Copywriting Secret #6: LVC Formula

Article Presented by:
Scott Bywater

One of the most powerful offers you can use in your advertising is the word Free.

But, you may well ask, how can I make a profit giving my products and services away without charging for them?

Which is the exact reason why you need to understand the "LVC Formula" which stands for the "Lifetime Value of a Client"!

Here's how it works. Let's imagine for a moment you own a beauty salon. Now if you get a new customer, they may pay you $80 for their first treatment.

But how much is this $80 client really worth?

After all, most clients will continue to buy off you for many years to come.

For instance, let's imagine your average client returns for a beauty treatment 8 times a year, and remains a client for 2 years.

$80 (price of consultation) x 8 (purchases a year) x 2 (number of years)

Now if you have a calculator handy, you'll work out the value of this client as $1280.00.

And if your profit margin is 40% this calculates to a $512 profit per client.

Now, let's imagine we sent a letter to all the nearby businesses offering women a free manicure valued at $30.00 (I'm not a beauty therapist, so please forgive me if all these figures are way out).

And imagine the manicure costs you $7 in products and 30 minutes of your time (which if you're not busy, you'd just be sitting on your butt anyway!)

So, effectively the $7 investment could have just made you $512 in profit.

And how easy is it to give away a free manicure?

Or for other industries.

A free car service

A free dancing lesson

A free consultation

A free ice cream

A free report of some sort

The secret lies in giving away something which has a high perceived value, but actually costs you very little to produce.

Why does it work so well?

Using the word Free in your advertising STOPS inertia. You see, people are happy with their current hairdresser, or their mechanic.

But when they get an opportunity to trial a product or service for FREE - there's something irresistible and risk-free about it, isn't there?

A word of warning though. Make sure you offer the best possible service, otherwise people will not come back, and you'll get a bad name very quickly.

And of course, where possible, make sure you collect a database, and measure your results.

What could you offer for FREE? Write down a few ideas now, and start implementing this stuff.

It could have an almost overnight effect on your sales.


About the Author:
Scott Bywater is well known for getting results as a professional copywriter. And also the author of Cash-Flow Advertising. To get a free subscription to his "Copywriting Selling Secrets" newsletter where you'll discover the truth about why most ads and sales letters don't work (And how to make yours different) scamper over to his web site at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au

Dial-Up Internet Versus DSL Internet -- A No-Brainer When The Facts Are Known

What's the difference between dial-up Internet service and DSL Internet service? While both systems use the telephone to access the Internet, that is where the similarities end. The differences include: utilization of capacity, speed and cost. Please continue reading as we explore in greater depth the differences between Dial-Up and DSL Internet.

Introducing The Twisted Pair

To get a handle on the differences, it is important first to understand a little bit more about how the telephone system works. It all begins with a pair of copper wires or as is often called in the industry "twisted pairs", since the pair of wires are twisted around each other.

Each telephone connection requires one "twisted pair". The twisted pair handles all voice going out and coming into a handset. The twisted pair can also handle data, so long as the line is good and does not have any static or interference.

A standard dial-up Internet Service Provider (ISP) can provide their customers an access point to the Internet, but they have to rely on their customer's telephone service provider as the corridor to get the signal from the customer's computer to the ISP's modem (bridge to the Internet).

Most people who have ever used dial-up Internet have come to the conclusion that they can use their telephone for Voice as a telephone OR Data as a computer/fax line, but one cannot do both at the same time. A dial-up ISP can give their customers access to the Internet, but they do not have the equipment or capability to extend the use of the telephone line beyond this one kind of connection.

As a result, consumers who use dial-up Internet services have one line for the Internet connection, and if they are serious about keeping a line open for those who may wish to call them, they also have a second phone number installed to capture those incoming calls.

Introducing DSL Internet Services

DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. This means that digital packets of information are sent over one single channel and the voice information is sent over another channel, both of which "share" a single pair of wires. With DSL Internet services, one can actually use the telephone while using the Internet!

The key difference here is that the DSL Internet companies utilize a different kind of modem to connect their users to the Internet. You may have heard that DSL is not available in all areas, and this is true. The service relies on clear and strong signals from the client's computer to the local phone company's main access point to the Internet.

Once inside a client's home or office, the telephone system is still using the standard twisted pairs to carry the voice and data signals. But, the line that is intended to carry data signals has a filter on the line to reduce static noise in the line. Then, the line is connected to a DSL modem that intuitively knows how to distinguish the voice and data signals from each other.

DSL modems actually employ a trick to get the job done and it is very effective. A standard copper twisted pair of wires can carry up to 100 megabytes of data per second, but in order to be able to access the full potential of the twisted pair, one must have the correct hardware attached to the phone line.

A twisted pair is also able to carry signals of multiple frequencies at the same time. This is the trick of DSL Internet services. DSL services actually send voice through one frequency and data through another frequency (or channel). It is through this manipulation of frequencies that DSL Internet services are able to send two kinds of content over the same single twisted pair, thereby "sharing" one phone line between two tasks.

Put The Petal To The Metal

Dial-Up Internet Service Providers have hit a technological ceiling, preventing them from giving their users access to high-speed Internet access.

Dial-Up ISP's are limited by their technology. They are using the telephone lines to push an analog signal from their client's computer to their computer to gain access to the Internet. Analog's final frontier is the 56-kilobyte per second connection.

DSL Internet connections begin at 768-kilobyte per second (21 times faster than dial-up) and climb from there based on the consumer's willingness to pay for more speed and bandwidth.

56-kbps versus 768-kbps could mean the difference of downloading a music file or video in two minutes as opposed to forty-two minutes or longer. In some cases, files that take 24 hours to download on dial-up can be downloaded in just over an hour on DSL (think NetFlix movie downloads).

In Conclusion

For the average person on dial-up, they will generally have two phone lines, plus the $10-$20 per month subscription fee to their local ISP. DSL providers can provide DSL Internet for as little as $14.99 per month, plus the cost of one phone line.

When one considers the speed factor, DSL is a no-brainer. But when one also looks at cost, one has to ask themselves why they have been throwing money away all of these years on dial-up ISP's.



Woody Biddle has been online since 14.4-kbps was the standard offering from ISP's. Verizon DSL Internet Services are available almost everywhere in the United States. With plans starting at $14.99 per month for their basic high-speed Internet package (768/128-kbps), they are a favorite among DSL Internet providers. To start your review of the Verizon DSL service, visit: http://www.craftmarketer.com/verison_and_dsl.htm

What Is Internet Fax?

Article Presented by:
Titus Hoskins

Internet Fax is simply using the Internet or your email system to send and receive faxes. Since it is web based, you can send your faxes anytime anywhere; as long as you have an Internet connection and these days that's available just about everywhere.

You sign up with an Internet fax service provider to get your own fax number (local or toll free) which you use in the same manner as you would use any fax number. There is a small charge for this service but keep in mind you do not need an extra phone line to do Internet faxing since everything is done online.

Many small and large business owners are switching over to Internet Fax for some obvious advantages: it is very convenient, it is very fast, it offers more privacy, many faxes can be sent/received simultaneously (no busy signals) and it is available wherever you have the Internet. Plus there are no messy fax machines and no need for a second phone line.

One of the most asked questions about Internet Fax relates to the confusion over just how the whole thing works. Many traditional fax users can't quite get their heads around the idea of having faxes without the traditional fax machine.

Basically, you sign up with a fax service provider and get your own fax number and you send/receive your faxes thru your email system - your fax is attached to an email as either a TIFF or PDF format file. You can access your faxes from an online interface (your fax login site) where your faxes are received and sent. You can also store your faxes online there.

What confuses most people who are not familiar with online faxing is the question: can I still send my faxes to the old traditional machines, since many of my business partners may not be using Internet Fax?

The answer is YES!

You can send your faxes to the old traditional fax machine and if they have your fax number, they can still return a fax to you via the old traditional manner or fax machine.

Here's how Internet Fax works:

You use a fax gateway or Internet Fax provider/server to handle your faxes. For example, say if you were sending a fax.

Computer/Internet -> Fax provider/server -> Phone line -> Fax machine

You use your computer and the Internet to log into your online account/page to send your fax to your fax provider/server which then uses the phone line to send your fax to the receiving fax machine.

If you are receiving a Fax

Fax machine -> Phone line -> Fax provider/server -> Email message (thru Internet) -> Your Email account

Someone uses a fax machine to send you a fax which goes thru the phone line to your fax provider/server which converts it into a TIFF or PDF file and sends you an email message with your fax attached in your email.

If both parties are using Internet Fax, then your faxes can be sent/received using your email systems over the Internet.

Computer/email -> Fax provider/server -> Computer/email


What you really have to keep in mind, once you sign up for an Internet fax service you will have an online interface (login site) where you can send and receive your faxes. Then when you send or receive a fax, you get a confirmation in your web interface and/or by email.

This offers some great advantages such as receiving and sending your faxes whenever and wherever you access the Internet. No more busy signals, no more messy fax machines, no more nosy workers seeing the contents of your fax, and no extra phone line. Plus, many faxes can be sent/received simultaneously, even when your computer is turned off. No more missed faxes because your phone line was busy.

However, in order to get all these advantages you have to sign up for an Internet fax service. There are many well known Internet fax providers such as MyFax, eFax, RapidFax, TrustFax, Send2Fax... and some very good lesser known faxing companies such as MetroHiSpeed out of Seattle and Faxage out of Denver.

A word of caution, when signing up for any long term business service it pays to do your homework first. It pays to shop around mainly because even any small savings may prove significant over the long haul. Prices can range from very cheat (under $20 a year) to around $10 - $15 a month depending on the kind of service you need. There are many different plans and services, and keep in mind, you will pay more for International faxing.

Internet Fax seems to be the way of the future as more and more businesses go online. Besides, as we become more and more modernized, computers are offering us simple and convenient solutions to many of our daily traditional business tasks such as faxing. Can your business or any company really afford to be left behind or not take advantage of the benefits of Internet Fax? Can you still remain competitive without Internet Fax? It's your call?


About the Author:
For a handy online comparison chart of all the major Internet Fax Service Providers click here: Online Fax Comparison Chart For more detailed reviews of the different online fax services try here:Internet Fax Copyright © 2007 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Be a Failure (if you Want to Succeed)”

Article Presented by Vasrue.com:

All Rights Reserved Written by: Nika Stewart

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

- Michael Jordan

Did you know that successful people actually fail more often than people who are not successful? That's because they try more often. So they have many more chances to fail. BUT - they also have many more chances to succeed, which is why they are so much more successful than people who don't try anything.

When it comes to your business, which of these two types of people are you? Do you constantly jump in and try new ideas for improving and promoting your business? Or do you avoid leaving your comfort zone because you are fearful of failing? Business owners who always "go for it" have a higher rate of failure, but their businesses are so much more successful!

Many design professionals pass over some wonderful business-boosting opportunities because they are afraid to fail. These opportunities include:

* speaking

* networking events

* press releases

* calling past clients

* delegating

I completely understand the fear. There isn't enough room or time to describe the fears I've felt relating to the above tasks. But because I understood that even failing leads to greater success, I thought, what the heck?

So I went out and failed a lot. I taught classes that resulted in absolutely no sales. I went to networking events where I stood against the wall, feeling like a fool, hoping that someone would come up and talk to me. I sent out press releases trying to get publicity and got rejected. I spoke in front of large crowds, and my nerves were so bad that I thought I would pass out.

Yes, I can write about a lot of personal failures and humiliations. But here's the best part: I can also write about loads of successes - that I would not have had if I wasn't willing to fail.

So what can you try this week? If you are willing to keep at it, every attempt you make to improve your business will move you closer to greater success - even if you fail.

To your success (and your failures, too!).

About the Author:

Nika Stewart, the Designers' Success Coach, is the creator of Designer Blitz, a high-impact coaching system that guides interior designers to achieve their business goals. Her books, classes, articles, and one-on-one mentoring sessions have been instrumental in generating rapid results for thousands of designers.

Visit her blog the Designer Blitz
and her site the Wealthy Decorators
for more marketing tips and ideas.

Posted by:

Clinton Douglas IV, Discover the secrets to starting your own online business! Check out my new ebook! I tell you how I made over $200,000 on the internet! Hurry, while supplies last! Click Here ==> http://online-empire.vasrue.com

Internet Marketing Or Network Marketing - Which Is Better?

Article Presented by:
Willie Crawford

When I interact with most online marketers, it's obvious that they view Internet marketing and network marketing as two separate and very distinct worlds. Proponents of either often act as if the other is something to be avoided like the plague.

I personally am involved in marketing for, and consulting with, companies in both "worlds." I've discovered that there is a lot of overlap, and that there are techniques which work equally well in both worlds.

Let's briefly examine how they differ, and which is better.

Network marketing, or MLM, is very familiar to most people because we've all been approached by someone in the offline world who is doing it. We've been invited to meetings, or sat through presentations where they demonstrated what they did, and how it could mean financial independence for you.

I generally think of network marketing as:

Being multiple-tiered - where you earn on the efforts of others that you recruit.

Offering residual income, where you sell the product once, and then earn commissions each month as the customer reorders a consumable product.

Utilizing auto-shipment, where the customer agrees to purchase a certain amount of the product or service each month... generally at a lower price that if it were a one-time purchase.

Requiring lots of phone calls, meetings, and direct interaction with the customers.

Allowing representatives to grow their businesses through duplicable systems where they just plug new representatives into a proven system.


I generally think of Internet marketing as:

Utilizing a two-tiered (at most) payment plan. When you go beyond two-tiers the rules change dramatically for the program operator.

Emphasizing earning commissions primarily on your own efforts although many super-affiliates also earn hefty second-tier commissions.

Marketing primarily using email and websites, although RSS, broadcast calls, teleseminars, and even direct mail can fit into the picture. There is a movement towards using offline methods to drive business online.

Often only offering one-time commissions on individual sales.

Requiring very little direct customer interaction, although the most successful affiliate marketers focus more on interacting with customers and building relationships.

Which is better? Obviously, that's a loaded question with room for lots of differences in opinion.

Generally, whichever best serves YOUR customers' needs is better for you.

Whichever offers your customers something that they can't buy cheaper at the local superstore obviously should sell better for you.

Long-term, lasting success in both isn't based upon throwing around big numbers, when you know that the average person probably won't achieve the level of success offered in the examples. That's because both depend upon how well your new "recruits" can utilize the system that you equip them with and the level of commitment that they have.

Both can offer residual income, and I personally do generate substantial residual income with both systems. Internet marketing offers residual income through products such as web hosting, membership sites, and product-of-the-month type sites.

An example of such a site is Dr. Mike Woo-Ming's Affiliate "Sales Letters" which offers affiliate marketers re- written sales letters for Clickbank products that otherwise would be poor sellers. This is an excellent example of a product that solves a problem, and offers to the affiliate/member a residual income. You can see how this works at: http://WillieCrawford.com/fix-bad-sites.html

Ordinary consumer products can also offer very nice residual income. In order to be a big success in the network marketing arena the product must offer unique advantages AND be priced competitively. Very often, you'll see products that are WAY over-priced, and they're that way because there is no real demand in the marketplace and the high commissions are what are used to "lure" unsavvy new distributors.

These unfortunate distributors are lured into businesses built on very shaky foundations. If you look in the right places though, you will find products that people want, that they are buying, and that you can offer at a competitive rate. Here are two examples:

1) Discount travel through YTB travel. This is a network marketing company that allows your customers to tap directly into one of THE BIGGEST online travel databases and book travel, reserve lodging, and reserve rental cars. Travelers get great deals, and you earn a commission on each referral booking that you make. You can see this incredible system in action at: http://www.ytbnet.com/williecrawford

The url above is the one that I link to from a site that helps people locate Internet marketing seminars at: http://InternetMarketingSeminarScheudule.com After they've located a "can't miss" seminar, it's natural for them to look for inexpensive travel and accommodations. Therefore, selling travel becomes effortless.

I offer the same travel booking service on a site where I help martial artists locate karate tournaments. Again, it is natural for site visitors to book their travel once they've located an event that they want to attend. You can see how I do this in the martial arts niche at: http://Tournamentsite.com

This same method of marketing travel... selling an MLM product using "Internet marketing techniques" shows how the distinction can quickly become blurred.

Another product where I seamless blend Internet marketing and network marketing, with a product that sells itself, practically hands off, is... greeting cards.

I offer visitors to many of my consumer-type sites the ability to send real, printed greeting cards right over the Internet, for a fraction of the cost that they would pay in a card shop. They get the same quality of card, don't have to travel... brave the weather... fight the crowds, or even lick stamps. They just choose and compose the card, add any photo they desire, click send, and the card is in the mail, for around $1.50 TOTAL :-)

You can check out that slick setup, and see how effortless it really can be at: http://SendOutCards.com/willie

Back to the question of which is better - Internet marketing or network marketing...

Both can actually be marketed the same way. You can market Internet marketing products via phone, fax, email, direct mail, or a website. You can do the same with network marketing products.

The bottom line is that the "want" for a product, and the availability of that product at a great price, are more important than method of selling. Which is better therefore depends upon which is a better match for you and your market. You can do very well with either. It's really just a matter of doing your research, finding a perfect market-to- product match, and then starting to actively build your dream business. You'll likely find yourself using a mixture of methods regardless of the product.


About the Author:
Willie Crawford has been teaching Internet marketing for over 9 years. Take advantage of his uncanny insights and unusual candor by subscribing to his free, information-packed newsletter. Also visit his top-rated blog. Do both at: http://WillieCrawford.com/blog/

Key Marketing Methods For 2008

Article Presented by:
Sam Law and Julian Stone

Isn't online marketing by definition, expensive? Not necessarily. Online businesses are coming to the realization that in an organic environment like the Internet, organic marketing is required; paying for traditional or static marketing only gets you so far before it becomes ineffective. The consumer now controls your marketing.

What is wrong with the old methods?

Old marketing methods are failing because users are beginning to wise up (Rise Up) against the old brute force advertising that tries to win users over through sheer volume, using abrasive web-page banners, unrelated Adwords displayed on the page, or repeated newsletters (most being restricted by anti-spam laws).

The old methods no longer work effectively for two key reasons. One is the fact that they are a "flash in the pan", directing users to websites only so long as you continue to pay for the campaign, the second reason is consumers are now at the stage where they either ignore them or go out of their way to block them (with plug-in based browser or email filtering).

Let's quickly run through some of the "traditional" ways to market on the web, and their failings.

Paid Campaigns - (These only work while active) Paid campaigns may lure people to your site, but they are regularly not your target market and after arriving they promptly leave (High "bounce" rate).

Banner Ads - People hate banner ads. Most of the ads on the Internet are loathed because they aren't relevant. Seeing a banner for a better insurance rate when on a gaming site is a massive disconnect for the audience and a significant portion of banner ads are plain abrasive to users. Filling one third of your page with banner ads will not increase the likelihood anyone will care.

Adwords - Adwords (PPC, Pay Per Click) have the same problem as banner ads, though to a lesser extent. Adwords work by displaying "sponsored results," in search engine results. Adword results are separated from normal search results so not many people select them and the unknown quality in the users eye causes distrust (how do I know that a sponsored result is better than an organic result). Competition is fierce, with prices spiraling upwards, and returns staying constant. For more information see our article about Google marketing pitfalls.

Newsletters - One word: Spam. Because of the spam epidemic, users are becoming ever more wary signing up to receive mail from any online source. Legislation and the ever increasing ability of spam filters mean a continually shrinking audience (Restricting the ability to send newsletters, and filtering them before they reach your audience).

The "Old World" marketing relied on one or two large marketing sources to drive traffic with big budgets and marketing firms. You have to get people to create the "news" then you pay other people to distribute the "news", so you are pulling people into your "store" to show them what you have (whether they want it or not).

New methods for marketing

These days having other create and distribute your content for you is in vogue, this can mean syndicating your articles for other users to repost, paying users to review or rate your services, guiding users directly on forums or having users sign up to receive exclusive information. In every case, the handiwork of distribution is left to others.

Lets quickly run through some of the new "web 2.0" ways to market on the web, and the reason you should try them:

Blogs - Blogs are a goldmine to both the reader and the writer. Blogging is less time consuming and considerably cheaper than traditional marketing. Blogs give you the ability to convey your personal thoughts on happenings in your industry and your personal and corporate life, letting you really connect with your audience. Another positive is the viral marketing component where you are referenced through various social media websites, search engines and other blogs, increasing both your credibility and searchability, making it easier for consumers to find and trust you.

Forums - Forums give you an insight into what people are talking about, letting you get directly into the heads of potential customers. An easy way to find an appropriate forum is by asking existing customers what forums they frequent. Join in conversations, threads, contribute to the community and become a trusted member, then you can give your professional advice and mention what you do for a living. You should approach this as a way to get insight into what people are talking about, with the side-effect of possibly generating leads. If you approach this as direct marketing the community will quickly tell and either ban you, or develop a healthy disdain of you.

Articles - Articles are a great way to show you are connected to the issues in your industry and the wider world around you. You can either submit your articles through a syndication service, or post it on your blog, even better is a combination of the two: Choose a topic you enjoy talking about and write an article (like this one!) with your personal opinion or some helpful advice. If it is well-written and educates readers, you will already have an edge on your competition.

The theme of the new marketing methods is tailoring your content to the audience. The intent is to create something reader want to read. Marketing is not about trickery or insincerity, it's about communicating your ideas with honesty and authenticity. If it is worthwhile to your users, then they will happily talk about the content and spread it around, you have to communicate authentically with your customers and it simply doesn't happen using "traditional" online marketing.

A word of caution: if you try any of the above methods but approach them traditionally (as a direct marketing channel) then not only will you annoy a great deal of users, you can also damage your company image. Again I stress the above point, make the content something people want to read, not just marketing material.

Old marketing methods that are now approached differently

Benjamin Franklin said insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." This is increasingly true for some of the more traditional forms of online marketing. It's not so much what people are doing, but more a case of how they are being done.

Let's take a look at how we should be approaching some of the old marketing methods today.

Press Releases - Before we start, I'm sorry to tell you, but unless you are in the 5% of the market that people pay attention to, no-one reads your press releases - at least no potential customers do. A high percentage of companies marketing on the web use traditional methods of delivery, either in print or on a section of their website. Consider changing your press release to positively present your company then send it through a syndication service for papers and online news sources to pick up and republish.

Search Engines - Previously you had to specifically tailor your site to search engine specifications to ensure you had a high pagerank and were located at the top of search results. To put it simply, the important factor was how your site was presented to the user. These days although page display has an impact, it is far more important to have the right content on the site. Search engines now care more about content. Structure your pages logically and efficiently with appropriate content for each page, and be sure to link to those pages wherever possible, especially if you are engaging in blog or forum marketing.

Mailing Lists and Newsletters - With new anti-spam laws coming into effect, coupled with users increasingly annoyed at anything email based, mailing lists and newsletters are becoming far less effective. Ensure all the users on your mailing lists and newsletters have agreed to receive them. You don't need to re-ask permission from your existing list, but be sure to let users op-out, and put an optional op-in form link in your communications.

Old-world communication can still be effective but you need to ensure it is not your only approach.

The Conclusion?

Reevaluation is the key to a healthy online presence. You need to be constantly measuring and reevaluating your marketing methods to ensure you are not wasting money, and can take advantage of effective new methods.


About the Author:
Sam Law and Julian Stone - Project, Task & Time Management specialists for: ProActiveSoftware.com, ProWorkflow.com & Julian101.com

Web 2.0 - or is it more like Web 16.0?

Article Presented by:
Julian Stone and Peter Hodge

With people generating many new phrases and terms in modern technology, it has become hard to keep up with what they all mean. One of the most commonly used terms on the world wide web (www) today is the phrase "Web2.0".

It seems like every web solutions company trying to make a living is selling their stuff off the phrase. So to the average Joe who is not a geek, what is "Web2.0"?

Well according to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia...

The phrase Web2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services - such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies - which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. The term became popular following the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004, and has since become widely adopted as shorthand for user generated content shared with other users.

Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web (www), it does not refer to an update to Web technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use and interact with the web as a platform. According to Tim O'Reilly, "Web2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."

Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the Technology components of "Web2.0" have existed since the early days of the Web."

There is no doubt the www has advanced significantly since inception and it seems every year the advancements outstrip the sum total of all the previous years put together.

The point to note is there really is no new version of the www. It is simply that it is now much more useful and usable to the everyday person. As offerings are developed, various players try, buy and dump what works less well, a Darwinian of what works, works. You will often read and hear about an "amazing wave of technology and innovation on the web" which is usually more marketing than meaningful changes.

In reality more and more people are finding the www to be an increasingly reliable and useful tool in their work and everyday life needs.

There has been a large volume of banter and amazement at this new flood of 'amazing' innovation, especially so since almost all of the technology supposedly "driving the Web2.0 revolution" has been around for a while. Maybe the most significant change is increasing bandwidth and anywhere access.

So why do people think all of this technology is brand new? And why are we calling it Web2.0 when realistically if we counted each major innovation as a number and each minor revision as a sub-number we are already into double digits.

If you have seen the latest Die Hard movie, or even bought software for your computer, you will understand why we are not in the Web2.0 revolution, Like Die Hard 4.0 and MS Office 2007 they are all still the same movie or tool you used before only they are the latest version. What we are really experiencing now on the www is something more like Web16.0.

And if you manage to get into an in-depth, honest conversation with your web designer then they will tell you that Web2.0 is a myth. So to explain how we get to Web16.0 we have compiled a history of the most significant events in the history of the www.

WEB 0.1 ----- 1958 - SAGE - Radar systems are first networked WEB 0.2 ----- 1960 - Packet Switching is first created

WEB 1.0 - EMAIL - "A New Way to Send Unsolicited Mail Is Born"

Although the exact history of E-Mail is a tad murky, it is generally accepted that it appeared in 1965, and was created so that people accessing a mainframe could communicate with each other. This was the first step in the interconnection of people, and also facilitated almost instant communication at no cost to the user.

WEB 1.1 ----- 1967 - Markup - Markup language is created WEB 1.2 ----- 1969 - ARPA - A link is established between computers WEB 1.3 ----- 1696 - ARPA Net - First packet switched network created

WEB 2.0 - WYSIWYG: "What You See Is What You Get (sometimes)"

With the invention of WYSIWYG in 1970, users could now be presented with a basic display of what their finished product would look like, as they were working on it. This removed the need to memorize complex code, much in the same way you need to know code to create a web-page.

WEB 2.1 ----- 1970 - ASP - First Application Service Provider (SAAS) WEB 2.2 ----- 1970 - Style sheets are created WEB 2.3 ----- 1971 - @ is created to separate hosts and users WEB 2.4 ----- 1973 - TCP/IP is created to simplify networking. This is probably the real starting point. WEB 2.5 ----- 1973 - First connection to another country established WEB 2.6 ----- 1974 - The term "Internet" is adopted WEB 2.7 ----- 1976 - X.25 - The first network standard is approved WEB 2.8 ----- 1978 - International packet switching service created

WEB 3.0 - USENET: "The Black Market of the Internet"

Usenet was established in 1980 to offer mail and file transfers as well as give personal users access to news. Usenet is in fact a large network of servers all in communication with each other, a user posts something to the local server and that item is sent to the other servers and passed along in a giant network. Usenet was a major turning point because now users can have an open conversation with anyone on the net, as opposed to having to specifically know the user (unlike E-Mail). The downside is that with a sometimes un-policed net capable of file transfers, the Usenet of today is a haven for piracy of all types, where anything you can imagine is accessible.

WEB 3.1 ----- 1979 - Email is made available to personal computer users, millions of Nigerian Princes suddenly need public help

WEB 4.0 - REAL TIME CHAT - Going Outside Deemed "Obsolete"

Real-Time Chat was created in 1980 following users' frustrations with Usenet articles taking sometimes 24 hours to be updated. This signalled a turning point whereby online conversations became instant, albeit isolated into segregated groups.

WEB 4.1 ----- 1980 - First ISP's created providing dialup internet WEB 4.2 ----- 1981 - TCP/IP becomes a standard WEB 4.3 ----- 1981 - US/Europe/Canada/Hong-Kong/Australia Connect WEB 4.4 ----- 1983 - TCP/IP becomes the only standard WEB 4.5 ----- 1983 - First wide area network using TCP/IP operational WEB 4.6 ----- 1985 - FTP - The File Transfer Protocol is created WEB 4.7 ----- 1988 - IRC - Internet Relay Chat is created WEB 4.8 ----- 1988 - Bulletin Board Systems and Forums created

WEB 5.0 - HTML/HTTP/Web-Pages - "It Has Begun"

Around 1980 there were many researchers using the internet, but no single way to create/display "documents" (web-pages). A physicist Tim burners-Lee and his colleagues needed a simple system for creating/displaying "documents" (web-pages) but found that they were too commercial, platform-specific or complicated for the average user. So they created their own relatively simple system consisting of browsing software called "WorldWideWeb", a protocol for transmitting the information (HTTP) and a document annotation convention "HyperText Markup Language" (HTML). This meant anyone could now create web-pages using a simple language for page creation.

WEB 5.1 ----- 1989 - Images can now be animated, Oh the horror! WEB 5.2 ----- 1990 - The network now covers the entire world (publicly)

WEB 6.0 - Search - "Did You Mean: Google"

Before search engines were created there was no way to find a page, you had to specifically know the location. With the advent of search engines in 1990 you could now search within a directory if you could provide the directory location. Around 1991 search engines begun indexing (storing) the content they found, giving users the ability to search for pages even if they didn't know the page's location.

WEB 6.1 ----- 1991 - DNS - A Dynamic Naming System is created WEB 6.2 ----- 1991 - The first text-based browser is created

WEB 7.0 - DHTML - "Because Non-Scrolling Text Is Boring"

The web was static until Dynamic HTML (DHTML) was created. DHTML introduced client-side scripting, allowing authors to include code in their web-pages that performed an action upon being downloaded onto a user's computer, introducing rollover buttons and drop-down menus on web-pages. DHTML is an extremely broad concept, and encompasses any web-page that is generated differently for each user, it goes a long way to making the web more personalized.

WEB 7.1 ----- 1993 - The first graphics based browsers are created WEB 7.2 ----- 1993 - Screen casts are first created WEB 7.3 ----- 1994 - Wiki's are created, Britannica begins holding breath WEB 7.4 ----- 1994 - The world-wide web consortium is formed WEB 7.5 ----- 1994 - CSS - Cascading Style Sheets created

WEB 8.0 - ONLINE DIARIES - -Teens Reportedly Misunderstood"

Online diaries were first created in 1994 as a means for people to store their diaries online for personal or public reading. As other diarists discovered each other, a web-ring was set up to link them together and eventually a community web-site was setup and began giving "Diarist Awards" quarterly. Writers could now reach almost anyone worldwide at practically no cost, and everyone can create an editorial on whatever subject they like, without fear of censorship. WEB 8.1 ----- 1996 - The first social bookmarking site created

WEB 9.0 - RANKED RESULTS - "The Online Popularity Contest"

Search engine results helped find things, but many of the results were useless or had nothing to do with the keywords you had used. As of 1996 search results started to be ranked based on a multitude of things, like how popular a page is. This made searching faster and easier, and significantly less painful.

WEB 9.1 ----- 1996 - Flash is created, whole websites can now be animated WEB 9.2 ----- 1997 - The term "Blog" is adopted

WEB 10.0 - HIRED BLOGGERS - "Wow Isn't Product X Great!"

As of 1997 personal diaries began to evolve to what became known as "blogs." Many corporate websites and personal homepages had (and still do have) news sections, these were traditionally manually updated in a back-end system. With the advent of blogs, tools had evolved to facilitate the production and maintenance of web articles, and the commercial sector jumped on, seeing blogs as a new marketing medium.

WEB 10.1 ----- 1998 - The first Audio news site is created WEB 10.2 ----- 1999 - The first web-based operating system is created

WEB 11.0 - RSS - -Newspapers Deemed Obsolete"

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) was created due to the lack of a feed format that was universal. The creation of RSS means that users can now "subscribe" to feeds containing video, audio, text, or graphics. Users no longer have to trawl the web for new information, they can "subscribe" to a feed and have it sent to them directly, tailoring the news they read to the content they enjoy.

WEB 12.0 - REMOTE SCRIPTING - "Waiting For 4 Seconds Now History!"

Remote scripting allows scripts running inside a browser to exchange information with a server, so that scripts can be triggered locally, processed remotely and have information returned directly to the browser, requiring no refresh. This makes the web faster and easier to use, and removes the need to refresh the page to do simple things like sorting. WEB 12.1 ----- 2001 - Blogs evolve from online diaries

WEB 13.0 - PODCASTING - "Now Everyone Can Not Listen To You by Choice not Circumstance!"

Podcasting originated as a portmanteau of the iPod- and broadcast, though it has become widely accepted that the term means "portable on demand broadcast." Originally podcasting was created to allow individuals to distribute their own radio shows. But it has become popular for a wide variety of things, from distribution of educational materials, to the latest gaming news. Podcasting opens up distribution of audio content to anyone with a server, with users "subscribing" the RSS feed's that appeal to them.

WEB 13.1 ----- 2002 - Folksonomy is created, giving rise to "Tags"

WEB 14.0 - VIDEO PODCASTING - "Web-Based One-Sided Conversations"

Shortly after Podcasting became popular, video Podcasting was created as a means to send the equivalent of TV episodes to users, though similarly to podcasting, the content was not limited to just "TV episodes". Video Podcasting opens up the video medium so that making a TV show is not possible for anyone.

WEB 15.0 - VOIP - "High Tech, Dodgy Sounding Free Calls"

With the Voice over Internet Protocol (IP) instead of using a traditional phone line to send audio, the audio is sent over the internet. This removes almost all cost involved, and also removes the need to have a physical phone line to plug into. What this means for consumers is calling becomes much simpler, easier and significantly cheaper.

WEB 16.0 - SAAS - "The Industry Makes a SaaS of Itself."

Software as a Service (SaaS) is in-fact just a new term for a concept that has been around since the dawn of the internet (ASP from 1970). "Software as a Service" is the concept of using a piece of software run/provided through the internet, and instead of paying a large one-off purchase price, you "rent" the software for as long as needed. So whilst "SaaS" is the buzzword of the day, the concept is decades old.

...The CONCLUSION?

So if you follow the basic rule that each total upgrade is a new ".0" then we are nowhere near Web2.0. The story is really one of falling price, increasing reliability and bandwidth coupled with ubiquitous access.

We have made significant strides in technology, and chalking these up as a recent affair is both factually incorrect as well as just plain rude to the original inventors. But then why is "Web2.0" used on an almost daily basis when describing the latest venture Google has gotten into, or a new "simple looking" piece of software released by an unknown Swedish developer?

Simply put, "Web2.0" is just shorthand for the development process outlined above. Bottom line, the web really becoming what the web really always should have been.

The web, once seen as a commercial gains-platform, is now seen as more user driven. The rules are different, there is a need to figure out new web ways. Consumers have jumped on and realized that the playing field has levelled, a 15 year old blogger can reach as many people in the world as a famous BBC journalist.

Users are customers, the guiding principles "look after the users" and "make it appealing to the eye". We don't need newspaper editors to tell us what the news is, we read our news with all the content tailored to our tastes, we listen to music not by artist, but instead based on the "tags" that we have come to know and love.

Call it what you will, the web is the power of difference, everyone can have a say but nobody need listen - it's scary, irreverent, anarchistic and fun!


About the Author:
Article researched and written by: Julian Stone, Sam Law - Project and Time Management Specialists from ProActive Software - http://www.proworkflow.com Peter Hodge - Editor and Contributor from InfoNews - http://www.infonews.co.nz Disclaimer: Facts are as accurate as could be researched at the time.

Note: If reproducing this article, the links and paragraph above must be included.

Website Startup Guide - Mix and Match Your Advertising Offerings

Article Presented by:
Vasrue.com, All Rights Reserved Written by: Ramon Sanchez

There are literally thousands of people out there right now who want to start their own online business. The problem is where to begin and how to get started.

Oh sure, they know they can buy a domain and a web hosting account, but that is not the problem. The hold up is that they don't know what to sell on their websites that will allow them to make a nice income to supplement the income from their regular jobs.

Day and night, people browse this World Wide Web looking for a hint or an insight that will point them in the direction of the next big thing on the internet.

Let's be honest. Most people who want to start an online business are only looking for enough extra income to pay an extra car payment or to buy some clothes for their kids. Not everyone is looking to get rich online.

Looking For Something To Sell

Most people online who are looking for an opportunity to make money look first to common themes of products they already buy.

If you go to Google and type in "flowers" for your search, you will find 339 million pages found. If you take the same search to Yahoo, you will still find 202 million results. With that kind of competition, why would anyone want to try to break into that industry as an online entrepreneur?

Suppose the next thought takes the aspiring entrepreneur to "jewelry"? A Google search will turn up 551 million to Yahoo's 261 million pages. Again, why would someone try to tackle such an overcrowded marketplace?

On top of that, as part-time entrepreneurs looking for some extra money, they don't have the time or resources to try to knock heads with these major corporations who run the competing websites in these markets.

Add to that the need to handle actual products and product fulfillment, and your part-time start-up entrepreneur really starts to lose interest. People tend to shy away from product fulfillment related industries. Their homes are already crowded enough without adding retail products to their space.

Something To Sell That Does Not Require A Warehouse or a Huge Investment

It is at about this time the opportunity search changes gears. There are many forks in the road, and the road you choose can be as hard or as easy as you make it for yourself.

Where to go from here:

1. Digital products - E-books and Software

2. Product Drop-Shipping

3. Affiliate programs

4. On-site Advertising

Let's look at each one of these individually:

Digital Products - E-Books and Software

We all have some kind of knowledge to share. If you determine that you have some kind of knowledge that you can share, then there is likely someone out there in the world who would be willing to pay you to obtain that same knowledge.

E-books are an ideal way to disseminate this information. With the e-book format, there are no printing costs, since your book is stored as a digital file. Self-publishing a digital ebook is not nearly as hard as you might think it would be.

Software is a similar beast. Since it is a digital product, you don't have to cover the costs of packaging and distribution. You can sell your software online, cutting out the middleman, keeping the extra profits for yourself.

Product Drop-Shipping

Some wholesale companies will allow you to buy products from them on a piecemeal basis. Of course, the cost is a bit higher than what it would be if you bought products a pallet at a time, but the convenience to you more than makes up for the additional cost.

The "drop-shippers" allow you to sell a product to your customers, and then you can take the money you collected from your customer to the drop-shipper. The drop-shipper will ship the product directly to your customer.

In some cases, the drop shipper will even put your own custom label on the outside of the container, making the fact that you used a drop-shipper completely unseen by your customer.

To find wholesale companies who offer drop-shipping services, check these folks out: http://www.worldwidebrands.com

Affiliate programs

With an Affiliate program, you can register with a seller, and the seller will give you a unique URL that you can use to promote their products or services. When someone uses "your affiliate URL" to visit the seller's website, the seller will track that person until the visitor leaves the site. (Some Affiliate sellers will drop a cookie on the computer of the visitor, and if that person returns to the seller's website within one year, then you will get credit for that visitor returning to the seller's website.) If the visitor buys a product or service from the seller, then your account will be credited for bringing a buyer to the website. This will result in your earning a commission for bringing the buyer and seller together.

On-Site Advertising

Both Google and Yahoo's Overture services offer an option to webmasters to carry their advertising on your website. When someone clicks a link on your website and visits the advertiser's website, then you would get paid a small payment for having connected the potential buyer to the seller's website.

This is a type of advertising that pays you when someone visits the seller's website. Contrast that with the Affiliate program, which pays you when someone buys a product from the seller's website, and then you can see the fine line difference between the two types of advertising.

How Much Can You Make Utilizing On-Site Advertising?

Truth be told, there are a lot of people on the internet who makes tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars per month --- yes, I said, "per month" --- using only Google's on-site advertising program, called Adsense. The rest of us make hundreds or thousands per month.

The truth is that with Google's contextual advertising program called Adsense, your income is based on what the advertisers are willing to pay for your traffic and how much traffic you can generate.

The Profit-and-Loss Factor for the Advertiser

It is a matter of profit-and-loss for the advertiser. If the advertiser pays one dollar for a visitor, and every 35th visitor buys what the advertiser is selling, then the advertiser is getting one buyer for every $35 spent. If the advertiser's profit margin is enough to afford spending $35 to acquire one customer, then the advertiser will feel his advertising is worthwhile, and he will keep on coming back for more advertising.

If on the other hand, the advertiser is only earning a gross profit of $20 per transaction, then he or she will have a hard time justifying the $35 advertising expenditure.

This is why you will find that most Google and Yahoo advertisers are only willing to spend 25 or 50 cents to get one visitor to their website.

And then depending on a number of factors, you will only earn 30-50% of the gross revenue that Google or Yahoo earned for that visitor.

Taking the lowest case denominator approach, 30% of 25 cents is roughly eight cents that you will be paid for each visitor that you send to an advertiser.

Some of these guys who are knocking down ten thousand dollars a month are actually doing so at eight cents per click! What is their secret to success? They are getting thousands of people to visit their website everyday.

The Profit-and-Loss Factor for the Affiliate Seller

On the flip side, let us take a look at the same scenario for the Affiliate seller. Instead of paying for visitors, advertisers are paying for actual sales.

The Affiliate seller knows his or her margin well enough to know that they can afford to pay anywhere from 2-50% of the actual transaction amount to the person who referred the buyer to their website.

The Affiliate seller is not paying for advertising on a gamble, instead, they are paying for advertising on a sure thing.

It is not unheard of to earn $20, $50 or $200 on a single Affiliate sale transaction.

If you are able to convert one person in thirty-five to buyers of an affiliate product or service, you could conceivably make more money with less traffic, than the guys knocking down the big bucks with Adsense.

Mix-and-Match For The Greatest Success

This is really important to your bottom line. If you fail to heed my advice, your website may fail to survive.

Unless you are the owner of a product or service sales website, then you will be relying on the various advertising opportunities to survive.

You are best to mix-and-match your offers for the greatest success. Yes, do set up Google Adsense on your site, but also set up Affiliate programs on your site.

You may sell a few products each week, and the sale from those products might make a good income for you. But, for the people who arrived on your site who are not interested in your main offering, give them another advertisement to click on before they leave. This way, you can get the Pay-Per-Click advertising revenue from those people who chose not to buy the products and services that you are selling through the Affiliate programs.

Diversification Is Your Key To Success

Don't let yourself be fooled by the idea that you can be profitable with only one product or service offering or advertising revenue generator. Many people have entered this medium with a Made For Adsense (MFA) site, and many of those people have gone out of business in just a few months.

Don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Or else, when you fall, you will have nothing to show for all of your hard work.


About the Author:
Copyright (c) 2006-2007 Vasrue.com. All Rights Reserved. Article by Ramon Sanchez of Vasrue.com – Your information Portal, providing hundreds of articles at your finger tips!

"In less than 7 Days" you could start an online business, designed to generate large profits fast. Learn the insider secrets to Building an Online Empire by visiting the Affiliate Programs Secrets website at: http://online-empire.vasrue.com

Test Your Web Site Before Go Live

Article Presented by:
Zoran Makrevski

You just finish your website, and you are excited to see it "live". But first you should test if everything on your website works correct. Remember that the website is your corporate identity on Internet. Testing your website gives you a chance to fix errors before they destroy your business reputation.

Now, what you should check first? I would start from the basic.

Spell Check & Grammar Errors

Proof read your site ... no meter how careful content creator was, you will always find few misspelled words or grammar errors. If you don't, be sure that your customers will.

Check Links

Next thing is to check if all your links on all your pages works. You can do it manually if you want, but on larger sites, it can be teddy task. For large projects, you can use Xenu's Link checker. The good news is that it's free and better than most other link checking software.

Forms – E-Mail

We all want feedback from our website visitors, right? To ensure that you will get some, check if forms on your website work as expected. Make a habit to test forms on your website from time to time.

Web site visitors many times enter wrong input in form fields. If you use Java Script to validate form input, check your scripts in IE and Firefox at least. Not all scripts works in all browsers.

Page Titles - Meta Tags

Web developers use different software to create web pages. If your webmaster forget to add Meta tags on your website, in the title will write: Untitled Document.

How can anyone forget to add Meta tags, I am hearing you asking.

Well, search on Google for: Untitled Document and 35.000.000 results will be returned. For the search term Untitled Document 1, there is much less competition. Google return "only" 1.650.000. I guess that you will agree that your company name is better title than "Untitled Document".

Meta tags are useful (especially title and description) for both, your website visitors and for search engines. So do the check.

Screen Resolution

You are looking your website on your monitor, and it looks great, right? How it will looks on other monitors and other screen resolutions? You website should look acceptable and on 800 x 600 and great on 1024 x 768 and higher.

How your website look in different browsers?

It is easier than you think, so continue reading. One of the things that you should definitely test is how your website looks in different browsers. The reason is: Each browser can display Web pages slightly differently, and you want to make sure your pages look good in the most popular browsers.

I have only one browser installed, how I can do this, I hear you asking. Search on Google for "view your website in different browsers", and you will find different websites which allow you to preview your website in almost all known browsers. And yes. It's free.

Usability – Can your website visitors find what they are looking for?

Ask few people to visit your website. Your friends or relatives, doesn't mater. Ask them what they think about your website. Let me clarify. It is not important did they like the colors or the layout of the site. Important thing here is: Can visitors find what they are looking for on your website within few clicks?

And the most important: When they look at your home page can they understand what your company is about? How comfortable they feel your navigation, did they understand the terms that you use on your website? Can they reach your contact page?


About the Author:
Zoran Makrevski is founder and CEO of WebGoto.Gr from Thessaloniki, Greece We have over 10 years experience in Web Development. Our database driven websites will help you succeed in your online business. http://web.goto.gr/company.html

My Secrets Of 'Forum Marketing'

Article Presented by:
Willie Crawford

If you visit the popular "Internet Marketing Warriors" discussion forum, you'll notice that I have nearly 7500 posts! If you were to visit any of several dozen other online forums and discussion boards, you'd also discover thousands of my posts.

The reason that I have so many posts to online forums and discussion boards is that I have found them a very effective marketing tool. I use online forums to:

1) Allow potential customers and joint venture partners to actually get a feel for who I am.

2) Share my knowledge on topics that I understand, while at the same time generating links back to my sites.

3) Get quick answers to questions I have and quick feedback on ideas that I have.

4) Conduct market research - investigating the problems, concerns, needs, wants, and quirks of my markets.

5) Getting a feel for potential clients and joint venture partners.

6) Getting feedback on products and services that I'm considering purchasing, marketing or developing.

As you can see, forums can be very useful for many purposes. Since I am in business online, I think of much of what I do on forums as "marketing." In that regards, there are certain rules that I follow and recommend that you do too.

Let's look at some of my "secret" or often unspoken rules for forum marketing.

1) Don't be anonymous. People buy from people that they know, like and trust. If they don't even know who you are, can't find a link to your sites, and have no clue who they're dealing with, they can't "know" you... let alone like and trust you. Use your real name in your profiles, include links to your websites, and include a photo. You don't need to tell them everything about yourself, but people do buy from their friends, and I'm certain that you know "who" your friends actually "are."

2) Be courteous. For some reason, people are often ultra-rude, more aggressive, and just plain "nasty" in online interactions. The person that you're being mean to may be an ideal customer or joint venture partner. Why would you kill the relationship before it can even begin. Also beware that others observe your interactions and take permanent (subconscious notes).

3) Consider the long-term consequences of your posts. When you make a comment, accusation, or attack someone on a public discussion forum, your words often become a "permanent" part of the search engines databases. So, even if you later apologize or point out that you were mistaken, when someone searches for a person or company's name in the search engines, they may encounter the inappropriate remark that you made. The title of that post is often the title that show in the search engine results! Many people will look no further after seeing your post "headlined" in the search engines!

There's really no easy, effective way to undo the damage once you've posted something to the database.

4) Don't forget to leave ways for people to contact you. If the forum allows a signature file, use one. If the forum allows a profile, set one up. Use a username that tells who you are, and not something that you'll later want to change :-)

5) Optimize your posts. Given that search engines DO index your posts, you want to make sure that your keywords are in the right places, such as the title of the posts (and maybe in hyper-linked text). Busy forums are frequently spidered by the search engines and are therefore an excellent way to get your pet projects indexed!

6) Use images in your posts. Some forums allow you to post an image link underneath your post. Where that's allowed, you often want to include a relevant image. Images naturally draw the eye to where you want to focus your readers' attention... the link that you want them to click on.

7) Participate in popular threads. Many forums give you the count of how many views and/or posts a given thread has. It's human nature to want to be "a part of" something popular. So people have a tendency to read threads that lots of others have read, and to post to threads that lots of others have posted to. Therefore, it follows that if you post to one of these threads you're more likely to be a part of the noticed conversations than if you post to one that ONLY you posted to or read.

8) Don't try to be deceptive. Many forums allow the moderators or visitors to readily identify forum users through features such as IP tracking. That means that when you use multiple identities on a forum to make your topic appear "more popular," you are often only deluding yourself. People are alot smarter than some of us give them credit for, and they often quickly see through such ruses.

You should acknowledge that if you can figure out a "sneaky" way to get an unfair advantage on a discussion forum, then those who've been a part of that community and using the same software for countless years have probably seen it all. So, your tricks are painfully obvious to them - even when they politely don't "call you on it." Instead the community will simply ignore you until you go away.

9) Post often but watch how much time you spend on forums. Participating in the discussion at online forums has generated countless clients, subscribers, business partners, and friends. That has made it a very worthwhile investment for me. As long as you don't use participating in forums as a means of procrastinating, it can be very helpful for you too.

Using my secret forum marketing tactics, I have built a steady flow of business and traffic to my websites. It's also an excellent way to build some real relationships. Frankly, it's not even in my top 10 most effective methods of generating free website traffic. At the same time, I learned a lot of those other traffic generation techniques from online forums!

If you are curious as to what my top 10 free website traffic generation techniques currently are, visit: http://Top10TrafficGenerationTechniqes.com

Enjoy your time at online discussion forums. It allows you to market while also facilitating our need for social interaction. It is also a great way to market, as long as you remember "my secrets of forum marketing."


About the Author:
Willie Crawford is an 11 year veteran of internet marketing. His websites run on near autopilot, with huge amounts of traffic generated with very few simple techniques. Discover these simple, free traffic generation strategies at: http://Top10TrafficGenerationTechniqes.com

Marketing Yourself: Forget The Little Mistakes

Article Presented by:
Robert Middleton

In the most recent issue of Sun Magazine (my favorite magazine - great writing, no ads) was an interview with Studs Terkel. Terkel has written several books that are essentially an oral history of the United states in the last half of the 20th century.

His famous book, "Working," chronicled the daily work lives of ordinary people. And his 1984 book, "The Good War," won the Pulitzer Prize. Terkel is an American icon who has put his heart and soul into his life's work.

And Studs Terkel also makes mistakes.

For me, the most refreshing part of the interview was him admitting the technical mistakes he's made in taping the interviews:

Sun: Have you ever lost an interview because of a technical problem?

Terkel: Sure. I'm known for my ineptitude. That's the irony of the whole thing; they call me the "master of the tape recorder," but I haven't the faintest idea of what I'm doing. I'm just learning the electric typewriter. And I don't know what a computer is. You've got neocons and neoliberals: I'm a neo-Neanderthal. That cracked me up.

When I think of all the technical mistakes I've made in my business, not to mention a zillion other small and not-so-small mistakes, it's nice to be reminded that you don't have to be perfect to be successful and to make a difference.

I've noticed that one of the biggest things stopping people from marketing themselves is obsessing about "doing it right." But I have the opposite advice: Do it wrong. Just try something and, like Studs Terkel, sooner or later you'll figure it out.

These imperfections or small mistakes will rarely sink a business. But getting so stuck in preparation that you never get started, kills businesses every single day.

A recent Time Magazine cover story asserted that we worry about the wrong things. For instance, only one or two people are killed in the US each year by sharks. But hundreds are killed by deer (when we hit them in our cars). But did you ever see a TV show about "Beware the Killer Deer?"

In this article I'll focus on seven big things you need to pay attention to in order to market effectively. Miss doing these and you're in deep trouble. And miss them we do, because we're too focused on the sharks.

Do you fall into any of the following mistake traps:

1. Not Making Marketing a Game

Whenever you play a game you make mistakes. That's just part of the game. You drop the ball. You miss the goal. It's not a big deal, you just keep playing the best you can.

The big mistake we make in marketing is either not playing the game at all or not realizing that there even is a game. I see a lot of Independent Professionals running around the field with no idea who has the ball or where the goal is.

You need to understand the rules of the game and then commit to playing it to win. It becomes a lot more fun when you do.

2. Not Having the Right Marketing Mindset

In our marketing we worry about trivial things when we need to focus on the bigger picture. We need to develop a marketing mindset that is focused on making a difference instead of worrying about rejection. Instead of complaining how we can't find time to market or how our services are hard to explain, we need to adopt the mindset of the master marketers.

Their mindset is: My services are valuable. I will do what it takes to get the attention and interest of my prospects until they see the value as well.

3. Not Speaking the Language of Marketing

The bottom line of marketing is communication. It's saying the right things at the right time to the right people. But obsessing about the perfect word is not very productive.

Like the game of marketing, many of us don't even realize that there's a language or syntax you need to employ to get attention and interest from prospects.

Talk about who you work with, the problems they have and the solutions you offer and the words will take care of themselves.

4. Not Having a Powerful Marketing Message

One thing that still amazes me is how people obsess about their marketing message or "Audio Logo" but never try it out on real, live prospects.

A marketing message only makes sense in the context of an interaction or written communication with a prospect. Did they show interest? Did they respond?

Try out your marketing message on 50 people and you'll know if your message is working or not. Then fine tune.

5. Not Using Persuasive "Marketing Currency"

If people obsess about marketing messages, they agonize over written marketing communications. Is that the perfect word? What if there's a typo? What if I say if wrong?

But what we miss is the big picture of marketing communications - getting something out on a regular basis to prospects on your list. That builds credibility through visibility, even if you make a typo here and there.

Just ask yourself: What information would help my prospects? And then make it a priority to get it to them.

6. Not Implementing Effective Marketing Strategies

There are probably hundreds of different marketing strategies you could use to market yourself. From networking to television ads. What's the perfect strategy for your business? How can you know?

Guess what? There is no perfect strategy. So don't get caught in paralysis by analysis. Pick a strategy that you would actually enjoy doing and jump in with both feet.

My favorite strategies involve very direct communication with my prospects. I get them interested; I offer something of value; I ask for a response; I follow up and ask for the business.

7. Not Following a Marketing Action Plan

Ever notice how the same ideas tend to recirculate in your brain over and over again? We don't take action because our plan never becomes real. Again, worried about making a mistake, we do nothing.

You don't figure out your whole plan and then write it down. In the process of writing it down, the plan becomes clearer and clearer. What's your goal, what are you going to do, when are you going to do it and what resources to you need? Then start.

Remember Goethe's famous couplet:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.


About the Author:
Robert Middleton, the owner of Action Plan Marketing, has been helping Independent Professionals be better marketers since 1984. On his web site http://www.ActionPlan.com find valuable resources, products and programs for attracting more clients. Get a free copy of his Marketing Plan Sart-Up Kit.

Why You Should Never Discount Your Prices

Article Presented by:
Mark Silver

It seems like such an easy fix: "25% off!" "Buy now and I'll reduce the price by $100!" Discounting as a selling tactic seems as natural and easy as all get-out.

Which is why you should never, ever discount.

Discounting is a cancer in business, that eats at your heart, and at the heart of your customers. It is smoke and mirrors.

"Good ol' Wal-Mart. That multi-billion dollar global company, which is the discounter of all discounters. They started with good in their heart. Sam Walton looked around him and saw lots of great things he thought 'the little guy' should have. Why should only the rich have luxuries, now that our great industrial society can produce so much so easily?"

It's a good intention. Unfortunately, this focus on low prices has done incalculable damage to our economies, to our health care, and to the way we use resources. 'Inexpensive' has come to mean 'cheap' which has come to mean 'disposable.'

Which has come to mean huge landfills and global warming, among other things.

Is discounting really that much of a demon? Surely, just taking some money off the top of your prices doesn't mean you're contributing to the environmental, economic and political collapse of the globe?

Not exactly. But let's look at what discounting means, and what it does.

Discounting assumes that:

1. The difference in price between your 'regular' price and the discounted price is what is stopping your customer from buying;

2. It's worth it to acquire a customer whose most important consideration is how cheap your offer is.

Customers hesitate for a number of reasons, which all boil down to: does this offer really work, and will it get me the results that I need?

Discounting your prices means that instead of addressing this question head-on, you are trying to cover up with smoke and mirrors. 'Sure it works... but don't look too closely, and I'll take some money off the top for you.'

You may not be doing this consciously, and certainly not with any ill intent, but all the same this is the set up.

What you are really trying to do: help someone get help sooner rather than later.

Your offer helps someone with a struggle they have. The sooner the right people get your product, the sooner their struggle is over. Understanding that your intention is to get what you offer to the right people sooner, in order to alleviate suffering, well, that's a good intention, isn't it?

Now it's not about smoke and mirrors, but about urgency. One of the ways to help someone purchase sooner rather than later is to offer them a good deal. But not by discounting.

People love a good deal. Is there any way to offer a good deal without discounting?


Keys to the Offer They Can't Refuse

* Understand the difference between a discount and a good deal.

A discount is when you lower the price for the sole purpose of trying to increase sales. It's a strong-arm tactic that often signals desperation- and as such, it actually decreases trust between you and your customer.

There are good reasons to have a lower price. For instance, one company I buy from every month gives me a discount once a year on the anniversary of my first purchase, equivalent to the number of years I've been a customer times 10%. After ten years I'll get that month's purchase free. But that's not a discount in order to get me to buy- it's a thank you and appreciation given to me after a buy. A subtle, but important difference.

* You can announce price rises in advance.

Early-bird and early registration pricing, where you offer a lower price up until a certain date, is not a discount, because you aren't just giving away money, but there is an advantage to you. For me, having classes fill several weeks in advance before the start date means that I have much less to do at the last minute. That's worth charging a lower price. I charge more after the early-registration deadline because it represents more work for me.

This is similar to a pre-launch price. Someone who buys your products before they exist is showing a great deal of trust and faith in you, and you benefit in many ways by having someone purchase ahead of time. That's makes the lower price worth it.

* Cheese, please. Offer bonuses.

You may think bonuses are a cheesy thing to offer, but what if your favorite cafe offered you a free cookie with each fancy coffee drink you bought? Would that help you to choose their cafe over someone else's? If I liked the coffee and the cookie, it would get me nearly every time.

Bonuses work because they show generosity, because they can enhance the experience of the original product, and because you can offer them at very little cost to your business. A good bonus can be a simple thing, as long as it's valuable.

Have fun creating a great offer that's also a good deal for your customers. But don't discount, or you'll be giving away the trust you've been working so hard to build with them.

My very best to you and your business,

Mark Silver


About the Author:
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

A Common Sense Approach to Defining Your Marketing Niche

Article Presented by:
Judy Murdoch

A question from a reader, who wrote:

"The question I have is how do I turn the qualities of my ideal client into the specific niche or type of client/business that I work with? I tell people that I work with small business owners and entrepreneurs and I find that is so very general. I know I need more specifics."

--JoAnne, Virtual Assistant

JoAnne's question brings up a common issue faced by small business owners--most of us, when asked, can describe the clients and customers we most enjoy working with--but how do we go from "Jane, my favorite customer" to a profile that helps us:

Explain to customers and referral sources who we best serve (this is a perfect referral"),

choose and refine the products and services we offer,

create a compelling marketing message that attracts attention,

show up where our best prospects are most likely to be?

Traditional marketing practice involves going through exercises such as defining your marketing niche using demographics (age, gender, geography), psychographics (attitudes, interests, values), products used, and media watched.

But for most small business owners, this approach is cumbersome, time-consuming, and frankly, not really necessary.

Here's my simple, common sense approach to coming up with a solid, actionable niche definition. Just three steps:

STEP #1: IDENTIFY THE PROBLEMS YOU LIKE TO SOLVE

As a small business owner, you get the cold, hard cash because your products and services help your customers manage or eliminate problems. Your niche market is comprised of individuals and organizations whose problems:

You excel at solving

You find fun to solve

For example, the term, "virtual assistant" suggests someone who handles "administrative" problems. But what exactly are "administrative" problems? In my experience, administrative issues cover a wide range of problems including:

Clients who are hopelessly overbooked making them miss/forget appointments

Clients who are so busy with the details that they never seem to have time to work on "bigger picture" business issues

Clients who never get around to following up with customers, saying thank you, and similar small but important activities that strengthen customer relationships

Clients who are drowning in paperwork (for example, healthcare providers who spend more time completing insurance claim forms than actually working with patients)

And so on...

Now let's say JoAnne's proudest accomplishments to date have been the following:

One of her clients is a management consultant who is frequently doing workshops and training sessions. JoAnne helped this client set up a system to record the most popular workshops and make the recordings available on the client's website.

She developed three email templates for another client so that his customer mailings were more inviting and easier to read. Because more customers were reading the emails and acting on offers, JoAnne's client enjoyed a significant upturn in repeat business.

Every business owner has a unique set of accomplishments. Another virtual assistant's proudest accomplishment might be his ability to quickly spot and correct misspelled words, grammatical errors, and style inconsistencies. And there are other virtual assistants who love nothing more than to divide and conquer a mountain of paperwork.

STEP #2: FOCUS IN ON PROFESSIONS/INDUSTRIES

Once you get some clarity around the problems you excel at solving, you want to narrow in on the one or two professions whose members are likely to have the problems that you are so good at solving.

Continuing the example, JoAnne has learned that professionals who make their living as experts in their fields are good prospect for her because:

They are interested in turning their expertise into products that will provide passive revenue. By sharing their expertise through recordings, books, articles, and similar products, they earn revenue that supplements fee-based projects.

The success of their products depends on the customer's ability to use and apply the ideas and information. Clear, easy to read emails and web pages go a long way towards improving product usability.

Professions where JoAnne can find these experts include Management Consultants, Professional Coaches, Educators, and Professional Speakers just to name a few.

STEP #3: TA-DAH! PUT IT TOGETHER AND YOU HAVE A NICHE DEFINITION

If JoAnne combines the problems she enjoys solve with the professions most likely to value what she offers she will get something like this:

I work with

"Expert consultants who are interested in creating revenue sources that supplement their fee-based work but are too busy to create those products and services."

LAST WORD: USE YOUR BEST GUESS AND EXPECT YOUR NICHE DEFINITION TO EVOLVE

One of the biggest errors I see small businesses make is the reluctance to define a niche because they're worried about missing potential revenue from prospects outside their niche.

Big, big mistake.

Inevitably, these owners are run ragged trying to be something to everyone. They never develop areas of greatness that allow them to stand out from their competitors and become more profitable.

I encourage you to use these strategies to select one or two niches that come closest to "ideal," develop marketing to attract customers from these niches and use your experience working with these clients to refine your niche description.


About the Author:
Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and five-star strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com

How-To Cut Your Own Niche, To Grow Into The Next Internet Powerhouse

Article Presented by:
Jerome Thomas

The Internet as we know it is not even a teenager yet. The first graphical browser was Netscape 1.0 Beta1, which was released to a limited number of users in October of 1994. The final release of Netscape 1.0 broke out of its shell in December of 1994. Thus, the Internet as we know it was born.

Shortly after the release of Netscape came one of the first big players on the Internet. In 1995, Yahoo! was founded, and is one of the first major internet properties that is still under operated as it was in its early days. Yahoo! search is still one of the biggest search engines in the world, comfortably sitting as one of the Big Three.

In 1996, the world got its first taste of Ebay, the auction site.

Then in 1997, another garage enterprise set forth to conquer the Internet with the founding of Amazon.

Netscape still survives today, as the redheaded stepchild of AOL.

The other three players, Yahoo!, Ebay, and Amazon are huge. They survived the Dot Com Bust Era of 2000 to 2001. All three still seem to have a solid future in front of them. They have been rewarded well for their endeavors, and they have bought many of their smaller competitors to ensure that they could stand alone at the top of the pile.


LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM THESE TOP THREE SURVIVORS

All these three of these companies serve the consumer market, and they continue to offer great value to their users. They grow and they grow, but they have never really lost sight of their target market.

AltaVista lost its way. Yahoo! now owns it! In April of 2003, Overture acquired AltaVista, and in July of 2003, Yahoo! acquired Overture.

Yahoo! purchased Overture, because they knew it would help them to deliver small business advertising to their search users.

Paypal was created in 1998. In 2002, Ebay purchased Paypal because it would help their auction buyers and sellers transact business more easily.

Amazon soaked up many smaller web retail companies in order to widen their retail empire. For all intent purposes, they have succeeded.

These Internet companies have become huge, because they never lost sight of the desires of their customer base. They kept their eye on the ball, and never lost sight of their goals --- their goals to serve the needs and wants of their customer base.

They have also enlarged their customer base, by acquiring smaller companies that could offer more to their target customer base.


THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTIC OF THESE COMPANIES

You might be thinking that these companies are as successful as they are, because they bought up all of their competitors. Yes, that did help them to grow at astonishing rates. But, the important thing to realize is that they had to have a nice bankroll to finance the purchase of these companies in the first place.

The developed their hefty bankrolls by providing products and services that people actually wanted to buy.

As a small business or individual wanting to make a few extra dollars, you must always keep the mindset of offering people what they want to buy, at a price they want to pay.

Your only question is how to show your products and services to buyers.


THERE ARE MANY VENUES FOR SHOWING YOUR PRODUCTS & SERVICES

To sell your products online, you have lots of choices.

You can set up your own website, and then struggle against the tide of the millions of other websites vying for the attention of the consumer marketplace.

You can buy a classified ad and sell your product by phone or mail. But, your classified ad will run for a certain amount of time, and then you will have to pay for the advertisement again, if you do not sell your product.

You can run over to Ebay or any of any dozen copycat auction sites and list your products there. The big minus on using a website such as Ebay is that you have to play the game of listing your product at a low price to get people's attention, and then hoping that you will make enough of a profit to make your labor worthwhile.

Ebay makes a commission on every product they sell. I don't fault them for that. What I do fault them for is that if I sell the product for $10, I pay one rate. And, if I sell the product for $100, I pay another rate. You might be thinking that their sliding scale system is like a percentage commission. And if you were, you would be right.

But, I cannot help but to think that they only need to make a dollar off of my transaction in order to be profitable. And yet, they will only take a dollar if I sell a $10 item. If I sell a $100 item, they will take more for the transaction, but they still only need one dollar to break even. The profits that I make on my transaction should be MINE and NOT THEIRS.

Am I right about that?

No wonder Ebay was big enough to buy the largest online payment provider on the Internet, in 2002. Ebay is a cash cow. And if you sell your products at Ebay, your cash is their cow.

MIMICKING YOUR COMPETITION IS A FOOL'S GAME

Every year, new companies come online offering new products and services to their target market.

Some companies come along and try to duplicate the success of those before them. I cannot tell you how many Ebay copycats I have seen online since 1996. The silly thing about trying to duplicate the success of the big boys is that you can never duplicate their success. You do not have their reputation, customer base, bankroll, or momentum.

I have seen other companies come along and try to under price the companies whose success they are trying to tap into. The silly thing about this approach is that the companies they are trying to mimic may be higher-priced because they truly understand what it takes to operate their particular business model. Cheaper, Johnny-come-lately companies might survive their first year, but they seldom survive their second year. They fail because they misunderstood the cost of operating within the niche they chose to mimic.

This reminds me of a quote in American politics, circa 1988. The future Vice President Dan Quayle thought it wise to copycat another great American leader. Many people gave him grief because of his young age. So, in response, Dan Quayle often made the age comparison between himself and John F. Kennedy Jr. He honestly felt that his young age should not be a campaign issue, so he always pointed to Kennedy's age, when he ran for President.

In a debate between Dan Quayle, and his counterpart Lloyd Benson, Dan Quayle learned the error of his ways. Quayle made the mistake of mentioning John Kennedy during the debate. And Lloyd Benson blew him out of the water with, "I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."

Just as Dan Quayle was "no Jack Kennedy", your website is not an Ebay.


THERE IS ALWAYS A BETTER WAY

The secret to competing in a marketplace that is strongly dominated by one company is to cut out your own little niche of their marketplace.

There are certain people that are not happy with the way that the big boys operate their businesses. If you can figure out why people are unhappy with the big boys, then you will have found yourself your own niche in a similar marketplace.

Build your niche near to the one you want to become, and answer to the customers who are so far unsatisfied with what the big boys are offering.

You will never be successful if you stand there and tell the world, "Look at me, I am just like Ebay."

Instead, you will be successful by telling the world, "This is why I am different and better than Ebay."


Good luck in all that you do.

Jerome Thomas


About the Author:
Jerome Thomas is the owner of Fast Free Ads.
If you have a product to sell, new or used, then please visit Jerome's website to place your ad. You are allowed to show pictures with your advertisement and description. You do not pay until your product has sold, and we request only a small preset price as our commission, no matter the amount of the sell price. You can buy products cheaper at http://www.FastFreeAds.com , because we keep the cost of selling, low for our merchants. Affiliate Program is available.