Government Grant Writing: Doing It Yourself

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Brendon Turner


Chances are, if you're looking for a grant to start up your small business or not-for-profit organization, you don't have the money to hire grant writers. A few will work with the promise of payment once the grant money comes in, but these are few and far between. The alternative? Do the government grant writing yourself.

Benefits of DIY Government Grant Writing

You'll find that there are a number of reasons to learn how to apply for grants yourself. Obviously, you can save quite a bit of money during the startup period when most businesses are looking to save money. Often, it's best for the business owner or one of the partners to take on as much of the grunt work as possible until the funding comes through. This will allow you to spend nothing, apart from time.

In addition, you can tailor each application to the government grant that you are applying for. With grant writers, this would be extra. Doing the writing yourself lets you make changes quickly and easily, based on which funding option you are doing the grant proposal for.

How to Write a Grant Proposal

There's a reason grant writers are expensive. It can be difficult to figure out how to write a great proposal if you don't know what you're doing. There are many areas that need to be covered, including budgets, timelines and project descriptions. It can be very confusing at first glance, but it is also very important that you include all the information needed or you could lose out on a chance to get grant money for your business or organization.

The best way to ensure that you are doing everything correctly is to get some help. Government grant writing isn't like writing an article or a letter, you need to include very specific, very detailed information so the decision makers have everything they need in order to choose you to receive the money. Most people prefer to keep their tips for success a secret, but you can still learn how to write a successful proposal and get the most out of your application.

Looking at sample applications can be a huge help and will let you style your own paperwork after something that has already been successful. While you certainly don't want to copy, you should get a feel for what is required when it comes to government grants. Writing your own proposals can save you a lot of time and money, so it is certainly worth looking into.


About the Author:
If you need more help with government grants writing, then you should check out Government Grants Source. The site features a full database of government grants, as well as tutorials and samples to help you write the best proposal possible. Written by Brendon Turner for http://www.governmentgrantsource.net/

How to Use a Good Domain Name Suggestion Tool

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu


Domain name is an important part of your online business. Without a good and meaningful domain name, you can never expect to make your business a success. You can choose a good domain name by using a number of online domain-name suggestion tools. Here are some simple tips to choosing a domain name by using one of the domain-name suggestion utilities.

Choose your theme: Theme and subject of the domain name form an important part of a domain name. You may wish to decide on the main theme of your web site. Once you choose the theme of the web site, pick a domain name that relates and works well with the main theme. Let us say that you are dealing with selling flowers online. Then, you may wish to pick up a domain that reflects this glower selling theme. For example, choosing a theme enriched domain name like onlineflowerselling.com will work very good.

Find the domain name: Experts prefer and recommend .com as your preferred domain name. Most successful online entrepreneurs like to find a domain name based on the keywords. These keywords always relate to the main theme of the web site. If you are selling red flowers, then you must choose domain keywords that reflect the flower-selling theme. For example, you can choose a keyword like red flowers, online flowers or virtual flowers.

If you do not own a domain name then you can make use of a number of online domain tools to find your name of choice. Before buying a domain name, you may also wish to use a keyword search tool to check the availability of good keywords. Let us say that you want to find keywords that relate to orchid flowers. Then, you will need to find all keywords that connect to orchid flowers and online sales of orchid flowers. This means that your keywords will be a combination of themes like orchid flowers that you want to sell online to your virtual customers. For example, you can choose keywords like online orchid flowers.

Tip: Most popular keyword search tools are:

http://www.keywordtracker.com and

http://www.keyword.adwords.com

Now that you have your preferred keywords, you can use free online domain name tools like:

http://www.nameboy.com/

http://www.domaininformer.com/tools

Enter your keywords plus domain extension in the search bar and find out the availability of the domain names. If it is available, then you can place an order for it almost immediately as someone may pick up that name before you.

Registering domains: You can register your domain name only when it is available. To find whether the domain name of your choice is available or not, you can make use of a free online utility called Whois database. Just enter the keywords Whois on the search-engine address field and enter the web portal. Now, you can type the domain name of your choice in the Whois search data entry box and hit Find button. Now, the database will inform whether the domain name is available or not. If it is available, you can buy the name immediately by paying the required registration fees.


About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain names business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.


Read more of John Khu's articles.

List Building - 9 Steps to Creating a High Converting Squeeze Page

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Alan Cheng


With a high converting squeeze page, an online business will make more use of the traffic they drive to their website. With more email leads an online business can promote to, there are more chances of buyers for your products and services. Generating traffic is hard work so you want to capture as many of the visitors' emails as you can when they visit your website.

Here are 9 steps to creating a high converting squeeze page:

1. Determine Type Of Traffic

Decide what type of prospect you want to attract with your squeeze page. Then create your squeeze page to attract that particular type of prospect only. Don't create a squeeze page which caters for everyone. Your conversions of visitors to leads will suffer.

2. Professional Graphics

Create the best graphics you can for your squeeze page. Eye-grabbing graphics have proven in my tests to increase conversion rates. So hire a good graphics designer if you can't design good graphics yourself.

3. Keywords

Make sure your squeeze page shows the keywords which the visitor is looking for. If your ad promises that they will receive an insurance review report when they visit your squeeze page, make sure your squeeze page shows the words "insurance review".

This will confirm to the visitor that they are on the right page and they should find the information they are looking for.

4. Attention

Get your visitor's attention right away when they visit your website.

You can do this by showing a headline that raises curiosity and promises benefits.

Once you have their attention, they will read more of your squeeze page.

5. Benefits

With your squeeze page, explain the benefits for the visitor if they sign up to your list.

Explain the benefits using words or video. Make sure that when you read the message on the squeeze page, you actually emotionally feel how signing up will benefit your visitors.

6. Graphics - Video/Report

If you are offering a free report or video on your squeeze page, create a graphic (called an ecover) for it.

This will make your intangible product seem tangible. Visitors will want their hands on your free offer. It's all about packaging your offer.

7. Call To Action

In your squeeze page, make it very clear what you want the subscriber to do. Don't make them guess that they should enter their name and email address to sign up to your list. Tell them directly in simple terms. Command them on what they need to do.

People react to commands. Telling them to enter their name and email and then click on the submit button is needed. This may sound silly, but tests have shown this to increase response rates.

8. Split Testing

With every squeeze page you create, you need to create another one with a slight variation such as a different headline, different benefits or place your sign up box in another place.

All squeeze pages can be improved. Use the tool at http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer to test which 2 versions of your squeeze page has the better response rate.

Remove the low performing squeeze page and try to create another one to achieve better response rates. This is how you create squeeze pages that have 50% sign up rates.

9. Drive Traffic

At the end of the day, you need to drive traffic to the squeeze page and see what type of prospects react to your squeeze page. If you notice that a certain source of traffic has good sign up rates then market your squeeze page more in that area.

The more traffic you drive to your squeeze page, the quicker you will be able to create a high converting squeeze page.

All these steps are not rocket science, yet not many people follow them. Improve your squeeze page one step at a time following the advice above and you'll be able to convert a high percentage of your visitors to subscribers. This list building component of your online business is essential if you want to increase sales. If you want your online business to succeed, a high converting squeeze page is mandatory.


About the Author:
For more tips on how to promote your online business and increase sales, visit information product creation. To hire professionals to create your own best selling information products, visit http://www.eliteghostwriters.com/infoproducts.html - Alan Cheng, Elite Ghostwriters.


Read more of Alan Cheng's articles.

My Super-Effective Article Writing Formula

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Willie Crawford


Here's the formula that I use to quickly write informative articles that get results. For many of the articles that I write my goal is to get visitors to a website where they take some action related to the topic of the article. Often the action that they take is to buy some product that I recommend.

Here is the formula that I use to write articles almost in an assembly line fashion. The reason that I write so many articles is that in some niches you need dozens, even hundreds of articles, to break through the clutter.

I begin with keyword research. You want to know what keyword phrases your ideal customers are using when searching online. They come online searching for solutions to their problems, and when they come across your articles offering a solution, they become raving fans.

To do keyword research, I often use the "Google External Keyword Tool." You can find it by googling that term. This tool shows you how many searches are made on a given term in a month, plus how many webpages there are out there already targeting that phrase. The tool also suggests related terms that you might want to target. You can use this tool to compile a list of suitable keywords and then download your research results in an Excel spreadsheet.

In looking at keywords, what you're trying to identify, in addition to search volume, is "What problems are these searchers try to solve." People come online looking for solutions to their problems. You identify those problems and then let them know (via your articles) that you have the perfect solution.

In crafting my article titles, I use my keywords but also work in a promised benefit. My titles promise to show them the solution to a nagging problem. When they see that title listed in the search engines, this is what entices them to click through to your target site.

In crafting the body of my articles, I use the "problem, agitate, solution" formula. I describe the problem to let the reader know that I understand their problems. I then go into excruciating details explaining the problem, and how it's not going to get any better unless they do something about it. Finally, I point out the obvious solution, which is my recommended product.

Sometimes I only point them to a website to read more about the problem. On that website, they'll also find my recommended solution. This is a less-threatening, soft-sell approach.

When I do my keyword research, I sometimes identify hundreds of related keywords that are being searched on a lot. At the same time, I identify several different painful problems (or variations of the same problem). This is what allows me to write articles in almost an assembly line fashion.

After the articles are written, I use an automated submission service to submit them to the top article directories. I use automated submissions because otherwise I'd spend countless hours submitting each article (not a very good use of our time).

In the resource box of these articles, I point readers to a target site. Where permitted I use anchor text in the links in these resource boxes. That anchor text is generally the keyword that I'm targeting (the same keyword that I used in my title).

I also post these articles to my blogs or maybe to a static page on one of my sites.

Since I like to leverage my time, I also turn many of my articles into videos, and podcasts. I generally create the videos by putting the main points of the articles on PowerPoint slides. Then I read the article as I go through the slides - recording then using Camtasia (screen capture software).

Alternatively, I sometimes simply turn the text of an article into a PDF. Then I scroll down my computer screen reading the article, and again, recording it using Camtasia.

To create the podcast you can use recording software probably already on your computer, or you can download one many free pieces of software such as Audacity. Simply read the article as you record it. I generally save it as an MP3.

Submit the videos to video sharing sites, and submit the audio to podcast sites. I use an automated submission service for this, submitting to numerous sites!

Here's one final tactic that I use to get my articles to rank higher for a target keyword and get noticed more readily in the search engines. I look for ways to create external links pointing to my article in one location - generally my main blog. I do this by bookmarking the blog post that contains the article. This is perhaps the easiest way to give the article a search engine boost.

There you have it, my super-effective article writing formula. It generates a steady stream of high quality website traffic for me, and a steady stream of orders too. Feel free to use it.


About the Author:
Willie Crawford has been marketing online for 13 years, and used article marketing most of that time (writing over 1500 articles). His favorite tools for automatically distributing his articles, videos, podcasts, and press releases is the automated submission site: http://EasyPushButtonTraffic.com/


Follow Willie Crawford on Twitter.

How A Blog Can Seriously Help Your Business

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Jason OConnor


If your business website doesn't have a blog, get one. A blog, if done right, can act as a direct and indirect mechanism that brings large amounts of qualified visitors to your site, many of whom may become customers.

This is mostly related to the way blogs interact with search engines and the traffic I am speaking of will come from search engines, mostly Google.

Before I explain how you can do this to help your website, let me first give some background on how search engines work, Google in particular.

When it comes to optimizing your website (or blog for that matter) for search engines you must always keep in mind two things: on-page optimization and off-page optimization.

On-page optimization is the elements of a Web page that better optimizes it to be found and ranked well in the search engines. These elements can include on-page content such as the actual sentences and paragraphs on the page, the headlines (or headers or Hx tags), the links, the links' text, the title tag and much more.

Off-page optimization means the things that are done on sites besides your own, namely link-building. Off-page optimization is the process of creating links (or causing others to create links) on other websites that point to your site. Inbound links as these are often called have a major impact on how well you rank in search engines. Generally speaking, the more inbound links, the better. But the quality of the sites with these inbound links, or the way the search engines perceive the sites, is even more important.

To rank on the first couple of pages on the search engines requires work on both on-page and off-page optimization.

Two additional and important pieces of information that you'll need to understand are related to site content and internal links.

Search engines also very much love new, original and quality content, and they like to see your website regularly adding this kind of new content. You don't need to add pages every day, just add pages at the same rate over time. So if you add a page a week to your site, keep it at around that same pace, or increase or decrease gradually.

A website can be considered a living entity in a sense. It certainly shouldn't be static. It should grow over time. And the fantastic thing about content is that the more of it there is on your site, the more chances you have getting found in the search engines.

The idea that inbound links help your search engine rankings that I explained above can be extended to your own internal pages as well. In other words, the more links to a particular page coming from other pages within the same site will boost that page's rank as well.

Think of it this way. If you had a ten-page site, including a product page and every page on the site contained a link to your product page. If all other things were equal, your product page would rank higher than the rest of your site's pages (besides the home page which is given a little extra weight).

Now let's consider what would happen if there were only you and your competitor in your industry (only if that could be true!) and your site still had those ten pages while your competitor's site contained one hundred pages. Furthermore, your competitor set it up the same way as you where he added a link to every page on his site that pointed to his product page. If all other things were equal his product page would outrank your product page every time. Why? Because he had 100 internal links pointing to his product page and you only had 10.

If you put all these pieces together now, on-page optimization, off-page optimization or link building, content creation and internal linking, can you begin to see why a blog may be a good thing? A blog helps with all of these.

A blog that is regularly updated is providing a mechanism for adding fresh content on a regular basis. Plus, it's so easy to use a blog that anyone can use them, so even if you or your employees don't know a thing about Web pages and HTML, you'll still be able to add new content to your site.

Consider this. If you add fresh, quality content to your blog on a regular basis by writing posts, something the search engines love, and within each post you link to an important page within your site, let's say your product page for instance, you're now building links to help your rankings using your blog. With this additional link your product page gets that much more boost in the search engines.

Remember how I explained that links from within your own site help your rankings? Adding links within your blog posts pointing back to your other important pages of yours that you want to rank well is a great way to help your rankings.

And every time you publish a new post, you're giving the search engines one more entry point into your site. Your site will quickly get bigger, and with each new page your site gets more visible.

Keep in mind that the links you make within your blog posts should be relevant. Only link to your product page from a post that has to do with your products. And also, blog posts ought to be useful to your site visitors. The less you talk about your products and instead offer useful, free information that people can use, the more traffic and repeat visitors you'll get.

Remember that people really don't care about you, your website or your products, they only care about how you can help them. If you sell furniture, a blog post about how to find the best deals on furniture would be far better than a post about how your chairs are the best in the world.

One important thing to remember is that if you plan on creating a new blog for your business as a way to augment your website be sure you put the blog on your actual domain. This means that you would not use a remote service like Blogger.com. Instead, you must have the blog on your business website's address (or domain). For example, if your website address is http://www.yoursite.com/ then your blog should be located at http://www.yoursite.com/blog or http://blog.yoursite.com/

By adding a blog to your business website you are creating a way to get more traffic. You'll get direct traffic from your posts, which get indexed by the search engines and drive traffic to your site from searches. And you'll get indirect traffic from your other site's pages ranking well in the search engines because they have links pointing to them from your blog posts.

You'll be regularly adding fresh content to your site, which search engines love, thereby creating more ways to be found in the search engines at the same time. And each post provides a new opportunity to create a link or two to other pages and blog posts on your site, thereby boosting those pages' rankings.

Like I suggested at the beginning, if your business website doesn't have a blog, go get one.

Copyright 2009 TheNetGazette.net




About the Author:
Jason O'Connor is a Web business and marketing professional who produces The Net Gazette, a free online Web business and marketing periodical. The Net Gazette covers topics that range from blogging for business to Twitter. Read the September edition here or here: http://www.thenetgazette.net/


Read more Articles written by Jason OConnor.

Buying a Top Level Domain Name - Some Ideas and Suggestions

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu


Of late, it is getting increasingly harder to choose and buy a top-level domain name. It is also very difficult to find a top-level domain name that relates directly to the theme and subject of your web site. People who are looking forward to buy a top-level domain name work hard to find a suitable name often with tremendous difficulty. If you are a seller of products or services through your internet portals, then you must try had to purchase a .com or .biz top-level domain name. In fact, such domains will lend immense credibility and authenticity to your business. Top-level domains can also act as very strong advertising tools for your business.

The top level is always the extension of a particular domain name. .com is the most famous top-level domain name in the world. Top-level domain extension indicates the type of online activities you are carrying right now. These domain name extensions are there for special purposes. A .com domain indicates that you are in some form of business while .net signifies that you are dealing with a network of different services. An .org is always special to non-profits while .biz always signifies that you are dealing with some business services.

For commercial business purposes, you will need to buy .com domain because most web surfers have the habit of adding.com extension at the end of their keywords. Make sure that you buy the .com name extension first before buying other extensions. Otherwise, someone else may pick up your .com name. In this way, .com name extensions are always so invaluable.

Almost all search engines will check your domain names before allowing someone to search your name. You must ensure that the site content and the domain name extension are in complete resonance with each other so that search engines can easily index your web site. Major search engines like Google and Yahoo always respect and value top-level domain names. It is possible to check the availability of a top-level domain name by trying the plural version of the names. However, domain owners are very intelligent and smart because they will always make sure that they register plural forms of their main domain name.

Top-level domains are possible when you add numbers to the domains. Experts recommend adding numbers to choose and register some top-level domain names. Adding numbers to the main body text of the domains may help you register some top-level domain names. Some people use substitutions of the letters to some original letters of the domain name. For example, you can substitute the word four with 4.

Top-level domain names are in excessive demand while people will go any lengths to register such domain names. If you fail to get these domain names, you can always choose and buy an expired domain. Expired domain market could be a very good source of very good top-level domain names. However, get ready to pay very high price for a very good top-level expired domain name.


About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.


Read more of John Khu's articles.

Free Fax Trials - Are They Worth Trying?

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Titus Hoskins


Internet or online fax seems to be all the rage at the moment with both companies and individuals switching over to this more modern way of faxing. A major part of this change is all the free fax trials many online service providers are offering to get you to switch. But is a free fax trial worth taking or is this just another slick marketing/selling gimmick?

Before we can tackle this issue, you should first know a little something about Internet faxing in order to fully discuss your options. Online fax is simply using your email system and your Internet connection to send and receive your faxes. Your faxes are sent in an email, as an attachment, usually in TIFF or PDF formats - although there are countless different formats you can use.

In order to start online faxing, you have to sign-up to an Internet fax service provider who will give you your own toll-free or local fax number. You also get an online account or interface where you can store your faxes and you can also send your faxes from there. Your fax provider acts as your intermediary to handle all your faxes. Keep in mind, you can still send and receive your faxes thru the old traditional fax machine.

Why Are People Switching To Online Faxing?

One of the main reasons is accessibility, you can get your faxes anywhere you have Internet access and these days that's just about everywhere on the planet. It is truly portable since you can send and receive your faxes from laptops, PDAs, netbooks, cell phones... you are no longer tied down to only receiving your faxes at the office.

It is also paperless, inkless, more secure and much more cost-effective than the traditional fax machine and since everything is handled with computers and the web, there is no need for an extra fax phone line which can mean major savings for companies just starting up. Another major advantage, online fax is completely scalable for businesses, you can quickly add lines/accounts when you need them.

Free Fax Trial - Should You Try One?

Now most of the major online fax service providers offer you a free 30 Day Trial so you can check out their service. This is not exactly a bad idea because it is always wise to "Try before you Buy". You can test out the quality of the service before you sign on the dotted line.

However, since this will usually be a long-term business service, doing your homework now can save you major expenses over the long haul. Compare and shop around before you sign up for any given fax service - even if they're offering a free trial. One major catch, once you have your new fax number circulating with all your contacts, it might be hard to change it. Many companies will let you "port" your fax number but some don't or you have to pay a fee.

So thoroughly check out any fax service you're thinking of signing up for. Most monthly charges run around $10 but there are cheaper options out there so shop around if you're on a tight budget. Also find out the cost of extra pages - most companies offer 300 (incoming/outgoing) free faxes a month. Some companies charge by the pages, while others charge by the minute.

Overall, taking a free fax trial may just be your best option since you can check out the service before finally going with it; any issues with faxing, support or the service will generally be evident in that time frame. If the service is not up to your standards, just drop the service and try another, either way you can't lose!


About the Author:
To compare prices and services of the different Internet Fax Services just use this handy online Comparison Guide: online fax services. Or if you want more detailed information on Internet Faxingtry here: free fax trial.

Copyright (c) 2009 Titus Hoskins. http://www.bizwaremagic.com This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.


Read more Articles written by Titus Hoskins.

The Heart-Centered Product That Created a Billion Dollar Industry

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Judy Murdoch


As I wrote this article, the film, "Julie and Julia," has so far, been a quite the summer hit.

"Julie and Julia is a light drama that tells the story of New Yorker, Julie Powell who challenged herself to cook every recipe in Julia Child's famous cookbook: "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" within one year.

In a parallel plot, the film covers Julia Child's early years in France which inspired her to write the cookbook.

The film's popularity has inspired a renewed interest in the Julia Child and the fascinating story about how "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" came to be.

================================
The Story Behind the Bestseller
================================

It wasn't very long ago when a typical American dinner was meatloaf, canned peas, and mashed potatoes. Maybe a salad made with iceberg lettuce, grated carrot and 1000 island dressing. And Jell-O for dessert.

You couldn't go out for Mexican food unless you lived in Southern California or Texas. Chinese food was chop suey and egg rolls. And Italian was pizza or spaghetti and meatballs.

The choices we now have at the grocery store, when we go out to eat, and the cook books and cooking shows are in part thanks to Julia Child's desire to prepare dishes she loved and to teach others to prepare those dishes as well.

When it was published in 1961, Mastering the Art of French Cooking became a "must-have" for many aspiring young wives.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking and the following it inspired made it possible for the hundreds of Italian, Mexican, and Asian foods now common in American grocery stores. It opened up possibilities for the extraordinary range of cuisines we can find in restaurants, not to mention the billion dollar business in cookbooks, cooking shows, and other media.

================================
Product Development Lessons á la Julia Child
================================

You may be thinking, "nice story but what does it have to do with me and my business and creating information products."

Here are the points I think are important:

#1 You Gotta Love It

Mastering the Art of French Cooking was the result of Julia Child's love of French cuisine. She didn't set out to make millions or to revolutionize how middle-class Americans thought about food.

She discovered something wonderful and amazing and wanted others to have that experience too.

The importance of love is that when you have that level of enthusiasm for something, you'll put up with a lot of crap.

Writing the book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," was not all Crêpes Suzette and champagne.

"Mastering the Art of French Cooking" began as a very different kind of book: it was a cookbook written by two French women who were fellow Cordon Bleu graduates. The cookbook was being published by an American publisher and Julia to provide an American perspective and review the recipes.

But as Julia reviewed the recipes she realized that they would be very difficult for American cooks to follow. Because many of the French ingredients, tools, and traditions simply didn't exist in the United States, American cooks would end up with dishes that simply didn't taste like the delicious French cuisine Julia had fallen in love with.

So Child decided to rework and rewrite the book and create foolproof recipes for classic French dishes that Americans could create in American kitchens with American ingredients.

Completely rewriting those recipes was not a small task. But Julia was determined to make it possible for Americans to prepare and enjoy the food she had fallen in love with.

Lesson: Make sure your product or service is based on something that energizes and inspires you. Otherwise, no amount of money will make up for the inevitable obstacles and frustrations that come up along the way.

#2 Love Trumps Market Need

Whoa, sacrilege at the altar of marketing!

It's a fine line for me to be suggesting sometimes the fact that you have a deep love or passion in your heart for something should be a reason for you to create a product or service. Especially when you have little solid evidence supporting you.

What if no one buys your product? What if everyone thinks it's stupid?

Lots and lots of "what ifs."

The world was not throwing money at Julia Child to write her cookbook so that they could cook Duck a l'Orange.

In fact the majority of publishers saw absolutely no commercial value in her project believing that American women were interested only in convenience: packaged mixes, canned and frozen vegetables, and TV dinners.

They couldn't imagine why anyone would want to take on the arduous task of preparing dishes from recipes with multiple steps, many of which involved creating something from scratch!

But she had a strong conviction that French food was something wonderful more people should experience and kept going despite rejection letter after rejection letter.

Lesson: I'm not suggesting you ditch everything and devote all your time, effort, and money into creating a love child product. No no no!

But I DO think if you have a product or service that is an expression of something you sincerely love, you need to take action towards creating that product or service.

Do not allow it to languish.

#3. Use Market Trends to Guide Your Marketing

Although you don't need to let apparent market needs dictate what you can and cannot do, it helps to offer a product that is in sync with trends that affect how your customers spend.

One of the reasons "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" became such a monster success was its publishing occurred during a time when Americans were beginning to look outward.

After World War II the United States was enjoying a period of unprecedented prosperity. When John F. Kennedy became president in 1960, first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy brought in a French chef and began serving fine French food and wines at White House functions.

An entire generation of young American women were fascinated by Jackie Kennedy's sophisticated style and imitated her way of dressing, her hair styles, and her interest in French food.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking was published in 1961 coinciding perfectly with the growing interest in culture and fine arts.

Lesson: Looking at the product or service you're developing, how do they fit into the trends which are shaping your customer's values, needs, and spending patterns.

#4. You Need a Few Others Who Love What You're Doing

No matter how deeply you care; no matter how in sync you are with current trends, you cannot do it alone.

We all need at least one cheerleader.

Julia Child was a maverick. As the daughter of well-to-do parents, she was expected to marry someone from a "good" family, have children, and spend her days doing what other well-to-do young wives did: play golf and tennis, have lunch at the club, volunteer at charitable events, and so on.

When she did marry instead of settling down and having babies she decided to go to cooking school and learn to cook classic French cuisine! Other Americans in the diplomatic services who were living in France at the time thought she was nuts. Why was she pursuing cooking: something typically left to housekeepers and other domestic workers?

But Julia's husband, Paul, who was himself, a decidedly unconventional type, encouraged her to pursue her passion. In fact he was actively involved in creating her book, helping her edit the massive 700+ page manuscript that would become "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."

Julia also had an editor, Judith Jones at Knopf, who, unlike her peers in the publishing world, immediately 'got' "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."

It was Jones who championed "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and who was instrumental in getting first edition to press.

Lesson: If you are a small business owner who wants to make a real difference and wants to create a product that will help you, you need at least one devoted fan to help you get there.

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Bottom Line
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If you care deeply about leaving the world a little better off and have an idea for a product or service that will make a difference, I encourage you to follow Julia Child's example and to make a commitment to creating your product and bringing it to the marketplace.

There's no guarantee that you'll have a monster hit on your hands but one thing I know for certain:

You can't make a difference if your idea never sees the light of day

You can't make a difference creating products and services that your heart just isn't into.

If you are a small business owner and you have a choice between creating another crappy e-book and an e-book on something you genuinely care about at that your customers care about why not make a little extra effort and put something out into the world that puts a little more love out there?


About the Author:
Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and selected 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


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Domain Name Ideas for Your Business

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu


To achieve success with your web site, you will need to choose the right type of domain name that is relevant to the theme of your web portal. Hence, choosing the correct name is very important. Almost all well-known web sites have names built around very sensitive and important keywords. Good keywords are very essential for the success of web sites. Web users enter their keywords of choice to search for information from the web. A web user who wants to have an access to information about a product or service will enter keywords in the search bar of the major search engines. Keyword types of domain names are very handy to develop your business ideas.

If you are running an orchid flower selling online business, then you may wish to choose a name like onlineorchidflowers.com. Likewise, a business that sells discount flowers will do well with a name like discountedflowers.com. Choosing the right type of name is not at all difficult. You just need to use your common sense to find out a very good domain name. Here are some practical domain name ideas for your business:

1. All famous domain names are very short. People can easily type very short domain names unlike a long one that is difficult to type and remember. People also hate to type a very long name.

2. Let the name chosen be very simple. People always misspell domain names that are difficult to type. It is likely that someone may visit some other people's web site if they misspell your domain name.

3. Never ever, use a domain name that sounds like an established and approved trade name. You could land in serious trouble if you do that. Double-check your domain name before you publish it.

4. Let the name be relevant to the theme of your business. People want to reach web sites that reflect their needs and requirements.

5. Give preference to a .com domain-name extension. If it is not available, then you can take other domain extensions. .com is still the in thing!

6. If possible, register all similar domain names under different extensions like .net, .org, .biz etc. You can always redirect people to your main web site by using these domain names.

7. Never ever, use hyphens. Web users will never be able to remember them. It is also difficult to type these names. If someone is using domain name of your choice, do not order for a domain that contains hyphens in between. People may confuse your web site with similar sounding web sites. This will result in your web users visiting your competitor's web portals.

8. If you have a difficult to remember name, people may miss out some letters in the domain name. To avoid this possibility, you can register similar sounding names and redirect visitors from these domains to your main web site. All well-known web sites use these techniques even if someone types wrong URL in the address bar of the search engine.

Make sure that the domain of your choice is actually available with a registrar. You can use the Whois database to check whether the domain name of your choice is still available or not.


About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.


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How Can Blogging Help My Company Grow?

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario


It is an indisputable fact that the world's economy is moving more toward the online model of exchange. Amazon and Google stand as icons of companies that began as small projects, only to grow into massive successes, largely due to the successful marketing of their services. The question then arises, how can a small business take advantage of the opportunities presented by the Web in order to make a profit?

Same as it Ever Was

At its core, online marketing follows the same principles as any other means of marketing - a provider has a product or service they wish to sell, so they advertise in order to draw potential customers' attention to the information they've put together. Just like television commercials, online marketing has to be creative and informative to truly catch the attention of the discerning customer. We've all heard of popup and banner ads that do nothing but hog resources and annoy potential customers rather than attract them to the product, and that result is hardly healthy for any business.

And Now for Something Completely Different

One method that sidesteps the click-away tendency is the use of a blog to market the product. Blog is a shorthand term for web log, and refers to a serial, online journal or record intended for regular viewing. Examples of blogs include noncommercial ventures such as personal diaries posted to Livejournal, the daily record of campaign events for the more tech-savvy politicians, and 'hobby' blogs that cover an activity such as cooking or model airplanes. However, they can also include outright commercial ventures, such as a blog intended to promote a new product, consisting solely of video posts explaining the various advantages to the new product.

It's Easier Than Herding Cats

Some blogs strike a balance between these two extremes. Consider the highly successful LoLCats website. This site began solely as a hobby, posting humorous images of cats. However, due to effective word of mouth promotion among people with similar interests, the site grew quickly, spinning off additional sites and generating an extraordinary amount of advertising revenue. The site has grown so much that Time magazine reported the company was purchased for two million dollars in 2007.

Now, this result is obviously not the norm. For every cheezburger success story, there are thousands of blogs that toil on in obscurity, accomplishing nothing at all. The differences can be many, but they can be boiled down to concerns relating to effective marketing.

Give it the Old College Try

Let's say that a user named Ron has a passion for low budget college cooking, and wishes to make money writing about it. Ron starts a small blog, using the popular Wordpress blogging system, and begins posting two or three times a day. He posts recipes, money saving ideas, and 'bet you didn't know' material, building a decent sized archive. To get an audience, Ron begins visiting and participating in cooking and college related forums, mentioning his blog and its goals to his audience, gathering new users with patient, active efforts.

Eventually, Ron takes two steps toward commercial success when he monetizes the blog through an advertising revenue program (such as Google's AdSense), and by using the blog to promote his new eBook, "Collegiate Cuisine". To hook readers, he promises not only recipes he's already included on the site, but special tips on inexpensive ways to get cooking tools and a few new recipes he hasn't shared yet.

Will this model work? Perhaps. If Ron is too pushy, he might turn people off to his product before they ever come to his site. If he's too timid, his message will get lost in the tide of the Internet. If he chooses poorly in the ads he allows on his site, users won't click and the ads will generate no money. So the second key is research and careful attention. Ron and other blogging marketers have to study the market, pay attention to peoples' needs and input, and adjust their presentation accordingly.

But is There Any Money in it?

To return to the point that there is money to be made in blogging, one would be remiss not to pay attention to the successful Problogger. In the classic 'make money teaching others to make money,' tradition, this is a blog that makes its revenue by teaching users how to make money through professional blogging. Many other sites, such as FreelanceWritingGigs, swear to Problogger's integrity and efficacy and the site does provide a great deal of information. So there clearly IS money to be made in the blogging-as-marketing world.

Back to the Basics

The key to blog marketing is the same key to any business venture, appropriateness. The savvy businessman will evaluate their entire business, and do the research to determine if blogging is a vital addition to what they're trying to accomplish. Blogging allows for a wider audience than local advertising, which could lead to expanding into nearby cities, or shipping to distant locales. It is an option that should seriously be examined, and approached with the same degree of research and caution as any business venture or proposal.




About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/


Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

Strengthen Your Advertising with SEO Copywriting

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario


Advertising should be part of any growing business. Regardless of what your business does, customers have to know about your product or service in order for them to use it. As the Internet becomes a primary source for consumer knowledge and increasingly, purchasing, it's imperative that your company gets its message out through this medium. However, advertising on the Internet works differently than traditional advertising in that the customer must find the business instead of a business coming to the customer.

Copywriting is the creation of text used in advertising, regardless of medium. This covers every aspect of an advertisement: promotional flyers, jingles, slogans, billboards, and web pages. All of these strive to put your product or service in the best light possible and are aimed directly at the consumer; except for web pages. With web pages there is another audience your advertisement must also target: the search engine.

What's a Search Engine, and Why Isn't it Finding Me?

Think of a search engine as being a giant phone book: customers looking for a type of business will often look up that category and start by calling the first listing. Because phone books are indexed alphabetically, almost every category will have a business with a name beginning with "a," or even "aaa." Likewise, Internet users who aren't familiar with the category they're looking at will start with the first link they see when they search for something. However, dozens or even hundreds of factors determine the placement of these pages. This is where SEO comes in.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Like naming your business "AAA" for placement in a phone book, SEO techniques match web pages with the criteria that search engines use so that they are placed as high on a search as possible. Web pages are placed on search engines through the use of a web crawler. This is a program that systematically searches for new web pages and categorizes them. Because the Internet is so massive, these crawlers are designed to weed out useless pages and concentrate on unique ones that will be useful to people who are doing the search. Search engines use dozens of factors in their algorithms to find and place web pages. They are very secretive about the specific factors so that no one can cheat their system by writing a web page just so it will be placed on top. While the specifics are unknown, there are a few things all search engines use to categorize pages: the number of links to a page, its ranking on website traffic sites, and keywords in the page.

Use SEO and Play By the Rules

We all depend on getting accurate, useful results from search engines. Search engine companies actively modify their criteria to keep spam from showing up on their pages and to keep their users happy. Therefore the best way to use SEO to get people to your web page is by playing by the rules; pages that have useful information will stay on top of searches, while those that don't are quickly removed.

So What CAN I Do to Get My Business Noticed?

Many search engines sell ads, but any reliable service will not sell search placement, nor does advertising with them influence your place on their searches. There are three things you should be concerned with to ensure a good ranking:

1. Keyword indexing: HTML pages can use meta tags that tell search engines what topics a page covers. It is important to include as many words related to the subject of a web page in its meta tags. However, placing popular but unrelated words, such as a celebrity's name, or hiding keywords behind backgrounds or images on a page to generate search results will quickly get the page ignored.

2. Good linking: Links are very important to getting your page noticed, but only if they're from reliable sources and are written to emphasize keywords. Links from known link sellers will not improve your page rank, and will cause consumers to distrust your site. Linking within your site to appropriate pages and getting others in a related area to link to you will help your page ranking immensely.

3. Limited web crawling: This may seem counter-intuitive, but there are some pages that you may not want to show up on a search engine, like temporary pages or login screens. Most search engines consider internal search pages to be spam, and allowing them to be crawled will lower your search ranking. This can be prevented using the robots exclusion standard: a text file named "robots.txt" placed in the root directory of a domain will tell crawlers which parts of your web site to skip.

SEO is vital in copywriting for Internet-based advertisements. Properly implemented, it will help keep your page on the top of search lists. By creating good links, using accurate keywords, and limiting web crawling to useful pages, you can ensure customers can find you.




About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/


Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

What Are Meta Tags and Why Do I Need Them?

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario


There is no other way to put it; the World Wide Web is big business. As an example, you only have to look at the phenomenal success of the online bookstore, Amazon. In 2008, Amazon brought in over nineteen billion dollars in income, yet only required an operating budget of approximately eight hundred and fifty million dollars. It really is no surprise to anyone then that more businesses are investing in expanded web presence and capability. Yet, not every organization has the same successes. Barnes and Noble was selling books online before Amazon was even an idea, and yet it isn't Barnes and Noble that people think of when considering online bookstores, it's Amazon. The key? Amazon took greater advantage of the opportunity to effectively market their product.

Search Engines, Spiders and Websites, Oh My

The most important and often least understood tool for online marketers is the search engine. The primary type of search engine is the web crawler - these are largely automated programs that crawl through available web pages, indexing data according to a variety of parameters. In short, the crawler, or spider, examines each page of a website. Once it has examined the page, it submits it to an index. Then, when a person uses the search engine software, the index provides links to these pages, ranked according to relevance. It is worth mentioning two other points. First, not all engines index the same way. Some use keyword density; others focus on the content of the first paragraph. Second, any changes to a webpage are likely to affect search rankings, so webmasters must carefully consider each change and its possible effects.

I Never Meta Tag I Didn't Like

One important part of preparing a page for good search engine rankings is effective use of HTML meta-tags. These tags do not directly relate to the position a site will have in a search result, but they do offer webmasters some control over the way their sites are presented when they come up in a search. In brief, meta-tags are additional bits of code added to the head of your HTML document, right after "TITLE." Because of the tendency for unscrupulous coders to find and abuse loopholes in search technologies, search engines do not rely heavily on these tags for rankings. Their benefits to web users are important, however.

First, there is the Meta Description tag. This is a brief report about the content of the webpage in question. When a search engine presents users with a hyperlink, there is frequently a small description accompanying that result. In many cases, that is the Meta Description tag the Webmaster put in the HTML document so that when a spider visits the site, it indexes this information. This is not always the case, however; Google in particular will generate its own description for a site.

The Meta Description is often the first piece of information someone using a search engine will see. The URL may not mean anything to them, but this description will. If it is poorly written, the user will likely skim right past the site for one that presents itself more effectively. Thus, the key is effective, concise writing that conveys exactly what the site is about.

The second tag is the Meta Keywords tag. This tag is a list of keywords the Webmaster considers most pertinent to each page. Proper use of the keywords tag is also vital. While search engines use a variety of keyword systems, and have in recent years de-emphasized the Meta Keywords tag, it still contributes to website rankings and should not be neglected. The best method is to examine each page carefully, and pick approximately ten keywords that best represent the data therein. Too many nonspecific keywords will lead to inconsistent search results, and too few means missing an opportunity to get a message in front of users. In addition, many sites are actively on the lookout for keyword abuse. Google in particular is known to ban certain pages from its index entirely if they consider the article to be an abusive, loophole-seeking piece.

There are other, less relevant tags that can provide some benefits, though they aren't as important as the previous two. An example is the Robots tag, which is only useful in making sure certain sites do not index a particular page. This can help a Webmaster keep their content from being associated with undesirable elements, but it does not contribute directly to higher search placement.

No Meta Tag is an Island

Once again, it must be stressed that meta-tags are not a magical solution to the very complex problem of online marketing. They must be regarded as one tool in an inventory of other tools, and should be used responsibly. Properly implemented, they will help complete an effective marketing strategy.




About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/


Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

How to Become a Successful Entrepreneur

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Nancy Fraser


Ask the question, "Why did you start your business?" and many entrepreneurs will say, "to have more freedom".

Ask them if they achieved it and many will say that its not quite what they expected.

When someone starts a business they often struggle with how to differentiate their business from the competition. You would be surprised at how many decide that being easier to work with is their differentiation.

The kicker is their definition of being easier to work with... it usually involves giving up rights.

If you decide to "run without rules", what do you think your work week will look like?

"To enjoy freedom, if the platitude is pardonable, we have of course to control ourselves. We must not squander our powers, helplessly and ignorantly, squirting half the house in order to water a single rose-bush; we must train them, exactly and powerfully, here on the very spot." -- Virginia Woolf

Imagine you have a fully booked week and have actually had to turn business away because you have no time left to schedule....it's Monday morning and you are waiting for your 10am appointment; they are a no show. You are thinking of your next client appointment, scheduled for 1pm, when they phone and cancel. Suddenly your full day is wide open enough to drive a semi through. Even if your week gets better you have still lost the income from your Monday appointments and once the time is gone ...it's gone.

Apply that same scenario to your invoicing and collections. You do the work or sell the goods, send out invoices and people pay whenever it works for them. In this case the never, never plan doesn't mean paying forever, it might mean never paying. It's hard for you to pay your bills with promises; it's also hard to eat or support a family.

When you worked for someone else, you followed the rules and structure they set up to manage their business. You may have thought some of their rules were silly and ineffectual but you followed them because you had to.

Who knew that structure, a few rules so that everyone knows what is expected; you, your employees and your customers would put everyone more at ease.

Achieve freedom in your own business, not by a lack of rules, but by setting rules that make sense to you. Rules and procedures, how boring eh!

The daily challenges you run into in business provide the clues to systems that will save time and money.

What kind of system could you put in place to ensure clients take their appointments as seriously as you do?

When do you prepare in invoice? When do you send it?

Does the client understand your expectation re payment and what will happen if payment is not received within a specific window after the invoice is tendered?

If you aren't paid within the time frame you expected, what is your first step...and second and third? And when do you take these actions?

Spend your time doing business instead of rethinking your actions each time you have a problem...a problem that may have been the same problem you had last month and the month before.


About the Author:
Nancy Fraser of Nota Bene Consulting, works with entrepreneurs, small businesses and independent professionals internationally providing business and marketing know-how, web development and online marketing services. Free marketing tips and the free report, "Advertising Tips for Results Your Momma Would Be Proud Of" at http://www.notabenemarketing.com


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