January 30, 2010

Getting Visitors To Stay Through Web Based Marketing

9/10 times your web site visitors won't stay for more than 15 seconds. This is how you get them to stay, or should I say, get them to come back!

For most of you, your web site is a great brochure. It probably outlines your services very well. There's nothing wrong with that what-so-ever!

but...

There are creative marketing strategies that you can implement so that you don't entirely loose your clients, you just need to keep them in the loop for when the time comes for them to buy.

"Marketing Online - Is about creative patience"

Being creative with your web marketing ventures is crucial but it doesn't necessarily react like print magazine ads or like newspaper press releases. No, it takes time for something to kick into full force.

This is why you should always keep on top of creating something new because, just like regular marketing, if you don't have another campaign ready to go when your done this one, you'll start to loose prospects on the way and create a slow period for your business.

You want your world online to consistently grow. Don't grow too quickly, just grow and keep growing with all your marketing efforts.

Here are some of the marketing strategies you can implement:

- Create an online newsletters
- Give something away for free
- Create online questionnaires
- Engage yourself into discussion groups
- Write helpful tips
- Create local resources for others
- Have a section of tips from others in your field
- Create a forum on your site

As you can see, these are all marketing strategies that ingage people in some way. The key is to create emotion through your visitors. Once you've engaged someone from your site, your site will be imprinted on their mind. It may take them a year to buy something from you but once in a while, maybe even weekly, they will keep coming back to your site.

The important thing to remember is that, eventually, we loose all of our visitors, even more important is to find marketing ventures that keep them coming back from time to time.

Just because someone saw your service today, doesn't mean that he/she is ready to buy what you are offering. Many people "Shop For Tomorrow". They like to browse around, see the options out there before they dig into their wallet.

I hope this article will spawn off some ideas for you!

Pay Per Click and Search Engine Optimization – A Perfect Marriage

Pay per click or search engine optimization, which one should you use? Many view PPC marketing as a colossal waste of money while others disdain search engine optimization. In reality, the two marketing strategies form a perfect marriage.

Pay-Per-Click - PPC

PPC marketing is a love it or hate platform. For the “love it” crowd, PPC marketing is a way to get instant exposure and feedback on site designs. In a matter of minutes, you can start receiving traffic and adjusting your site to convert the traffic at the best rate possible. For those in the “hate it” crowd, bids are to high and one never knows how may of the clicks are fake and worthless.

Search Engine Optimization – SEO

As with PPC, seo marketing has its proponents and detractors. Those who love it look at the free traffic and glorious profitability of a site that converts the traffic at a decent rate. Detractors view seo as an unnecessary waste of time since it can take a year or more to get high rankings, particularly on Google. Detractors also argue that high listings are subject to changes in the search engine ranking process, which means you can lose your rankings.

So, who is right? In truth, both sides make accurate arguments. PPC is expensive and click fraud is a monstrous problem. Seo produces free traffic, but it takes along time to get to the top and rankings are subject to the whims of search engine ranking changes. The truth, of course, is both marketing platforms should be used whenever possible.

Marketing Marriage

Every site is unique, but most should combine PPC and seo marketing as part of an overall internet marketing strategy. When starting out, the PPC campaign is critical for getting immediate traffic and tweaking the site to maximize conversions. At the same time, a seo campaign should be undertaken. As the site rises in search results, the PPC campaign should be fazed out for the relevant high listings.

PPC and seo marketing are not mutually exclusive. When married together as part of an overall marketing strategy, both platforms will deliver the goods.

Do I Need Website URL Monitoring?

Competitive doesn’t even begin to describe the online market today. Most every major company has taken their business to the World Wide Web. With so many different options standing before a consumer, how do you guarantee yours is the one that is chosen?

People in today’s world are extremely impatient. In our fast-paced environment, time is everything. Spending their hard earned dollars for top internet performance, any given individual will not be inclined to wait around for your website to load. Instead, they will find another avenue that can also suit their needs. This adds up to lost business if your website is found lacking.

With URL Website Monitoring you can check the performance of your own website as well as your competitor’s. Other companies are working just as hard to better their internet services constantly. Being able to compare the results will give you an idea of where you need to improve to stay current and competitive. The ability to run a report of where your company is lacking compared to others is a great tool to have in your bag at the next meeting.

Website URL Monitoring also allows for a worry free environment while you concentrate on other pressing issues. Instead of babysitting your website 24/7, put your time to better use in forwarding other aspects of your business. One great advantage of Website URL Monitoring is that you will be notified of any downtime issues or interruptions associated with your services. It also makes certain that every redirect is working around the clock. This takes a great worry of your shoulders and allows freedom as well as peace of mind.

The question isn’t whether or not your company needs Website URL Monitoring, its how can you get along without it? Take a step and be ahead of the game when it comes to your online business. Your time is important and Website URL Monitoring will ensure that time is respected.

How Can Your Online Business Succeed If You Don't Invest?

I hear it all the time, “How can I start an online business with no money?” People everywhere are looking to start an online or home based business yet they want to do it without spending a cent. So, I ask them, “How can a farmer expect to harvest a crop if he doesn’t buy the seed?”

You can talk about starting a business and making all kinds of money all you want, but until you realize that you have to invest in your business, it’s not a business, it’s just a hobby. That does not necessarily mean you have to take out a second loan on your home, but you do have to invest.

Put yourself in the farmer’s boots for a moment. You want to plant a cash crop and you know you can, so how do you go about getting started? First, you decide what crop you will plant. You do your homework to determine which crop will produce you the most return based on all the conditions. Once you make this decision, you have to take the next step. You have to take action.

Before you get the seed, you must till the ground and prepare it for planting. This preparation is critical if you want a successful crop. Once the ground is ready to accept the seed, you go the seed store and “buy” your seed. This is your investment.

So can you just throw the seed on the ground and expect great results? No. You must then cultivate it in order to get the results you expect. You work the soil to keep it loose, you water and fertilize. Then and only then will the seed start growing, until it produces the crop you dreamed it would.

Once your crop matures, you then can harvest its many fruits. You can see the results of your labor and your investment pays off.

Your business, whether online or offline, is much like planting a crop. You decide which business is best for you by reading and studying everything you can on the subject. Once you make that decision, you have to prepare. Get your website ready, everything must be in place. Then you plant or go live with your site. You have to promote and invest your time and money into the business. You keep at it, learning more as you go and one day you walk out to see your crop, and it is time to harvest.

Getting Your Home Business Enterprise off to a Good Start

When you have taken the first step to strike out on your own with a home based business, it is particularly important that you set a high standard for yourself by setting realistic goals and a solid a plan to work with. It is alright to start your home business on a part-time basis, and is often actually preferable. But while it is o.k. to do it part time in the beginning, you can't do it in your spare time. You have to work a set number of hours each week if you wish to fulfill your goals. I suggest you have a clear set of standards and protocals set up to guide you through every situation. That is what the successful corporations do and you would do well to follow their proven example. Even though your home business will start out small, you should treat it like a big business. That means detailed planning, properly entity selection and so on. This will give your business room to grow. Think of it as a tree that must be watered until mature. But once mature it may bear fruit for many years and require far less effort to maintain.

If you have made the jump to entrepreneur, you probably know that you are a little different from most other people. This is because there are certain clearcut differences between employees, the self employed and individuals who are business home owners.

Those who are employees usually seek security. They often feel that they must have a paycheck and believe that being their own boss, investing in their own home-based business is just too risky.

You could even say that they are addicted to getting a paycheck.

People who are self employed, like plumbers or doctors fall into another category completely. They are usually perfectionists who think that they and only they can 'get the job done right'. But when such a person goes on vacation, so does his income. But as a home business owner, you know that you are cut from a slightly different cloth. Other people may openly wonder how you can operate without the mental safety net of a paycheck. But you secretly know that no job is completely safe anyway.

Getting Started In Your Own Home Business

It seems just about everyone wants to go on the Internet these days, and make money online for themselves. This is certainly a good time to get into a work at home business, and many are showing a profit for their work. With the ease that one can be started today, is it not about the time you earned a little extra money through Internet marketing. This article will show you a few ways to get started.

Your Options

Probably the easiest way to get started in Internet marketing is to go with some of the affiliate programs. These programs are completely designed to give you just about everything that you need in order to successfully advertise, market and sell the product. All you need to do is scope out the possibilities, choose and sign up with a company, and go to work promoting the webpage.

In some cases, you do not even need to have your own website. Although you may do a little better if you do have one. The products available include everything you could want to sell from vitamins, luggage, travel tickets, books, etc. Anything you could possibly think about is available through affiliate programs.

Another Possibility

Selling information is a very hot item these days. Ebooks are actually about the hottest item on the Internet. You could start by marketing various eBooks through your home business, or try writing your own. Which is probably the best way to go, because all the profit then belongs to you.

Companies such as Clickbank have literally thousands of eBooks, including some of the latest, and it is free to join. This will give you access to the types of eBooks you want to market. Another idea would be to packet out of date books, and put them on the market as repackaged special eBook. Just make sure that they are truly in the public domain, first.

A Note for Your Consideration

While you are looking at the possibilities of a home business, perhaps you need to consider multiple streams of income. This should be your goal, along with residual income. The basic idea here is to find a product or service that brings in a recurring payment, such as an ISP or membership site.

Here is something that everybody needs. It does not take that much work to get going, but lays a foundation for you by potentially running itself after you get it going. This may potentially provide income for years to come. After it is well established, you should add more multiple streams of income. Visit the link in our resource box for some ideas.

Earn Money Online With Your Home Business

When you decide to start your own home business, you have three options. You can run your business without using the Web, run your business using only the Web, or do a little of both. The best thing you can do for your home business is to promote or run it via the web. There are several reasons why allowing your home business to be present on the web is beneficial. Take a look at these reasons and then make the choice on whether or not you want to take your home business to a whole new level.

The biggest reason you should consider earning money online with your home business is because it is easy to do. When you need a customer base, you can easily find one online. There are millions of potential consumers online, just waiting for you to get their attention. When you put your home business online, you can instantly start accessing those consumers and make more money.

Another reason you should think about putting your home business online is because it is much cheaper to run your business online than it is to rent office space and pay for all of the utilities. When you think about it, the only thing you have to pay for when you operate your business online is your website hosting fees and minor Internet fees. So, obviously you can see that it is not only can you find more customers online, but you can save money by running your business online as well.

So, if you are thinking about putting your home business online, you should! You can easily earn money and market your product or service to millions of people around the world. In addition, you really need very little startup capital to make your dream of owning your own home business a reality.

Choosing A Home Business

With so many options and the world as your oyster, it can be difficult choosing a home business and deciding which one is right for you. Every day, many people embark on new business ventures in the hopes that they will find success. The key to choosing a home business that works is to choose something that you love.

There are a number of ways to get ideas when choosing a home business. Take a moment to sit down and make a list of your favorite things. Perhaps you love to create in the kitchen and would enjoy operating your own restaurant. On the other hand, maybe you have a knack for style and possess the creativity that would be ideal for interior design. When choosing a home business, try to make it something that you will enjoy doing every day. If it’s a hobby that you love, perhaps you would enjoy a business surrounding the idea. If you collect stamps, coins, autographs or other collectibles, perhaps a specialty store would be a wonderful way to spend your days.

If you are still unsure about choosing a home business, browse through some entrepreneur magazines or websites and see if any ideas reach out to you. Quite often, the least obvious things are those that we would enjoy doing the most. If you are a stay at home mom, then you obviously love children. Perhaps babysitting would be a fun way to earn some extra money. Start slow in the beginning and work your way up to an actual business if you enjoy the work.

When choosing a home business, select something with as little stress as possible. If your new home business proves to be stressful, it will make you unhappy. The same is true with any job involving any increased amount of stress. One way to avoid stress is to decide how much time you can devote to the business before actually choosing a home business. One type of career may require very little time while others may require attention throughout the entire day and into the evening hours.

Choosing a home business can be one of the most exciting opportunities that an individual can pursue. The rewards of operating a successful business are far more than financial and the emotional rewards are priceless. The thought of being your own boss, setting the rules and showing up at work in your bathrobe and slippers has a certain appeal that no other career could even come close to offering.

Best Work From Home Job – Nailing It In No Time

I remember one time I was going to a concert at First Avenue. Probably you don’t know where First Ave is, so I’d like to highly recommend you go rent the movie Purple Rain tonight…or soon. Anyways, that’s where I was. On the way across a parking lot a guy approached my friends and I and offered to play that game where he has some cups and a ball and you have to guess under which cup is the ball. Well my friend lost. He said it was a scam and didn’t want to pay. Then out of nowhere the cup-artists muscle appeared and assured that my friend pay up.

Guess what. The leaders of my country I don’t respect...but that guy with the cups and ball has garnered as much respect as I can garner for one individual. He’s the poster child for the American Dream. He makes his own schedule, meets lots of interesting people, chooses the location where he wants to work and doesn’t have some irritating boss breathing down his neck all day.

Sound good? Well you can do it to…with all those benefits from day one. But, if you don’t have the muscle to force people like my friends to pay up you have a stay at home job instead.

With so many uncertainties in the corporate world today, all the forced overtime, missed moments with your family and every other difficulty with a traditional position, having a stay at home job is pretty much a no brainer.

There are plenty of opportunities and options to choose from in regards to what type of stay at home job you pursue, so it almost seems that the most difficult part is making the decision to do it. From there, its your interests and abilities that will guide your new career and destiny. If your still not convinced that a stay at home job is right for you; consider again my hero in the red, velvet running suit. He made twenty bucks in five minutes; chew on that.

Best Way to Make Money Online: What It Takes

When you are thinking of ways to make money online, you likely want to know immediately what the best way to make money online is. The truth is that the answer to that varies from person to person. Everyone is different and what one person can make money on may not be easy for another person to make money on. Therefore, it is important to assess what you know and what you have in order to figure out what the best way to make money online is. Use these assessment tips to help you get started and on your way to making money online.

Your Product or Services

The first thing you need to assess is what you are trying to “sell” online. If you have a physical product to sell, you will need to figure out the best way it would be to sell that product. For instance, you need to determine if you should sell that product alone, or if it works best in groups. For instance, if you are selling pictures, you will need to determine if you want to offer them with frames or without. The way in which you present your product can have a great impact on the way it is received by your potential customers.

If you are dealing with a service, such as consulting or writing, you need to figure out how you will present your services. Perhaps you could create “packages” of services in which you would need to set prices for. Customers typically will purchase more confidently when you have everything laid out simply for them.

Avenues to Use

In addition to figuring out how you plan to market your products, you will also need to know how you plan to get them out there to the public. For instance, some people choose to use their own website and advertising to sell their products. This can be a very effective way to sell your products or services.

If you really want to catapult your business online, use Google Adwords. With Google Adwords, you don't need to worry about getting your website on the front page by making sure your use keywords correctly, getting tons on incoming links to your site, or all the other things associated with search engine optimization. It is really simple to use as long as you read the how to on Google. If you’re not careful, you could really blow all your money using wrong keywords, not setting your advertising budget, and not paying attention to your click through rate. Click through rate is all figured out for you in your Google account, so you really do not need to worry about it. Just make sure you have a click through rate of 1% or more.

One of the best ways to know if your advertising is right on is by this rate! Let's say your advertisement received 200 clicks out of 2000 page impressions and 2 of those clicks resulted in sales. There’s your one percent! There are many eBooks on Google Adwords to help you learn how to use Google Adwords effectively; I personally think you will learn all you need to know in Google’s help files. Just be sure to be using methods that bring traffic to your site so you will have customers. Google Adwords has the potential of bringing millions of potential customers to your advertisement in just minutes.

If you don’t want to worry with setting up your own home page, advertising, and website, you can always choose an alternative method of selling such as advertising your services on a blog which can be free by using Google Blogger, a message board, or an online auction site. All of these avenues can be very profitable.

As you can see, finding out what the best way to make money online is not as easy as you would think. With a little research, using the internet will help you; you can actually build yourself a highly profitable business. In fact, you need to figure that out for yourself by thinking about what your talents are and what you have to offer. Then think about what the best means for marketing and offering your products and services are. Keep playing around with ideas until you find something that works! Once you find what works for you, work it, work it, and then work it some more.

January 29, 2010

Home Business Tips for the Budding Entrepreneur

Many people who want to start a home business look for home business tips that can make their lives much easier by learning from others. Many small business owners will happily share their business tips with you in order to get your business off the ground. Most of the time home business tips are practical, but depending on what type of business you are going into will determine what kind of tips are useful.

Many times common sense and plain old practical information is the key. The most common home business tip is to learn as much about your business as possible, particularly from others who are successful now. Knowledge truly is power. You need to understand your market, the customers, your competitors and your business inside and out to truly succeed. Don’t expect any short cuts; starting a business requires hard work and lots of thought and preparation before you begin.

Learning from your competitor is another great way to absorb knowledge. Your competitor has probably been through the same pitfalls as you and somehow succeeded. Look at how your competitor does business and try to follow his strengths. If you see a flaw in your competitor, try to capitalize on it.

Talk to other small business owners. Many small business owners are in the same boat as you and are always looking for people to talk to about how to get their business off the grown and be profitable, use the many home business forums and resources such as magazines and books. If you are looking for great home business tips, check out the above resources. Another way to get information is to look for SBA sites in your area. They dispense information that will help you write a business plan and obtain funding if you are eligible. Do your due diligence before your open the doors.

Be careful of Clickbank – The one secret I should not have disclosed!

I have a secret I have got to reveal. Keep this to yourself. Do you notice when you visit most sales page, they have an “affiliates sign up” or “make money here” link which directs you to their affiliate sign up page? Imagine this scenario, Thomas visits the site through your affiliate link, he reads the sales copy and is convinced but the price $79 is a little steep. He sees the “affiliates sign up” link and clicks. He realizes he could get at 60% discount with the commission and so he signs up with clickbank and buys through his own link.

The vendors do not want this to happen right? Wrong! Fact is, they had intended to sell at $31(40%) of the price and so set it at $79. The affiliate link was prominently displayed so visitors could easily see it and sign up and get the discount. This make the buyer thinks he has got into a “winning” situation but in fact the vendor got the sale he wanted and an affiliate at the same time.

Armed with this knowledge you should be able to be more discerning when selecting the products to promote. That said, here are some ways which you can profit from Clickbank.

Tip 1
Criteria for selecting your products. Never select a product that is priced too high, pays out commission below 50% and a sales copy that sucks. Amazingly, there are affiliates promoting these products still!

Tip 2
Make full use of the resources page. They are there for a reason, they must be working otherwise or they would not have been there. That is not to say you can use your own promotional tools, by all means go ahead!

Tip 3
Getting traffic. There are many ways of generating traffic. One of them is by using Google Adwords. It is targeted and fast. You get quick targeted traffic and the thing is, if you do your keyword research well, you can get it cheaply too. More on free traffic generators is available in my book Clickbank Profit Machine

Computer Home Based Jobs – If You Can Play Pacman You Can Do This!

I’ve often thought of myself as a sort of walking discrepancy. I think that it’d be just a little too much of a delusion of grandeur to try to go the yin yang route. But paradoxical and hypocritical seem to fit the bill pretty accurately. I mean, I like something but hate it too. And it’s not wholly out of character for me to say one thing and do another. I’m assuming that this can be irritating to those around me; fortunately most of my friends are hopped up on enough adderrol that leads them to sufficiently recognize their own shortcomings so as not to focus on mine (although the 40 mg of adderrol has got their focus razor sharp if they wanted to). With this in mind, I’d like to consider yet another discrepancy.

I love laziness. I mean I really embrace it, in fact with such zeal that it borders on not being lazy at all. But, I’ll tell you what, if I am not facing some type of challenge that requires great amounts of energy and effort in order to succeed in order to get that feeling of finality and completion, I just want to fling myself off a bridge due to boredom.

As with most paradoxes where both contradcting forces need to be satisfied, a dilemma is unavoidable here. But, also like most dilemmas, an solution is possible. I need to be lazy, so I can work from home (this isn’t to disparage others that work at home with good reason, I simply have no other reason than laziness). But, the ever changing world of computers will offer me the complexity and difficulty I need to satiate my need to assuage boredom with challenging projects.

As you know with computers there’s great demand for those with the skills to trouble shoot, repair, program, maintain and all other seemingly infinite facets of the field that leaves the average person clueless. These are all jobs that can be done with a computer home based job. Its just that easy and thank god challenging at the same time. I work at home, easy. I work with computers, challenging. I’ve got a computer home based job and every one of my naturally based, impossible to satisfy personal discrepancies satisfied.

Driving Your SEO Professional Insane

Checking the rankings of your site in the search engines can become addictive. This is fine so long as you do not drive the person handling your seo work insane.

Driving Your SEO Professional Insane

What are the first words out of a search engine optimization professional’s mouth when talking to a potential client? This is going to take some time. Not only do we say this, but we tend to overestimate how long it is going to take. In addition to covering our butts, we say this to keep you from driving us insane.

As a client, you must show some faith in your search engine optimization professional. If you are told it is going to take a certain amount of time before rankings will appear, do not start checking them every morning. Okay, you can check them, but do not call me everyday! The more time I spend on the phone with you, the less time I have to work on your campaign. Patience is the word you have to focus on here.

A second method for driving your seo professional insane is the area of unwanted advice. This typically occurs when you read an article, book or see something on the television about search engine optimization. You may have the urge to tell us about it or ask for clarification. Why? Are you suddenly going to implement it in your site? If it is important, there is an excellent chance we already know about it. The optimization game changes all the time and we stay on top of it. Please resist the urge to call with little tidbits of information. If you want to learn how the process works, make sure to mention that at the outset of the relationship.

A third method for putting your seo person in a mental health clinic is daily ranking addiction. This occurs after rankings have been obtained for all or most of the desired keywords. You are so pleased with the situation, you review the rankings each morning. Inevitably, a ranking moves down. Your first step is to call us. This is maddening. In fact, we may not call you back because we know the rankings are just fluctuating a bit because of an update. A few days later, we call back and tell you the ranking is fine. Yes, this is done on purpose. Please do not call to inform us of changes in the rankings each day! Don’t worry, we will keep an eye on everything.

Your search engine optimization professional should be a valued part of your business family. Driving them insane is not a good way to treat a family member!

Doorway page generator and Internet cloaking

Doorway Page

Doorway page generator and Internet cloaking scripts when used judiciously can improve the search engine ranking of any web-page or website. The search engine optimisation doorway pages are keyword rich smart pages or hook pages, that links and/or redirects to the content page. The content page meant for the user is cloaked from the search engine, (hence the term Search Engine Cloaking). Keyword rich hook pages or bridge pages appear in the search results page. When followed the link from the search result, the user is automatically redirected to the intended page. Or in simple words, search engines don’t see what the users see and vice-versa.

IP cloaking is possible if the Webmaster know the IP address of search engines. Only the doorway pages or search engine optimisation doorway pages are caught by the search engine spider while crawling the website. The door page script or doorway generator script are usually too short to be caught by search engines. The cloaking software identifies the IP addresses of search engines, and when a search comes from the search engine IP, the real page is hid and the keyword filled doorway is displayed. This is called IP cloaking. Website cloaking and page cloaking needs to be done with care and the users shall be led relevant pages only.

The doorway page generator also helps you protect your search engine optimisation techniques from being copied by your competitors. Making a page visible to search engine requires a special quality. Learn about the search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques that can help you improve the search engine rankings of your web-pages.

Next Week More on Doorway Techniques.

What Is RSS And How Can It Benefit You?

RSS is short for Really Simple Syndication. It is part of the XML family that is used for syndicating information. Put simply RSS allows one web site to share information with another web site.

As a web site publisher, RSS offers a way for them to publish their information on many web sites, which in turns increases their reach on the Internet and the amount of traffic they receive to their web site. They also receive more one way links back to their web site. These benefits result in an increase in their search engine ranking.

As a web site owner, RSS allows them to receive up to date links to information on a regular basis that runs on auto pilot. When the publishing site is updated, their web site is also updated.

The result of this is that their web site is updated more regularly which also increases their search engine ranking.

The other benefit the web site owner receives from using RSS is that their information remains "fresh" which encourages their visitors to return on a regular basis.

However, the web site owner does not receive the complete articles, instead, they receive a feed that contains a title, a brief description and a link to the article that resides on the publishers web site.

The main disadvantage to the web site owner is that they trade off traffic for content, as their visitors need to visit the publishers web site to read the complete article.

But, this is a minor disadvantage considering all the benefits that RSS offers the web site owner.

The web site owner will need to install some software in order for them to receive RSS Feeds.

This software ranges from commercial packages the web site owner can purchase all the way down to freeware. Before purchasing any software you should research the different software packages that are available to ensure you get the software that is most suited to your requirements.

Fortunately, setting up an RSS feed is relatively straightforward and should only take a couple of hours at the most, and, once RSS is set up their is very little maintenance (if any) required.

If you are a web site owner, you should consider the power of RSS and what it can offer you and your web site.

January 28, 2010

Finding A Profitable Home Business!!!

Oftentimes, the promises of some companies are thick with lies and inaccuracies. At other times, disappointment comes when individuals fail in some way to really look into it.

There are different ways to go about finding a profitable home business. With some businesses, you may choose to be entirely independent, or, you may work as a subcontractor for a larger brand-name company. Here, the first choice will be what is looked at. This article will tell you how to go about finding a profitable home business for yourself.

Do Your Research With Open Eyes

There are a lot of programs being offered to people who want to work at home - that are simply not true. It usually is the same ones that promise that you will make a lot of money within a rather short time. In selecting your business, be discerning, because this will be seen often - but this is not reality. It is not a good idea to join some program without doing more research. Decide whether or not the promises are real, by looking at support from other groups and individuals.

Research the Opportunity Well

There are many ways to go about finding a profitable home business. The list of such opportunities probably has no end, but each of them should be examined carefully to see if all is what it seems.

Extra care should be given if you are looking into an opportunity that a web company is offering. Learn all you can about the company from different sources including the Better Business Bureau. Many scams abound on the internet - simply because they are rather easy to start up, operate, and disappear when convenient. Especially be wary if there are large start up fees. It would be a good idea to read some of the scam reports, too.

Many Profitable Home Businesses Are Available

The list here is growing rapidly as people get more inventive. Just about anything can be done from home, all you need is either a service or a product (s), that is in demand. The possibilities, range from pet-grooming, to catering, to writing resumes, or being an accountant, and many more. Who knows, after you look around, and spend the necessary time finding a profitable home business, you might be the first in your chosen business field.

Easy Work From Home Ideas

The world is changing and you want to be part of the new world. Why working all your life for a distant salary if you can work only for a couple of years for big money? Join us before it will be too late.
People keep asking me for easy work from home ideas, so I have decided to gather some of the high income business opportunities. It hasn't been an easy task because of the variety of different business opportunities from home.

1. Affiliate marketing - maybe not the easy home business opportunity but one of the best work from home jobs. Affiliate marketing is simply connecting between sellers and buyers of online products. I personally know people who are making huge money using simple affiliate marketing techniques.

2. Websites design - Website designing is the easiest programming task available. You should know basic computer programming and have creative ideas. Just start playing with one of the website designing software programs and then offer your services to little businesses.

3. Content writing - Unique content is the online king. People all over the world write blogs or unique content sites, place google adsense in them and make money while they sleep. Certainly one of the easy work from home ideas.

4. Herbalife work at home - Herbalife is the leading MLM community and herbalife marketers make lots of money selling herbalife health nutrition products from home.

5. Filling online surveys - Maybe the easy home business opportunity is just filling online surveys about any subject and making money out of it.

6. Selling product on EBay - Millions of people make money on EBay selling and buying products. Selling anything on EBay is a worthy and easy work from idea.

7. Trading domains - Locating free or expanding good domains, buying them in low cost and selling them on online auctions could be a great easy home business opportunity.

8. Stocks and commodities trading - Anyone can be a trader today. All data is available online. Just start trading with small amount and learn methods like technical analysis.

9. Online casinos - I am not sure business opportunities from home is a right definition for online casinos but the fact is that online expert gamblers have made millions.

10. Other online services - The possibilities are endless. Just try any easy work from home idea and you will find the best work from home job for you.

What Is The Number 1 Determinant Of Success In Home Based Businesses

What is the most important factor in your success with a network marketing or MLM type business? In my experience, the most important factor in success in any of these businesses is the person who sponsors you or that you sign up under...

1. What level of success are they having? Can they prove it to you? If they aren't successful, how can they help you? Internet businesses take a lot of knowledge to correctly market and build. Buying leads that are not targeted enough to your business and have probably been sold 3-5 times already is not going to work.

2. If they are successful, is their system duplicatable? Some people are successful but you can't do what they have done. Do they already have a website like WAHM that has thousands of subscribers? or maybe they have a radio show? Or they signed up someone underneath them that has a large percent of there actual success... Or in a lot of cases, they just got in early and everybody signed up under them by default - and you cant duplicate that!

3. Do they have an unlimited budget of money or time to spend on the business that you cant duplicate? If they are just buying their traffic and you can't then they really cant teach you anything...

There are people out there who are making lots of money and are driving traffic to their business with a combination of pay and free resources, but you have to find that person. And then make sure they are truly willing to teach you the ropes and not just tell you whatever it takes to get you signed up into their business...

What Clickbank Do Not Want You To Know!

This is something many affiliates do not know and really ought to know. Keep this to yourself. Do you notice when you visit most sales page, they have an “affiliates sign up” or “make money here” link which brings you to their affiliate sign up page?

Imagine this scenario, Mr X visits the site through your affiliate link, he reads the sales copy and is rather swayed but the price $97 is a little steep. He sees the “affiliates sign up” link and clicks. He then realizes he could get at 50% discount with the commission if he signs up with clickbank and buys through his own link.

The vendors do not want this to happen right? Wrong answer! The fact is they had intended to sell at $48.5(50%) of the price and so set it higher at $97. In addition to that, the affiliate link was prominently displayed so visitors could easily see it and sign up and get the discount. This make the buyer thinks he has got into a “winning” situation but in fact the vendor got the sale he wanted and an affiliate at the same time.

Now you know why these “affiliates sign up” or “earn money now” links does not seem so subtle anymore.

Some tips you can and should use.
Number 1 – Choosing the right product to promote
There are several factors to consider there. I shall list a few. For me, I never choose a product with commission below 50% and a sale which results in less then $19. I only promote products which I have mailed the vendor and he has replied. I visit the sales page and rate it upon 10 on persuasiveness and would not promote products with a rating below 6.5

Number 2 – Make use of articles to promote
Articles just like this one brings me lots of fresh traffic everyday. Not only that, it also brings in targeted traffic as people reading and finding the content in the article are more then likely to visit the link at the resource box. Just remember to “mask” or “cloak” your affiliate link into a web address become most article directories do not accept direct affiliate links. Just do a Google on these cloaking services, there are many free ones out there

Number 3 – Drop the vendor a mail
Doing this serves two purposes. Firstly, you can determine the responsiveness of the vendor and much he cares about you- the affiliate, enough for him to reply. Secondly, you can ask him for tips and extra resources (other than those on his affiliate page) to help in your promotion. More often than not, the vendors are very likely to help.

A Make Money Home Based Business – Tell Me All About It

If you want to make money, home based business is the way to go. Having your own business operating out of your home is an inexpensive, almost free, way to generate a monthly income and have relative freedom from the 9 to 5 grind. As you own boss, you set your own hours and break times and still make money. Home based business ideas are many so you can literally choose anything that suits your interest and expertise and still make money. Home based business has a lot of positives.

The growth of the Internet has led to an explosion of home based Internet businesses using affiliate marketing as a way to make money. Home based business built on affiliate marketing means that you set up a website and redirect the traffic to an affiliate that pays you each time a customer makes a purchase by clicking through your website. This is an example of a free home based Internet business because it doesn’t cost anything to sign up with other businesses as one of their affiliates.

However, there is a lot more to just setting up a website to make money. Home based businesses operating on the Internet cannot just expect the sites to make money without some extra work. The cost of an Internet based business is not quite free, because you do have to pay for the domain name and the web hosting, but when you compare it to the cost of setting up a bricks and mortar business, then you might consider it almost a free home based Internet business.

In order to make money through affiliate marketing you do have to become knowledgeable about how it works. Choosing onine merchants that people want to buy from will help you make money. Home based business owners with small internet businesses can get the information they need about operating a free home based Internet business by reading all the available information on affiliate marketing. The main thing is to choose a merchant that sells products consumers want.

To make money, home based business owners need to search the Internet to find the online merchants that rank highly in the search engines. Study the websites that have links to affiliates and find out how you can take advantage of a free home based Internet business. Think about what is hot in the market right now and set about finding merchants that offer quality products like these. Once you do this and have your website up and running, you will be well on your way. You do have to keep working at least a few hours each day to make money. Home based business using the Internet also means you have to be constantly on the lookout for new products and ideas.

If you want to make money, home based business on the internet is a low cost and effective way to do it.

A Home Business Career – Work From Home

Having a home business career has become a real possibility with the dawn of the Internet. This brought about the beginning of a new way of life for many people. Instead of struggling to make ends meet with a low paying job, now you can have a business career at home by operating your own Internet business. This is not a difficult task and the cost of getting everything set up is not at all high. You can stay at home, work when you like and dress how you like with a home business career.

Many people shy away from the idea of a home business career because they feel it means door-to-door selling or managing home parties to sell products. With the advances in technology, you can have your own turnkey Internet business with just the click of your mouse. Getting started with this type of Internet home business does mean you have to do a little research to find out what it is that consumers want to buy.

Online shopping makes it possible for you to have an Internet home business career that you operate from home. With the convenience of the online retailers being open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, more and more consumers shop for just about everything they need through the Internet. An online pharmacy, for example, is a very profitable type of turnkey Internet business as is selling hard to find products, such as plus size clothing.

The wealth of information available on the Internet about various turnkey businesses and how you can get started right away is overwhelming. You do need to find a home business career in something that you really love, whether it is jewelry, address labels, or hot tubs. Anything and everything is sold on the Internet and setting up your own website is the first step involved in having your own home business career. You can write articles to lead in to each product and link to another company if you wish to become an affiliate and make money this way. Either way, a turnkey Internet business is profitable.

You do have to be patient because success with a turnkey Internet business does not happen overnight. You do have to build up the website in the search engine rankings so that people looking for the product you sell will find it. In addition to setting up your own home business career with an Internet site, you can have Google ads that pay you every time someone clicks through on one of them. Having a home business career is an excellent way to have more leisure time, but you do have to put in time getting it started.

So if you want a home business career an internet home business is a very viable alternative.

A closer look at work from home

There is no denying in the tremendous increase in the number of online businesses in the past 10 years, not only in the USA, but just about any place where computers can be accessed easily. As we all know that, among many online businesses run by good and honest people, there are some online businesses run by bad and unscrupulous people whose primary objective is to con money out of unsuspecting naive people who are desperately looking online for jobs due to their circumstances such as being a stay-home-parent with kids, wheelchair bound, or whatever their unique circumstances could be that made them think that online jobs made more sense. I decided to look around online, about 2 years ago, after seeing so many popups about home based jobs such as paid online surveys, freelance jobs, etc to see if they were another one of online schemes to rip you off. After I signed up with many of them, of course I couldn't check all, and receiving hundreds, if not thousands, of junk emails from them I was able to tell which ones were good and bad. As in real life, we have to be careful and take some precautions by finding out if there is a physical address of business or a phone number or even by checking it out on BBB.org (Better Business Bureau) online before typing in our sensitive information.

10 Steps To Running A Home-Based Business

The failure or success of a business often relies on the most fundamental operations-the ones that often get overlooked as a tipping point process in the daily business cycle. Fortunately, one of the leading business sites, AllBusiness.com, offers advice and solutions that help businesses succeed. These 10 easy-to-follow steps will help your home-based business become a success.

1. Plan ahead. Take the time to make plans for every eventuality that may arise. From natural disasters to unexpected financial problems, you will need a plan that you can readily access to get you through a difficult time.

2. Put money aside. Don't begin your business with delusions of overnight success. You'll need funds to tide you over while your business grows. Put some money aside to tide you over until you do start earning revenue.

3. Organize your time. Being a responsible business owner means managing your time wisely. Initially you will need to spend extra time making your vision a reality.

4. Organize your space. You can't run a business effectively if you are wasting time looking for an important receipt under reams of loose paper. Take time to organize your home office and make sure you can function efficiently.

5. Stay focused. Family responsibilities, chores, TV and the warmth of your own bed can all distract you from the task at hand. Remove as many distractions as you can from your home office and stay focused.

6. Figure out tax laws now, before it is too late. Do your research now so you will be prepared come tax time.

7. Advertise. You can't afford to wait for your customers to come to you-you need to go out and get them. Advertising is an investment, and spending money now to market your business effectively can pay big dividends.

8. Get the proper equipment. Office equipment is an extra expense, but you need the hardware to run your business correctly. To compare features and prices, check out the Business Products comparison engine at AllBusiness.com.

9. Cover your assets. Don't wait for a natural disaster to destroy your entire inventory-now is the time to purchase the insurance you need.

10. Don't get discouraged. Success does not come overnight. It will require dedication, hard work and a lot of extra effort to make it a reality. This is your dream; do all you can to keep it alive.

5 Pillars To A Successful Home Business.

- Hustle:

Generally, people who make it big have one thing in common—they are dissatisfied with the status quo. They will not take what is “common” or “expected” and let that define their lives—they move past it and excel. You must work hard and hustle.

- Character:

Someone coined the phrase, “character is what you do in the dark.” In other words, when no one is looking, will you behave differently than if someone was looking? If not, then you have character. If you are attacked, be tough—not hard. Don’t be a pushover, but be compassionate, gentle, and flexible—especially on procedure (not principle).

- Risk Taking:

This isn’t gambling, it’s a willingness to be bold, hearty, and to push forward. People who refuse to take risks are definitely going to lose. If you refuse a new promotion because you’re not confident of your skills, you will likely be passed over when a different chance arrives.

Don’t be afraid of rejection, just take it as part of life and you’ll find there’s nothing to be afraid of—especially in the word “no.” “No” is just another opportunity to find a way around an obstacle and to use creative problem-solving skills.

- Time Management:

We all know that one minute has 60 seconds and that one hour has 60 minutes. One day has 24 hours, and one year has 365 days. But one year also has 525,600 minutes. We don’t think about a year in such small increments, but maybe we should.

We waste minutes as if they’ll always be around, and the fact is that time wasted is time we can never get back. We might miss a deal or promotion of a lifetime by wasting just a few minutes.

Proper time management is essential as you climb to success. Continue to break goals down in to manageable chunks—do that with relation to your day and the time you’ve been given. You’ll accomplish far more this way and you won’t regret using your time wisely.

- Master Non-Verbal Communication:

It is said that our body language and facial expressions do much more communicating than our words will ever do. When the words that you speak don’t match the expressions on your face or the stance of your body, you confuse the listener and muddle your message.

Be aware that when you try to “multi-task,” you often end up short-changing something, and the last thing you want is to short-change people. Don’t try to do too much at once—your willingness to do this tells people they aren’t important, even if you’re expressing your appreciation of their work and effort.

Be aware of what message your body is sending off!

January 27, 2010

Submitting Your Site To Directories For Free Links

If you're like most webmasters, you're always looking for ways to get links to your site. Of course, if they're one way links, all the better! Well, submitting your site to directories not only offers you one ways, you can get them for free.

If you follow a few rules when submitting your site to various directories, you'll greatly increase the number of directories that accept your link, so increasing the number of links you get.

Many directories publish a comprehensive list of rules for submitting to their site, but here are a few general rules that will put you in good stead.

1 – No promotional language – avoid promotion type language in your title and description. Avoid things like “click here” “save big”, etc.

2 - Don't keyword stuff – While you want your keywords in your title and description as possible, don't stuff them with your keyword. You want it to look official and natural.

3 – Give valid contact info – When you submit your listing, use yourreal name and email address. It will greatly increase your chances of acceptance.

4 – Submit to the deepest relevant category – Don't submit to a main category unless there is not a subcategory that fits your site. For examle, google.com should be submitted to Computers > Internet > Search > Search Engines, not just to the Computers category

5 – Site guidelines – in general, directories will only accept unique, content rich sites. Most directories will not accept Adsense sites, scraper sites, doorway pages, etc.

6 – Submit your homepage – Don't submit sub-pages unless the directory states you may – most directories will deny sub-page listings.

Bonus tip – Here's a way to greatly speed up your directory submissions. Use a form fill plug in for your browser that automatically fills in your url, title, description, etc. I use and recommend RoboForm, but you may find a better free one somewhere.

Are postcards worth their price?

We appreciate. We criticize. We laugh. We mourn. We are moved by postcards.

Since its introduction up to the present time, postcard is still one of the best medium of communication. We can recall that postcards were used as means for brief communication. It was the best choice then because they are light and inexpensive.

Nowadays, postcards are not only used to express our hi’s and hello’s, it is now popularly used as a marketing tool. Whenever there is an upcoming event, a product launching or a new service to be made available postcards can be your reliable ally.

Postcard is a great way to market tourism. Just by mailing them, you can make people desire to travel. Just by using luscious pictures, you can make people starve with food cravings. Just by making your business known to your target, makes the latter long for it.

Sense of seeing is pretty powerful. It can drive other senses crazy. In fact, it can lead them to ludicrous wants. That power is also imbibed in postcards.

Postcards are most effective when done in full color. 4 color postcard printing adds dimension and create dramatic effect to your postcards. One or two-color printing may be too plain and simple for your artwork might as well use the color process that can bolster your postcards aesthetic as well as functional value.

In deciding whether to use 4 color postcard printing or not, you have to weigh first its pros and cons. Clients, designers and printers are more at ease with this printing process. It maximizes design flexibility. In fact, it can create an almost limitless palette. However, this process can be a bit expensive compared to one or two-color printing. It can go as high as 4 times the price of a two-color printing job.

4 color postcard printing is good for postcards because it brings out brilliant images. It uses four pieces of film – cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Each color uses one film. Two-color printing is cheaper because it only uses two films. Thus, it takes less stripping and plating. Moreover, it will only take little time in order to finish the printing job.

Exact colors can also be produced with the use of PMS or Pantone Matching System. This process is often resorted to create accurate colors that match the company’s logo or traditional design. This process may seem the most costly. However, if you want exact colors, try this.

Are Free Business Cards Really Free?

You have probably seen advertisements for "Free Business Cards" someone online. How could they possibly afford to give away free business cards without making someone, somewhere pay?

It is a good question, and one I wanted to know myself. I choose a company that offered so called "Free Business Cards" and began to browse their website.

I first noticed that they didn't just have the free business cards offer, but they also sold upgrades to the free package. Is that how they make their money? Only off of the upgrades?

This particular company also sold magnetic business cards, plastic business cards, metal business cards, and other types of business cards. In addition to the business cards, they also sold company letterhead, custom printed envelopes, and other types of office stationery.

The free business cards offer was beginning to make a little more sense.

I would guess that the percentage of people taking the free business cards are mainly business people. Those people probably also need envelopes, letterhead and other office stationery. Maybe they make their money on the upsell.

But are they really free?

I decided that I should go ahead and order some of these free business cards. This way I would know for sure whether or not the business cards are really free.

I decided which company I would order from then went to the order section

The first thing I had to do was design my business card. After my design I got to the order section, are they really free after all the work I did?

When I got to the final checkout, there were many options, more upgrades available. I chose not to get additional cards. Then I had to choose not to have my free business cards laminated.

After all of this, I found out that "Free Business Cards" are really free!

January 26, 2010

Characteristics Of A Successful Entrepreneur

Studies have shown that successful entrepreneurs possess these characteristics:

1. Self-confidence

This is that magical power of having confidence in oneself and in one's powers and abilities.

2. Achievement Oriented

Results are gained by focused and sustained effort. They concentrate on achieving a specific goal, not just accomplishing a string of unrelated tasks.

3. Risk Taker

They realize that there is a chance of loss inherent in achieving their goals, yet they have the confidence necessary to take calculated risks to achieve their goals.

Entrepreneurs are people who will make decisions, take action, and think that they can control their own destinies. They are often motivated by a spirit of independence which leads them to believe that their success depends on raw effort and hard work, not luck.

So which of these three main characteristics is the most important? Believe it or not, it has to be self-confidence. Without self-confidence, nothing else is possible. If you don't believe in your abilities, then the first challenge that arises may knock you off the path to achieving your goals. Here are a few things to keep in mind for maintaining a higher level of self-confidence.

Positive Thinking

Well, it all starts with a positive attitude, doesn't it? Believing that something good will happen is the first step. Negative thinking simply is not allowed. You must truly believe that there are no circumstances strong enough to deter you from reaching your goals. Remember too, that positive thinking can be contagious. When positive thinking spreads, it can open doors to new ideas, customers, friends, etc.

Persistent Action

Now all of the positive thinking and believing in the world is useless if it is not applied towards a goal. You have to take action, no excuses are allowed. This action must also be persistent. Trying once and then giving up is not going to be enough. Keep at it one step at a time. If you can't get by a certain step, then find a creative way to try again or just go around it.

At the beginning of this article we identified a few traits that are common among successful entrepreneurs. You should be able to look ahead and see yourself where you want to be. Now just maintain a strong belief in yourself and your skills, stick with it, and don't give up. If you can do that, you're already half way there!

A Whole New World

If, like me, your career in life has not involved any form of marketing or selling, then to get involved in internet marketing is one hell of a giant leap.

I was first introduced into internet marketing through an email that I received twice weekly. I kept seeing an advert for something called GoogleAds. Now ,at this point, all I used the internet for was either playing games or just browsing in general for any information that I needed on any subject matter under the sun.

The advert said that all I needed to do to make any money was place adverts onto Google’s search engine and people would buy products and I would receive a generous commission. Simple ,I thought ,that is until you try it as an uneducated marketer.

I lost more money than I made, but this can be quite normal for the beginner. I accepted the fact that I had lost money but vowed to continue looking for something that I could do.

So, being curious about money making on the internet I decided to investigate further.

I came across many money making opportunities that promise this that and the other, which I am sure a lot of you have seen yourselves.Anyway, after a while I found an offer that I thought I could try out and see what happens without losing an absolute fortune.

After starting a venture into internet marketing for the first time you will find yourself seemingly lost in a world of information. There is so much to learn and so many ways to learn it.

It takes time to learn what you need to know about internet marketing And I don’t think that there are any real secrets, just techniques.

On the internet there are thousands of people trying to make money and they are all either making new products or looking for products to help themselves financially. There are endless programs and E-Books and ideas available that try to help you succeed in whatever money making business you are involved in.

I am not trying to promote anything here, I am just trying to say that when you go into internet marketing, take your time, learn, read, re-read, and learn again.

Nothing is right if it is not right for you.

If you don’t fully understand something, keep asking questions until you do understand it or don’t do it.

There is no easy answer for the beginner, it is just a matter of that person finding out what is right for them. I just hope that anybody who tries internet marketing for the first time takes my advice on board and succeeds.

Using forum posting to drive traffic

Post relevant information to forums and genuinely contribute to discussions. And have your signature along so that your link will be there. When you visit sites with guestbook, forums, or blogs make posting leaving your link behind. And people will click it and find your site and shop.

Go to big boards for a list of forums.

But all the forums are yelling, “Don’t abuse forum rules!” What are forum rules? They don’t want you to post a link, even if it offers help. If you do, the moderator will delete your entry immediately and have you banned. If your signature is even allowed, nobody reads signatures. Ask this: when is the last time you personally read a signature?

It is only when your comments and discussion is so powerful that people will trace you. Like most traffic techniques, fun comes in first.

You should just try to help other and have fun while posting in forums and leave your signature so that anyone interested in you can find you.

Creating Online Communities

Looking for somewhere online to meet new people, discuss hobbies, plan events, or just have fun chatting? Online forums have been around for some time on the internet and often free and easy to setup. Forums are basically online discussion web sites where people share information and chat grouped around a set of topics. One example might be a local photography club. You could setup topics around types of cameras, locations for shooting, local events and meetings, printing tips, etc. Often there are administrators and moderators that help to keep the discussion orderly and on topic.

Some items to consider when starting an online forum include…

Cost – Often you can find them for free. There will probably be some advertising on the site, but don’t most sites now a days?

Features – Does the forum support avatars, private messages, user levels, themes, etc.

Security – Is it possible to create forums that only register users can post in? Helps to avoid those spammers.

I cannot stress the last one enough. You should be completely able to control who is in your forums. One bad apple spoils the bunch. On that same note, it is common for a forums to have moderators. These are people that help enforce the rules in the forum. Make sure your choose your help wisely. When it comes to administrators, there should only ever be one. Administrators have the keys to the city and can set your forum ablaze.

Finally to make a forum a success you need to attract people to it to join. Obviously if it is for a church or some other established group, this is relatively easy. Tell your friends, family, club members. If you are starting from scratch, do the same. Tell people, show people, invite people. Check to see if your forum site is listed in search engines like google. Once you get past that initial setup and recruitment your will soon be on your way to having a forum that you and your friends can enjoy.

Why Do Some Websites Have Message Boards?

Remember when email seemed so quick and convenient? You could share your thoughts with a friend or group of friends within a period of a few minutes. Then the technology of instant messaging was developed, and with it, message boards. Website builders quickly picked up on the use of message boards, seeing how these boards allowed instant communication between everyone viewing their website.

A message board can be found in several different formats. Some websites require visitors to create an account, with a user name and password, before they can post a message on the board. Other websites have message boards that are open to anyone to post anonymously. Their post will show up instantly on the board. Sometimes, a message board will be watched over by an editor, or moderator, who can reject or delete posts based on whether the content of the post is appropriate for that website. On these boards, posts are often delayed for a brief period of time so that the moderator can read over the post. Some message boards are divided up by topic. These are also referred to as threads. Visitors to the message board can pick a topic, and when they post their message, it will appear under that topic.

So what is the benefit of a website having a message board? Some websites are actually built around message boards. An example of this type of website might be a hobby website for people who like to paint scenery. The site would have a message board where artists could come to talk to other artists to get ideas or tips, or to find out about a specific topic related to painting, such as where to buy a certain type of paint or brush. Other websites have message boards to encourage traffic on their site. Think of a music group, for example. By providing message boards for their fans, they are encouraging their fans both to visit their site and to spread the word about their group, which would in turn increase album and merchandise sales.

If you are looking for information on any topic, a message board is a great place to visit. And, if you are building your own website, consider adding one; there are many benefits, and it will be appreciated by everyone who visits your site.

Forum Essentials: Dress Up Your Site For The Holidays

If you manage a message board community, a key to your site's success is the lively banter between members. Without conversation, your site will quickly die off. You can't police your forum and respond to every post, but there are a few things you can do as an administrator to get things moving again.

Yes, who doesn't like to win something, anything? You don't have to spend a lot of money and the prize can be as simple as a magazine subscription, free membership for one year to your site, or an electronic gift card for the lucky winner. Want to go big time? Find a merchant to sponsor a gift; in exchange for their donation give them free advertising on your site for an agreed period of time.

The same old, nondescript icons will certainly bring about the yawns. Spice things up by swapping out one set of icons for another. Holiday themed icons are a favorite.

Holiday themed backgrounds that promote a warm glow in the hearts of your members will retain your visitors like nothing else. Put away the stale, antiseptic backgrounds and put some holiday pizzazz into your forum. No, I haven't tried this one...yet! However, I do know of sites where members play "Secret Santa" with other members. This can be in the form of a surprise email, an electronic gift, or a donation to the recipient's favorite charity.

There are many other ways to get your site moving again. Use this festive time of the year to come up with a plan that is certain to spark interest in your site. If in doubt as to what to do next, ask your members...they'll know!

January 25, 2010

Business Entity Options

When forming your new business structure, you must consider the best possible alternative of the available business structures. While a sole proprietorship is the easiest type to create, there is no separate identity. Personal liability belongs to the owner. Should there be a lawsuit, accident or you incur debts that you can’t repay, your personal assets are at risk.

The type of entity you choose should be based on careful consideration. Each state has specific rules for the structure of each type of entity. You should investigate the type of entity, the rules and laws pertaining to each in your state and at a federal level.

The choices are – sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability partnership, corporation, C corporation, S corporation, and LLCs. Sole proprietorship provides the least protection while corporations and LLCs offer limited personal liability for debts or judgments against the company.

When creating your entity, you should use an attorney to create written documentation of the entity’s organization and structure. Your attorney, accountant or CPA can advise you of the legal and all tax consequences of your choice. Doing a little research prior to contacting a professional will reduce the time spent with an expensive professional. Do your due diligence to protect yourself and your family.

Article Submission: How to make money from e-business

Online business is most suited for producers and manufacturers. They can sell their products directly to their customers. Most important, online trading helps them eliminate middlemen to whom they shell out quite a few dollars in terms of commissions. They also save on delivery costs. The manufacturers can pass all these savings to their customers, who get to buy products at a price that is much less than the market price.

E-commerce sites not only increase business but also enhance visibility. They become an interaction point for manufacturers to receive feedback from their customers. This is why most manufacturers like to have a web presence. They not only generate a useful stream of income, but also come closer to their customers.

Online business also suits those who sell services like legal consultancy, tutoring, travel services, etc. The revenue generation in this case may be limited because services are not products to be stored and shipped on demand; they are a relationship-based trade.

However, any service enjoys two big advantages on the net. The first is reach. You are able to reach more number of people, and if you have a team of people you can work 24/7. The second is costs. It is much more economical to run a website than a physical office. However, to be successful you need to initiate a contact, establish credibility and prove the value of your service.

You can also sell goods manufactured by others, very much like physical retailers but with greater reach and less overhead costs. Since your costs are low you can charge less or run schemes that make the purchase of goods more attractive from your online store.

You can even make money by directing customers to the manufacturer’s site. This form of marketing which is known as affiliate marketing is especially popular on the web. It is a “no-risk” and no cost partnership and helps you make much needed dollars that you can then use to make your e-business grow.

If, however, you have slightly deep pockets you can start your own affiliate program. This means you encourage owners of other websites to route traffic to your website. In return, you pay them a small commission. You can even give them a percentage on sale of a product to encourage them more. As new affiliates join you and you train your existing affiliates your sales go up – and so too your profits.

Another indirect source of revenue that opens up for you is advertising. Once your website earns credibility and has a large target market, advertisers may like to buy space on your website. This is another useful source of revenue that you may reinvest in your core e-business which is selling products or services.

3 Things You Can Do to Help Yourself Be Successful In Life

Do you define success as having a lot of money? Or do you define success as being able to live your life the way you want too? Either way, they are both good things to strive for. We all know not everyone can be successful as there are checks and balances for winners and losers.

I truly feel most people want to be in on the winning side. However, we always run into people that remain in the same place in life. Do you feel you are you one of those people? Obviously if you’re a person looking and trying to better your life you want to be on the winning side.

Being successful can mean many things. My definition of being successful is accomplishing what you intend to do. For example, I always intended to have a family and I now have a great family. I consider myself very successful.

Success does not mean to look better than the people around you. I believe it comes from within and how you perceive yourself and your life. Success is something that you do not have to show on a daily basis. Success is how you live your life.

Here are three tips on being successful:

Create a Vision of Yourself

Having a vision is the first and most critical step of any successful plan. Create a vision of what you intend to do. Write down how you want to see yourself 1 year from now. Think about how your life will look. Having a vision will help you focus on what you want to achieve.

Take up Good Habits and Break Unproductive Habits

Always read and learn about the world around you. Think an opportunity through and do not be impulsive when an opportunity presents itself. Eat well and exercise. After all everything you do starts from within. Be in good health and don’t take your good health for granted. Add fitness to your life. Learn to handle distractions as there will plenty of distractions to address. Don’t use distractions as an excuse to fail.

Enjoy the Chase

Enjoy your road to success. The path will be filled with adversity. Keep your sense of humor because you may experience very tough challenges along the way. Be responsible, try and control your time by being as effective as possible.

Remember success is not free and it does take sacrifice. The price you pay is time and effort. Success is hard but rewarding (even during the chase for success). To be successful you have to work hard, educate yourself and maybe have a little luck on your side.

Work At Home Using The Internet

If you want to work at home, start a home based business on the internet. Basing a business on the internet broadens your client . It also has the advantage of low or no overhead.

Home based businesses on the internet abound. To find one that suits you, work within a field you enjoy. The internet increases your client base, but because of the competition you will have to work hard to make your product or site stand out.

Home based business on the internet can be started in almost any field of interest. If you want to offer services, writing web content and designing websites can provide good opportunities. Artists can offer services ranging from graphic design to pet portraits. You can offer advertising services on the internet. Think of any field you are interested in and search the web. You will probably find somebody offering services in that field. If the competition is too much, you narrow your services to a specific group. For example, instead of offering pet portraits you could offer dog portraits.

Most people think of selling products online when they think of home based business on the internet. You can sell through a website, but first learn about website promotion. If you promote your website well you can also sell other people's products through affiliate programs. If you don't want to build a site or don't know how to promote, consider selling your products an an auction site. Many people have found internet auctions work well for them.

If you are interested in working for yourself, consider a home based business on the internet. It works for others. Research well, know what you are doing, and it should work for you.

Get Profits Online

Everybody would love to make lots of money quickly, working from home, and only doing a few hours of work per week. I've spent the past two years trying to find a great way of doing this. Only over the course of the past few months have I found any "get rich quick" programs worth buying. I've been trying to make money online for a long time. I had a few small websites, but they never made much more than a few hundred per month.

It was easy money and didn't require much work on my part, but I knew there were people out there doing better than I was and I knew I could do as well as them. Now, I've seen a lot of "get rich quick" programs. Most of these people make claims about earning $2000/day with Google or something similarly insane. Almost all of these people are complete liars.

Even if they were making $2000/day with Google AdSense, it'd be because they had high- traffic websites with a lot of quality content. I'd know, because in one whole month, I never even made half of what they promised I'd make daily with their programs. Maybe you've already been scammed by one of these fraudsters. Anyway, I finally got sick of what was being offered.

I decided I'd look through the all of the "get rich quick" programs I could find and see if there were any that were actually legitimate. I found that there were owners selling their programs for well over $100, but the information in them could be found almost anywhere online for free. Additionally, they all contained out-of-date information, had no e-mail support, no money back guarantees, and broken links in the downloads section.

In conclusion, almost all of the programs I found were completely useless. The owners knew it, but they couldn't care less about their customers since they didn't offer refund policies! Amazingly, while looking through all of the programs, I actually did find a few legitimate programs. They were run by ordinary people like you and me, and they had found some great methods of making money from their home by doing very little work.

I spent some time working with those programs, and my income is now ten times what it used to be. These programs provided a large amount of great information on how to make extra money on your computer doing very little work. Numerous customers had provided great feedback and reviews for their products. Many of them have started to make money just days after buying.

Generate Extra Income from Profitable Home Businesses

All of us want a better lifestyle, to give the best luxuries to the family and the most important of all to enjoy and be content with the job. But how many of us have the resources to do them?

The solution – the different profitable home based businesses opportunities. There are various options of part time work. The best job is the employment work in home. You can keep yourself employed in home with the help of the best home businesses.

If you are serious about the idea of making money through smart home based businesses then here are some tips for those who want to start a business from home.

Before beginning to work on your profitable home based businesses, do survey the market about the best home businesses and select on which suits you most. Also study your target customers and your comfort level regarding them. In accordance to the range and section of customers you have to market your products. So it is very important to understand the psyche of your target customers.

The next step before you begin your profitable home businesses is to sketch out a detailed plan. The plan should contain a brief assessment of the start-up investment capital. It should give a rough idea of the amount that will be involved in advertising plan, production costs etc You will also have to tactfully divide your time so that you can give equal attention to all the aspects of your best home businesses.

You should jot down all ideas regarding your profitable home businesses. It is often seen that most newbies who start a business from home loose their interest, shut their workplace and move on to a more conventional job.

This is because most people start a business from home in hurry and later find themselves incapable of the task of managing profitable home based businesses.

It takes a reasonable amount of time to start a business from home and make money out of it. The first six months of the best home businesses are a crucial time. Whatever profit you make from your profitable home businesses should be used to grow the business and make it steady. Every single penny that is generated from the home employment work should be again re- invested in the business.

These are the simple rules which should guide you in the online home business area. It is true that even the best home businesses take some time to flourish. With an open heart and a steady mind, we can always write our own destiny.

Focus Your Home Business Like A Laser To Explode Your Income!

A common mistake for almost all new work at home / home business beginners is the trap of trying to be all things to all people. They will take any job, even if it not what they set out to do, simply because the job pays money.

It's tough to focus, we know!

We know how tough it is to stick to just one thing in your new home business because here at FunCareers.com we "eat our own dog food". Everyone works from home and knows the successes and difficulties you face and one of the things we have learned for ourselves is that you must focus on just *one* thing to be successful.

In the modern world, specialization is the key to success. If you were chosing a brain surgeon to operate on you I am sure you'd prefer one that only does brain surgery and nothing else! The same applies to your business.

If you do just one thing.

For example, if you are offering a lawn care service then specialize in that. It's all too easy to offer tree trimming, fences, design and many other landscaping services as well. If you're going to offer general landscaping and maintenance then do that. If you're going to do "lawn care" then learn all about grasses and how to manage and care for lawns the best ways possible. Now when you offer lawn care you can target upscale markets and be an expert on creating and managing perfect green lawns, with fees to match.

Narrow your focus to make more money!

You may be surprised to learn that making your focus more narrow actually gets you more customers. By offering one targeted product or service you can charge higher fees and you attract the customers that are willing to pay for your expertise. This applies to the online world as well as the real world. I'm sure you've seen hundreds of those "mini-sites", just one long sales page and nothing else. That's an extreme example of focus - not even a site, just one page, one product, it sells or it doesn't.

You can learn a thing or two from those pages for your real world business and create a laser like focus on the one thing you excel at, only targetting the customers that crave your product or service so you can increase your home business income.

Viral Marketing At Its Best

You may have heard of this before and for those that haven’t, it’s where you give away something for free that someone can also give away for free. If successful, your piece of information can spread like a virus, enticing thousands to buy from you.

So what’s the secret. You need to release something valuable that can compare to another course selling for at least $100, for free. It really has to be exceptional for people to pass it on to their friends. Quality not quantity, the report needs to be excellent and if it’s long, that’s a bonus. Ellaborate as much as you can. It’s the awesome principle, “you have to give before you get”, in action.

You can start with a free report or develop a complete course. Keep your competitors in mind and write your material for them. If they can send one of your articles out to their database and put their affiliate links alongside it, their chances of making a sale are increased. In the same token, if the reader likes your article and clicks on your link, you have a chance of signing them up to your mailing list.

Work alongside your competitors and see them as partners rather than competitors. They have abetter chance to earn money by promoting your products and receiving a share rather than their own product all the time. Lift up your competitors and customise your material so that it adds value to what they’re doing. By keeping in mind how you can promote them, your potential partners will be more excited about partnering with you. Make sure their product adds value to your customers and vice versa. You’ll make a lot more money by working alongside partners in the same industry than you will alone. Think of all competitors as potential partners, find out how to add value to them, work on your free material and watch your profits soar!

HTML Email Newsletter Designs for Better Results

The thing to remember when creating an email newsletter is to make the email newsletter design as attractive and interesting for a reader to get interested in reading it. To make the newsletter design attractive, one can either get the newsletter design done professionally by some newsletter design agency or by downloading a newsletter design software available in the website, and following it’s tutorials to get the newsletter done. Of course, for better results, the professionalism is better.

Here, at a fixed price, they have their newsletter designers create various newsletter design samples for you to choose from. If you find a design that you like, they will make any changes to it for you, to finally get the newsletter design you require.

In case you plan to design the newsletter design by yourself, there are various software available, wherein there are email newsletter templates for you to choose from.

There are various template packs available for purchase in addition to the templates that are already in the newsletter design website. These template packs are additional email template designs packed in packs for the user. When you design a company newsletter template, remember that the newsletter format is important. You can choose the format from text, HTML or a combination of both, as there have both advantages and disadvantages in them.

It is up to you to decide which format to use for your requirements. The newsletter layout is also as important as the email newsletter design. Layout is the working of the different elements of the email newsletter in harmony, to enhance the value of the newsletter to the readers. For a reader to subscribe and unsubscribe to the online newsletter, make sure you have a reply-to email address, which has an auto-responder to let the reader know that their email has been received and is being processed.

Email Automatic Responders. Automating Your Business

If you want to take control of your online business and automate your business tasks, you need a fully functional automatic response system. This will handle all of your email tasks and deliver your messages to your leads 24/7 with ease.

Setting up your fully functional autoresponder system on your own domain is very easy, this is how you will avoid paying another monthly fee to those big companies that charge high prices for their services. Email automatic responders give you the power to streamline your business and free up more time to concentrate on your marketing efforts instead of spending hours replying to customer responses and follow up emails.

This will definitely help you to potentially explode your mailing list to thousands of leads in a very short time. We all know that the moneys in the list. If you have no list, then chances are pretty good that your sales will be somewhat of a disappointment.

Subscription boxes on your homepage offers the visitor to subscribe to your list, ezine, marketing course or whatever you are offering, eliminating the chances of SPAM. As a result, helping you effortlessly build your mailing list. Surviving in the online business world almost always require you to build a list. Email automatic responders help you to do just that.