Marketing Tips

Writer's block is the patron demon of the blank page. You may think you know EXACTLY what you're going to write, but as soon as that evil white screen appears before you, your mind suddenly goes completely blank.

It doesn't necessarily matter if you've done a decade of research and all you have to do is string sentences you can repeat in your sleep together into coherent paragraphs. Writer's block can strike anyone at anytime. Based in fear, it raises our doubts about our own self-worth, but it's sneaky. It's writer's block, after all, so it doesn't just come and let you know that. No, it makes you feel like an idiot who just had your frontal lobes removed through your sinuses. If you dared to put forth words into the greater world, they would surely come out as gibberish!

Let's try and be rational with this irrational demon. Let's make a list of what might possibly be beneath this terrible and terrifying condition.

1. Perfectionism. You must absolutely produce a masterpiece of literature straight off in the first draft. Otherwise, you qualify as a complete failure.

2. Self-consciousness. How can you think, let alone write, when all you can manage to do is pry the fingers of writer's block away from your throat enough so you can gasp in a few shallow breaths? You're not focusing on what you're trying to write, your focusing on those gnarls fingers around your windpipe.

3. Can't get started. It's always the first sentence that's the hardest. As writers, we all know how EXTREMELY important the first sentence is. It must be brilliant! It must be unique! It must hook your reader's from the start! There's no way we can get into writing the piece until we get past this impossible first sentence.

4. Shattered concentration. You're cat is sick. You suspect your mate is cheating on you. Your electricity might be turned off any second. You have a crush on the local UPS deliveryman. You have a dinner party planned for your in-laws. You . . . Need I say more. How can you possibly concentrate with all this mental clutter?

How to Overcome Writer's Block

There are ways to trick this nasty demon. Pick one, pick several, and give them a try. Soon, before you even have a chance for your heartbeat to accelerate, guess what? You're writing.

Here are some tried and true methods of overcoming writer's block:

1. Be prepared. The only thing to fear is fear itself. (I know, that's a clinch but as soon as you start writing, feel free to improve on it.) If you spend some time mulling over your project before you actually sit down to write, you may be able to circumvent the worst of the crippling panic.

2. Forget perfectionism. No one ever writes a masterpiece in the first draft. Don't put any expectations on your writing at all! In fact, tell yourself you're going to write absolute garbage, and then give yourself permission to happily stink up your writing room.

3. Compose instead of editing. Never, never write your first draft with your monkey-mind sitting on your shoulder making snide editorial comments. Composing is a magical process. It surpasses the conscious mind by galaxies. It's even incomprehensible to the conscious, editorial, monkey-mind. So prepare an ambush. Sit down at your computer or your desk. Take a deep breath and blow out all your thoughts. Let your finger hover over your keyboard or pick up your pen. And then pull a fake: appear to be about to begin to write, but instead, using your thumb and index finger of your dominant hand, flick that little annoying ugly monkey back into the barrel of laughs it came from. Then jumping quickly! Write, scribble, scream, howl, let everything loose, as long as you do it with a pen or your computer keyboard.

4. Forget the first sentence. You can sweat over that all-important one-liner when you've finished your piece. Skip it! Go for the middle or even the end. Start wherever you can. Chances are, when you read it over, the first line will be blinking its little neon lights right at you from the depths of your composition.

5. Concentration. This is a hard one. Life throws us so many curve balls. How about thinking about your writing time as a little vacation from all those annoying worries. Banish them! Create a space, perhaps even a physical one, where nothing exists except the single present moment. If one of those irritating worries gets by you, stomp on it like you would an ugly bug!

6. Stop procrastinating. Write an outline. Keep your research notes within sight. Use someone else's writing to get going. Babble incoherently on paper or on the computer if you have to.

Just do it! (I know, I stole that line from somewhere). Tack up anything that could possibly help you to get going: notes, outlines, pictures of your grandmother. Put the cookie you will be allowed to eat when you finish your first draft within sight? But out of reach. Then pick up the same type of writing that you need to write, and read it. Then read it again. Soon, trust me, the fear will slowly fade away. As soon as it does, grab your keyboard and get writing!

Posted by Simonbiz at 7:59 AM  

Labels: Article Ideas, eBooks

Your layout is very important in a sales letter, because you want your letter to look inviting, refreshing to the eyes. In short, you want your prospect to stop what he’s doing and read your letter.

If he sees a letter with tiny margins, no indentations, no breaks in the text, no white space, and no subheads…if he sees a page of nothing but densely-packed words, do you think he’ll be tempted to read it?

Not likely.

If you do have ample white space and generous margins, short sentences, short paragraphs, subheads, and an italicized or underlined word here and there for emphasis, it will certainly look more inviting to read.

When reading your letter, some prospects will start at the beginning and read word for word. Some will read the headline and maybe the lead, then read the “P.S.” at the end of the letter and see who the letter is from, then start from the beginning.

And some folks will scan through your letter, noticing the various subheads strategically positioned by you throughout your letter, then decide if it’s worth their time to read the entire thing. Some may never read the entire letter, but order anyways.

You must write for all of them. Interesting and compelling long copy for the studious reader, and short paragraphs and sentences, white space, and subheads for the skimmer.

Subheads are the smaller headlines sprinkled throughout your copy.

Like this.

When coming up with your headline, some of the headlines that didn’t make the cut can make great subheads. A good subhead forces your prospect to keep reading, threading him along from start to finish throughout your copy, while also providing the glue necessary to keep skimmers skimming.

Posted by Simonbiz at 12:42 AM  

Labels: Article Ideas, eBooks, Information Tips

Google Adsense is simple to use and manage. Once approved, displaying ads on your webpage does not take time and requires minimal technical knowledge.

Google Adsense is very smart about ad selection. The ads that are displayed are only those that are relevant to your content, and Google has strict quality control on the general quality of tha ads.

Google Adsense uses text-only ads. Far from being low-tech, text ads are more effective than flashy ads. The clickthrough rate of text ads is proven to be higher than that of animated ads! more clicks equals more money, and text ads equals more clicks. Also...text ads very "low weight" and very fast loading. The Adsense program will not slow your website, or your visitors, down. You can also use graphic ads.

Google Adsense allows you to ad a Google Search box to your website. By doing this, visitors to your site can search the entire internet from your website itself. In a way, your site becomes a host to Google and you make money.

Posted by Simonbiz at 8:16 AM  

Labels: Blogging Tips, Google Adsense

If you've reached the point of exhaustion trying to keep up
with answering the mountain of emails that threatens to
bury you alive every single day, you're ready to learn
about autoresponders.

The bad news is that people expect prompt replies to their
email inquiries. However, unless you can figure out how to
work continual twenty-four hour shifts, or hire enough
people to constantly monitor incoming emails (while they're
eating up your revenue), you have a problem. The good news
is an autoresponder is an inexpensive - or even free -
method of quickly responding to emails. What these programs
do is automatically respond to incoming emails as soon as
they are received.

Emails are essential to your business for many different
reasons. Most importantly, these invisible email voices
give you their feedback about your website - for free!
However, if you spend all your working hours answering
these emails, how are you supposed to run your business?
The answer is simple: use autoresponders. Autoresponders
are programs that automatically respond to your emails
without you so much as having to click on your mouse.

There are a number of good reasons why you need an
autoresponder besides just answering your email. For
example, autoresponders can be used if you need a way to
send information about your services or products, price
lists, or if there are repeated questions asked across
large numbers of emails. Maybe you want to offer your site
visitors a special bonus of some kind, such as advice or
relevant articles. All of this can be handled by an
autoresponder. Additionally, you can advertise your
business and then build stable relationships with your
customers by using autoresponders.

Autoresponder programs vary from software that runs with
your email program to a specialized script that runs on
your web hosting company's server. This kind of script may
use a web page form or simply operate with your email
account. This kind of script is programmed to send out a
standardized message whenever an email is received. The
message is sent to a particular script or email address.

Some autoresponders can do more than simply send out
standardized messages. They can send out an unlimited
number of follow-up messages sent at predetermined interval
of time. For example, you can set your autoresponder to
send out a new message every day for as long a period as
you desire.

There are numerous companies who offer autoresponders free
of charge. Your website hosting company often provides
autoresponders as a free service. If this is not the case
with your web hosting company, there are numerous companies
who offer this service for a small fee, or free of charge,
providing you attach an advertisement for their company to
your emails.

To personalize your autoresponder messages, you can attach
a signature. Signatures in this case are much like business
cards. You can include your name, company, all your contact
numbers and addresses, and a brief message.

It's a good idea to attach a signature to every email that
is sent out. This works as a repeated reminder of your
business identity every time a customer sees it. The more
they look at your signature, the more likely your company
will spring to mind when your particular service or product
is needed.

You can create a standardized signature that every employee
in your business uses, or you can go wild, and let every
staff member create their own personal signature. Of
course, like everything in life, there are some rules and
guidelines to creating a personal signature.

Keep the length of your signature between four to six lines
of text, with no more than 70 characters in a single line.
Make sure that your email program does not cut off your
text! The content should include your name, your company
name, your email address, fax number, and any other contact
details, such as 800 numbers. Lastly, always include a
short personal message about your company. It should be a
subtle sell of your services or your products, and possibly
your company's reliability and longevity.

Another specialized use of autoresponders is to create
courses that you can then offer your site visitors for
free. You must choose a topic in which you are an expert
and that precisely targets your potential customers.

Once you have carefully chosen your subject, divide it into
a number of different sub-topics. Then offer your site
visitor a free 10 or 15 day course, each day offering a
different sub-topic. The first topic should always be a
welcome message to your site visitor and an explanation
about what is to follow. Your explanation should be
enticing, getting the point across that you are offering
free, quality information that your target audience will
find of great value.

With every lesson, include the number of the lesson, the
topic title, information about your company and its
services or products. At the end, include a few blurbs
about the next lesson to entice the subscriber to continue
on.

Make sure each topic is packed with essential and valuable
information, and leaves the visitor lusting to know more.
Otherwise, you may lose them in the very beginning.

Of course, you have to write up your course before you can
offer it. Once you have done this, and gone over the
material carefully, employing a professional writer or
editor if necessary, you must transfer your text to your
autoresponder.

There are a number of free autoresponders you can use. Try
http:/www.getresponse.com, or http://www.fastfacts.net. Or
go onto Google and you will find a long list of free
autoresponder companies. Then sign-up for your chosen
autoresponder. Once you do, you will receive instructions
as to how to set it up and transfer your text.

Email is an excellent marketing tool; it is inexpensive and
it is fast. Use it to advertise your business by choosing
your email address carefully. Your website should contain
different email addresses for different contact requests.
For example, use info@yourdomain.com for information
requests, or sales@yourdomain.com for questions about
sales. It's a good idea to set up one for the owner, such
as president@yourdomain.com. This presents your company in
a personal, approachable light and insures that direct
contact is provided.

Autoresponders are an effective and powerful marketing
tool, allowing you to make contact with thousands of
potential customers. This is an invaluable asset
considering how many potential customers you usually have
contact with before you make an actual sale. Essentially,
an autoresponser allows you to automate part of your
marketing campaign.

Posted by Simonbiz at 4:38 AM  

Labels: Autoresponders

Blogger Blogging Tips: The 10 Online Steps To Online Success

Posted by Simonbiz at 3:27 AM  

Labels: Blogging Tips

You've written and compiled an ebook. Now you have to
decide how much to charge for it. Finding the right
price is essential to the success of your product. If
you charge too little, people will think it's of
little value, and they won't purchase it, or even it
they do buy your book, you will have to sell thousands
of copies to get to the point where you can begin to
see a profit. If you price it too high when compared
with your competition, you will find yourself steadily
lowering the price, which will cause you all kinds of
new problems in the future. For example, if you sell
your ebook at first for $39.99, and later reduce it to
$24.95, don't you think the people who bought it for
$39.99 are going to be PISSED?

Choosing the right price for your ebook is one of the
most critical parts of the marketing process. The
first rule of pricing ebooks is to never underprice.
Determine the highest price your audience can afford,
and then if you find your book isn?t selling, you can
always reduce the price. Before you take that step,
make sure you are promoting your book like crazy on
the Internet and on websites. The price should be
aimed at bringing in profits, but you should never
forget that price is one of the factors that people
use in judging the value of your ebook ? before they
buy it. So always start with the highest price, and
then launch a mega-marketing campaign.

Pricing an ebook is particularly difficult because
ebooks are a fairly new commodity. Since they are
digital, the value of an ebook is as confusing as the
understanding of what digital actually is to the
average layperson. This means that we must look at
ebooks in a different light in order to determine
their actual worth in this brave, new cyber world.

Let's look at the difference between a book in print
and an ebook. A printed book is an object you can hold
in your hand, store on your bookshelf, even hand down
to the next generation. It is priced on factors such
as paper stock, design and production costs, and
marketing.

But the fact that unites ebooks and print books is
that they are composed of ideas. It is the ideas in
these books that have the ability to change, or
possibly transform, people's lives.

What do you think an idea is worth when evaluated
against the cost of paper and ink?

It is the IDEAS that are valuable! That is how you
determine the cost of your ebook.

What should I charge for my ideas?

There are all different formulas and methods for
determining the correct price for your ebook. Let's
begin with honing in on your ultimate goals.

Decide if your goal is to get wide distribution and
maximum exposure. This goal is aimed at drawing
customers to your business or service, or to
establishing the credibility of your reputation. If
this is your main goal, you should aim to keep your
price on the low side. Some authors have even priced
their ebooks at a profit loss to draw a high number of
new customers. The key is to find a price that
maximizes your profits and the number of books you
sell.

This is an excellent pricing strategy if you are
looking to acquire long-term customers. Long-term
customers are extremely likely to buy from you again
and again ? as long as the first ebook they buy is of
exceptional quality and beneficial to the customer.

However, if your book contains valuable ? and more
importantly NEW information, references, or techniques
? then you should aim to price it on the high end.

After you figure out your goal, you must figure out
what your audience's need is for your ebook. For
example, does your book solve a particular problem? If
it does, and solves it in a way that hasn't been
written about in one hundred other ebooks, you will be
able to achieve high sales at a high price. If your
book solves a problem or answers questions in a new
and unique way, you should price your book as high as
you can go. You will achieve larger profits this way,
but bring in fewer customers. Just make sure the
question or problem that your book solves is one that
is important and relevant to the majority of your
market audience. If your ideas are not common
knowledge, or you are presenting a brand new
technique, you will be able to sell books at a high
price. Just be prepared for your competition to
undercut you on price as soon as they hear about your
book.

Keep in mind that the above pricing strategy is
temporary. Eventually, you will cease to sell books at
this high price. So figure out in advance how long you
plan to offer your ebook at this high price, and when
that time is up, change your pricing strategy.

If you want to see large profits over customer draw,
aim for an audience that is looking for easy solutions
to their problems at a low price. If your book is
aimed at solving one particular problem rather than
general advice, then you can charge more. Start at the
highest price the market will bear to bring in the
largest profits, and plan to discount the book a
number of times throughout the year.

Marketing Strategies

The key that unlocks the sales potential of your ebook
is to find a single sentence that becomes your selling
handle. This sentence states what question or problem
your book answers and the benefits your ebook can
provide. Then be sure to use that sentence in every
piece of sales and promotional material, and every
time anyone asks you about your ebook.

Besides promoting your books assiduously online, there
are several other strategies that can help you sell
more books.

One is to give something away for free with your book,
such as a valuable bonus item. Or bundle several
ebooks under one price, which lowers the price for
each ebook if they were sold separately.

An effective technique for figuring out a price is to
send out a survey to your current customers. If these
customers have already bought an ebook from you, ask
for their opinion in terms of price. Do this by
creating a sales page for the new book, but don't
include a price on that page. Instead, add a number of
links to survey questions that ask pointed questions
to aid you in assigning a price to your ebook.

Another strategy is to test out prices by creating a
number of duplicate sales pages with different prices
on each page. Make sure your sales copy is exactly the
same on every page, and includes your selling-handle
sentence. Then figure out for each page the conversion
ratio between visitors to your site and sales of your
book. This will tell you what your optimum price is.

Ultimately, if you've written a book that solves a
problem or presents a new technique, your book will
bring in both traffic and profits. So be sure to write
that selling-handle sentence that sums up what problem
your book solves and what the benefits of your book
will be to the customers who purchase it. And then
watch your market come to you!

Posted by Simonbiz at 8:48 PM  

Labels: eBooks

Even if your best friend owns a top publishing
company, giving you an immediate "in," this does not
guarantee publishing success.

First, you have to write a quality book that has a
clear target audience. And your book must answer a
common problem or need that audience shares. Then you
have to develop a marketing plan, and stick to it for
at least two years.

Let's begin with the process that should commence
before you write your first word. Begin by reading A
LOT. Read both books you passionately love and books
you can't seem to make it past page five. Then figure
out what the author did in the book you loved, and
what was wrong with in the book you couldn't finish.
Write down these points so they are crystal clear to
you. Read other people's books for inspiration and to
discover what you should avoid as a writer.

The next step is to plan out your book. Narrow down
your subject, and then divide it into chapters. Each
chapter should address a specific aspect of the
problem your book is going to solve. In each chapter,
break the specific aspect down into several parts.
This will help your readers take in your information a
bit at a time instead of overwhelming them with every
bit of information clogging up the pages until they
feel like they're about to go blind. It's not quite
spoon-feeding the information to your readers, but
it's close.

The next two steps are obvious. Write your book and
then revise it. And then revise it again. And perhaps
again. Of course, writing is extremely hard, and
writing a book can seem like an impossible task. There
are many books out there that give you guidelines to
help you become familiar - and even love - the process
of writing and revision. Find a number of books about
writing. Better yet, find a number of books about
writing the specific type of book you aspire to write.
These can serve as roadmaps on your writing journey.

Once you've written your ebook and revised it at least
twice, show it to someone else whose opinion you
respect. If you're lucky enough to know a good editor,
see if you have something to barter for him or her to
go through your manuscript. Or join a writing group
and let the other members critique your work.

Then take all these ideas from other people, and
revise your manuscript one last time. And then stop!
Put down that pen! Get your hands off the keyboard!

One of the most important steps to actually producing
a book is to know when to stop writing and tinkering
with it.

You've finally written your ebook! Pop open the
bubbly! Give yourself a night out on the town!

Okay, now that this necessary celebration is out of
your system, what do you do next?

How to turn your ebook into Profits

Ebooks are a revolutionary way to publish your book
without incurring the costs of print production. All
you need is a relevant and targeted subject and some
inexpensive software, and you can transform your
manuscript into a book.

The problem, in terms of actually seeing any profits
from your ebook, is that the market is overwhelmed
with ebooks, and many of them are not worth the time
it takes to download them. Just because the ability
exists to easily produce an ebook, doesn't make it
good writing.

Make sure your book does not simply rehash old
material. You will injure your credibility as an
author by claiming to offer valuable new insights and
disappointing your audience with material they've read
a zillion times before. So spend enough time writing
and revising your book to make sure it's of the
highest quality and presents the most current
information. A good book will eventually sell itself;
false claims about your book will make it extremely
difficult to sell any future books you may write.

Assuming you have determined that you do indeed have a
quality product that answers some question or need of
your target audience with NEW information, how do you
know how much to charge for it? Rule number 1: Set a
price for your book equal to its value. An
under-priced book will only give the impression that
your book isn't worth very much.

To figure out a fair price, estimate how much time you
put into creating it and how difficult it was to
transform the necessary information into
understandable and engaging writing. Figure out how
much your time and effort is worth, and then price it
accordingly. The goal is for you to be adequately
compensated for your talent, your time, and your
effort.

Once you've figured out a price that is high enough to
convey the value of the book, but not so high as to be
out of the reach of your target audience's mean
budget, then it's time to offer it for sale on your
website. To attract sales, you will need to develop a
promotional campaign, particularly if you are an
unknown author.

There are multitudes of books about self-promotion
that will guide you in your efforts. Choose a plan
that is both creative and professional. Learn how to
write a catchy yet informative press release, and send
copies of your ebook to sites that specialize in ebook
reviews.

Learn how to write powerful sales copy, or hire
someone to write it for you. This is an essential. You
absolutely need excellent sales copy to sell your
book. Make sure the copy includes all the reasons your
target audience needs your book, and the benefits they
will derive from buying it.

Use graphics in your promotional materials. Beautiful
graphics have the power to instantly convey the
quality and value of your ebook. Graphics can also
convey the amount of valuable information the book
contains, and your careful attention to detail.
Professional graphics sell professional books. They
reassure the customer that the product is what it
claims to be.

Consider excerpting chapters for articles. You can
offer these tidbits for free on your website as a sort
of demo of your book. Include an order form for your
ebook at the end of the excerpted articles.

Finally, when you set-up your download link, make sure
to simplify the process. It's a good idea to offer a
few bonuses that make your book even more enticing to
purchase, but make sure the bonuses are valuable and
high quality. Too many bonuses that are basically a
load of useless stuff will compromise the impression
your audience has of your ebook. The goal is to convey
to your audience that they are getting a quality
product for a good deal. That means applying
restraint, especially when it comes to adding bonus
items. Too much free stuff offered diminishes your
credibility.

Make sure your book is a quality product. Make sure it
is relevant and current. Develop an effective
marketing plan that includes excellent sales copy and
excerpted articles. Then offer your book for sale, and
wait for your audience to discover you!

Posted by Simonbiz at 9:20 AM  

Labels: eBooks

The hardest part of writing is the first sentence.
When you look at the whole project, it seems like an
impossible task. That's why you have to break it down
into manageable tasks. Think of climbing a mountain.
You are standing at the foot of it and looking up at
its summit vanishing into the clouds. How can you
possibly scale such an immense and dangerous mountain?

There is only one way to climb a mountain ? step by
step.

Now think of writing your ebook in the same light. You
must create it step by step, and one day, you will
take that last step and find yourself standing on the
summit with your head in the clouds.

The first thing you have to do, as if you actually
were a mountain climber, is to get organized. Instead
of climbing gear, however, you must organize your
thoughts. There are some steps you should take before
you begin. Once you've gone through the following
list, you will be ready to actually begin writing your
ebook.

Beginning Steps to Writing an ebook

First, figure out your ebook's working title. Jot down
a few different titles, and eventually, you'll find
that one that will grow on you. Titles help you to
focus your writing on your topic; they guide you in
anticipating and answering your reader's queries. Many
non-fiction books also have subtitles. Aim for clarity
in your titles, but cleverness always helps to sell
books ? as long as it's not too cute. For example,
Remedies for Insomnia: twenty different ways to count
sheep. Or: Get off that couch: fifteen exercise plans
to whip you into shape.

Next, write out a thesis statement. Your thesis is a
sentence or two stating exactly what problem you are
addressing and how your book will solve that problem.
All chapters spring forth from your thesis statement.
Once you've got your thesis statement fine-tuned,
you've built your foundation. From that foundation,
your book will grow, chapter by chapter.

Your thesis will keep you focused while you write your
ebook. Remember: all chapters must support your thesis
statement. If they don't, they don't belong in your
book. For example, your thesis statement could read:
We've all experienced insomnia at times in our lives,
but there are twenty proven techniques and methods to
give you back a good night's sleep.

Once you have your thesis, before you start to write,
make sure there is a good reason to write your book.
Ask yourself some questions:

* Does your book present useful information and is
that information currently relevant?

* Will you book positively affect the lives of your
readers?

* Is your book dynamic and will it keep the reader's
attention?

* Does you book answer questions that are meaningful
and significant?

If you can answer yes to these questions, you can feel
confident about the potential of your ebook.

Another important step is to figure out who your
target audience is. It is this group of people you
will be writing to, and this group will dictate many
elements of your book, such as style, tone, diction,
and even length. Figure out the age range of your
readers, their general gender, what they are most
interested in, and even the socio-economic group they
primarily come from. Are they people who read fashion
magazines or book reviews? Do they write letters in
longhand or spend hours every day online. The more you
can pin down your target audience, the easier it will
be to write your book for them.

Next, make a list of the reasons you are writing your
ebook. Do you want to promote your business? Do you
want to bring quality traffic to your website? Do you
want to enhance your reputation?

Then write down your goals in terms of publishing. Do
you want to sell it as a product on your website, or
do you want to offer it as a free gift for filling out
a survey or for ordering a product? Do you want to use
the chapters to create an e-course, or use your ebook
to attract affiliates around the world? The more you
know upfront, the easier the actual writing will be.

Decide on the format of your chapters. In non-fiction,
keep the format from chapter to chapter fairly
consistent. Perhaps you plan to use an introduction to
your chapter topic, and then divide it into four
subhead topics. Or you may plan to divide it into five
parts, each one beginning with a relevant anecdote.

How to make your ebook "user friendly"

You must figure out how to keep your writing engaging.
Often anecdotes, testimonials, little stories, photos,
graphs, advice, and tips will keep the reader turning
the pages. Sidebars are useful for quick, accessible
information, and they break up the density of the
page.

Write with a casual, conversational tone rather than a
formal tone such as textbook diction. Reader's respond
to the feeling that you are having a conversation with
them. Break up the length and structure of your
sentences so you don?t hypnotize your readers into
sleep. Sentences that are all the same length and
structure tend to be a good aid for insomnia!

Good writing takes practice. It takes lots and lots of
practice. Make a schedule to write at least a page a
day. Read books and magazines about the process of
writing, and jot down tips that jump out at you. The
art of writing is a lifetime process; the more you
write (and read), the better your writing will become.
The better your writing becomes, the bigger your sales
figures.

In an ebook that is read on the screen, be aware that
you must give your reader's eye a break. You can do
this by utilizing white space. In art classes, white
space is usually referred to as "negative space."
Reader's eyes need to rest in the cool white oasises
you create on your page. If your page is too dense,
your reader will quit out of it as soon as their eyes
begin to tear.

Make use of lists, both bulleted and numbered. This
makes your information easy to absorb, and gives the
reader a mental break from dissecting your paragraphs
one after the other.

Finally, decide on an easy-to-read design. Find a font
that's easy on the eyes, and stick to that font
family. Using dozens of fonts will only tire your
readers out before they've gotten past your
introduction. Use at least one and a half line
spacing, and text large enough to be read easily on
the screen, but small enough so that the whole page
can be seen on a computer screen. You will have to
experiment with this to find the right combination.

Of course, don't forget to run a spell and grammar
check. You are judged by something as minor as correct
punctuation, so don?t mess up a great book by tossing
out semicolons randomly, or stringing sentences
together with commas. (By the way, that's called a
"comma splice.")

Last of all, create an index and a bibliography.
That's it! You've written a book! Now all you have to
do is publish your ebook online, and wait for download
request from your website visitors.

Posted by Simonbiz at 11:51 AM  

Labels: eBooks

Search engines are the gateway to the Internet; they are
the first tool that potential customers use to find the
products and services they need. This is why link
popularity is so imperative. If the customers do not find
your website, you have no possibilities of making any
sales.

You're probably wondering what the blazes is popular about
a link! Well, in a word - plenty! Link popularity refers to
the ranking assigned to your website by the search engines,
and it determines the ranking your page gets when keywords
are entered into a search engine. So, you're probably
wondering, how do I make my link popular?

Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking
to sites that have links to their pages from related,
quality sites. It's a simple formula, but a very important
one. Google created the system, and now virtually all the
most popular search engines employ it to rank your web
pages in their indexes.

The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will
be to achieve link popularity, but without achieving this
step, it is almost certain your site will never rank highly
on any search engine. But don't be discouraged; there are
tried and true ways of achieving link popularity using the
most competitive keywords.

There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is
that just linking up with a large number of other websites
will not achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have
quite the opposite effect. This is particularly true when
pertaining to websites that are nothing more than "link
farms" - pages containing line after line of indiscriminate
links. Search engines may aggressively discriminate against
your website if you are associated with a link farm, so
steer clear of them!

The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site
you are linking to. Never link to a page you have
reservations about your visitors seeing. The last thing you
want your website to appear as is indiscriminate and cheap.
Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link
popularity, if not completely destroy it.

So let's get to what you need to do to achieve supreme link
popularity and improve your rankings to stellar status on
all the popular search engines.

The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the
door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as
Open Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is
business-related, you will want to be listed on Yahoo, and
despite the fact that it will cost you around $300 a year,
it will be money well spent. If your site is
non-commercial, the listing will be free, but it will take
time and follow-up to actually get it listed. Open
Directory is gives you a free listing whether you are
business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to make
a lot of follow-up inquiries before you see your site
listed.

You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of
appropriate category, and this just takes some common
sense. For example, if your company ships Alpaca wool from
an Alpaca farm located in the middle of Nowhere, Tiny
State, do NOT submit your listing to "Retailers from
Nowhere, Tiny State." BIG MISTAKE! All you have to do is
look a little deeper - and submit your listing to the "Fine
Alpaca Wool" category. You will not only associate yourself
with culture and quality, but you will be listed in a
national category.

The next step after you have attained directory listings is
to locate other quality sites that will increase your link
popularity. Try to find sites that are in some way related
to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase,
but your customer base may also be expanded. You want to
avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful
to your site's visitors. Let's look at the Alpaca Wool site
example. Linking up to a site that sells knitting supplies
would be helpful to your visitors, and the chances of the
knitting supply site wanting to link up to your site are
also greater. By linking to a related site that will be
relevant to your website's traffic, you are increasing both
of your site's business prospects - and both of your sites'
link popularity.

Not all sites want to link to other sites, so you will have
to do some research when you are looking for possible
linking partners. Google is an excellent starting place for
your search. Make sure you enter keywords that you think
quality customers will also enter to find your own site.
Remember, your criteria are quality, highly ranked,
non-competing websites that have a links or resources page.
Go to these sites and objectively assess them. Look at the
quality of the product, the graphics, and the ease of use.
Then check out the other sites they are linked to, and
determine if your own site would fit in with the crowd.

When you decide you have found a good prospect, you must
set out to woo them. The first thing to do is to add a link
on your own links page to their site. This is an essential
first step; it shows good faith, and ups your chances
significantly of their reciprocity. After you have added
their link, you must contact the webmaster of their site.
Since this is almost always done by email, you want to make
sure it is immediately clear that your message is not junk
mail. This requires that you tell them right off the bat
that you have added a link to their page on your site. A
hook like this almost always insures the reader will read
on.

Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much
you appreciate their website. Make sure you emphasize that
you have actually visited their site, and that their site
is not just a random pick. Give them the address of your
links page, and ask them to check out the link for
themselves. It's a good idea to mention that they will not
only benefit from the increased traffic your website will
direct their way, but you will also increase their link
popularity. Briefly, explain why link popularity is so
essential, but do this in a sentence or two so you don't
sound like a professor! Finally, tell them you would
greatly appreciate if they would reciprocally add a link on
their own links page to your website.

Go through this process with as many appropriate sites as
you can find, bearing in mind the criteria of quality and
non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all relevant
sites, be sure to check these website frequently to see if
they have added a link to your page. Give it about a month,
and if no link appears, try another charming email. Then
give it another month, and if your site is still absent
from their links page, it's time to remove their link from
your own links page. The only time you want to pursue a
link further than this is if you believe a site is crucial
to your link popularity and your business needs. Just
remember to keep all your communications complimentary and
cordial.

Then set up a schedule to check your ranking in search
engines frequently to see if your link popularity has
improved. This is not achievable in the blink of an eye. It
will take some time and a good deal of work. There is no
way around the labor-intensive quality of improving your
link popularity, which is why search engines regard it with
such importance.

By the way - make sure you have a beautiful, streamlined
site or you will never persuade anyone to link up to you.
Be prepared to keep plugging away at this process, as long
as it takes, until you achieve link popularity stardom!

Posted by Simonbiz at 10:40 PM  

Labels: Generate Traffic, Search Engine Optimization

Search engines are the vehicles that drive potential
customers to your websites. But in order for visitors to
reach their destination - your website - you need to
provide them with specific and effective signs that will
direct them right to your site. You do this by creating
carefully chosen keywords.

Think of the right keywords as the Open Sesame! of the
Internet. Find the exactly right words or phrases, and
presto! hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front
door. But if your keywords are too general or too
over-used, the possibility of visitors actually making it
all the way to your site - or of seeing any real profits
from the visitors that do arrive - decreases dramatically.

Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing
strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no
matter how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the
right people may never get the chance to find out about it.
So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather
and evaluate keywords and phrases.

You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words
for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven't
followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG.
It's hard to be objective when you are right in the center
of your business network, which is the reason that you may
not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the
inside. You need to be able to think like your customers.
And since you are a business owner and not the consumer,
your best bet is to go directly to the source.

Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of
potential search words and phrases yourself, ask for words
from as many potential customers as you can. You will most
likely find out that your understanding of your business
and your customers' understanding is significantly
different.

The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the
words you accumulate from them are words and phrases you
probably never would have considered from deep inside the
trenches of your business.

Only after you have gathered as many words and phrases from
outside resources should you add your own keyword to the
list. Once you have this list in hand, you are ready for
the next step: evaluation.

The aim of evaluation is to narrow down your list to a
small number of words and phrases that will direct the
highest number of quality visitors to your website. By
"quality visitors" I mean those consumers who are most
likely to make a purchase rather than just cruise around
your site and take off for greener pastures. In evaluating
the effectiveness of keywords, bear in mind three elements:
popularity, specificity, and motivation.

Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an
objective quality. The more popular your keyword is, the
more likely the chances are that it will be typed into a
search engine which will then bring up your URL.

You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity
of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating
based on real search engine activity. Software such as
WordTracker will even suggest variations of your words and
phrases. The higher the number this software assigns to a
given keyword, the more traffic you can logically expect to
be directed to your site. The only fallacy with this
concept is the more popular the keyword is, the greater the
search engine position you will need to obtain. If you are
down at the bottom of the search results, the consumer will
probably never scroll down to find you.

Popularity isn't enough to declare a keyword a good choice.
You must move on to the next criteria, which is
specificity. The more specific your keyword is, the greater
the likelihood that the consumer who is ready to purchase
your goods or services will find you.

Let's look at a hypothetical example. Imagine that you have
obtained popularity rankings for the keyword "automobile
companies." However, you company specializes in bodywork
only. The keyword "automobile body shops" would rank lower
on the popularity scale than "automobile companies," but it
would nevertheless serve you much better. Instead of
getting a slew of people interested in everything from
buying a car to changing their oil filters, you will get
only those consumers with trashed front ends or crumpled
fenders being directed to your site. In other words,
consumers ready to buy your services are the ones who will
immediately find you. Not only that, but the greater the
specificity of your keyword is, the less competition you
will face.

The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this
requires putting yourself inside the mind of the customer
rather than the seller to figure out what motivation
prompts a person looking for a service or product to type
in a particular word or phrase. Let's look at another
example, such as a consumer who is searching for a job as
an IT manager in a new city. If you have to choose between
"Seattle job listings" and "Seattle IT recruiters" which do
you think will benefit the consumer more? If you were
looking for this type of specific job, which keyword would
you type in? The second one, of course! Using the second
keyword targets people who have decided on their career,
have the necessary experience, and are ready to enlist you
as their recruiter, rather than someone just out of school
who is casually trying to figure out what to do with his or
her life in between beer parties. You want to find people
who are ready to act or make a purchase, and this requires
subtle tinkering of your keywords until your find the most
specific and directly targeted phrases to bring the most
motivated traffic to you site.

Once you have chosen your keywords, your work is not done.
You must continually evaluate performance across a variety
of search engines, bearing in mind that times and trends
change, as does popular lingo. You cannot rely on your log
traffic analysis alone because it will not tell you how
many of your visitors actually made a purchase.

Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you
judge the effectiveness of your keywords in individual
search engines. There is now software available that
analyzes consumer behavior in relation to consumer traffic.
This allows you to discern which keywords are bringing you
the most valuable customers.

This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not make a
good keyword; profits per visitor do. You need to find
keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually
buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your
product. This is the most important factor in evaluating
the efficacy of a keyword or phrase, and should be the
sword you wield when discarding and replacing ineffective
or inefficient keywords with keywords that bring in better
profits.

Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for
search engine success. This may sound like a lot of work -
and it is! But the amount of informed effort you put into
your keyword campaign is what will ultimately generate your
business' rewards.

Posted by Simonbiz at 3:26 AM  

Labels: Search Engine Optimization

The methods employed to increase your search engine
rankings may seem like rocket science to you, so you have
probably avoided dealing with this issue. I am here to tell
you - the time has come to face your website! A high search
engine ranking for your website is so essential that if you
have the slightest desire to actually succeed in your
business, there is no way you can continue to avoid this
issue.

At least 85% of people looking for goods and services on
the Internet find websites through search engines such as
Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of optimizing your pages
for high search engine rankings is to attract targeted
customers to your site who will be more than likely to make
a purchase. The higher your page comes up in search engine
results, the greater the traffic that is directed to your
website. That's what search engine optimization is about.

You can immerse yourself in all the technical information
available online to figure out how to optimize your web
pages to achieve higher rankings. Or you can look at a few
simple items on your pages, make some small adjustments,
and most likely see improved rankings quite rapidly. The
first item you should examine is the title bar on your
homepage.

The title bar is the colored bar at the top of the page.
Look at the words that appear there when you access your
home page. To increase search engine rankings, the words on
your homepage's title bar should include the most important
keywords or phrases, one of which would include your
company name.

Then click on all your links and examine the title bars on
the pages you access. Each title bar on every single page
of your site should contain the most important keywords and
phrases taken from the page itself. However, avoid very
long strings of keywords, keeping them to six words or
less. Avoid repeating keywords more than once in the title
bars, and make sure that identical words are not next to
each other.

The next item to put under your microscope is your website
content. Search engines generally list sites that contain
quality content rather than scintillating graphics. The
text on your site must contain the most important keywords
- the words that potential customers will be typing into
search engines to find your site.

Aim to have around 250 words on each page, but if this is
not desirable due to your design, aim for at least 100
carefully chosen words. If you want to achieve a high
ranking on search engines, this text is essential. However,
the search engines must be able to read the text, meaning
that the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.

To find out if your text is in HTML format, take your
cursor and try to highlight a word or two. If you are able
to do this, the text is HTML. If the text will not
highlight, it is probably in graphic form. In this case,
ask your webmaster to change the text into HTML format in
order to increase your search engine rankings.

Next we come to what is called meta tags. I know this
sounds like something out of science fiction, but it is
really just simple code. Many people believe that meta tags
are the key to high search engine rankings, but in reality,
they only have a limited effect. Still, it's worth adding
them in the event that a search engine will use meta tags
in their ranking formula.

To find out if your page is set up with meta tags, you must
access the code. To do this, click the "view" button on the
browser menu bar, and select "source." This will pull up a
window revealing the underlying code that created the page.
If there are meta tags, they usually appear near the top of
the window. For example, a meta tag would read: meta
name="keywords" content=. If you do not find code that
reads like this, ask your webmaster to put them in. This
may not do much for your search engine rankings, but any
little boost helps.

Lastly, we come to the issue of link popularity. This is a
factor that is extremely important in terms of search
engine rankings. Almost all search engines use link
popularity to rank your website. Link popularity is based
on the quality of the sites you have linked to from your
links page.

If you type in "free link popularity check" in a popular
search engine, the search engine will then show you what
sites are linked to your site. In the case that there
aren't many sites linked up to yours, or that the sites
that are linked up have low search engine rankings,
consider launching a link popularity campaign. Essentially,
this entails contacting quality sites and requesting that
they exchange links with your site. Of course, this
requires checking out the rankings of the websites you want
to link up with. Linking to popular, quality sites not only
boosts your search engine ranking, but it also directs more
quality traffic to your website.

Search engine rankings are extremely important for a
successful Internet marketing campaign. Before you go out
and hire a search engine optimization company, try taking
some of the simple steps listed above, and see if you can't
boost your rankings yourself. Don't ever ignore this
all-important factor in Internet marketing. Remember, the
higher your search engine ranking, the more quality
customers will be directed your way.

Posted by Simonbiz at 3:37 AM  

Labels: Generate Traffic, Search Engine Optimization

It's not true that everything that has been said has
already been written. Since that unfortunate axiom
came into use, the whole universe has changed.
Technology has changed, ideas have changed, and the
mindsets of entire nations have changed.

The fact is that this is the perfect time to write an
ebook. What the publishing industry needs are people
who can tap into the world as it is today - innovative
thinkers who can make the leap into the new millennium
and figure out how to solve old problems in a new way.
Ebooks are a new and powerful tool for original
thinkers with fresh ideas to disseminate information
to the millions of people who are struggling to figure
out how to do a plethora of different things.

Let's say you already have a brilliant idea, and the
knowledge to back it up that will enable you to write
an exceptional ebook. You may be sitting at your
computer staring at a blank screen wondering, "Why?
Why should I go through all the trouble of writing my
ebook when it's so impossible to get anything
published these days?

Well, let me assure you that publishing an ebook is
entirely different than publishing a book in print.
Let's look at the specifics of how the print and cyber
publishing industry differ, and the many reasons why
you should take the plunge and get your fingers
tapping across those keyboards!

Submitting a print book to conventional publishing
houses or to agents is similar to wearing a hair shirt
24/7. No matter how good your book actually is, or how
many critique services and mentor writers have told
you that "you've got what it takes," your submitted
manuscript keeps coming back to you as if it is a
boomerang instead of a valuable mine of information.

Perhaps, in desperation, you've checked out
self-publishing and found out just how expensive a
venture it can be. Most "vanity presses" require
minimal print runs of at least 500 copies, and even
that amount will cost you thousands of dollars. Some
presses' minimal run starts at 1,000 to 2,000 copies.
And that's just for the printing and binding. Add in
distribution, shipping, and promotional costs and -
well, you do the math. Even if you wanted to go this
route, you may not have that kind of money to risk.

Let's say you already have an Internet business with a
quality website and a quality product. An ebook is one
of the most powerful ways to promote your business
while educating people with the knowledge you already
possess as a business owner of a specific product or
service.

For example, let's say that you've spent the last
twenty-five years growing and training bonsai trees,
and now you're ready to share your knowledge and
experience. An ebook is the perfect way to reach the
largest audience of bonsai enthusiasts.

Ebooks will not only promote your business - they will
help you make a name for yourself and your company,
and establish you as an expert in your field. You may
even find that you have enough to say to warrant a
series of ebooks. Specific businesses are complicated
and often require the different aspects to be divided
in order for the reader to get the full story.

Perhaps your goals are more finely tuned in terms of
the ebook scene. You may want to build a whole
business around writing and publishing ebooks.
Essentially, you want to start an e-business. You are
thinking of setting up a website to promote and market
your ebooks. Maybe you're even thinking of producing
an ezine.

One of the most prevalent reasons people read ebooks
is to find information about how to turn their
Internet businesses into a profit-making machine. And
these people are looking to the writers of ebooks to
provide them with new ideas and strategies because
writers of ebooks are usually people who understand
the new cyberspace world we now live in. Ebook writers
are experts in Internet marketing campaigns and the
strategies of promoting and distributing ebooks. The
cyberspace community needs its ebooks to be successful
so that more and more ebooks will be written.

You may want to create affiliate programs that will
also market your ebook. Affiliates can be people or
businesses worldwide that will all be working to sell
your ebooks. Think about this? Do you see a formula
for success here?

Figure out what your subject matter is, and then
narrow it down. Your goal is to aim for specificity.
Research what's out there already, and try to find a
void that your ebook might fill.

What about an ebook about a wedding cake business? Or
an ebook about caring for elderly pets? How about the
fine points of collecting ancient pottery?

You don't have to have three masters degrees to write
about your subject. People need advice that is easy to
read and easily understood. Parents need advice for
dealing with their teenagers. College students need to
learn good study skills - quickly. The possibilities
are endless.

After you've written your ebook

Getting your ebook out is going to be your focus once
you've finished writing it, just as it is with print
books. People will hesitate to buy any book from an
author they've never heard of. Wouldn't you?

The answer is simple: give it away! You will see
profits in the form of promoting your own business and
getting your name out. You will find affiliates who
will ask you to place their links within your ebook,
and these affiliates will in turn go out and make your
name known. Almost every single famous ebook author
has started out this way.

Another powerful tool to attract people to your ebook
is to make it interactive. Invent something for them
to do within the book rather than just producing pages
that contain static text. Let your readers fill out
questionnaires, forms, even crossword puzzles geared
to testing their knowledge on a particular subject.
Have your readers hit a link that will allow them to
recommend your book to their friends and associates.
Or include an actual order form so at the end of their
reading journey, they can eagerly buy your product.

When people interact with books, they become a part of
the world of that book. The fact is just as true for
books in print as it is for ebooks.

That's why ebooks are so essential. Not only do they
provide a forum for people to learn and make sense of
their own thoughts, but they can also serve to promote
your business at the same time.

Posted by Simonbiz at 2:53 AM  

Labels: eBooks

Analyzing your web traffic statistics can be an invaluable
tool for a number of different reasons. But before you can
make full use of this tool, you need to understand how to
interpret the data.

Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web
traffic information that you then have to interpret and
make pertinent use of. However, the data you receive from
your host company can be overwhelming if you don't
understand how to apply it to your particular business and
website. Let's start by examining the most basic data - the
average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and
monthly basis.

These figures are the most accurate measure of your
website's activity. It would appear on the surface that the
more traffic you see recorded, the better you can assume
your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate
perception. You must also look at the behavior of your
visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge
the effectiveness of your site.

There is often a great misconception about what is commonly
known as "hits" and what is really effective, quality
traffic to your site. Hits simply means the number of
information requests received by the server. If you think
about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number
of graphics per page, you will get an idea of how overblown
the concept of hits can be. For example, if your homepage
has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits,
when in reality we are talking about a single visitor
checking out a single page on your site. As you can see,
hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.

The more visitors that come to your website, the more
accurate your interpretation will become. The greater the
traffic is to your website, the more precise your analysis
will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller
the number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors
can distort the analysis.

The aim is to use the web traffic statistics to figure out
how well or how poorly your site is working for your
visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how long
on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time
spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an
underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure out
what that problem is.

It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type
of visitors to your website, or that your graphics are
confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to exit
rapidly. Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are
spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems, and
after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as
a gauge of how effective your fix has been.

Additionally, web traffic stats can help you determine
effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you
have a page that you believe is important, but visitors are
exiting it rapidly, that page needs attention. You could,
for example, consider improving the link to this page by
making the link more noticeable and enticing, or you could
improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors
can access the necessary information on that page.

If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are
spending a lot of time on pages that you think are less
important, you might consider moving some of your sales
copy and marketing focus to that particular page.

As you can see, these statistics will reveal vital
information about the effectiveness of individual pages,
and visitor habits and motivation. This is essential
information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.

Your website undoubtedly has exit pages, such as a final
order or contact form. This is a page you can expect your
visitor to exit rapidly. However, not every visitor to your
site is going to find exactly what he or she is looking
for, so statistics may show you a number of different exit
pages. This is normal unless you notice a exit trend on a
particular page that is not intended as an exit page. In
the case that a significant percentage of visitors are
exiting your website on a page not designed for that
purpose, you must closely examine that particular page to
discern what the problem is. Once you pinpoint potential
weaknesses on that page, minor modifications in content or
graphic may have a significant impact on the keeping
visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the
wrong page.

After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it's time
to turn to your keywords and phrases. Notice if particular
keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your
site. The more targeted the visitor - meaning that they
find what they are looking for on your site, and even
better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase - the
more valuable that keyword is.

However, if you find a large number of visitors are being
directed - or should I say misdirected - to your site by a
particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands
adjustment. Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors
to your site who are ready to do business with you. Close
analysis of the keywords your visitors are using to find
your site will give you a vital understanding of your
visitor's needs and motivations.

Finally, if you notice that users are finding your website
by typing in your company name, break open the champagne!
It means you have achieved a significant level of brand
recognition, and this is a sure sign of burgeoning success.

Posted by Simonbiz at 2:04 AM  

Labels: Generate Traffic, Increase Traffic, Search Engine Optimization

Individuals who own their own business know and understand the importance of having a large and effective network. However, many of these individuals often look for new network improvement strategies. To reduce the amount of time and energy that is often required to develop and expand your network, you should know some key components to this issue. In this article, you will be introduced to network improvement strategies that can help you achieve success in your business.

The first thing that you should do in order to succeed in the area of networking is to ensure that you have an effective business plan. This plan should include the ultimate goals that you have as they relate to your business. You should outline the purpose of your business, the products and/or services that you are looking to promote, as well as the ending result that will result in the success of your business.

Once you have established an effective business plan, it is vital that you set goals for yourself and the business. These goals should include ways in which you are able to meet and socialize with new people. This is a core component to acquiring a stronger networking system for your business. You should make it a goal to meet at least one new contact in each social situation that you attend. This is a great way to obtain new leads for your business and spark new interest among individuals.

The third way towards network improvement strategies is to ensure that you are thoroughly prepared when presented with the opportunity to develop a new contact. If you appear to be a professional in your field, then you will appeal to more people. This is especially true if you are meeting with these individuals in person. You must appear friendly, positive, encouraging, and approachable to the individuals that may possible become future leads.

The fourth way to increase your skills when it comes to acquiring new individuals in your network is to realize that each and every person that you come in contact with is a potential lead. Each person that you meet has the potential to contribute something positive to your network. You must develop this perspective. Overlooking someone may be a very costly mistake.

You must create a number of approaches to individuals when it comes to obtaining network contacts. For example, you may want to create and memorize a lead speech for mothers, fathers, business executives, the everyday person, and more. This can help you to ensure that you are effectively appealing to each of these individuals. You must observe the individual prior to approach for a few minutes to ensure that you have the correct attraction speech prepared.

If you wish to increase the effectiveness of your current network, it is essential that you never underestimate the current network that you have. These individuals may help to bring a variety of new people to your network. You may want to create incentives for people who bring new leads in. This is a positive way of encouraging growth that is vital to your business.

There are many different methods that you can use in order to ensure that your skills in the area of networking are increased. Not only will you improve, but your business will be more successful as well.

Discover Kevin Sinclair's system for making profits regardless of whether anyone joins your network marketing business.
visit http://net-mlm-profits.com/

Posted by Simonbiz at 1:32 AM  

Labels: Business Strategies

There are quite a few things that you should keep in mind when you are talking about starting up a home business. First of all, remember that a home business is no easy feat you are going to want to be sure that you have done your research, and that a home business is something that you are going to be interested in. Working at home is not the easiest thing in the world, even though it might seem that way. You have to be sure that you are really passionate about what you are doing to be sure that it is right for you.

If you want to make money online with a home business, there are several ways that you can do this. One of the things that you can do is to have an internet marketing home business, because this can be a way that is very easy to earn money. You can also work with promoting to website. This is a great way to be with your family and to earn financial freedom.

Have you ever wanted to have a home business that is going to allow you to be with your family, as well as to earn financial freedom? Well, now you can. There are so many things that you are going to be able to do with your home business. The first is that you are going to be able to work at home, which, in itself, is something that is great because it allows you to be with your family.

If you want to know what else you can do, visit www.moneyhello.com for plenty of good insights and ideas on your own home business. This can be a great site for ideas, and a great way to get your point across as to what you really want to get out of life.

Zdenek Sedlak, The Home Business Owner can help you launch your very own money making website today that's 100% ready to take orders and pull in massive profits for you right now
Visit : http://www.moneyhello.com/

Posted by Simonbiz at 3:19 AM  

Labels: Money Makers

As the internet continues to expand, the list of work at home business ideas grows as well. Because of the wide variety offered, you have the ability to choose virtually anything you want to do from home. The more experience you have the better, but it honestly does not take a computer geek to make money on the internet. Here are 5 work at home business ideas you can opt to venture into.

1. Create a website

Having your own website is the key to many home business ideas. When you have your own website, you can sell your own products, sell other people’s things, or make money off of people clicking on ads. There are a few start up costs such as paying for a domain name and a hosting company, but these costs are minute compared to the amount of income you can earn.

2. Affiliate programs

Affiliate programs have been around for quite some time and continue to be a popular method to make money. As with many business opportunities, affiliate programs can and should be promoted on your website. But they can also be promoted through article writing, posting in forums, and sending out emails. The amount of success you have with affiliate programs depends on the amount of time you put into promoting the programs as well as the time you put into learning about the products and programs.

3. Freelance jobs

Freelance jobs are great because of the wide variety offered. It allows you to make money off of something you are interested in and already have skills in. Some of the various freelance jobs available include writers, copywriters and graphic designers.

4. eBay

eBay is one of the work at home business ideas that has been on the rise in recent years. Believe it or not, you can make money by selling your “junk.” What may be junk to you is treasure to others and people are taking advantage of it all over the world. With a little bit of strategizing, you can turn a $300 item into a $600 sell.

5. Article writing

There are several key facets to people’s websites and business’s, but quality content is one of the most crucial. People have ideas of what they want to imply, but do not know how to say it or effectively get it across to readers. You can make a good amount of money off of writing content that is fresh and enticing for people’s websites, as well as using it as a marketing tool for your own business.

With thousands of work at home business ideas to choose from, the sky is the limit when it comes to making money on the internet. The five ideas listed above are some of the more popular methods, and many of them can be done all through your own website.

Bob's Shades of Cool website offers articles, products, and programs that can help you make money while you work at home. To find this and much more, check out his web site at www.shadesOfcool.com

Posted by Simonbiz at 1:08 PM  

Labels: Business Ideas, Business Strategies

You hear about it all of the time. Another person has become a wealthy marketer generating a five to six figure income every month. If you are like me, I just want to know how I can do it too. After all, almost every one of these marketers claims to be ordinary people just like you and me. So where do you start? Well, let’s begin by going to a Webster dictionary.

Webster defines a market as a place where buying, selling, and trading of goods and services is carried on. A marketer is a person who participates in the activities of such a place. In today’s world, the Internet provides the perfect venue for anyone desiring to enter the market. I am sure you have heard of thousands of people who have become wealthy utilizing the Internet. So, how can you combine the two worlds and become a wealthy marketer too?

First, you have to have a computer with access to the worldwide Internet. This access opens the door and provides you with the place to be a marketer of your choosing. In fact, by being worldwide, it provides you with billions of prospects, customers, and clients. It is definitely a smorgasbord for every marketer.

Secondly, you will need a vehicle such as a product, a service, or a business to get you around the Internet and present yourself to the market. Fortunately, there are as many vehicles available as there are stars in the sky. This allows you to find the one vehicle that perfectly matches or aligns with your personality, your attitude, your beliefs, your goals, your dreams, your hobbies, your budget, your time, your work habits, your family time, and so on and so on. To become a wealthy marketer, you need to be doing something that you really enjoy and have fun doing. Otherwise, you may not have the desire to stick with it.

The third thing you need is the most important key to your success. You will need training from a mentor who can help you learn all of the intricacies of the vehicle you have chosen. This is very important because you need a mentor who is available to give you one on one personal advice and leadership.

In conclusion, all you need to do to become a wealthy marketer is to have a computer with Internet access, choose your vehicle to plot your course through the market, and then find a mentor to train you. Once you put all of these things together, then you too will become a wealthy marketer.

I am a single stay at home Dad by choice. I fired the boss because I was sick and tired of the corporate rat race and all of the baggage that comes with it. I started my online business to generate my own income and build my personal unlimited wealth program. Teaching others to do the same with great success is a dream come true. Not only am I in control of my own results, I am able to make a difference in other peoples lives with a very powerful marketing strategy that is second to none. Discover for yourself and go right now to http://www.dailyincomebuilder.com to start your path to financial freedom.

Posted by Simonbiz at 1:05 AM  

Labels: Business Ideas

If you have ever thought that you were the kind of person who might want to open a home business someday but never found the time for it, this is something that is on its for you. Having a home business will mean for you that you will be working at home. It will also mean that you can do things that no one else can do.

You'll be able to learn all about having a home business and making money online. There are many things to learn about internet marketing and promoting a website, and both of these things can be found with our help. You can also find your way to financial freedom.

You see, it isn't just about working at home; it is about having a home business. This is more than simply an opportunity to do something at home for someone else that earns you some cash. Having a home business means that you are actually in control of what you are doing. You are the one who is able to make money online. Whether you are doing internet marketing, or something like promoting a website, you are doing something that will easily earn money. This will be something that is going to help you raise your family, and help keep your family secure. This is something that will put you on the path towards financial freedom, all by yourself.

If you have ever thought that you might want to find a way to be able to take care of yourself, here is your chance to do so. You are going to be able to really sink your teeth in to this project, and you are going to be able to finally get around to taking care of what you need to take care of. Take a moment and see what we have to offer you.

IN CONCLUSION

Stay positive and focused on your home business even if sales aren't up to par and you get occasional negative remark or derogatory comment from people with stuffy, dead-end jobs. Ignore their negative words and bear in mind that your success is the best revenge! Keep an admirable and positive attitude at the forefront and show them what you're made of!

Zdenek Sedlak, The Home Business Owner can help you launch your very own money making website today that's 100% ready to take orders and pull in massive profits for you right now ... guaranteed!
Visit : http://www.moneyhello.com

Posted by Simonbiz at 4:53 PM  

Labels: Money Makers

You might have heard stories similar to "Oh that guy got rich on the internet, lucky guy!". Yes, there really are many many people that have made millions on the internet.

I know a guy that 5 years ago was a manager's assistant (in his 40s!) and started a small online business. Now the guy is worth $180 million and owns half of my town. Ridiculous. He doesn't even know what to do with the money, he's just not used to that kind of life. I drive his lambo every once in a while though.

So yes, there are many people out there who have made their millions online. But how did they do it? The answer is simple - Online Marketing. Ever heard that term? It's being thrown around nowadays without anyone actually giving it a meaning.

The term marketing can be described as "having the product bought by the end customer", and that's pretty much what it is. You "market" a product, thus giving a way for the end consumer to get his hands on it (the product).

There are many ways to do that.You can start your own website, build up traffic for it, get a steady email base and opt-in with the potential customers.But since running a website usually involves coding work, fair investments into hosting, you have to find a good domain, it's not as popular.

What people refer to now -- and make great money of -- is data entry jobs for huge companies that teach you the foundations of the online marketing arena.

I know 5 people now that just wake up in the afternoon, turn on their PCs and see couple of hundreds of dollars on their accounts. I didn't believe them at first, but when the checks arrived, I was amazed.

Basically what they do is enter data into online forms that advertise the websites of huge companies, and take commission from the money returned. Most of the time the commissions are at 75%! Truly amazing.

That's probably one of the easier ways of online marketing if you don't want to "get your hands dirty" in coding. Although it does pay off. But you're best to start off with data entry jobs.
www.monkeysmoney.com

Posted by Simonbiz at 6:31 PM  

Labels: Money Makers

If you're looking for network marketing success, its not as difficult as most would think. We just need to place our message and work with the right qualified prospects. Because most people are usually busy, we need to cater to peoples timing. Allow people to decide for themselves when they are ready to build a network marketing business. The catch would be, how would we know when a person is likely to join a network marketing business? Staying in touch too often can be a drain on one's energy and finances.

A good way to build a network marketing business is simply to keep in touch with people who have requested for information from you. And the way to find these people is to advertise smartly, and allow prospects to know that you exist. Then, simply qualify prospects to ensure that you only spend time with people who meet certain criterias. Its in your business interest not to work with people who are unwilling to spend money to build a business or learn how to be a business person, calculate ROIs. Choose your business partners carefully.

Setting a funded proposal is so important for network marketing success. You want early quick returns for advertising your business. One example used to do this can be found here. By establishing early cash flow, you will be able to continue paid advertising and free up your time. Another important thing to do is to capture the details of your prospects. People want to learn about MLM. They are just afraid of the unknown, just like you and me once were. But once we get educated, MLM is really fun and such easy money to come by. In fact, all one should be focused on to find network marketing success, is just to advertise.

Master The Secrets Of Making Money Online With Sherman Choo here: http://www.creditstocash.com
http://www.ShermanChoo.com

Posted by Simonbiz at 3:25 AM  

Labels: Business Ideas

After building a website, some worry about how they are going to generate targeted traffic to their site in order to sell their goods or services the way they intended for them to sell. Websites are built with intentions and it’s a great thing to see those intentions turn into a reality, but such a reality cannot be reached unless a little work is put into it.

Websites don’t generate targeted traffic all on their own, especially when they are young. Targeted traffic is traffic that has resulted from some sort of marketing from your end, so it is essential that you implement a program that will generate targeted traffic to your site. A great way to do this is by downloading a software program that contains tools such as a search engine submission tool, a keyword tool that extracts the keywords most frequently used to search for websites like your own, and an e-mail marketing tool. These are only a few amongst many of the tools available when you need to generate targeted traffic to your site.

It is true that in order to generate targeted traffic to your website there programs you must pay for and free programs that you can simply download off of the internet. A pay program can sometimes contain the same tools of a free program and both can operate at the same efficiency. It is completely up to you as to what tools you feel you need to market your website and generate targeted traffic, but there are simpler ways to generate targeted traffic and you may have fun doing it.

Among the simpler methods is doing something such as creating relationships on message boards. Message board’s specific to your business is a great way to generate targeted traffic because they already have an interest in your products. When you do this, you not only create online friendships, you are generating more traffic to your website. You can place your URL in your signature area so that every single time you post on the site your URL is seen. This may seem like a time-consuming method but, because of the results you will receive, in the end it makes it worth it. Another thing to consider is placing your URL in your e-mail signature so that every e-mail you send is like an advertisement.

So when looking for ways to market and generate targeted traffic to your website, you can seek out actual utilities to get you to where you need to be or you can use the other social avenues such as message boards and e-mail. No matter what your cup of tea is, there’s various ways to generate targeted traffic to your site, so do your homework and find which ways are right for you.

Carole Gardner is a Level 3 Director with Coastal Vacations. She enjoys helping others to become successful in their own Home Based Business and offers Free Consulting.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carole_A_Gardner

Posted by Simonbiz at 8:52 PM  

Labels: Generate Traffic, Increase Traffic, Search Engine Optimization

Getting started in affiliate marketing is really quite easy, but too often, many people mistakenly think it’s a lot easier than it actually is. In most cases, the only thing you need to do to join an affiliate program is to fill out a form. That’s the easiest part that there is. But there is still work to be done if you are to be successful.

The first thing you have to find a profitable market or niche. This can easily be done in Google or by reading magazines. Let’s start with Google. Do a search for any topic that interests you. Interest in what you hope to sell is important. Make a list of things that interest you, and do a simple search in Google for each thing.

Many people who sign up for an affiliate program will not do anything to market it at all. Of the 10% that will market the product, 90% of them will do it wrong, and won’t make much money, if they make anything at all. The competition just decreased in size by leaps and bounds. Don’t worry about the competition. Concentrate on promoting your affiliate products and services to the best of your ability – let the competition worry about you.

The majority of these sites are networks, where many different affiliate programs are managed. This allows you to promote a large number of affiliate products and services, and to receive one check for all sales across the network.

Alternately, you can use Google to search for products that you are interested in promoting, and visit those sites to see if they have affiliate programs. This is usually ideal for more specialized products. Also, if you don’t see a link for an affiliate program on the site you are interested in promoting.

Posted by Simonbiz at 9:12 PM  

Labels: Affiliate Program

Don’t be fooled by all the affiliate program advertisements promoting them a easy home based business opportunities. Affiliate programs are effective home based business income opportunities, but they will not make you money all by themselves. You will need to work your affiliate programs to make them effective home based business income opportunities.

Affiliate programs are great home based business opportunities for the entrepreneur, and there are several different types of affiliate programs available. The simplest of the home based business income opportunities has you, the affiliate, placing an advertisement like a banner ad, graphic, or text link on your site for the business you are trying to promote. What makes these programs nice home based business income opportunities is that you earn a commission on the sales or clicks that the advertisement generates. Other affiliate programs get a little more complex with multi-tiers and proportions of sales. Still, the money you generate makes affiliate programs effective home based business income opportunities.

Other benefits of these home based business income opportunities include the fact that you do not have to create your own service or product. You get to take advantage of these home based business income opportunities by advertising someone else’s services or products. Also, you do not have to worry about storage, shipping, or collecting payment from customers. With these home based business income opportunities, a high proportion of your affiliate program revenue is profit.

However, there are some negatives to relying on affiliate programs as home based business income opportunities. Since you are just the affiliate program, your home based business income opportunities will not earn you a major portion of the sales revenue, and you make commission. This means that you will not make as much money with these home based business income opportunities as you would selling your own product or service. Sometimes affiliate programs are a great way to start off with home based business income opportunities so you can get some business savvy before branching out on your own.

So, how do you know with affiliate programs will be the best home based business income opportunities for you? Start off by taking a look at the programs that will work best with your website. This means that your home based business income opportunities should complement the content of your website and fit in well. Also, you need to make sure that you find quality home based business income opportunities, because you only want to be a part of an affiliate program that makes you look reputable. There are plenty of reputable affiliate programs available, so look for the best quality home based business income opportunities where the company is stable and you get a signed affiliate agreement.

There are plenty of great affiliate programs available that can offer you effective home based business opportunities. However, you need to make sure you are working with a reputable affiliate programs that are known as quality home based business income opportunities. Also, know that, despite the money you can make in affiliate programs, you best home based business income opportunities are those where you sell and market your own service or product. Still, affiliate programs can be a great way to gain valuable experience.

Copyright © Charles Fuchs is an established Six Figure Income earner and one of the top online marketer's. He specializes in showing people the Best Home Based Business and the Best MLM on the internet.

I grant permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way.

Learn more about: Affiliate Programs - Home Based Business Income Opportunities.

Posted by Simonbiz at 1:44 AM  

Labels: Affiliate Program

A host is a server that provides a home for your website on the World Wide Web. Just as your computer contains all your files, so a host contains all the files needed to run your website. With a host, you can simply upload everything you need to the server and your users can then connect there to see your site. It lets the site run faster and allows it to have all the security and extras it needs.

Selecting a host is the first important step towards building your Internet Business.

Your choice of server will depend on how much money you have available at the beginning and how much you plan to grow in the future. In my opinion, for commercial sites, free hosting is a waste of time. your users are going to get blasted with annoying pop-ups every time they surf to your page, it's going to be impossible to get a decent position in a search engine and you don't even get a real business URL.

There are many website hosting services offer a stats package that you can study. If you're not sure where this is, call up website hosting service and ask them. Statistics are a vital part of tracking your marketing progress. If you don't have access to website statistics get a package that can help you.

A good website hosting service would offer traffic logs that provide an invaluable insight into the traffic being referred to a website from various sources such as search engines, directories and other links.

Posted by Simonbiz at 4:08 PM  

Labels: Website Hosting