Day Planner For Online Success

10,000 Reasons Why You Should Do Your Homework Before Investing In An Online Business Opportunity

2009-11-11T07:00:00.001-08:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Bill Platt

I have been providing advertising services to online businesses since 2000. I have helped many people become successful online through the use of my services.

Too often, I only hear from people on the phone after they have lost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to launch their new online business ventures. They call me when they have just a few dollars left. I sometimes wish people would have found me first, so that I could have helped them find real success, instead of heartache.

Beware Of The Charlatans

Before you consider spending any large chunk of cash, please be aware of those who are preying upon the Internet newcomers.

I know companies selling cookie-cutter websites for tens of thousands of dollars, and those cookie-cutter websites have never helped anyone achieve any kind of success online.

If you are buying a website that is selling products available on thousands of websites, it will be extremely difficult for you to stand out among the crowd.

I know that these cookie-cutter sites are attractive, because they have the products, the shopping cart, and the fulfillment systems built in, but you are still one of thousands of sites displaying the exact same kind of products for the exact same prices. You are only one in a huge wilderness of sites that might look different, but are exactly the same under the hood.

In these cases, the only website owner who profits is the guy who is selling the cookie-cutter website and handling the product fulfillment for the customers.

The guy selling the site wins in three ways: 1. Selling the cookie-cutter website for 10 grand; 2. Filling the product orders and collecting his wholesale fees; and 3. He gets to capture the email and mailing addresses of people who buy products from the cookie-cutter sites.

Beware Of The Cost Cutters

If you are selling any kind of hard-product (a product that must be shipped to the customer), be aware of the price comparison websites, such as http://Nextag.com/ where consumers can find the product they want to buy, then compare prices on that particular product across hundreds of websites.

You might be the one providing the best information about the product, only to ensure that your lowest price competitor gets the sale.

It is tough selling hard products online for this very reason, unless you are an exclusive distributor of such a product or no other companies have shown an interest in selling that kind of product.

Beware Of Import/Export

Before diving off into buying products from China to resell in the United States, you need to be aware of the laws governing the importation of certain product types.

There are certain products that the Chinese Wholesale sites would be happy to sell to you. And at the same time, the U.S. Customs Office would be happy to seize those products at the border, due to import restrictions.

If the U.S. Customs seizes your shipment, your investment may be lost forever.

You should know what you can import and what you can export. Know the facts, before spending your money arranging large product shipments into the United States. http://Customs.gov/ is a good place to start to learn about importing products into the U.S.

Beware Of Bad Business Advice

If you have ever heard that online business is different than offline business, please take some time to understand what that actually means.

Primarily, it means that I do not have to have an office on Main Street USA in order to do business online. I can run my business out of my house, if I so desire.

Beyond that difference, both methods of doing business are exactly the same.

The rules that govern the profitability of a business are exactly the same.

You must earn more than you spend to make a profit, and what you pay yourself is an expense.

Beware of Those Who Are In The Business Of Selling Lies

There are tons of people online who prey on people like you.

The one that immediately comes to mind is the Internet Marketing guru who says that you can hire ghost writers for $5 an article, and that is all you should need to spend.

I provide ghost writing services, and I cannot get good content for anywhere near $5 per article.

What you usually get for $5 is stolen from someone else, or it looks like it was written by a second grader.

The thing that is so ironic about that claim is that the gurus saying that you should only pay $5 for an article are usually paying $250 to $500 to have their articles written. And they would never tell you WHO writes their articles, because finding and keeping good help is tough, even online.

I can get decent articles written for you, for well under $250, in fact, for under $100 and sometimes for under $50, depending on if I am doing the writing or my writers are doing the writing.

It is important for you to understand that awesome writers can typically earn you an awesome Return On Investment (ROI).

When you find those awesome writers, you need to pay them what they require to keep them on your payroll, and you certainly do not want to share their name with another, in the off-chance that they decide that they would prefer to work for the other guy instead of you.

It is just bizarre to me that the big Internet Marketing gurus are telling you that you should never pay more than $5 an article, when I know for a fact that many of them are paying $250 to $500 an article to have their own stuff written.

You know what this actually boils down to?

Those gurus are not telling you what you need to know. They are telling you what you want to know.

Shame on them.

Just Be Careful Out There

The Internet is full of fraudsters looking to get your money and steal your your dreams.

So be careful not to become a victim of the Internet Marketing dream.

Many of my customers have taken the time to learn how to be successful, and they are. I have several clients who earn 7-figures a year from their online marketing endeavors.

If you learn the necessary work processes that you will need to do, offer a product or service people actually want or need, and you follow through with good advertising and customer service, you can be successful too.

Unfortunately, most people will blow their bankroll, before they figure out what it was that they were doing wrong. And then it is too late, because they no longer have the resources to make anything happen.

About the Author:
Bill Platt has been providing article marketing services since 2001, including article ghost writing and article distribution services, through his website at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/ You can download Bill's free ebook titled, "Article Marketing: Beyond the Basics" on his blog. You can also listen to Article Marketing Tips and Tutorials at: http://ArticleMarketingConceptsRadio.com/

Follow Bill Platt on Twitter.

Sincerity: the 'Secret Sauce' for Effective Marketing

2009-11-10T11:30:00.001-08:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Judy Murdoch

A couple years ago, I was talking with someone who was, for me, a very challenging client. I'm all about cultivating relationships that result in opportunities to sell.

This particular client seemed allergic to cultivating relationships for reasons I never really understood.

I remember one such meeting, I was trying to explain to my client the wisdom of first creating trust and credibility before trying to get a sale. And my client was blocking me at every turn with reasons why relationship development would not work for their business.

It was maddening.

Finally, I cried with exasperation, "Well, why the heck do you want to keep working with me since my approach doesn't work for you?"

"Because you're sincere," the client replied.

"Who cares" I thought to myself since it didn't seem to be to helping my client grow their business.

Since that time I've changed me mind about the quality of sincerity. I think it's impossible to have sustainably effective marketing without sincerity.

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The Importance of Being Sincere
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The word, "sincere" is derived from the Latin word, "sincerus," meaning whole, pure, genuine.

When you think about today's business climate, sincerity isn't a quality that comes to mind. But it's a quality human beings need to perceive to be willing and able to buy.

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The Place of Sincerity in Your Marketing
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First, it's important to remember the real role of marketing in your business.

Marketing is NOT about making a sale. Marketing is about creating a relationship based in trust and safety so that a sale can occur.

Regardless of public sentiment towards business, people and companies still have problems that need to be solved and stuff that has to get done. Your prospective customers still need to buy stuff.

They want to be able to trust you because they need to buy what you sell.

The marketing you do is all about establishing visibility and credibility so that there's enough trust for the purchase to happen.

For example, if you regularly keep in touch with prospects via an ezine, you're not doing it to "bug" your customers. You're sending out that ezine because:

You can remind them that "Hey, I help people just like you solve these kinds of problems."

You can offer examples and helpful information about the kind of problems you solve ("Here's an example of how I helped a customer")

Or you provide helpful information for your prospects to better understand what they need to do to improve their situation.

Once prospective customers feel accepted for where they're at and trust you can actually help, they can then take the next step.

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It's About Sustainable, Effective Marketing
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Now there are also some relatively good-hearted entrepreneurs out there who use hard-sell tactics in their marketing. You subscribe to their ezine and get barraged with multiple emails every day telling you about some amazing program you "just gotta check out."

Here's what's important: there is no rest with this kind of marketing. You must work very, very hard to generate this level of noise.

And if you're spending so much time and energy with your own marketing, it's tough to put much time or effort into where--in my opinion--we should be making the difference: helping clients and customers get results.

That, to me, is why hype-centered marketing with or without a good heart fails. If you want to market your business in a way that brings in a steady stream of ideal customers without burning yourself into a crispy critter, sincere, heart-centered marketing is the way to go.

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Keys to Developing Sincere, Effective, Sustainable Marketing
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#1. Ask yourself, "what's my highest intention for my business?"

What's the best possible outcome for you, for your business, and for your customer?

Example: the highest intention for Highly Contagious Marketing is when we help clients create marketing that grows their client base and their bottom line.

When that happens, satisfied clients send us referrals which helps Highly Contagious Marketing succeed financially and there are more successful businesses in the world making a positive difference.

#2. Look at how your intention is reflected in your marketing?

Thinking of the many different ways you market your business, how is your intention showing up?

Example: In all the activities to promote Highly Contagious Marketing, I want to:

(1.) Provide information, a how-to, or a resource that gives the person who gets the marketing a little added value

(2.) Provide an offer and a clear call to action for anyone wanting to take the next step and get more help from us.

#3. Ask what one change can you make to your marketing to express your sincere desire to serve customers and make a difference?

Some specific actions you can take to show more sincerity in your marketing include:

(1.) Make your marketing message truly focused on your customer and their current problem. The first half of your message should be about your customer and their situation. If you're talking about yourself--your solutions and qualifications, your marketing is not focused on the customer.

(2.) Look for ways to leave anyone who encounters your marketing a little better off than they were before the encounter. Marketing that informs, coaches, inspires, even entertains all leave recipients a little better off.

(3.) Make sure your marketing reflects your values and if not, make changes. If you loathe hype in other marketing but use hype because "that's what everyone says I have to do," stop using hype. Create marketing that gets results without making you feel like you sold your soul.

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Bottom Line
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Remember, marketing is all about cultivating trust-based relationships so prospects can buy. And sincerity is a critical factor which enables trust to grow.

Can you market your products and services without sincerity? Sure. But you will have to work a lot harder to sustain sales because you won't be creating the quality relationships that give your marketing real momentum.

To create marketing in which sincerity shines through, take some time to remember what your business is in service for and take action so that your marketing better reflects what matters to you.

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

Follow Judy Murdoch on Twitter.

3 Key Points in Online Marketing to Avoid Tanking Your Results

2009-11-09T00:15:00.001-08:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Paul Marshall

With all the changes in Google AdWords and the increased competition these days, organic SEO looks more and more attractive to most of us.

The key is for your website optimization to out-perform your competition, without over spending with an online marketing consultant (or without taking up too much of your time if you're going the do-it-yourself route).

Remember, affordable Search Engine Optimization is about increasing quality traffic, then

converting

that traffic to a sale or a sales lead.

If you miss these points I describe below, your SEO goals of increased conversions will tank, even if you have a Number 1 Google Ranking.

I often notice these missed areas when I'm Coaching a business owner about their Web site and their need to increase sales and sales leads.

So, here are 3 points for you to review that I hope will help your SEO goals of increased conversions.

What's Above the Fold Counts Most, so Consider Monitor Resolutions

Living in the world of TV remote controls and browser back buttons, we have to capture our website visitors' attention ASAP. Our visitors aren't going to give us much time before making a decision to stay or to leave our website.

As much as this subject is discussed these days, it's amazing the number of sites I review that have critical information missing from "above the fold", in that area visible before your visitors scroll down.

This is the area to briefly summarize what people can do on your site and make your best case for your guests staying on your website and not clicking away. This may also be the area to place your contact information.

Keep in mind that what's above the fold on your monitor will likely be different from what's above the fold on the monitor for someone visiting your website. Browser resolution is set differently for various computers.

For instance, on my website, I know the top resolution of my visitors is 1280 by 1024 (53%) and the second most popular resolution is 1024 by 768 (37%). I get this information from my site's analytics script, although not all analytics programs provide this critical information.

Since I make sure my site looks great for these 90% of my visitors and make sure I communicate reasons to stay on my site above the fold (my value proposition), I draw more people into my site, encouraging them to scroll down.

Remember to cross test your site with recent versions of the most popular Web browsers: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and maybe even Google's new Chrome.

These steps raise my conversion rate and they will raise yours, too. And increasing traffic and conversions is the whole point of affordable search engine optimization, whether using an online marketing consultant or d-i-y, right?

So, don't miss this important step.

Carefully Select Your Type Size and Font and Remember that White Space is Your Friend

I'm astounded by the improper text choices made by so many website owners today. Is there really any good reason to make people squint at your website, struggling to get the information they need?

Consider reviewing The Easy to Read Standard at Information Architects (you can Google it). I would encourage you to review the size of your text, the white space between your letters and words and between your paragraphs and headings.

Designers often believe whitespace is your enemy; if you want people to understand your message and stay on your website, whitespace is in fact your friend. :-)

Also consider that fonts with serifs are easier to read than fonts without serifs.

If you want to successfully convey your message to as many of your site visitors as possible, then make it as easy for them as you can. When we're talking about increasing conversions, it's all about the numbers and appealing to the largest number of people possible.

Use Opt-in Email or Blog Postings to Maximize Your Sales

All website owners would like for people to buy from their website the first time they visit. But is that realistic?

Consider these statics from the National Sales Executive Association:

2% of sales are made on the 1st contact;

3% of sales are made on the 2nd contact;

5% of sales are made on the 3rd contact;

10% of sales are made on the 4th contact (and)

80% of sales are made on the 5th - 12th contact.

For most businesses, if you don't offer an opt-in contact, like a regular email newsletter or blog postings, you're missing out on most of your potential sales!

When setting up an opt-in Internet marketing campaign, you should offer incentives to subscribe. To entice people to opt-in, you can offer:

special pricing for email list members

a first look at new products

ability for customer to select subjects and emails they receive (controlling the frequency of contact by choosing which of your lists to be on)

promise not to share email or other personal info with other companies

Using opt-in contact allows you to significantly increase conversions by introducing yourself over time to your potential customers, in a soft-sell manner.

Website optimization is important; the goal is increased Internet traffic, sales and sales leads. But whether you've hired an online marketing consultant or you're doing the process yourself, Affordable search engine optimization by itself doesn't accomplish those last points of increased sales and sales leads.

You've got to remember to design your website to alleviate visitors natural apprehensions and make buying from you as easy as possible.

Properly mapping out the above the fold area of your Web pages, using appropriate size text, using adequate whitespace and offering an opt-in process to nurture your buyers will all help you accomplish the real goals you have with SEO and website optimization: increased sales and more sales leads.

About the Author:
Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a budget. He's an Online Marketing Consultant and an Affordable Search Engine Optimization specialist offering marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). You can learn more about Paul on his LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/paulmarshallwebmarketing and at Strategic Web Marketing.net.

Read more of Paul Marshall's articles.

Social Media and SEO Myths

2009-11-08T23:00:00.001-08:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Scott Bywater

I was reading this book the other day about the death of advertising.

It was a book written by a web 2.0 search engine fan and he was saying there was going to be a death of advertising and everything would be done via search engines, social media, etc. going forward.

Now that's partly true.

Things have shifted.

Twenty years ago the media was dominated by television and newspapers.

And that was the only way to get your name out there on a mass level.

And that's certainly all changed.

But I was thinking the other day about some of my larger clients.

There's an 80 / 20 rule in business that... 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients.

Now I haven't crunched my numbers enough to know if this is absolutely true in my case, but here's what I've noticed about four of my top clients which generate a large percentage of my business.

One was generated by a referral.

And three were generated by picking up the phone or sending these guys letters / emails directly to get them on board.

And NOT because they suddenly fell across me online via search engines, blogs, social media, etc.

The message: Don't fall for all the hype.

If you know who your target market is then go after them.

Don't just rely on search.

Because with search you cannot control who you attract.

Sure, you can control via keyword.

But you cannot say I want a business who is turning over a minimum of a million dollars a year in the manufacturing industry for instance.

You can with direct mail.

Of course, you need to use the strategies you'll find in http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/cashflow to make sure you do it right and hit the nail on the head.

But once again, as with my last email you need to zig when they zag and not just follow along blindly according to what everyone else is saying and doing.

About the Author:
Scott Bywater is an advertising copywriting expert and the author of Cash-Flow Advertising. To gain access to all of his copywriting tips on how to get more customers via his eye opening "Copywriting Selling Secrets" newsletter, simply head on over to his web site at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/

Follow @scottbywater on Twitter.

Social Media Marketing - Dont Make These 3 Mistakes

2009-11-07T11:00:00.001-08:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

The Cluetrain Manifesto asserts that "Markets are Conversations." The Manifesto is a document published in 1999 and 10 years later is still considered to be an outstanding treatise on the Internet phenomenon - in regards to the impact and opportunities of Internet and web technology on the modern businessman. Nowhere has this assertion been borne out more than in the complex, fascinating world of Social Media Marketing (SMM).

What is Social Media Marketing?

Any definition of SMM requires an understanding of social media networks. These are any community-oriented networks based on user-generated content. For example, YouTube's primary focus is the hosting of user-generated videos, not the promotion of the parent company's products. Social media networks include Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and many others.

SMM therefore is the use of these networks to promote and market products, services, or information to the promoter's intended audience. This could be a traditional product seeking a market, such as an author promoting a new novel. Or it could be something much bigger; the US Presidential campaign of 2008 brought Twitter into the spotlight as a way for the candidates to quickly transmit a message to their audience, keeping them updated on happenings on the trail. In the latter case, no tangible product was being promoted per se, but it was a means of marketing the candidates and their messages. Twitter exploded in popularity following the election, and remains a current topic of discussion.

The intelligent business strategy will seek to understand these opportunities, and reach out to the social media markets available, in order to directly reach their customers. SMM has as many pitfalls as opportunities, however. Several politicians have had their tweets made public, and have regretted it. Here are some easy mistakes to make and how to avoid them.

Mistake #1 - Not Having A Blog

Everyone has a blog. While this may not be true in fact, it certainly is true in perception. Free services such as Wordpress and Blogspot allow anyone with a connection to have a voice in an organized and attractive form. Twitter, Facebook, and other networks are useful, but they aren't directly under a user's control. A blog, however, is, and the savvy marketer will take advantage of that. In a blog, a user can post their thoughts, analysis, and arguments with very little restraint and go into greater detail than most social networks permit. For example, Twitter only allows posts of 140 characters, which is certainly too small for a product description or a dissection of a major political speech. However a short 'tweet' telling book fans that their favorite author has been interviewed by a blog will bring people flocking to the site where they will not only read the interview, but probably the many other articles on the site as well.

This of course means that good blogging is consistent blogging. A blog can't be neglected and only updated when big things happen - the modern attention span of Internet users is fairly short. Bloggers need to consistently post good content in order to keep drawing in their intended audience; not month by month but sometimes even day by day.

Mistake #2 - Not Branding Yourself

The web is an information explosion and getting anyone to notice a product or a company consistently is a challenge. The savvy web marketer must take advantage of the chance to brand their name with every networking opportunity. If a company has a blog and a product website, they must be connected. The blog must promote the site's main goal, and the site must refer visitors to their excellent blog content. Posts to social networking sites should refer to this 'brand' image, and keep the message consistent across them all. The successful SMM campaign will treat each element as a unified whole, and approach them systematically. Every Twitter message, every Facebook post should remind users who is posting the content, and where they can find more.

Mistake #3 - Not Being Nice

As mentioned above, "Markets are Conversations." The users on the Internet are not robots. They will respond with a pre-programmed action when a certain combination of criteria is applied. They are people with ideas who think critically, and who have become accustomed to having their say. While a marketer must take every opportunity to promote their message, this does not mean forcing it into every single conversation. Participants on social networking sites will quickly identify the more ham-fisted efforts of some marketers, and let their acquaintances know of their displeasure. A bad reputation can spread quickly on the Internet - a certain St. Louis police officer lost his job when a video of the officer abusing his authority was posted to Google.

So the proper tactic is not to view these markets as simple places to advertise, but places to converse. Simply popping onto Facebook and posting a new product to every available group is a quick way to get noticed, and disregarded as incompetent. On the other hand, a user could join several groups with discussions pertaining to the subject of their personal passions, and cultivate friendships and a reputation as a quality commentator. Then, when they refer folks to their blog, they are more likely to be taken seriously. Simple courtesy and respect for the groups can go a long way to securing a few more hits per post.

In essence, SMM requires thought, persistence, and critical thinking just as any other marketing campaign. It is not a short series of clever commercials that can be aired for several months at a time, but a means of consistently communicating, day in and day out, with a target audience. Good SMM must provide constant, consistent content for its target markets and be prepared to participate in a lot of give-and-take with an audience uniquely suited to making their voices heard.

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.

The Ultimate Security

2009-11-07T06:00:00.001-08:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Scott Bywater

I can remember times when I didn't feel very secure.

For instance, when I was dead broke after finishing up with the hairdressing salon and didn't have enough money to eat.

Or when I looked around at the people on the street and wondered "will that be me before too long."

Or when I went away for a retreat to a little town called Kiama and didn't know if I was going to be able to afford the accomodation (because I had no money in my bank account to afford the rent - which was only $20 a night. Thankfully somebody paid me within this time and I could).

There's no feeling quite like being on the edge. And trust me, it's not the sort of feeling I would ever want again.

In fact, I don't think it could ever happen again.

Why?

Because now I know without a doubt I have the ability to produce.

And that's the only real security there is.

After all, let's face it.

Your money can disappear overnight (it's happened to thousands of people before and will happen again).

Your house can be knocked down in a heartbeat (my parents knew this only too well when they lost everything in Cyclone Tracy).

And things can change in your industry which can leave your business obsolete (think of the big train companies from a century ago)

But if you've got the ability to produce... to market... to sell...to hustle... then you don't need to worry because you know in your heart that no matter what happens... no matter what disaster hits (they do and they will again)... your security lies in the knowledge you hold in your own mind... and your ability to take action on it.

That's why you should move heaven and earth to get your hands on http://www.morecustomersmadeeasy.com/

Because knowledge (and your ability to act on it) really is THE ULTIMATE SECURITY.

About the Author:
Scott Bywater is a direct response copywriter with extensive experience in B2B and B2C writing. Mr Bywater is the author of Cash-Flow Advertising and More Customers Made Easy. You can gain access to his copywriting and marketing tips via his entertaining and eye opening "Copywriting Selling Secrets" newsletter available at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/

Read more of Scott Bywater's articles.

Don't Destroy Your Online Marketing Results with Bad Website Design

2009-11-06T01:45:00.001-08:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Paul Marshall

So, you've embarked on a search engine advertising program, maybe even SEO. Whether you're doing this on your own or using an online marketing consulting firm, there are key points to become aware of.

If you miss these, you won't increase conversions.

What good is a Number 1 organic search engine ranking or AdWords ad listing, if you don't have increased sales or if you don't generate more sales leads?

Too often, we get all focused about the Internet marketing -- the ads, the offer -- that we don't think the whole process through step-by-step and consider the experience our website visitors will be having.

If we did, we'd be thinking "big picture" and we would head off some of these potential problems before they occur.

Overcoming Your Website Visitors Anxiety

When people come to our website it's natural for them to feel anxiety. After all, look at all the cr*p on the Internet today, all the too-good-to-be-true products and services.

But when you and I offer REAL products or services, we have to overcome that concern, even if we're treating our site visitors fairly and not making outrageous claims.

So, how can you overcome these anxieties?

1. Offer more than a 1-page website. Credible companies have multi-page websites, including Privacy Policy, Terms of Use | Service and About Us pages.

They also have more than 1 page about their products or services.

I'm surprised by the number of 1-page websites I see from companies using infomercials to advertise their products. Often, they have the purchase form right on their home page, their only page (and often their page isn't secured for credit card ordering).

Websites that are only 1-page don't seem credible. And having the purchase form right on the home page comes across as very pushy!

Doesn't this type of site seem all about the company and NOT about their customers? Why would we want to buy from that type of company?

What kind of online marketing consulting firm did these companies use...or did they use any??

2. Next to any sign up or contact form buttons clearly state that you don't sell your customers' private information and link to your Privacy Policy page.

3. Effectively communicate what your Value Proposition is, also called your Unique Selling Proposition. If you don't know why someone should buy your product or service versus your competitors', now is the time to figure it out. (And by the way, based on my experience, if you don't know this, you're not alone, by any means.)

But our websites have to be about more than just us. They have to be about our visitors. What's in it for THEM, to do business with us? What unique voids in the marketplace can we fill?

As a Small Business Owner, Personally Relate to Your Site Visitors and Communicate Directly with Them

People don't buy from websites, they buy from people! So, how can you apply this to your own website?

1. For many small businesses and solo proprietorships, their website text should speak to your visitors directly in first person.

This should be written from the voice of the Owner or President. They shouldn't use third person, institutional-sounding language, getting rid of "we" and "our", using "I" instead, speaking first person, in an actual conversation. Don't try to sound like you're Microsoft!

And while your at it, be careful about overuse of words about you...whether "I", or those words, "we", "our" or "us".

Check out the WeWe calculator (Google: wewe calculator). Make sure to focus on customer-focused words and NOT on words about you or your company.

2. Include your picture on your Web pages.

For a larger small business trying to make that personal connection with their website visitors, try the idea used by the nutritional supplement company Lumina. (Google: Lumina Health Contact Us)

In this execution, notice how Lumina gets you to relate to their customer service department. I still remember it was John I spoke with and that's been over 1 year ago that I called them!

Again, people buy from other people, not from websites.

For us as small businesses, why should we sound large, pretending to be something we aren't? And why should we run from our advantage of being small: low overhead, friendly, personal service and accountability, among other advantages.

Make Each Step in Your Marketing a Smooth Handoff from One Step to Another

Whether you're using AdWords, SEO, or both, make sure your title and description matches the experience your website visitor will have when they come to your landing page.

Quite often when I'm Coaching my small business owner clients or performing online marketing consulting, I find the wording for their organic listing or AdWords ad says one thing and their landing page says something that doesn't sound the same.

This causes confusion is the best case scenario. In the worst case, it causes a lack of trust. Dangerous!

We should understand our products or services. And we know what we want our visitors to do on our site.

Our potential customers may not understand either. We need to think like them, when we explain what we have to offer them and how to use our website to take advantage of what we have to offer.

And when "shifting" from one page to another, we need to hand-off from one page to another naturally and smoothly, like a car with a smooth automatic transmission.

Don't advertise one offer in AdWords or organic search, only to have your landing page sound like it was written for another advertising offer. I see this problem a lot!

Often times, having an affordable online marketing consulting firm reviewing what you're doing can offer easy, inexpensive fixes that can yield big improvements in your search engine advertising and SEO conversions.

Your Action Plan

Let's review what we've talked about.

First, overcome visitors anxieties by offering a multi-page website which answers questions about your company and your services or products, while inspiring confidence in your company. Effectively communicate your Value Proposition.

Second, personally relate to your site visitors. Avoid using the wrong words that may put off your site visitors. Use your picture on your Web pages.

Third, hand-off from one page on your website and one step in your selling process to another smoothly and naturally. We should understand what we want our site visitors to do, but they won't unless we make the process really clear.

Whether your using an online marketing consulting firm or doing the work yourself, if you take these steps, your search engine optimization | advertising plan will convert at a MUCH higher rate, when you take these steps.

About the Author:
Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a budget. He's an Online Marketing Consulting expert offering marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). You can learn more about Paul on his Internet Marketing LinkedIn profile and at Strategic Web Marketing.net.

Read more Articles written by Paul Marshall.

Curing Versus Healing

2009-11-06T00:30:00.001-08:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Scott Bywater

On Thursday night, I had some really bad back pain. So on Friday I went to my chiropractor.

No big deal she said... cracked me a few times... and sent me on my way with the thoughts...

"Just come more often to get your maintenance."

Now while I was there I picked up an article about healing and curing.

And here are their definitions as laid out by Natural Wisdom Australia

"Curing" involves removing symptoms, treating a part of the body, or controlling a process.

"Healing" involves helping people to become more whole and function at a higher level.

The problem with most businesses that I see is that they only do something when they need a cure (just like me with the chiropractor).

For instance, when they are short on customers they decide they need to advertise.

Or when they have a slow month they call in a consultant.

Or whatever.

It's all emergency based marketing.

But why not decide today to heal your business so that the emergencies don't pop up all of the time?

Why not make your business more whole so you can function at a higher level?

Why not set up some systems today which will ensure you'll NEVER have to worry about where your next lead is coming from.

It could be a flyer.

It could be a lead generation web site.

It could be an advertisement.

It could be a telemarketing system to follow up existing customers.

It could be a strategy to get bigger customers.

It could be a social networking strategy.

But do it now. Because just like I had to suffer through pain because I didn't focus on healing my back and staying on top of things before I needed to... if you don't take action and develop a lead generation strategy which virtually guarantees your phone will be ringing all of the time... your business is going to suffer some pain as well.

About the Author:
For quick results, you'll want to get your hands on this leading direct response copywriter's ebook "7 Ways To Get More Customers" at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/ Scott Bywater shows you how to get all the customers you need in just 60 days. This popular ebook has been downloaded by over 8,247 business owners over the past five years. Packed with information, this ebook will show you copywriting and marketing strategies which could have you getting new clients within just a couple of days.

Read more of Scott Bywater's articles.

How Is Your Reputation Holding Up In Google's Search Results?

2009-11-04T20:00:00.001-08:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Bill Platt

You know, if there are listings in Google's search results that are hurting your business, you might think that there is nothing you can do about that. But let me assure you that given the will and the desire, there is plenty you can do about those search engine results that may be hurting your business.

So many people look at Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as a game of influencing the keywords that are important to their business, but they don't realize that SEO can also be used to diminish the negatives in the search results.

Are You Losing Business As Result Of A Bad Review In Google?

Remember that guy who bought your product 3 years ago, and he did not follow the instructions for use, and then complained about how your product let him down? He could be hurting your business right now.

How do you measure the sales that your business is losing, because some guy complained on some website about how your product or service is "crap".

A Real World Example

Ah... I remember when I was selling TV's for a living.

There was this fellow who came into the store and bought a 52-inch projection screen TV. We had a bonded delivery crew on hand to help people get their purchases home, but although this guy had just spent $2400 on a television set, he decided that he did not want to pay $40 for delivery of his new TV set. I bet you can see where this story is going...

So, we loaded his new TV in the back of his pickup, and he proceeded to tie down his TV in the back of his pickup truck.

He thanked us for his TV and started the drive home.

45 minutes later, our most recent happy customer pulled into the parking lot, toting a big-screen TV box.

As we went to meet him at the door, we could hear the glass falling as the box moved across the floor.

He was pissed! And to our surprise, we were at fault!

You might be asking yourself why we were at fault. That is a good question, one I even posed at the time.

We were at fault, because we did not offer free delivery!

A gust of wind had caught his box, snapping the twine that he had used to tie it down, blowing his $2400 Phillips Big-Screen TV onto the highway.

He said it was our fault, because we should have given him free delivery. Never mind that we had already given him a $300 discount on the purchase of his TV.

We had offered him bonded delivery, but he refused, and now it was our fault that his TV was broken.

The store where we worked was one of those chains that keep all of the power to make things right at the home office. We could not simply exchange his TV, without permission from our superiors. If we had authorized the exchange with the guy, without the District Manager's permission, the company would have taken the cost of the Television out of the salesperson's and the manager's paycheck.

I was the assistant manager, and I was NOT going to pay for this guy's broken television. The company did not pay me enough to fix this problem for them, out of my own pocket.

We called the DM. Of course, even though we worked until 10 at night, the DM went home at 6pm. So, we kept dialing his cell phone number, until he answered the phone. ;-)

He was pissed, but that was okay. We were already dealing with "pissed", so we did not mind two people pissed at the same time.

Thank God I was not the manager in charge that night. Thank God for small favors...

Our District Manager said the guy was tough out of luck. I am glad I don't work for those clowns anymore.

I agree that it should not have been our responsibility, but surely we could find a solution for this guy. After all, he just spent $2400 with us.

Nope. The District Manager said No, then he said No, and he said No again.

So, the DM hung up telling us not to call him again that evening. And we were left with the poor guy who had just signed a two-year finance contract on a TV that was busted to hell.

Yes, I bet the guy pays for delivery next time. But the story does not end here...

It Wasn't Your Fault, But It Is Your Problem...

The story now moves online. It moves into the newspaper. It moves onto our sales floor for more than a week. It goes ballistic...

The customer went home that night, and turned to the power of the Internet with his complaint. A few days later, he followed his Internet complaints with a paid advert in the local newspaper. Our store was getting skewered.

The guy was in the store every day, throwing a tantrum. And he was spending his money and his time to skewer us for letting him make a foolish decision.

It just worked out well for him. On about his tenth trip to the store, throwing his daily tantrum in front of people who were looking to buy a TV, he just happened to arrive on a day that the DM was in the building. Ah... A new face behind the counter. The customer picked out the new face in the building as being someone over us. And wham, he let the District Manager have it, with both barrels...

Persistence paid off in this case.

He overwhelmed the District Manager with his complaints.

The District Manager broke down and did only what the District Manager could do for our customer. He used his privileged status to type in the appropriate commands into the computer and make things right for this guy.

In the end, we got him a new television for the price of delivery to his house.

The store ate the cost of the new television. (I ended up paying a portion of the TV anyway, because the bookkeeping department deducted the price of the television from the sales sheets for the month, so some of my monthly bonus was lost when that man's television was cut from the store's profits.)

The victory that we received was that the guy was not in the store every day scaring away our customers.

But that victory came only after we took a serious hit in our Reputation Management. Every person that guy talked to for the ten days after his purchase, up until he got his replacement, knew that he had a bad experience with us. What is more, everyone who read his paid advert in the newspaper knew that he had a problem with our store. Even more, who knows how long his complaint survived online...

You know what they say, "What is posted online, stays online."

I left my job at that store in 2005. That store closed in 2008.

I am not going to say that the store closed on account of that guy's complaints. But I am willing to say that the store was hurt by the guy's complaints. He did manage to drive a lot of prospective customers out of our store, during his daily rants. (I just checked and could not find his complaints online anymore.)

I am willing to bet that the store closed due to the recession. It closed about the same time that Circuit City bit the dust.

I think this story clearly illustrates that a problem does not have to be your fault, in order for your business to pay a high price, as a result of the problem.

Does Applebee's Really Suck?

To help illustrate the extent of this problem, I just typed into Google the name of my favorite restaurant, Applebee's, the name of my town, and the word "sucks".

I saw dozens of Google search results that were in effect saying that my favorite restaurant "sucks". Many of them went to describe this restaurant as having the "worst food ever."

Wow!

Now to be sure, restaurants everywhere suffer from this treatment. And the big name brand restaurants can survive, because their large customer base has a different opinion.

But what if you are a local restaurant or an obscure Internet company?

As an permanent online fixture, I tend to be jaded about the complaints I read about others. But I have to admit, while one or two complaints will not sway me, several complaints in the search results will even cause "me" to hesitate.

Can you afford for jaded internet marketers like myself to hesitate?

You can bet that if we "jaded internet marketers" are hesitating to purchase what you sell, those "who are not internet marketers by profession" are running away from you!

Fixing The Problem...

You are already aware that by utilizing SEO techniques that you can help your website rank better for some keywords in Google and the other search engines.

But did you know that you can also create a wealth of positive reviews for your business on a variety of web pages, and to get those positive reviews to rank higher in the search engines than the negative reviews?

This is how we help our customers.

We use our SEO expertise to get the positive reviews of our client's website to outrank the negative reviews of our client's website.

If we get enough positive reviews to occupy the top of the search results for the target keywords, then those negative reviews of our client's website will be buried on page two, three, four, five or six of Google's search results.

If people will NEVER SEE the negative reviews of your website, product or service, then as far as most people are aware, there ARE NOT ANY negative reviews. If there are no negatives about your business, then everything must be positive.

You are in control of your business' reputation online, if only you are willing take the reins and force the negatives down in Google's search results.

We know that not everything in the search results is true or honest. After all, the guy with the broken TV was blaming us for his bad judgment. We know that you may not deserve what is in Google's search results that is affecting your online reputation in a negative way.

If you don't let us help you get the negatives out of the sight of your prospective customers, then do it yourself or hire another company to do it for you. Because as long as those negative reviews exist in Google's search results, there is a good chance that someone is going to let those negative comments prevent them from buying from you!

About the Author:
Bill Platt has provided SEO services since 2004. In 2009, he transformed his SEO service, into one that helps people defeat negative search results in Google. By improving the rank of positive website reviews in the search results, negative search listings begin to disappear from the public eye. If you would like to learn more about how Bill's Reputation Management SEO service can help your business, visit: http://911reputation.com/ Bill has also owned http://thePhantomWriters.com/ since 2001.

Read more of Bill Platt's articles.

List Building - 5 Steps To Generate Viral Traffic To Your Website

2009-11-03T22:45:00.001-08:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Alan Cheng

If you can create viral traffic then you've won the battle for traffic generation. Driving traffic is a continuous task, so viral traffic which grows on its own is a dream for all online business owners. But not many online business owners know or even try to implement it. Here are 5 steps to creating viral traffic so that your traffic building efforts produces the most amount of visitors and subscribers.

1. Create A Squeeze Page

Get a landing page which does nothing but offer some free gifts in exchange for the visitor's email. This is where you start to build your list.

Hire a good graphics designer and come up with attractive gifts such as valuable reports and/or free software.

2. Create A Report To Sell

Your next task is to create a report which you're going to sell. Again, make sure the graphics are eye-catching and pay a good graphics designer to create your website.

Your report has to look fantastic and the information needs to be good. Do the required research and put as much information as possible into this report.

With your website, sell the report for $97. This is a steep price for a report but your objective is not to sell many copies of it. Do the necessary promotion and get the word out about your report. And don't forget to put links in the report to your website.

3. Free Gift

When people sign up to your list via your squeeze page, send them to a page where you will offer your $97 report as a gift. To claim the gift, the subscriber needs to refer at least 3 of their friends to your squeeze page.

Now when your subscribers see that your gift is worth $97 and that you are currently selling it for that price, it will drive conversions through the roof.

No one can resist a true free gift that is currently selling for $97. This can help you generate viral traffic. Your subscribers' friends might sign up to your list and repeat the whole process by referring their friends to your squeeze page.

4. Email To List

Now while your squeeze page is building your list virally, you can create a report and continue to send it to your list for free. Of course, they would have to refer 3 or more of their friends to download the free gift.

Using this technique you are training your list to refer their friends in order to get your free reports. You are also testing to see which kind of offers create the best responses.

5. Contest

When you know which type of offers send you the most amount of referrals, you can create a contest and announce it to your list.

For the contest you will need to provide something which is perceived to be a high priced item otherwise it won't work. The best type of offers are video training with personal coaching from you based on the offer with the most responses.

Offer your prize to 3 winners only. Since you are offering personal coaching and video training, you can set a high price for the prize. Pricing it at $1,000 is not unreasonable.

To win the contest, your list needs to send you traffic to your squeeze page. The top 3 who sends the most subscribers will win the $1000 prize. This is very attractive.

Once they spread the news by telling people about your contest, more and more people will join your list and promote the contest.. This is the viral effect you're looking for. You can even issue a press release to inform more people about your contest.

Carrying out these 5 steps will ensure unstoppable viral traffic to your website. It needs planning and setting up the system for it to work and creation of the reports, but you are sure to get an avalanche of traffic. Using this viral traffic to get people subscribed to your list, you can promote your information products to them and push those sales figures through the roof.

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 Articles written by Alan Cheng.

Teach To Learn

2009-11-03T17:00:00.001-08:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Scott Bywater

Years ago, when I was in my teens I flicked through a book by Stephen Covey that you have probably heard of.

It's called "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People."

That was a long time ago and I must go and revisit that book.

However there is one idea I learnt that I believe applies to virtually every business.

The best way to learn something is to teach something.

Unfortunately, most people don't start teaching anything until they believe they are an expert. As a result, they hinder their progress.

So why does the concept of "teach to learn" work so well.

It's really quite simple.

When you teach, you are forced to think about what you know... to crystallize your knowledge... to answer your unanswered questions.

You get questions thrown back at you... and this really internalizes the knowledge.

So let's see how this could apply to the average person in business.

For instance, if you're a chiropractor or health practitioner.

Here's what I would do to implement the "teach to learn" concept and turn it into a profit.

I'd start a regular newsletter.

An offline newsletter once a month and an online newsletter once a month so your readers end up with a newsletter every couple of weeks.

And as a part of that newsletter I would include research and information on how chiropractic has been able to help with a number of ailments.

Everything from back pain to headaches to the common cold.

In doing so, I would dig up information on that topic... I would be forced to think about what really matters to my readers... and it would give me time to internalize what I knew and how I could better help my patients.

It would also put money in the bank.

Think about it: you would be "in the face" of your most interested prospects - your clients - encouraging them to come into your practice more and more often.

This would also stimulate more referrals.

The newsletter would be passed around (mail) or forwarded on (email).

You could use that content and throw it up on a blog somewhere to encourage traffic from the search engines.

And you'd learn a heck of a lot at the same time.

So if you want to learn more - teach more.

If you want to be respected as an authority in your field and have prospective customers chasing you rather than the other way around - teach more.

And if you want to make greater profits - then teach more.

Now there is no easier way than creating more customers from your teachings than learning how to create killer emails. And that's the topic I cover on lesson #18 of http://www.morecustomersmadeeasy.com/

I show you how to write them... which auto responders to look at... how to get more names onto your list... and much, much more.

About the Author:
As a direct response copywriter, Scott Bywater strives to educate business owners on how to generate more leads, get more of the "right type" of customers, differentiate themselves from their competition, and convert their leads into sales via his underground and "outside of the box" strategies. You can get his copywriting and marketing tips delivered to your inbox via his eye opening "Copywriting Selling Secrets" newsletter available at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/

Read more Articles written by Scott Bywater.

How Many Links Does It Take To Get To The Middle Of Google Page One?

2009-11-02T11:15:00.001-08:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Bill Platt

Everyday it seems, people are asking me the optimum numbers of inbound links they need to acquire for their website in order to rank well in Google.

My answer is going to seem a little flip, but it is the honest, best answer.

Answer: You need more inbound links - of equal or higher quality - than what your competitors have.

Albert Einstein argued that any mathematical formula that required pages of calculations did not contain within it "the mind of God".

So when Albert Einstein developed E=mc2, then Einstein had fulfilled the promise of a simple formula that could encompass the brilliance of God.

When people wonder as to how many inbound links they might need to acquire in order to rank in the Top 4 of Google's search results or even the Top 10 of Google's SERPs, they are generally hoping that someone will be able to give them a numeric answer, so that they know whether they can afford to undertake the process or not.

I understand the WHY of the question, but there is no canned answer that will work for everyone.

Remember, your competitor may be asking the same question and undertaking the same processes as you are, trying to accomplish the same goal.

No one can truly begin to understand the answer to this question, until one has take the time to do an Inbound Link Comparison Analysis of all of your competitors in the Top 10 spots of Google's SERPs.

You need to look at the Top 10 listings in Google for a particular keyword.

You need to do backlink checks for all ten URLs in Google's search listings, and you need to check those numbers across a variety of sources, including Google, Yahoo and any other tool you can find to do a check. (Google and Yahoo both tend to understate the actual link counts. While Yahoo will show you more than what Google does, they also show a number of "no consequence" links in their results.)

You need to look at the quality of a few of the pages that offer links to the URLs in the search results.

This is not an easy process to undertake. I have done it before, but the best you can hope for is a "snapshot" of what is out there, and therefore, what you need to accomplish.

Note: If Wikipedia turns up in your search query, few people with small budgets will ever be able to dislodge Wikipedia in the search results. What they make up for in a small number of inbound links, they more than make up for with links from dozens or hundreds of PR4, PR5 and PR6 pages. Wikipedia is the king of Internal Linking, and they use that to a great degree to rank extraordinarily high in Google's search listings.

Your analysis should seek to uncover how many links a page has to it.

As a general rule of thumb, Google will show you less than 1% of the existing number of links for a web page. Yahoo will sometimes show closer to 5% of the existing number of links for a web page, but they will not show you the highest quality of those links.

So, as you strive to gain a "snapshot" picture of the playing field, you want to take Google's Inbound Links number and multiply that by at least 100. Then you want to take Yahoo's Inbound Links number and multiply that by at least 20, then cut the number in half to acknowledge the number of worthless crap links they have in their database. Once you have achieved these two numbers, then I tend to call the truth "somewhere in the middle".

With your "somewhere in the middle" number in hand, then you need to look at the quality of links to a few of those search listings, to get an idea of whether those links exist on higher quality pages or simply junk pages.

If those links are on junk pages, then the goal could be achieved by just working the numbers. But if there are a lot of high PageRank pages in the mix, then whatever number is in your hand, should be multiplied, perhaps 100-fold, to overcome the quality of pages that link to your competitors.

If you get the idea that my simple formula leads to a complicated answer, then you are right.

All of the numbers that I have included in my sample formula are based on rough speculation, as the "snapshot" offers you your best hope of understanding the challenge in front of you.

While the number of inbound links may be relatively easy to determine, the link quality is a factor that is really hard to pin down.

If you determine that you only need 300 inbound links to rank with the big boys, you may be right.

Your 300 inbound links number should also be quantified against the number of links that Google will count worthy, so you may need 1200 links to get 300 links that Google will deem worthy. This calculation depends more on the "quality of your content", rather than the "quantity of your content".

When all is said and done and your 300 Google-worthy links have not yet put you on page one, then you know that the quality of the links pointing at your competitors is greater than the quality of the links pointing to you.

If you were hoping for an easy answer, I am sorry that I could not help you with that.

But with this explanation of the challenge, you may be better prepared to answer the big question, the question that is really on your mind:

=== Are my hopes of achieving good rankings in Google within my reach?

I tend to throw "worry" to the wind and just start working. I don't worry if I can afford to do it or not. I simply start doing, and I know that in one month, one year or five, I will have built enough value in my website that my competitors are going to be the ones who are trying to figure out if they can unseat me!

About the Author:
Bill Platt has provided SEO services since 2004. In 2009, he transformed his SEO service, into one that helps people defeat negative search results in Google. By improving the rank of positive website reviews in the search results, negative search listings begin to disappear from the public eye. If you would like to learn more about how Bill's Reputation Management SEO service can help your business, visit: http://911reputation.com/ Bill has also owned http://thePhantomWriters.com/ since 2001.

Read more of Bill Platt's articles.

Sell Yourself Like A Papaya Tree

2009-11-02T07:30:00.001-08:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Scott Bywater

Before we go any further, I want you to take a look at the image below...

http://img24.yfrog.com/i/c1sv.jpg/

What you can see is a photo of the papaya fruit which I enjoyed last weekend.

But why on earth would I take a photo of a papaya fruit?

It's really quite simple. The papaya fruit got me thinking about a few things.

You see, in the middle of that luscious piece of fruit there are literally dozens of little seeds.

But they all started from one tiny little seed. In fact, the whole papaya tree which contains hundreds of papaya fruit which contain hundreds of seeds, all started from one tiny little seed.

It's really quite mind blowing, isn't it.

One seed creates a tree. One tree creates hundreds of papaya's. And those papaya's go on to create hundreds of trees.

But let's consider something else.

Probably 99% of those seeds fail to germinate... get washed away by the rain... die before they live their full potential.

And isn't the marketing world the same?

You have to send hundreds of letters in many cases to get a response.

You have to talk to a number of people to generate a sale.

Hundreds of people need to click on your google adwords to get a handful of people to your site... and many people need to see your site before a sale or quote is generated.

But here's something to keep in mind.

You cannot force a seed to germinate.

It either does or it doesn't.

And you cannot force someone to purchase your product or service.

They either will or they won't.

You can nurture a seed. You can give it the environment it needs to grow, the same way as you nurture a client.

But you cannot force.

However you can decide to place more seeds.

And when you join http://www.morecustomersmadeeasy.com I'll show you over a dozen ways to plant thousands of seeds including fax marketing, newspaper advertising, social media, article marketing, the "frame" mailer to get big clients, public relations, affiliate programs, joint ventures and much, much more.

Remember, the more seeds you plant and the better you are at planting them, the more abundant your harvest will be...

About the Author:
Scott Bywater is a successful direct response copywriter and heads up Copywriting That Sells, a direct response advertising firm. Want to learn how to get more customers - then get your hands on his popular 17 page ebook "7 ways To Increase Your Turnover... No Matter What The State Of The Economy." It's been downloaded by over 8,247 business owners over the past five years and you can get your hands on it now at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/

Read more Articles written by Scott Bywater.

SEO Vs Pay Per Click Advertising

2009-11-01T01:45:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

In the world of modern business, the key to success is getting your product seen and understood by your target audience. Simple numbers don't always accomplish the goal - it doesn't matter how many millions of vegetarians see your commercial for Grade-A double-plus chuck steak, after all. The key is advertising to a targeted audience, the ones who need or at least want the goods or service being offered. The best way to accomplish this goal of course will vary among different media, however, having a target market strategy is a must on the Internet.

In particular, the Internet has embraced this truth and virtually exploded with a variety of means toward the end of successful, specific advertising. Internet advertising campaigns range from the obvious and the notorious (tasteful banner advertising versus badly-worded spam emails) to the clever and the outrageous (Amazon's 'Still not big enough' television campaign from the late 90s, and Halo 2's legendary 'I Heart Bees' viral marketing alternate reality game).

Obviously, some of these efforts are more successful than others, and some are successful in all the wrong ways. The exiled Nigerian prince who wants to share his vast wealth with lucky, lucky you has become a pop-culture meme and in-joke, practically an obligatory reference in any discussion of modern marketing or Internet spam.

However, a great deal of web advertising is quite a bit less flashy than the aforementioned efforts, yet is seen by every user who runs a request through a search engine. When engines return a search, they generally include two sections in the result. The first is the target of the search itself, which is the Organic SEO result, the second is a series of advertisements off to the side of or above the organic result, known as Pay Per Click advertisements.

SEO

For those who don't know what SEO is, this acronym stands for Search Engine Optimization. In short and simple terms, every search engine provides results based on a series of criteria, generally keyword and content related. The engine compares the search request to its index of websites and their descriptions, and provides the most relevant answers it can, ranked in order of precedence.

The first sites to come up are the most closely related to the search terms as the engine understands them. This is why different engines may rank sites differently - Yahoo, Google and Bing have different indexing and keyword criteria, so their responses to a particular search may vary. It is termed Organic SEO because the results are returned organically, or naturally - there is no external interference or override changing the results, they simply return per the standard operating practices of the search engine.

Organic SEO has the advantage of having no inherent costs associated with it. Proper search engines don't charge businesses for their ranking in the list, so the only required investment is building a noteworthy site that generates the traffic and keyword results that will bring a high ranking. The downside is that it requires a great deal of research to properly take advantage of this strategy. Craigslist alone abounds with writing jobs catering to experienced SEO writers, and entire websites exist discussing the ins and outs of the practice. In addition, it relies entirely on users searching for terms that relate to your site, leaving the situation far less in your business's hands than some owners may be comfortable with.

PPC

In pay per click advertising, businesses contact a search engine and bid on certain keywords they feel are particularly relevant to their website. For example, a company making horse saddles might bid on keywords pertaining to horses, riding events, and saddles. Then, when someone searches these terms, the search engine provides a link to this business in the form of a pay per click advertisement. The name pay per click comes from the fact that the company must pay the website a fee every time a user clicks the advertisement.

Pay per click advertising is attractive because it increases the odds of really snagging a targeted audience. Rather than having one result possibly come up in a search, there's another result just off to the side, increasing the chances of gaining user attention. On the flip side, PPC can quickly become a cost burden. Every single click must be paid for, and there's no guarantee that every click will result in a sale, meaning costs could skyrocket before a business is prepared to deal with them.

Making the Choice

Often times, the best choice is to strike a balanced approach between SEO and PPC style advertising. Just where that balance lies depends entirely on the business in question. The savvy web advertiser will carefully consider keyword popularity before choosing a PPC campaign, and perhaps even set aside an actual budget to account for those users who will click through but are not looking to buy.

Additionally, there are literally thousands of experienced SEO writers available for employ at inexpensive rates for short term work, meaning the organic SEO standing of a page can be improved with relatively little investment. As ever, the keys are research and understanding, both of the target audience and the means with which you intend to reach them.

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 Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.

Government Grant Writing: Doing It Yourself

2009-10-31T15:00:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-29T18:00:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-29T11:30:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-27T13:15:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-26T06:30:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-26T00:00:00.001-07:00

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?

2009-10-24T09:15:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-24T05:45:00.001-07:00

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.

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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.

===================================
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

Follow Judy Murdoch on Twitter.

Domain Name Ideas for Your Business

2009-10-21T08:15:00.001-07:00

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.

Read more Articles written by John Khu.

How Can Blogging Help My Company Grow?

2009-10-20T16:45:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-17T11:15:00.001-07:00

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?

2009-10-17T01:00:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-04T01:30:00.001-07:00

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

Read more Articles written by Nancy Fraser.

Why You Must Find Out About Product Launches Early!

2009-09-25T22:45:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Willie Crawford

If you are an affiliate marketer, one secret to making more sales is finding out about product launches early. This is true even if you are new to affiliate marketing and have a very tiny list.

The reason that this is true is that when you find out about a product launch early, you can position yourself to take advantage of organic search engine traffic during the product launch. There are dozens of things that you can do so that you will rank near the top of the search engines for very important product-related keywords when you find out about a product launch early.

You can set up pages on dozens of web 2.0 type properties such as Blogger.com, Hubpages, Squidoo, etc., and if you have the right content on these pages you will rank very high for product-related keywords by launch date. The key is to get your pages up early, post often, and then get them noticed by the search engines. Product owners will often provide you with tons of just the right content!

Another reason that you want to find out about affiliate product launches early is that it gives you more time to prepare a bonus to offer purchasers of those product. It's no secret that the people who sell the most of a product during many launches are the ones who offers the most enticing bonuses. Since the basic product is the same no matter who the customer purchases from, that only makes sense. The bonus is what keeps the product that you're marketing from being just a commodity.

Often, there are numerous products being launched at the same time. Since you can only effectively promote one product at a time, knowing what product launches are coming up allows you to focus on the one most appropriate for your customers. It's very disheartening to plan for promoting a specific product, and then to discover on launch day that there is a product more suitable for your customers being launched on the same day.

When you promote any product, you really should plan out a complete promotional campaign. That is, you should flow out how and when you are going to do multiple promotions. Those promotions could include emails, interviews, articles, press releases, and perhaps even videos. You can't flow out these promotions unless you find out about the product launch early enough. Ideally, you plan a protracted campaign - one where you will continue to make sales even after the big launch is over.

Finally, you need to find out about product launches early because you need to allow sufficient time to actually get a review copy of the product, and to go through it with a fine-toothed comb. You absolutely should not promote any product that you haven't actually gone through, and with some of the more substantial products, that could take a week or more.

Those are just a few of the reasons that you really do want to stay informed on what new product launches are coming up in your niche. If you only learn of an impending product launch a few days, or even a week before it happens, you are so behind. Especially for great search engine positioning, there are things that you need to do at least a month in advance.

Decide today that you're going to keep up with all of the product launches in your industry, and market a lot smarter.

About the Author:
Willie Crawford is founder and executive director of The International Association of Joint Venture Brokers. IAJVB maintains a comprehensive database of upcoming product launches, giveaways, and internet marketing events. Get a free Silver IAJVB membership now at: http://IAJVB.ORG

Follow Willie Crawford on Twitter.

How Do I Use An Online Fax Service?

2009-09-25T01:15:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Titus Hoskins

Online or Internet fax has become an extremely popular service on the web. It is being used by more and more businesses and individuals who want a more mobile and a more secure way of faxing. Yet, many people still don't know exactly how online faxing actually works.

Like anything that is relatively new, it will probably take a while before this convenient service is widely known in the general population. Perhaps, the greatest stumbling block is that most people are so familiar with faxing via the old facsimile machine in the office; getting their heads around using the web for faxing will take some time.

However, just like email revolutionized how we send and receive our mail, so too has online fax revolutionized how we send and receive our faxes. Internet faxing is simply the more modern way to fax.

Actually, these two new communication methods are closely intertwined since online fax is basically using your email system and your Internet connection to do all your faxing. You send and receive your faxes as email attachments usually in TIFF or PDF format.

Remember, in order to use online fax you have to sign-up to an Internet fax service provider who will act as your intermediary to handle all your faxing. You will receive a local or Toll-Free number which you can give out to all your contacts. There is no need for an extra fax phone line. You will also receive an online site (account) where you can logon and do your faxing. Your faxes are also stored in this online account.

However, what confuses many people is the fact that you can send/receive your online faxes in many different ways including through the old traditional office machine. Your fax service will act as your intermediary to intercept your faxes coming from an ordinary fax machine and direct them to your online fax account.

You can also get desktop applications which will allow you to directly fax from your desktop. Most services will work with Windows Outlook and Windows Office. Finally, most services will let you send a fax by just sending an email, i.e. destination number(at)yourfaxservice.com - It doesn't get any easier than this.

Each fax service has slightly different procedures and methods so you have to become familiar with your chosen service. Also, each service will have different faxing rates and monthly fees, but most charge around $10 a month. There are less expensive services out there so it pays to shop around, especially when you consider this is a long term ongoing business expense.

The main reason why email or online faxing has become so popular is the total freedom it gives you. Since it is web based, you can send and receive a fax anywhere, anytime, as long as you have Internet access. You can use any mobile device such as a cell phone or laptop to do all your faxing. It totally frees you from being tied down to the old fax machine in the office.

Plus, your faxes can be encrypted so it is much more secure than the traditional way of faxing. And no one but you has to see your faxes since you have your own private access to your account. This is important if you have faxes of a sensitive nature which you want to keep private.

Lastly, another major reason online fax has become so popular, most faxing services are completely scalable for businesses. You can upsize or downsize depending on your company's requirements or needs. In this uncertain economy, having this flexibility is a major plus.

If you're not using an online fax service you may just be losing out on one of the most convenient ways of doing business. You really do need it if your business depends heavily on faxing for bringing in new sales and clients; besides you may be falling behind your competition who are probably already using this new more mobile way of faxing. Can you afford not to use Internet fax?

It's your call?

About the Author:
For more information on Internet Fax Services use this handy online Comparison Guide to get your own: online fax Or if you want more detailed information on Internet Faxing try here: internet fax services.

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

Read more of Titus Hoskins's articles.

Use Article Marketing To Add Value To Your Product

2009-09-23T09:30:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

Article Marketing is a form of advertising that can definitely add value to your product or service. By using articles written about your industry, you can establish yourself as an expert in your field and a trusted resource for your product or service. Article marketing can be equally effective in newspapers and magazines, although these traditional media lack some of the obvious advantages of new media.

People generally prefer to do business with someone they know and trust and article marketing gives you the opportunity to make yourself familiar to your target audience. Your articles should contain information of a general nature about the industry you are involved in, and should offer something useful and interesting to your readers. You will then have positively affected your target audience, and this, in turn, will have added value to your product.

Articles can be written by you or outsourced to a professional copywriter or ghostwriter. There are several good websites where you can connect with potential writers. You must use good grammar and spelling to establish yourself as a credible expert. The tone should be conversational, using simple but descriptive language and limiting technical terms. If technical jargon is required, always include an explanation of the term.

It is important to remember that your articles should be an informative and interesting read; they are not for directly promoting your product. Most publishing sites do not allow blatant sales letters to be published as articles, and you will only be damaging your reputation by distributing an article that is nothing but hard-sell copy.

Newspapers and magazines always need fresh copy, so submitting your articles to them may result in getting published. To have your articles published online, submit them to an online article directory. These directories allow you to put personal and contact information in a "Resource Box", and it is here that you directly advertise your business. The resource box is an important tool to encourage readers to click through to your site and then, hopefully, place an order.

Articles for online use will differ slightly from those intended for hard copy. In order for your articles to be picked up by Internet Search Engines, they need to incorporate search engine optimization ( SEO). This involves the use of common keywords or phrases that people would use to search for your topic on the Internet.

Keywords should be used throughout your writing so that the search engines can associate your article with the right search results. This is the single best way for interested people to find you online. The use of keywords should never be overdone, but there are a few critical places they should appear in every article.

1. Titles

Your title is very important; it's what the search engines list in their search results and if readers find your title interesting or informative, they'll click on it. And that's your goal. Obviously, your title should be what your article is about. Don't try to use all your keywords in the title. As always, keep it simple and get to the point; too many words in the title might confuse the search engines as well as readers.

2. Tags

Metatags are HTML codes that are put into your web page (in the header or body) and are used by search engines to find and describe your page. People viewing your page do not see them.

3. In the Article

Use your keywords in your article. You should also use semantically related words. For example, if your keyword is knitting, you should use words like, knitting needle, knit, knitting gear, how to knit and knitting pattern in your article. Using this strategy instead of just repeating your keyword over and over again will get you better results with search engines.

Just make sure that you don't over-use the keywords or make your articles artificial or hard to read. The best approach is to write naturally. A reader wants a quality article on a specific topic, not a bunch of keywords strung together.

4. In the Resource Box

Your Resource Box is a great place to use keywords. Just remember to use different ones every once in a while. This will help search engines figure out what your site is about. You can use the semantically related keyword strategy here as well, especially if you hyperlink the words.

Overall, you should develop about 20-30 keywords or key phrases, use a variety of them in your articles and update them regularly. Your keywords will evolve as your business evolves.

Another way to expose your articles to a global audience online is through blogging. You can upload articles to your blog, to give your readers interesting, useful information that can help them solve a problem or improve their lifestyle. Blogs are a great way of keeping in touch with customers and contacts, and continuing to add value to your product. Again, these blog articles must not be sales letters; they need to be interesting and informative. Blogs tend to be a more personal means of communicating with your readers, and this also helps to develop trust and respect for both you and your product.

If you follow these guidelines for article marketing to promote your online business, you will see your customers and your sales increase.

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 Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.

The Importance Of Creating Resistance In Your Copy

2009-09-20T05:45:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Bill Platt

"Creating Resistance in Your Copy" is an idea that is alien to most online marketers. After all, online marketers want to believe that everyone should buy their products and services, because the more people buying what is being sold, the more money the marketer will inevitably earn.

Alien Marketing Concept

This concept is so alien that most Internet marketers who see this article will react as if they are "deer in the headlights". If you are looking at this article with a blank stare - completely bewildered about my suggestion - then you are likely one of many, who are reacting the same way.

Just the other day, I had this conversation with a small businessperson. The person with whom I was speaking was clearly bewildered at the suggestion, and she asked me, "What exactly do you mean by 'create resistance'?"

I told her that "creating resistance" is the concept of eliminating some of your prospects, before they reach the sales page.

Taking a step back, she said, "What? Why would you want to do that?"

I explained to her what I am ready to explain to you now.

In her case, by the time I finished explaining the idea to her, she realized that she was already doing that - albeit, unconsciously.

Why Would Anyone Want To Create Resistance In Sales Copy?

When you are writing sales copy for a product, there is seldom a need to create resistance in your sales copy. In fact, when selling a product, the need is more often to wipe out, eliminate, diminish or neutralize consumer resistance in your sales copy.

Unless you are creating a product that sells for high dollar and you intend to offer it exclusively to a select number of people, the necessity of creating resistance in product sales copy is almost non-existent.

However, if you are selling a service, the reasons for creating resistance in your sales copy are endless.

For example:

One company we work with is an Internet marketing consulting company. The company provides its services to other businesses based on the billable hour or specific service.

In the case of this company, it does not make sense to talk to customers who cannot spend a minimum of $300 per month with them. As a result, they have created resistance in their sales copy to eliminate the broke, do-it-yourself, home business owner from their list of prospects. As a small consulting firm, it is essential for them to separate the wheat from the chaff quickly.

By requiring an appointment for a free consultation, they direct prospects to a form to be filled out. In that form, they require phone numbers and email addresses, and they request the prospect to be as detailed as possible so that the free consultation will be meaningful.

Another company we work with is a Virtual Assistant Agency. Once again, it is a matter of finding the customers who can actually afford the service. By telling prospects in advance that the minimum billing per month is $1000, the company is able to ensure that the only companies contacting them are those who seriously need virtual assistant(s) to help complete work.

By signing the contract, the customer acknowledges in advance that they should send enough work to the virtual assistant to ensure that the $1000 per month minimum will not go to waste.

Consumers Have A Natural Resistance To Sales Copy

All of the great sales copywriting teachers speak to the notion of "sales resistance" - the natural roadblocks in the mind of the consumer that holds the consumer back from making a purchase.

I actually found it quite interesting in that while researching this article, I could NOT find anyone talking about "creating resistance" in sales copy. The guru's are only talking about how to "eliminate" or "melt away sales resistance".

Now, one might argue that the reason no one is discussing the creation of resistance in sales copy is because one should not do it. But I have had this discussion with a lot of people. Although no one is talking about doing it, service providers who have been in business for a number of years tend to deliberately build "sales resistance" into their sales presentations!

Identifying And Eliminating Time Wasters

Once a service business has been in operation a number of years, the owners / managers of those businesses tend to start seeing patterns that frequently cause financial losses to the company.

When as a business owner / manager, you discover that certain customers cost more money than they generate for your business, you will seek ways to remedy that problem. Often times, it makes far more sense not to sell to certain people - the people who have exhibited certain traits that will lead to nothing but lost productivity for the service provider.

If you operate a service business, you will likely have seen similar patterns yourself. In my case, there are certain behaviors that some prospects exhibit that set off red flags for me. I used to ignore those "red flag" moments, but I always regretted doing so later.

The number one red flag for me in my business is the "carrot on the stick" approach offered by some prospects. It goes something like this: "I am going to try this once, and if it works out, I will send you tons of business."

When I was in college, I used to wait tables in a restaurant. I saw the same behavior even then. People would come in and make grandiose promises at the beginning of the meal, "If you give us great service, we tip really well."

Don't believe it for a moment! It is a lie, usually designed to get something for nothing or to encourage you to discount your services, "just for them".

When I was waiting tables, it did not matter how good of service you gave those guys. You could ignore every other table in the restaurant to give them better service and the tip never exceeded two pennies!

In my business, if you bite the bait, they will take their discount this "one time", and then they are gone... forever... I know their disappearance is not because my service is less than worthy... I have too many customers who have been with me for years; to believe that my service was the reason those people never came back.

I have learned that the "carrot on the stick" approach is designed to take advantage of people - to take advantage of me.

Once a prospect raises this red flag for me, I kill the free advice and the extra attention that I give to their job. I do the job and let the chips fall where they may - my basic service will stand on its own, without any effort to help the customer get more out of it. I will not let this person waste any more of my time, period. Unless this person comes back for additional service, I no longer spend extra time with them.

Eliminating Time Wasters Is Easy If You Create Resistance In Your Copy

As a service provider, you DO want to eliminate "sales resistance" in your basic sales copy. Once you have tweaked your copy to help the majority of your prospects to overcome their natural resistance to your sales message, then it is time to add some resistance back into your copy.

You want as many people to buy your service as possible, but you also want to discourage those that you know will be a waste of your time and resources.

My friend who has the consulting business allows people an initial consultation to help him and the customer to determine if they will be able to work together and if his consulting company will be able to add value to the prospects business. In his sales copy, he points out that after the initial consultation, all hours will be billable hours. Because he makes his prospects jump through hoops to get the free consultation, he is assured that he is only going to have real prospects at the other end of the phone line during a free consultation. And because his prospects understand that all work beyond the initial free consultation is billable work, they don't waste his limited time.

The Virtual Assistant does not need to layer on the resistance at the same level. By clearly explaining what one should expect in terms of the service within the first thirty days of the agreement, it becomes self-evident to the prospect that the service is not for the faint at heart. Investing in a virtual assistant can be a bit expensive, but the payoff can also be quite large. By laying out a map of what one can expect from the service, it clearly defines to the prospect what the cost of such a service could be. And as such, it quickly filters out those people who are not a good fit for the Virtual Assistant's company.

In my case, I don't provide much sales resistance in my sales copy to my prospective customers. In fact, the only sales resistance in my copy is my prices.

The companies that call me a competitor have lower prices than I do - much lower prices. Although they refer to me as one of THEIR competitors, I really don't consider them to be mine. My service is so much different from theirs that I find it very difficult to think of them as "MY competition".

For people who take the time to get educated about my service or to take it for a real spin around the block with a full ten article distributions, my higher prices are often considered a great investment of resources. With the built-in sales resistance in the form of a higher price, my customers ensure that I always serve higher-quality authors - authors who understand that the power of article marketing is in the strength of the content.

I Might Be Going Out On A Limb With This Article...

The fact that I could not find anyone else discussing the value of "adding sales resistance to sales copy" may suggest that I am just a total goof. But I do know for a fact that small business owners in the service industry do deliberately create sales resistance in their copy.

In the conversation that I mentioned in the beginning of this article - the one where I was discussing this idea with a small businessperson, who had her "deer in the headlights" moment - the lady I was speaking with said to me after I explained the concept to her, "Oh, you mean like when I tell my customers that we provide 'quality' over 'quantity'?"

Indeed! Telling your prospects that you provide 'quality' over 'quantity' automatically tells your prospects that your services may be a bit more expensive, but the quality of the work will more than make up for the difference in pricing.

I know that many small business owners do deliberately build sales resistance into their sales copy, and I cannot blame them for doing so.

I also know that my pricing is a disincentive to some people to use my services. But that is okay too. The publishers who receive articles from me know that I distribute a higher quality article. They may not realize that it is because of the pricing resistance on my site, but they do know that we typically distribute some of the best-written articles available online, from some of the biggest names in their industries.

At the end of a ten-article cycle, most of my customers find that their articles have found publication on websites that have a much higher perceived value in the Internet marketplace. In fact, it is not at all uncommon for me to hear from clients who are happy to share that they have generated several thousand dollars in new sales as a result of an article I distributed for them. Now that is music to my ears...

About the Author:
Bill Platt has owned and operated http://thePhantomWriters.com/ since 2001. If you would like to learn more about his article distribution service, visit his website. To read 100's of Bill's Tweet-sized tips for article marketing, SEO, and more, visit: http://thePhantomWriters.com/tips/index.php Bill is also active on Twitter @contentmanager

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Important Issues to Remember Before Buying an Expired Domain Name

2009-09-18T23:00:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu

Buying expired domains is a tricky topic! You will need to be very careful while buying an expired domain because many of these domains may have some problems associated with their registration. There have been instances when the previous owner decided to approach the legal authorities to reclaim their expired domains. While you need to be very careful in your dealings, you may also need to consider the following issues before buying domains that are expiring.

The issue of domain trademark: Make sure that the domain that you buy does not have any trademark associated with it. You will need to be very careful in dealing with domains that have trademarks against their URL. You could even land in potential legal hassles when you buy such domains. You may wish to conduct a detailed research to check whether the domain expired has any trademark. Use one of the web sites that provide information on trademarks.

The issue of corporate expired domain names: Many domain names have a close relation with corporate businesses. If a company or a business firm owns the domain names, you may even forfeit such domain names. In some instances, companies may simply forget to renew some of their domain names.

Tip: It is almost difficult to find out who is the real owner of a domain name before it expired. However, you can still find out more about a particular expired domain name.

To find out more about expired domains and their previous ownership, use these tools to conduct a detailed research:

a) Go to www.alexa.com that maintains a big database of millions of web sites. You can find out details like link popularity, ownership, traffic, ratings or rankings etc in this exhaustive web site. Just use the following URL to check the previous history of the web domain: (http://xslt.alexa.com/data?cli=100&url=DOMAIN.COM). Some times, you may never find any information on some of the domain names.

b) Go to www.google.com to check the cache status of the expired domain names. Google always maintains a cache directory of web sites by using its spider technology. It is possible to visit a cached online copy of a web domain, including expired ones. With this tool, you can find out if the expired domain you want to buy had any trademark associated with it. Type the URL of the expired domain into the Google search engine box and make sure that you are checking the cache copy of the expired web domain.

c) Use link popularity checking tools: You can find out more about previously owned expired domains. Choose any of the link popularity checking web sites and enter the URL of the expired domain to check the links against the name. This gives you a fair estimate of the number of online references related to the domains. Zero values mean that the domain expired did not have any activity while higher values signify that the domain was very active in its previous avatar. However, the downside of this method is that you may find it very difficult to find the quality of these links. Some domains may have just a few links associated with it. However, these links may be very good in that they came from high quality web sites. On the other hand, an expired domain may have lot of links that came from insignificant web domains. Making a comparison just on the number of links may be quite premature and improper.

By using the above mentioned tools, you can find out minute and precise information about your expired domain. However, use these tools with utmost caution and without any prejudice as some of the data extracted could be misleading.

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.

Critical Steps to Successful Sales Lead Generation in Google

2009-09-18T07:15:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Paul Marshall

Some website owners are more frustrated about Google optimization than for other search engines. They feel it is harder to perform search engine optimization for Google.

Whether you are making direct sales from your website or sales lead generation (or both), optimizing for Google doesn't need to be that hard.

In fact, in time you may find it easier to perform SEO for Google than for other search engines.

Remember That Google Is Much Smarter Than The Other Search Engines

Since Google is more intelligent, you have to treat them differently.

If you're trying to spam them, their intelligence is going to be a problem for you. If you're playing by the rules and providing valuable content for searchers, then you should have no problem.

What Google wants is valuable content that satisfies their users' search queries. They want searchers to find what they're looking for, not clicking the back button quickly, but who stay on the sites they visit.

There are some in the SEO community who believe time your visitors spent on your site is one of the calculations Google uses right now in their algorithm to assign organic rankings.

Whether this is the case or not is really irrelevant: we should all want to deliver quality content that meets our searchers query, keeps them on our sites and that leads to a conversion, a sale or sales lead generation.

Are You Optimizing For Yahoo! Search And Bing, Too?

With Yahoo! Search and Bing (formerly Live Search and previously MSN) you need to have the keyword phrase you optimize for on the page. There may be some exceptions, but this is a solid rule to follow.

The order of the keywords makes a difference with them, too.

As an example, with Google, Blue Widget and Widget Blue are treated the same way. Not so with Yahoo! and Live, they are treated as completely different search phrases.

Given the very high market share that Google has, you may want to just optimize for Google and not Yahoo! or Live. After all, depending on whose numbers you're looking at, Google's market share is basically 60% to 70% of all U.S. searches!

(And there are hundreds of other much smaller search engines, with such small market shares that they aren't normally worth worrying about.)

But if you decide to also optimize for Yahoo! Search and for Live Search, then you will likely have to create more pages, to cover all your keyword phrases.

So, as you create more pages for your keywords, you clutter up the Internet, unless those pages are really unique, valuable content.

And then there is that duplicate content filter that Google has...you don't want to run afoul of that.

If you do optimize for the other engines, unless the additional content is very unique, you might be advised to keep Google out of those pages (using your robots.txt file).

Knowing That Google Is More Intelligent, How Do We Optimize Differently For Google?

With Google's use of LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing), your pages do NOT actually have to contain the keyword phrase(s) you're optimizing for. But your pages had better contain words strongly related to your chosen keyword phrases.

In fact, it is common to see high ranking pages where the keyword phrase isn't in any of the HTML tags and where it also isn't in the page text, either. Common keyword density numbers for top ranking pages in Google range from 30% all the way down to 0% keyword density.

Why is this and how do we benefit performing Google optimization?

Google is smart enough to understand similar words and phrases (now is when we get to use that word Synonym from English class). Thus, the actual keyword phrase doesn't have to be on the page. But words related to the same theme as your keyword phrases need to be on the page.

But if our keywords don't actually have to be on the page for Google to understand the page is about our subject (our keyword phrases), how does Google make that determination?

Off-Page SEO Is The Key To Your Google Optimization And To Your Sales Lead Generation

The links from other websites to your Web pages and what these links say about your pages is the KEY to optimizing for Google. Remember, links need to be pointed towards your interior pages, not just to your home page.

And those links need anchor text.

Anchor text is the wording that people click on to go to your Web page, when the actual link doesn't show your website url (and file name, if going to an interior page).

Anchor text tells Google (and to a lesser degree, other search engines) what your Web page is about.

Even if the actual keyword phrases aren't used on your page, the theme of the page text should match the anchor text pointed to that page. You want the wording to be compatible and complimentary.

You don't want to confuse Google as to your pages' themes. That can cause real problems.

Quantity Versus Quality

When considering links to your Web pages, quantity is important. You will have to research your competition to give you an idea as to the number of links you may need.

Two tools you can look into are SEO Elite and OptiLink. You can Google both.

But MUCH more important is the quality of your links. The better quality your links, the fewer you will need versus your competition.

Part of how you can evaluate quality of potential links to your site is that site's home page Google Page Rank.

Now, Google Page Rank is on a page-basis, not a site-wide basis. But the home page Page Rank can tell you if Google considers that site to be an "authority site".

You can install the free Google toolbar if you haven't already and activate the Page Rank feature. While the information is literally months old, it's the easiest way to view a page's Page Rank.

You want some links to your site from websites with a home page Google Page Rank of at least 5.

One thing you do want to watch: Don't have to high a percentage of your links containing the same anchor text. Aim for no more than 50% of your anchor text to any page being the same exact anchor text.

Wrapping It Up

For effective Google optimization, start by pointing enough quality links to your Web pages. One-way links are much more effective than reciprocal links, where you link back to the site that has linked to you.

Stay away from triangulated or 3-way links schemes. This is where site A links to site B which in turn links to site C. This is a "no-no" which Google can catch and will penalize for.

Use your keywords as anchor text for your links. Hold down the percentage...don't have 70% of your links to one page using the same exact anchor text!

Even if you don't have the keyword phrases on your page, you can still have top rankings, as long as your links' theme matches your Web page content those links are aimed at.

Following this strategy, you can also optimize your pages for more than one keyword phrase. And without creating dozens and dozens of junk pages, just to cover all your keywords.

You'll be able to increase your online sales and your sales lead generation, more easily.

About the Author:
Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a budget. He's a Sales Lead Generation expert and an Affordable SEO Services specialist offering affordable marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). Receive your Free Introductory Consultation, just visit Strategic Web Marketing.net today!

Read more of Paul Marshall's articles.

Article Marketing - Writing for the Internet

2009-09-17T06:30:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

Article marketing incorporates writing carefully and concisely for a target audience on the Internet. While all writing begins with good grammar, accurate spelling and compelling content, there are several differences between print writing and online writing in both structure and purpose. Online articles tend to be shorter than printed text, as do the individual sentences that make up the text. Readers usually skim what they see online, so articles are not only shorter, but often broken up into small sections rather than presented as a large block of text.

Writing online articles for the purpose of article marketing involves targeting a specific audience and providing them with relevant content that is usually intended to drive them to another resource by way of a link.

Internet Writing and SEO

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a strategy for increasing traffic to a website using organic search engine results. In terms of article marketing, this means creating an article that is targeted around keywords readers might use to search for your content in the search engines. In order to drive targeted traffic to the content of the article, the article will need to rank high in the search engines. To do this, your desired keywords must be sprinkled generously throughout the text in a natural way that doesn't make the content seem like a sales pitch.

Search engines use programs that scan the content of a website by sending "spiders" to crawl every bit of information on the site. The most widely-used search engines place a great deal of importance on backlinks, or links to a site from other websites. Article marketing helps to get these links because you have inserted them in the author's bio at the end of the article. They point to your site for readers interested in your content as well as spiders crawling the web searching for relevant linked-up websites.

An Emphasis on Quality

Quality content is one of the most important aspects of successful article marketing. Providing your readers with relevant information that delivers what they are searching for will drive not just traffic to your site, but targeted, trusting readers who respect what you have to offer. Furthermore, many article directories have quality control measures that protect against low quality articles. Misinformation or invalid content often will not be listed on these directories, let alone indexed by the search engines.

The Importance of Effective Titles

The title of an online article is essential to the success of the marketing campaign. A title that contains targeted keywords not only helps readers find the content they need, but also boosts the article's search engine rankings. Choosing the title of an online article is a balancing act that involves drawing in potential readers with clever catchiness but also satisfying the search engines' ranking system.

Straightforward and Uncluttered

Online readers tend to scan what they read online and need their text broken up into small logically flowing chunks. As a result, the body of the text may be divided by headlines or broken up into short paragraphs. Using sub-headings, lists, bullet points and bold key phrases are effective ways to create an article that is easy enough to read so that you will not lose your audience. The importance of keyword usage still remains, but splitting up the text into snackable chunks can hook readers and ease them from the first word to the last.

Get Grammar Guidance

Writing effective articles for the Internet takes time, research and practice to become an expert. Here are a few tips:

When writing to your audience, write using the active voice to make your words more direct, clear and concise.

Always use proper grammar and avoid slang.

Always run your text through a spell-checker to avoid simple but glaring errors.

If your text includes any specialized terms, define them for your audience so their read is easy and enjoyable.

Do not, under any circumstances, copy text from another source. This is not only wrong, it will make your article plummet in the search engine rankings due to duplicate content.

If you want to learn more about writing there are many good books available. A great one to start with is William Zinsser's On Writing Well: the Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction.

Outsourcing

If you don't feel that you can produce high-quality articles yourself, one solution is to outsource the work to freelance writers. While this can be an efficient way to get your articles written, you must make sure to find trustworthy writers who can produce content at the level of quality you desire. Outsourcing can work only if you identify a resource or company that provides writers at a cost effective rate with consistent and reliable delivery of high quality content.

Article marketing can be a powerful strategy for generating targeted traffic and backlinks to your site. It can increase both your credibility and your search engine rankings. But to be successful, you need to employ the unique style of writing specific to the Internet. Online writing is different from print writing in structure and content, but successful online writing is guaranteed to help your business's bottom line.

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 Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.

4 Keys to Choosing the Best Affiliate Programs for Your Business

2009-09-17T05:45:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Judy Murdoch

A couple weeks ago, one of my clients sent me an email with this question:

"I've been checking out a couple programs that say I can make lots of money by including affiliate links on my website. I could really use the extra cash right now. What do you think?"

The client asking this question is a coach who is creating his own information products.

He knows there will be a lag between the time he launches his program and when he starts getting substantive income. He'd like to find an alternative revenue source to tide him over.

A Typical Affiliate Program

Amazon.com was one of the first online merchants to use an affiliate program. I've been an Amazon.com affiliate for many years.

Here's how I use Amazon.com's affiliate program.

I work with small business owners and help them with marketing issues. Naturally, I will suggest books that I've read and think are useful for small business owners who are looking for marketing help.

I recommend these books on my website and it's very easy to include a link so someone interested in buying one of those books can go directly to Amazon.com to learn more...maybe buy the book.

As an Amazon.com affiliate, I get a special link so that if that person actually buys the book, I get a small commission.

This in a nutshell is how affiliate programs work.

Sharing the Love

In the best sense, affiliate programs can be a win for everyone:

- you get a little extra money for making a recommendation that you would have made regardless (I was recommending these books long before I became an Amazon affiliate).

- Amazon.com gets more traffic (and building traffic is always desirable) and more sales (again, always desirable)

- The person making the purchase gets a valuable resource they otherwise wouldn't have known about

Affiliate Mania!

Over the years, gobs of companies have been jumping into the affiliate game. It's easy to understand the attraction of offering an affiliate program.

And something else started happening: everyone and their dog started offering affiliate programs. Along with the mad proliferation of affiliate programs, websites with no other purpose than being a collection of affiliate links began popping up.

The idea behind these sites is people go to your website and see lots and lots of links to click on. If they click on a link and buy something, Voila! you get some money.

Affiliates of Easy Virtue?

Some folks think having website that is, essentially, pages of links is a really super idea.

Myself, I think it's an example of a good idea taken to ridiculous extremes.

From a practical perspective, affiliate link farms depend on getting massive amounts of traffic. Unless you want to work your butt off getting traffic to your website (and you WILL have to work very hard because you have lots of competition) you will never generate the level of traffic you need to earn decent money.

What bugs me more than anything is the lack of added value. Putting up a web page with a bunch of links chosen based on the commission you'll get isn't bringing any value into the world.

You're not sharing your own knowledge and experience to help others. You're simply directing visitors to other businesses.

Finally, affiliate mania makes for bizarre bedfellows hence the term "affiliates of easy virtue."

There are literally hundreds of thousands of affiliates out there. How many are selling products that you can really feel good about reselling to other people? Are these affiliate programs about making a difference or mostly about lining the sellers pockets?

4 Keys to Selecting Win-Win Affiliates for Your Business

I'm a business owner and I like making money when it's because I helped my clients solve a problem or do something better. There's a sweetness when you make money because you add value. I can't imagine selling stuff and not caring whether or not it helps my customer.

Here are 4 keys I recommend when you consider which affiliates to participate in:

- Good Fit With Your Business

I help small business owners create inexpensive, results-based marketing programs. My clients typically need help doing things like building websites, creating blogs, attracting subscribers to read articles and offers, and selling products and services online.

Naturally I recommend website hosts, email list management services, shopping carts, and merchant account services. The vendors I use for these services offer affiliate programs and it makes perfect sense that I participate in those programs.

I am NOT an affiliate for weigh*t loss potions, stain removers, or real estate training programs because these have nothing to do with how I help my own customers.

- Shared Values

When a product or service rubs you the wrong way, chances are good that the values held by seller are in conflict with your values.

For example, I see my business as way not only to make money but to make a positive difference in the world. For this reason I don't participate in affiliates that, in my opinion, aren't adding anything substantive to the world.

- You Use The Products And Services Yourself

The only affiliates I participate in are ones whose products and services I actually use. I feel uncomfortable making money recommending something that I, myself wouldn't use.

- Decent Commission

All things being equal, I would choose the affiliate program offering a more generous affiliate commision.

The key qualifier here being "all things being equal."

Bottom Line

Affiliate programs are hot, hot, hot these days for good reasons.

But affiliate programs are NOT about money for nothing.

Affiliate programs are meant to enhance and supplement your core products and services...not to replace substantive products and services or to detract from them.

As long as you can be in integrity with the affiliate programs you support, they are a great source of extra revenue as well as a way to offer more value to your customers.

When this is the case, it's a very sweet way to share the love.

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

Follow Judy Murdoch on Twitter.

Selling Your Expired Domains - Unexplained Secrets and Tips (Part II)

2009-09-17T04:30:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu

Selling your expired domains on auction sites is quite easy provided you learn and master the fundamental aspects of auction process. Quite a few number of auction sites allow you to sell your expired domains for a low set up and auction fee. Good domains can sell like hot cakes on these sites while the profit made by selling such domains could be very worthwhile as well.

Afternic.com, dnjournal.com, namedrive.com sedo.com and ebay.com are some of the web portals that help you to auction your web sites. However, EBay seems to be the best web portals for auctioning purposes because of the factor of flexibility and ease of selling. This web portal comes to you with an immense reputation of being the best auction site in the world.

Most auction sites provide a number of user-friendly features that will help you sell you domain names with considerable ease. Some of the most popular options provided by these sites are:

Auction Registrar: An auction registrar has the ability to register expired domains on behalf of those who show an interest in buying the names. ICAAN accredited registrars can help you sell the domain names to your customers.

Auction types - Almost all auction houses provide different auctioning procedures to make the process easier. Some of the most popular auction processes are:

Public auctions: By far, this is the most common type of auction process. You can set your own price for your expired domains on which a potential buyer can bid for the highest price. The highest bidder will win the expired domain. You can even set a reserve price for your domain when you perceive that the anticipated price is too low, below your actual price. You can set your own time to finish the auction process; usually, auctioneers set a period of around 7 days.

Buy It Now Auctions: You can suggest a special Buy it now price for those potential buyers who want to buy your expired domains almost immediately. Once your buyer confirms the buying intention, he or she will have to pay the set amount and purchase the domain name.

Reverse Auctions: Also called Dutch auctions, you can use these auctions when you auction your domains at the exact price that you want to receive. The only downside of this process is that the price of the domain may drop with each day. Price will fall continuously until a potential buyer chooses to the buy the names.

More tips to sell your domain names:

a) Make sure that you provide a free expired domain appraisal report so that the potential buyer can study the viability of buying them.

b) Ensure that the domain names you want sell offer a decent value to your clients.

c) If you feel that you have trouble in selling a particular expired domain name, use an extended auction feature with promotional tool like bold or highlighted listing.

d) Make sure that you complete the ownership transfer as soon as possible.

e) You can even create a small brochure to highlight all positive features of the expired domain names like incoming links, current traffic and Page Rank if any.

f) Relist the auction as and when necessary. Ensure that you offer lower price if the domain name does not sell even after an extended listing period.

g) If you are selling a premium domain name, you can consider giving a free domain as an incentive. Bundled offers are very common in any auction process.

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.

4 Keys to a Free Product That Grows Your Mailing List

2009-09-14T15:45:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Judy Murdoch

If you are selling products and services on the Internet you are probably very aware of how valuable a list of subscribers is.

Periodic, relevant information is the main way to build the trust and credibility needed for customers and prospects to take action:

to click the Buy Now button

to pick up the phone to schedule an appointment

to complete an application

etc.

I cannot over-emphasize the importance of creating trust-based relationships in business. This is what periodic emails to your list allow you to do.

If your business is relatively new to online marketing, building a subscription list can feel pretty daunting. I've had many conversations with small business owners who are love the idea of email marketing and inevitably the question, "How do you get all these subscribers anyway?"

And that is the question I'm going to answer in this article.

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Why Building Your List Can Be a Struggle
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I know when I began my ezine, after the initial signups by folks in my immediate circle, adding new subscribers was a painfully slow process.

I received some glowing complements from subscribers and a couple marketing experts whose opinion I valued. And everything I read insisted that content is the most important component to succeeding in the online marketing game.

So I had good content; where was the rush of subscribers?

Simple: I was competing with thousands of other requests to subscribe.

People need a good reason to subscribe to your ezine. Why they should choose your ezine rather than the hundred other on the same topic.

One way to make your ezine the best choice is to give your subscribers something they can immediately use and get value from.

This is why a free product you give people when they subscribe to your ezine is so important.

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Providing Some Relief
=============================================

A lesson I learned from my coach, Mark Silver, is the importance of providing prospects some relief from a problem they're struggling with.

After all that's why most people are at your website to begin with yes? They have some sort of question or problem and they're looking for help. Whether they found your website doing a Google search or through a link on someone's blog, they're wanting help and they're hoping you'll provide it.

Free products that they can quickly download from your website are ideal for meeting this need.

In addition, when they use your free product and get some relief there is no better way to build your credibility! People are far more likely to purchase from you when they've already gotten a demonstration of the difference you make.

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What's the Best Free Product to Offer?
=============================================

The one question that comes up more than any other around the free give-away is "what should my give-away be?"

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4 Keys to Choosing a Free Product (with Subscription)
=============================================

Key #1 Easy to Get Online

Remember whatever it is you offer, you want to make it very easy for your prospect to get online.

Fortunately, it's cheap and simple to create a product that is easy to download. I recommend:

An article, report, or how-to guide people can download as an Adobe Acrobat file (.pdf)

An audio recording they can listen to on the Internet (mp3 is currently the most popular format)

A video they can watch from your website (many computers now have a built-in camera making it easy to create short videos)

Key #2 Solves a Problem Most of Your Ideal Customers Struggle With

When I was trying to decide what free product would be best to offer with my ezine, I initially chose a report on getting more referrals from customers.

How to get referrals is a hugely popular topic among small business owners for very good reasons. But there were a couple drawbacks to this product:

(1.) You need a few satisfied customers who will refer you to others. This can be difficult for many new businesses.

(2.) Referrals are largely an in-person phenomenon. Referral programs work best when you offer local, in-person services. This isn't to say that an online business can't leverage referrals but it takes a lot longer because you don't have the non-verbal cues that naturally come from live contact.

Instead I decided to offer a how-to workbook showing business owners how to create an "audio-logo"--a simple, conversational introduction they could use in situations in which they might be meeting prospective customers.

Most business owners I know struggle with introducing themselves in a way that tells the other person "this is who I help" without sounding like they're reading their "elevator" script.

Voilla, this is how my free workbook came about.

Key #3. Is a first Step (Not the Entire Solution)

It's important to offer a solution that is appropriate to the level of trust and commitment your intended user has with your business. It's meant to be an appetizer; not a meal

One of my clients offers money management services for people working in the arts many of whom find the topic of money boring, painful, and distasteful.

Rather than immediately ask them to get into the numbers, she created a fun, easy to do Money Beliefs Assessment. The assessment is light-hearted and empathetic AND anyone who takes the assessment will learn something important about how their money beliefs may be getting in the way of their success.

Key #4. Easy to Use So People Get Results

The reason you want to offer a first step to solving a common problem is you want to give your client an easy win.

Remember, the purpose of your product is to provide relief. If it doesn't help the person get some relief you hurt your credibility.

A product that gets used and produces results is more valuable than any claim you could make in your advertising.

When they get results what happens? They come back for more. They begin to trust you to help with their more complex problems. They feel safe to invest more time, effort, and money to work with you.

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Bottom Line
=============================================

If you are trying to build your email list, offering a free product with the subscription will help you attract subscribers faster than if you were offering the subscription alone.

The best product to give away with your subscription is one that:

is easy to get online

solves a problem that is common to most of your clients

addresses the first step to solving that problem

and is likely to produce a positive result

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

Follow Judy Murdoch on Twitter.

Increase Your Sales With Blog Marketing

2009-09-11T07:00:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

A savvy and free way to increase your business sales is through blog marketing. No matter what business you're in, you can increase your business with a focused blog marketing campaign. You may shy away from blog marketing because you feel that you might not be a good writer, or simply don't like to write. This is understandable. But the truth is that many blog marketers nowadays don't even write their own content. They pay someone else to do it.

In fact, you can pay someone else to write dozens of articles to keep your blog going. You can come up with ideas if you want to, but you can just as easily give your writers a broad general topic idea and have them come up with streamlined topics for blog entries. The best course of action is truly up to you, but paying writers to craft your blog entries is not expensive and may save you trouble in the long run.

Once you've determined how your blog will be written, the next thing you must do is focus on the keywords that your blog will include. There is a lot of information out there on keyword research and niche marketing but, in essence, what you want to do is find keywords that are searched highly and don't have a lot of competition. Competition means that there are a lot of other pages that come up when you search under that keyword.

You want to have less than 30,000 pages of competition in the Google search results in order to determine that a keyword is viable. And you want to use a keyword tool like the one on Wordtracker to determine how many searches the term receives per day. Go for keywords that get close to or over 100,000 searches with very little competition. This way, you have a really good chance to get to the top of the search engines with your blog.

The reason blog marketing is so effective is because blog marketing allows you to provide the ultimate content that the search engine spiders are looking for when they crawl webpages. The search engine spiders are looking for pages that provide content which contains a fair number of the keywords that the Internet user is looking for, along with information that the user might find useful.

The search engines know that readers don't just want a blatant sales pitch all the time. They want the reader to get the most accurate information for his or her needs.

Blogs provide information about products and services that customers might enjoy. Some of them contain reviews, opinions or instructions. There are no hard and fast rules for blogging.

Blogs are not ecommerce sites and are, therefore, viewed favorably by many of the search engines. You want to make sure, however, that you don't have too much keyword-density and too little real content filling up your blog. You want to have truly useful articles that people will find interesting.

One of the wonderful things about the Internet is that it can provide people with informative content that makes an interesting read. If you can become an information resource in your field, people will be more likely to buy from you. Why? Because they will trust you. They might not buy from you right away, but they will probably patronize you at some point in time.

The audience you build with your blog can help you in a number of ways. Some people will, of course, purchase from you. Others may help build your business by telling a friend, mentioning you on their website, or promoting your products or services on their blog.

Another important step in blog marketing is determining where you want to host your blog. There are many options and some of them are free. If you like, you can also build your blog within your website, but then you won't be taking advantage of an external link that your blog could provide to your website.

After you set up your blog, make sure your blog meta tags and titles are optimized to the best of your ability, just like your website. You may also want to add media, like videos. This can make your content more diverse and interesting to the search engines, as well.

Submit your blog to social marketing sites every day and submit unique keyword optimized articles to some of the most popular article directories every week. Eventually people will begin to read your blog and if they find the information useful, they will want to know more about your business.

Blog marketing, used in conjunction with many of the other online marketing strategies, is a valuable way to increase the public's view of your brand, and hopefully your sales.

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.

The Secret to Starting a Successful Online Business

2009-09-10T05:45:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Ruth Barringham

It goes without saying that everyone who starts up an online business wants to be successful. Having an online business means you can "retire" and work online. With your own successful online business you quit your day job. No more commuting. No more boss. No more 9-to-5 drudgery.

But how do you set up an online business if you don't know where to start?

There is a secret to setting up a successful online business that no one ever wants to talk about. The so-called internet "gurus" don't talk about it because they want to sell you their product that they claim will make you instantly rich. Some of them will even offer to give you a free money-making web site. But why would anyone give away a web site that makes lots of money? Because these sites are designed to make them rich; not you.

There are lots of money-making scams on the internet and they are easy to spot because they are full of hype and promises that you can "get-rich-quick!"

None of this is true. Any logical person knows that it's impossible to go to bed poor and wake up rich (unless you win the lotto while you're asleep).

The real secret to a successful online business is just four small letters. W-O-R-K. And that really is all there is to it.

But because the word "work" conjures up mental images of toil and sweat, no one wants to talk about it. But it's worth doing if your goal is to have financial freedom and the luxury of working from home.

The way to create your own online business is to first build a web site from scratch and work your way up. This means knowing how to write HTML code which is the cornerstone of all web sites.

HTML code isn't difficult to understand once you know what you're doing. Even if you only understand basic HTML, you'll have a firm foundation to grow your business from. Web designers will try and tell you that building web sites is difficult and is best left the professionals (meaning them). But they only say that to serve their own interests because if you build your own web site, they're out of a job.

Understanding how to write HTML code is also handy if you do hire a professional web designer in the future because you'll understand their jargon and know if they're trying to over-charge you.

But ultimately being able to write HTML code and build all your own web sites gives you the freedom to design your sites exactly as you want them and it puts you more in control of your online business.

But before you build your first web site you need to know what niche you want to work in.You can have a web site in any niche (subject) you want but it needs to be something that you're really interested in so that you can stay enthusiastic about your site. If you can't get enthusiastic about your niche topic, it will show in your web site and ultimately your income will suffer.

Once you know what you want to make your web site about then you should start small with just a simple site that has only a few pages. A site that's too big too soon will quickly become too much.

You can place a few PPC (Pay Per Click) advertisements on your site by simply copying and pasting a small script onto your web pages. Ads are then displayed automatically and whenever a visitor clicks on an ad, you earn money. These ads vary in payment from only a few cents per click, up to several dollars. So you can imagine how quickly that adds up day after day.

Next you need to find a few affiliate products to sell. There are plenty of companies on the internet that use affiliate programs to boost sales. There are also quite a few giant affiliate directories where you can find hundreds of products from lots of different companies. You just join an affiliate program for free, place ads for the products on your web site, and whenever someone clicks on one of your ads and makes a purchase, you earn a commission. And some of the commissions pay as high as 75%.

Affiliate sales are a great way to generate income if you don't have a product of your own to sell. Some people earn their whole online income this way with some affilaites earning in excess of $200,000 a year. And it's easy to see how.

Say you have a web site that advertises exercise equipment and someone clicks through one of your links and buys a treadmill. You could earn over $600 from a sale like that by doing nothing more than placing a small advertisement on your site. Of course not all commissions are that high. But even if you're only making $20 a time from selling e-books, you only need to make a few sales every day to earn a full-time income.

Eventually you may even consider selling your own products online. Most people start by selling small information products such as e-books because there's no expensive production required and no shipping costs.

Of course, just because you have a web site doesn't mean that you'll get a lot of visitors. So you also need to do some online marketing to drive visitors (called "traffic") to your site.

Marketing can be done for free. You can market by writing articles and uploading them to the online article directories. You can give away free things such as short reports. Or you can market your site using free videos and audio pod casts.

But whichever method you use to drive traffic to your web site, you have to make sure that once your visitors get there, your web page content is appealing, informative and compelling enough to make them want to stay awhile and click on your PPC ads or make a purchase through one of your affiliate links.

Of course, these are not the only ways to build a profitable web site. But they are a great way to start. And once you know what works for your site and what doesn't, you can add more pages and make it as big as you want, or you can build more sites and create what is known as VRE (Virtual Real-Estate). And as you can probably imagine, more sites, means more sales and more PPC ads which all adds up to more money.

So although building your own successful online business might seem like W-O-R-K in the beginning, the quicker you can grow your site the quicker you will profit from it. So working 8 hours a day on your web site will build it quicker than working only 1-2 hours.

Just start with the basics; learn HTML code, learn how to write compelling web page content and learn the simplest ways to start making money online. Doing it this way will give you complete control over your online business.

And you'll find that running your own online business is not only interesting and fun but it's also extremely profitable.

And if that's what you really want, then you need to stop dreaming about it and get to work right now.

As the old saying goes; be a doer, not a gunner.

About the Author:
Written by: Ruth Barringham. Imagine how great it would be if you could live the life you've always desired by working from home running your own online business. If this is something you've always dreamed of doing, don't put if off any longer. Find out how how simple it is to start your own online business at http://www.newonlinecourse.net/

Read more of Ruth Barringham's articles.

Expired Domain Market - Realities and Perceptions (Part II)

2009-09-09T20:30:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu

Expired domain market can make you immensely rich when you strike it right. Many newbie traders think that this business is all about buying a domain at very cheap price and later selling it at very high prices. However, the actual reality is something else! Your domain is actually useless unless it is one of those types that are born bestsellers. Such domains are rare and special and most of them will never see the light of day because most of them sell in a private market!

Here are some more details about this unique business system:

1. Expired domain market is for everyone. Anyone can use this opportunity including you. It is open for everyone but with a stiff rider - participate in this business if you are ready to compete with thousands of tough competitors!

2. Expired domain market is a complex system where system rungs very tightly and rigidly according to some set and established guidelines. All domains must pass through a number of accredited registrars who actually hold the control of all expired domains.

3. The perceived commercial value of an expired domain is apparent and invisible. You will never know its value unless you actually sell them.

4. Expired domain market is also a very secretive market where most of the transactions are kept under tight control and secrecy. There is scant data available on the sales volume and the actual selling price.

5. You need just small amount of money to start this business. Initially, you may like to spend little and later expand your investment as you gain confidence and have a firm grip on the basic nuisance of the market and its system.

6. It is always true that most of the newbie domain traders purchase ordinary expired domains in the hope that they can make lot of money. Lack of knowledge or skill in choosing the right type of expired domain could be the main factors for failure in this business.

7. Expired domains are invaluable units of virtual estate where you can control the way in which you sell your domains. Expired domains are also like gold nuggets that you can transform into usable and practical units with an ability to sell at very high prices.

8. The initial price suggested by the domain trader may never be accepted by a potential buyer. The selling process could take a long time when you and your buyer may participate in a lengthy negotiation process.

9. Choosing wrong expired domains and buying them at very high prices could be disaster! When you collect wrong domains, you will also accumulating tremendous liability along with them.

10. Diversification in this business could be very difficult as it consists of lengthy flipping process that needs your time, effort and money.

11. If at all you sell your domain at a profit, the amount realized in the sales process will cover your entire expenses spent for retaining that domain with you.

12. It is also very difficult to sell a large inventory of expired domain names in one single transaction. You may need to go three or four at a time to sell all you domains.

Expired domain market is an exciting opportunity that needs your skill, patience, time and money. You will need to learn and master the art of buying and selling them by conducting a thorough research study on the topic.

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.

Social Marketing: Not Nearly As Awful As I Feared

2009-09-08T07:00:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Judy Murdoch

I have to admit I've been slow to jump on board with the whole social marketing trend.

After so many years spent in marketing and frequently hearing about the "next big thing", I've come to the decision that all these technologies are simply communication tools for building trusting relationships with prospective customers.

No one tool is going to make you a gazillion dollars.

But used with common sense and an understanding of where your customers hang out and what your customers are most wanting, I think social marketing technology is well worth learning to use.

Specifically, social marketing tools like Facebook, Twitter, and Linked extend your ability to make yourself known to prospective customers as well as people who may refer customers to you.

But it takes time and a focus on providing useful information and resources to others without any requirement for receiving in return.

I've always been a resource connector by nature (the one who is always emailing articles and snippets to you prefaced with an fyi") so social media is a comfortable place for me.

If you are wanting results RIGHT NOW, either stay out of social media or hire someone who has a lighter touch. Social media requires a lower key approach. Hype and in-your-face sales tactics turn most members of Social Marketing Land off.

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Success Strategies for Using Social Marketing in Your Business
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Some strategies that work for cultivating profitable connections in social media.

Think Conversation; not Presentation

Most people hang out on blogs and social networks because they are engaging with others who have similar interests.

Social networks are informal gatherings, like going to your friend's BBQ. You might talk business but if you do it will be a casual conversation. Not climbing up on a bench and bellowing, "Hey everyone, let me tell you about this great new service I'm offering."

It is of course possible that a casual business conversation will lead to a "how about we set up a time to talk more next week?" in which case the result is a meeting in which a presentation is appropriate.

Remember the point is to share information and resources that may be helpful to others in a give and take conversation.

Expect to reach out first

There's a funny T-shirt that reads "More People Have Read This Shirt than My Blog."

That about sums it up if you expect people to swarm to your blog or follow you on Twitter. Unless you're maybe Ashton Kuchner.

Actions you can take to reach out include:

- Finding others who are doing something that is useful to you and your customers and making a point to comment on their posts in a way that adds to the conversation in progress.

- If you, yourself post to your own blog, include links to articles that support or enhance the points you're making. Directing people to other blogs is not only helpful to your readers, it is very appreciated by the persons whose blogs you link to.

- They may even link back to you!

- Let people know about useful resources in all social media you participate in. I regularly post links to articles, statistics, and other bits of information my clients and colleagues may appreciate.

Be Yourself

Remember your mom telling you to be yourself when you were worried about being liked by people you didn't know?

Your mom was right.

In addition to sharing information and resources with real, actionable value to my clients and customers, I also share observations, reviews (books, movies, electronics), and of course the occasional anecdote about my cats.

And I share in my own voice similar to how I might talk with co-workers or people I know casually at a party.

Pick Just One and Try it Out

The first explanation I heard about Twitter was "it's microblogging."

I still have trouble explaining blogging to a lot of people let alone microblogging.

"Microblogging" is actually a pretty good description but it's also, in my opinion, somewhat geeky and intimidating if you're not a social media buff.

So rather than try to figure it all out, I strongly suggest you get yourself an account with Twitter or Facebook or Linked in.

Not all of them, pick just one.

Then give yourself some time to poke around and get a sense of what's going on.

Start with people you already know, trust and like

Once you get an account, invite people you know, trust, and like to join your network. Or follow them on Twitter. Or subscribe to their blog.

This way you start in a small box with others you may already be connected with. You can feel fairly confident that you'll be interested in engaged in the conversations they're having.

As you begin to feel more comfortable you can begin to check out their contacts or look for people interested in a particular topic you love to talk about.

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Join Me
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If you're looking to find some people to hang out with in Social Marketingland, I invite you to connect with me.#1

To join my Linkedin Network: http://xrl.us/bfau2p

To join me on Facebook: http://xrl.us/bfauzo

To follow me on Twitter: http://xrl.us/bfauxw

#1 - You need to first sign up for an account. All the social media accounts listed here are free.

Bottom Line

Once I began reaching out more and focused on hanging out with like- minded people, I got used to and even began to enjoy social marketing.

The most important thing to remember is social media is about connection and conversation. If people like what they're hearing and find value in what you offer, you will begin picking up business and business-related opportunities.

But like any online strategy, it takes time and effort on your end to reach out and contribute first.

And feel free to connect with me on one of the social media tools I mentioned.

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

Follow Judy Murdoch on Twitter.

Selling Your Expired Domains - Unexplained Secrets and Tips (Part I)

2009-09-06T09:30:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu

When it comes to expired domain names business, you have a number of options of making money and gain in the process. Several methods and techniques allow you to create a constant stream of ongoing income that can take care of all domain maintenance costs. As a domain name trader, you may wish to know and where to sell your domains.

Here are some practical tips and techniques to help you sell your stock of expired domain names:

Three main selling activities are:

Listing the domain name on an auction site;

Selling the expired domain names on a site specified for domain trading;

Selling directly to a buyer;

Using auction sites: Many top end expired domain name traders use this channel to sell their domain names. Auctioning is a very profitable way of finding a customer. Auction houses provide a very good platform to sell expired domain names at very high profits. Two or three worded organic domain names can fetch very good prices on auction sites.

Advantages:

i) Very quick selling process;

ii) Very good exposure for your domains;

iii) You can host your domains on bidding or Buy Now or Best offer mode of selling options;

iv) You can accept popular payment methods;

v) The final selling price depends on the quality of domain names;

Disadvantages:

i) Auction fees to be payable;

ii) Very low profits on inferior domain names;

iii) More waiting period;

Using expired domain selling sites: These typical sites help you sell your domain at decent prices. If you have a very good domain, you may even get very good price with a potential to make very high profit.

Advantages:

Very high selling prices;

These sites are famous among expired domain traders;

These are exclusive web portals designed for the purpose of selling expired domain names;

Lot of interested buyers visit these sites;

Disadvantages:

Commission and fees payable;

The selling procedure is complex;

The entire process takes a long time from listing to selling;

Selling direct: This is a difficult and time-consuming method. You may have to find the buyer by using your personal contacts. Hard bargain will be the sole basis for selling your domains.

Advantages:

Good domains will attract potential buyers;

You can choose your own payment methods;

No fees payable to anyone;

You are the owner of all profits;

Disadvantages:

Very less exposure to potential buyers;

More marketing and advertising efforts needed;

More time need to sell the expired domain;

You will need to employ one or more of these methods to make enough money from your expired domain names. You may wish to divide and segregate your domain names according to their merits and later sell them by using one of the three methods. Good expired domains tend to sell very quickly on auction and selling sites. However, you will also advertise and promote your expired domains by using different virtual channels like forums and blogs.

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.

Post-buying Management of Expired Domains - Tips and Suggestions

2009-09-06T05:30:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu

Buying an expired domain is as easy or as difficult as any other buying activities. When you buy a product from an online portal, you will be on your track to confirm that what you buy is actually good for you. There are times when you buy an exceedingly good product. At the same time, you may even buy a product that is useless and a big waste of money. The most important aspect that you must remember is to ensure that you are buying only the best. However, all newbie domain buyers get confused as to what to do with the just purchased domains.

Here are some general tips and suggestions for managing your expired domain names:

Redirect your expired domains to your present domain by using 301-redirect method: This time-tested method helps you to promote your expired domain. By redirecting the domain, you can easily bring your expired domain back into life. To maximize the effect of this method, you may wish to buy an expired domain that has theme and keywords almost similar to your existing web domain. The most significant benefit of using this method is the gradual accumulation of incoming links and traffic to your web domains, which eventually result in an enhanced commercial sales value, and increased probability of selling your domains for very good profits. Here are some more advantages and associated disadvantages of using 302-redirect method:

1. Benefits:

a) It saves you lot of time and energy

b) You can benefit from the traffic associated with expired domain

c) It is a proven method to generate incoming traffic and links

2. Disadvantages:

a) Most redirect scripts will have the old anchor texts that are not as good as the new keyword enriched anchor text.

b) Some of the expired domains might have strict penalties imposed on them in their previous avatar. You may inherit this black mark when you buy such expired domains. You will need to be very cautious of this issue.

Design and create an expired domain based micro-site and divert traffic from it: This time consuming method needs your effort and money. In fact, you can use your expired domain as a small web portal to provide useful information and articles for the benefit of readers. You can also redirect the traffic from this site to your main site to create traffic. When you match the keywords of both of these sites, the ensuing traffic will be just amazing. Some of the benefits and demerits of using this method are:

A) Benefits:

i) You can easily promote links to your main site

ii) Accumulated traffic will add value to your expired domain

iii) You can easily create a good brand for your main web site.

iv) You can even use your expired domain based micro site as an experimental place to test your content and advertisement

v) You can have a very simple micro site limited to just one page.

B) Disadvantages:

i) The whole process is time consuming and you will need to put lot of effort.

ii) You may face the problem of spamming which may also lead to penalties imposed by search engines.

iii) Micro sites are very difficult to promote and advertise.

These two simple methods can help you permute your expired domain in many ways and they are the most desired tools to add a premium value to your domains expired.

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.

Article Marketing -- Building Links to Your Business

2009-09-04T09:00:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

Online marketing has been a vast and rapidly growing outlet over the past decade. Obviously, there are many approaches to online marketing, but very few that come close to the effectiveness of article marketing. Article Marketing has provided a large portion of the visitors for some of the web's most successful businesses and it has proven to be one of the most cost effective marketing techniques today.

What is Article Marketing and How Does it Work?

Article Marketing is the publication of written content on websites other than your own. Sometimes these websites may have similar content or products as your business. Sound like helping your competition? Here's the catch. Your article includes a backlink - a link that leads to your own website. Simply put, you provide an article on other people's websites that ends with a link back to your own website. The idea is that for those sites using your article, they must include the link back to your site.

The quality of your article's content is a deciding factor in how many people will publish it on their sites. This is why it is very important that your articles be well written, purposeful, and relevant to the subject. If you don't or can't write the articles yourself, you might want to consider paying for someone to write for you. In the long run it will be worth it.

Is Article Marketing Effective

Article Marketing has become extremely popular because of the way search engines do their searching. There was a time when the number of visitors to a site was a critical factor in its listings with search engines such as Google or Yahoo. Today, however, the key determinant is the number of backlinks: pointers from other sites to yours. To understand how the backlinks work in relevancy to your page listing, you must first understand the search engine process.

Your page's popularity, known as the page rank, is judged by two factors: how many backlinks there are to your site; and the popularity of the sites that those backlinks are on. For example, let's say you have two backlinks to your site listed on two different websites. One of those sites, say Microsoft.com, has a very high page rank. The other, BobsDoItYourselfComputerRepair.com, has a pretty low page rank. Your site will receive more notice from the search engines because of the link on the more popular site. So, backlinks on high-profile sites will inevitably raise your page ranking.

Creating and Submitting Articles

When creating your articles, remember that quality is of utmost importance. People are looking for information, and a well-written, relevant article will position you as someone who knows what they are talking about in a reader's mind. If you don't think you can write your own articles, there are many online outlets for finding writers.

Once the article is written, add a link to your site along with your by-line. This is called a resource box and can include a little bit about you and your business as well as the link to your website.

Next, you will need to get your article submitted to other sites. You don't have to do this yourself. There are literally thousands of article marketing source sites on the Internet that can do it for you. However, the more popular ones are those that produce the most effective traffic. Among these are EzineArticles.com, ArticleDashboard.Com, and GoArticles.Com. Each of these will provide excellent sources for backlinks, but be prepared to submit only well-written articles, as they tend to be quite thorough in their screening process.

Check Your Article Marketing Campaign

Once you have submitted your article, give it a few weeks to make its way out onto the World Wide Web. Then, use one of the many backlink-checking tools available on the net. Most are free and can be found by doing a simple web search. Domain-Pop.com and IWebTool.com provide some of the more popular tools. The larger search engines (i.e. Google.com) provide backlink-checking tools also. These programs are usually easy to use and require no download. Simply go to the site, put the web address of your site into the appropriate space, and hit enter. In a few seconds you will be able to see how many backlinks your site has and, in most cases, exactly what sites those backlinks are listed on.

Article Marketing is not only one of the most effective techniques for building your page rank and popularity, but is also one of the most simple and most inexpensive, particularly if you have good writing skills of your own. Remember to keep your article content similar to the content of your site. People surfing for the information in your articles will only click on the link in your resource box if it is relevant to their own personal interests. Also remember that article marketing takes time and effort. It doesn't happen overnight. With every article you put out onto the web, you are putting out another way for potential visitors to find you. Over time, this will increase the traffic to your website and will eventually increase your sales.

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/

Answering the Question: What Makes You So Great?

2009-09-03T21:00:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Judy Murdoch

The other day I was discussing marketing options with a client and she said something which took me completely by surprise.

"Well, I guess I could be shameless and promote myself more when I'm doing a presentation but it's not like I have anything special or interesting to say..."

I was surprised because this woman has singlehandedly built a very successful consulting practice and works with an impressive roster of Fortune 100 companies.

She also has two large binders stuffed with classes, workshops, and other intellectual property she's developed over the years.

Yet, she's asking me "what's the big deal?"

==========================================
How Do You Define "Big Deal"?
==========================================

When I asked her to clarify what she meant by "big deal", my client went on to tell me that, in her mind, "special and interesting" means you've done something truly exceptional and ground-breaking.

==========================================
Modesty is Not Always a Virtue
==========================================

If you're asking yourself "what's the big deal" or "who am I to...?" you are not only doing yourself a disservice--you are doing a grave disservice to the many people and organizations that NEED your services and products.

Plus, you're sabotaging your marketing because you're broadcasting a mixed message to your audience (My service will help even though it's not all that great).

For tips on getting clear about "why you" and how to use this information in your marketing without sounding like a jerk, read on.

==========================================
So, Why You?
==========================================

I didn't start my business, Highly Contagious Marketing, because there was a shortage of marketing consultants in the world.

The last time I looked, there were about 1.6 million businesses offering marketing support services on Google.

And if you prefer getting marketing advice from books, you can find more than 15,000 on Amazon.com. Those are just the ones that are still in print.

I have plenty of company.

Yet, with so much help and support available, lots of small business owners struggle every day with their marketing, with getting the word out, with getting more customers.

There are a number of reasons for this disconnect between the available solutions and problems that remained unsolved:

- solution providers charge too much

- their solutions take too long to implement or are too complex

- they lack expertise in a field or method,

Just to name a few.

==========================================
A Question of Fit
==========================================

The one relevant here is what I'm going to call "lack of fit."

Sometimes, with all other factors being equal, the reason we choose to work with another business is because their approach, style, way of explaining things, etc., perfectly fit our needs.

When the fit is right, we "get it" faster, we apply solutions faster, and we get results faster. There's a fun, effortless quality to work when the fit is right.

When the fit isn't right, it's the opposite. You feel like you're struggling and somehow, you're just not learning what you need to know.

Using Highly Contagious Marketing as an example: a percentage of small business owners like the way I explain marketing concepts; they feel like I understand their business and what's special about their products and services.

My services aren't for everyone, but when there's a good fit between what the client needs and what I can do for them, the results are great.

The exact same logic holds for you. You don't have to be a leading edge thinker in your field, a Nobel prize winner, or a PhD to have something valuable and unique to offer.

You just need to understand what it is that you do that makes a positive difference to your ideal customers and clients.

No matter how many companies "out there" seem to be offering the exact same thing as you, there are more than enough prospective customers for whom you are the BEST choice.

For them, who you are, what you do, and how you do it is a "big deal."

==========================================
Help with Who am I to-it is
==========================================

Next time you have an attack of "who am I to"-itis, I recommend the following:

(Note: I am indebted to the late Thomas J. Leonard from whom I learned this exercise).

Call 3-5 of your best clients or customers--your "raving fans" and ask them this question:

"What is the value that you are receiving from our work together?"

And listen.

If your customer answers primarily in generalities that could apply to anyone, press them for specifics by asking:

"I'm glad to hear that but I'm wondering if I'm providing value to you in surprising ways -- beyond my role as your _________."

And again, listen and take notes.

When you do this, you will get, in your client's own words, what makes you so special.

When clients do this exercise, we use the results in several ways:

1. I ask them to keep their notes within easy reach for times when they're feeling some self-doubt and wondering "why me?"

2. As testimonials for the clients marketing (this is, of course with the quoted person's permission.)

3. Any and all of their marketing messages. Nothing is more potent than using your customer's own words when crafting marketing copy.

==========================================
Bottom Line
==========================================

Asking "who am I to" may seem attractive and modest, even virtuous. But there's no virtue when you're not helping the people who could REALLY use your help.

Nor is there virtue in going out of business because you're not getting customers.

Next time you're struggling around whether you're fully qualified, ask a few of your raving fans what it is about working with you that they value.

Then listen to why they think you're such a big deal.

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

Follow Judy Murdoch on Twitter.

What's Your Excuse For Still Not Having A List?

2009-09-03T19:15:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Willie Crawford

One of the excuses we hear most often from struggling online marketers is that they don't make more sales because they don't have a list. We even hear that excuse from marketers who have been online three, or even five years.

My question to them is always, "What are you waiting for?" "Why not start a massive list-building effort today?"

When I look at how I built my database, I used only a few primary methods. Here are the most effective ones that I used:

1) On many of my content websites, in many niches, I simply have an opt-in form in a prominent location on practically every page. That opt-in form is usually in the upper right corner of the page. I typically offer the potential subscribers a gift as an enticement to join my list -- perhaps a PDF special report or an audio recording.

I also assure the potential subscriber that I will protect their data and only send them appropriate email. I also tell them that there is a handy one-click link in every email that I send that makes it super easy for them to remove themselves from my list if they ever get tired of my communications.

This has worked beautifully for me for more than a dozen year, and steadily grows my lists.

2) I have numerous affiliate programs. Many of these affiliate programs sell inexpensive products and pay the affiliates 100% commission on the front end product. The real purpose of those affiliate programs is to build a list of proven buyers interested in a specific topic. The commissions incentivize others to go out and send me traffic AND build my lists.

I most often use a script called Rapid Action Profits, which allows me to pay affiliate instantly, depositing the payments directly into their PayPal accounts. This is so powerful because affiliates often need the funds TODAY, and don't want to wait 30 - 60 days for their commissions. When they can sell one of my inexpensive products, that are almost impulse buys for their customers, and get those funds instantly, they trip over themselves sending me customer... and building my lists.

3) I often participate in quality list-building giveaways. In these events, numerous marketers ban together to drive traffic to a centralize website where gifts from each of the marketers are listed. In order to download a specific gift, the website visitor must typically visit the site of the marketer offering the gift and join his list.

If you offer truly useful gifts, thousands of new subscribers can sometimes be gained from just one of these free giveaways. I usually offer PDF ebooks (transcripts from interviews that I conduct), MP3's or inexpensive but useful software.

I often announce free giveaways that are looking for contributors on my blog, and to my Twitter followers.

4) Software that displays your subscribe box on other's site, and automatically builds your list for you. There is software that allows you to participate in a cooperative effort, where partners display the boxes on each others' webpages. This is a good way to share the wealth since your website visitors are joining others' lists anyway. You may as well send your traffic to someone who is reciprocating.

There is also newer software that allows you to display your subscribe box superimposed on affiliate websites, social networking sites, etc. You still tell your visitors to go to sites such as YouTube, Clickbank, Amazon or Ebay, but the software shows them a subscribe box and asks them to join your list BEFORE doing anything else. This is very powerful, and is largely hands free.

For example, I can mention affiliate sites, or perhaps my profile page on one of the social networking sites, and build a list in the process of just spreading the word.

With so many easy ways to grow your list, there really is no excuse for anyone who's been online for more than a few months not to be aggressively building a list. You do need that list to inexpensively spread the word about your business.

Now that you see how REALLY simple and easy it is, get started building your list today!

About the Author:
Willie Crawford has been teaching online marketers to build their email lists since 1996. Since that time he has built a database of over 800,000. One of his favorite list-building tools allows you to automatically build a list from traffic visiting someone else's domain. Get this amazing software at: http://AutomaticallyBuildYourList.com

Follow @WillieCrawford on Twitter.

Stop Wasting Time and Start Making Money

2009-09-02T10:15:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Merlyn Sanchez

As the saying goes, "time is money," so wasting time is wasting money. And who can afford to do that, especially in today's economy?

Here are five pitfalls that many business owners and solo professionals fall into that can severely hamper their productivity and cost them profits. Do any of the following sound familiar?

1. Trying To Do It All

The days of multi-tasking are long gone. Studies now document what many people have known for years: trying to do it all slows you down and increases mistakes. Just because you know how to do it doesn't mean you should. If you're trapped in the mindset that "it's easier (or faster, or done better, etc.) if I do it myself," snap out of it and start delegating!

2. Not Having Systems In Place

When you are ready to start delegating, having systems will make it much easier. Systems will also make it easier to keep your business running if you need to be away, and will maximize your return on the time that you do invest in your business. Look at the following areas and see if you have the systems in place to make your efforts more effective: marketing, customer service, bookkeeping/accounting and order processing.

3. Being Busy But Not Productive

When you're busy doing a lot of things, such as making phone calls, checking email and putting out fires, you can fall into the trap of thinking you're actually being productive. However, if you're just engaging in "busy work" and working without a plan then you're wasting time. Being productive means you are accomplishing something and using your available time to its best use.

4. Getting Distracted

It doesn't matter whether you work at home or in an office, interruptions and distractions will happen. The real question is whether you are the one initiating or welcoming them when they do. Interruptions and distractions are a procrastinator's best friends! If you're the problem, then you need to deal with why you're avoiding certain tasks.

5. Staying Too Connected

We're being inundated with tools and technologies designed to improve our lives and instead they're complicating them! Email, for example, has long been a big time waster. But now we have "smart" phones so we can check email (just can't get away from the Inbox), check the news, text, instant message, surf the web or play games, 24/7. The options are almost endless! Whether you're concentrating on working or relaxing, learn to manage these tools and take a break when you need to.

If you've fallen prey to any of these common time wasters, identify the biggest time thief and start dealing with it. Addressing just one of these habits could give you several more hours to spend on the key business activities that will bring in the clients and money you desire.

About the Author:
Merlyn Sanchez, Business Coach and Marketing Consultant, teaches small business owners, consultants, and other solo professionals how to attract more clients, make more sales and have more time to enjoy their lives. For a free report outlining the "8 Strategies that SMART Business Owners Use to Attract More Clients(tm)" and additional tips on how to create a successful business, visit http://www.smartbusinessowners.com/blog

Read more Articles written by Merlyn Sanchez.

Viral Marketing - Using It To Your Advantage

2009-09-02T04:30:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

In our technologically expanding world, where the Internet is the most available form of media, Viral Marketing is an extremely effective form of advertising. Before the Web explosion, this form of advertising would have been referred to simply as "word of mouth" or getting your message out by having your customer base spread the word.

Why Use Viral Marketing?

There are several studies that state that if someone has a good experience, chances are they will tell a few close friends. However, with a bad experience people will repeat it to anyone who will listen. Since the pace of the Internet is so much faster than that of word of mouth, you will want to be careful with the messages you put out there. The message you put forth can spread, and spread quickly, whether that message is good or bad.

Viral Marketing is exactly what it sounds like - advertising that works like a virus does. It can be as simple as a message that is attached at the bottom of an email. Like a virus, as the email is sent from one person to another, so goes the attached message. It is like an electronic version of that famous television commercial that said "you'll tell two friends, and they will tell two friends, and so on and so on...", only with the World Wide Web, one well placed message can have the ability to reach millions with one click of the mouse.

Remember when Hotmail was starting? You could only get an account if a friend sent you an email with the link. Everyone wanted one, and emails spread like wildfire. And BMW had that great campaign with very famous directors, a very new Clive Owen and very short movies - all on the Internet, which was becoming a brand new venue for movies. You may not have enough money in your advertising budget to hire Clive Owen, but there are still things you can do to attempt some viral marketing.

Essential Features

To tap into the potential power of a viral campaign you will need a few essential elements - free products or services that are easily transferred to others using existing communications networks. These products or services should be something that will exploit people's natural behaviors and emotions. Some examples beyond commercials would be how-to guides, surveys, best-of guides, educational guides, tools, widgets, quizzes and badges.

Sometimes nothing grabs peoples attention faster than the word FREE. Free trials, free email accounts, free anything can put you in a potential customer's head. Free can get your name out there and introduce people to the goods or services that will generate future revenues for your business.

There are rewards you can offer as well. Rewarding loyal customers with anything from percentage rebates and coupons for future purchases to free gifts for their continued patronage is another outstanding way to make sure that your 'virus' continues to spread.

Know Your Customers

Knowing and understanding your customer base will make your viral marketing more successful; tracking and analyzing what motivates them to want to pass along your message. You need to know what makes them tick. What is going to make the working mother of three take the time out of an already incredibly busy day to not only be drawn to your message, but also be interested enough to pass that message along to the other extremely busy moms in her address book?

As an example, say you have an errand-running service. You could offer a day of running errands to the lucky winner of a contest. All you have to do to enter to win the free day of errands is to register by clicking the link to your website. Strategies such as these can be a bit more effective as the people that register tend to have an interest in the services you offer.

If you can zero in on who your customer is, this type of marketing can be quite inexpensive and highly effective. Online surveys and questionnaires can also be quite useful in getting inside your customer's head. They can and should be your most valuable resource when it comes to figuring out what they want. Careful consideration of your customer's needs and the commitment to meet those needs is what will ultimately make you successful in business.

Viral Marketing is a useful tool and it's something to think about along with your other online marketing strategies. However, you still need to create something unusual and useful that people will naturally want to share and tell others about.

With the Internet there are opportunities to reach a much larger number of people much faster than in decades past. However, the basic marketing rules still apply if you want your viral marketing campaigns to be successful. Know your products or services. Know what demographics you are targeting. Get in their head and figure out what they need to feel compelled to not only spend their hard earned money with you, but what will make them want to keep coming back, and more importantly, bringing their friends with them.

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.

Top 5 SEO Copywriting Mistakes That Will Cost You Money

2009-08-18T17:48:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

Just as there are different ways of writing for novels, for advertising and for films, there is a way to write for the Internet. To find content on the web we use search engines. To make sure the search engines find our content we optimize it. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) copywriting is writing content that the reader wants to read and will be easily found and rank well with search engines.

The object of writing for the Internet is to get the reader to use your content to click through to your website. If they don't get to your website, they can't look at your products or services and you will have lost a potential customer. Here are a few mistakes that you'll want to avoid.

MISTAKE #1 - Have a Boring Or Vague Title

This is a very important mistake not to make. If they don't even look at your article, all your time and effort are wasted. If you provide an attention grabbing title, one that makes them curious enough to open your article, you're halfway there.

Here are just a few ideas to get you thinking: Use titles that describe the content of your article but are short and concise; Use keywords in your title that people might be searching for; People can't resist articles with lists or tips such as, "Top 10 Copywriting Mistakes" or "Top Tips on Getting Your Articles Read"; and "How to" articles are popular as well.

The bottom line here is to put some thought into your title. Think about how to get a reader's attention.

MISTAKE #2 - Create Bland Content

From beginning to end - try to keep it interesting. Make reading your article a pleasurable experience for your reader. Here are a few suggestions.

Make it fun, relevant and grammatically correct. Nothing pulls the reader out of a story more than bad grammar and misspelled words.

Use short sentences and try to limit paragraphs to two or three lines. Concentrate on writing rich and appropriate copy rather than just practical words.

Have a sense of humor. This gives your articles personality. Don't give a sales pitch - use a call to action. The purpose of your article is to get your reader to get to your website. Your writing could include a reason for them to find more information, either from another article that you've written or from your website.

"Content is king". If you keep this in mind, you'll be ahead of the game. Search engines love well-written and useful content. So do readers.

MISTAKE #3 - Make Your Article As Hard To Read As Possible

Every post should be easy to scan. That means your reader should be able to easily scan your article and find headings that will tell them what the section is about. You can use numbered lists and bullets to organize your ideas so they are quickly read. If you italicize, bold or underline a word, the search engine assumes that it's a keyword. You can use this to your advantage. However, if you use these tags a lot or if you use them on non-keywords, you'll confuse the search engines and lose any advantage you would have gained.

The other thing that makes a page easy to scan is short paragraphs. When you look at your copy on the page, you should see a lot of white space. Looking at a page that's completely filled with words is intimidating to a reader. You want to make it as friendly and welcoming and as easy to read as possible.

MISTAKE #4 - Misuse Keywords

Keywords are at the core of writing for the web. You should research and know your keywords. Here are a few suggestions about keywords:

Target a set of keywords in every post but don't use them more than three or four times on a page. If you use the same keywords again and again, search engines can tell that the article isn't very useful.

Use a wide variety of words that pertain to your topic.

Use synonyms of your keywords in addition to the keywords.

Don't stick to a standard keyword density for every article or post. You want your words to flow naturally, and overuse of keywords makes your copy sound forced.

Review your keywords every so often. Sometimes your business changes and you want your articles to change also.

If you provide your reader with content that lets them learn or experience something, you'll have a happy reader. If you provide the search engines with good keywords and a variety of them, you'll have a happy search engine.

MISTAKE #5 - Try To Trick the Search Engines

Practicing questionable tactics like cloaking and using hidden text is a bad idea. The last thing you want is to get your site banned. These kinds of tricks will do it. So can using hidden links, link farms, linking to bad sites, distributing viruses and sending spam. Don't try to trick the search engines and don't work with any companies that use these techniques.

Overcoming these common mistakes can give you head start when creating effective content on the Internet. SEO copywriting requires effort. Putting content on your site and distributing it on the web takes time. If you work at it over time and create lots of valuable content, effectively "brandcasting" your site, you'll be rewarded with more traffic.

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 Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.

Brand Awareness and the Fundamentals of Brandcasting

2009-08-16T02:06:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

For a company to become well known in the online world, you might think that they would have to spend a large amount of money. While marketing budgets of leading companies are extensive, many effective online branding strategies can easily be achieved with nothing more than creativity and determination.

You have a good brand if people can recall your product or service from memory. You want them to trust you and think of you and your website before they think about any competitors. Branding isnÕt just for big businesses; small businesses, especially those with an online presence, canÕt afford not to start some kind of brand awareness campaign.

There is no shortcut to branding success. If you take a look at some of the sales promises made today, you would think that all you need to do to make millions is to launch a website and use free search engine submission services. These kinds of tactics donÕt give you the whole truth.

Brand awareness, or brandcasting, is a strategy that will define a company, show how it is unique, while creating a comfort level in the potential customer. A large part of branding is being consistent in everything about your company. This includes the companyÕs message and vision, the website, the employees, and even the packaging. Who are you and what are your values? All this takes time and vision.

Before even starting to get your brand out there, you should develop a winning slogan and logo. These will be the first things remembered by the public. If you hear the word McDonaldÕs, you will see the Golden Arches in your mind; if you hear KFC, the Colonel will present himself, if MSN is mentioned, it is reasonable to see the fluttering of a butterfly. Defining a simple, two or three tone image that can be inexorably linked with your company can be extremely powerful.

While this is fundamental to both successful offline and online branding strategies, it is important not to forget the actual development of your brand. You might have an excellent logo, but consistent failure in delivery of customer service can take its toll. Your brand and your message should focus on your clients and not on you. Customer benefits that are consistent with your marketing message will get you increased sales.

Your website should be an integral part of your brand as well. It should incorporate the promise you are making to your customers. Remember that customers make their decisions to purchase based on friend and family recommendations,advertising and experience. Building a brand is like building a reputation. Companies interested in long-term success must invest in creating a targeted brand experience for their customers.

While providing great customer service will help your reputation, customer service does not always have to be in the form of responding well to queries. Be proactive; FAQs and well-targeted, well-researched help guides on your website are immensely powerful in garnering a strong reputation. Use article marketing to its fullest advantage to leverage your position as an expert in your field.

Beware of online gimmicks, though. Many companies have seen a surge in business through competitions and contests. But these numbers are impossible to maintain once the offer is over. Use them sparingly, and tie them in with press releases and long lasting deals.

Whether large or small, local or global, social networking can be your key to the successful implementation of online branding strategies. If you have something to say, be it a product launch or exciting development, put a teaser on your social page. People will take the bait.

In much the same way, you can create a blog for your company. Twitter can also be a great way to use a short, snappy sentence to announce a new online initiative.

Many companies have made the mistake of trying to differentiate between their online marketing campaigns, and their offline equivalents. This couldn't be more wrong. Your customers exist in the Real World. Use the reliable marketing double-hitter (where online and offline branding strategies are in complete unison). Indeed, offline advertising can drive your online commerce significantly, if tailored well.

Long before the economic crash of late 2008 hit us; competition in the world of e-commerce was becoming ever more ruthless. However, as a result of the global recession, many companies are looking to the net to not only push forward, but also to survive the storm. Online shopping is actually on the increase, as people rein themselves in and limit their impulse purchases. They do this by not visiting the malls, and keeping away from temptation. Take advantage of this by creating an online brandcasting strategy so you can see more traffic on your website.

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 Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.

How To Build A Profitable Twitter Profile

2009-08-15T20:24:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Harold Hemmings

Twitter is one of the fastest growing marketplaces on the Internet. The reason why so many people like Twitter is because it is actually the perfect communication tool for people who don't understand and don't want to learn about Internet technology and the technological geek-speak that goes along with it.

A few years back, I asked someone for his dad's email address. The son replied telling me that you just email his name. The son was clueless that there was an actual email address behind the shortcut for his dad's name. He did not understand email, and he did not care that he did not understand it. He was able to use it in a manner that was easy for him, and that is all that really mattered.

What makes Twitter so popular to the masses is that one does not have to be tech-savvy to use the service. The new user simply needs to locate the profile of the person he or she wants to follow, and then the user simply clicks "Follow". From that day forward, anytime the person "Followed" posts (tweets) new information to his or her micro-blog, Followers will be notified about the message in the Twitter Timeline.

The only thing that is really difficult about Twitter is that new people seldom understand that they must "Follow" someone, before they start to receive messages from others. But once someone has chosen to follow a few people, they get the idea behind Twitter very quickly.

With its' system of 140 character micro-posts (referred to as "tweets"), users are able to communicate information to other users. Sometimes the tweeted info is a random comment, but often the tweets mean something to somebody.

For the average consumer, they can log into Twitter to update grandma about the lives of the grandchildren and to provide links to family pictures.

Although the service has been available since 2006, the Internet marketing community was really slow to catch on to the value of the Twitter community. Most Internet marketers had never heard of Twitter until 2008. Even then, online marketers were slow to see any real value in the platform. But in 2009, Twitter finally hit its stride in getting the word out about its service, in large part due to the Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN Twitter Follower Challenge.

Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) challenged CNN (@cnnbrk) to a race to one million Twitter Followers. On April 17th, 2009, Ashton became the first Twitter user to reach one million followers. CNN passed the mark a few hours later, but Ashton won the race fair and square.

Understanding The Value Of The Twitter Community

In March of 2008, Twitter was estimated to have one million active users, according to Michael Arrington of TechCrunch (http://bit.ly/RICvf). But amazingly, over the course of the following year, Twitter was able to expand its user base by 32-37 times, according to which news source you trust for your data.

On July 30th 2009, the Philadelphia Enquirer reported that Twitter had "increased its user base by 37-fold to more than 32 million users worldwide, 18-20 million of whom reside in the United States" (http://bit.ly/dhAIE).

Now, the naysayers are fond of pointing out that Twitter's attrition rate is quite large, with 60% of new users disappearing after signing up for the service. But if the Philadelphia Enquirer's estimation is correct that "only 40 percent of first-timers become habitual visitors", then the remaining 12.8 million users still make a viable and vibrant Twitter community.

Each individual user inside the Twitter community is capable of building his or her own community of Followers.

As Ashton Kutcher has taught us, building a Follower list is fairly straight forward - when people are interested in you and what you have to say, they will follow you on Twitter to see what you have to say.

To date, nearly 3 million Twitter users have decided that they care enough about Kutcher's life to follow his personal tweets. Of course, I am sure it helps that he occasionally posts pictures of his wife, Demi Moore, in his tweets (http://twitter.com/aplusk/status/1366791709). Not only did Kutcher share a shot of his Demi's derriere, he also proved that rich people have ugly furniture too.

How Can One Benefit From A Large Twitter Following?

Some of Twitter's 12.8 million active users will benefit handsomely for building a larger Follower's list, while other people will not.

It is pointed out by @ web2marketer, "It's not about how many Twitter followers you have...the only thing that matters is - are they listening?" (http://twitter.com/web2marketer/status/2939696759)

This is the key, of course.

Some people build huge lists of Followers, but never say anything worthwhile or interesting. Some are only interested in building their Followers list for the sake of building Followers.

If no one wants to listen to what you have to say, it does not matter whether you have 1 Follower or 2.9 million Followers. If no one is "listening" to what you have to say, you will not make any money from your participation in Twitter.

On the other hand, if people are "listening" to what you have to say and "clicking" the links you tell them to click, then you have a good chance of earning real money as a result of your Twitter activities.

It has been said that the consumer needs to see or hear your name or your marketing message 7 times, before they will trust you enough to buy from you. Professionals in the direct marketing industry suggest that 82% of all consumers (business people or otherwise) will buy your products or services on the second to the ninth exposure to your marketing message.

Twitter allows you to carry a continuous dialog with those most likely to buy what you are selling - through the Public Timeline of the people following you in Twitter. Once people have started to pay attention to what you tell them, and once they start absorbing your marketing message, then gaining your Followers trust is made easier. Once people are listening to you, you can earn their trust fairly quickly.

An idea presented by @contentmanager is that television has had 80+ years to perfect its advertising model. Television seems committed to the concept of 42 minutes of content to anchor 18 minutes of advertising. These numbers translate into 70% content to provide an anchor for its 30% advertising. (http://twitter.com/contentmanager/status/3106295397) In context, he says that the 70% content is designed to attract attention and win trust, and then the 30% advertising is designed to earn profits and cover the costs of building content.

Understand That It Is A Numbers Game

As a successful Twitter marketer, your first goal is always to attract Followers (an audience). Your second goal is to win the trust of your Followers (your viewing audience). Only after you have won the trust of your Followers should you endeavor to advertise to your Twitter Followers list (to earn revenue). If you have earned the trust of your Twitter Followers, revenue is certain to follow.

But, as with anything in business, it is a numbers game. A certain percentage of the number of people exposed to your Twitter profile will become Followers. A certain percentage of those people following you, will actually read what you have to say. A certain percentage of those people will click your links. And if that link leads to a page where you can earn revenue, only a certain percentage of people will buy your offer.

For most people, the only certainty is that they need to grow their audience, and in the case of the Twitter community, they need to grow their list of Twitter Followers. In the numbers game, if you can increase your audience, you can increase your revenue. It is as simple as that.

If you visit our website shown below, we will show you how we can help you build your Followers' list. But after that, it is up to you. It is up to you to gain the interest and trust of your Followers. Once you have done that, then the only thing that will matter is - are they listening?

About the Author:
Harold Hemmings is the owner of a website dedicated to helping people grow their Twitter Followers List at an accelerated pace. Learn more about his inexpensive service at Buy Twitter Friends: http://buytwitterfriends.com/

Read more Articles written by Harold Hemmings.

Top Mistake #1 When Naming a New Company or New Product

2009-08-14T12:36:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

Bear with me, because when I tell you the number one mistake people make when selecting a name for their new company or new product, you are going to be surprised. Ready? The top mistake in choosing a name is deciding on the name you like best.

That very obvious-sounding strategy is wrong because of several pitfalls. First, names can go off the rails because you, the namer, are not your target market. The name needs to appeal to potential customers, not to you. Second, the name you like the best may have negative connotations that you didn't stop to think about. Third, your favorite name, or a close variant of it, may already be in use, causing you to seem imitative or even landing you in legal trouble. And fourth, the name you like most may limit you in ways that may become painfully clear in the future.

Let's go through these pitfalls now one by one.

Not long ago New Jersey fell into the trap of thinking of themselves rather than of the target market when officials asked their residents to vote on a tourism slogan for the state. The winning entry, "New Jersey: Come See for Yourself," received just a few more votes than "New Jersey: The Best Kept Secret."

Both of these tag lines fail because they do not give a reason for outsiders to come explore. Outsiders, who may have an image of New Jersey as an over-industrialized collection of chemical factories, won't see anything compelling in those phrases. If the contest organizers had let non-New Jerseyites react to possible slogans, it would have become clear that those slogans were lame and uninteresting to the target market.

For business names, what insiders to the business choose may have a meaning element that customers don't relate to or cannot pronounce. For example, if an optical shop decided to call itself Refractions, they'd be sabotaging themselves, because the average person doesn't know that "refraction" is the principle of physics that enables glasses to correct vision.

Likewise, a bakery might fall in love with the name Painique (pan-EEK), where "pain," which means "bread" in French, was supposed to be pronounced in the French way rather than as rhyming with "rain." However, where the typical shopper doesn't know French, the name would be baffling and off-putting.

Choosing the name you like best can also be disastrous if you don't take the time to explore whether or not there are negative implications to the name. This happened to a shoe company in England, which was exciting about naming a sport shoe Zyklon, not realizing that this was the brand name of the gas used by the Nazis to kill millions during World War Two.

Similarly, someone who went with the company name Grand Poobah Publicity because they loved the way it sounded would eventually find out that to language mavens and Gilbert and Sullivan fans, the company was mocking itself. The Grand Poobah was a haughty character in "The Mikado" who had an undeservedly high opinion of himself.

Going only by what you like can also blind you to the fact that your name, or something resembling it, may already be in use. For instance, a golf course near me in Western Massachusetts called its modest little eatery Tavern on the Green, and found it ridiculous when the famous restaurant by that name in New York City sent it a letter demanding it stop using the name. Ridiculous or not, most businesses receiving such a letter sooner or later have no choice but to give in. It's smarter to check whether or not a name is legally in the clear prior to finalizing it.

Even when a name just echoes something else rather than exactly imitating it, the public may feel that your name is derivative and unoriginal. If you fell in love with the name Sir Salad for your casual restaurant, people might think you'd copied the chains Sir Speedy or Sir Pizza, even if you weren't aware those existed.

Finally, the name you like most could be so narrow in scope you are unable to expand. With the name Becky's Bookkeeping, Becky may have trouble later when she realizes clients need help with filing and organizing as well as with their financial records.

Perhaps the most surprising point to many people is that it isn't essential to have a blinding love for your new company name. It's far better if you think systematically about what the name should accomplish for you and go rigorously through your brainstormed list with those criteria in mind. You may already have overlooked the name that best meets those clear-headed, unemotional naming criteria!

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.

The #2 Most Common Mistake In Naming a New Company or New Product

2009-08-13T19:48:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

Most of the time, business owners and organizational marketers look for a new company name or new product name that seems to get the job done. That's unwise because they don't take the time to think about possible shortcomings of the name they settle on. Instead, those shortcomings emerge over time, costing them dearly in sales and opportunities. Sometimes the name problems require an expensive rebranding overhaul.

It's far more cost-effective to name your product or service properly in the first go. Use this checklist to identify hidden pitfalls of some names so they don't blindside you.

1. Are you using meaning elements that are obscure or unknown to your target market? For example, an Australian company hired my firm to rename their business communication product when they were expanding to the U.S. because the name they'd chosen wasn't familiar to American office workers. Words that are everyday terms in Great Britain and Australia but not in the U.S. include "whinge" (for whining) "redundant" (for unemployed) and "turnover" (for annual sales).

An unfortunate mismatch between meaning and market can also rear its head because business owners misjudge the level of sophistication of potential customers. A software company, for instance, was taken aback to learn that small businesses didn't generally know that the initials "CRM" in their product name stood for "customer relationship management." Likewise, a wine shop named Terroir to Taste, using a French term that wine aficionados know, didn't attract casual wine shoppers because they mistook "terroir" for "terror."

2. Is a name or part of it difficult to pronounce? In my childhood, I discovered that my last name, Yudkin, was hard to say for some people, but as an adult, I'm unendingly surprised how often my first name, Marcia, causes people to hesitate or stumble. According to HowManyOfMe.com, "Marcia" is the 433rd most popular first name in the United States, with 138,091 American residents having it. This shows that a word or name you believe is familiar to people may not be.

According to studies by researchers at the University of Michigan, when people have trouble pronouncing a product name or business name, they consider it to be risky. Researchers at Princeton University discovered that companies with hard-to-pronounce names even performed less well in the stock market than those that sat easily on the tongue. So try out your proposed new company or product name on a broad cross-section of people to make certain most can pronounce it easily.

3. Can your name pass the telephone test? By that I mean, if you answer the phone saying your company name, would a caller who didn't already know the name be able to hear it correctly? Some company names are so baffling out of context that people can't sort out the sounds into something that makes sense to them. Someone once told me that when I reeled off the name of my publicity book, they heard it as 6 Debts to Free Publicity instead of 6 Steps. I learned to pause an extra millisecond after "six" to get the name across, but many company names are not salvageable in that way.

Don't let your excitement about a new company or product name carry the day. Consider it from a variety of angles and get feedback from folks in your target audience before committing yourself to a name you're going to promote like crazy in the marketplace.

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.

A Good Business Name Must Be Bold: Oh, Really?

2009-08-09T21:24:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

Visit just about any blog of a high-priced naming consultant, and they'll tell you with oracular confidence that a business name, to succeed, must be X, Y or Z. This is bluster. It is a branding statement of their own, arguing for the kinds of company names they like to create and against the kinds of company names they personally look down on. Such rules are not a valid-for-every-situation fact.

The naming "must" you'll encounter most often is this one: A Good Business Name Must Be Bold. It must make a statement. It must stand out. It must call attention to itself.

Yes, that's often a good idea, especially for a new operation that needs to earn publicity, word of mouth and market share. But not always. Consider a community bank that is expanding into new territory, across a river that to residents marks a mental boundary. Its number one concern is whether or not its current name encompasses the new geographical area in residents' minds. If not, they may be looking for a new name that provides continuity with their current name yet includes the locations where they're opening new branches. Boldness is nowhere on this bank's list of naming criteria.

Indeed, it's a rare bank that goes for, or should go for, a bold name, one with emotional impact and shock value. Much more important for banks is engendering trust. Other goals might be emphasizing rootedness, history or connection. Banks - and many financial services companies - need different naming criteria than a footwear company or an adventure travel firm.

It might surprise you to know that I have had clients hire my naming company wanting a name that didn't stand out. In one case, a financial advisor was moving to a new city and wanted a company name that would blend into the background, not attract any attention and make people assume he'd been doing business there forever.

I encourage you to wipe the slate clean of what you've read or heard and think first about what you hope the new business name you are looking for will accomplish. Do consider guidelines and "musts" because they point to naming factors you might otherwise overlook. Don't let your goals get overruled by someone else's branding agenda.

Don't be intimidated into looking for or accepting a company name that can't take you where you want to go!

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.

Several Ways to Earn Money from Your Expired Domains

2009-08-09T18:36:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu

Making money by selling expired domains is gaining immense popularity because of its potentialities to make lot of profits. Many expired domain traders treat this business very seriously and they use a number of methods and strategies to sell their domains at very lucrative prices. Also known as virtual estate properties, expired domains and domains expiring are some of the hottest business opportunities in the world.

Experienced domain traders use one or a combination of different methods to make money from their stock of expired domain names. These may include such methods as domain parking, domain name selling, or domain flipping. A well-planned combination of these methods will provide you with very high income making potential. Here are some details about each one of these methods:

Domain Parking: This is the starter method to earn money from your domain names. It is easy to set up a domain parking account and simple to operate it, as the domain-parking firm will take care of that aspect. What you want to do is to sign up for an account on one of the well-known domain-parking firms and use the web page provided by them to host your name. Most of your web site visitors are un-targeted and they will click on one of the ads provided on your web page. The method used here is the famous pay-per-click system and the income earned by you depends on the number of visitors who click on the online ads to visit other web sites. The only downside of this income generating method is its inability to provide a large stream of income. However, for a newbie entrepreneur, this is a safe and assured method to make some amount of money.

Expired domain name selling: This is perhaps the most famous method for making money with expired domain names. People make millions by selling their special domain names while the average capacity to earn money by selling an average expired domain is about $25. There are records of unique domain names sold for millions of dollars. Expired domain name reselling is highly competitive and the place where you buy them can be just like an auction house where people will be fighting to buy their products and services. Some experienced domain name traders buy domain names and sell them at regular basis to create a constant pool of income.

Domain flipping: Expired domain names traders also convert one or two of their domains into highly useful and beneficial web sites that will be potential money-spinners. Domain flipping is a thoughtful method of converting an expired domain into information and content rich web portals. Smart domain traders succeed in driving lot of traffic to their flipped web sites. Web sites with plenty of traffic can help them to reach top of major search engines like Google and Yahoo. People love to buy web portals that contain useful content and information apart from lot of incoming links and traffic. You can also use sophisticated techniques like Pay-per-click (PPC) Affiliate marketing Search engine optimization (SEO) and RSS feeds to make he flipped web portal income enabled and value added.

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 Articles written by John Khu.

Avoid These Five Tragic Tag Line Misfires

2009-08-09T14:54:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

A tag line is the little slogan that follows a business name on a web site, in ads, on company stationery and elsewhere. A prime branding opportunity, it presents one of the biggest challenges in marketing. You want something that's catchy, appropriate, appealing and distinctive. The tag line should say something that encourages ideal customers to do business with you.

Be sure to generate a lot of possibilities, and eliminate any tag line candidates where you are forced to answer "yes" to any of the five questions below. While I'm illustrating these points using U.S. state slogans (For instance, "Delaware: Small Wonder"), the criteria apply as well to small businesses, medium-sized companies, large corporations, solopreneurs, ecommerce sites and nonprofit organizations anywhere in the world.

Five Common Tag Line Blunders

1. Does it flunk the uniqueness test? A tag line needs to single out your strengths. If your tag line could reasonably apply to your competitors, it doesn't drill down deeply enough to what makes you different. For example, which state would you match up with "More Than You Can Imagine"? You'd have as good a chance at getting this right by picking a state randomly as by trying to guess according to its intended meaning. This is a tag line used by Maryland, but it could equally apply to Nebraska, Idaho, Michigan or any other state with an unglamorous reputation.

Consider also the similarity between South Carolina's slogan, "Smiling Faces. Beautiful Places" and South Dakota's, "Great Faces. Great Places." The word "faces" in South Dakota's tag line probably refers to the presidential heads depicted on Mount Rushmore, and "great" appropriately applies to them. But this tag line is so close to South Carolina's wording that it's easy to see the South Dakota marketers didn't bring out the unique implications of those faces well enough in their tag line.

Some tag lines heavily suggest just one owner because of recognizable associations. Because of the popularity of the movie, The Wizard of Oz, for example, "There's No Place Like Home" evokes Kansas much more than any other state.

2. Is there a questionable double meaning? Not one but two slogans of Colorado become problematic because of this factor. "Rocky Mountain High" and "Enter a Higher State" both use the word "high" in a way that implies not only geographical elevation but also (at least to many in the Baby Boomer generation) marijuana intoxication.

Another state tag line with this weakness is "Oklahoma is OK." To many people, "OK" implies "just OK," which is such faint praise it lacks the power of invitation. Likewise, to someone who believes the American Midwest is boring, Illinois's "Mile After Magnificent Mile" evokes the idea of mile after mile after mile of sameness.

3. Emotionally, is it a clunker? "Utah! Where Ideas Connect" used to be that state's tourism slogan, and it's significant that they inserted an exclamation mark to try to generate some excitement, since the concept itself is flat and unemotional. A tag line should convey positive energy rather than simply state some facts.

Connecticut's slogan "Full of Surprises" doesn't score well on uniqueness, but it does have emotional oomph. Ditto for Maine's "The Way Life Should Be."

4. Does it have an inappropriate tone? "Say WA" (for Washington State) is a prime example of a slogan that sounds like chalk scratching on a blackboard to anyone older than a teenager. Remember that people with nothing better to do than to hang out at a street corner high-fiving their friends are not the logical target of a tourism campaign.

"Live Free or Die," which appears on New Hampshire's license plates, is a brilliant and highly emotional evocation of the no-sales-tax state that epitomizes Yankee independence and political autonomy. However, this slogan doesn't work well as a lure for tourists. Normally it doesn't make a pleasant impression to be reminding people of their mortality in the same breath as saying "Come visit!"

5. Are you junking the previous tag line for the wrong reasons? Simply being tired of it is the worst possible reason. Apparently weariness is why in 1985, Governor Anthony Earl decided that "America's Dairyland" would no longer do as Wisconsin's slogan. Very often, politicians or tourism officials decide to jettison something that's working, then spend a fortune hiring brand consultants to come up with something their constituents hate and that bombs in the marketplace. Don't you follow in their footsteps!

Coming up with a tag line that passes all of these elimination tests is not easy. If I had to select a winner from all the state slogans I've looked at, I'd award first prize to Mississippi's "The South's Warmest Welcome." Only a few other contenders could claim this applied to them, and it's unquestionably and strongly inviting. Second prize goes to Alaska's "Beyond Your Dreams. Within Your Reach." In a positive way, this counteracts the belief of so many in the other 49 states and abroad that they might not easily have the opportunity to experience its charms.

Good luck with your own tag line and branding!

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.

When It Comes to Business Names, Acronyms Are FUBAR

2009-08-09T11:30:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

Maybe you'll read the following sentence as it was intended, but I sure didn't. It was the lead sentence in an article in my local business journal:

"CA is a fundamentally different company than it was when I arrived two years ago."

To me, "CA" means California, and that's how I read it. But when I reached the end of that sentence, that obviously did not make sense. Then I thought, "Must be a misprint - they left a letter out - but what?" Only in the fourth paragraph of the article did my bafflement clear up. "We simplified 'Computer Associates' to 'CA' and brought the 'C' and 'A' on our brand mark closer together."

"Oh my gosh, 'CA' is a company name?!" Too bad you couldn't see the expression on my face.

This illustrates one of the problems in creating a company name out of letters. With just about any combination of letters you choose, the acronym is probably already in use somewhere. Indeed, CA is also in use for Cocaine Anonymous, as well as an abbreviation for Canada. On the web, a new company name consisting of an acronym will be impossible for the average person to get useful results for from a search engine.

According to the Web Directory All Acronyms, the letters NSA stand for more than 100 different entities, including No Such Agency. Incorporating an acronym as part of a longer name doesn't resolve the issue of multiple meanings. For example, if you named your company SME Services, thinking of "Small and Medium-sized Enterprises," SME could still call up more than 60 other meanings in common usage, including Subject Matter Expertise and Solid Metal Embrittlement.

Second, because acronyms have no self-evident meaning, they require a very heavy investment of resources to become recognizable and memorable as a company name. True, the now-global fast-food company KFC has done well with its initials by trading on its previous incarnation as Kentucky Fried Chicken. But unless you're also serving more than a billion customers a year with a marketing budget to match, that shouldn't encourage you to follow their example.

And third, acronyms invite ridicule. There are scores of jokes purporting to explain what the letters in IBM really mean:

I've Been Moved (because of the company's relocation policy)

I've Been Misled

It's a Broken Machine

Immoral Brand and Management

I Blame Mathematics

Idiots Became Managers

Imbecilic Bad Micros

Invented By Murphy

and on and on.

Perhaps because we dislike how we tend to be treated by governmental and technical acronym-named organizations, many of us find acronyms geeky and off-putting rather than cuddly and comforting. "Acronyms tend to keep non-experts at arm's length," wrote language critic Amy Gahran in 2003. For example, "the original full name for RSS [which most people believe stands for Really Simple Syndication] is 'RDF Site Summary' - a nested acronym that requires two levels of decoding, and it gets geekier at the second level," Gahran noted.

Most of the time, keeping people at arm's length is not a desirable state of affairs or a goal for a new company name. So ditch the acronyms.

By the way, in case you're wondering what "FUBAR" means, since before World War Two it's been an American military expression for the more vulgar version of "Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition."

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.

Identifying Expired Domain Buyers - Tips and Ideas

2009-08-08T12:54:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu

There was a time in the past, when people would flaunt their visiting cards with their flashy addresses and telephone numbers. However, the present trend is of people flashing their web addresses to their friends, colleagues and business partners. Of late, people from all spectrum of life are opting for web portals to give out information and details to others. Buying domain names is the latest trend among people. People buy domain names for personal uses, while businesses buy them to carry out different types of business operations. People may buy and register domain names by creating their own URLs. However, many business entrepreneurs also buy expired domains to set up online business ventures.

Selling expired domain names is actually difficult considering the stiff competition that exists among domain traders. First, you may never know the personal preferences of people who are looking for expired domain names. People have varied needs and requirements for expired domain names. You may wish to know for what purposes, uses people buy, and use expired domain names. Here are some general tips and ideas:

You can classify expired domains under two broad categories depending on the uses and purposes. Under general circumstances, people may buy expired domain names either for non-profit or personal uses, or for business and for uses of profit.

Expired domain buyers for non-profit and personal uses:

A number of non-profits and charitable organizations keep looking for good domains expired and buy them for their charitable activities. These organizations would need domain names that match the objectives and goals of their charity. On the other hand, millions of people also buy expired domains for personal purposes. Someone may need an expired web domain just to publish family photographs, while others may want to buy them to print personal blogs. The most essential thing for these people is to make a connection with their friends and family members.

Tip:

~~ Most people under these categories look for expired domains that end with .org or .info extensions.

These domains are actually cheaper and people, who look for such domains have a severe budgetary constraint.

These domains are difficult to sell as people tend to register fresh domains. ~~

Finding out an expired domain buyer for this category is actually very easy. People who look for these categories of names are very choosy and specific, as they would need only a specific type of name. Once you segregate these names and list them, you can contact them with your best prices. Make sure that you are offering something that is useful to your personal customers. Non-profits are very specific, because they want web domains based on particular keywords. On the other hand, people who buy personal domains are easy to handle and manage. You can even offer an extra, free expired domain as a gift, when they buy a domain at a profitable rate. Mixing your expired domain portfolio with personal and non-profit type of domains may offer you a streamlined business with varied options and choices.

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 Articles written by John Khu.

Create Information Products - Detailed Blueprint To Making A Fortune Selling Information Products

2009-08-08T02:30:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Alan Cheng

Create information products to solve people's problems is one of the most profitable and easiest online business to be in. It's much cheaper than setting up a traditional brick and mortar business, there's no inventory to keep and you make 100% of what you sell. Here's a business plan of how to get into this online business.

1. What Information Products To Sell?

Instead of creating information products to sell in different niches, you need to focus on one niche. Make a decision on what niche you want to build your business on before proceeding further.

For example, in the self-help niche, you can create information products on public speaking, self confidence, anxiety, anger control, build better relationships etc...

2. Getting the Ideas

Read and study your niche every chance you get. Go to forums and understand what problems people are having. Read magazines and newspapers see what topics are related to your niche.

Regularly make a list of ideas and choose the best one to start working on when it's time to create a new information product.

3. Create The Information Product

Buy an ebook from your competitors and see how it's laid out and the topics that are written.

Do some research and start writing your information product. Make it something you're proud to sell. You can hire a ghostwriter to do this task for you later on after you see how the business works.

Alternatively, you can hire a ghostwriter right away if you absolutely hate writing and don't have the time for it.

4. Packaging

This is what makes your information product sell since people buy based on the packaging. This means the design of your website needs to look professional and your sales copy needs to be convincing and mouth-watering.

If you have no experience in writing sales copy and if you're not good at creating graphics, get them outsourced. This is a must!

Some ghostwriters are experienced in creating information products online. Try to find one that will deliver a complete service which includes the sales letter and website design.

5. Getting Traffic

Once your product is ready, it's time to drive traffic to it. Here are 3 ways how you can drive traffic to your website to test the response.

1. Write articles

Write 10 good articles related to your information product. Again, if you don't like writing, you can outsource this to your ghostwriter. Submit these articles to article directories and ezines. Articles are excellent in increasing your exposure and improve your search engine rankings.

2. Blog and Forum Commenting

Make a list of blogs and forums which have good traffic and are related to your niche. Take time to comment on them regularly with a link to your website.

Offer valuable advice and don't advertise your information product with your comments. Just have a link to your website. This will enable you to "steal" some of the traffic from other websites.

3. Pay Per Click

Use pay per click advertising such as Google Adwords, Yahoo and MSN. Create some ads and drive traffic to your website. Monitor how well your information product sells.

Be careful and calculate how much you can afford to spend. If there are not many sales, then tweak your sales copy.

6. Create an Affiliate Program

Create an affiliate program for your information product either by submitting it to Clickbank or use PayDotCom. Let people know they can promote your information product for 50% commission.

7. Collect Your Contacts

Always collect email addresses with everyone who comes in contact with you which includes visitors to your website who signed up for your newsletter, your affiliates and of course your customers.

8. Repeat

Repeat the whole process with a new information product focusing on the same niche, for example "self help".

Once you've created the information product, you can now email your list. The prospects and customers will buy this product from you if the previous one was good. Affiliates will want to promote your new product to earn more commissions.

The more information products you create, the bigger your 3 lists will get. After launching several information products you'll find that you have a list of a few thousand.

Sending an email to your list telling them about your new information product could produce thousands of dollars immediately without doing any promotion of your own.

If you sold an information product for $37 and 1,000 members of your list bought from you, that's $37,000 you'll make instantly. Don't forget that your product will continue to sell as long as your website is online. The crucial success factor is the professional ghostwriter you chose to hire that can deliver quality and on time.

About the Author:
Download the report "Build Your Own Business Using Information Products" at create information products. Alan Cheng is a professional writer at http://www.bestinstantsites.com/ If you want to outsource your information product creation, hire a ghostwriter at Best Instant Sites.

Read more of Alan Cheng's articles.

Ten Questions Every Leader Ought to Be Asking

2009-08-07T16:06:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Lisa Haneberg

If I read another article that starts with, "during these tough times," I am going to scream. Let's get with it, leaders, these times are why we exist. The more we talk about how the times are tough, the greater the likelihood that we will approach our work as victims.

We are at our best when we catalyze progress - when we create environments that help people, teams and processes do great work together. I invite all leaders - at all levels in the organization - to embrace the opportunity to be great like you never knew you could be or was possible. Here are ten questions you can ask yourself and your team to get catalytic juices flowing:

What's the new opportunity that we are not seeing? How might we learn from other organizations, both competitors and non-competitors?

How might new trends in how people communicate and work open up new ways to improve our organization? What does the workplace look like when we are focused and in action?

When a meeting feels flat and perfunctory, what's going on? What's on people minds that they are not saying? What question could I ask that would open the discussion back up? What's possible if I had the courage to do this?

What is "my best work" and how can I ensure I do that today? How can I enable my team to do their best work?

If we were starting this organization from scratch, how would we design it? What would we do if resources were not an issue?

What's the craziest idea that just might work?

What are the most irksome/damaging barriers facing me and my team right now and how can I reduce or obliterate them?

What is my manifesto (driving philosophy and passion) as a leader and how can I ensure my team understands it? What is our team's manifesto?

What's possible now that was not possible last year/month?

Do I have my team focused on doing the work that matters most? How can I optimize how we spend our precious time?

Create your own list of questions and bring them into your next staff meeting or team huddle. Select one of these questions to drill down on with a small group of peers. Put a copy of this article in everyone's inbox! Great questions help us generate productive conversations and conversations are our currency for getting things done.

We are leaders because we make things happen that would not happen without us. We are driven to create, model, and catalyze excellence. We do not maintain. We do not play the victim. We take the initiative to do whatever it takes to make a significant and positive difference and we have more opportunities to do this today than ever. As the great Henry V said in Shakespeare's play, "All things are ready if our minds be so." And let's not forget Westmorland's response, "perish the man whose mind is backward now!" Indeed. The most effective leaders will shine bright now because they are ready to slog through any organizational muck that threatens to slow their team down. Let's all be a part of the leadership revolution.

About the Author:
Lisa Haneberg is the VP and OD Practice Leader for MPI Consulting. She has written 10 business books and writes the popular Management Craft blog. She speaks to and trains leaders and managers about how to produce uncommonly good results. http://www.managementperformance.com/ and http://www.lisahaneberg.com/

Read more Articles written by Lisa Haneberg.

Expired Domain Gains - Simple Ideas to Create an Income Base

2009-08-05T13:00:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu

You can use a number of simple methods and plans to create a solid income base that earns a monthly ongoing income base. For many expired domain entrepreneurs (both full-time and part time), expired domains offer an opportunity to supplement their current income with money earned out of dealing with expired domains. Domains expired also has a potential to make domain traders to create a big virtual estate. Here are some details about those methods that allow you to play with your domains and later tweak them to generate a solid income

Speculating domain names: the market for domain speculation is not large enough to make a big profit; you can still use this method to sell some good domains. You can develop your own technology and use the current trends to speculate on domains. Technologies and trends evolve and transform constantly and you will need to keep your pace with them to speculate on your domains. You may need to detect and find those expired domain names that portray current trends. There are domains that relate to current business scenarios, technologies and markets. Such domains are worthy buying.

Redirect traffic from your expired domain to your web site: Traffic is the most demanded entity by web masters. In fact, they buy traffic to enhance the value of the domains. Getting some traffic to your main web site is very cheap especially when you use your expired domain as the point. Targeted keyword based expired domains can get you some amount of traffic. Smart web masters always use the power of their expired domain names to sent people to their main web site.

Convert expired domain names into mini web sites: You can create a mini web site out of your expired domains, by using latest web designing technologies and integrating the designed site with third party payment processors as well as auto responders. Always choose those domains expired that has a keyword based URL. Once again, the main goal of using such web sites is to sending traffic to the main web sites.

Purchase expiring web domains that are online: Many of the expiring domain names have web sites on them and they are still on air. Most probably, their owners actually forgot to renew the name or they just want to abandon the name. Buying such domains is always beneficial as they already possess some amount of incoming traffic. In some cases, they may also have a comprehensive directory listing.

Use expired domain for affiliate marketing programs: These programs are great opportunities to earn some money by selling products for others. You need not own any products or services to operate this program. In fact, you are redirecting your traffic to your affiliate service providers. You can get income on the basis of commission earned when someone buys a product after clicking the link on your web page. You will need to find those expired domains that have URLs similar to the products sold by affiliate web sites.

You can also use exhaustive method like domain flipping to transform your expire domain into highly profitable entities. It is all up to you to use the power of expired domain to earn money; how you use the available technology depends on your skills and knowledge of expired domains.

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.

Does Your Proposed New Company Name Open the Door to Ridicule?

2009-08-05T01:48:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

People who intensely dislike your company or feel wronged by you will always find some way to complain. However, a lack of attention during the naming process can inadvertently make it easier for comedians, protesters and whiners to poke fun at your company.

Before finalizing your new company name, run it by these tests so you can tweak the name or reject it if necessary to avoid predictable problems. Also ask the funniest people you know whether they see an obvious (well, obvious to them, at least) way to make your firm a laughingstock.

1. What do the initials spell? One reason why National Skyway Freight changed its name to Flying Tigers is that "NSF" is a well-known abbreviation for "not sufficient funds." Likewise, you wouldn't want to discover after you'd already invested in and promoted your name that disgruntled customers were calling Condo Renovators United of Detroit, your company, "CRUD."

2. Does the name resemble or evoke a disreputable word? Marketers coined the name Allegis as an umbrella name for United Airlines, Hertz, Hilton and Westin Hotels. However, many people who looked at the first five letters thought about "allegedly" and "allegations" rather than "allegiance." That, together with the challenge of pronouncing it, led the corporation to abandon its $7.5 million investment in the name and go back to its previous name, UAL Corporation. Something similar happened to Allegheny Airlines, which got tagged with the nickname "Agony Airlines" until it renamed itself USAir.

3. Do the letters or anything about the way the name is spelled suggest anything negative? When Standard Oil (S.O.) of New Jersey morphed into Esso, then came in for criticism under the name Exxon, commentators sometimes latched onto the double "X" and called it the "Double Cross Company." Likewise, you might find it cute to call your café that's at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Route 66 "Café 666," but many people associate the number 666 with the devil, so this would be certain to generate notoriety - negative publicity.

4. Does the name suggest a catchy parody version? You can't prevent this kind of lampooning entirely, but you also don't want to make it easy for the public to make fun of you. The natural foods supermarket chain Whole Foods is often derisively called "Whole Paycheck" by those who find its prices high, and the elite department store Neiman Marcus has been dubbed Needless Markup. People who do not like the food at Applebees, a casual restaurant chain, call it "Crapplebees." Be forewarned about this move by asking your comedian friends how they'd twist your proposed name in a satire.

5. Does the name shorten into something you'd be embarrassed about? In New York City, the neighborhood South of Houston Street became known as "SoHo." Washington Mutual, a bank, similarly let its name get shortened into "WaMu." However, if your company was named "California Carriers," you would most definitely not want to be known as "CaCa."

Make sure these techniques don't turn you into a humor target! Be wise about selecting a name that is easier to keep reputable.

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.

Making Money By Using Smart Expired Domain Trading Techniques

2009-08-04T07:36:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu

Expired domain trading is possibly one of the most profitable businesses around and probably the most satisfactory one with least business risks involved. With this wonderful business opportunity, you can create a viable and stable income generating opportunity. Of late, expired domain trading is gaining international prominence, because many people believe that expired domains name will always be in demand irrespective of the state of the world economy. With increasing domain name registration, there is also a tendency of large number of them dropping and becoming dead due to a number of reasons.

Expired domains are similar to scrap materials, which you can use to make decent amount of money. There is a famous saying - one man's scrap is another's treasure. Domains discarded by someone could be a big treasure for you! It is almost like a hidden treasure trove that contains precious gemstones and ornaments. A big pool of expired domains is there up for grab by you. You just need to select and buy few good ones to make money out of them. However, choosing such domains expiring or expired is not so easy! You will need to use the best techniques and methods to buy a small inventory of expired domain names.

Professional expired domain traders use a series of intelligent and well-conceived methods that ensure them very good expired domains. These techniques are very sophisticated and sometimes automated. However, seasoned domain traders also use a number of simple techniques that do not involve complicated procedures. Even you can use one or may of them to choose your domain name.

Professional expired domain traders, who are in the business, know how to pinpoint to a good domain. Street-smart and intelligent, they can easily select the best domain from a big stock of domain names. In fact, most of them avoid long and elaborate domain names that come with numbers as suffixes or prefixes. Longish domain names with hyphen in between two or more words are always inferior to those that are simple, short and without any suffixes o prefixes.

Generic names do not come so easily these days and you may wish to buy those domains that are offshoots of generic domain names. For example, you may like to buy domain name that act as adjectives to the main search term. Books.com is never available for purchase, but you can always buy domains that come with names like hitbooks.com or oldbooks.com. If you go one level down, you can choose domain names like hitbookcounter.com or classicbookshelf.com.

Another commonly used technique is the usage of keywords that are in excessive demand on Google or Yahoo. People always search for information by typing keywords or their phrases. You can use this user's preference to choose a good expired domain name. For example, leather shoes are the most commonly used durables by people. People always search for web portals that sell leather shoes. To find an e portal that sells leather shoes, a typical web user will enter search terms like "black leather shoes" or "Italian leather shoes". Based on this search trend, you may wish to look for expired domain names that reflect the buyer's search preference. For example, you can buy expired domain names that reflect the main theme of leather shoe business. Here, you can easily buy expired domains like blackleathershoes.com or Italianshoes.com. These are some of the most common techniques used to search for good expired domain names. You can use them along with other techniques.

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.

Your Good Reputation and How to Market It

2009-08-04T00:36:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

To make your business grow in the right way, many things have to be taken into consideration. Marketing and advertising your products and services are the most important. Without developing and implementing intelligent brand marketing and promotional strategies, it will be impossible to see an increase in you customer base.

Marketing is how you let people know about your products and services. Obviously, the quality of your products and services makes people come back over and over again. However, you need to do something to get new customers and that is where using different marketing strategies lends a helping hand.

Reputation marketing is one technique that can create an impact. According to this marketing strategy, you get more customers when others know about your reputation. This is another way of saying that reputation drives word-of-mouth marketing.

A good reputation is the single most valuable asset your company can have. Knowledge and experience are high on the list, but both of those qualities can be bought - you can always hire smart and experienced people to help you. A good reputation can take a long time to earn but can be lost in a moment.

As you gain a body of satisfied customers, your reputation will grow naturally. Internet reputation management will help you protect your good name online.

For the online portion of your business, you'll have to market your products in a slightly different way than for a brick and mortar business. It is important for all business enterprises with an online presence to pay attention to search engine optimization. If you can't do it yourself, you may want to hire qualified SEO service professionals to make specific changes to your website so it will be easier to access the site to purchase products or services. These optimizers are the people who can help you with Internet marketing and reputation marketing. Using a qualified, professional SEO service to establish a strong online presence is always beneficial to a website.

Article marketing is another way of promoting your website and products. This can build your reputation as well. If you write articles with quality information that people are searching for and submit them to directories, you will become a known expert. This will give you and your business the credibility to compete in your business arena. It will also let you gain trust with potential customers. If they read your articles and like them, they will be less hesitant in buying products or services from you.

Here are some tips to get more out of article marketing.

Content

Content is all-important. People go to the Internet for information; they don't want to read a sales pitch. If your articles have valuable information, people will trust and value your opinions and maybe head to your website when they want to buy. Keep to the point in your articles - brevity is best. Consider all the ways you can approach your topics for a good variety of articles. Organize your content with bullets, numbers or headings to help get your point across and make your articles more readable. And, last but not least, make sure you have a strong title that will grab readers' attention.

Keywords and Resource Box

Before setting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, do a little research on using keywords and phrases. See what words you would type into a search engine to find information that your target audience would want. You can use these words in your article, but don't go overboard or your article will sound artificial.

The resource box at the end of your article is the place where you can put a link back to your website. This is where you can make your sales pitch, describe your website and link back to it.

Proofread and Publish

Proofread everything. If the content you send out to represent yourself is sloppy, with spelling and grammatical errors, it will reflect badly on you, tarnish your reputation and by association, your products or services. If you aren't a good proofreader, find some friends and listen to their comments.

Publishing your article on your website will strengthen the content of your site and will build your credibility. You can also send out your articles to online article directories. You can even cross-link by placing links in your articles to other articles that you've written.

Yet another way to promote your website and gain a good reputation is by using Social Media Marketing. Visit forums and discussion boards and actively participate in the discussions. You want to try to keep up with your participation; showing up and then vanishing can hurt your reputation. Make sure you include a link to your website or email in your postings. And always observe proper etiquette.

The bottom line is that your reputation is the biggest asset you have. If you do not have good reputation, it is impossible to get any success in business. People don't like losing their money, and that is the reason they research before choosing any particular company.

If you have enough content conveying valuable information to potential buyers, you will always be able to see an improvement in your business. So, always consider the option of reputation marketing. You can either handle the marketing on your own or you can go with a professional company for assistance. It doesn't matter what you choose as long as you stay aware of your online reputation and use it to your advantage.

About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketing and advertising company employing Brandcasting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. 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. The approach is simple, highly effective and affordable. Learn more at: http://www.Brandsplat.com/

Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.

Expired Domains with Traffic - Buying Tips

2009-08-03T18:30:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu

Buying an expired domain with inbuilt traffic could be a risky proposition. Spending your hard-earned money on an expired domain without any meaningful incoming traffic could also be a big wastage of money. Once you decide that you want to invest your money in buying an expired domain with traffic, you will need to be very careful in selecting a domain that assuredly contains incoming traffic. You may face a number of risks and challenges while selecting and buying a domain expired with supposedly full of incoming links and traffic.

Most of the sellers who sell their traffic enriched domains by providing a number of screen shots or an excel sheet containing the traffic statistics or even a detailed spreadsheet containing details about the traffic. Some intelligent domain sellers even provide a link to a parking account for you to check the detail of the traffic. The main purpose of these actions is to provide you guarantee that the domains-expired you are going to buy indeed contains lot of traffic.

However, there are two important issues here that you must pay your attention before buying that domain name:

a) You will ensure that the statistics provided by the seller are not fictitious.

b) You will also need to confirm whether the statistics provided are sustainable over longer durations

Some domain traders advertise their domains to generate some amount of traffic. Once they ascertain that traffic is coming to the domain, they will sell off the domain at a very high price. Soon after receiving the money from the buyer, they will stop the domain promotion program to save their money on advertisement. This may eventually lead to loss of traffic and a situation where the domain may even start losing its earlier traffic.

These domains are actually useless as the incoming traffic is just momentary and non-organic.

Never ever, fall in to this kind of trap! Never buy those expired domains that their original owner manipulated just for the sake of getting an inflated price. The traffic that comes with these kinds of domains is never sustainable and you will be paying for the traffic hype surrounding the domain. Here are some basic rules of buying traffic rich expired domain names:

i) When the domain seller has integrity then the statistics provided by him or her will also be right.

ii) Never ever, feel that the deal is very good. Do not jump into the conclusion that you will be losing your money if you do not buy that domain. You may be burning your fingers in the process.

iii) Trust your intuition and instinct. If you have doubts about their numbers, ask the seller for all possible details. Confirm that they are not promoting the domains just for the sale of selling them.

You may never be sure of what you are buying in the guise of an expired domain with lot of incoming traffic. When you are careful, you can easily buy a very good domain that actually contains real type of traffic.

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 Articles written by John Khu.

Twitter Marketing Explored

2009-08-03T07:18:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Trey Pennewell

Twitter is growing by leaps and bounds as people begin to appreciate its clean and easy-to-use interface. Twitter, at this point, does not look like one of the many flash-in-the-pan Internet applications that we have seen in times' past.

Twitter's 140 character micro-blogging platform has gained a lot of traction, as individuals and business people have learned to bring together their friends, family and customers under a communications platform that all users find useful.

Mom and dad find it easier to keep up with the lives of their grown children through Twitter. The fact that Twitter allows people to link to other web pages makes Twitter a simple platform to share thoughts, ideas, and links to stories and pictures. Grandma and granddad find it easy to check in on the kids' Twitter account and to maintain daily contact with those across town and around the world.

Friends can make plans and share common interests through the Twitter world. One can reply to a message publicly, or if the message is a bit more private, one can send a Direct Message (known as a DM) to anyone who has agreed to follow you also. Through the DM system, lovers can share flirts that no one else can see, but the persons intended to receive the message.

If you let your kids use Twitter, it may be best to set up their Twitter Account Settings to "Protect The Tweets". In the description of this feature, Twitter says, "Only let people whom I approve follow my tweets. If this is checked, you WILL NOT be on the public timeline."

The Public Timeline is the messages/tweets that everyone can see. Anything not on the Public Timeline is private, with restricted access.

Business People Are Working To Tap Into Twitter Marketplace

Twitter was born in March of 2006. But most of us never really heard of it or even understood it, until this last year (2008-2009). A few of the Internet gurus started talking about Twitter in 2008, and as 2009 got underway, more online marketers started talking about the Twitter community on a nearly daily basis.

We have accounts in Twitter that are a couple of years old, but we never got involved with Twitter really until about April of 2009. In April of 2009, we had 12 Twitter Followers.

In May 2009, there was not a single online business in the Top 100 of Twitter, but those numbers are starting to change. Through May of 2009, the Top 100 accounts on Twitter were dominated by TV and Movie celebrities, a few media companies such as @cnnbrk, politicians and sports figures.

Most online marketers had never given Twitter much thought until "The Great Ashton Kutcher vs CNN Twitter Race" that ended on April 17, 2009 with Ashton (@aplusk) getting the privilege to declare victory. (http://bit.ly/8Nx55) Even now, three months after the end of the race, Ashton is still the champion - #1 in the Twitter Follower counts with 2,975,032 Followers. Ashton is followed by @TheEllenShow - 2,610,357; @britneyspears - 2,553,668; @cnnbrk - 2,431,783; and @twitter - 1,930,821.

When the Great Twitter Race was concluded, I did a backlink check on Ashton's @aplusk account. Literally, Ashton had bought a ton of advertising on websites, blogs, forums, etc. Ashton was also getting tons of free press in print and online in the Great Twitter Race.

Of course, we marketers should not feel bad if we are getting on this bandwagon a little late in the game, because @google has only had their account since Jan 09. Google is currently the 23rd biggest Twitter account with 1,244,976 Followers.

A surprise for me was seeing @WholeFoods, an Austin Texas based grocery store, sitting at #38 with 1,094,093 Followers. According to TwitterCounter (http://twittercounter.com/WholeFoods/all), Whole Foods had only 322,820 Followers on April 4, 2009. A quick look at the Whole Foods profile (http://twitter.com/WholeFoods) indicates that they are using the account to share with their customers: company news, customer support, and available specials.

An honorable mention goes to @kevinrose, celebrity and founder of http://Digg.com. Kevin Rose is the 40th most popular person on Twitter, with 1,092,920 Followers.

Once you get into the Top 100 List below #40, you finally start to see a few online businesses in the mix. @zappos CEO is #45. @woot is #46. @TechCrunch is a web media site at #55. @dooce is at #60. To see the full Top 100 List, go here: http://twittercounter.com/pages/100

Who Is In Your Target Market and What Do They Want To Know?

As you look around at those people who are successful building their own little communities on Twitter, you will notice that each one gives people what their Followers want.

For example, @cussy is an online marketer, and he has nearly 10,000 Followers. His secret to growth: quotes. He gives his followers some of the best quotes about business and reaching goals of anyone on Twitter. I follow him and Retweet him often.

@dave_carpenter advertises himself as a Success Partner For High Achievers. Dave shares quotes and tips, and he retweets others who give good advice also. More importantly, Dave encourages the people he follows. He has nearly 9,000 Followers at this time.

@MattLevenhagen is a professional marketer. His 13,000 Followers follow because he runs a mix of marketing tips, links to great articles, and retweets for great advice. He even uses his Twitter account to give his customer's support.

@SocialMedia411 is a Social Media expert who offers social media tips, links to social media articles and news. With more than 56,000 Followers, you can bet that the advice given here is worthwhile to its audience.

When you learn to talk to the people most likely to buy from you, you have completed the first and most important step to enable you to develop strong Twitter Marketing habits.

Learn How Others Are Successful With Twitter

As always, when you want to learn to be successful, you should look to those who are already successful and try to reverse-engineer the steps that they used to become successful. Once you have taken the time to study many who have been successful in the way that you want to be successful, you may note that success comes from giving people what they want and doing it in such a way that you offer good value to your customers.

Those who have been successful with Twitter have done so, because they put the needs of their Followers ahead of a personal desire to be boring or silly.

The good news is that other business people have started to find success on Twitter and you can too. When you learn to provide the people in your target market with the information that they need and want, you will have started down the path to building a Twitter Follower list to envy.

About the Author:
Trey Pennewell works for http://www.thePhantomWriters.com/ article marketing service. If you write articles and need to distribute your articles to higher value audiences, you owe it to yourself to try The Phantom Writers' services. If you want to learn more about how to develop a large list of Twitter Followers, buy the ebook (under $10) at: http://twitusers.com/autopilot/index.php Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/contentmanager

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New Search Engines - Can Anyone Beat Google?

2009-08-01T12:36:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Titus Hoskins

Can any new search engine beat Google, probably not, mainly because Google isn't going anywhere but up. It is the dominant search engine with around 72 percent of U.S. online searches and its percentages are much higher in other parts of the world. (Source: Hitwise) However, there are some serious new competitors that may just take a bite out of Google's rosy search numbers. Never know, one or several of them, may just give Google a run for those all important search engine dollars.

Recently, there has been a whole army of new search engines debuting on the web. If you're a full-time online marketer like me, you really have to keep your eyes open to what is happening on the web, especially relating to search engines which deliver most of your quality traffic. Also keep in mind, this piece may be fairly biased since Google is directly or indirectly responsible for around 80% of my online revenue, so any opinions may be slanted in Google's favor, not that they need any favors from me or anyone.

But as an online marketer you have to try to remain objective and examine all angles in regards to these new search engines. Despite this, in marketing and webmaster circles, everyone will know even if you have the number one ranking for a certain keyword in all three major engines Google, Yahoo! and MSN - Google supplies the most traffic, hands down.

Despite its obvious dominance, Google is still basically the new kid on the block. We have to remember, there have been many search engines before Google and there will be many more search engines after Google. Every entity has its day and then hands the torch along to whatever comes next. It's one of those subtle facts of life we all learn eventually.

Everybody has their day - empires, countries, leaders, companies... or even search engines. Are Google's days as top dog really numbered? Probably not in the immediate future, but there are some new kids on the block that could definitely kick some sand in the face of Google and stir things up, we might even see a few serious squabbles here and there.

In a recent article on CNN, by John D. Sutter, entitled "New Search Engines Aspire To Supplement Google" the author examines some recent new search engines. The author discusses: Twine, Hakia, Searchme, Cuil, Kosmix, Wolfram Alpha, Topsy, TweetMeme and OneRiot. Each of these are different, making your web search more personal, more visual, or connecting your search to new social networks like FaceBook and Twitter.

Some experts say Wolfram Alpha is the most likely candidate to give Google some serious competition because Wolfram can do something Google can't; it can create information rather than just reading/presenting content already on the web. Will it present a solid threat to Google's dominance?

Perhaps, a more fitting sparring partner will come from an old rival with very deep, deep pockets. We are talking about the new search engine from Microsoft called Bing, which is very similar to Google in many ways, yet different. Bing's results are very similar to Google in a lot of ways, yet Bing serves up the results in a very pleasing arrangement, with a nice preview button for each listing and giving you related searches and your search history on the left hand side. Only time will tell if everyone would rather be binging instead of googling. To Bing or not to Bing, that is the question? There's a very informative article on Bing by Farhad Manjoo on Slate entitled: "Beware Google: Microsoft's New Search Engine Isn't Half-bad." Just Bing or Google to find it!

I personally like this search engine much better than MSN mainly because the home page of Bing is very appealing and only has the search box on it so you're not distracted with other news listings like on MSN and Yahoo! One of the main reasons for Google's success, besides the superior search results, has been its simplicity. Keep it simple and you may just be able to compete.

Then again, this is a bit of a biased judgment, since many of my own keywords and sites rank high in Bing; some even higher than they are listed in Google. I routinely monitor countless keyword phrases in all the search engines and lately Google has been favoring big Brand Name listings on their first page results. We are also seeing more Product Listings (Old Froogle), more video and more news listings... competition for Google's first page has become multi-layered and extremely competitive. What's a poor small online marketer to do when Google goes corporate?

Actually, Bing is not my favorite search engine of the new ones forcing their way into the spotlight.

For me, the one that shows the most promise and may give Google some competition is Searchme, which is a visual search (much like the iTunes interface) where you can shuffle through screenshots of webpages instead of a list of links. Searchme, which touts itself as the first multimedia search engine, has been around for a few years but is not widely known to web users. Performing a search on Searchme with a 24 inch monitor and 64-bit Windows is a hundred times more enjoyable than using Google Search or Bing for that matter. It is a hundred times faster than Google mainly because you can generally find your information without clicking through to the sites displayed.

Searchme is truly an eye opener but can it give Google some serious competition. The jury is still out, but I believe over time as web users upgrade their computers, operating systems, and their graphics... Searchme will be more accessible to more web users. Never know, with the right backing and marketing, any of these search engines, especially Searchme and Bing could blossom into a formidable opponent even for the mighty Google.

Here's why: Human Nature!

Whether we admit it or not, most of us (Humans) are lazy, we want the fastest and easiest route to solving any question or problem. Searchme gives us the answer much quicker than Google and in a much nicer way. Mainly because we are also visual creatures, given the choice between receiving pages of text and viewing images of sites/answers, most of us will take the visual route - we will choose TV over radio, music videos over records... video enhanced content over just plain static HTML. As the web turns into more of an interactive multimedia operation; visual search will always win out over text search any day of the year.

Most humans also have a need for speed, in our fast paced life styles, we all want a speedy solution to our problems. Search is no different, we want quick answers now, we want instant solutions and immediate gratification. Nature of the beast. If Searchme, Bing or any of the other search engines becomes faster than Google at giving the right answer, then it's a whole new ballgame.

Google must obviously know there are challenges to its search engine dominance. Otherwise, why would they be offering many new features in their SERPs; we are seeing more images and videos. Plus, Google has just introduced the "show options" link at the top of their SERPs, which presents their search results in many different ways. They even have introduced the "Wonder Wheel" as another viewing option, which gives a whole new way of using Google's search results.

Google's Achilles' Heel may just be the thing that gives it all its revenue: text ads. There may be a backlash on all those Google ads littered across the web, especially among the younger computer savvy crowd using such sites like the Google owned YouTube, where Google has nearly obliterated the videos with its ads. Everyone dislikes advertising, no matter what form it takes.

However, any news of Google's demise will be greatly exaggerated, because Google, like any smart company with tons of resources, has kept morphing and changing with the times, quickly adapting to new features as our usage of the web keeps changing. Google has perfected the art of staying one step ahead of the competition. This is one champion that won't go down without a fight to the finish. Top dogs rarely do.

If they ever present a serious challenge to Google, Searchme, Bing or any of the above search engines, will have a formidable opponent in the opposing corner, one that has gained almost insurmountable prestige and brand recognition around the world. Any major battle will instantly have a "David vs Goliath" scenario attached to it. And we all know how that one played out!

About the Author:
The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous niche sites. These 10 SEO Tactics Bring Me Over 2000 Visitors Daily: SEO Tips. To learn more Internet Marketing Tactics try: Marketing Tools. Copyright (c) 2009 Titus Hoskins. http://www.bizwaremagic.com This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

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Etiquette for Social Media Sites and Blogs

2009-07-28T14:18:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario

Social media is social. Social, an adjective that one definition gives as pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations: a social club. That's what social network sites are - social clubs. Where people with the same interests get together and learn, teach, grow, and bond.

Hopefully you were taught social etiquette while you were growing up. You remember, elbows off the table, shake hands when you meet someone, send thank you notes, say please and thank you. Just as there are proper ways to behave in the world, there are proper ways to behave online. Here are a few ways to make your online experience a pleasure for everyone else.

Be Nice

This is the big one. Everything after this is icing on the cake. There is nothing wrong with being nice; it doesn't mean that you're weak. Making enemies on social sites gets you nowhere, so drop your hatred and e-rants. It's okay to have an opinion, even an extremely opposite opinion from everyone else. What's not okay is to call other people names. If you're trying to make a persuasive argument, use persuasive language and prove your point. It doesn't help your cause to call someone an idiot. And, if you use the Internet to rant and rave, people eventually tune you out.

Just like in real life and business, we get what we want by knowing people, networking and building quality relationships. It's the same for online relationships. And, as the old saying goes, "you can catch more flies with honey..."

You should value relationships over transactions. Gaining links from commenting on blogs should not be your main objective. Blog comments are just that - you are commenting to join the conversation. And you are joining the conversation to build a relationship.

Be Accountable

Just because you sit at your computer, anonymous, doesn't mean you are not accountable for your actions and words. Don't believe that there are no rules to social media. Don't believe that you can do or say whatever you want without consequences just because you can hide behind your computer. People are smart and if you are a shameless, self-promoting jerk, they'll figure it out and you'll be done. By being accountable for your words, people will respect you, whether they agree with you or not.

Be Respectful of the Community

You are there to add value to the community you join, not to push your agenda and make sales pitches. The thing that will bring you relationships is making sure that when you add to the community, it's with quality content. You may want to sit back and just listen for a while to learn about a community you've joined instead of just jumping in, maybe being ineffective and wasting everyone's time. Before you submit anything to a social site, ask yourself if it will add value to the community. If not, don't.

If you are commenting on someone else's blog, don't just promote yourself. If you have a post that refers to that conversation, then it's okay to post that link in your comment. However, if you do it too often, you'll get ignored or thought of as just a spammer.

Be a Listener

Yeah, sure, you think you know everything, but, if you listen to what others are saying, you might learn something. Listen to people that comment on your blog and see if you can understand where they are coming from. Your first reaction does not need to be a rant telling them how wrong they are.

Be a Giver

You know this one - you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. This saying applies to online relationships as well. If you want attention, you have to be willing to give it first. Do the people who burst onto your site or group and think that they should be at the top immediately annoy you? And how about the ones that constantly ask for your help by commenting on their blogs or always push their content on you. We all try to avoid "users." Don't be like them - you have to earn respect by giving more than you receive and by making sure that what you give is useful.

Remember to link to posts that you find interesting or informative. Chances are that if you've found it interesting and related to your group, someone else will too. This is a great way to get involved in social networking sites.

Be Nice

I know, this was the first suggestion, but it's important so it bears repeating. You can't get away from it, The Golden Rule concept can be found in cultures and religions all over the world. That's probably why it's the "golden" rule. And if we all lived by it, in real life as well as online, we'd all be a little better off.

About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketing and advertising company employing Brandcasting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. 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. The approach is simple, highly effective and affordable. Learn more at: http://www.Brandsplat.com/

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Has Your Company Name Landed You in Legal Hot Water? Renaming Tips

2009-07-26T13:36:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin

The #1 reason business owners hire my company to create a new business name within a week is they've received a cease-and-desist letter from an attorney. Often sent by certified mail, this legal document informs you that you are infringing on the registered trademark of another company, and if you do not stop using your company name after a specific date, you will be the target of legal action. I.e., you will be sued.

Such a letter means business. Never ignore it! It requires prompt action on your part.

In most cases, deciding to fight the case is foolhardy. It's best to acquiesce and look for a new company name. Here are the steps you should take.

First, read the letter carefully to determine what was objectionable about the name you have been using. For example, if they objected to you using a certain prefix or suffix, or a rhyme of their name, you'll need to make sure that factor is high on your list of criteria for the new name. Although this sounds obvious, I've seen entrepreneurs get so angry or upset about the demand to change their name that they don't proceed rationally in selecting its replacement.

Second, identify the business goals and objectives that you want the new name to meet. Who is the target market? What kind of statement do you want to make about your company? How do you want to be perceived? Should the name be cute or sedate? Trendy or conservative? Emotional or matter-of-fact?

Third, brainstorm possible names. Along with this article, you'll find a link to a free brainstorming guide for company names. Also see if you can remember or find notes on the runner-up names you considered just before you decided on the name you now have to discard. Sometimes it helps to look at lists of companies in your industry to trigger memories of important keywords or naming approaches you like and dislike.

Fourth, use the business goals and objectives you identified in Step 2 to reject names that will not work. Be ruthless in eliminating names you may like but that do not get across the proper message, don't fit your desired image or might not be understood by customers. From the names that remain, select your top three candidates.

Fifth - and please don't hate me for this! - hire an attorney to check out your top three name candidates to make sure they are legally in the clear. After all, this is the step you probably skipped the first time around. One entrepreneur I know failed to do this and had to change his company twice in one year, which made him look extremely careless.

And last, take the time to live with your top choice for a few days before finalizing it. Imagine saying it on the phone, at business meetings, seeing it on signage and so on. Is it a name you feel completely good about? If so, you're done. Congratulations! If not, repeat some of the previous steps as necessary.

About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm

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How To Find Work At Home Jobs For Work At Home Moms

2009-07-26T08:00:00.001-07:00

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Glen OReilly

As the economy continues to tighten for many American families, more moms are looking to the Internet to find the extra money needed to help their families survive during this economically challenging time.

The good news is that there are plenty of opportunities for the mom seeking to earn money from home. The bad news is that there are a number of scams out there designed to trap the newcomers - to making money online, who simply do not know how to recognize the righteous among the wolves.

Be Very, Very Careful

Far too often, newcomers to the online job world have experiences similar to those experienced by Elmer Fudd, whenever he crossed the path of Bugs Bunny - as in the movie, "Wabbit Twouble".

Elmer Fudd: Wabbit, I came here for gold, and I'm going to get it!

Bugs Bunny: No! No! No! Not that! Not that! Anything but...
[Elmer and Bugs fight until Elmer has a gold tooth in his hands]

Elmer Fudd: Euweka! Gold at wast! He-he-he-he!
[Smiles, showing a gap where his gold tooth was]

Bugs Bunny: Euweka! Gold at wast! He-he-he-he!
[Points at his intact gold tooth]

When money is tight at home, it is important to absorb the lessons I am going to share in this article and not to be an Elmer Fudd. While spending money to operate an online enterprise may often make sense, be vewy, vewy careful. Oh - sorry... Be very, very careful...

Lessons From The Days Of Mail Order

If you go to McDonald's, Wal-Mart or any other Main Street employer, you do not have to pay money to get the job. While jobs are free... A good education is not free...

In the days of mail order, the big scam was that you could pay money to get a job "stuffing envelopes". The scam was that you would pay money to get the kit that enabled you to stuff envelopes, supposedly for pay. In the advertising, it was said that companies would pay you X dollars to stuff and mail the envelopes.

What the scammers never said was that what you were sticking in an envelope was a sales flyer, and you would only be paid if someone purchased a product as the result of a piece that you mailed.

The Internet equivalent of "stuffing envelopes" is affiliate marketing. That is not to say that you cannot make a lot of money with affiliate marketing, because you really can make a lot of money with affiliate marketing. But you should be aware that most people who undertake affiliate marketing - without first getting a good education - will fail to make any money with affiliate marketing.

Yes, affiliate marketing has a learning curve, but once you have perfected your formula for success, affiliate marketing can be very lucrative. It is true that a lot of Internet marketers are making a handsome living through affiliate marketing, but most of those people who have worked their way into "earning a living" from affiliate marketing had several months or several years of trial-and-error, before they could leave the job world behind.

If you are at all curious about affiliate marketing, the basic premise is that companies will pay you for helping them to acquire new customers. If a person that you referred to the company makes a purchase, you will earn a sales commission as a result of the purchase made.

If You Are Seeking A Job

You do not have to pay someone in order to get a job, whether offline in the real world or on the Internet. If someone offers you a job, and then asks for cash up-front in order to be able to give you that job, you should hearken back to the wise words of Elmer Fudd, "There's something screwy around here..."

For many telecommuting is just a dream, but when you know where to look for those telecommuting jobs, they are not that hard to find.

The only real telecommuting jobs on the Internet are frequently found on Freelance websites. But, you should keep in mind that these Freelance jobs are usually not long-term, and they are based on specific performance criteria.

For example, I could have hired someone to write this article for me for a fee. Many freelance opportunities are actually available in the content creation arena. Webmasters need content to fill and to promote their websites, but many of these webmasters simply do not have the skill or the time to do the work themselves. If you have the ability to write intelligible content, then there is ample opportunity to write articles for other people.

On the freelance websites, content writers are generally paid anywhere from a few dollars up to about fifteen or twenty dollars to write one article. If you are willing to put up your own website and to advertise your writing to other companies, it is not unheard of to be able to charge anywhere from $30 an article to $100 an article. But you should be forewarned that setting up your own website can be a very tough road, as there are thousands of other freelance writers competing for those more lucrative writing jobs.

If you don't consider yourself much of a writer, the good news is that there are thousands of freelance jobs offered that would enable anyone with a computer connection to participate.

For example, I know one company who pays people to write "every man" reviews of tourist destinations, motels, hotels and restaurants. The managers at this company do not want professional writers to write these reviews. Instead, the employer wants the reviews to appear as if Jane Doe, with an eighth-grade education, had written them.

Another company recently paid people to research and compile a list of all of the hotels in one metro area. This company wanted the names of the hotels, addresses, phone numbers, and it wanted to know the availability of swimming pools and other amenities. That particular job paid two dollars for every record compiled.

Other companies are willing to pay to have a list compiled of web pages that talk about a very specific topic. Manually compiled lists are popular, because we all know that the search engines don't always show the best content pages on a topic, and some webmasters feel that having such a list would be beneficial to their users.

I have even seen companies seeking freelancers to look at pictures and write a short description of what the picture contains. Others have paid to have a set of pictures reviewed and placed into their proper categories.

Interestingly, if you have a digital camera, there are hundreds of companies willing to pay you to travel around your local area and take pictures of specific homes, streets, addresses, tourism spots, and nature shots. Some of these companies are in the stock photography industry; and others are in the real estate industry.

If you are more of an artist, you will also find ample opportunities for graphic design jobs through the various freelance websites. Another graphics-related freelance job that some employers have sought is for people skilled with Photoshop to stitch together pictures to provide a panoramic picture of a particular event.

Other freelance gigs for moms include business support services, administration support, accounting, answering services, resume writing, grant writing, translators, virtual assistants, editors, fact checkers, gathering interesting quotes, and more... If you can envision an assignment that a company might need completed, chances are there is someone out there looking for someone to do those jobs from home...

Here Is Where To Find Those Freelance Jobs

There are many more Freelance Job websites than what I will mention here, but this will give you a good start towards finding jobs that any mom, in any part of the country, can use to find and earn the extra money she needs to help supplement the financial needs of her family.

General Freelancing Websites:

Elance.com

Guru.com/pro

iFreelance.com

FreelanceJobs.org/projects/

Jobs.FreelanceSwitch.com

Mturk.com (from Amazon.com)

LimeExchange.com

FlexJobs.com

FreelanceWritingGigs.com

GoFreelance.com

TheFreelanceNation.com

HireMyMom.com

GetaFreelancer.com

Sell Your Photography:

At the end of this road, there are many places to find jobs that can be worked from home. Many of these jobs are ideal for mom, and possibly even for dad.

If you are looking for extra money or a job you can work from home, print out this article now, so that you will have it available when you need it. If you have friends or relatives looking for work from home opportunities, print this article out and give it to them.

With this information in hand, you should have no problem finding the real work-at-home jobs that many people seek to find. At this juncture, one more quote from Elmer Fudd seems the perfect conclusion to this article:

Elmer Fudd: I finally got even with that screwy wabbit...

Keep your chin up and your mind clear, so that screwy wabbit will not clean your wallet, when you are in need of every penny you have available.

About the Author:
Glen O'Reilly lives with his wife and children in Detroit, Michigan. In good times he likes to travel with his family, and in slow times, he likes to help others through his writing. Recently, his wife was laid off from the job she had held for ten years. This opened a new chapter in their lives. His wife recently was able to find a job using http://www.jobsandpaychecks.com/ Thrilled about his wife's success, Glen signed on with the website to help get the word out about this excellent online jobs resource.

Read more Articles written by Glen OReilly.