on your home page.
3. Ensure that all navigation is in HTML
Too often I see navigation in the form of java script or images. Even though the navigation technically still works in this format, it’s not optimized. The benefit of creating your navigation in HTML is that you consistently build internal links throughout your website by keeping the navigation constant and easily identified by search engines.
4. Check that all images include ALT text
Your image alt text is spidered by search engines. If you’re not including your keywords in your alt text, your missing out on a huge opportunity for improved search engine result placement. Be sure to label your images appropriately and they may even show up as the number one result on Google. Additionally, Google has a database of images (Google Image Search) that indexes pictures as well.
5. Use Flash content sparingly
As mentioned earlier, content generated through java script or flash is a big no-no. Some webmasters like to use flash because of the presentation. It’s okay to use sparingly, but only after your site has been properly optimized with basic SEO in mind.
6. Make sure that important page elements are HTML
Keep in mind when optimizing a web page crawlers are basically only looking at your source code. Anything you've put together using an image or other multimedia component is likely to be invisible to search engines. Therefore, the most important elements of your page, where the heart of your content is presented, should be presented in W3C optimized HTML source code.
7. Place keywords in your page content the right way
I’m sure you’ve heard the importance of placing the right keywords or keyword phrases in your content. To show the search engines that your article is focused on a particular keyword or keyword phrase, be sure to sprinkle it throughout the content. Additionally, include your keyword in headers and sub-heads. That is to say that your keyword should be contained in an h1, h2, or h3 tag.
Learning to optimize your website for search engines takes time and most of all, patience. Start with the basic principles I’ve outline here and you’re off to a good start. If you’re new to SEO, or even a well seasoned veteran, begin by prioritizing which pages are most important for you to optimize. Sometimes people think that they need to optimize all their pages right away and the task becomes too overwhelming. Start small, begin with your primary and/or secondary pages, and go from there.
About the Author
Michael Fleischner is an Marketing Expert and Search Eninge Optimization Specialist. He has more than 12 years of marketing experience and has appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. Read his blog at http://marketing-expert.blogspot.com.
<)))
Although the concept of SEO can be somewhat complex, there are a number of basic search engine optimization practices you should note before starting any SEO related activity. These basic principles are essential for any web page or website for which you are attempting to optimize. Keep in mind that these are just some of the fundamental SEO practices you should consider.
1. MetaTags
Metatags are simple lines of code at the top of your page (source code) that tell the search engines about your page. I recommend that you be sure to include the following meta tags: title (no more than 7 words and unique for each page), keywords, description, author, and robots tag. The robots tag instructs the search engines to read all or some of your website.
2. Create or update your sitemap
Developing a site map is a simple yet highly effective way of giving search engines the information they need to crawl your entire website. This ensures that the engine has an up-to-date record of your pages and content. The key to improving search engine results is making it easy for your website pages to be located and crawled. There is free software on the web (like www.xml-sitemaps.com) that helps you generate a sitemap. Once you create a sitemap for your website, submit to Google and Yahoo. Additionally, place a link to the site map on your home page.
3. Ensure that all navigation is in HTML
Too often I see navigation in the form of java script or images. Even though the navigation technically still works in this format, it’s not optimized. The benefit of creating your navigation in HTML is that you consistently build internal links throughout your website by keeping the navigation constant and easily identified by search engines.
4. Check that all images include ALT text
Your image alt text is spidered by search engines. If you’re not including your keywords in your alt text, your missing out on a huge opportunity for improved search engine result placement. Be sure to label your images appropriately and they may even show up as the number one result on Google. Additionally, Google has a database of images (Google Image Search) that indexes pictures as well.
5. Use Flash content sparingly
As mentioned earlier, content generated through java script or flash is a big no-no. Some webmasters like to use flash because of the presentation. It’s okay to use sparingly, but only after your site has been properly optimized with basic SEO in mind.
6. Make sure that important page elements are HTML
Keep in mind when optimizing a web page crawlers are basically only looking at your source code. Anything you've put together using an image or other multimedia component is likely to be invisible to search engines. Therefore, the most important elements of your page, where the heart of your content is presented, should be presented in W3C optimized HTML source code.
7. Place keywords in your page content the right way
I’m sure you’ve heard the importance of placing the right keywords or keyword phrases in your content. To show the search engines that your article is focused on a particular keyword or keyword phrase, be sure to sprinkle it throughout the content. Additionally, include your keyword in headers and sub-heads. That is to say that your keyword should be contained in an h1, h2, or h3 tag.
Learning to optimize your website for search engines takes time and most of all, patience. Start with the basic principles I’ve outline here and you’re off to a good start. If you’re new to SEO, or even a well seasoned veteran, begin by prioritizing which pages are most important for you to optimize. Sometimes people think that they need to optimize all their pages right away and the task becomes too overwhelming. Start small, begin with your primary and/or secondary pages, and go from there.
About the Author
Michael Fleischner is an Marketing Expert and Search Eninge Optimization Specialist. He has more than 12 years of marketing experience and has appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. Read his blog at http://marketing-expert.blogspot.com.
Sell Like an eBay Powerseller
By - Michael Ellis
<)))
There isn't a week that goes by without someone asking me how to sell products on eBay. It's a great question! And I enjoy talking about the topic quite a bit, but my answer is always the same - sell like a Powerseller! Here's what I mean...
An eBay Powerseller is someone that generates $1000 or more in sales for three consecutive months. You don't have look too far on eBay to realize that the place is literally crawling with Powersellers.
I've spent over 5 years studying eBay, as well as, buying and selling products under several eBay IDs. I noticed that there are two types of eBay Powersellers:
1. Niche Powersellers
2. On-Demand Powersellers
The Niche Powersellers specialize in a particular area - like antiques, coins, dolls, etc. This particular area is a hobby to these people and they are very good at finding products at a low enough cost within this market to sell for a nice profit. These Powersellers are hard to imitate.
One the other hand, the On-Demand Powersellers are not very familiar with the products they sell, but they are very familiar with what the eBay community wants and how they can go about getting it. I call them On-Demand Powersellers because they seek out products to sell based on the level of demand inthe eBay community. These are the Powersellers that you should try to follow.
A common misconception that new eBay users have is thinking that all Powersellers are large retail outlet doing business on eBay. This simply isn't true. The majority of the Powersellers that I know typically run their business out of a basement or garage. Ebay has a great way of leveling the playing field in this respect. For example, a student can open an account and create ads that are just as enticing as any large company that happens to be selling the same products on ebay.
So how can you do business like On-Demand Powersellers?
That's actually an easy question to answer; obtain a seller's permit, find a demand for a particular product, and then find a wholesale supplier for that particular product.
A seller's permit will allow you to purchase products for wholesale from wholesale venders. This is the first thing any legitimate wholesale company will ask for, and if you don't have one, they could very likely not do business with you.
You can obtain a sellers permit at http://www.businessnameusa.com
You can find the demand for numerous products on eBay by using the eBay 'Hot Items' resource (in link below). This resource consists of (among other things) a 40+ page pdf document that lists which items are hot sellers in the numerous categories. The data is usually for the previous 2 months.
Find out 'What's Hot' on eBay at http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/whatshot.html
After you've identified which items were hot sellers, go to eBay's Advance Search and conduct a search for those products to make sure they're still hot sellers (have plenty of bids). Also do a search for the same product with the 'Completed Items' option in the Advanced Search checked. This will show you which auctions sold and how much they sold for.
Once you have a product in mind, do a search on Google for the manufacture of the product. When you get to the website, look for a contact number, or a 'Dealer inquiry' number. This information is also usually on the box of the product itself, so it may take a run to your local store if you don't have any luck on the web.
Give them a call. Inform them that you run a business and are interested in becoming a dealer of the product. Most are very helpful in getting you setup. However, be aware, some may have a minimum purchase order. Never the less, if you did your eBay research correctly, you'll know how much these items have recently sold for, and how much they are currently selling for, thus, you can be pretty confident that the money will be made back.
I recently came across two Powersellers that are extremely successful doing with this process. One Powerseller had sold over $100,000 worth of those little robotic-vacuuming-Frisbee thingies in 60 days! The other Powerseller does extremely well selling dog chews. Both Powersellers simply identified the demand for these products, then sought out the manufactures and became dealers… the rest is history.
Sincerely,
Michael Ellis
About the Author
Michael Ellis is an Internet technology expert that specializes in marketing products and services online. Be sure to visit Michael's website http://www.victorykey.com/ for FREE Internet Marketing articles, tips and discussion forums.
<)))
There isn't a week that goes by without someone asking me how to sell products on eBay. It's a great question! And I enjoy talking about the topic quite a bit, but my answer is always the same - sell like a Powerseller! Here's what I mean...
An eBay Powerseller is someone that generates $1000 or more in sales for three consecutive months. You don't have look too far on eBay to realize that the place is literally crawling with Powersellers.
I've spent over 5 years studying eBay, as well as, buying and selling products under several eBay IDs. I noticed that there are two types of eBay Powersellers:
1. Niche Powersellers
2. On-Demand Powersellers
The Niche Powersellers specialize in a particular area - like antiques, coins, dolls, etc. This particular area is a hobby to these people and they are very good at finding products at a low enough cost within this market to sell for a nice profit. These Powersellers are hard to imitate.
One the other hand, the On-Demand Powersellers are not very familiar with the products they sell, but they are very familiar with what the eBay community wants and how they can go about getting it. I call them On-Demand Powersellers because they seek out products to sell based on the level of demand inthe eBay community. These are the Powersellers that you should try to follow.
A common misconception that new eBay users have is thinking that all Powersellers are large retail outlet doing business on eBay. This simply isn't true. The majority of the Powersellers that I know typically run their business out of a basement or garage. Ebay has a great way of leveling the playing field in this respect. For example, a student can open an account and create ads that are just as enticing as any large company that happens to be selling the same products on ebay.
So how can you do business like On-Demand Powersellers?
That's actually an easy question to answer; obtain a seller's permit, find a demand for a particular product, and then find a wholesale supplier for that particular product.
A seller's permit will allow you to purchase products for wholesale from wholesale venders. This is the first thing any legitimate wholesale company will ask for, and if you don't have one, they could very likely not do business with you.
You can obtain a sellers permit at http://www.businessnameusa.com
You can find the demand for numerous products on eBay by using the eBay 'Hot Items' resource (in link below). This resource consists of (among other things) a 40+ page pdf document that lists which items are hot sellers in the numerous categories. The data is usually for the previous 2 months.
Find out 'What's Hot' on eBay at http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/whatshot.html
After you've identified which items were hot sellers, go to eBay's Advance Search and conduct a search for those products to make sure they're still hot sellers (have plenty of bids). Also do a search for the same product with the 'Completed Items' option in the Advanced Search checked. This will show you which auctions sold and how much they sold for.
Once you have a product in mind, do a search on Google for the manufacture of the product. When you get to the website, look for a contact number, or a 'Dealer inquiry' number. This information is also usually on the box of the product itself, so it may take a run to your local store if you don't have any luck on the web.
Give them a call. Inform them that you run a business and are interested in becoming a dealer of the product. Most are very helpful in getting you setup. However, be aware, some may have a minimum purchase order. Never the less, if you did your eBay research correctly, you'll know how much these items have recently sold for, and how much they are currently selling for, thus, you can be pretty confident that the money will be made back.
I recently came across two Powersellers that are extremely successful doing with this process. One Powerseller had sold over $100,000 worth of those little robotic-vacuuming-Frisbee thingies in 60 days! The other Powerseller does extremely well selling dog chews. Both Powersellers simply identified the demand for these products, then sought out the manufactures and became dealers… the rest is history.
Sincerely,
Michael Ellis
About the Author
Michael Ellis is an Internet technology expert that specializes in marketing products and services online. Be sure to visit Michael's website http://www.victorykey.com/ for FREE Internet Marketing articles, tips and discussion forums.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Adwords Tactics: Restructure Your Ads Groups Today!
By - Kirt Christensen
<)))
Google's Adwords program is a fantastic resource for generating traffic to your website, high-quality and very targeted to boot, but it does take time to learn the "ins and outs" of the program.
...And that's pretty daunting when it's your own time and money on the line!
So, here's a quick tip from a 10-year veteran of the PPC marketing game, and an easy way to up the ROI you get from Adwords:
An important measure of your Adwords account is how effectively you have your Adgroups arranged.
Don't fall prey to the "rookie" mistake of only creating one or two adgroups per campaign and then stuffing them with hundreds, or thousands, of keywords.
Don't do this, it's begging for trouble!
Trouble in that you'll end up paying way more per click, suffer from lower CTR's due to poor relevance of your ads, and most likely be nailed with poor quality scores.
Always remember, "relevance" is key on Adwords!
And since it's impossible to write ads that are targeted, specific and "relevant" for hundreds of different keywords all in the same adgroup, you need to "break out" keywords into their own adgroups.
For keywords with a lot of clicks, this might mean one keyword (with it's three different match-types) per adgroup, and that's all!
Never have no more than 15 to 21 keywords per adgroup, even for low traffic keywords!
After you spend some time "breaking out" the keywords into fresh adgroups, notice how much easier it is to write extremely focused ads, including the keyword as much as possible in the ads.
Your click-through rates and ROI will increase almost without fail, along with lowering your per click cost!
<)))
Google's Adwords program is a fantastic resource for generating traffic to your website, high-quality and very targeted to boot, but it does take time to learn the "ins and outs" of the program.
...And that's pretty daunting when it's your own time and money on the line!
So, here's a quick tip from a 10-year veteran of the PPC marketing game, and an easy way to up the ROI you get from Adwords:
An important measure of your Adwords account is how effectively you have your Adgroups arranged.
Don't fall prey to the "rookie" mistake of only creating one or two adgroups per campaign and then stuffing them with hundreds, or thousands, of keywords.
Don't do this, it's begging for trouble!
Trouble in that you'll end up paying way more per click, suffer from lower CTR's due to poor relevance of your ads, and most likely be nailed with poor quality scores.
Always remember, "relevance" is key on Adwords!
And since it's impossible to write ads that are targeted, specific and "relevant" for hundreds of different keywords all in the same adgroup, you need to "break out" keywords into their own adgroups.
For keywords with a lot of clicks, this might mean one keyword (with it's three different match-types) per adgroup, and that's all!
Never have no more than 15 to 21 keywords per adgroup, even for low traffic keywords!
After you spend some time "breaking out" the keywords into fresh adgroups, notice how much easier it is to write extremely focused ads, including the keyword as much as possible in the ads.
Your click-through rates and ROI will increase almost without fail, along with lowering your per click cost!
About The Author
Kirt Christensen delivers highly-profitable pay per click management, tracking over half a million dollars of yearly spending for clients that rave about him! http://www.managemypayperclick.com/
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Finding A Legit MLM Program
By - Keith Londrie II
<)))
Almost any MLM program you run into is a legitimate business opportunity. There are, though, as with any business, people out there scamming. If you are dealing with a legal and proper MLM program, they will sell products to the public minus extras or hidden costs. They will also allow you to simply buy, and not force people to become distributors. These proper programs will pay commissions to those who sell actual product, not just for recruiting. Just be aware of the program you are joining and that it does not emphasize the recruitment of new members too highly. These are illegal and immoral and can land you into plenty of trouble.
One particular illegal MLM program to watch for is the pyramid scheme. This is a setup where you will likely be promised amazing profits by investing in the program they are promoting. Any money made is done so through the drawing of new recruits into the “business” rather than from retail sales. In fact, many of the pyramid schemes you encounter will indeed pretend to sell products, but reality it is a ruse. One sign to look for if you suspect you are being drawn into an illegal MLM program is that you will not see any real products. Pyrimid schemes are illegal and are surely no way to make any real money. The only people in these programs that are making any money are at the top level of the pyrimid.
There are some other signs you can look for to know if an MLM program is a scam. Watch for plans that seem more interested in drawing in new recruits than in actually selling product. Another thing to look for are companies that make you invest a lot in inventory before you even get started. If you keep an eye out for such signs, then you can avoid illegal MLM programs. There are MLM programs that are n ot only illegal, but immoral as well. Steer clear of any program that sounds "to good to be true".
Most MLM programs are good ones and they are legit. You can, though, find yourself in scams in a hurry. To avoid such scams, simply watch for warning signs and trust your instincts. Find a legitimate MLM program, though, and you will have your own business in no time. Owning your own legitimate business is one of the best feelings you can get.
About The Author
Keith Londrie II is a well known author. For more information on Identity Theft, please visit MLM Information for a wealth of information. You may also want to visit keith's own web site at keithlondrie.com/
<)))
Almost any MLM program you run into is a legitimate business opportunity. There are, though, as with any business, people out there scamming. If you are dealing with a legal and proper MLM program, they will sell products to the public minus extras or hidden costs. They will also allow you to simply buy, and not force people to become distributors. These proper programs will pay commissions to those who sell actual product, not just for recruiting. Just be aware of the program you are joining and that it does not emphasize the recruitment of new members too highly. These are illegal and immoral and can land you into plenty of trouble.
One particular illegal MLM program to watch for is the pyramid scheme. This is a setup where you will likely be promised amazing profits by investing in the program they are promoting. Any money made is done so through the drawing of new recruits into the “business” rather than from retail sales. In fact, many of the pyramid schemes you encounter will indeed pretend to sell products, but reality it is a ruse. One sign to look for if you suspect you are being drawn into an illegal MLM program is that you will not see any real products. Pyrimid schemes are illegal and are surely no way to make any real money. The only people in these programs that are making any money are at the top level of the pyrimid.
There are some other signs you can look for to know if an MLM program is a scam. Watch for plans that seem more interested in drawing in new recruits than in actually selling product. Another thing to look for are companies that make you invest a lot in inventory before you even get started. If you keep an eye out for such signs, then you can avoid illegal MLM programs. There are MLM programs that are n ot only illegal, but immoral as well. Steer clear of any program that sounds "to good to be true".
Most MLM programs are good ones and they are legit. You can, though, find yourself in scams in a hurry. To avoid such scams, simply watch for warning signs and trust your instincts. Find a legitimate MLM program, though, and you will have your own business in no time. Owning your own legitimate business is one of the best feelings you can get.
About The Author
Keith Londrie II is a well known author. For more information on Identity Theft, please visit MLM Information for a wealth of information. You may also want to visit keith's own web site at keithlondrie.com/
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Losing Money On PPC? Write Articles!
By - Teri Trantanella
<)))
There is another way to promote your business other than pay per click. I made the serious mistake of using PPC to get more traffic to my sites and almost went bankrupt over it! PPC is great if you are already making a fortune on the web, but most of us are still struggling and only wasting our money on PPC. Until you learn how to truly position yourself with PPC to the point of profitable conversions, my suggestion is to write articles about your Internet business. Doing this will increase your traffic remarkably. Plus, the articles provide many other benefits for the site.
Some of the benefits of article writing are higher ranking in search results of keywords pertaining to your site. Articles also increase confidence and trust of customers to our site. The best advantage of writing articles about your site is the linking to your site from the article site or newsletter you submit your article to. If readers enjoy your article they will tell their friends, co-workers, and family about it, providing an even larger volume of traffic.
Internet marketers know that articles are very important to a website. The larger volume of traffic, the greater the sales. Your traffic trusts and believes in you because your articles prove you know what you are doing or talking about and the better your sales will be.
So ok, we have established that articles are very important to a site and to business. Articles are crucial and to keep ahead in the game, a site must have an article, it is imperative. There is one dilemma though, not many people like writing articles.
Many website owners would rather spend their time on something else, and unless you’re a big time company, you don’t have the necessary resources to use on a pool of article writers. Plagiarism or copying of other articles is frowned upon and could easily get you into trouble, worst case scenario; a hefty fine and jail time.
So what are the other options?
Well, for starters if you hate writing articles and you can’t afford to hire people to write for you then don’t. Get free articles. The first place to look at for free articles is the public domain. Here you won’t have problems with copyright infringement and the following penalties and fines if you get caught for plagiarism.
Public domain articles are articles freely given to the public for public use. You can do whatever you want with it. You can place it on your site, name it as yours, put it in a newsletter, it’s your decision. Always remember though that you will have to choose articles that are very relevant to your site.
The downside to public domain articles is that since it is free for everybody, many of your competitors may have access to them as well. Since every site needs to be original and unique even though you have the same niche, this could be a predicament. You may also have to edit them a bit to place more keywords and keyword phrases to make them better.
Another way to get free articles is to allow other sites which have the same subject or topic as yours to submit articles to your site. This would be only to augment your existing content or else all your articles would be leading to other sites since these articles would have resource boxes with them that could link or direct the readers to their site. That’s why it is important to have your own articles; you could use them to link your site to other sites as well.
But, to truly feel the impact of what a good article means to you, go for original ones. There are many article writers who do part time and freelance article writing jobs that charges only minimal fees. You can get good articles that have all the keywords and keyword phrases you need and people are looking for.
The investment you made for these articles would be worthwhile because you could use them for all the benefits you could offer. You hold copyrights to them and you will be able to use them anyway you want. As your articles help you in building your business and your site, you will have more articles to write and maybe then you won’t be having second thoughts about articles.
Teri Trantanella is an Online Business owner, wife, mother and Grandmother of 8. She also works full-time as Controller for a manufacturing company, as well as part-time as Accounting Manager at a Smoky Mountain resort on the weekends. This 7 day a week workaholic spends her spare time in the evenings online, building and marketing her online businesses www.reflectionsofmedolls.com, www.gtcenterprise.com, www.toyoursuccessonline.com, www.itsallaboutsports.com, www.thebestbabysite.com, and others.
About The Author
Teri Trantanella is an Online Business owner, wife, mother and Grandmother of 8. She also works full-time as Controller for a manufacturing company, as well as part-time as Accounting Manager at a Smoky Mountain resort on the weekends. This 7 day a week workaholic spends her spare time in the evenings online, building and marketing her online businesses http://www.reflectionsofmedolls.com/, http://www.gtcenterprise.com/, http://www.toyoursuccessonline.com/, http://www.itsallaboutsports.com/, http://www.thebestbabysite.com/, and others.
<)))
There is another way to promote your business other than pay per click. I made the serious mistake of using PPC to get more traffic to my sites and almost went bankrupt over it! PPC is great if you are already making a fortune on the web, but most of us are still struggling and only wasting our money on PPC. Until you learn how to truly position yourself with PPC to the point of profitable conversions, my suggestion is to write articles about your Internet business. Doing this will increase your traffic remarkably. Plus, the articles provide many other benefits for the site.
Some of the benefits of article writing are higher ranking in search results of keywords pertaining to your site. Articles also increase confidence and trust of customers to our site. The best advantage of writing articles about your site is the linking to your site from the article site or newsletter you submit your article to. If readers enjoy your article they will tell their friends, co-workers, and family about it, providing an even larger volume of traffic.
Internet marketers know that articles are very important to a website. The larger volume of traffic, the greater the sales. Your traffic trusts and believes in you because your articles prove you know what you are doing or talking about and the better your sales will be.
So ok, we have established that articles are very important to a site and to business. Articles are crucial and to keep ahead in the game, a site must have an article, it is imperative. There is one dilemma though, not many people like writing articles.
Many website owners would rather spend their time on something else, and unless you’re a big time company, you don’t have the necessary resources to use on a pool of article writers. Plagiarism or copying of other articles is frowned upon and could easily get you into trouble, worst case scenario; a hefty fine and jail time.
So what are the other options?
Well, for starters if you hate writing articles and you can’t afford to hire people to write for you then don’t. Get free articles. The first place to look at for free articles is the public domain. Here you won’t have problems with copyright infringement and the following penalties and fines if you get caught for plagiarism.
Public domain articles are articles freely given to the public for public use. You can do whatever you want with it. You can place it on your site, name it as yours, put it in a newsletter, it’s your decision. Always remember though that you will have to choose articles that are very relevant to your site.
The downside to public domain articles is that since it is free for everybody, many of your competitors may have access to them as well. Since every site needs to be original and unique even though you have the same niche, this could be a predicament. You may also have to edit them a bit to place more keywords and keyword phrases to make them better.
Another way to get free articles is to allow other sites which have the same subject or topic as yours to submit articles to your site. This would be only to augment your existing content or else all your articles would be leading to other sites since these articles would have resource boxes with them that could link or direct the readers to their site. That’s why it is important to have your own articles; you could use them to link your site to other sites as well.
But, to truly feel the impact of what a good article means to you, go for original ones. There are many article writers who do part time and freelance article writing jobs that charges only minimal fees. You can get good articles that have all the keywords and keyword phrases you need and people are looking for.
The investment you made for these articles would be worthwhile because you could use them for all the benefits you could offer. You hold copyrights to them and you will be able to use them anyway you want. As your articles help you in building your business and your site, you will have more articles to write and maybe then you won’t be having second thoughts about articles.
Teri Trantanella is an Online Business owner, wife, mother and Grandmother of 8. She also works full-time as Controller for a manufacturing company, as well as part-time as Accounting Manager at a Smoky Mountain resort on the weekends. This 7 day a week workaholic spends her spare time in the evenings online, building and marketing her online businesses www.reflectionsofmedolls.com, www.gtcenterprise.com, www.toyoursuccessonline.com, www.itsallaboutsports.com, www.thebestbabysite.com, and others.
About The Author
Teri Trantanella is an Online Business owner, wife, mother and Grandmother of 8. She also works full-time as Controller for a manufacturing company, as well as part-time as Accounting Manager at a Smoky Mountain resort on the weekends. This 7 day a week workaholic spends her spare time in the evenings online, building and marketing her online businesses http://www.reflectionsofmedolls.com/, http://www.gtcenterprise.com/, http://www.toyoursuccessonline.com/, http://www.itsallaboutsports.com/, http://www.thebestbabysite.com/, and others.
Monday, June 18, 2007
How to Generate Free Traffic to Your Website!
By - Willem Steyn
<)))
If you put your mind to it and are prepared to work for long hours every day, you can make money. Are you going to do it the right way? This article is going to try and cover some of the requirements that are needed to generate, the traffic that you need to your website to become successful.
With any business, whether it is online or offline that business need to have a regular flow of traffic in order to convert the traffic into customers. It is common sense that without customers no business can survive. This is why in all forms of business it is imperative to find methods of how to generating traffic.
Promoting your business through the media is a method that many overlook or completely forget about when it comes to advertising their business. For many people, reading an advertisement in the newspaper or a magazine is a more trustworthy way to respond to an advert.
If your business is strictly online, there are some free paths that can be followed, that are more readily available than one may think. Some of these paths are traffic exchanges, forums, article writing and free classified ads that will make your website search engine friendly.
Traffic Exchanges
Traffic exchanges are systems where a business will advertise its URL with a short text ad throughout the system that other members will see therefore generating free traffic. The idea here is to make your ad compelling enough that other members will not just click on your link but will also take time to look at your site, sales page, blog, newsletter sign-up form and any other products that you are promoting.
Forums
Become involved in several forums that fit into the theme of your business model. These forums are communities that are made up of business people that exchange ideas and techniques that have made them successful and things that have not worked so well. When you join a forum make sure that your first action is that of reading and understanding the rules of the forum.
Article Marketing
Start writing informative articles in your field of expertise and post them on your blog, website and submit them to several high ranked article directories. Many of these respected article directories do not allow links in the body of an article; make sure that you understand the article submitting guidelines of the directories. Article writing is very useful way to generate traffic to your website.
Free Classified Ads
There are numerous sites that allow free classified text ads and some even allow graphics. These ads may be directly linked to a sales page, sign-up page or to your website which ever way you choose to advertise and which works best for your individual business.
There are a phenomenal amount of different ways of how to promote your business to generate free traffic that was not covered. Start to explore these different avenues of promoting your business.
To summarize this article you can generate huge amounts of traffic to your website, if you are prepared to learn and willing to work hard at it. Set some goals and follow them. Goal setting has given thousands of people all over the world a successful way to financial freedom.
About The Author
Willem Steyn is a retired asset manager, started a home business to still stay productive and motivated and plays an active part in his local society. For more information, on how you can start your own
internet home business opportunity and to find out how you can achieve this work from home business goal he invites you to visit www.profit-online247.com
<)))
If you put your mind to it and are prepared to work for long hours every day, you can make money. Are you going to do it the right way? This article is going to try and cover some of the requirements that are needed to generate, the traffic that you need to your website to become successful.
With any business, whether it is online or offline that business need to have a regular flow of traffic in order to convert the traffic into customers. It is common sense that without customers no business can survive. This is why in all forms of business it is imperative to find methods of how to generating traffic.
Promoting your business through the media is a method that many overlook or completely forget about when it comes to advertising their business. For many people, reading an advertisement in the newspaper or a magazine is a more trustworthy way to respond to an advert.
If your business is strictly online, there are some free paths that can be followed, that are more readily available than one may think. Some of these paths are traffic exchanges, forums, article writing and free classified ads that will make your website search engine friendly.
Traffic Exchanges
Traffic exchanges are systems where a business will advertise its URL with a short text ad throughout the system that other members will see therefore generating free traffic. The idea here is to make your ad compelling enough that other members will not just click on your link but will also take time to look at your site, sales page, blog, newsletter sign-up form and any other products that you are promoting.
Forums
Become involved in several forums that fit into the theme of your business model. These forums are communities that are made up of business people that exchange ideas and techniques that have made them successful and things that have not worked so well. When you join a forum make sure that your first action is that of reading and understanding the rules of the forum.
Article Marketing
Start writing informative articles in your field of expertise and post them on your blog, website and submit them to several high ranked article directories. Many of these respected article directories do not allow links in the body of an article; make sure that you understand the article submitting guidelines of the directories. Article writing is very useful way to generate traffic to your website.
Free Classified Ads
There are numerous sites that allow free classified text ads and some even allow graphics. These ads may be directly linked to a sales page, sign-up page or to your website which ever way you choose to advertise and which works best for your individual business.
There are a phenomenal amount of different ways of how to promote your business to generate free traffic that was not covered. Start to explore these different avenues of promoting your business.
To summarize this article you can generate huge amounts of traffic to your website, if you are prepared to learn and willing to work hard at it. Set some goals and follow them. Goal setting has given thousands of people all over the world a successful way to financial freedom.
About The Author
Willem Steyn is a retired asset manager, started a home business to still stay productive and motivated and plays an active part in his local society. For more information, on how you can start your own
internet home business opportunity and to find out how you can achieve this work from home business goal he invites you to visit www.profit-online247.com
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Keyword Tracking
By - Halstatt Pires
<)))
Keyword tracking is the name of the game. Identify the ads that work and get rid of those that don't!
Keyword tracking allows a site owner to know what keyword searches are resulting in sales. Search term information can be logged into a database and presented to web site owners in a meaningful format. This data can be used to see which keywords are producing the most sales per search and to determine where to focus web marketing.
What Search Engine or Web Site
Knowing what search engine a sale has originated from allows site owners and marketers to know where their efforts are paying off the most. Good tracking and analysis software will also show what web site referred visitors. Knowing what sites are sending the most visitors allows site owners to give special attention to ensuring this traffic continues and increases. Knowing what referrers are generating the most sales further allows a site owner to hone his or her marketing efforts toward site referrals that result in the most sales.
What Keyword Was Searched For
Knowing what keyword searches are resulting in sales on a site allows the owner to focus more on those words. Perhaps you are marketing your site for two main keywords, "air hook widgets" and "air hooks." Using keyword tracking that traces keywords down to the sale ensures that you will know if searches for "air hook widgets" convert into sales more often than visits resulting from searches for "air hooks."
Sales Conversion Ratio of Keywords and Return on Investment
Tracking keyword searches through to sales allows site owners to determine the return on investment. If a web master spends $100.00 on the pay-per-click keyword "air hook widgets" and sells $1000 worth of product, his or her return on investment is likely very good. If the same web site owner spends $100.00 on the keyword "air hooks" and sells $200 worth of product, it is likely that the return on investment was not as great. Of course, if the markup or profit on one product is greater than on another, this must be taken into account.
Cost of Keyword
If a web marketer is using pay-per-click engines, knowing exactly what has been spent on a keyword, and what the return was, allows money to be put where it will do the most. Keyword searches, unlike many advertising mediums, are targeted by the viewer. For this reason, in addition to the accurate return on investment feedback, keyword marketing can be very worth the cost.
Added Benefit of Branding
Marketing your site by keyword in pay-per-click engines means that you will only be charged if a person clicks through your ad to your site. Pay-per-click ads and organic search listings have the often overlooked added value of showing the ad or listing many times over in addition to the clicks the ad or listing receives. Only a small percentage of people are likely to click on a keyword ad or search result listing, yet your ad or listing will be visible time and time again to people searching for terms you have bid on or marketed, increasing your site branding. Nonetheless, care should be taken to generate a compelling key word ad or page description, since in most cases you will want to receive as many clicks as possible.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you are spending money on search engine marketing, it is often well worth the effort to track your keywords through to sales. Without tracking your keywords, you will not know where your efforts are paying off. By tracking your keywords, you are able to put your efforts where they are paying off the most.
About The Author
Halstatt Pires is an Internet marketing consultant with http://www.marketingtitan.com/ - an Internet marketing firm in San Diego offering automated web site systems through http://www.businesscreatorpro.com/.
<)))
Keyword tracking is the name of the game. Identify the ads that work and get rid of those that don't!
Keyword tracking allows a site owner to know what keyword searches are resulting in sales. Search term information can be logged into a database and presented to web site owners in a meaningful format. This data can be used to see which keywords are producing the most sales per search and to determine where to focus web marketing.
What Search Engine or Web Site
Knowing what search engine a sale has originated from allows site owners and marketers to know where their efforts are paying off the most. Good tracking and analysis software will also show what web site referred visitors. Knowing what sites are sending the most visitors allows site owners to give special attention to ensuring this traffic continues and increases. Knowing what referrers are generating the most sales further allows a site owner to hone his or her marketing efforts toward site referrals that result in the most sales.
What Keyword Was Searched For
Knowing what keyword searches are resulting in sales on a site allows the owner to focus more on those words. Perhaps you are marketing your site for two main keywords, "air hook widgets" and "air hooks." Using keyword tracking that traces keywords down to the sale ensures that you will know if searches for "air hook widgets" convert into sales more often than visits resulting from searches for "air hooks."
Sales Conversion Ratio of Keywords and Return on Investment
Tracking keyword searches through to sales allows site owners to determine the return on investment. If a web master spends $100.00 on the pay-per-click keyword "air hook widgets" and sells $1000 worth of product, his or her return on investment is likely very good. If the same web site owner spends $100.00 on the keyword "air hooks" and sells $200 worth of product, it is likely that the return on investment was not as great. Of course, if the markup or profit on one product is greater than on another, this must be taken into account.
Cost of Keyword
If a web marketer is using pay-per-click engines, knowing exactly what has been spent on a keyword, and what the return was, allows money to be put where it will do the most. Keyword searches, unlike many advertising mediums, are targeted by the viewer. For this reason, in addition to the accurate return on investment feedback, keyword marketing can be very worth the cost.
Added Benefit of Branding
Marketing your site by keyword in pay-per-click engines means that you will only be charged if a person clicks through your ad to your site. Pay-per-click ads and organic search listings have the often overlooked added value of showing the ad or listing many times over in addition to the clicks the ad or listing receives. Only a small percentage of people are likely to click on a keyword ad or search result listing, yet your ad or listing will be visible time and time again to people searching for terms you have bid on or marketed, increasing your site branding. Nonetheless, care should be taken to generate a compelling key word ad or page description, since in most cases you will want to receive as many clicks as possible.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you are spending money on search engine marketing, it is often well worth the effort to track your keywords through to sales. Without tracking your keywords, you will not know where your efforts are paying off. By tracking your keywords, you are able to put your efforts where they are paying off the most.
About The Author
Halstatt Pires is an Internet marketing consultant with http://www.marketingtitan.com/ - an Internet marketing firm in San Diego offering automated web site systems through http://www.businesscreatorpro.com/.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Your Online Home Business Is Broken Without Keyword Rich Content
By - Angelo Tzortzakis
No information on affiliate marketing websites is complete without talking about the importance of keywords. One of the best ways to bring that traffic to your site is through keyword rich content in the form of articles or reviews on your website. These actions help because they can improve your credibility and build trust with your visitors and customers, and these two factors are crucial with any online home business.
Choosing The Right Keywords
It is a fact that keywords generate traffic to your affiliate marketing website. This is why it is so important to choose the right keywords for your own website. When you choose keywords, don't just choose words at random, you should choose keywords that best describe your content and are 100% relevant to it.
Your online home business needs the right keywords. They help by getting you the kind of targeted traffic your business needs to succeed, not volumes that just browse through without taking action. We often browse the Internet searching for something, only to find ourselves on a totally unrelated website that is irrelevant to what we want. Avoid this happening to your affiliate marketing site, so pick some relevant keywords.
Real reviews for authentic products with the effective keywords are a great way to provide excellent content for your affiliate marketing online home business. This will also establish you as an authority on this information and your customers will come back for more. Also, it ensures new and up-dated content for your web site.
There are many affiliate marketing websites that feature product and service reviews for products promoted or sold by them, making it easy for the visitor to choose and buy. Ever notice how they use keywords? Another way in which keywords help is by getting the search engines to find your content quickly, especially if you update the information often. The more good content you update your site with, the quicker the search engines will find your online home business.
Since you are most likely to promote a product you believe in, your keyword rich content can express your personal convictions. Research the product as well as the company thoroughly and try them out, this way you'll know all about the product you are promoting. In fact, it is a good idea to let the company know that you are promoting their product in your affiliate marketing site, because most companies will be happy enough to help you with additional resources to do this. Many companies offer plenty of selling tips and advertising materials that help affiliates promote their product more efficiently. After the reviews are ready, send the company the link, and watch the response pour in! So, in closing, keywords and relevant content are essential for your online home business success. These are things that will get the right visitors to you affiliate marketing website. With the right visitors, it is much easier for you to make those sales.
About The Author
Angelo Tzortzakis loves affiliate marketing; he drinks, eats, and sleeps affiliate marketing. Angelo started a very helpful website so others can learn to become successful also. Learn how to become a super affiliate at http://www.gainmoney123.com
No information on affiliate marketing websites is complete without talking about the importance of keywords. One of the best ways to bring that traffic to your site is through keyword rich content in the form of articles or reviews on your website. These actions help because they can improve your credibility and build trust with your visitors and customers, and these two factors are crucial with any online home business.
Choosing The Right Keywords
It is a fact that keywords generate traffic to your affiliate marketing website. This is why it is so important to choose the right keywords for your own website. When you choose keywords, don't just choose words at random, you should choose keywords that best describe your content and are 100% relevant to it.
Your online home business needs the right keywords. They help by getting you the kind of targeted traffic your business needs to succeed, not volumes that just browse through without taking action. We often browse the Internet searching for something, only to find ourselves on a totally unrelated website that is irrelevant to what we want. Avoid this happening to your affiliate marketing site, so pick some relevant keywords.
Real reviews for authentic products with the effective keywords are a great way to provide excellent content for your affiliate marketing online home business. This will also establish you as an authority on this information and your customers will come back for more. Also, it ensures new and up-dated content for your web site.
There are many affiliate marketing websites that feature product and service reviews for products promoted or sold by them, making it easy for the visitor to choose and buy. Ever notice how they use keywords? Another way in which keywords help is by getting the search engines to find your content quickly, especially if you update the information often. The more good content you update your site with, the quicker the search engines will find your online home business.
Since you are most likely to promote a product you believe in, your keyword rich content can express your personal convictions. Research the product as well as the company thoroughly and try them out, this way you'll know all about the product you are promoting. In fact, it is a good idea to let the company know that you are promoting their product in your affiliate marketing site, because most companies will be happy enough to help you with additional resources to do this. Many companies offer plenty of selling tips and advertising materials that help affiliates promote their product more efficiently. After the reviews are ready, send the company the link, and watch the response pour in! So, in closing, keywords and relevant content are essential for your online home business success. These are things that will get the right visitors to you affiliate marketing website. With the right visitors, it is much easier for you to make those sales.
About The Author
Angelo Tzortzakis loves affiliate marketing; he drinks, eats, and sleeps affiliate marketing. Angelo started a very helpful website so others can learn to become successful also. Learn how to become a super affiliate at http://www.gainmoney123.com
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Increase Sales and Make Money Using Google's Adwords
By - Paul Coulter
<)))
Most Internet users use Google and other search engines on a regular basis to find information, products, services and more. Most website owners will find that Google directs 2 to 3 times as much traffic to their website than Yahoo and MSN combined.
Therefore, it may be a good idea to pay Google to send focused traffic to your website. This can be accomplished by registering for Google’s advertising service – Adwords.
You may already be familiar with this service and don’t even know it. Adwords are the paid advertisements that show up on the right side of Google’s search results under "Sponsored Links.". Adwords also appear on many commercial and personal pages as a way for the website owner to make a little money from their website. These advertisements usually carry the caption, “Ads by Goooooogle” at the top. The service is termed a pay-for-click service because Google will charge you each time an Internet User clicks on your advertisement and visits your website.
Adwords is a terrific complement to any existing advertising campaign, but probably should not be used as the sole marketing channel for your website. This program allows you to control your advertising budget by giving you the ability to set the maximum price that you’re willing to pay, per click, and also a maximum allowable daily advertising budget. You choose the keywords that you would like to target, bid on the maximum per click price you’d like to pay, and Google will send focused traffic to your website. According to Google, Adwords text advertisements boast a standard click-through rate four to five times higher than traditional banner ads.
Because you are paying Google per click, you need to ensure that your traffic is highly targeted for your website. It doesn’t make sense to pay a lot of money for a lot of click-troughs and not generate any revenue for your business. It is important that you follow a few guidelines to ensure that you don’t waste your precious advertising dollars:
Choose Specific KeywordsIt is smart to avoid choosing keywords that are too vague or general. To generate highly qualified prospects you have to choose very specific keywords. This way, competition for the keyword will be lower, and it will cost less per click, and you won’t be throwing money away on expensive, unqualified leads. For example, if you only sell Green Widgets, don’t bid on the term “Widgets” it is too broad and you’ll pay for clicks from people searching for “Red Widgets”Use Geographical TargetingIt is smart to start small by limiting your advertisement’s reach to a selected area. This way you can see the effect it will have on sales without spending a lot of money. Later on, you can expand to other regions; go national, or even global. If your business only caters to the local community, then you should only advertise in your city and surrounding localities.
Use Proper Grammar and SpellingThis tip may sound like a no-brainer, but it sometimes goes neglected. Whether they want to admit it or not, a lot of people are terrible spellers and possess poor writing skills. But, a text advertisement that has misspelled words or doesn’t read clearly is not going to get clicked, and it reflects poorly upon your company. Make sure that you check your ads for both spelling and grammar errors. Have a friend, co-worker or employee proof read your ad before submitting it.
Look at the CompetitionNo matter what kind of product or service you are promoting, chances are, someone else is doing something similar using Adwords. Search for the terms you are likely to use in order to size-up the competition. Pay attention to their ad’s wording, titles, or incentives they use. You don’t won’t to make your ad exactly like the competition, but it’s smart to know what their doing to ensure that your advertisement is going to be effective.
Stick to Your BudgetCreate a budget and stick to it. In marketing, there is a saying, “I waste half my advertising dollars, but, the problem is, I don’t know which half”. It’s difficult to know how effective the Adwords program will be if you’re also utilizing other marketing channels (as you should be). When checking out, give your customers the option to let you know how they found your website. If you find Adwords is paying off, then it may be smart to increase your budget. It also may not be very cost efficient to bid for the #1 spot for every keyword. The #2 position may be almost as effective, but cost only half as much.
If your website doesn’t sell or promote anything, then it doesn’t make sense to pay for traffic. If this is the case, Google will actually pay you to display Adwords advertisements on their websites. To find out more information regarding the Adwords program, Visit Google’s Advertising Programs.
About The Author
Paul Coulter owns and operates a full service custom web design company in Windsor, Ontario. Contact Paul by visiting his website at Windsor Web Design
<)))
Most Internet users use Google and other search engines on a regular basis to find information, products, services and more. Most website owners will find that Google directs 2 to 3 times as much traffic to their website than Yahoo and MSN combined.
Therefore, it may be a good idea to pay Google to send focused traffic to your website. This can be accomplished by registering for Google’s advertising service – Adwords.
You may already be familiar with this service and don’t even know it. Adwords are the paid advertisements that show up on the right side of Google’s search results under "Sponsored Links.". Adwords also appear on many commercial and personal pages as a way for the website owner to make a little money from their website. These advertisements usually carry the caption, “Ads by Goooooogle” at the top. The service is termed a pay-for-click service because Google will charge you each time an Internet User clicks on your advertisement and visits your website.
Adwords is a terrific complement to any existing advertising campaign, but probably should not be used as the sole marketing channel for your website. This program allows you to control your advertising budget by giving you the ability to set the maximum price that you’re willing to pay, per click, and also a maximum allowable daily advertising budget. You choose the keywords that you would like to target, bid on the maximum per click price you’d like to pay, and Google will send focused traffic to your website. According to Google, Adwords text advertisements boast a standard click-through rate four to five times higher than traditional banner ads.
Because you are paying Google per click, you need to ensure that your traffic is highly targeted for your website. It doesn’t make sense to pay a lot of money for a lot of click-troughs and not generate any revenue for your business. It is important that you follow a few guidelines to ensure that you don’t waste your precious advertising dollars:
Choose Specific KeywordsIt is smart to avoid choosing keywords that are too vague or general. To generate highly qualified prospects you have to choose very specific keywords. This way, competition for the keyword will be lower, and it will cost less per click, and you won’t be throwing money away on expensive, unqualified leads. For example, if you only sell Green Widgets, don’t bid on the term “Widgets” it is too broad and you’ll pay for clicks from people searching for “Red Widgets”Use Geographical TargetingIt is smart to start small by limiting your advertisement’s reach to a selected area. This way you can see the effect it will have on sales without spending a lot of money. Later on, you can expand to other regions; go national, or even global. If your business only caters to the local community, then you should only advertise in your city and surrounding localities.
Use Proper Grammar and SpellingThis tip may sound like a no-brainer, but it sometimes goes neglected. Whether they want to admit it or not, a lot of people are terrible spellers and possess poor writing skills. But, a text advertisement that has misspelled words or doesn’t read clearly is not going to get clicked, and it reflects poorly upon your company. Make sure that you check your ads for both spelling and grammar errors. Have a friend, co-worker or employee proof read your ad before submitting it.
Look at the CompetitionNo matter what kind of product or service you are promoting, chances are, someone else is doing something similar using Adwords. Search for the terms you are likely to use in order to size-up the competition. Pay attention to their ad’s wording, titles, or incentives they use. You don’t won’t to make your ad exactly like the competition, but it’s smart to know what their doing to ensure that your advertisement is going to be effective.
Stick to Your BudgetCreate a budget and stick to it. In marketing, there is a saying, “I waste half my advertising dollars, but, the problem is, I don’t know which half”. It’s difficult to know how effective the Adwords program will be if you’re also utilizing other marketing channels (as you should be). When checking out, give your customers the option to let you know how they found your website. If you find Adwords is paying off, then it may be smart to increase your budget. It also may not be very cost efficient to bid for the #1 spot for every keyword. The #2 position may be almost as effective, but cost only half as much.
If your website doesn’t sell or promote anything, then it doesn’t make sense to pay for traffic. If this is the case, Google will actually pay you to display Adwords advertisements on their websites. To find out more information regarding the Adwords program, Visit Google’s Advertising Programs.
About The Author
Paul Coulter owns and operates a full service custom web design company in Windsor, Ontario. Contact Paul by visiting his website at Windsor Web Design
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Selling Niche Items on Ebay
By - Stephan Miller
<)))
<)))
A website is great to have for residual income, for presence, to have a place called home on the internet. I admit I love it. Instead of hunting for sites to host my pictures and software for free, I have a place and it is all mine. But nothing beats eBay for instant, in your face sales.
Its like having a mall with millions of visitors a day built just for you. I mean, you could sell used vacuum cleaner bags and walk away with a bag full of money a week later if only you knew how to list your auctions with the right title, right ad, and right type of features or even no features.
Free eBay Seller's Guide
No features? Yes, you can make a consistent weekly income by listing auctions with no features. I have done it. You just have to find a niche and your customers will hunt for you. No extras will be necessary.
What type of products would qualify as a niche item? Lets say your hobby is scrapbooking and you have just written the perfect ebook on the subject. You know it will sell, but how do you go about selling it. You could put up a website, spend weeks submitting it to search engines, and then, maybe months later watch sales start coming in. That's great for the long term. In fact its something you should do.
But, if you want to start getting sales sooner, list it on eBay. It takes some work to do it right though. You will need to figure out what search terms your customer will be using to find your auction. Then search both the current and completed auctions to find out what your competitors are doing to get their bids.
Okay, what if the search terms you entered comes up with few searches or none. Well, this is a sign that hell just froze over. But if it does happen, can you spell "jackpot." You will need to find closely related search terms that actually will come up and use them along with your rare terms. Think about what other items your ideal customers will also be buying and mention them in the body of your ad. Don't spam though. Write your ad like you are speaking face to face to your customers and you can't go wrong.
Check out your competitors features. Did they highlight? Did they choose Bold? Did they spend the extra money and category feature the auction? I did this once on a niche product that I was selling and actually made less money than when I didn't choose to feature the item. But you will have to test your results. Why spend extra money that you don't have to?
Also, study the title of the auction and the ad itself. Remember that the default search on eBay is title only, so make sure you pack your title with keywords that you know people will be using. But don't go overboard. You can always tell when a seller is trying to spam the search engine instead of providing a descriptive title provides their customers with the information they need.
The days when you could put up a text ad and sell are over. Well, maybe not. But at least put in the extra effort and design an HTML ad. It lets your customer know that you are actually running a business and that the image your products present matter to you. Turbo Lister is great if you are just starting out.
Learn some ad writing techniques. If you are selling an info product or software, the mini-site model works great. It will provide your customer with all the information he or she needs to make a buying decision. Also learn hypnotic writing and NLP. I am not saying that you have to do all of this at once. Just pick up as you go along.
Just to get started, do your marketing research and list your ad and wait for sales. Yes, it will become addictive, especially after you get that first bid. You will set your homepage to your "My Ebay" page and check it every few minutes. I did.
About The Author
Stephan Miller is a ebay seller, freelance programmer, writer, and webmaster at http://www.profit-ware.com/
Monday, June 11, 2007
Performing Keyword Research Before SEO
By - KC Tan
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Before you start trying to optimize your website, you should need to do a bit of research. This may sounds odd to a lot of web publishers, but before you do anything you need to do some keyword research. There are many different resources that you can go to and all you have to do is type in a subject and you can be given a list of the most commonly searched phrases relating to this topic. Why is this important? The reason is because that when you are optimizing your website you are not just optimizing for the search engine spiders, you are also optimizing for the web surfer that uses the search engines. For instance, if you have a website that is about golf you may find that the typical web surfer does not just type in golf but types in golf club or golf and then the city or state that they are interested in golfing in.
The phrasing is important because you can target your audience by incorporating the most common phrases. You would not want to simply use the keyword “golf” because there are millions of other websites that are also using the term golf and your website will literally get lost in the crowd. Instead, you will want to choose more of the specific keywords that your visitors will be likely to type into the search engine. When you have done this research, you will know which keywords that you should try to focus on and associate with your website.
Keyword research will not take you a lot of time; in fact it can take just minutes to perform. It may take you a bit longer to actually integrate these keywords in healthy amounts into your website. You do not just want to write up a bunch of fluff that will use the keywords as this is not how you can improve your pagerank and be seen. You want to improve your pagerank and then provide consumers with the service, product, or information that they are looking for when they visit your website.
Now you can probably see why many web publishers have a hard time actually optimizing their website! Optimization is something that happens slowly over time. Those that try to rush the process usually end up doing more damage than good, simply creating more work than was necessary. Keyword research is a significant task in order to optimize any site.
About The Author
KC TAN is a SEO consultant with several years of related experiences. He recommends Files Host for uploading and fast file sharing and WeBlogPost for Free Blog Hosting. KC also visits EasyTurnKeySites for Turnkey websites, prebuilt websites.
<)))
Before you start trying to optimize your website, you should need to do a bit of research. This may sounds odd to a lot of web publishers, but before you do anything you need to do some keyword research. There are many different resources that you can go to and all you have to do is type in a subject and you can be given a list of the most commonly searched phrases relating to this topic. Why is this important? The reason is because that when you are optimizing your website you are not just optimizing for the search engine spiders, you are also optimizing for the web surfer that uses the search engines. For instance, if you have a website that is about golf you may find that the typical web surfer does not just type in golf but types in golf club or golf and then the city or state that they are interested in golfing in.
The phrasing is important because you can target your audience by incorporating the most common phrases. You would not want to simply use the keyword “golf” because there are millions of other websites that are also using the term golf and your website will literally get lost in the crowd. Instead, you will want to choose more of the specific keywords that your visitors will be likely to type into the search engine. When you have done this research, you will know which keywords that you should try to focus on and associate with your website.
Keyword research will not take you a lot of time; in fact it can take just minutes to perform. It may take you a bit longer to actually integrate these keywords in healthy amounts into your website. You do not just want to write up a bunch of fluff that will use the keywords as this is not how you can improve your pagerank and be seen. You want to improve your pagerank and then provide consumers with the service, product, or information that they are looking for when they visit your website.
Now you can probably see why many web publishers have a hard time actually optimizing their website! Optimization is something that happens slowly over time. Those that try to rush the process usually end up doing more damage than good, simply creating more work than was necessary. Keyword research is a significant task in order to optimize any site.
About The Author
KC TAN is a SEO consultant with several years of related experiences. He recommends Files Host for uploading and fast file sharing and WeBlogPost for Free Blog Hosting. KC also visits EasyTurnKeySites for Turnkey websites, prebuilt websites.
Quickly add $20,000 or more to your balance sheet
By - Jeff Beaubien
This is such a fast and easy way to add $20,000 to your balance sheet, I'm surprised it's not being done by every free person in this great country of ours. Since you're probably skeptical, I am going to use a real-world example of how I accomplished this recently.
Note: This technique requires that you be pre-qualified for a mortgage.
I received a phone call from one of my Realtors, Cindy. She told me that an agent in her office had listed a home that morning and that the sellers were about to be foreclosed upon. Within 30 minutes of her phone call, Cindy and I went out to see it.
It wasn't anything fancy, a 3-bedroom, 1-bath ranch with a 2 car attached garage. The sellers were asking $89,000 - about $5,000 less than what the home was actually worth.
I made an offer on the house that looked like this: $85,000 with $1,640 back at close for improvements (that I will actually use to help offset the down payment on the home). The sellers accepted my offer so we arranged for a closing date in three weeks.
While I waited for the closing date to arrive, I ran a classified ad in my local newspaper that read, "Don't Rent. Why Rent? Rent-to-Own! $4,995 down and $995 per month." When the ad came out I had over forty calls on the house.
I couldn't possibly find the time to show the home to all these people on such short notice so I let them drive by and peek in the windows. I got a phone call from a potential tenant/buyer who said that she wanted the house (without even seeing the inside). She agreed to my terms which looked like this: $4,995 down ($4,000 option deposit + $995 for first month's rent), $100 per month rent credit, a sales price of $119,900 and a term of 1 year. I pre qualified her and she was an acceptable risk so we closed the deal.
Remember, when you are offering such a tremendous value, you are entitled to receive a premium price for what you are offering. Since my tenant/buyer was receiving a tremendous value (a fast rate of equity accumulation and a very small down payment to buy a home), she was more than happy to agree to my high sales price. Also remember that there are many different reasons that make potential buyers not qualify for a conventional mortgage which makes a lease purchase deal very appealing to them.
I closed on the purchase of the home and used the $4,995 my tenant/buyer gave me plus the $1,640 to help offset the down payment on the home. I then gave the keys to my new tenant/buyer - deal done.
Let's look at the numbers; I paid $83,360 ($85,000 - $1,640) for the home and my total monthly payments are $845. I am receiving $995/month in rent for a positive monthly cash flow of $150 and I have a written sales agreement to sell the house to my tenant/buyer for $119,900 in 1 year.
And that is how I added over $20,000 to my balance sheet quickly and easily.
UPDATE: My tenant buyer called me recently. She is approved for a mortgage and would now like to close on the purchase of the home - just two months into our agreement. Yes!!!
About The Author
Jeff Beaubien, www.Lease2Purchase.com is the President and founder of Beaubien Investment Company in Howell, Michigan. He specializes in creative real estate techniques, but focuses on the most powerful technique of them all; the lease purchase contract.
As a result of his success in real estate, Mr. Beaubien is the author of his real estate course, The Lease Purchase Handbook.
This is such a fast and easy way to add $20,000 to your balance sheet, I'm surprised it's not being done by every free person in this great country of ours. Since you're probably skeptical, I am going to use a real-world example of how I accomplished this recently.
Note: This technique requires that you be pre-qualified for a mortgage.
I received a phone call from one of my Realtors, Cindy. She told me that an agent in her office had listed a home that morning and that the sellers were about to be foreclosed upon. Within 30 minutes of her phone call, Cindy and I went out to see it.
It wasn't anything fancy, a 3-bedroom, 1-bath ranch with a 2 car attached garage. The sellers were asking $89,000 - about $5,000 less than what the home was actually worth.
I made an offer on the house that looked like this: $85,000 with $1,640 back at close for improvements (that I will actually use to help offset the down payment on the home). The sellers accepted my offer so we arranged for a closing date in three weeks.
While I waited for the closing date to arrive, I ran a classified ad in my local newspaper that read, "Don't Rent. Why Rent? Rent-to-Own! $4,995 down and $995 per month." When the ad came out I had over forty calls on the house.
I couldn't possibly find the time to show the home to all these people on such short notice so I let them drive by and peek in the windows. I got a phone call from a potential tenant/buyer who said that she wanted the house (without even seeing the inside). She agreed to my terms which looked like this: $4,995 down ($4,000 option deposit + $995 for first month's rent), $100 per month rent credit, a sales price of $119,900 and a term of 1 year. I pre qualified her and she was an acceptable risk so we closed the deal.
Remember, when you are offering such a tremendous value, you are entitled to receive a premium price for what you are offering. Since my tenant/buyer was receiving a tremendous value (a fast rate of equity accumulation and a very small down payment to buy a home), she was more than happy to agree to my high sales price. Also remember that there are many different reasons that make potential buyers not qualify for a conventional mortgage which makes a lease purchase deal very appealing to them.
I closed on the purchase of the home and used the $4,995 my tenant/buyer gave me plus the $1,640 to help offset the down payment on the home. I then gave the keys to my new tenant/buyer - deal done.
Let's look at the numbers; I paid $83,360 ($85,000 - $1,640) for the home and my total monthly payments are $845. I am receiving $995/month in rent for a positive monthly cash flow of $150 and I have a written sales agreement to sell the house to my tenant/buyer for $119,900 in 1 year.
And that is how I added over $20,000 to my balance sheet quickly and easily.
UPDATE: My tenant buyer called me recently. She is approved for a mortgage and would now like to close on the purchase of the home - just two months into our agreement. Yes!!!
About The Author
Jeff Beaubien, www.Lease2Purchase.com is the President and founder of Beaubien Investment Company in Howell, Michigan. He specializes in creative real estate techniques, but focuses on the most powerful technique of them all; the lease purchase contract.
As a result of his success in real estate, Mr. Beaubien is the author of his real estate course, The Lease Purchase Handbook.
Collateral Benefits of Search Engine Marketing
By - Paul Bliss
Many times a client only looks at the bottom line when it comes to the performance they are getting for their investment into Search Engine Marketing.
They often only look at the selected keyword phrases that they are paying for, without fully realizing what other residual effects they are receiving.
When a site gets properly optimized, (SEO) it is being transformed into a thought-out navigational pattern to information. This is the same pattern a search engine spider looks for. Don't forget, the easier you make it for a spider to index your site, the better your chances are for getting your site a higher placement in the search engine results page (SERP's).
While W3C validation is something all sites should strive for, it is not required for better rankings. Does it help? Probably. Yahoo engineers have stated that whether a site is W3C compliant or not makes no difference to how it ranks. If it has relevant content, it will get ranked.
Another element when optimizing a site is that through proper naming of page titles, file names and placement of content make the site all the more relevant to the spider. Although Google places less value on Meta Tags, they are still used as part of the algorithm, and should not be overlooked.
After the site has coded properly, the game then goes up to the next level. Search Engine Marketing is used to drive traffic to the site through various means. Press releases, articles, blogs, RSS/XML feeds, Directory Submissions and User Groups all can bring targeted traffic to a site.
Here is where the collateral benefits of SEM begin to appear. Let's say that you have been doing a series of press releases where once a week, you talk about a new color of widget. In each press release you also list the other colors of widgets that you have for sale. Even after only the first release gets sent, you've already created a valuable In-Bound Link to your site for your Red Widget, but since you included the other colors of the widgets as well, they all pick up IBL's as well.
An even greater demonstration of a collateral benefit is ranking for keywords and phrases that you aren't targeting. Keeping to our widget example, if your site copy talks about the different uses of widgets, the available colors that they come in and the best way to preserve your widget, you've just created a multitude of various phrases that your site can get ranked on.
Example site copy:
We sell the highest-quality widget available. Our color selection ranges from red to purple, black to white and can be used in your home or for industrial needs. The widget is the most versatile tool on the market. Pick one up today!
From this one paragraph, here are the possible phrases your site could get ranked on:
high quality widget
red widget
purple widget
black widget
white widget
home widget
industrial widget
widget tool
widget
This is only a tiny sampling of the potential your site has. Remember, each page gets ranked on it's own, so that's why it is so important to make sure every page you have on your site is optimized.
Even your contact/about page is critical because if you have a brick-and-mortar business, by listing your street address, you help the search engines geo target your site. Most search engines are already trying to focus your search results regionally. While it's not a major factor yet, it is something to be aware of.
In conclusion, the next time you start checking Google to see where your site ranks for it's keyword phrases, don't forget about all of the hidden keywords/phrases that are embedded in your site's copy. You would be surprised at how many of those forgotten about terms end up at the top of the pile....
-To your online success!
About The Author
Paul Bliss
www.SEOforGoogle.com
Many times a client only looks at the bottom line when it comes to the performance they are getting for their investment into Search Engine Marketing.
They often only look at the selected keyword phrases that they are paying for, without fully realizing what other residual effects they are receiving.
When a site gets properly optimized, (SEO) it is being transformed into a thought-out navigational pattern to information. This is the same pattern a search engine spider looks for. Don't forget, the easier you make it for a spider to index your site, the better your chances are for getting your site a higher placement in the search engine results page (SERP's).
While W3C validation is something all sites should strive for, it is not required for better rankings. Does it help? Probably. Yahoo engineers have stated that whether a site is W3C compliant or not makes no difference to how it ranks. If it has relevant content, it will get ranked.
Another element when optimizing a site is that through proper naming of page titles, file names and placement of content make the site all the more relevant to the spider. Although Google places less value on Meta Tags, they are still used as part of the algorithm, and should not be overlooked.
After the site has coded properly, the game then goes up to the next level. Search Engine Marketing is used to drive traffic to the site through various means. Press releases, articles, blogs, RSS/XML feeds, Directory Submissions and User Groups all can bring targeted traffic to a site.
Here is where the collateral benefits of SEM begin to appear. Let's say that you have been doing a series of press releases where once a week, you talk about a new color of widget. In each press release you also list the other colors of widgets that you have for sale. Even after only the first release gets sent, you've already created a valuable In-Bound Link to your site for your Red Widget, but since you included the other colors of the widgets as well, they all pick up IBL's as well.
An even greater demonstration of a collateral benefit is ranking for keywords and phrases that you aren't targeting. Keeping to our widget example, if your site copy talks about the different uses of widgets, the available colors that they come in and the best way to preserve your widget, you've just created a multitude of various phrases that your site can get ranked on.
Example site copy:
We sell the highest-quality widget available. Our color selection ranges from red to purple, black to white and can be used in your home or for industrial needs. The widget is the most versatile tool on the market. Pick one up today!
From this one paragraph, here are the possible phrases your site could get ranked on:
high quality widget
red widget
purple widget
black widget
white widget
home widget
industrial widget
widget tool
widget
This is only a tiny sampling of the potential your site has. Remember, each page gets ranked on it's own, so that's why it is so important to make sure every page you have on your site is optimized.
Even your contact/about page is critical because if you have a brick-and-mortar business, by listing your street address, you help the search engines geo target your site. Most search engines are already trying to focus your search results regionally. While it's not a major factor yet, it is something to be aware of.
In conclusion, the next time you start checking Google to see where your site ranks for it's keyword phrases, don't forget about all of the hidden keywords/phrases that are embedded in your site's copy. You would be surprised at how many of those forgotten about terms end up at the top of the pile....
-To your online success!
About The Author
Paul Bliss
www.SEOforGoogle.com
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Ten Ways To Sell On eBay
By - Barbara Snyder
Hearing that there are more than 1.2 million registered eBay users, that more than 25,000 members make five figure income as full time eBay entrepreneurs, and that more than 250,000 part timers make several thousand dollars a year of supplementary income from eBay enterprises would make anyone comment in disbelief with, “No Way”.
But the correct response to this is, “Yes, way.” In fact, it has also been reported that the number one eBay entrepreneur makes over a million dollars a year. As Austin Powers would say, “Yeah, Baby.” Or should we say, “E-Baby.”
So what’s the deal with eBay, anyway? There is a lot more to it than one would think. It can be simple for an occasional buyer, but it gets increasing complex as users/sellers become more entrenched at deeper levels of use. Here are 10 key ideas or themes for sellers to consider about this phenomenon called “eBay”.
1. What‘s for sale? While some sellers are out scavengering the garage sales and their own garages, others are purchasing quantities of items wholesale to put up for auction. One would think that the right product is of paramount consideration, and most sellers agree that the unusual or the hard to find is the best bet. However, this is not always true either. Timing, meaning the right person at the right time seeing your item, is where it is at. You have to be visible and be out there with a clear message or product that seems like a steal, or at least reasonably priced. With the thousands and thousands of items for sale, there is no shortage of competition. However, the good thing is that there are a lot of buyers out there that should enable the sale of just about anything.
2. Communication and descriptive details about your product is a key in getting noticed. The description of your item and the pictures to display it will get the buyer’s attention. If a person is a serious seller, having an adequate digital camera is a must. Again, photos are extremely important.
3. The well written detailed description to accompany the item is of great benefit. Being open and honest about the item will demonstrate integrity as a seller and will keep people coming back. Being available to answer questions for prospective buyers and remembering to be courteous and helpful follows along with the never-to-be forgotten premise of “the customer is always right.”
4. With customer feedback being a key element in the ratings statistics that will promote you or haunt you during your eBay career, it is important for a seller to be professional and kindly in all business dealings. People like and appreciate personal attention. Take the time to give it. Being positive, accommodating and helpful is a winning combination for good customer relations.
5. Shipping information and how you present it can win over a customer because they notice when a buyer is tying to take advantage and ask an unreasonable amount for shipping. Of course, a seller must take into account time spent, the handling charge, when pricing the shipping. Time is money, and a seller should be compensated for all aspects of the service that is provided.
6. Some advice about setting up your auction items would be to consider having your item run seven days with an end of bidding time somewhere between 7 PM and 9 PM on a Sunday night. That seems to be the consensus amongst the top sellers. There has been much dialog on just how to increase the amount and number of bids, but there are too many variables to consider. Suffice to say, it really does depend on the product itself (and what the condition and competition is our there).
7. Some of the most unique aspects of selling have to do with the seasonal items that permeate the auction block at certain times of the year. If a seller wants to work year-round, he or she will have to broaden the horizon by finding seasonal items for all seasons. Yes, you can sell Christmas items and move right into Valentines Day and Easter and so on. Why not? These are what people are looking for.
8. One controversial topic is drop shipping. If a seller is getting a product from a third party, drop shipping is a convenient way for the seller to deliver the product. It keeps them out of it. However, that means that a back ordered item could result in a poor rating for the seller because the item was delayed. Most buyers picture the item in the hands of the seller and expect to receive it within a few days. The pros and cons of this arrangement need to be carefully considered.
9. Now to the fun part. How do you get the money? More and more people are using PayPal. It is quick, efficient and simple. A seller can make other arrangements and accept a check or money order, but the wave of the future is setting up an account with PayPal. In addition, setting up an online account with the United States Postal Service will also save countless hours in the lines at the post office. Work smarter, not harder, etc., etc.
10. A seller can look at other things to sell besides a physical product or item. Many are getting into self publishing or offering a service. Some expanding entrepreneurs are opening up a consignment shop situation, which helps those who want to sell but “don’t do computers.” The possibilities are unlimited.
Selling products and services from a home-based business can be an exciting, and hopefully profitable, situation. Go into it with a solid plan based on accurate information and with the knowledge that it is going to be hard work, just like any other job.
About the Author
Barbara Snyder is a retired California Distinguished School Principal and Coordinator For Human Resources. She has a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction. She holds elementary education, secondary, community college, and administrative credentials. She is currently the publisher of http://EducationResourcesNetwork.com, and co-publisher of Strictly Business Magazine.
Hearing that there are more than 1.2 million registered eBay users, that more than 25,000 members make five figure income as full time eBay entrepreneurs, and that more than 250,000 part timers make several thousand dollars a year of supplementary income from eBay enterprises would make anyone comment in disbelief with, “No Way”.
But the correct response to this is, “Yes, way.” In fact, it has also been reported that the number one eBay entrepreneur makes over a million dollars a year. As Austin Powers would say, “Yeah, Baby.” Or should we say, “E-Baby.”
So what’s the deal with eBay, anyway? There is a lot more to it than one would think. It can be simple for an occasional buyer, but it gets increasing complex as users/sellers become more entrenched at deeper levels of use. Here are 10 key ideas or themes for sellers to consider about this phenomenon called “eBay”.
1. What‘s for sale? While some sellers are out scavengering the garage sales and their own garages, others are purchasing quantities of items wholesale to put up for auction. One would think that the right product is of paramount consideration, and most sellers agree that the unusual or the hard to find is the best bet. However, this is not always true either. Timing, meaning the right person at the right time seeing your item, is where it is at. You have to be visible and be out there with a clear message or product that seems like a steal, or at least reasonably priced. With the thousands and thousands of items for sale, there is no shortage of competition. However, the good thing is that there are a lot of buyers out there that should enable the sale of just about anything.
2. Communication and descriptive details about your product is a key in getting noticed. The description of your item and the pictures to display it will get the buyer’s attention. If a person is a serious seller, having an adequate digital camera is a must. Again, photos are extremely important.
3. The well written detailed description to accompany the item is of great benefit. Being open and honest about the item will demonstrate integrity as a seller and will keep people coming back. Being available to answer questions for prospective buyers and remembering to be courteous and helpful follows along with the never-to-be forgotten premise of “the customer is always right.”
4. With customer feedback being a key element in the ratings statistics that will promote you or haunt you during your eBay career, it is important for a seller to be professional and kindly in all business dealings. People like and appreciate personal attention. Take the time to give it. Being positive, accommodating and helpful is a winning combination for good customer relations.
5. Shipping information and how you present it can win over a customer because they notice when a buyer is tying to take advantage and ask an unreasonable amount for shipping. Of course, a seller must take into account time spent, the handling charge, when pricing the shipping. Time is money, and a seller should be compensated for all aspects of the service that is provided.
6. Some advice about setting up your auction items would be to consider having your item run seven days with an end of bidding time somewhere between 7 PM and 9 PM on a Sunday night. That seems to be the consensus amongst the top sellers. There has been much dialog on just how to increase the amount and number of bids, but there are too many variables to consider. Suffice to say, it really does depend on the product itself (and what the condition and competition is our there).
7. Some of the most unique aspects of selling have to do with the seasonal items that permeate the auction block at certain times of the year. If a seller wants to work year-round, he or she will have to broaden the horizon by finding seasonal items for all seasons. Yes, you can sell Christmas items and move right into Valentines Day and Easter and so on. Why not? These are what people are looking for.
8. One controversial topic is drop shipping. If a seller is getting a product from a third party, drop shipping is a convenient way for the seller to deliver the product. It keeps them out of it. However, that means that a back ordered item could result in a poor rating for the seller because the item was delayed. Most buyers picture the item in the hands of the seller and expect to receive it within a few days. The pros and cons of this arrangement need to be carefully considered.
9. Now to the fun part. How do you get the money? More and more people are using PayPal. It is quick, efficient and simple. A seller can make other arrangements and accept a check or money order, but the wave of the future is setting up an account with PayPal. In addition, setting up an online account with the United States Postal Service will also save countless hours in the lines at the post office. Work smarter, not harder, etc., etc.
10. A seller can look at other things to sell besides a physical product or item. Many are getting into self publishing or offering a service. Some expanding entrepreneurs are opening up a consignment shop situation, which helps those who want to sell but “don’t do computers.” The possibilities are unlimited.
Selling products and services from a home-based business can be an exciting, and hopefully profitable, situation. Go into it with a solid plan based on accurate information and with the knowledge that it is going to be hard work, just like any other job.
About the Author
Barbara Snyder is a retired California Distinguished School Principal and Coordinator For Human Resources. She has a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction. She holds elementary education, secondary, community college, and administrative credentials. She is currently the publisher of http://EducationResourcesNetwork.com, and co-publisher of Strictly Business Magazine.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Internet Marketing Basics From The SEO Expert
By - P Laboon
<)))
The first place to start is with keyword phrase research before you publish your website. Think about researching for the keywords which are best suited to your website. Keywords are the words that the visitors input into the search engines in order to find the information they are looking for. You must try to find out a keyword phrase that has good search volume and at the same time that has least competition. There are online tools available such as http://inventory.overture.com which will help you find effective keywords.
Once you have chosen the keywords and created the website, you can now publish it. After publishing the website, there are few more steps that you need to pursue in order to improve the visibility of your website in all the major search engines such as Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc...
You should try to use your keywords several times on each page, this is called keyword density. This is the best way to show search engines that your webpage should be in the search results for that specific keyword phrase.
Next, you should now consider adding a HTML Sitemap as well as XML Sitemap. A sitemap helps your visitors to get an idea about the structure of your website as well as it provides search engine spiders a pathway to all the inner relevant web pages of the website to get indexed. The sitemap also provides information to search engine spiders about new content and date of the modification to the webpage. A sitemap can be integrated in two versions, the HTML version for the visitors, and the XML version for the search engine spider.
Once you have uploaded the sitemaps, you should check your website against valid HTML and CSS. Validation is very important for a quality website that wants to rank fr the long haul.
Once your site is up and running, apart from updating new content frequently (at least 3 times a week), it’s important to check for dead or broken links. If you find a dead or broken link, remove those links immediately or correct the file path. These links will reduce the credibility of your website to visitors and search engines.
You will also want to check for backlinks. Backlinks are incoming links to a website or web page. The number of backlinks is a sign of the popularity or importance of that website or page. Backlinks are also called as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links. Search engines frequently use the number of backlinks that a website has as one of the factors for determining that website's search engine ranking.
One of the advantages of internet marketing is that it is very easy to test your marketing results. This is very essential – you should use tracking software to keep track of which ads, keywords, etc are bringing you sales and traffic. We recommend using Google Analytics because it gives quality feedback and is free to use.
Remember, focus on the most effective methods, and keep testing – you can continually refine your marketing and improve your presence on the internet.A website which is carefully created with chosen keywords, pertinent original content which is updated often has a chance to perform well in major search engines while generating high traffic.
About The Author
Phil Laboon is an internet marketing expert that is the owner /creator of Eyeflow- a well known Pittsburgh SEO company. Phil is continually offering free advice to anyone who wants to learn and has had hundreds of free education articles published on the internet over the last 6 years he’s been in business. For more information on Phil Laboon, search engine optimization, or web design just click the links in this bio.
<)))
The first place to start is with keyword phrase research before you publish your website. Think about researching for the keywords which are best suited to your website. Keywords are the words that the visitors input into the search engines in order to find the information they are looking for. You must try to find out a keyword phrase that has good search volume and at the same time that has least competition. There are online tools available such as http://inventory.overture.com which will help you find effective keywords.
Once you have chosen the keywords and created the website, you can now publish it. After publishing the website, there are few more steps that you need to pursue in order to improve the visibility of your website in all the major search engines such as Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc...
You should try to use your keywords several times on each page, this is called keyword density. This is the best way to show search engines that your webpage should be in the search results for that specific keyword phrase.
Next, you should now consider adding a HTML Sitemap as well as XML Sitemap. A sitemap helps your visitors to get an idea about the structure of your website as well as it provides search engine spiders a pathway to all the inner relevant web pages of the website to get indexed. The sitemap also provides information to search engine spiders about new content and date of the modification to the webpage. A sitemap can be integrated in two versions, the HTML version for the visitors, and the XML version for the search engine spider.
Once you have uploaded the sitemaps, you should check your website against valid HTML and CSS. Validation is very important for a quality website that wants to rank fr the long haul.
Once your site is up and running, apart from updating new content frequently (at least 3 times a week), it’s important to check for dead or broken links. If you find a dead or broken link, remove those links immediately or correct the file path. These links will reduce the credibility of your website to visitors and search engines.
You will also want to check for backlinks. Backlinks are incoming links to a website or web page. The number of backlinks is a sign of the popularity or importance of that website or page. Backlinks are also called as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links. Search engines frequently use the number of backlinks that a website has as one of the factors for determining that website's search engine ranking.
One of the advantages of internet marketing is that it is very easy to test your marketing results. This is very essential – you should use tracking software to keep track of which ads, keywords, etc are bringing you sales and traffic. We recommend using Google Analytics because it gives quality feedback and is free to use.
Remember, focus on the most effective methods, and keep testing – you can continually refine your marketing and improve your presence on the internet.A website which is carefully created with chosen keywords, pertinent original content which is updated often has a chance to perform well in major search engines while generating high traffic.
About The Author
Phil Laboon is an internet marketing expert that is the owner /creator of Eyeflow- a well known Pittsburgh SEO company. Phil is continually offering free advice to anyone who wants to learn and has had hundreds of free education articles published on the internet over the last 6 years he’s been in business. For more information on Phil Laboon, search engine optimization, or web design just click the links in this bio.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Press Release Power
By - Paul Bliss
I'm sure by now you've heard about how Press Releases can help your marketing campaigns on the Internet. But besides from people telling you, do you have any quantitative evidence that it's worth the time to craft a newsworthy release?
From a search marketing perspective, this is one of the best ways of killing two birds with one stone. Besides getting exposure for your site, you are also creating web saturation. By having the possibility of your release getting picked up by multiple media outlets, you quickly and cheaply get eyeballs looking at your product or service, and ultimately, traffic to your site.
Being that the Internet has grown to being a social environment with the ultimate goal of personalization for each user, how can anyone get their message out?
With blogs, RSS readers and news aggregators becoming more popular, the user is becoming more selective to what they want to see. This is something every marketer should embrace.
Now, instead of spending thousands to blast an add that may only be relevant to 10 percent of your audience, you can now selectively target your audience and deliver your message.
Since the majority of us do not have Google's bankroll, we are left to find less expensive ways to drive visitors to your site. This is where one can get onto a level playing field with the big spenders.
To demonstrate the power of the press release, take a moment to review some stats on a campaign that was conducted in early December.
PR Service: PRWeb.com
Price: $80.00 USD
(Note: - you can submit free press releases, but you won't have access to any tracking stats, and you lose some services.)
For the above mentioned fee, the $80.00 includes:
Properly Optimized, RSS/XML Feed, Next Day Distribution, ability to attach files, featured, listing appears on: Google News, Overture, eMediaWire, Yahoo News, Excite News, DogPile, MetaCrawler, Inktomi, MSN News, Lycos News, AskJeeves News, Feedster and Topix News
Quite the bang for your buck, eh?
The Press Release in question was for a free service, and it was geared for Christmas use, so keep that in mind as you review the information.
Reads: 88,380
(This number indicates how many times the press release was accessed from the PRWeb site and other distribution points where they have the ability to measure a click through. This number does not include the number of journalists that have received the release through email.)
Estimated Pickup: 3,908
(This number estimates the number of times the press release was picked up by a media outlet. This does not indicate how many times the story appeared in the media. It simply attempts to estimate media interest in the release.)
Now how many places on the Internet can give you those type of numbers for getting traffic to your site?
To try and get an accurate number for a "typical" Press Release, another release was submitted in March of 2005, for a new paid-for service.
Reads: 80,375
Estimated Pickup: 1,362
Still pretty impressive, even if it's just to get some traffic, or brand name exposure.
If you're serious about your business, $80.00 is easily worth the investment for this type of return.
-To your online success!
About The Author
Paul Bliss
www.SEOforGoogle.com
I'm sure by now you've heard about how Press Releases can help your marketing campaigns on the Internet. But besides from people telling you, do you have any quantitative evidence that it's worth the time to craft a newsworthy release?
From a search marketing perspective, this is one of the best ways of killing two birds with one stone. Besides getting exposure for your site, you are also creating web saturation. By having the possibility of your release getting picked up by multiple media outlets, you quickly and cheaply get eyeballs looking at your product or service, and ultimately, traffic to your site.
Being that the Internet has grown to being a social environment with the ultimate goal of personalization for each user, how can anyone get their message out?
With blogs, RSS readers and news aggregators becoming more popular, the user is becoming more selective to what they want to see. This is something every marketer should embrace.
Now, instead of spending thousands to blast an add that may only be relevant to 10 percent of your audience, you can now selectively target your audience and deliver your message.
Since the majority of us do not have Google's bankroll, we are left to find less expensive ways to drive visitors to your site. This is where one can get onto a level playing field with the big spenders.
To demonstrate the power of the press release, take a moment to review some stats on a campaign that was conducted in early December.
PR Service: PRWeb.com
Price: $80.00 USD
(Note: - you can submit free press releases, but you won't have access to any tracking stats, and you lose some services.)
For the above mentioned fee, the $80.00 includes:
Properly Optimized, RSS/XML Feed, Next Day Distribution, ability to attach files, featured, listing appears on: Google News, Overture, eMediaWire, Yahoo News, Excite News, DogPile, MetaCrawler, Inktomi, MSN News, Lycos News, AskJeeves News, Feedster and Topix News
Quite the bang for your buck, eh?
The Press Release in question was for a free service, and it was geared for Christmas use, so keep that in mind as you review the information.
Reads: 88,380
(This number indicates how many times the press release was accessed from the PRWeb site and other distribution points where they have the ability to measure a click through. This number does not include the number of journalists that have received the release through email.)
Estimated Pickup: 3,908
(This number estimates the number of times the press release was picked up by a media outlet. This does not indicate how many times the story appeared in the media. It simply attempts to estimate media interest in the release.)
Now how many places on the Internet can give you those type of numbers for getting traffic to your site?
To try and get an accurate number for a "typical" Press Release, another release was submitted in March of 2005, for a new paid-for service.
Reads: 80,375
Estimated Pickup: 1,362
Still pretty impressive, even if it's just to get some traffic, or brand name exposure.
If you're serious about your business, $80.00 is easily worth the investment for this type of return.
-To your online success!
About The Author
Paul Bliss
www.SEOforGoogle.com
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Dramatically Increase The Credibility Of Your Affiliate Website With Customer Reviews
By - Stephen Carter
<)))
Affiliate marketing was a six billion dollar business in 2006, and shows no sign of tapering off any time soon. But as good as business has been for the top affiliate marketers, it could be a lot better for the majority. A real obstacle to achieving the sales goals of many affiliates involves their credibility. If I say a product is great, and I am being paid to convince you to buy it, why should you believe me?
The fact is, most affiliate sites on the web today are poorly constructed, and this beggars any authority the owner of the site hopes to convert into sales. Often these sites are thin conduits designed to ferry traffic from search engines to the sites of merchants who have neither the resources nor the time to figure out how to find the customers they need to ensure their business success. Despite this, and because the web is growing more and more congested, the value of a *quality* affiliate marketer nonetheless continues to increase. Unfortunately this simple fact is not at all recognized by the buying public who often begrudge affiliate marketers and view them as interlopers who put themselves between the customer and the merchants they are searching for. In short, the affiliate marketer has long suffered, and continues to suffer, from an image problem.
This image problem is not confined just to the public. Google, which derives huge advertising revenues from affiliate marketers, nevertheless regards affiliate marketing sites with complete disdain. Of course, affiliate marketers themselves have contributed to this problem because their websites very often contain little in the way of new or unique content, which is what Google values and believes its customers (web searchers) value. It is no surprise therefore, to find that some of the top affiliate marketers differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack in precisely this area. They offer not only critical assessment of the products they promote, but also take the time to blog and build a comraderie with the visitors to their sites. By offering unique, and regularly updated content, they appease the Gods of Google, and are rewarded with organic (non pay-per-click) traffic that very much contributes to the bottom line. In other words, the top affiliate marketers know how to project a good image--to their visitors, to Google, and to other search engines that might bring in prospects.
Blogging is a great way to produce unique content. But it is time consuming, there is a limit to how much daily content you can produce as an affiliate, and not everyone finds the task of writing content easy work. What if instead you could have the content create itself automatically? Well, actually you can. If you offer customer reviews of the products you promote you accomplish this and more. Not only is the subject matter on target, but the reviews themselves promote the products for you (supposing you have carefully chosen only the best products to promote, which is what any *good* affiliate marketer knows to do). Even better, you no longer have to worry about that credibility problem. If ten people come onto your site and say "Buy product XYZ, it rocks!" that recommendation is a heck of a lot more convincing than anything that you might say, no matter how truthful your utterances.
So, all you have to do as an affiliate marketer, to get people to "click through" to a merchant site in a buying mood is to promote good products and let people express their opinions about those products on your site. If the products are great, the reviews will reflect that. If instead it turns out that the reviews are consistently bad for one of the products you promote, then drop it! Replace it with another.
"But collecting reviews is really difficult!" I hear you object. "I simply do not have time for that. Do I?"
There is nothing inherently difficult about putting customer reviews on your site today. It does take a little time to set things up, but low-cost commercial quality reviewing applications are available to do the bulk of the work (see the one mentioned in the resource box below if you want to get a jump start on implementing customer reviews on your website). Not only does a customer review section on your site substantially increase your overall credibility, but search engines will love the content--especially if the review pages have been optimized for the search engines (as all good reviewing engines will certainly do).
There is another benefit to collecting customer reviews. Some review engines allow you to publish the reviews as RSS feeds. What this means is increased traffic. You can submit your feeds to the RSS directories. Moreover, if the reviewing application also allows you to create RSS feeds compatible with Google Base (as does the application mentioned below) you can upload your entire review database (or the first N characters of each review) to Google Base and make your reviews accessible to the various Google marketing avenues.
Given the clear benefits to implementing customer reviews on affiliate marketing sites it is surprising that so very few marketers have actually adopted this strategy to date. But as the web continues to mature, and affiliate marketing grows more professional, it is to be expected that this strategy will become more and more common on the sites of top affiliate marketers.
About The Author
Stephen Carter is the developer of Red Queen, powerful customer review software that allows webmasters to take advantage of the preselling potential of customer reviews. To learn more, see: How To Put Customer Reviews On Your Affiliate Website.
<)))
Affiliate marketing was a six billion dollar business in 2006, and shows no sign of tapering off any time soon. But as good as business has been for the top affiliate marketers, it could be a lot better for the majority. A real obstacle to achieving the sales goals of many affiliates involves their credibility. If I say a product is great, and I am being paid to convince you to buy it, why should you believe me?
The fact is, most affiliate sites on the web today are poorly constructed, and this beggars any authority the owner of the site hopes to convert into sales. Often these sites are thin conduits designed to ferry traffic from search engines to the sites of merchants who have neither the resources nor the time to figure out how to find the customers they need to ensure their business success. Despite this, and because the web is growing more and more congested, the value of a *quality* affiliate marketer nonetheless continues to increase. Unfortunately this simple fact is not at all recognized by the buying public who often begrudge affiliate marketers and view them as interlopers who put themselves between the customer and the merchants they are searching for. In short, the affiliate marketer has long suffered, and continues to suffer, from an image problem.
This image problem is not confined just to the public. Google, which derives huge advertising revenues from affiliate marketers, nevertheless regards affiliate marketing sites with complete disdain. Of course, affiliate marketers themselves have contributed to this problem because their websites very often contain little in the way of new or unique content, which is what Google values and believes its customers (web searchers) value. It is no surprise therefore, to find that some of the top affiliate marketers differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack in precisely this area. They offer not only critical assessment of the products they promote, but also take the time to blog and build a comraderie with the visitors to their sites. By offering unique, and regularly updated content, they appease the Gods of Google, and are rewarded with organic (non pay-per-click) traffic that very much contributes to the bottom line. In other words, the top affiliate marketers know how to project a good image--to their visitors, to Google, and to other search engines that might bring in prospects.
Blogging is a great way to produce unique content. But it is time consuming, there is a limit to how much daily content you can produce as an affiliate, and not everyone finds the task of writing content easy work. What if instead you could have the content create itself automatically? Well, actually you can. If you offer customer reviews of the products you promote you accomplish this and more. Not only is the subject matter on target, but the reviews themselves promote the products for you (supposing you have carefully chosen only the best products to promote, which is what any *good* affiliate marketer knows to do). Even better, you no longer have to worry about that credibility problem. If ten people come onto your site and say "Buy product XYZ, it rocks!" that recommendation is a heck of a lot more convincing than anything that you might say, no matter how truthful your utterances.
So, all you have to do as an affiliate marketer, to get people to "click through" to a merchant site in a buying mood is to promote good products and let people express their opinions about those products on your site. If the products are great, the reviews will reflect that. If instead it turns out that the reviews are consistently bad for one of the products you promote, then drop it! Replace it with another.
"But collecting reviews is really difficult!" I hear you object. "I simply do not have time for that. Do I?"
There is nothing inherently difficult about putting customer reviews on your site today. It does take a little time to set things up, but low-cost commercial quality reviewing applications are available to do the bulk of the work (see the one mentioned in the resource box below if you want to get a jump start on implementing customer reviews on your website). Not only does a customer review section on your site substantially increase your overall credibility, but search engines will love the content--especially if the review pages have been optimized for the search engines (as all good reviewing engines will certainly do).
There is another benefit to collecting customer reviews. Some review engines allow you to publish the reviews as RSS feeds. What this means is increased traffic. You can submit your feeds to the RSS directories. Moreover, if the reviewing application also allows you to create RSS feeds compatible with Google Base (as does the application mentioned below) you can upload your entire review database (or the first N characters of each review) to Google Base and make your reviews accessible to the various Google marketing avenues.
Given the clear benefits to implementing customer reviews on affiliate marketing sites it is surprising that so very few marketers have actually adopted this strategy to date. But as the web continues to mature, and affiliate marketing grows more professional, it is to be expected that this strategy will become more and more common on the sites of top affiliate marketers.
About The Author
Stephen Carter is the developer of Red Queen, powerful customer review software that allows webmasters to take advantage of the preselling potential of customer reviews. To learn more, see: How To Put Customer Reviews On Your Affiliate Website.
12 Killer Rules for Choosing an Affiliate Product That Really Sells
By: Ari Krizsan
The internet is flooded with affiliate programs that promise you high earnings with little effort. But is it really so? Can you really earn huge commissions regardless which affiliate products you choose to promote? Obviously, not. There are programs that can earn you fat checks every month and there are programs that won't even get you a little pocket money. So what makes the difference between affiliate programs and products that secure you a steady income and those that are merely a waste of time?
Here is a list of the key factors that will help you in how to choose the right affiliate product to promote.
1. Site related product:
It goes without saying that you should choose products or services that match your website's or blog's theme.
2. Commission rate:
Some vendors offer very high rates compared to other affiliate programs. If it is above 20 % then you should give it a try.
3. Price:
Of course you should also know what the commission base is. If you promote a $19.95 ebook and get 75% you earn $14.96 for each book you sold. But if you promote a $156.00 software with 40% commission, you put $62.40 into your pocket after each sale.
4. Vendor's website:
Take a look at the vendor's website, sales letter and other promotional stuff there. If you were a potential customer would you want to buy what he is about to sell? Is the sales letter convincing? Does the layout of the website look professional, or is it cheap and amateurish? You should consider all these questions before you send visitors to a vendor's site because if you are not satisfied with what awaits you at the landing page, then how can you expect it from your visitors?
5. Reliability of the product:
If you have no personal experience with the product, go to message boards and read reviews or opinions of the product from people who have used it already. To locate related message boards search for 'message board' and 'the product's name' in search engines.
6. Reliability of payment:
With reputable affiliate networks reliability is not really an issue. Payment methods and periods are set in the general terms of service. With affiliate programs run by individual companies or with less known affiliate networks it can happen that they don't pay. Before joining any of these affiliate programs do your home work! Ask around on affiliate marketing message boards and find out about other webmasters' experiences with the company.
7. Demand for the product:
Do people buy this product? Is it a 'hot' niche? It is much more profitable to go for popular products than goods for which the target group is too narrow.
8. Two-tier and multi-tier affiliate programs:
Some vendors offer you to pay for sales that were made by you indirectly. That means if another webmaster signs up to the program through your affiliate link, you will be entitled to a commission after this person's sales, too. While some internet gurus advise you to choose two-tier (or multi-tier) programs if possible, experience shows that you won't earn much through these indirect sales. Unless you have a huge opt-in list and are considered a 'guru' or expert yourself in the subject area you operate in. Why is that? The problem with two-tier programs is that affiliates – especially newbies – will promote the program instead of the product. They will hope to make money through their 'sub-affiliates' and neglect to promote the product itself. And those who sign up through him will think similarly. So while there will be a long line of sub-affiliates, no one will really make a sale and no one will make money!
9. The lifetime of cookies:
The operating of affiliate programs are based on cookies. Cookies are simple scripts that track the visitor's path. They help in identifying through which affiliate ID a visitor came to a vendor's site and which affiliate should be paid a commission for after the visitor's purchase. At some sites cookies are set for 24 hours. This means the visitor has to make a purchase within 1 day starting from the moment he arrived at the vendor's website through your affiliate link. If he buys something 2 days later you lose commission for that sale. The longer period cookies are set for, the better. Some programs offer 30-day tracking periods, some a whole year, and there are even lifetime commission affiliate programs. That means if a visitor came through your affiliate link and bought a product or service at the vendor's site, this customer is yours forever. If he makes new purchases in the future, you will be paid after these sales, too.
10. Pay out minimum:
Usually there is a threshold that affiliates have to reach to be paid. (In most cases it is $100, but it's not a general rule.) If you don't reach this limit within a payment period, the sum will be held back and carried over to the next payment period as long as you don't earn the said amount.
11. Payment periods:
Affiliates are paid periodically. This can vary from a quarter to biweekly periods. The shorter the time span of payment is, the better for your cash flow. (People are happier if they get their earnings as soon as possible.)
12. Exclusivity:
Some vendors require exclusivity. It means if you decide to join their affiliate program and promote their products you are not allowed to advertise the competition's products. This severely limits your income opportunities.
About The Author
To discover more secrets about how to start and successfully operate a home based business or internet business, go to HomebizHerald and read the free online tutorials: www.homebizherald.com Download free web page templates and free banner templates at www.webtemplatemall.com
The internet is flooded with affiliate programs that promise you high earnings with little effort. But is it really so? Can you really earn huge commissions regardless which affiliate products you choose to promote? Obviously, not. There are programs that can earn you fat checks every month and there are programs that won't even get you a little pocket money. So what makes the difference between affiliate programs and products that secure you a steady income and those that are merely a waste of time?
Here is a list of the key factors that will help you in how to choose the right affiliate product to promote.
1. Site related product:
It goes without saying that you should choose products or services that match your website's or blog's theme.
2. Commission rate:
Some vendors offer very high rates compared to other affiliate programs. If it is above 20 % then you should give it a try.
3. Price:
Of course you should also know what the commission base is. If you promote a $19.95 ebook and get 75% you earn $14.96 for each book you sold. But if you promote a $156.00 software with 40% commission, you put $62.40 into your pocket after each sale.
4. Vendor's website:
Take a look at the vendor's website, sales letter and other promotional stuff there. If you were a potential customer would you want to buy what he is about to sell? Is the sales letter convincing? Does the layout of the website look professional, or is it cheap and amateurish? You should consider all these questions before you send visitors to a vendor's site because if you are not satisfied with what awaits you at the landing page, then how can you expect it from your visitors?
5. Reliability of the product:
If you have no personal experience with the product, go to message boards and read reviews or opinions of the product from people who have used it already. To locate related message boards search for 'message board' and 'the product's name' in search engines.
6. Reliability of payment:
With reputable affiliate networks reliability is not really an issue. Payment methods and periods are set in the general terms of service. With affiliate programs run by individual companies or with less known affiliate networks it can happen that they don't pay. Before joining any of these affiliate programs do your home work! Ask around on affiliate marketing message boards and find out about other webmasters' experiences with the company.
7. Demand for the product:
Do people buy this product? Is it a 'hot' niche? It is much more profitable to go for popular products than goods for which the target group is too narrow.
8. Two-tier and multi-tier affiliate programs:
Some vendors offer you to pay for sales that were made by you indirectly. That means if another webmaster signs up to the program through your affiliate link, you will be entitled to a commission after this person's sales, too. While some internet gurus advise you to choose two-tier (or multi-tier) programs if possible, experience shows that you won't earn much through these indirect sales. Unless you have a huge opt-in list and are considered a 'guru' or expert yourself in the subject area you operate in. Why is that? The problem with two-tier programs is that affiliates – especially newbies – will promote the program instead of the product. They will hope to make money through their 'sub-affiliates' and neglect to promote the product itself. And those who sign up through him will think similarly. So while there will be a long line of sub-affiliates, no one will really make a sale and no one will make money!
9. The lifetime of cookies:
The operating of affiliate programs are based on cookies. Cookies are simple scripts that track the visitor's path. They help in identifying through which affiliate ID a visitor came to a vendor's site and which affiliate should be paid a commission for after the visitor's purchase. At some sites cookies are set for 24 hours. This means the visitor has to make a purchase within 1 day starting from the moment he arrived at the vendor's website through your affiliate link. If he buys something 2 days later you lose commission for that sale. The longer period cookies are set for, the better. Some programs offer 30-day tracking periods, some a whole year, and there are even lifetime commission affiliate programs. That means if a visitor came through your affiliate link and bought a product or service at the vendor's site, this customer is yours forever. If he makes new purchases in the future, you will be paid after these sales, too.
10. Pay out minimum:
Usually there is a threshold that affiliates have to reach to be paid. (In most cases it is $100, but it's not a general rule.) If you don't reach this limit within a payment period, the sum will be held back and carried over to the next payment period as long as you don't earn the said amount.
11. Payment periods:
Affiliates are paid periodically. This can vary from a quarter to biweekly periods. The shorter the time span of payment is, the better for your cash flow. (People are happier if they get their earnings as soon as possible.)
12. Exclusivity:
Some vendors require exclusivity. It means if you decide to join their affiliate program and promote their products you are not allowed to advertise the competition's products. This severely limits your income opportunities.
About The Author
To discover more secrets about how to start and successfully operate a home based business or internet business, go to HomebizHerald and read the free online tutorials: www.homebizherald.com Download free web page templates and free banner templates at www.webtemplatemall.com
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