Web Business Resource

by John Gergye

My inbox this week provided glaring examples of three all too common rookie search engine marketing mistakes. What you could call three deadly search engine marketing sins.

Inadequate Keyword Research

Hey! If you’re going to spend hours developing a web site, isn’t it smart to invest some time to insure you’re focusing on the most traffic laden keywords?

Especially when typically the plural form of a keyword phrase generates way more traffic than the singular form. For example “dog dishes” rather than “dog dish”.

Yet just this week I was asked to look at a site that had focused on the singular form. Evidently the owner hadn’t bothered to do any digging to make sure that was their best keyword move.

Look, you’ll never know for sure unless you research it. Besides, you can access Wordtracker, the tool of choice for what? a measly $7 a day.

Even better here’s a quick and dirty way to get the most out of that day.

Search for your target keyword in Google.

Visit the top ranking sites. Use the “View Source” feature of Internet Explorer to check out the keyword meta tag of each site. You’re looking for a site listing lots of keywords there. Do this with each of the top listings or until you find one stuffed to the gills with keywords. Ah-ha! There’s your starting point for your list of likely keyword phrases.

Repeat with a couple of other sites and you’ll soon have a long list of candidates to check out in Wordtracker.

Enhance your list further using this tool:

http://www.promoteindia.com/keywordtool-beta.htm.

It will give you more keyword ideas from Google and Overture.

Now you’re ready for Wordtracker.

Once you’ve compiled your Wordtracker results, you could simply sort by KEI and then by searches per day.

That gives you the strongest keywords with the most searches. (And yes, I realize KEI assumes all search engine listings are of equal value. But I did say this was “quick and dirty” didn’t I? However if you want another approach that improves on KEI there’s a spreadsheet available at http://www.seo-works.com/seo-resources/keyword-effectiveness-rank.html)

Anyway, once you’re sorted your keywords in some way to highlight the most profitable, simply take the top 25 on the list and create content for those first. No, not every one will be a natural born traffic magnet. But enough of them will be to get the ball rolling.

Repeat with the next 25. Don’t stop until you have at least 100 pages of hot content.

Remember, two or three word keyword phrases are usually your best bets. And I really like keyword phrases that are actually several keyword phrases in one. For example “irish setter dog dishes” gives “irish setter”, “irish setter dog”, “dog”, “dog dishes”, “setter dog dishes”.

Site Bloat

Twice this week I was asked to look at sites that would have let me read War and Peace while waiting for them to come up. And no visitor is going to have a copy of that handy.

To avoid losing any precious visitors lose the huge graphics. One of the sites had a graphic 501K in size! No wonder it took nearly two minutes to load up on a 56K modem.

Then too lose the Flash - unless you have a very good reason for using it. Even then lose the Flash.

If you’re wondering how your site’s download time measures up test it here: http://www.netmechanic.com/toolbox/html-code.htm

It won’t cost anything to find out. But a slow loading site can cost you plenty. Because as the Net Mechanics follow up reports says, it’s a good idea to keep your page load times under about 12 seconds on a 28.8 modem. Otherwise your visitors will be wearing out the back button trying to escape.

Too Few Links

Did you know links can account for up to 80% of your success with Google? Yet someone else complained to me about how much work it took to get them.

Well doh! Ever think that maybe that’s why (in part) Google assigns so much value to links? Because you can’t quite as easily game links as you can on page content? Meaning you actually have to work to get links. Both by having link worthy content and by actively seeking them out on a regular basis.

It’s a given that most niches require you have a healthy collection of links to be competitive. Yet if you’re lucky enough to be in a niche that doesn’t, but you do, then you can easily dominate those rankings.

Anyway in a nutshell you can easily avoid these three search engine sins. Do your keyword homework. Keep your pages on a strict diet. And don’t forget link up with as many other quality sites as you can.

Do all that and you’re well on your way to search engine success. Ignore this advice and you’re, well you know, your Google goose is probably cooked. Leaving you perpetually stuck in Google purgatory.

Copyright 2006 John Gergye

About The Author: John Gergye shares more ideas like this in his just updated eBook “Traffic From Google in 35 Days”. Find out more here: www.traffic-test-tube.com/j/tfg35cl.shtml Or test your search engine IQ by taking his seo quiz and get the free special report “Coming Out On Top”.

by Ken Hill

1. Post testimonials for your ezine on your site.

You’ll be able to increase your ezine’s credibility by sharing how your ezine has benefited your readers.

2. Include a few testimonials for your business in each issue.

In addition, to using testimonials for your ezine, use testimonials for your products within your ezine that share your customers’ favorable feedback.

3. Write articles.

Your articles can help you to share your expertise with your readers and add your voice to your ezine.

They can also help you to increase your subscriptions by building up more targeted traffic to your site.

4. Swap ads.

You’ll create a win-win situation as both you and the other ezine publisher will get valuable free promotion of each other’s ezines.

When possible, swap for multiple issues as repetition will increase your ad’s response.

5. Swap a recommendation within your ezine.

Simply plug another publisher’s ezine in your ezine (i.e., in your editor’s or publisher’s note) in exchange for that publisher doing the same for you.

6. Swap “thank you” page ads or recommendations.

You’ll be able to get valuable ongoing promotion of your ezine as everyone that fills out your swapper’s subscription form or box will see your ezine’s ad or recommendation.

7. Offer a bonus.

For example, you could offer ebooks, an email course, or access to your “subscriber only” membership site as a bonus for joining you.

8. Run subscriber only deals on your products and on advertising in your ezine.

You’ll get more first time buyers and also repeat business.

You’ll also be able to show your readers that you value them by providing them with sales and promotions that are just for them.

9. Write product reviews.

You’ll be able to benefit your readers by giving them the lowdown on products you use or have tried.

You’ll also be able to increase your commissions by publishing your positive reviews with your affiliate links.

10. Recommend affiliate programs.

After you’ve gained your readers’ trust, a powerful way to increase your commissions is to endorse products in your ezine that you’ve found to be valuable and you believe will help your readers.

11. Promote your ezine in your sig file.

Use your signature file that promotes your ezine in your day to day emails and also, when appropriate, in your posts to forums that you’ve joined and participate in.

12. Have your readers forward your issues.

Get valuable word of mouth promotion for your ezine by asking your readers to forward your issues in their entirety to their friends and colleagues that might be interested in it.

About The Author: Ken runs the Net Pro Marketer where you’ll find resources to help you grow your business and also informative articles on business, marketing, and ezine publishing. Browse through the articles and pick up a valuable free report for email marketers at: www.netpromarketer.com

by Tiffany Sutton

While I love Craigslist and Backpage.com, you’ll notice that people tend to trash them out by abusing their free advertising. Don’t be one of those people. The people who own these sites didn’t design them with this in mind. They are a free public service and it’s not okay to take advantage of them. One ad here and there is fine. With Backpage.com, you have to do a sponsored ad to be seen and their fees are quite reasonable. But, do not make them your only form of advertising. When you overuse “free advertising” it makes you look inexperienced and gives off the impression that you aren’t making any money.

My advice is to keep the free stuff to a minimum. With free forms of advertising, you sometimes get what you paid for. Instead, invest in featured ads that will keep you at the top of the page or at least in a top 10 list of revolving ads. Something where your ad will be seen! This is where your own research and creativity comes into play. You are only limited by your own ability to think outside the box. Classified ads can be your friend if you utilize the ones that get you exposure. That entails spending a little money.

Print ads are also great. Know that you get a much better deal by going with a statewide newspaper than you do with one local paper. Think about it. Do you want the entire state to see your ad, or just the people in your city? It’s about the same price either way, you just have to be smart about it. Keep in mind that the people that work for the newspaper are on commission. Make sure you aren’t paying for bold print or borders that you may or may not want. Their prices are NOT etched in stone, so tell them what you’re willing to spend and most of the time they will work with you. Also ask if you can get a better price by paying for a month of weekly ads upfront? Most newspapers offer something like this.

About The Author: Tiffany Sutton is the webmaster and owner of http://theworkplacesucks.com/. She has a successful Internet home business and ahe has helped several new online business owners get started. For a FREE Internet Home Business Ebook that tells The Truth About Working At Home, visit her website.

by Desmond Mantor

You can achieve great results in your online business through well planned strategy. But we can make certain mistakes which set us back. It is advisable to understand these mistakes and stay clear of them while designing your marketing strategy.

1. Not focusing on the right market

Targeting the right market is vital to your plan. You might offer the best of the products but if it is targeted at the wrong market all your efforts are of no use. Make use of the various tools available to identify the appropriate market. Time spent on this research and finding the right keywords to use in your campaign is worth it.

2. Dropping your present customers from the marketing plan

Another mistake is not including your existing customers in your target segment. It is easier to retain a customer than get a new customer. If you don’t serve the existing customer they will leave you. Also, a current customer has good things to tell about your products to others and chances are that their friends will buy from you after hearing them. Therefore you have a good chance of picking up new customers.

3. Be careful with hard sell

Hard sell never sells! It only turns off some otherwise keen customers. Dont make the mistake of making every webpage sell to the customer. Instead concentrate on making it interesting and useful to the visitor. Visitors should feel happy in making the decision to buy. Any ad copy that forces a visitor to buy loses him for you for all time. Ensure that your web pages present the details in a sober/matter of fact manner, with sophistication so that the customer buys your product and leaves satisfied. Remember that selling is an art. Practice it judiciously and pleasingly.

4. Offering no content

Too many web site owners get very excited with the idea of online business and forget to place interesting content on their sites that can keep their visitors attracted to their site. While making money is vital, providing good information is even more important to build lasting goodwill of the customers. Focusing only on showing many advertisements on your site will not get you good results. Quality content is the only answer to this challenge.

5. Ineffective Web Site

Many webmasters feel that only a dazzling, flashy website is attractive to the visitors. This not necessarily true. There are different ways of ensuring that your website looks good. Use a catchy headline that draws the customers attention. Offer genuine customer testimonials which will help the visitors relate to the other customers and buy your products based on their recommendation.

by Ann DeVere

Almost ALL advertisements fall short of the advertiser’s expectations and most of them are just a plain waste of money! How can I say that?

Just look around, you’ll see ads everywhere. How many of them actually make you stop and pay attention. Not many, right? Why? Because most of them only look good. They DON’T:

• Capture the attention of the target market

• Give enough information to make the decision making process easy

• Minimize the risk of taking the next step in the sales process

Every successful marketing campaign MUST reach the prospect at these 9 Touch Points to avoid the most common and costly mistakes!

As you will see, the design of a successful piece of marketing material is not that hard to put together. The goal is simply to get your message across in the clearest way possible.

Effective copy is fundamental for the success of any marketing material. For a marketing piece to be effective, it only needs to contain the elements described below:

1. Grab their attention
Fight for their attention with a powerful headline that brings up emotion! Depending on your product or service, and your target market, your headlines should promise them one of two things: Promise to take them away from their problem or promise to bring them towards pleasure.

• Dentists remind us that our untreated cavities will lead to loss of our teeth
• Cosmetic Dentists focus their advertising on how beautiful our smile will be if our teeth are straight and “pearly white”. How confident we will feel…

Think about your target market, what’s their state of mind? Are they more likely to take action to gain pleasure? Or to make the pain they’re in go away?

2. Shake their confidence in what they are doing NOW!
OK, you’ve got their attention. For you to keep your prospects’ full attention, so they will continue to pay attention to your message, they need to wonder:

• Are they getting the best possible service or product for their money?
• Are they doing enough?
• Are they doing the best they can?

3. Build their confidence in you
Now that you have shaken their confidence in what they are doing, you need to build their confidence in you…

• You have to prove you have the solution to their problem.
• You’ve got to convince the prospect that you are good at what you do and that you’re qualified to solve their problem.
• Show them how your product is something they can count on to do what you promise.
• Prove to them that your product can do what you promise. Start by telling them:o How you differ from the competition?
  o What are your credentials?
  o Do you have documented test results?
  o Do you have a very high percentage of satisfied customers?
  o Do you have professional recognition from peers within your field?

4. Wow them with your service
You may be the best at what you do or have the best product but if your customers can’t get a hold of you when they need you, how valuable are you? Here are some examples:

• 24 hour hotline - to answer common questions
• Do you make house calls? (especially if it’s not the norm in your industry)
• Do you offer one on one service, convenient hours or pickup & delivery - going that extra mile brings great rewards

5. Address and Overcome their objections
It makes no difference what business you are in; there will always be objections to buying what you are selling. Most often the biggest objection is the price. You should confront them head-on by explaining why it’s worth paying your price. You need to put their fears to rest before they will be ready to buy.

6. Remove the obstacle of risk with your Guarantee
Most people associate the strength and the length of the guarantee with the quality of the product. It can make or break the sale, the longer your guarantee the better your chance of making a sale. The guarantee also says that you are an honest business person.

7. Roll in the testimonials
What others say about you carries much more weight than what you say about yourself. Make sure you testimonial addresses a problem your customer had and how they benefited by your product or service. The more testimonials you have the better.

8. Make it easy to contact you
Provide your prospects a reason to contact you and makes it safe and easy to do. The easiest thing is to offer a FREE consultation or demonstration. This type of an offer appeals to the consumer’s curiosity and at the same time minimize the risk to them.

9. The Win - Win bonus pile-on
Offer Special Bonuses and discounts for those who act NOW! Your customers win by getting a special value that they normally wouldn’t get. And you win by making a sale. You have to make them think about how much value they are getting for their money. When the perceived value of the product or service exceeds the perceived cost, you have successfully tipped the scales in your favor.

As you can see, designing effective marketing materials requires a great deal of preparation. I can promise you this: if you follow these guidelines I’ve just presented to you, you will immediately increase your response rates and ultimately your sales. How high a response rate you get depends on how well you’ve applied this 9 Touch Point System to your marketing message.

Qualify your prospects BEFORE you spend any money marketing to them!

How often do you receive an expensive, classy looking direct mail ad for a product you don’t need? No matter how fancy the package you will NEVER buy anything from that company, so why don’t THEY know that? Simple, they never took the time to qualify you as a potential prospect. Smart marketing starts with investing your money where it will bring you the best return.

To find out about Developing YOUR Marketing Blueprint and successfully marketing your business go to: http://marketingblueprintdeveloper.com/

Marketing is all about understanding your customer. When you know what your customer wants — you are in the unique position to develop a marketing message that addresses their wants and needs and easily walks them through your sales process.

About The Author: Ann DeVere is a senior partner of NORconcepts; a San Diego based Marketing Firm. Ann customizes small business marketing, helping other entrepreneurial business owners learn to put their marketing and advertising dollars to the best use and how to recognize their full potential. Visit http://www.anndevere.com/ to discover the crucial pieces of information to develop your marketing tool that guarantees your success.

by Willie Crawford

One of the saddest things I’ve witnessed in personally consulting with literally hundreds of people is someone attempting to start an online business with a virtually useless product. These are usually people trying to sell outdated products that are generally available for free from hundreds (if not thousands) of other websites.

I see the above far too often. Here are two ways that I’ve seen this happen:

1) Someone, often a newbie, buys a set of reprint or resale rights from a long copy sales page. This page does such a great job of selling the package that the prospect can see setting up dozens of sites and “making millions.”

The newbie buys the package, picks out a few products that look promising, and begins setting up websites for each. Shortly afterwards is where I often come into the picture, as these webmasters often approach me for help in getting more sales. They are perplexed as to why they haven’t made even a single sale.

I often take a quick look and instantly identify the problem. The product is often “older than dirt” and available all over the Internet for free. At other times, the product is not outdated but is available on dozens of other sites at a much lower price. In the latter case, the webmaster is trying to sell the product at the price that was listed on the sales page where the bundle of products was described. This would work if it weren’t for the fact that MOST of the other people who bought rights to the product were selling it much cheaper, or even using it as a freebie to get new subscribers.

2) A relative newbie buys a package containing dozens of “web businesses-in-a-box.” These are complete packages containing a ready-to-go website and a product (usually software or an ebook). Often these ready-to-go packages are comprised of outdated products that countless other people are GIVING away.

How do you avoid the two situations described above? There’s a Latin expression - “caveat emptor.” It means, “Let the buyer beware.” It means that it’s the buyer’s responsibility to know what he’s buying.

Does this mean that you shouldn’t buy these packages of reprint and resale rights? No, it just means that you need to know what you are buying. You also need to know how to properly market it. I’ve made a small fortune from buying, repackaging, and then reselling reprint rights, resale rights and private label rights.

My secret is that when I buy one of these packages, I go through and look for items that I can combine in different ways. I look for gems within these packages that weren’t even emphasized on the sales page, but that I know many of my customers would get a lot of use out of. I look for items that I can add to other packages I’m already selling… to breathe new life into an old sales page or add more value to my offerings.

As an example, I once purchased a resale rights package that included 38 PDF cookbooks. I added these cookbooks to the sales page for my soul food cookbook that I was already selling (as a time-limited bonus). This increased my sales for that cookbook substantially while adding practically nothing to the cost of delivering the basic product. If you’d like to see that example in action, check out my sales page at: http://Chitterlings.com/cookbook.html

Another one of my secrets is that I buy private label rights and source code, modify these, and come up with new products at a very low cost. I’ve done this with over a dozen ebooks and with several software titles that I currently market. This gives you your own unique product at a very low cost.

The final thing that you MUST do is not overpay for these reprint and resale rights. You WILL find lots of marketable gems in these packages. You can market these as parts of new packages or as stand-alone products. However, you do want to minimize your initial investment.

You can actually find packages containing literally thousands of dollars in reprint and resale rights for under $100. You can even find these bargains for under $50. An example is the Kick Start Mega Sale, conducted to raise funds for building a homeless shelter. Here you can get a package worth over $4000 for pennies on the dollar. This package is available for a very limited time at: http://kickstartmegasale.com/ks/?ksa=2

You CAN set up an online info-marketing business and do extremely well. The whole key is to get started with the right product… one with some real value. The whole key there is to do your due diligence and to be aware of the traps. Now, you need never fall victim to the horror stories that we opened this article with. Feel free to pass this article on and to help spread the word.

Keywords: reprint rights, resale rights, private label rights

About the Author: Willie Crawford, Navarre, Florida US willie@williecrawford.com. More Details about reprint rights here. Willie Crawford has been teaching Internet marketing for over 9 years. Take advantage of his uncanny insights and unusual candor by subscribing to his free, information-packed newsletter. Also visit his top-rated blog. Do both at: http://WillieCrawford.com/blog/

by Alex Smith

Many companies claim that they are “Web 2.0”. But do you know what it really means? Web 2.0 is a brand new concept that sets up certain principles. This article is not aimed at thorough description of the Web 2.0. The purpose is just to show the principles which may be interesting for users, to show why it’s worth using resources sticking to the Web 2.0 concept.

The one which really deserves our mentioning is user positioning. Now the user is concerned as a co-developer, he can control his own data and even influence the site itself. For example, site announces some new feature and asks for a feedback from its users. If they like it, the feature is developed and expanded to the site, if not – it’s immediately removed.

A lot of internet resources have some kind of database. Some spent a lot of time and money on making researches, analyzing and syndicating of data. Others, who clearly understand the advantages of the Web 2.0 concept, encourage user contribution of data. The more users take part in this the better the service becomes. The better the service becomes the more new users join in. And as long as this process is alive, both users and owners of the resources get benefit.

Users are given the ability to review, explore and change the data. It helps to maintain the data and achieve the greatest results. This concept is now used by some file-hosting sites. Users upload their files to the site, post comments and descriptions. Some sites offer catalogues of files with users’ comments and reviews. Moreover, tags can be added to the file, so that it could be easier found. Tagging (choosing keywords) allows some kind of associations that the brain itself uses, instead of strict categories. And as a result, it provides better search results. So again it is a collaborative work of users and site owners that makes the quantity and quality of files up to the mark. Now file-hosting sites become not only the hosting place for files but also the place for enrichment of user experience. Comments help to avoid troubles or show how some bugs can be fixed.

As Tim O’Reilly says, “The competitive opportunity for new entrants is to fully embrace the potential of Web 2.0. Companies that succeed will create applications that learn from their users, using an architecture of participation to build a commanding advantage not just in the software interface, but in the richness of the shared data.”

Today more and more companies stick to the Web 2.0 concept and examples of these successful stories can be found on the Web.

Alex Smith, Pr Officer for www.oxyshare.com You may contact me anytime via e-mail pr-manager@oxyserver.com.

Everyone may take advantages of our free service at www.oxyshare.com, that includes unlimited disk space, an endless amount of file downloads and e-mail file delivery. Free registration also gives access to upload files using your favorite FTP client and opportunity to edit or delete files. Using our partnership program registered users may earn money for their files downloads. Uploaded files are accessible for 30 days if there was no request to download. Go to www.oxyshare.com

by Tiffany Sutton

As someone who was flat out lied to about a particular business, I had every right to do a chargeback at one point. My credit card company agreed based on the evidence I submitted that I had been completely misinformed and ripped off. However, this refund thing is a double edged sword. If you were lied to and paid for something based on promises or guarantees, then you have every right to expect that those promises be fulfilled. I know I did. If the other party does not follow through or they intentionally misinformed you, I advise anyone with a brain to pursue getting their money back.

However, you also have many dishonest people who purchase products, businesses, or services everyday and just don’t want to pay for them. They may buy a product, use it up and want their money back. I saw it in the beauty industry all the time. In my eyes, doing this is the equivalent of stealing. I’ve been involved with two companies I made a lot of money for, who allowed people to do this to their associates. So, you still have to pay for your advertising, plus whatever monthly fees you pay to your affiliate company, even if some jackass decides a month later that they want their money back. I advise not putting yourself in a position where this can affect you. Normally, the good outweighs the bad. But, if a company supports deadbeats more than it does their hardworking and honest affiliates, there is something wrong with that picture.

I recently read an article saying that chargebacks are literally the biggest problem for internet marketers today. I experienced my downline’s chargebacks (not mine) literally preventing me from receiving my own commissions. I separated myself from one of my most profitable websites for this very reason. Someone benefits from your business or product, downloads materials, sits on their butt for over a month, then needs money for their bills. Is that my responsibility? No, it’s not. And, it’s not yours, either.

While I have a few good businesses I work with and promote, I tend to lean towards selling actual products. I have yet to experience any refunds in doing this. I’m sure I will at times. But, it’s been long enough to know that this is the safer route. If all the information is put “out there” so someone can make an informed decision, this can help prevent any future problems for you.

If they take the time to select a product, it is generally to fill a need and they will rarely have a reason to return it. My experience is that choosing to promote a product which has a reasonable price will cause you fewer headaches. People will generally stick with it and won’t be giving up a large sum of money in doing so. As an affiliate, they will be more inclined to promote that product or business if they feel others will be able to afford it, too. That just makes sense.

About The Author: Tiffany Sutton is the webmaster and owner of http://theworkplacesucks.com/. She has a successful Internet home business and ahe has helped several new online business owners get started. For a FREE Internet Home Business Ebook that tells The Truth About Working At Home, visit her website.

by John Terry

10 Cost Effective Ways to Promote Your Internet Business on a Tight Budget

Your website will need visitors for you to earn money with
your internet business. The biggest challenges for those
starting a new internet business are limited resources and
money to run marketing campaigns; and limited knowledge on
how to cost effectively drive traffic to the website.

There are various ways of promoting your internet business,
and some are more costly than others. If you have limited
resources to spend on your advertising, then you will need
to know about the most effective and yet not very costly
methods of drawing traffic to your website.

1. Have an appropriate Domain name for your internet business

Although this seems very obvious, it is often
underestimated in its importance. It is ideal for your
domain name to have some of your internet business’ key
words to make sure that you can be found when someone does
a search for your keywords online.

2. Word of mouth in your circle of influence

Everyone has a circle of influence; being people that you
interact with in your life. These people are your potential
customers; and you must tell them about your internet
business. This does not cost you anything. You just have to
list all the people you make contact with in your daily
routines and identify the best way of telling them about
your internet business. Call them, email them, write them
or give them your business card.

3. Email marketing

If you have another internet business already, it is
recommended that you email your existing customers or if
you have a newsletter, your subscribers list; and tell them
about your new online business. You can also email all your
colleagues in your email address book. The more people you
tell about your internet business, the more visitors you
will get to your website.

4. Your Email Signature

Your email will need to look professional, and you must
have in your signature the details about your internet
business website: the URL, the business name, email address
and other contact details. You can also set up different
websites for various purposes. Having your website address
in your signature in every email you send out is a cost
effective way to promote your internet business.
5. Submit your website to search engines and directories

This is another cost effective way of driving traffic to
your internet business. It is FRE*E if you can manually
submit your website to search engines and directories.
There are various companies that can submit your website
for you at a cost. For your website to be picked up by
search engines, you must have on your website high quality
unique content and your content must be keyword-rich.

6. Write and distribute articles

Writing and distributing articles is one of the very
effective ways of driving traffic to your website. There
are several objectives that are to be accomplished with
writing articles; namely to be picked up by ezine
publishers, other websites, and also by offline publishers.
By writing high quality articles on a regular basis, you
come to be viewed as an authority or expert, which will
further make your articles popular. In your articles, you
put a resource box to build back-links, or to sell. By
submitting articles, you have search engines pick up your
website and eventually, send you some FRE*E traffic.

7. Link Exchanges and Traffic Exchanges

It is important to create some links with websites that are
similar to yours so that you can get visitors coming to your
site via the link on your partners’ websites. For your
internet business to be successful, you need a lot of
traffic. Creating links with partners can be time
consuming. If you can afford it, you can use a software
called The Link Machine which automates the process for
you. Although two way links are important, one way links
are even more effective – and you can create these by other
methods such as article submission, forum participation,
directory submission etc.

8. Forum Participation

There are a lot of forums or groups for almost any interest
or niche or business. Participating at these forums, with
your email signature that has your website, can help you
generate some targeted traffic for your site. You can get
more visitors through this, which will support the growth
of your internet business.

9. Offer Freebies

Giving away FREE gifts, tools or resources to your
prospects is a very powerful way of growing your internet
business. Because a visitor to your site benefits by
getting some of your freebies, they will be encouraged to
come back to your website again in the future, giving you
some repeat business.
10. Publish an ezine or newsletter

Ezines are a targeted form of advertising, and they can be
easy to prepare. Having an ezine helps you create a long
term relationship with your potential customers. Over the
long term, your subscribers will trust you and will do
business with you.

If you consistently use these strategies to promote your
internet business, you will see traffic to your website
increasing.

You must visit http://www.home-income-team.com.au
for the mentioned techniques and more.

By John Terry

John Terry is a network marketer and webmaster.
He is always keen on building healthy and wealthy
relationships all around the world so contact him at:
http://www.home-income-team.com.au

by Ray Mann

Working online can provide many freedoms. An online income can also be difficult to maintain. There are many different types of online incomes. The best way to figure out what is right for you is to find support online from others who are trying to make an online income.

Your reasons for trying to find an online income can be many different things. You may be wanting an extra source of income or just looking to leave the 9to5 world. There are benefits no matter your reason for trying online income.
- You are your own boss.
- You directly control how much you make.
- You chose the type of job you want to do.
- No commuting.
- No special dress code.
This list could go on and on. The benefits are what you make them.

The different types of income online range from easy programs to telecommuting positions that work much like a job outside the home. Residual income is where you sell a product through a website from another company. This involves very little work on your part and the income keeps coming without anything more on your part. As long as people are visiting your site and buying what you offer, you make money. These types of programs also usually involve programs where you can sign up other people to sell and you make a cut of any income they make. The possibilities for income are huge if you chose a good company and advertise well. Another type of online income is a business opportunity. It is like residual income, but you have to continuously work to sell. You interact with your clients and can also sell offline. These types of programs usually require an investment because you are essentially building your own business. These investments buy you your promotion materials and sample of products. Telecommuting jobs are online income where you work at home. These jobs are like a job you would have outside the home. You are given work by a company and expected to perform according to their guidelines. You have to put in time to make money. These are three examples of ways to make money online. New ideas are cropping up everyday, but beware of scams that may be lurking to take advantage of your time and money.

A scam is where you are tricked out of your time or money by someone posing an income opportunity. There are some ways to spot scams. You should be wary of anyone who asks for payment for processing fees or other clerical fees. These are usually scams to steal your money. The easiest way to tell a scam is if the company doesn’t give out a lot of information or you have to pay for information. You should be able to ask questions and know everything you need to know before investing in an opportunity. Perhaps the number one way to avoid scams is to talk to others who are making online income. Search for websites about working at home and look for message boards where you can talk with others. This will help you to get advice on scams and how to avoid them. You can also check companies out with the Better Business Bureau. The most important thing to remember is if it seems too good to be true than it probably is.

Online income can give you a great way to build your finances. With the many choices of income opportunities you should easily be able to find something that works for you. Just be careful and check out any opportunity thoroughly.

About The Author: Would You Like Us To Find You The Ideal Homework Job That Will Give You The Opportunity To Stay At Home With Your Family And Still Make Money! Get All The Exciting Details Now At: www.nomore-boss.com

by Jens du Plessis

How to make money on the Internet? That is the question!

Everyone using the Internet for business, whether as a home-based online business or as an online base for their normal brick-and-mortar business, are looking for the secret to make money with their web sites.

There are many ways to do this:

- Selling one’s own products online.
- Using the web site to generate business off-line.
- Selling other people products as a retailer.
- Selling information (not spying or treason! LOL).
- Selling membership with benefits.
- Selling wholesale.
- Earning commissions by referring buyers to other web sites (affiliate programme marketing)
to name some.

Affiliate marketing is an ideal, affordable, way to expand your markets. Affiliate marketing can be related to appointing commission-only sales representatives. On the Internet your “employers” or your “representatives” can be based all over the world, depending on how the programmes is set up.

Imagine having over 70,000 representives worldwide selling your products or services, like Corey Rudl has, and they do not cost you money unless they sell!

Imagine not only selling your own products, but also similar products all over the world without having to worry about supplies, deliveries or returns.

There are two sides to affiliate marketing:

As a merchant or advertiser, and
As an affiliate, a reseller, a publisher (a number of different names are used by the various programmes

Whether you are a merchant and have a web site where you are trying to sell your product or service, or whether you have a web site and would like to earn an income by offering other merchants’ products to your visitors, affiliate marketing offers you opportunities to increase your income and profits.

And the two sides of affiliate marketing are not mutually exclusive. You can also be a merchant offering your own products, as well as use affiliate marketing to offer supplementary or complimentary products and services.

As a merchant:

As a merchant offering your own products or services affiliate marketing is an ideal, performance-based, means of expanding your sales force on the Internet.

By offering an affiliate programme you can appoint “salespeople” all over the world to market your products or services from their web sites on a commission-only basis. This means that you only pay for performance.

No worries about:

- employment contacts and practices
- personnel issues
- salaries to non-performers, etc.

Setting up your own affiliate programme can be a bit tricky, especially if you try to set it up yourself. Your need to:

- find affiliates
- sign up the affiliates
- vet the affiliate web sites to see if they comply with your requirements
- provide them with sales material
- track affiliate sales,
- track commissions
- pay out commissions
- motivate and communicate with affiliates

Unless you have the programming and administration capabilities I would suggest that you look at another option - using a third party affiliate programme manager. They take all the “dirty” work off your hands.

Using Third Party affiliate Programme Managers

A number of programme managers offer these services to a greater or lesser extent. One of their greatest advantages is that they have a “ready-made” sales force for you - affiliates sitting and waiting for affiliate programmes they can market.

As an affiliate:

In my ebook “How To Turn Your School Web Site Into A Fundraising Machine” I discuss a number of ways to make money with one’s web site.

Using affiliate marketing programmes, where you generate commissions from sales at other web sites, is one of the cheapest - and often easiest - ways to generate multiple income streams from your web site.

- No products to worry about - there are thousands of programmes available.
- No delivery issues - the product owners do that.
- No customer service responsibilities - the product owners does that.
- No web design - merely links to other web sites.
- No costs - most affiliate programmes are free to join.
- International markets - there are affiliate programmes available all over the world
- Targeted - there programmes for just about every market

Finding affiliate programmes are also easy. While many web sites offer their own affiliate programmes there are a number of affiliate programme managers where you can find hundreds and even thousands of programmes in one one spot.

Affiliate programme managers offer you thousands of opportunities to generate multiple income streams from your web site.

And they are FREE to join as affiliates.

Alternatively, you can look at private affiliate programmes from some of the top Internet marketers or some examples of other products like jewelry, travel, pet products, etc

All you need to do is to search for the programmes that suit your target market.

The right affiliate programmes serve a number of purposes on your web site:

Affiliate programmes offer supplementary or complimentary products to your own products without having to supply it.

If people are going to leave your site, as they must sooner or later, you might as well direct them to web sites where you can earn some money.
Affiliate programmes can increase the content of your web site, thereby attracting more visitors.

While there are many ways to generate an income with one’s web site, and most affiliate programmes require that a sale be made before you can earn any commissions. The more targeted your affiliate programmes to your target market, the better the chances of you making money with them.

One of the simplest ways to earn money with affiliate programmes is by giving away freebies.

About The Author: Jens du Plessis has been doing business on the Internet since 1996. He runs a number of businesses based on affiliate programs. Find out more about affiliate programs at http://www.businesssitesonline.com and sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.webmarketingsa.biz

The below is an excerpt from “The Truth About Working At Home”, an ebook by Tiffany Sutton (available free on her website, theworkplacesucks.com):

First of all, you have to have some money to advertise with. You have to spend it to make it. And, you can’t go the “cheapest route possible” with your own business. That’s just not smart. If you can only operate on a shoestring budget, you will get a little exposure. But, it might be smarter to wait and save up some money so that you can promote your business effectively. If someone tells you that you can advertise for free and make a great living, they are not being honest with you. You generally have to expose your business to the same person several times to establish credibility. You have to be financially prepared for this.

You can have a million websites and it doesn’t matter if no one can find them. Or, if no one is searching for what you are offering. Make sense? I’ve had people ask me repeatedly, “How much do I need for advertising?” I can’t answer that question. That is like me asking you how much I will need to purchase my new vehicle. I don’t know how you will want to advertise. I don’t know who you want to advertise to. And, only you know how much you can spend. It is not for me to know that. So, establish a figure in your mind and stick with it. I think it is just smart business to spend it as you make it. With every sale, reinvest some back into your advertising or business.

Read The Entire Ebook