This is my next installment on selling on e-bay. hope you like it.
If you're involved as an affiliate for any product, you've probably wrestled with how you can sell the product on eBay.
After all, eBay offers you a massive potential audience of 147 million members. And people who read about your product will likely have found it by searching thus saying they are interested in the product area in which your product resides.
The bad news, however, is that there is no easy way to market affiliate products on eBay!
First of all, if you haven't heard of affiliate selling, here's a very quick description of how it works. Fundamentally, selling an affiliate product requires that you get interested buyers to click on a special link. This link takes the person to the product owner's sales page. More importantly, the link also contains your unique affiliate code - it is this code which ensures that sales made from your introductions are recorded in your affiliate account.
Finally, if your prospect purchases the product, it is the owner who handles product delivery and who also you with your sales commission payment.
On eBay, you could easily set up an auction saying how marvellous your affiliate product is. You will certainly attract a number of people who would be interested in buying.
The problem is, you have no legitimate way of selling it to eBay members! It's against eBay's rules to have a link in your auction page which takes your readers away to another website to make a sale.
Also, if you think about it, you don't have the affiliate product to deliver. There's no mechanism for you to make the sale on eBay, and deliver the product. If you recall, this is handled automatically by the product owner.
So here are two ways in which you can tap into the eBay market with your affiliate products.
1. The Simple System You create an auction which explains the benefits of the affiliate product you're promoting.
What do you offer on your eBay auction for the affiliate product? You sell the information on where to get hold of this superb product. And you sell these details for just one penny.
Whenever someone "buys" your information, you send them an email saying thank you for your purchase. You then explain they don't really need to send you a penny, and here is the link to the fantastic product in which they've expressed an interest. Of course, the link is YOUR affiliate link.
By the way, in your auction description page please think of a new angle for the product. You'll find almost everybody who is an affiliate for any popular product will be using the suggested sales material supplied by the product owner.
This means that you just appear to be one of many, and the standard sales pitch will be littering the internet. Your interested purchaser has probably seen some of these already. Why should they take notice of your one penny auction for the same product? Lace your auction description with personal and credible information about the product, and you will get some of those prospective buyers to go with you. Incidentally, you could find that your one penny auctions are removed by eBay.
After all, a one penny auction doesn't bring eBay very much by way of listing or final value fee. If this happens to you, you could try system 2 below, and you can also place your one penny auction on other auction sites such as Yahoo, Amazon, QXL etc
2. The Not as Simple System With this system, you need to do a little research before you launch your eBay auction for your affiliate product.
The objective here is to create a package of items which are related to your affiliate products, and which you auction at 0.99 cents or pence.
First off, you need to create a 2 or 3 page report about your affiliate product. Ideally this should be based on your personal experience with the product.
Failing that, it should be written in your own personal style. The key point is that it must include your affiliate link to the product.
The next step is to find other items for your "package", you do this by using Google search to locate related free products. Let's suppose you're an affiliate for an ebook which teaches how to paint and draw figures. On Google you would search for something like "figure drawing" free.
It took me under 10 minutes to locate the following freebies: Photographing Your Artwork (free ebook) 3D Figure Drawing Studio software (free trial) How to Sell Your Art (free newsletter) And there are many more you could unearth given a little more research time.
Be a little careful in your selection - you don't want to give away something which will compete with your affiliate ebook. Having found your items, what you now do is bundle them up and add them to your 2/3 page report.
You then create an auction which offers the whole package for 99 cents or pence. There's no way eBay can possibly object to this auction. As you can see, all it really takes to get your affiliate product in front of eBay's massive market place is a little creativity.
Thats it, good luck.............................................Ricky
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
E-Bay , Making money
Make Money Tearing Up Old Books and Magazines and Selling Them on eBay.
For the past few years I've been tearing up old books and magazines, and selling them on eBay. Other people's "rubbish" is earning me $20 a time - sometimes a great deal more - every single day!
It's an easy business and items other people throw away can attract fierce bidding and incredible profits for me and other lucky sellers. We're selling prints and advertisements, crochet and woodworking patterns, recipe books and other niche market publications, alongside hundreds more totally different items, all taken from books, magazines and newspapers that are available in profusion and cost very little.
Let's start with old prints, they're incredibly good sellers, especially popular themes like: animals, sports (especially golf and horse racing), royalty, music hall artists, topographical (named locations) and children. Very early magazines contained lots of prints, the best being Illustrated London News, The Graphic, Sketch, Sphere, and all you do is remove prints carefully, trim the rough edges, package to protect and make them more attractive, then list them on eBay.
These tips will help you get started in this hugely profitable business:
Tip 1. Frame your prints for extra add-on value. Look for old (antique and modern) picture frames at boot and garage sales, flea markets and collectors' fairs, and make a point of visiting auctions where boxes of frames can be bought at a pittance.
Tip 2. Have black and white prints and engravings hand colored and mounted or framed to increase the value of even the most common and cheapest print.
Tip 3. Give a Certificate of Authenticity. This is simply a sheet of paper, with or without decorative border, which testifies that the print is original and taken from a specific source published on a particular date. The certificate is always taped lightly to the back of the print in the mount so that it cannot be removed and added to another print obtained elsewhere.
Tip 4. Make your listing for the print descriptive and include details that are likely to attract bidders and be sure to include words they might use to find products like yours.
Tip 5. Make sure your listings include age, theme, date and source of your prints.
Tip 6. If your original book is special, say a first edition, or a limited edition, say so in your listing. To people viewing your listings it might make the difference between a sale and giving your product the miss.
Tip 7. Take great care removing prints from publications. We tend to open the book midway and fold it back on itself, making it very easy to break or weaken the spine and therefore loosen the pages.
Tip 8. A great place to get quality mounts very inexpensively is on eBay itself. Go to the search facility, request a search for items locally (so many available it isn't worth looking long distance), and use keywords like: "mounts", "photo mounts", and wait for a nice selection of suppliers to appear, some selling items by auction, others offering "Buy It Now".
Tip 9. When you find a good supplier stick to that person and even buy their items outside of eBay without breaking eBay's rules of course. There's more to it than just prints, you have the pick of dozens of different products to sell, all from old books and magazines, and just a few minutes easy work. Did I say "work", this isn't work, this is exciting stuff!
More to come...................................Ricky
For the past few years I've been tearing up old books and magazines, and selling them on eBay. Other people's "rubbish" is earning me $20 a time - sometimes a great deal more - every single day!
It's an easy business and items other people throw away can attract fierce bidding and incredible profits for me and other lucky sellers. We're selling prints and advertisements, crochet and woodworking patterns, recipe books and other niche market publications, alongside hundreds more totally different items, all taken from books, magazines and newspapers that are available in profusion and cost very little.
Let's start with old prints, they're incredibly good sellers, especially popular themes like: animals, sports (especially golf and horse racing), royalty, music hall artists, topographical (named locations) and children. Very early magazines contained lots of prints, the best being Illustrated London News, The Graphic, Sketch, Sphere, and all you do is remove prints carefully, trim the rough edges, package to protect and make them more attractive, then list them on eBay.
These tips will help you get started in this hugely profitable business:
Tip 1. Frame your prints for extra add-on value. Look for old (antique and modern) picture frames at boot and garage sales, flea markets and collectors' fairs, and make a point of visiting auctions where boxes of frames can be bought at a pittance.
Tip 2. Have black and white prints and engravings hand colored and mounted or framed to increase the value of even the most common and cheapest print.
Tip 3. Give a Certificate of Authenticity. This is simply a sheet of paper, with or without decorative border, which testifies that the print is original and taken from a specific source published on a particular date. The certificate is always taped lightly to the back of the print in the mount so that it cannot be removed and added to another print obtained elsewhere.
Tip 4. Make your listing for the print descriptive and include details that are likely to attract bidders and be sure to include words they might use to find products like yours.
Tip 5. Make sure your listings include age, theme, date and source of your prints.
Tip 6. If your original book is special, say a first edition, or a limited edition, say so in your listing. To people viewing your listings it might make the difference between a sale and giving your product the miss.
Tip 7. Take great care removing prints from publications. We tend to open the book midway and fold it back on itself, making it very easy to break or weaken the spine and therefore loosen the pages.
Tip 8. A great place to get quality mounts very inexpensively is on eBay itself. Go to the search facility, request a search for items locally (so many available it isn't worth looking long distance), and use keywords like: "mounts", "photo mounts", and wait for a nice selection of suppliers to appear, some selling items by auction, others offering "Buy It Now".
Tip 9. When you find a good supplier stick to that person and even buy their items outside of eBay without breaking eBay's rules of course. There's more to it than just prints, you have the pick of dozens of different products to sell, all from old books and magazines, and just a few minutes easy work. Did I say "work", this isn't work, this is exciting stuff!
More to come...................................Ricky
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Working From Home, Yes !!!!
Let face it, people who trudge to work every day probably do not need many reasons to quit their job. Many people who hate what they do on adaily basis would likely give it all up in a minute if they thought they could. Why, then, do they continue to run the same hamster wheel of unhappiness in a dead end job? Most people do not realize there is an alternative. There are 12 really good reasons why anyone could work from home. Most people just need to make the biggest decision of their life.
Reason #1. It's all for the money.
money is a pretty obvious reason for starting a 'Home Based Business' because Why would you otherwise start a business if you weren't planning on making any money.
Reason #2. Be your own boss.
Starting a 'Home Based Business' is a step in the right
direction and the best part is, you'll never have to answer to anyone else's orders, just your own.
Reason #3. There is ample opportunity to provide for a family by working from home. The Internet revolution has created a new marketplace, ripe for new businesses looking to launch. This revolution has started a trend, and many people have found it easy to ride the coattails of the trend to financial success and freedom.
Reason #4. You can physically be in the place your heart has been at all day long. You can spend time with your family. You can witness first steps,soccer games, ballet practices, and art projects. You don't have to regret the things you miss if you work from home, because your office is where the action is. You choose when you need to work and when your family needs to take precedence. Only for those who work at home is such freedom a reality.
Reason #5. You set your own rules. You create the goals and quota. You can do something different everyday if doing something different brings you greaterjob satisfaction. You fill every role in your own company, and wear many different hats.
Reason #6. Work when you want to.
you get to set your own schedule for what hours You want to work.
you get to set your own hours for when you want to work your business. You can work when you are most energetic, whether that's 10 am or 10 pm. You can take off to run errands or go see your kid's school play. It becomes about your productivity, not about your "face-time" in the office.
Reason #7. No more worrying about job security.
You never have to worry about receiving a pink slip from your boss or a "sorry", but the company has to cut back on its employee's and You happen to be one of the one's who has to go.
Reason #8. It doesn't interfere with your rent "j.o.b.".
You don't have to quit your current j.o.b. in order to get started. You can start on a part-time basis until your able to replace your current income with the income you generate from your business.
Reason #9. It will make you a more confident person.
It takes alot of confidence to start something you have no idea what the outcome might be and the risks involved, whether there financial or personal.
Reason #10. It builds a sense of pride.
Wouldn't it be great to be able to tell your friends and family or just somebody you meet that you're an entrepreneur and you run and operate your own successful 'Home Based Business'.
Pride also works as a motivator because the more successful you get the harder you'll want to work in order to achieve the goals you have set for your business.
Reason #11. Wouldn't it be great to retire early.
If your business turns out to be a SUCCESS and you invest and put your money to work for you, wouldn't it be great to retire early and do the things you've always dreamed of doing, but never had the time or money to do so.
Reason #12. You get great Tax benefits.
You heard right, you get Tax benefits with running your own 'Home Based Business' because now you're entitled to home business tax deductions.
Just a few reasons you might want this life style....................Ricky
Reason #1. It's all for the money.
money is a pretty obvious reason for starting a 'Home Based Business' because Why would you otherwise start a business if you weren't planning on making any money.
Reason #2. Be your own boss.
Starting a 'Home Based Business' is a step in the right
direction and the best part is, you'll never have to answer to anyone else's orders, just your own.
Reason #3. There is ample opportunity to provide for a family by working from home. The Internet revolution has created a new marketplace, ripe for new businesses looking to launch. This revolution has started a trend, and many people have found it easy to ride the coattails of the trend to financial success and freedom.
Reason #4. You can physically be in the place your heart has been at all day long. You can spend time with your family. You can witness first steps,soccer games, ballet practices, and art projects. You don't have to regret the things you miss if you work from home, because your office is where the action is. You choose when you need to work and when your family needs to take precedence. Only for those who work at home is such freedom a reality.
Reason #5. You set your own rules. You create the goals and quota. You can do something different everyday if doing something different brings you greaterjob satisfaction. You fill every role in your own company, and wear many different hats.
Reason #6. Work when you want to.
you get to set your own schedule for what hours You want to work.
you get to set your own hours for when you want to work your business. You can work when you are most energetic, whether that's 10 am or 10 pm. You can take off to run errands or go see your kid's school play. It becomes about your productivity, not about your "face-time" in the office.
Reason #7. No more worrying about job security.
You never have to worry about receiving a pink slip from your boss or a "sorry", but the company has to cut back on its employee's and You happen to be one of the one's who has to go.
Reason #8. It doesn't interfere with your rent "j.o.b.".
You don't have to quit your current j.o.b. in order to get started. You can start on a part-time basis until your able to replace your current income with the income you generate from your business.
Reason #9. It will make you a more confident person.
It takes alot of confidence to start something you have no idea what the outcome might be and the risks involved, whether there financial or personal.
Reason #10. It builds a sense of pride.
Wouldn't it be great to be able to tell your friends and family or just somebody you meet that you're an entrepreneur and you run and operate your own successful 'Home Based Business'.
Pride also works as a motivator because the more successful you get the harder you'll want to work in order to achieve the goals you have set for your business.
Reason #11. Wouldn't it be great to retire early.
If your business turns out to be a SUCCESS and you invest and put your money to work for you, wouldn't it be great to retire early and do the things you've always dreamed of doing, but never had the time or money to do so.
Reason #12. You get great Tax benefits.
You heard right, you get Tax benefits with running your own 'Home Based Business' because now you're entitled to home business tax deductions.
Just a few reasons you might want this life style....................Ricky
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Domain Names ??
Need Domain Name Ideas?
You've launched several sites, and coming up with a good domain name is always difficult.
It seems all of the good ones are taken.
There are two basic strategies that people use.
Come up with a new domain name that isn't already registered.
Go after a domain name that was previously owned. (This is always the more expensive option because you are either buying a premium domain name, or buying an expired domain name on auction.) Right now, we're going to focus on the first method and try to come up with a new domain name that isn't already registered. This is the cheapest option, but it involves trial and error.
There are a lot of free online tools out there that can help suggest good domain name ideas. Some of these tools are run by the registrars (i.e. GoDaddy, NetWork Solutions, etc) and some of these tools are run by independent websites (i.e. MakeWords.com).
But they're all free. Basically, you type in the domain name you want. The online tool will tell you if the domain name is available, or it will suggest a list of other domain names that you might be interested in. They come up with the list by adding words before (prefix) or after (suffix) your search term.
For example, google.com is taken, but hotgooglestore.com is not. Some of the better domain name idea tools will use a thesaurus to come up with similar but different words. Although we probably wouldn't buy a domain name from Yahoo, we did like their domain name tool.
For example, redcafe.com is taken, but RedDiner.com is not.
MakeWords.com is a neat tool because they have an advanced keyword tool search that lets you choose different themes of words to try before or after your search term.
So, for example, their "action" theme tries different combinations of your search term and words like jump, shout, cut, etc.
Their colors theme adds words like red, blue, yellow... You get the idea. The best part of MakeWords is that you can create your own list of words to add to your search term. Just click on "list of affixes" at the bottom of the webpage and enter in a custom list of words that you like. The website will spit out a bunch of domain name ideas with your custom words added before and after your search term.
The worst part of MakeWords is that sometimes it'll tell you a domain name is available, but when you go to a registrar and try to buy it, it turns out that it's not available after all. Because this tool wasn't always reliable, we tended to stick with domain name generators run by the registrars.
How These Sites Make Money:
Domain Name Suggestion sites are free because they make their money when you decide to register a domain name with them.
Chances are, if you used GoDaddy's domain name tool, then when you find your dream domain name, you'll just buy it from them.
If you used MakeWords.com, you can choose which registrar company that you want to buy from, and they'll send you there with the click of a link. (If you buy from that company, then MakeWords.com will make a commission from the sale.)
Bottom Line: Use any site that you like to come up with domain name ideas. But, when you're ready to buy, choose the registrar that offers the best domain name package and price, not the registrar that has the best domain name suggestions. Why? Because with domain names, the price ranges from $1.99 to $34.99 per year. And, not all registrars offer the same quality of service.
What's worse is there are no refunds on domain names. Once you pay, the money is gone. So, buyer beware.
Have fun with it ...............................................Ricky
You've launched several sites, and coming up with a good domain name is always difficult.
It seems all of the good ones are taken.
There are two basic strategies that people use.
Come up with a new domain name that isn't already registered.
Go after a domain name that was previously owned. (This is always the more expensive option because you are either buying a premium domain name, or buying an expired domain name on auction.) Right now, we're going to focus on the first method and try to come up with a new domain name that isn't already registered. This is the cheapest option, but it involves trial and error.
There are a lot of free online tools out there that can help suggest good domain name ideas. Some of these tools are run by the registrars (i.e. GoDaddy, NetWork Solutions, etc) and some of these tools are run by independent websites (i.e. MakeWords.com).
But they're all free. Basically, you type in the domain name you want. The online tool will tell you if the domain name is available, or it will suggest a list of other domain names that you might be interested in. They come up with the list by adding words before (prefix) or after (suffix) your search term.
For example, google.com is taken, but hotgooglestore.com is not. Some of the better domain name idea tools will use a thesaurus to come up with similar but different words. Although we probably wouldn't buy a domain name from Yahoo, we did like their domain name tool.
For example, redcafe.com is taken, but RedDiner.com is not.
MakeWords.com is a neat tool because they have an advanced keyword tool search that lets you choose different themes of words to try before or after your search term.
So, for example, their "action" theme tries different combinations of your search term and words like jump, shout, cut, etc.
Their colors theme adds words like red, blue, yellow... You get the idea. The best part of MakeWords is that you can create your own list of words to add to your search term. Just click on "list of affixes" at the bottom of the webpage and enter in a custom list of words that you like. The website will spit out a bunch of domain name ideas with your custom words added before and after your search term.
The worst part of MakeWords is that sometimes it'll tell you a domain name is available, but when you go to a registrar and try to buy it, it turns out that it's not available after all. Because this tool wasn't always reliable, we tended to stick with domain name generators run by the registrars.
How These Sites Make Money:
Domain Name Suggestion sites are free because they make their money when you decide to register a domain name with them.
Chances are, if you used GoDaddy's domain name tool, then when you find your dream domain name, you'll just buy it from them.
If you used MakeWords.com, you can choose which registrar company that you want to buy from, and they'll send you there with the click of a link. (If you buy from that company, then MakeWords.com will make a commission from the sale.)
Bottom Line: Use any site that you like to come up with domain name ideas. But, when you're ready to buy, choose the registrar that offers the best domain name package and price, not the registrar that has the best domain name suggestions. Why? Because with domain names, the price ranges from $1.99 to $34.99 per year. And, not all registrars offer the same quality of service.
What's worse is there are no refunds on domain names. Once you pay, the money is gone. So, buyer beware.
Have fun with it ...............................................Ricky
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Blogging For Beginners..
A Blogging Guide For Beginners
A blog is basically an online journal wherein you can digitally pen down your thoughts, ideas, opinions and practically anything that you want people to read.
Blogs come in different styles, formats, and settings, depending on the preference of the user.
Many blogging sites, offer built in features such as hyperlink, straight texts, pictures etc. Some blogging sites, even allow you to put video and mp3's on your blogs.
Instead of writing texts, some bloggers choose to make their blogs more audio friendly, by using spoken word entries. This is called audio blogging.
Basically a blog contains these features:
a) Title; which allows you to label your post
b) Body- is is the content of your post
c) Trackback - other sites can be linked back to your blog
d) Permanent link - every article that you write has a URL
e) Comments- this allow readers to post comments on your blog.
One of the advantages of blogging, is that it is made of only a few templates. Unlike, other websites that is made up of numerous individual pages. This make it easier for blog users to create new pages, because it already has a fix setting that include: slots for title, body of the post, category, etc.
This is especially useful for first time users, since they can start blogging right away. They can chose from a number of templates that blogging websites provide. Anyone who wants to start a blog can do so by becoming a member of a blogging website of their choice.
Once they've become members, they automatically become a part of that particular blogging community. They can browse through other bloggers pages, and link them back to their own blogs. They can also make comments on other members' blogs.
Blogging is not just limited to personal usage.
There are a lot of blogs that follow a theme such as: sports, politics, philosophy, social commentary, etc. These blogs espouse on their specific themes. This way blogging becomes a medium in which people can share their knowledge and opinions about a variety of themes and topics.
Some bloggers even use their blogs as a means to advertise. Some authors advertise their books on their blogs. While other bloggers, use their blogs to shed light to currents issues, events, news and catastrophes. Nowadays in education, blogs also play an important part.
Professors use blogging to document the lessons that they have discussed and taught. This way, students who who have missed classes, can easily catch up with their assignments.
A lot of entrepreneurs benefit from blogging by promoting their businesses on their blogs, with millions and millions of people logging onto the net everyday, blogging has become a lucrative move. Some bloggers who run online businesses promote their merchandise online.
While others profit through advertisement. But by far, the most popular blog type is the one that takes the form of a personal journal. This is the kind that is usually used by first time bloggers.
Individuals who want to document the daily struggle of their everyday lives, poems, rants, opinions, find that blogging offers them a medium in which to express themselves.
Bloggers usually communicate within themselves. This is one of the appeals of blogging.
It creates a community of people sharing their ideas, thoughts, and comments with each other.
Blogs varying in topics, themes, and set-ups, can be found in blog directories. First time users who want to get an idea of what the blogging world is all about can browse through a number of blogs using these directories.
This way they'd get an idea of what these blogging communities are like.
Blogging is popular all over the world. Blog is short for the term weblog. There are no rules when it comes to blogging. Bloggers have the freedom to express themselves how ever way they want, and the best thing about blogging, is that most blogging sites are free.
There are numerous blogging websites to choose from in the net. This give first time users the option of joining a blogging community that appeals to their interests.
A blog is basically an online journal wherein you can digitally pen down your thoughts, ideas, opinions and practically anything that you want people to read.
Blogs come in different styles, formats, and settings, depending on the preference of the user.
Many blogging sites, offer built in features such as hyperlink, straight texts, pictures etc. Some blogging sites, even allow you to put video and mp3's on your blogs.
Instead of writing texts, some bloggers choose to make their blogs more audio friendly, by using spoken word entries. This is called audio blogging.
Basically a blog contains these features:
a) Title; which allows you to label your post
b) Body- is is the content of your post
c) Trackback - other sites can be linked back to your blog
d) Permanent link - every article that you write has a URL
e) Comments- this allow readers to post comments on your blog.
One of the advantages of blogging, is that it is made of only a few templates. Unlike, other websites that is made up of numerous individual pages. This make it easier for blog users to create new pages, because it already has a fix setting that include: slots for title, body of the post, category, etc.
This is especially useful for first time users, since they can start blogging right away. They can chose from a number of templates that blogging websites provide. Anyone who wants to start a blog can do so by becoming a member of a blogging website of their choice.
Once they've become members, they automatically become a part of that particular blogging community. They can browse through other bloggers pages, and link them back to their own blogs. They can also make comments on other members' blogs.
Blogging is not just limited to personal usage.
There are a lot of blogs that follow a theme such as: sports, politics, philosophy, social commentary, etc. These blogs espouse on their specific themes. This way blogging becomes a medium in which people can share their knowledge and opinions about a variety of themes and topics.
Some bloggers even use their blogs as a means to advertise. Some authors advertise their books on their blogs. While other bloggers, use their blogs to shed light to currents issues, events, news and catastrophes. Nowadays in education, blogs also play an important part.
Professors use blogging to document the lessons that they have discussed and taught. This way, students who who have missed classes, can easily catch up with their assignments.
A lot of entrepreneurs benefit from blogging by promoting their businesses on their blogs, with millions and millions of people logging onto the net everyday, blogging has become a lucrative move. Some bloggers who run online businesses promote their merchandise online.
While others profit through advertisement. But by far, the most popular blog type is the one that takes the form of a personal journal. This is the kind that is usually used by first time bloggers.
Individuals who want to document the daily struggle of their everyday lives, poems, rants, opinions, find that blogging offers them a medium in which to express themselves.
Bloggers usually communicate within themselves. This is one of the appeals of blogging.
It creates a community of people sharing their ideas, thoughts, and comments with each other.
Blogs varying in topics, themes, and set-ups, can be found in blog directories. First time users who want to get an idea of what the blogging world is all about can browse through a number of blogs using these directories.
This way they'd get an idea of what these blogging communities are like.
Blogging is popular all over the world. Blog is short for the term weblog. There are no rules when it comes to blogging. Bloggers have the freedom to express themselves how ever way they want, and the best thing about blogging, is that most blogging sites are free.
There are numerous blogging websites to choose from in the net. This give first time users the option of joining a blogging community that appeals to their interests.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Automating Parts of your Business
First of all, what is automating a business? Simply put, it’s having today’s technology do the tedious and time consuming tasks that you currently have to do manually. This in turns frees up time that you can work on other business building aspects or spend it with loved ones.
Today’s technology gives you a multitude of programs to smooth your way to owning a highly successful business. Using automation programs are a necessity for every business. It can give you back hundreds of hours a year for the more important things in life. It’s like having a personal assistant at your fingertips 24/7.
Why do some businesses struggle year after year and others seem to take off like a rocket right from the start? Well, if you were able to see “behind the scenes” of those highly successful businesses, you would find that one of their secrets to their success is using technology to automate as much of their business as possible so that they can continue to grow their business in other areas.
Automating Your Business Will:
Increase traffic to your site or store - Did you know there are ways to automatically send your articles and messages to all forums that you are a member of? Automating your submissions increases your link exposure, which will build your search engine rankings and traffic to your site. Learn more about this at Forum Fortunes
Streamline your website administration - One of the most time consuming tasks is replying to individual emails. By automating your email program to respond to every inquiry immediately, create mailing lists for your newsletters and sending out your Ezine, you will save countless hours that you can use for other business growing projects. Learn more about this at AWeber
Improve customer satisfaction and make your life a lot less stressful - Offering a good shopping cart to keep track of items your visitors choose to purchase from your site until they are ready to “check out” will assure that your customers are getting exactly what they want. Many shopping carts come with special features to calculate discounts and coupons as well as offer secure payment transactions instantly. Learn more about this at Store Front Ecommerce
Increase profits - Again, by building traffic and improving customer satisfaction, your sales will increase and you will see more repeat customers.
Protect your computer and your business - By filtering and deleting all spam and dealing with suspicious email before it reaches your in-box, you can prevent viruses and other malicious content from being downloaded to your computer which will save you time and money. Read more about this at Mail Washer Pro
Allow you to run your business from virtually anywhere - Wouldn’t it be nice to take that much needed vacation yet still be able to run your business? If you are like many business owners, it seems that every time you go out of town for an extended weekend or vacation, your business has some sort of meltdown.
Though most times they are minor problems that can be fixed fairly quickly once you get home, they still cost you time and quite possible customers, both of which equal money. By automating much of your business, you will decrease the amount of problems while allowing you to fix any others even if you are in Cancun or Paris! Now that has to give you some peace of mind.
With all of these benefits, why wait another minute to find out how you can start to improve your business and gain much needed time?
More tips and tricks.........................................Ricky
Today’s technology gives you a multitude of programs to smooth your way to owning a highly successful business. Using automation programs are a necessity for every business. It can give you back hundreds of hours a year for the more important things in life. It’s like having a personal assistant at your fingertips 24/7.
Why do some businesses struggle year after year and others seem to take off like a rocket right from the start? Well, if you were able to see “behind the scenes” of those highly successful businesses, you would find that one of their secrets to their success is using technology to automate as much of their business as possible so that they can continue to grow their business in other areas.
Automating Your Business Will:
Increase traffic to your site or store - Did you know there are ways to automatically send your articles and messages to all forums that you are a member of? Automating your submissions increases your link exposure, which will build your search engine rankings and traffic to your site. Learn more about this at Forum Fortunes
Streamline your website administration - One of the most time consuming tasks is replying to individual emails. By automating your email program to respond to every inquiry immediately, create mailing lists for your newsletters and sending out your Ezine, you will save countless hours that you can use for other business growing projects. Learn more about this at AWeber
Improve customer satisfaction and make your life a lot less stressful - Offering a good shopping cart to keep track of items your visitors choose to purchase from your site until they are ready to “check out” will assure that your customers are getting exactly what they want. Many shopping carts come with special features to calculate discounts and coupons as well as offer secure payment transactions instantly. Learn more about this at Store Front Ecommerce
Increase profits - Again, by building traffic and improving customer satisfaction, your sales will increase and you will see more repeat customers.
Protect your computer and your business - By filtering and deleting all spam and dealing with suspicious email before it reaches your in-box, you can prevent viruses and other malicious content from being downloaded to your computer which will save you time and money. Read more about this at Mail Washer Pro
Allow you to run your business from virtually anywhere - Wouldn’t it be nice to take that much needed vacation yet still be able to run your business? If you are like many business owners, it seems that every time you go out of town for an extended weekend or vacation, your business has some sort of meltdown.
Though most times they are minor problems that can be fixed fairly quickly once you get home, they still cost you time and quite possible customers, both of which equal money. By automating much of your business, you will decrease the amount of problems while allowing you to fix any others even if you are in Cancun or Paris! Now that has to give you some peace of mind.
With all of these benefits, why wait another minute to find out how you can start to improve your business and gain much needed time?
More tips and tricks.........................................Ricky
Friday, February 13, 2009
Article Writing- Generate Traffic
Generate Massive Traffic from Writing Articles
Articles are needed in the internet, either for research, general knowledge, even for entertainment, and there is no end to the demands for articles on the net. So why not take advantage of authoring articles to promote traffic to your web site?
First thing you may ask, is how can articles promote massive traffic to your web site? Easy, there are three ways that an article can do that for you and here they are:
1: You utilize the popularity of other web sites.
Most of the time when people browse through other web sites, they will find your articles title and headings, and once they click to it, they will find themselves in your web site. If your article isn�t a link back to your web site, the about the author part of your article should be enough to promote your web site to the reader
2 : You utilize the traffic of article banks
Article banks are a good source of information on the web, they�re easy to use and they are free. When you pass your article to be published on an article bank, you get the free exposure just like what you get when you post your article on popular sites.
3 : Traffic from search engines
Search engines search text and not graphics, when your article tackles or contains the keywords that readers are looking for, chances are you'll be found by a search engine. And when they do read your article, they will see your web address, and there would be a chance that they would be interested enough or curious enough to see your site, especially if the topic of your article is related to the overall theme of your web site.
Submitting the Articles
So where do you submit your articles? Well article banks are web sites that provide articles that can be used on any other web sites. By submitting your articles on an article bank there is a chance that it may get distributed and used on other sites, blog or newsletter. Just don't forget to keep your web address within your article.
The good thing about submitting your article on article banks or any other site for use, is that it creates a permanent source of traffic for you. As long as the article banks and the web sites use your articles, you are getting free exposure and thus traffic for your web site.
Writing your Article
Now that you know the benefits of writing an article and how it can be used to boost traffic to your web site, all you need to know is how to write articles.
You don't have to be a writer to write articles. The good thing about the internet is that most people that use it have short attention spans. You don't have to write long windy statements with deep flowery words to get a reader interested in what you have to say.
Writing for the internet only needs short burst of ideas in short sentences and short paragraphs. Make sure that each paragraph contains only 2 -3 sentences and use common words.
Tips, or how-to's are easier to write than an opinion article. Most of the time if you're writing something, it'll be themed with your site and what better thing to write about than tips about your products, you can even write about some new ideas that you've thought of and share them with the readers.. When you do write an article, make sure that they can trace it back to you, either by a web address that you plugged into the article or by the theme that your article uses. It's best to theme your article into something that is related to your website.
If you can, write from personal experience. Most people sympathize and relate more to something that they know has been experienced by another person, than if they think they're reading an echo of someone else's experience.
Thanks for reading...........................................Ricky
Articles are needed in the internet, either for research, general knowledge, even for entertainment, and there is no end to the demands for articles on the net. So why not take advantage of authoring articles to promote traffic to your web site?
First thing you may ask, is how can articles promote massive traffic to your web site? Easy, there are three ways that an article can do that for you and here they are:
1: You utilize the popularity of other web sites.
Most of the time when people browse through other web sites, they will find your articles title and headings, and once they click to it, they will find themselves in your web site. If your article isn�t a link back to your web site, the about the author part of your article should be enough to promote your web site to the reader
2 : You utilize the traffic of article banks
Article banks are a good source of information on the web, they�re easy to use and they are free. When you pass your article to be published on an article bank, you get the free exposure just like what you get when you post your article on popular sites.
3 : Traffic from search engines
Search engines search text and not graphics, when your article tackles or contains the keywords that readers are looking for, chances are you'll be found by a search engine. And when they do read your article, they will see your web address, and there would be a chance that they would be interested enough or curious enough to see your site, especially if the topic of your article is related to the overall theme of your web site.
Submitting the Articles
So where do you submit your articles? Well article banks are web sites that provide articles that can be used on any other web sites. By submitting your articles on an article bank there is a chance that it may get distributed and used on other sites, blog or newsletter. Just don't forget to keep your web address within your article.
The good thing about submitting your article on article banks or any other site for use, is that it creates a permanent source of traffic for you. As long as the article banks and the web sites use your articles, you are getting free exposure and thus traffic for your web site.
Writing your Article
Now that you know the benefits of writing an article and how it can be used to boost traffic to your web site, all you need to know is how to write articles.
You don't have to be a writer to write articles. The good thing about the internet is that most people that use it have short attention spans. You don't have to write long windy statements with deep flowery words to get a reader interested in what you have to say.
Writing for the internet only needs short burst of ideas in short sentences and short paragraphs. Make sure that each paragraph contains only 2 -3 sentences and use common words.
Tips, or how-to's are easier to write than an opinion article. Most of the time if you're writing something, it'll be themed with your site and what better thing to write about than tips about your products, you can even write about some new ideas that you've thought of and share them with the readers.. When you do write an article, make sure that they can trace it back to you, either by a web address that you plugged into the article or by the theme that your article uses. It's best to theme your article into something that is related to your website.
If you can, write from personal experience. Most people sympathize and relate more to something that they know has been experienced by another person, than if they think they're reading an echo of someone else's experience.
Thanks for reading...........................................Ricky
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Article Marketing - Tips
Article Marketing is one of the best ways to generate traffic to a website.
However, the most difficult part is coming up with a topic for an article on a regular basis. That's where most people stop and don't get things done. Whether you're writing the articles yourself or hiring a ghostwriter to do it for you, you must know what topics you're going to write about.
Here's how you can overcome the "writer's block". The secret is to read information on various sources and keep a note of any ideas you have for writing an article. There are thousands of resources on the internet which you can read on your niche.
To find existing content, you can visit several ezine directories which are well respected.
EzineArticles and GoArticles for instance have quality articles which you can read on. Technorati is also an excellent resource for getting ideas and learning about your niche. It has the latest updates of blogs which you can search for within your market.
Read through many of the article titles and choose the ones you like. Then think of the titles for your own articles and write them down using the notepad program in Windows.
If you spend an hour or two doing this exercise, you'll have over 50 topics to write about by looking through the article title and the ideas you have written for each title.
As well as looking through these free resources, you can also get ideas elsewhere which tell you they are "in-demand" and that people want to know more about.
Writing about what people want to know about is the smartest thing you can do.
1. Amazon.com
Go to Amazon.com and to the Books section. Search for your keywords and you will see a list of books that are ranked in order of popularity. Read the descriptions of the books and find out why they're popular. People buy the books for a reason. Concentrate on writing articles for topics that are "hot".
2. Clickbank.com
Go to Clickbank and visit the MarketPlace section.
http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace
Go to the category which your niche is related to and look at the top products which are selling well. Again, these are products which are "in-demand" and people are interested in the information.
Go to the sales page of these products and get ideas from them. Look at the bullet points and the features/benefits of their products and write about each one of them.
3. Forums.
Go to forums which are related to your niche and look for threads which have lots of recent replies to them. Find out and see if the post is about a certain topic in your niche which the community wants to know more about. Using this system, you'll never have a shortage of what to write about.
If there's something new with your niche that you don't know about then read up on it and write an article in your own words on the new thing which you've learned.
Now go through the list you've written on your notepad one by one and start writing your articles.
However, the most difficult part is coming up with a topic for an article on a regular basis. That's where most people stop and don't get things done. Whether you're writing the articles yourself or hiring a ghostwriter to do it for you, you must know what topics you're going to write about.
Here's how you can overcome the "writer's block". The secret is to read information on various sources and keep a note of any ideas you have for writing an article. There are thousands of resources on the internet which you can read on your niche.
To find existing content, you can visit several ezine directories which are well respected.
EzineArticles and GoArticles for instance have quality articles which you can read on. Technorati is also an excellent resource for getting ideas and learning about your niche. It has the latest updates of blogs which you can search for within your market.
Read through many of the article titles and choose the ones you like. Then think of the titles for your own articles and write them down using the notepad program in Windows.
If you spend an hour or two doing this exercise, you'll have over 50 topics to write about by looking through the article title and the ideas you have written for each title.
As well as looking through these free resources, you can also get ideas elsewhere which tell you they are "in-demand" and that people want to know more about.
Writing about what people want to know about is the smartest thing you can do.
1. Amazon.com
Go to Amazon.com and to the Books section. Search for your keywords and you will see a list of books that are ranked in order of popularity. Read the descriptions of the books and find out why they're popular. People buy the books for a reason. Concentrate on writing articles for topics that are "hot".
2. Clickbank.com
Go to Clickbank and visit the MarketPlace section.
http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace
Go to the category which your niche is related to and look at the top products which are selling well. Again, these are products which are "in-demand" and people are interested in the information.
Go to the sales page of these products and get ideas from them. Look at the bullet points and the features/benefits of their products and write about each one of them.
3. Forums.
Go to forums which are related to your niche and look for threads which have lots of recent replies to them. Find out and see if the post is about a certain topic in your niche which the community wants to know more about. Using this system, you'll never have a shortage of what to write about.
If there's something new with your niche that you don't know about then read up on it and write an article in your own words on the new thing which you've learned.
Now go through the list you've written on your notepad one by one and start writing your articles.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
E-Bay Seller Tips
The World Wide Web is made up of anonymous channels. We do not get to see the voice or hear the voice of the people we deal with. More so, we will not be able to verify for certain the truth of their claims nor the credibility of their reputation.
This does have some negative effects for online businessmen. Consumer confidence is expected to be low, especially with people whom you would be transacting with for the first time. The challenge presented to many online entrepreneurs is how to build trust between them and their customers. How could they ensure their prospects that their words are sincere and their offers are real?
Here are some specific steps you could take to garner a great position to win your consumer's trust.
1. Verify your PayPal account. By verifying your PayPal account, you'd be attaching a real identity to the same. People will have more confidence in dealing with you, knowing that they'll be dealing with a real person, with a real name and a real address, and with real resources to back him up in possible ramifications concerning any transaction.
2. Encourage past customers to leave a feedback in your account. Your future customers will make it a point to check out your feedback score to see how credible and reputable a seller you are based on how you have dealt with other people in the past.
3. Sign up with the Better Business Bureau at www.bbbonline.com . The Better Business Bureau is a repository of positive feedbacks, negative complaints, and dispute resolution steps that businesses undertake in their dealings with their customers. By joining this service, you'd be making your business practices transparent for the entire world to see. People will have more faith in your business once they get the impression that you have nothing to hide.
4. Create a mother website under your own domain name. Be truthful in filling up the personal details that will be asked during your registration. Advertise this URL in your auctions. Some people will want to verify the authenticity of your identity by conducting a WhoIs check on the domain you have registered.
5. Provide your business details. Include your business' actual address as well as your contact number. This will encourage your customers to give you a call and make personal inquiries whenever they are having some reservations in trusting your enterprise.
6. Treat your prospects well. Some of your potential buyers will as a lot of questions. Do not, under any circumstances, ignore them. Answer their queries to the best of your abilities, and try to give in to their demands if possible. Some of your prospects, for example, especially those situated overseas, may ask you to declare their orders as gifts to avoid tariff impositions. If you're amenable with the idea, give your assent with a smile. This will help you build relationships with your customers, and will ensure for your business some repeat orders.
7. Make things convenient for your customers. Enumerate all the terms of your offer upfront. Include everything that the customer has to know about what he is planning to buy. By being transparent from the get go, you'd be able to better reassure your prospect about the sincerity of your offer and the veracity of your claims. Remember, to win consumer confidence, you have to be confident about what you have to offer, first and foremost.
72.6% of auctions fail to generate some bids because they fail to establish consumer confidence. Do not add to a sad statistic. Take the necessary steps to ensure that you'll have the full trust of your customers, and watch your sales rate soar.
Thats all for now.........................................Ricky
This does have some negative effects for online businessmen. Consumer confidence is expected to be low, especially with people whom you would be transacting with for the first time. The challenge presented to many online entrepreneurs is how to build trust between them and their customers. How could they ensure their prospects that their words are sincere and their offers are real?
Here are some specific steps you could take to garner a great position to win your consumer's trust.
1. Verify your PayPal account. By verifying your PayPal account, you'd be attaching a real identity to the same. People will have more confidence in dealing with you, knowing that they'll be dealing with a real person, with a real name and a real address, and with real resources to back him up in possible ramifications concerning any transaction.
2. Encourage past customers to leave a feedback in your account. Your future customers will make it a point to check out your feedback score to see how credible and reputable a seller you are based on how you have dealt with other people in the past.
3. Sign up with the Better Business Bureau at www.bbbonline.com . The Better Business Bureau is a repository of positive feedbacks, negative complaints, and dispute resolution steps that businesses undertake in their dealings with their customers. By joining this service, you'd be making your business practices transparent for the entire world to see. People will have more faith in your business once they get the impression that you have nothing to hide.
4. Create a mother website under your own domain name. Be truthful in filling up the personal details that will be asked during your registration. Advertise this URL in your auctions. Some people will want to verify the authenticity of your identity by conducting a WhoIs check on the domain you have registered.
5. Provide your business details. Include your business' actual address as well as your contact number. This will encourage your customers to give you a call and make personal inquiries whenever they are having some reservations in trusting your enterprise.
6. Treat your prospects well. Some of your potential buyers will as a lot of questions. Do not, under any circumstances, ignore them. Answer their queries to the best of your abilities, and try to give in to their demands if possible. Some of your prospects, for example, especially those situated overseas, may ask you to declare their orders as gifts to avoid tariff impositions. If you're amenable with the idea, give your assent with a smile. This will help you build relationships with your customers, and will ensure for your business some repeat orders.
7. Make things convenient for your customers. Enumerate all the terms of your offer upfront. Include everything that the customer has to know about what he is planning to buy. By being transparent from the get go, you'd be able to better reassure your prospect about the sincerity of your offer and the veracity of your claims. Remember, to win consumer confidence, you have to be confident about what you have to offer, first and foremost.
72.6% of auctions fail to generate some bids because they fail to establish consumer confidence. Do not add to a sad statistic. Take the necessary steps to ensure that you'll have the full trust of your customers, and watch your sales rate soar.
Thats all for now.........................................Ricky
Web Traffic, How To Get More ?
If you have a website, one of the most important things to do is search engine marketing to help get your website known on the big search engines. The higher your website appears on Google, Yahoo, and MSN for your targeted keywords the better. If you're looking to generate some free website traffic it's not difficult to do, you just have to know how to start. Here are 6 search engine marketing tips to help you get where you want to be.
1. Optimize For Your Target Audience
Search engines are looking for pages that suit your audience's needs and answer their questions more than anything. By finding out who your target audience is, you can begin optimizing your keyword use and generating free website traffic the way the search engines want you to.
2. Find The Right Keywords
By doing extensive research to determine the best keywords for your website, you will bring in more free website traffic than planned. You want to use research tools such as Wordtracker, Google adwords, and overture to find out what keywords are best to optimize for your website. After you have compiled a list of the better keywords for your site, then determine what is best for your target audience.
3. Worthy Content
One of the most important search engine marketing tips is to have content that is fresh and rich to interest your visitors. You want to make sure you provide new and intriguing content to your visitor's that includes your target keywords. By doing so you will find that you are getting more of a returning visitor base.
4. Link Trading
In order to get free website traffic you have to trade links with other websites. Depending on the search engines you are looking at, some want quality links that are relevant to your website whereas search engines like Google are looking more for a site that contains a large quantity of links. Do some research to determine what is going to get you more traffic to your website. Either way, the better your website is the more people will want to link to your site without you having to ask.
5. Avoid Lots Of Graphic
If you want to be high on the search engines and begin receiving free website traffic, try to stay away from large banners and flashing animations. That's not to say you shouldn't use a couple here and there, but content is what is going to get you more traffic than anything. Using a large number of graphics just clutters the page without informing your visitors about anything they want to know.
6. Article Writing
Article writing is one of the best search engine marketing tools. By writing articles you can optimize your targeted keywords, inform readers about your website in a few sentences, and give them your link to your website. After writing articles, you can submit them to article directories or place links to your article on blogs and in forums to spread the word.
Six more things that will help ..............................Ricky
1. Optimize For Your Target Audience
Search engines are looking for pages that suit your audience's needs and answer their questions more than anything. By finding out who your target audience is, you can begin optimizing your keyword use and generating free website traffic the way the search engines want you to.
2. Find The Right Keywords
By doing extensive research to determine the best keywords for your website, you will bring in more free website traffic than planned. You want to use research tools such as Wordtracker, Google adwords, and overture to find out what keywords are best to optimize for your website. After you have compiled a list of the better keywords for your site, then determine what is best for your target audience.
3. Worthy Content
One of the most important search engine marketing tips is to have content that is fresh and rich to interest your visitors. You want to make sure you provide new and intriguing content to your visitor's that includes your target keywords. By doing so you will find that you are getting more of a returning visitor base.
4. Link Trading
In order to get free website traffic you have to trade links with other websites. Depending on the search engines you are looking at, some want quality links that are relevant to your website whereas search engines like Google are looking more for a site that contains a large quantity of links. Do some research to determine what is going to get you more traffic to your website. Either way, the better your website is the more people will want to link to your site without you having to ask.
5. Avoid Lots Of Graphic
If you want to be high on the search engines and begin receiving free website traffic, try to stay away from large banners and flashing animations. That's not to say you shouldn't use a couple here and there, but content is what is going to get you more traffic than anything. Using a large number of graphics just clutters the page without informing your visitors about anything they want to know.
6. Article Writing
Article writing is one of the best search engine marketing tools. By writing articles you can optimize your targeted keywords, inform readers about your website in a few sentences, and give them your link to your website. After writing articles, you can submit them to article directories or place links to your article on blogs and in forums to spread the word.
Six more things that will help ..............................Ricky
Friday, February 6, 2009
Grow Your Business With 4 Things
Some internet marketers appear to effortlessly achieve more success than others in their online businesses. Why is that? What unusual strategies and tactics do they use which helps them become very successful in internet marketing?
1) Quality is very important.
Always over-deliver. Offer quality products and services, and your online business will simply grow tremendously. Also offer some high quality gifts to your customers when they order. Also, your products must bring your customers a lot more benefits than the price you sell them for. Customers like getting a good deal - this may be in terms of a low price for the product or some valuable bonuses or gifts after purchase.
2) Show your customers that you really CARE about them.
Although your prospects can bring you some money through their orders, be very honest about them with whatever you are selling. Do not just focus on making a sale - focus on actually helping the person. If the prospect is very interested in what you are offering and ask you for more information, take the time to answer questions they may have as fast as possible. As soon as you start to show your customers that you care, your online business will start growing as more prospects and customers trust you and buy from you. This will boost your online business.
3) Offering some knowledge or service for free.
In spite of what your online business is, it is important that you find an aspect of your business which you can use to offer free knowledge or other services. Success in internet marketing seems to come to those who offer something - be it expertise knowledge or some form of service. You become an expert, you build a lot of trust and good relationship, and you establish your online presence rapidly. The more involved you become in whatever you will be offering, the quicker you build your online presence and business. Think about a way you can offer something - it may be stating a forum, a directory or 'training center' relating to your online business. Be creative!
4) Make a lot of real customer contact on a regular basis.
Your list comprises of real people. With auto responders and other tools that automate online businesses, it is very easy to treat your prospects just like a list and not as individual people you care about it. Your list is your best asset, so it is important that you show it that you care by keeping in touch and also making some good free offers to them. It pays to send some regular 'non-marketing' emails that can also be offering some free tips and ideas. By doing this you build trust - and the prospects will soon be your long term customers for your online business. Your existing customers will bring you repeat business. Setting up and offering a free brainstorming or networking call is also very effective. Again, you create the confidence - your prospects and customers will know there is a person behind the name or the website.
The factors outlined above can help you grow your online business with minimal effort. The more you create a good reputation and become viewed as an expert, the more your online business grows. It is very easy to succeed with your online business. Just apply a little extra effort with your customers and show them that you care
See ya.........................................Ricky
1) Quality is very important.
Always over-deliver. Offer quality products and services, and your online business will simply grow tremendously. Also offer some high quality gifts to your customers when they order. Also, your products must bring your customers a lot more benefits than the price you sell them for. Customers like getting a good deal - this may be in terms of a low price for the product or some valuable bonuses or gifts after purchase.
2) Show your customers that you really CARE about them.
Although your prospects can bring you some money through their orders, be very honest about them with whatever you are selling. Do not just focus on making a sale - focus on actually helping the person. If the prospect is very interested in what you are offering and ask you for more information, take the time to answer questions they may have as fast as possible. As soon as you start to show your customers that you care, your online business will start growing as more prospects and customers trust you and buy from you. This will boost your online business.
3) Offering some knowledge or service for free.
In spite of what your online business is, it is important that you find an aspect of your business which you can use to offer free knowledge or other services. Success in internet marketing seems to come to those who offer something - be it expertise knowledge or some form of service. You become an expert, you build a lot of trust and good relationship, and you establish your online presence rapidly. The more involved you become in whatever you will be offering, the quicker you build your online presence and business. Think about a way you can offer something - it may be stating a forum, a directory or 'training center' relating to your online business. Be creative!
4) Make a lot of real customer contact on a regular basis.
Your list comprises of real people. With auto responders and other tools that automate online businesses, it is very easy to treat your prospects just like a list and not as individual people you care about it. Your list is your best asset, so it is important that you show it that you care by keeping in touch and also making some good free offers to them. It pays to send some regular 'non-marketing' emails that can also be offering some free tips and ideas. By doing this you build trust - and the prospects will soon be your long term customers for your online business. Your existing customers will bring you repeat business. Setting up and offering a free brainstorming or networking call is also very effective. Again, you create the confidence - your prospects and customers will know there is a person behind the name or the website.
The factors outlined above can help you grow your online business with minimal effort. The more you create a good reputation and become viewed as an expert, the more your online business grows. It is very easy to succeed with your online business. Just apply a little extra effort with your customers and show them that you care
See ya.........................................Ricky
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Niche Marketing, Check Out First !
Many people make the mistake of choosing a highly competitive niche and developing a business idea around it, only to find that the market segment is so inundated and crowded with competitors that it's virtually impossible for a new comer to make any money at all. Many new comers start off by choosing a niche that is far too broad and as a result far too crowded. If you're thinking of building a niche marketing website, a quick check using any online keyword research tool will tell you if this is the case.
Even if you get there first and discover a unique tight niche and create products and services to offer your customers, the existing internet marketers will notice you have discovered a profitable market segment, and you will soon find yourself having to compete with them. In no time at all when someone searches for a keyword similar to yours, they'll be amazed to find that there are so many other websites serving the same customers.
Before you start building a niche website, doing a little keyword research using an online keyword utility will return the number of web pages with a similar theme and which contain roughly the same content, this number being an indication of the competition you are facing. Bear in mind that even if the niche is narrow and tightly focused, it will start to become crowded even if only two or three new businesses start working on the same niche.
Unfortunately the plain truth is if you dominate a profitable niche market you will not be able to keep it a secret for long. No niche can be kept in absolute secrecy forever: there are too many smart people out there on the internet who all want to get their hands on a slice of the pie.
To keep your niche market profitable you need a constant stream of ready to buy customers, and one way to do this is to capitalize on search engine traffic. Use a good quality keyword research utility to uncover all the different words and phrases people use when searching for information on the internet. Next you create web pages which are optimized for these terms (known as keywords).
A point to bear in mind is some keyword research tools use the data from pay per click search engines to calculate the number of searches conducted for a given keyword, and this figure is not that realistic. Keyword research utilities such as WordTracker use data from the major metacrawlers like Dogpile to calculate very realistic keyword search statistics, and will give you the number of times any given keyword or phrase was searched for during the previous three months and a predicted count for the next 24 hours.
Each of these keyword research utilities maintains a very powerful database of raw data for your subsequent research. If the niche is starting to get too big, then the number of searches on your keywords will be in the thousands. Careful analysis will also reveal the number of websites in the niche, which will be a large number if your niche is crowded.
You can also use pay per click search engines to drive traffic to your website, but it's worth remembering that popular keywords are expensive. If the niche is profitable, your competitors will be prepared to pay hefty sums to buy those keywords. The only way you are going to get cheap pay per click traffic is by finding keywords which your competitors aren't using. Unfortunately these little known keywords won't be popular so you'll need to find a lot of them to get a reasonable amount of traffic to your niche site.
As your niche gets more and more crowded with new competitors these pay per click keywords will become progressively more expensive. There will be those new competitors who understand the value of keyword research and will discover the same keywords you are using. This will reduce the traffic to your website and so reduce the amount of money you can make.
A point will be reached when the niche becomes so competitive it is no longer profitable, and you will either have to abandon the niche or discover new methods of getting customers to your website.
Heres to finding a niche with NO competition....................Ricky
Even if you get there first and discover a unique tight niche and create products and services to offer your customers, the existing internet marketers will notice you have discovered a profitable market segment, and you will soon find yourself having to compete with them. In no time at all when someone searches for a keyword similar to yours, they'll be amazed to find that there are so many other websites serving the same customers.
Before you start building a niche website, doing a little keyword research using an online keyword utility will return the number of web pages with a similar theme and which contain roughly the same content, this number being an indication of the competition you are facing. Bear in mind that even if the niche is narrow and tightly focused, it will start to become crowded even if only two or three new businesses start working on the same niche.
Unfortunately the plain truth is if you dominate a profitable niche market you will not be able to keep it a secret for long. No niche can be kept in absolute secrecy forever: there are too many smart people out there on the internet who all want to get their hands on a slice of the pie.
To keep your niche market profitable you need a constant stream of ready to buy customers, and one way to do this is to capitalize on search engine traffic. Use a good quality keyword research utility to uncover all the different words and phrases people use when searching for information on the internet. Next you create web pages which are optimized for these terms (known as keywords).
A point to bear in mind is some keyword research tools use the data from pay per click search engines to calculate the number of searches conducted for a given keyword, and this figure is not that realistic. Keyword research utilities such as WordTracker use data from the major metacrawlers like Dogpile to calculate very realistic keyword search statistics, and will give you the number of times any given keyword or phrase was searched for during the previous three months and a predicted count for the next 24 hours.
Each of these keyword research utilities maintains a very powerful database of raw data for your subsequent research. If the niche is starting to get too big, then the number of searches on your keywords will be in the thousands. Careful analysis will also reveal the number of websites in the niche, which will be a large number if your niche is crowded.
You can also use pay per click search engines to drive traffic to your website, but it's worth remembering that popular keywords are expensive. If the niche is profitable, your competitors will be prepared to pay hefty sums to buy those keywords. The only way you are going to get cheap pay per click traffic is by finding keywords which your competitors aren't using. Unfortunately these little known keywords won't be popular so you'll need to find a lot of them to get a reasonable amount of traffic to your niche site.
As your niche gets more and more crowded with new competitors these pay per click keywords will become progressively more expensive. There will be those new competitors who understand the value of keyword research and will discover the same keywords you are using. This will reduce the traffic to your website and so reduce the amount of money you can make.
A point will be reached when the niche becomes so competitive it is no longer profitable, and you will either have to abandon the niche or discover new methods of getting customers to your website.
Heres to finding a niche with NO competition....................Ricky
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
E-Books , Can I Make A Living ?
As I always say its very possible, with the right training.
If you want to give up your day job and make a living online, your best bet would be to look at what others are doing effectively and for more help visit to:www.easy-pdf-toolkit.com.model your business on what they are doing. Ebook marketing is a popular and extremely successful way to make money online.
There are countless niches and sub-niches that you could exploit to make profits. It's not as simple as just slapping together some content though. You need to follow the tips I have mentioned below:
Make sure that you understand your audience- You need to know the burning desires of your target audience. You need to provide an answer to the questions that they are asking. A good way to do this is through keyword research and through researching some web forums related to your chosen niche.
Make sure you edit your ebook- Nothing turns people off more quickly than a badly written ebook full of spelling and grammatical errors. Make sure that you edit your ebook, get a professional to do it for you.
Make sure that your ebook looks professional- You could have the greatest content in the world but this does not necessarily mean that you are going to make your fortune. You need to make sure that you spend some time and money designing your ebook covers to ensure that your ebook looks professional.
Make sure that you market your ebook effectively- You are not going to make any money if you do not advertise your ebook effectively. There are a variety of marketing techniques out there and you need to work out which technique will work best for your business.
Creating and selling ebooks can be a great way to make money online. If you work effectively, you can set yourself up so that you can make great living working minimal hours.
Writing an ebook will only get you halfway to success. In order to ensure that your ebook looks professional, and also your business looks professional, you need to ensure that you have a great graphics package. You need to have a professional looking ebook cover and mini-site graphics.
There is no need to be too concerned. You may be thinking that you are going to have to hire a graphic designer and this could cost you a fortune. Its true- the best graphic designers are expensive! For more detail go to: www.pdf-stampers.com.However, there are now ebook cover software programs out there that can solve all your graphic design problems. Below of I have listed some of the benefits of ebook cover software:
You do not need to be graphic design expert- Ebook cover software enables you to design countless logos for countless ebooks without the need to be an expert. It is all inbuilt to the software for you.
It is a quick step-by-step process- Your graphic design can be as simple as clicking a template, setting your logo options and away you go.
You can customize your logos- Another great thing about ebook cover software is the ability to customize your logos and have them appear as YOU want them. No longer will you be frustrated trying to explain to a designer how you want your logos to appear only to be frustrated by the results. You can actually see how your cover and logos will look instantaneously.
As always i hope this is some help to all....................Ricky
If you want to give up your day job and make a living online, your best bet would be to look at what others are doing effectively and for more help visit to:www.easy-pdf-toolkit.com.model your business on what they are doing. Ebook marketing is a popular and extremely successful way to make money online.
There are countless niches and sub-niches that you could exploit to make profits. It's not as simple as just slapping together some content though. You need to follow the tips I have mentioned below:
Make sure that you understand your audience- You need to know the burning desires of your target audience. You need to provide an answer to the questions that they are asking. A good way to do this is through keyword research and through researching some web forums related to your chosen niche.
Make sure you edit your ebook- Nothing turns people off more quickly than a badly written ebook full of spelling and grammatical errors. Make sure that you edit your ebook, get a professional to do it for you.
Make sure that your ebook looks professional- You could have the greatest content in the world but this does not necessarily mean that you are going to make your fortune. You need to make sure that you spend some time and money designing your ebook covers to ensure that your ebook looks professional.
Make sure that you market your ebook effectively- You are not going to make any money if you do not advertise your ebook effectively. There are a variety of marketing techniques out there and you need to work out which technique will work best for your business.
Creating and selling ebooks can be a great way to make money online. If you work effectively, you can set yourself up so that you can make great living working minimal hours.
Writing an ebook will only get you halfway to success. In order to ensure that your ebook looks professional, and also your business looks professional, you need to ensure that you have a great graphics package. You need to have a professional looking ebook cover and mini-site graphics.
There is no need to be too concerned. You may be thinking that you are going to have to hire a graphic designer and this could cost you a fortune. Its true- the best graphic designers are expensive! For more detail go to: www.pdf-stampers.com.However, there are now ebook cover software programs out there that can solve all your graphic design problems. Below of I have listed some of the benefits of ebook cover software:
You do not need to be graphic design expert- Ebook cover software enables you to design countless logos for countless ebooks without the need to be an expert. It is all inbuilt to the software for you.
It is a quick step-by-step process- Your graphic design can be as simple as clicking a template, setting your logo options and away you go.
You can customize your logos- Another great thing about ebook cover software is the ability to customize your logos and have them appear as YOU want them. No longer will you be frustrated trying to explain to a designer how you want your logos to appear only to be frustrated by the results. You can actually see how your cover and logos will look instantaneously.
As always i hope this is some help to all....................Ricky
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
PPC Programs, Can Work !
As an online business owner, you already understand the importance of your URLs search engine ranking. One of the quickest ways to pull lots of prospective customers to your website is to get listed prominently in the search engines. But with over four billion web pages catalogued by search engines globally, your URL can easily get lost in the crowd. For a budget-stretching fee, pay-per-click search engines like Google and Yahoo! will place your website higher in the ranking. For most of the pay-per-click search engines the rules and listing procedures are pretty straightforward - the highest pay per click bid gets top spot. Google AdWords program is the exception, having an extra criterion that affects the position of your placement on its search result pages.
Pay-per-click search engine placements work this way: You open an account, make a minimum deposit as a starting balance, enter your website, title and description and place a pay per click bid on relevant keywords, such as "home equity loans", "research stock", "travel agent", and so on. When a visitor searches for "home equity loans" on the search engine where you have an account, the details of your site, including your URL, appear in the section named "Sponsored Links". Sites are typically ranked by the pay per click bid amount you are willing to pay with top bid at top of the list. When the visitor clicks on your link, your account is debited by the amount you have bid on that keyword. The more popular key phrase that you bid on, the higher the bid price to obtain that top listing spot.
Conclusion
Keep in mind that you pay nothing to appear on the results page per se. You only shell out the pay per click bid amount you have agreed to (or bid for) when visitors actually click on your ads and are redirected to the "landing" page on your website. You do not pay for each time your ad shows and no one clicks on it. Therefore, the term "pay per click bid" literally means just what it says: advertisers pay the auctioned (or bid) price, each time someone clicks on their ads. However, read the guidelines outlined by experts, and don't go mad with your bids - this can cost you dearly. I have seen where this simple mistake has literally brought a company to it's knees, so make sure you don't exceed your budget!
See ya..........................Ricky
Pay-per-click search engine placements work this way: You open an account, make a minimum deposit as a starting balance, enter your website, title and description and place a pay per click bid on relevant keywords, such as "home equity loans", "research stock", "travel agent", and so on. When a visitor searches for "home equity loans" on the search engine where you have an account, the details of your site, including your URL, appear in the section named "Sponsored Links". Sites are typically ranked by the pay per click bid amount you are willing to pay with top bid at top of the list. When the visitor clicks on your link, your account is debited by the amount you have bid on that keyword. The more popular key phrase that you bid on, the higher the bid price to obtain that top listing spot.
Conclusion
Keep in mind that you pay nothing to appear on the results page per se. You only shell out the pay per click bid amount you have agreed to (or bid for) when visitors actually click on your ads and are redirected to the "landing" page on your website. You do not pay for each time your ad shows and no one clicks on it. Therefore, the term "pay per click bid" literally means just what it says: advertisers pay the auctioned (or bid) price, each time someone clicks on their ads. However, read the guidelines outlined by experts, and don't go mad with your bids - this can cost you dearly. I have seen where this simple mistake has literally brought a company to it's knees, so make sure you don't exceed your budget!
See ya..........................Ricky
Monday, February 2, 2009
SEO- Search Engines Info
There is nothing fancy or magical about optimizing your website for the search engines. The myths about it are greater than the facts. For as long as SEO
has been in existence, there have been all sorts of myths about it.
The situation isn't helped by the number of so-called "SEO Experts" spreading them.
Here's a list of the biggest SEO myths you need to be aware of so you can avoid being drawn into buying useless services that tout help with them:
-You can't optimize perfectly for every site
With the right keywords, title, description and tags that accurately reflect your content, you can optimize every site of your for the search engines.
-There are 10,000 search engines out there
The onlye search engine you need to target to get listed in is Google. Once Google picks you up all the others will, too. Google leads the pack and what Google does the other major search engines will follow: MSN, Yahoo and Ask Jeeves. Forget the other ones, the traffic is small and inconsequential.
-PageRank is dead
Today Pagerank is as importatn as ever with Google.
-You should repeat your keywords 100 times on each page.
A keyword density of optimum around 5-8% on each page. The keywords should also be wound into good copy and make sense where they are placed. Stuffing pages with keywords is a good way to get you ignored or even banned by the search engines.
-Search engines don't have time to ban you for bad SEO.
One of the biggest ways to get banned from the major search engines is bad SEO.
-You should submit your site to every search engine going
Again, submit to just Google and you'll be picked up by all the other search engines eventually.
-You don't need content to get ranked high
Content, fresh and relevant, will always be king for good SEO. The web was founded on information and content is information.
-Meta tags are very important
Most search engines ignore meta tags today however, you can still place them.
-All you need is more links
Links into your site need to be related to your content. So called "link farms" which are lists of hundreds of unrelated sites will lower your pagerank.
-SEO doesn't require patience
Good SEo requires, not only patience but research, thought and time invested into it.
-New sites can't get listed in search engines.
Good, well SEO optimized websites can get indexed in a s little as 48 hours.
-You should have multiple domain names
One well chosen domain names for your sites theme is all you need.
-It's good to resubmit every week or every month
Once a month is the rule for submission but only if you update your site monthly. If you do not then submit every 2 or 3 months.
Avoid companies that advertise any of these items. The only techniques you should be using are ones that are proven to increase your website's ranking.
There are a lot of unethical, unprofessional business practices in the optimization industry. Get the facts on your side and compare the services you're being offered. Use your money wisely and invest it properly in good marketing, advertising, and content.
When inexperienced and unprofessional optimizers scam uneducated SEO customers, it gives everyone who works in the field a bad name. If anyone tells you that it's OK to keyword stuff, or that you don't need PageRank - well, they're just completely wrong.
If you're trying to make money with your website, you need visitors, and that's where SEO is iimportant. SEO is important to get on top of your competition and the search engines. Good SEO means sales.
More tomorrow.........................Ricky
has been in existence, there have been all sorts of myths about it.
The situation isn't helped by the number of so-called "SEO Experts" spreading them.
Here's a list of the biggest SEO myths you need to be aware of so you can avoid being drawn into buying useless services that tout help with them:
-You can't optimize perfectly for every site
With the right keywords, title, description and tags that accurately reflect your content, you can optimize every site of your for the search engines.
-There are 10,000 search engines out there
The onlye search engine you need to target to get listed in is Google. Once Google picks you up all the others will, too. Google leads the pack and what Google does the other major search engines will follow: MSN, Yahoo and Ask Jeeves. Forget the other ones, the traffic is small and inconsequential.
-PageRank is dead
Today Pagerank is as importatn as ever with Google.
-You should repeat your keywords 100 times on each page.
A keyword density of optimum around 5-8% on each page. The keywords should also be wound into good copy and make sense where they are placed. Stuffing pages with keywords is a good way to get you ignored or even banned by the search engines.
-Search engines don't have time to ban you for bad SEO.
One of the biggest ways to get banned from the major search engines is bad SEO.
-You should submit your site to every search engine going
Again, submit to just Google and you'll be picked up by all the other search engines eventually.
-You don't need content to get ranked high
Content, fresh and relevant, will always be king for good SEO. The web was founded on information and content is information.
-Meta tags are very important
Most search engines ignore meta tags today however, you can still place them.
-All you need is more links
Links into your site need to be related to your content. So called "link farms" which are lists of hundreds of unrelated sites will lower your pagerank.
-SEO doesn't require patience
Good SEo requires, not only patience but research, thought and time invested into it.
-New sites can't get listed in search engines.
Good, well SEO optimized websites can get indexed in a s little as 48 hours.
-You should have multiple domain names
One well chosen domain names for your sites theme is all you need.
-It's good to resubmit every week or every month
Once a month is the rule for submission but only if you update your site monthly. If you do not then submit every 2 or 3 months.
Avoid companies that advertise any of these items. The only techniques you should be using are ones that are proven to increase your website's ranking.
There are a lot of unethical, unprofessional business practices in the optimization industry. Get the facts on your side and compare the services you're being offered. Use your money wisely and invest it properly in good marketing, advertising, and content.
When inexperienced and unprofessional optimizers scam uneducated SEO customers, it gives everyone who works in the field a bad name. If anyone tells you that it's OK to keyword stuff, or that you don't need PageRank - well, they're just completely wrong.
If you're trying to make money with your website, you need visitors, and that's where SEO is iimportant. SEO is important to get on top of your competition and the search engines. Good SEO means sales.
More tomorrow.........................Ricky
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