Thursday, April 26, 2007

5 Ways to Make Your Website Pay

For would-be online entrepreneurs, there are many aspects to consider. Here are five ways to make sure your online business fits the bill.

1. Get recognized.

Many sites have failed due to being buried at the bottom of a Yahoo list. Do your homework on how to get users into your online space. Linking to online auction sites is sometimes necessary, or teaming up with more established merchants. Either way, no one will buy if they don't show up.

2. Keep an eye on design.

A 'clunky' page turns users off. It's not that your site needs to be 'slick'; it just needs a sense of balance and a kind of aesthetic 'grace'. If you do your best HTML churning or Dreamweaver navigation and the pages still look thrown together, you could enlist the help of a savvy graphic designer. It's what they do.

3. Maintain your copy.

This may seem like a small detail, but spelling and grammatical errors can drive business away. A site with well-pruned text shows the merchant's credibility, and a sloppy sentence can make your business look, well, sloppy. Or worse. Don't overlook the importance of 'clean copy'.

4. Get Paid.

Whether you are including credit card payment portals on your site or using PayPal or another online service to receive customer payments, your site needs to be set up for easy access. Payment should be a painless process on the client side. Otherwise, your customers might be tempted to give up on you.

5. Go after Feedback.

Suggestions from outside can boost your Internet sales, so if you're interested in finding out what your clientele thinks, you can include a 'guestbook' or online suggestion box on your site. As an alternative, you can ask certain individuals to access the site and provide feedback.

Attention to these methods will improve your chances of being successful in the wide world of online advertising.


About the Author:
Heidi Chartier has a great website that lists legitimate Home Business Opportunities. visit http://www.makingmaximumwealth.com

Friday, April 20, 2007

The Man who Wins is the One who Thinks He Can

In the book "Think and Grow Rich", from Napoleon Hill, there is a verse that deserves to be shared with everybody.
Specially those that are trying to give a new direction to their lives. Maybe a new job, new relationship, new place to live...
For those, like myself, trying to take a different professional path, working from home.
Here is the verse:
"If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don't
If you like to win, but you think you can't,
It is almost certain you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you're lost
For out of the world we find
Success begins with a fellow's will -
It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You've go to think high to rise,
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go
to the stronger or faster man
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN"

Have a wonderful day
Be a winner!

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Work from home affiliate programs avoiding merchant traps

by Justin Boyce

Many affiliate programs are written and designed so that the program owner gets more than ninety percent of the benefits of your advertising efforts. Here are the criteria and a guideline to building your own profitable program for earning income from affiliate programs.

Only a very few people in most affiliate programs ever make any income and it has very little to do with the amount of traffic or the advertising techniques they use. Most follow the merchant’s guideline and use the provided promotional tools this is the first step towards failing miserably.

First of all, you must research an affiliate program that is profitable and that other affiliates are indeed making money from this.
A good place to start is Google Adwords. If you see a program being advertised regularly for certain keyword phrases it’s a pretty safe bet it makes money. Another criteria to this is if the program have a long term record and is consistent. There are numerous matrix type programs that come out with a bang and a few months later slip into oblivion as new members find it difficult to obtain paid up members underneath them.

Any affiliate program you choose must have the following criteria.

A transparent hierarchy and a reliable contact system. You must be able to find the program owner and they must be easily contactable not having to go through manned help desks or have to resort to doing espionage type searches to find their details just so you can query their program.

You can set up a system where by you bypass the merchant’s squeeze or capture pages
using redirecting software so that you can capture the interested parties details and provide follow-up information. You also want to use redirect software that mask or hides your affiliate URL from the prospective buyer. Many people are now aware they can get products cheaper by buying from their own affiliate link so by masking your URL so it appears they were sent through to the homepage and not an affiliate link will automatically increase your chances of a successful sale. Of course creating your own sales copy pages is even better as you control the visitor’s options right up to the buying process.

conditions. Acceptable payment terms and transparent conditions that you understand. For example Click bank has certain criteria that must be meet before you get your first payment for example a number of sales must be obtained using at least two different credit card and being at least from A money back warranty and a reputable payment processor I use Paypal as one of my own criteria as it has well founded reasons why some programs aren’t acceptable under Paypal Mastercard and Visa and not using paypal before you are eligible for a check.

Monday, April 16, 2007

3 Big Fat Lies that Deserve to Die

What usually happens when you click on a Work from Home link?You get at least 3 promises:
1- It says “sign up for free"- But what is not said is that only to fill up the form is free. What comes next, is a series of"suggestions", all paid, of course, to run your Free business.

2- "We will help you to build your down line" - Right after,there is an email for your saying that you have down lines. Wow!How exciting to see your business blasting with one single click. But then, reality hits you again: you need to personally sponsor one, two or more, depending on the program. There we go again. Back to the start.

3- "You will have a mentor to guide you" - That sounds great, doesn't it? As a newbie, or even as an experienced marketer, we do want to have someone to tell us what to do when we are not sure about nothing. But again, what you usually get from the called coaching, is a bunch of links to offer you things they are promoting.
What to do?
You want to start Working at Home, a serious business. A Blast in your Income. A real opportunity.
The answer is: research. Look for the ones that are on the Internet for a long time. If they made this far, it means they are doing something right. Don't forget to find out everything you can about the person who runs the business. See what others are saying, if there are complaints and so on. You got the point.
And, last but not the least; do not fall for those that tell you that you can make money in 24h without working. Your chances are better if you buy a lottery ticket.
As you can see, you have the power to detect and defeat the Biggest Business lies and false promises.
Using your brains and your computer.

Friday, April 13, 2007

6 Article Marketing Tips that will cause your Website Traffic to Explode

by Joshua Spaulding
If you put the following article marketing tips into place, you will see a steady flow of website viewers.

1. Target ‘long tail’ keywords for your articles by utilizing a good keyword research tool such as the one at http://inventory.overture.com/ By targeting ‘long tail’ keywords you have an increased change of conquering that keyword whereas more competitive keywords would be very hard to conquer.

2. Use the articles main keyword in the article title and use very few ‘stop words’ such as in, the, and, your etc.

3. Provide useful information in the article body. Many people just stuff the article body full of useless info just to reach a word count. Remember, the article body is where you ‘give’ and the signature is where you ‘take’.

4. Take the time to create a catchy signature. Never place your link in the signature without telling a little about yourself and your service/product. This is your chance to ‘take’ and you should capitalize on the opportunity. Think of the signature as a free advertisement. Would you just place your link in a paid advertisement, or would you utilize every opportunity provided?

5. Once your articles are accepted, bookmark them with all of the popular social bookmarking sites like dig.com and del.icio.us. These sites are extremely popular and they are growing in popularity every single day.

6. Submit as many articles as possible. A few articles a month will not bring in many site visitors. In order to effectively market with articles you absolutely must maintain a high frequency of articles submissions. If you can submit an article a day you will see huge results. Just write and submit as often as you can and do not let procrastination get the best of you.

If you were not doing any of these suggestions in the past, I highly recommend doing so from now on. These are a few of the more important aspects to article marketing and they can really make a difference in your article marketing campaign.

Joshua Spaulding is an Article Marketing vet, providing the #1 Ebook on Effective Article Marketing at http://www.articlemarketingdomination.com/ Joshua uses strictly article marketing to bring in thousands of visitors to his Websites on a daily basis and he invites you to learn his secrets.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Why Taking 9 to 5 Job is a Bad Idea

by Han Ming

There are a lot of highly paid people who are still poor, or are drown in debts and high monthly commitments. They are not incapable people. In fact, most of them are at managerial levels or running groups of salespeople.
The main reason that led to many people's poor financial lives is that they are still hauling buckets of water rather than building a pipeline of water supply for themselves. In other words, they are still trading time for money.
Look around. What are those basic living expenses which had increased in price since the past 5 to 10 years? Are there any of your monthly expenses which had been increasing steadily within the past 5 to 10 years? How much had they increased? How much more do you think they will increase? What will you do to earn more income? When people start to have more and more higher commitments in life, most immediately seek to look for part-time or freelance job to earn more money. What they didn't realize is they are just getting more buckets hauling more water. The fact is they are still trading time for money.
But how long can you continue doing this? Are they sacrificing your health? It's sad that most people destroy their health to earn more money; eventually they become so ill that they have to spend all their money to restore their health.
If you want to predict your financial future by continue doing what you are currently doing, answer this very powerful question: How long can you continue living in your current lifestyle if you've lost the ability to work- TODAY? Your answers will determine your long-term financial stability.
The cheapest and most effective way to have long-term financial stability is by doing a home based business.

Han Ming coaches thousands of people around the world on how to generate income from home business instead of a 9 to 5 job. He shows the most affordable way to create wealth from the comfort of their home to thousands of people.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Google and The Sea


When I think about Google, I can't help but compare it to the Sea.
Both are immense, powerful, mysterious...
Millions are trying for years to unveil their secrets. Thousands of them drowned along the way.
Both have calm and clear water days...and then, with a single sign, comes the Tsunami that wipes it all. All the beliefs, hopes, profits...
Some don't give up. They keep rebuilding their sites, or I should say, their lives.They are persistent. Or stubborn? Or dreamers? Maybe a little of each.
Others choose to go back the their safe harbor, their comfort zone.
What they all hope is for the day, that so expected day! when they surf the Google wave and have the ride of their lives!!
By:Grace Alleshouse
When I couldn't fall sleep trying to figure out if I am being stubborn or just
another dreamer

Monday, April 9, 2007

Do You Have A Home Based Business Blog?

by Vincent Murphy -

While the internet continues to broaden and expand every day, so too has the marketing tool of a blog. Having a home based business blog is one of the most accommodating tools to aid your business online. With the ability to increase the amount of traffic you generate, spread further knowledge on your theme and continuously disperse fresh and enticing content, having a blog is a necessity if you have a home based business.

Many people are afraid to start a home based business blog because they fear they don't know what to do or don't have enough time. Starting up your blog will be the most time consuming part to it, but after that all that is required is a short 200 to 400 word post a day.

To get your blog started make sure to focus on a few keywords, just like your website. You can write about anything and everything associated with your home based business or the product you promote. The key is to add a post every day to enhance your blog and help it climb higher on the search engines as well. A well developed home based business blog can go a long way for your actual business.

Getting people to your blog is not as hard as you would think. The easiest way to direct traffic to your home based business blog is directly from your business website itself. Post a link on your home page that guides people to your blog and drop comments about your blog when you exchange emails with customers.

Another great way to generate some traffic to your business blog is through article writing. Article writing gives you the opportunity to write about something associated to your main theme and then place a link to your blog in the resource box.

As you may have already guessed, keeping an eye on your stats is vital with your home based business blog. This will help you track down where your customers are coming from so you know what to promote more. By doing so you can better manage your time and focus primarily on what the visitors want.

Having a strong home based business blog to back up your business website is crucial in the internet industry. It gives you the chance to interact directly with visitors and potential customers to find out what they think about various things. It also allows you to provide fresh and enticing content to help blow your visitor's minds away with your knowledge. If you can produce an impressive home based business blog, you are guaranteed to increase your traffic volume for your business website.

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Sunday, April 8, 2007

Anatomy Of An Ideal Internet Work At Home

by Paul Johnson

I’ve spent the last 5-6 years creating ebooks, newsletters and other materials on how to create viable work at home business opportunities.

During this time, I’ve had ample opportunity to consider what makes for an ideal home-based business. Here are the qualities you should be looking for:

1. Answers To Your Questions Right From The Start

2. Answers To Your Questions Once You Get Started

3. A Big Ticket/High Profit Product Or Service

4. Lots of Quality Testimonials

5. Good Delivery, Follow-Through & Communication

First, you need answers to your questions about the home business opportunity. At the risk of sounding old-fashioned, you should be able to talk to a real live human being--even if it’s an internet-based business!

Often, websites offer an “FAQ” section. But does it answer all of your questions? If not, is there a way to talk to a live person? There should be! Too many companies rely on an email system that forces you to wait days to get answers. If this is all that is provided, you might want to forget about it.

The next thing is to get answers to your questions once you get started. Is there someone who can mentor you along? Someone who has “been there and done that” and can show you the ropes? If not—once again— you might want to pass on it.

You also want a high-profit/big-ticket kind of service or item to sell. You can sell a lot of $19.95 widgets, but how many will it take to make your work at home opportunity worthwhile?

The internet is a huge marketplace. But it’s all about traffic. And if you don’t have a desirable enough product with high profit potential, you’re going to spend too much money in return for too little income in return

It’s no wonder that probably the most viable of all home business opportunities is—you guessed it— offering people a viable home business opportunity! There’s no end to the number of people searching for a first or second income that will allow them to pay their bills and still have plenty of money left over to enjoy a quality life.

Also, look for ample testimonials—preferably stated in dollars and cents! If there are enough of them, and your instincts are telling you that this is for real, it could very well be.

But don’t stop there! Even once you’re in the business, you should continue to do your “due diligence.” How are others doing? If you keep getting good feedback from other business owners, you are probably on the right track. If not, it might not be too late to cut your losses, get your money back and look for a better opportunity.

Finally, you want a company that delivers on their promises to you and to the customer. This is the hallmark of great companies. Another way that quality companies “follow-through” is by keeping you informed of what’s going on. Good companies communicate well, and like to make you feel a part of something that is worthwhile.

I’ve recently done a lot of research into “passive income businesses.” A select few of them seem to offer the kind of answers, high profit opportunities, testimonials and follow-through that I’ve been talking about. But make sure it meets the above criteria. If it does, you just might have found yourself the ideal work at home business!

Friday, April 6, 2007

Internet Home Based Business - The Forgotten Secret

by Michelle Greene

An important, but often overlooked secret is conditioning your mind for success, also referred to as your mindset.

Having the right frame of mind will be one of your secret weapons to launching your new internet business or any business venture.

Since you can’t physically see your mind, you need to do a few things to prepare yourself for success.

Vision Mapping Blueprint

This will be unique to everyone since everyone had different likes and dislikes. You’ll start with the traditional ‘goal setting’ strategy. Now, I don’t like to use this term since most people will roll their eyes whenever you mention the need to set goals. I like to refer to this process as “Vision Mapping Blueprint”.

Why a vision mapping blueprint? Consider this. Just about anything you ever do first occurs in your mind. Even something as simple as checking your email occurs in your mind before you actually log in to check your messages.

Creating a “vision mapping blueprint” can be as simple as making a wish-list for your new internet home based business. Set aside some time where you will not be disturbed. Start brainstorming about your ideal business. Think about how you want your new internet home based business to function.

Questions To Consider

Do you want a hands on business that gives you the excitement of shipping products to customers? Or how about a business where you use the internet to generate leads to sell to professionals such as realtors or mortgage bankers? What about employees? Do you want to have employees or not?

Maybe you’re interested in working as an affiliate or information marketer. How much time do you have to devote to getting your business running? How much time will it take from your personal time? Are you truly willing to be your own boss? Are you self motivated? Are you prepared for the isolation that comes from working at home or do you need the daily social interaction of colleagues?

Consider your likes and dislikes and above all, be true to yourself. These are all important decisions that you must make before you dive into the business planning stage.

Once you’ve completed your vision mapping blueprint, you’ll be more focused on what you want to accomplish and what you have to do to get there.

As you go through these questions, you’ll begin to see how having the right mindset will determine your outcome in starting an internet home based business.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Your Home Based Internet Business Will Make Life Easier

Say goodbye to a cranky, overbearing, demanding boss. Say goodbye to your cramped office space. Say goodbye to office politics. Say goodbye to the 9 to 5, five to seven day per week work regime.

Say hello to the freedom of Earning an Income Online by establishing your very own HOME BASED INTERNET BUSINESS.

Home Business Entrepreneurs can receive tax-breaks for legitimate business expenses. Tax breaks at years end on various expenditure such as the lease or purchase of computers, printers and scanners is just one area of tax relief. Basically anything used in the pursuit of your HOME BASED INTERNET BUSINESS can be claimed, but ensure you investigate each claim with your Accountant or Financial Adviser. After all, you don’t want the tax-man on your back! Your Home Business stationery, and even a proportionate share of your domestic telephone and electricity accounts as well as other overhead expenses should be on your mind come tax time.

How many times have you arrived at your workplace tired, wanting to doze off during meetings and wishing there was a bed in the next room, or just wanting to get out of there and be back in the comfort of your own home? Well, working from the comfort of your own home allows you to dictate your work hours so you need never be tired while working and, you can take a nap whenever you so desire.

We all like to save money and your HOME BASED INTERNET BUSINESS is an ideal opportunity to do so. No more outlaying countless dollars on a wardrobe full of new clothes and shoes. If you are working five to seven days a week, that is a lot of clothes just for the purpose of looking fresh and different each day. WORKING FROM HOME allows you to work in whatever you feel most comfortable in. Pyjamas, shorts and t-shirt, your underwear, even naked! If choosing the last option you may need to make sure that you have good quality window coverings!!

Just think of the money to be saved on public transport fares, or those very costly motor vehicle expenses. The cost of gas/petrol for instance is rapidly rising beyond normal inflationary percentages. You will spend far less on gas, tyres, oil and general vehicle maintenance, and your motor vehicle will last for a much longer period of time which relates to a HUGE cost-saving for you.

Eating at home is also a proven method of saving money. It is expensive to continually purchase your lunch from restaurants, take-away food stores etc. It is far more cost-effective to shop in bulk for food and beverages at your supermarket, or to raid your refrigerator for last nights leftovers. You will be pleasantly surprised at just how much you can save by merely eating at home.

WORKING FROM HOME allows flexibility in planning for tasks and appointments not directly involving your HOME BASED INTERNET BUSINESS. You can schedule appointments to see your Doctor, Dentist, Accountant etc., book your car in for a service, watch your kids at school or sporting events, visit friends and relatives, and attend social events at anytime and not have to concern yourself by seeking the time-off from your employer. And the tradesperson who says he will be there between 10am and 3pm will no longer annoy you by not being more specific with his timing, Why? Because time is no longer a problem when you are WORKING FROM HOME at your HOME BASED INTERNET BUSINESS.


Yours In Success
Kevin Hiscock
http://www.earn-at-home-and-relax.com
http://www.broadlands-at-tambo.com



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Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Don't Pay a Fortune to Promote your Website

by Jeff Wendland

If you are new to internet marketing, it can be a little intimidating to figure out the best way to promote your website with out spending a fortune. There is hope. It is not necessary to by into adwords or to pay for advertising banners on a host of websites to generate traffic to your site.



A very easy way to get your websites name out there is to use as many forums as you can. Be sure they are relevant to your website or to internet marketing though. These forums will be a great crash course for you. You should start by reading several of the posts and the stickys to pick up the culture of the particular forum you are on. After familiarizing yourself, you can begin to make posts.



Don’t start out by just plugging your site. Join into conversations and you can even start your own threads with your own questions. Joining in these chats will be a good way to get your website’s link in front of some eyes. Not by spamming your link in every message, but by posting your link in your signature box.



That way, with every post you can simply write about relevant topic to that thread and your links will show up in your signature box. This is a great way to drive some traffic to your site and to get an education by participating in the forums. There are thousands of forums out there too so if you work this, you will be driving some traffic to your site with out spending any money on advertising.



Another great way to get your site out there is by submitting your link, title and description to web directories. While some directories do require a fee or a reciprocal link, there are thousands of directories that provide free one way links. Submitting your website to directories will help you in two ways. One is when ever someone uses a directory for a search, they will find a link to your site. This really is a great way to drive traffic as not everyone wants to use the giant search engines for their searches. The second benefit of submitting to directories is that it provides links to your site which will help your search engine ranking. The higher your search engine ranking, the more traffic will come to your site. The majority of people do find their websites by submitting a search term to a search engine like Google or Yahoo. If you can get your website to the top page or two of these search engines you will be getting tons for free traffic with these organic search results.



My favorite way to generate traffic and links to your website is by submitting articles to article directories. Odds are good that you know a great deal about the theme and topic of your website, otherwise you probably would not have made the site.



This knowledge can make you an expert on this topic. You can write articles from 500-1500 words on any theme related to your site and submit them to the many free article directories on the net. This will work somewhat like the web directories except you are writing an article. At the end of your article, you will put a link to your website in a resource box.



Submitting your articles will help to bring traffic to your site in many ways. First, anyone who visits the article directory and reads your article is likely to follow the link to your site. Second, many other websites submit to an RSS feed which stands for really small syndication.



These RSS feeds will be picked up by other websites and posted as content, each with your resource box and a link to your website. This is yet another way to drive more traffic to your site. Submitting articles to article directories will also greatly improve your search engine ranking which will help to bring traffic to your site from people doing searches much like it does with the web directories.



Articles are even more effective then web directories because the article will be loaded with keywords that people search for with the link to your site being at the end of the article.



If you keep things simple and follow these steps, you will bring traffic to your site. It may take some time and work, but you will not have to pay a penny to advertisers. Like anything worth having, this will take some work, but the results for your website are worth it. So, what are you waiting for, get out there and start promoting your website today!
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Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Blog Your Way to Better Business

by Brad Hunter

Blogs were once seen as collections of ramblings from people with nothing better to do with their time. They weren't worth reading and certainly had nothing at all to do with business. Well, that's all changed. Everyone who is anyone in business has got a blog now because blogging can revolutionize your business in a thoroughly modern way.



In the old days, if you owned a business, you got customers by taking out ads and handing out business cards so that someone would hire you. You might also attend a few trade shows and exhibitions so you could hand out more business cards and do more business. Now most of your customers will be looking online and that's where you have to reach them.



Look on the internet as the biggest exhibition in the world and you will begin to get an idea of what blogging can do for your online business. And look around, everyone from the New York Times to your local doctor has a blog. Want to know why? It's because that's the smart way to meet your customers.



Originally, the web was like print media. Information only went one way. You put it out there for people to read. But now the web is social, and blogging is a key part of that. It's about conversation, interaction and networking. All of these can help you do better online business.



Blog to boost your Computer Home Based Internet Business.



So, how can you use blogging to boost your online business? A blog is a great way to connect with existing customers and provide support for them. It is also the quickest way to highlight what's new in your business. Finally, it is the perfect place to show off your expertise in your field in an informal and engaging way. Blogging can put a human face to your business and allow both existing and potential customers to connect with you and see the people in your company rather than a faceless entity.



To get the best out of business blogging, keep it informal and keep it real. Avoid the hard sell. Instead, think about what you tell your family and friends about your business and put that in your blog. Think about how you would talk about new products and services to someone you know and put that in your blog. Talk about the things that have worked and not worked in setting up your business and put that in your blog.



Join the conversation



Of course, the secret to good business blogging is to use not only your blog, but others' blogs as well. The best blogging is a conversation, so to make the most of this strategy you need to find out what other people are saying about your company, products and services and find out what they are saying about your competitors too. Then join the conversation by dropping a comment on other people's blogs with a link back to your own.



Find out who is influential in blogging about your sector and develop an online relationship with them. Send them information they can break for their readers and comment regularly on their blog. You will soon find that lots of other people are linking to you, and that means more traffic to your blog and more business for you.



The other thing blogging can do is to raise your company's profile in the search engines. Blogs are all about fresh, ever changing content and the search engines have responded by polling them regularly. Blog about something today and it could be on Google by tomorrow - that’s about six months faster than your painstakingly created, super duper website.



Finally, there are a few things you can do to get the most out of business blogging. Unlike the old style web, it's not enough to put the content there and let it sit. Instead, visit some of the social networking sites and let people know your content is there. Tag it appropriately and ping the blogging engines. In other words, make some noise about the content you are putting on your blog for free. If you get it right, it won't take long to build up an audience and you'll soon see the returns in more targeted online business.


Deeply discounted domain name registration and no-hype online business tips, strategies and resources.




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