Copyright 2004 Don Berthiaume
Stop for a minute and think about how much we are, by nature, comparison shoppers. How many times a day do we compare things and make a decision based upon this comparison?
And why is that? We could sit here and rattle off a number of reasons. But it comes down to one thing – perceived value. This perceived value is based upon our individual tastes, desires, moods, feelings and expectations. Is it what we want?
Information overload – too many choices
We have 4,952 channels on television and nothing on! We have 24 varieties of peanut butter, 57 versions of the “same product”; low sodium, no sodium, low fat, no fat, regular, lite, ultra; 14 aisles of breakfast cereal. And, as of my last check 7,930,000 search results in Google for “start internet business”.
The power of persuasion
Most of us still work hard for our money and we don’t want to see it go to waste. We often take advantage of choices and choose what we feel is right based upon the information we have at hand, or our knowledge base.
It is only when we are afforded no choices, given the impression or made to believe there can be no other product that would benefit us more, made to believe time is of the essence we will lose out if we don’t act immediately – we abandon our “comparison shopping”.
It is then we can be more easily persuaded into believing what it is we “think” we want or need.
Seek advice
Sometimes we relinquish the responsibility of “comparison shopping” to others; a committee, a professional in the field, or someone who has done the necessary research to help us decide. Sometimes we gladly pay to be able to be advised “what we want” or at least have the field narrowed down so we don’t have to spend as much time choosing.
Your Internet business
Here you are today, wanting to start an online business or make an existing one more profitable. But perhaps you lack the specific knowledge on how to do it. So your first step and every step thereafter is to seek out the knowledge that you lack.
The averages predict it is unlikely you will "score the big one" on your first attempt or any subsequent attempt. Sobering as it is, less than 5% of all Internet businesses survive.
Your mission, if you choose to accept it
Experts and so-called experts abound and are more than willing to get you to spend your hard-earned cash on their advice, their solutions. So what do you do?
You need to narrow down your selection to a smaller field of experts who are included within the less than 5% who have actually succeeded with their Internet business.
There is not one expert out there that, on their “sales page”, offers comparison information for other, competing programs. Their ad copy is intentionally made to make you believe you have no other choice and you need to purchase their plan and do it NOW, or at least before Midnight tonight!
But you can wait. You don’t have to fall for the sales hype or sense of urgency. That is what the ad copy is intended to do, and that’s OK. You will find there are people out there who earn a six-figure income coming up with this ad copy and you will be using it yourself with your Internet business.
The point is, in all likelihood the same offer will be there tomorrow, you do have more time than Midnight tonight!
So, in order to narrow down your selection, you need to maximize your efforts – your time and your money. You need to “comparison shop”.
Selecting an expert you can trust
Just make up your “long list”. Make a list of 75-100 “experts” that are out there promoting their strategies and solutions and visit and read each of their websites.
Then, once you’ve visited each site, your task is to keep narrowing the field. After visiting the sites, many of the so-called experts will become apparent and can be taken off your “long list”.
Here is a partial list of what I recommend you check out with your long list:
a. Understand the topics of information covered
b. How informed does the expert really seem to be on his / her “expertise”
c. What is the expert’s background
d. Program cost
e. Guarantee
f. Affiliations / Commissions
g. Provision for customer assistance / support
h. And finally, learn to read “between the lines” of the ad copy.
Once you have the field narrowed down, come up with your short list. Revisit the sites of your short list and review the information provided on the sites once again.
Think about the different expertise each expert possesses. Not all of the strategies and techniques will be used in the early stages of your Internet business, but rather later on as you grow it. Keep these experts in mind as resources for your growth. If you have questions or concerns, email them and ask your question. Make sure your questions and concerns are addressed.
Your goal is to narrow down your long list of 75-100 to a short list of 10-15.
Will it be time consuming? Yes it will but it will be time well spent. This list of 10-15 experts will be your Internet business shopping list and the list from which you will have all of the resources to have the potential to make your Internet business a success.
The final key will be your desire, your willingness and most of all your commitment.
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Don Berthiaume is the owner/webmaster of “Internet Marketing Plans – A Beginner’s Guide” and publisher of the “Internet Business Start Guide". He spent many years as a multimedia developer and has designed and developed numerous websites.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
3 Simple Ways to Start Your Home Based Internet Business Right Now
Copyright © Andrea Hayhurst
So, you've finally decided to take that giant leap of faith and start your very own home based internet business. You've decided that it's finally time to step up to the plate and claim your share of all those internet riches you keep hearing about. Only problem is, now that you've finally made your decision, it seems like a pretty daunting task deciding what to do next. Using the term "information overload" to describe the problem seems like a huge understatement.
Well, if you're really serious about starting your own home based internet business, the next step really doesn't have to be that difficult at all. There are 3 relatively simple ways to start making an online income and one of them is sure to fit your particular idea of what it is you would like to do. So, just relax, take a deep breath, and peruse the following list until you find something that strikes the right cord.
1. Join One or Several Affiliate Programs
This is probably one of the easiest and quickest ways to get started making money online. The internet is full of products that have affiliate programs you can join and most of them pay generous commissions. When you join an affiliate program, you are simply making an agreement with the owner of a product that you will receive a commision in exchange for referring a prospect to that person's product (usually a sales page that you have sent the prospect to via your affiliate link) if that prospect ends up making a purchase.
Start by choosing a product or service that you're interested in and then visit some of the websites which have achieved top rankings for the keywords which describe that topic. You're sure to find the top affiliate programs for that industry relatively quickly. Or, try visiting one of the many affiliate program directories (you can find them quickly enough in Google) and scan their listings and recommendations until you find something that appeals to you.
This is a good one for newbies since you don't even need your own website to get started. You will, however, need to learn how to use the pay per clicks so you can get some targeted traffic to your affiliate link. Once you start generating some income from the pay per clicks, you can then start reinvesting some of your profits and get yourself set up with your own website. By that time the prospect of getting set up with your own website won't seem so daunting.
2. Join a Residual Income Program
Residual income programs are somewhat similiar to affiliate programs in that you typically get paid for referring a prospect to the program's website if that prospect decides to make a purchase. However, the difference lies in the fact that with these programs you also have the opportunity to earn a monthly recurring income if the prospect you refer becomes a paying member of the residual income opportunity program. For example, I belong to one of these programs myself. If a prospect comes to my website and clicks on a link which takes them to the sales page for the product and they buy, then I get a commission. However, if that prospect also decides to become a member of the residual income opportunity program, then I get a check every month as long as that prospect remains a member of that program.
People tend to be skeptical of these programs and get them confused with pyramid schemes. The way to tell if one of these programs is a pyramid scheme is to simply determine if the company in question offers a real honest to goodness product or service. If so, it cannot be classified as a pyramid scheme and you should be okay. Don't be scared off by the fact that you will most likely have to pay a monthly fee to participate in the residual income opportunity. If you can build a downline for yourself in one of these programs, the monthly fee will be negligible compared to the potential residual income you could earn. Alot of these programs will provide you with your own cookie cutter website, which is okay if you are just getting started. Again, use the pay per clicks to start generating some traffic and then work on getting your own site up so you can start to build your own opt in list.
3. Sell a Hard Good or Downloadable Infoproduct
Okay, okay, I know this one doesn't sound so simple or easy, but to be honest, it's really not as hard as it might first appear. Selling a hard good entails offering a real physical product (like fishing poles, for instance) for sale in your own online retail store. If this idea really appeals to you, go for it. Brainstorm some products you would enjoy selling, then do some keyword research in Wordtracker to develop a targeted niche within that market (deep sea fishing poles?).
After that, you can use a drop ship source directory or the search engines to find manufacturers or distributors who will drop ship the merchandise for you (meaning they ship it directly to the customer and you don't have to carry any inventory). Then go to Ebay or Yahoo and sign up for one of their stores. I know from personal experience that Yahoo has some merchant hosting packages that are great and super easy to use. They'll even provide you with a shopping cart feature and help get you set up with a merchant account (so you can accept credit cards). Plus, you'll get some traffic already built in since millions of people are using their shopping directory to browse for products every day.
As for the website itself, don't worry. Most hosting companies today have some type of site builidng solution available for those customers who wouldn't know an html code from a java script. Believe me folks, if I, a completely technically useless and html challenged technophobe can do this, ANYONE can.
Now, as to the infoproduct. By the way, I mean YOUR OWN infoproduct. Everyone on the web and their mother will tell you that this is the best way to make the really big bucks online. Write about something you know and/or love. The topic of internet marketing seems to have been way overdone. Unless, of course, you are a true expert on some niche internet marketing subject, then definitely do it. Just don't do it because everyone else is.
As for the actual writing, you don't even have to do that if you really don't want to. You can check out a site like elance.com and post your project and have writers bid on completing the project for you! And there are so many easy to use PDF ebook creators available that formatting the book should pose no technical challenge whatsoever. Set up a simple little one sales page website with a link for payment processing, optimize the site for the engines, use the pay per clicks, find some JV partners, and you're in the money!
By the way, I know of some guys who have about 10 or 15 of these little mini sites set up selling little reports on niche topics and raking in an average of $2,000 a month from each site. And they're incredibly easy to set up and practically run on autopilot once you do!
Well, there you have it. Just a few relatively simple ways to get you started on the way to raking in YOUR share of the internet gold mine!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrea Hayhurst is an internet marketing professional and publishes "How to Succeed Online", a fresh and informative newsletter dedicated to supporting people like YOU! If you`re looking for the top rated home business opportunities, the latest time saving tools and helpful support from a friend in the business, come by and grab a free subscription today at http://www.Your-E-Source.com
amh@your-e-source.com
So, you've finally decided to take that giant leap of faith and start your very own home based internet business. You've decided that it's finally time to step up to the plate and claim your share of all those internet riches you keep hearing about. Only problem is, now that you've finally made your decision, it seems like a pretty daunting task deciding what to do next. Using the term "information overload" to describe the problem seems like a huge understatement.
Well, if you're really serious about starting your own home based internet business, the next step really doesn't have to be that difficult at all. There are 3 relatively simple ways to start making an online income and one of them is sure to fit your particular idea of what it is you would like to do. So, just relax, take a deep breath, and peruse the following list until you find something that strikes the right cord.
1. Join One or Several Affiliate Programs
This is probably one of the easiest and quickest ways to get started making money online. The internet is full of products that have affiliate programs you can join and most of them pay generous commissions. When you join an affiliate program, you are simply making an agreement with the owner of a product that you will receive a commision in exchange for referring a prospect to that person's product (usually a sales page that you have sent the prospect to via your affiliate link) if that prospect ends up making a purchase.
Start by choosing a product or service that you're interested in and then visit some of the websites which have achieved top rankings for the keywords which describe that topic. You're sure to find the top affiliate programs for that industry relatively quickly. Or, try visiting one of the many affiliate program directories (you can find them quickly enough in Google) and scan their listings and recommendations until you find something that appeals to you.
This is a good one for newbies since you don't even need your own website to get started. You will, however, need to learn how to use the pay per clicks so you can get some targeted traffic to your affiliate link. Once you start generating some income from the pay per clicks, you can then start reinvesting some of your profits and get yourself set up with your own website. By that time the prospect of getting set up with your own website won't seem so daunting.
2. Join a Residual Income Program
Residual income programs are somewhat similiar to affiliate programs in that you typically get paid for referring a prospect to the program's website if that prospect decides to make a purchase. However, the difference lies in the fact that with these programs you also have the opportunity to earn a monthly recurring income if the prospect you refer becomes a paying member of the residual income opportunity program. For example, I belong to one of these programs myself. If a prospect comes to my website and clicks on a link which takes them to the sales page for the product and they buy, then I get a commission. However, if that prospect also decides to become a member of the residual income opportunity program, then I get a check every month as long as that prospect remains a member of that program.
People tend to be skeptical of these programs and get them confused with pyramid schemes. The way to tell if one of these programs is a pyramid scheme is to simply determine if the company in question offers a real honest to goodness product or service. If so, it cannot be classified as a pyramid scheme and you should be okay. Don't be scared off by the fact that you will most likely have to pay a monthly fee to participate in the residual income opportunity. If you can build a downline for yourself in one of these programs, the monthly fee will be negligible compared to the potential residual income you could earn. Alot of these programs will provide you with your own cookie cutter website, which is okay if you are just getting started. Again, use the pay per clicks to start generating some traffic and then work on getting your own site up so you can start to build your own opt in list.
3. Sell a Hard Good or Downloadable Infoproduct
Okay, okay, I know this one doesn't sound so simple or easy, but to be honest, it's really not as hard as it might first appear. Selling a hard good entails offering a real physical product (like fishing poles, for instance) for sale in your own online retail store. If this idea really appeals to you, go for it. Brainstorm some products you would enjoy selling, then do some keyword research in Wordtracker to develop a targeted niche within that market (deep sea fishing poles?).
After that, you can use a drop ship source directory or the search engines to find manufacturers or distributors who will drop ship the merchandise for you (meaning they ship it directly to the customer and you don't have to carry any inventory). Then go to Ebay or Yahoo and sign up for one of their stores. I know from personal experience that Yahoo has some merchant hosting packages that are great and super easy to use. They'll even provide you with a shopping cart feature and help get you set up with a merchant account (so you can accept credit cards). Plus, you'll get some traffic already built in since millions of people are using their shopping directory to browse for products every day.
As for the website itself, don't worry. Most hosting companies today have some type of site builidng solution available for those customers who wouldn't know an html code from a java script. Believe me folks, if I, a completely technically useless and html challenged technophobe can do this, ANYONE can.
Now, as to the infoproduct. By the way, I mean YOUR OWN infoproduct. Everyone on the web and their mother will tell you that this is the best way to make the really big bucks online. Write about something you know and/or love. The topic of internet marketing seems to have been way overdone. Unless, of course, you are a true expert on some niche internet marketing subject, then definitely do it. Just don't do it because everyone else is.
As for the actual writing, you don't even have to do that if you really don't want to. You can check out a site like elance.com and post your project and have writers bid on completing the project for you! And there are so many easy to use PDF ebook creators available that formatting the book should pose no technical challenge whatsoever. Set up a simple little one sales page website with a link for payment processing, optimize the site for the engines, use the pay per clicks, find some JV partners, and you're in the money!
By the way, I know of some guys who have about 10 or 15 of these little mini sites set up selling little reports on niche topics and raking in an average of $2,000 a month from each site. And they're incredibly easy to set up and practically run on autopilot once you do!
Well, there you have it. Just a few relatively simple ways to get you started on the way to raking in YOUR share of the internet gold mine!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrea Hayhurst is an internet marketing professional and publishes "How to Succeed Online", a fresh and informative newsletter dedicated to supporting people like YOU! If you`re looking for the top rated home business opportunities, the latest time saving tools and helpful support from a friend in the business, come by and grab a free subscription today at http://www.Your-E-Source.com
amh@your-e-source.com
Monday, June 11, 2007
Why Blogging Is Essential To Your Business
Copyright © Chet Holcomb
In the 'good old days' - about three years ago - you used to keep in-touch with your customers using phone calls, email messages and face to face meetings. Nowadays the world has changed. People expect even more frequent updates, yet it's nearly impossible to meet with every business contact on a regular basis.
Thankfully, blogging has come to the rescue. Setting up a blog on your web site - and having an associated RSS feed - means you can keep in constant touch with your clients and potential customers. Plus you don't have to email them and they can get your latest news without having to visit your web site.
So how does this all work? A blog is really a fancy name for a web page that gets updated regularly. It's nothing special. There are several methods of writing 'blogs', but they are nothing more than computer programs which allow you to easily update a web page. Far and away the easiest way to start a blog is with a website called blogger.com.
However, for keeping in touch with your customers, RSS is the key. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. What this means is that your blog can be automatically delivered to people who want to read it - you don't have to send it to them and neither do they have to come and collect it. All they need is the address of your RSS Feed and their RSS Newsreader can do the job for them. There are several RSS readers available and new web browsers incorporate the ability to read RSS feeds and keep them updated.
Why Blogging is Essential to Your Business?
Whenever you add new content to your blog, the RSS Feed automatically gets updated in everyone's Reader program or web browser. That means you are guaranteed to be able to keep in touch with clients and prospects. You don't have to do anything other than produce the content. Equally, you don't face the problems of email filters and anti-spam programs blocking your email. Furthermore, people tend to read RSS Feeds because they have subscribed to them. Whereas they tend to ignore non urgent emails.
As you can see, there are several advantages to Blogs and RSS Feeds. But it doesn't stop there. Search engines love them. That's because blogs provide fresh and new content - precisely what searchers are looking for. Hence the search engines are actively pushing blogs higher up the search engine ranking. This means if you don't have a blog for your business, you are seriously reducing your chances of a high search engine ranking. You need a blog nowadays to get noticed by the search engines.
So, blogging is essential. Not only does it improve your web presence, it also means you can keep in touch with clients and prospects more easily. And all the marketing research you can find will tell you that keeping in regular touch with your customers is an important component in gaining new business. So get blogging!
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About the Author: Chet Holcomb of http://www.internetpromotions.biz/ is a successful marketing expert providing advice for web marketers and webmasters on how to promote your website, or product using marketing tools that work.Source: http://www.isnare.com/
In the 'good old days' - about three years ago - you used to keep in-touch with your customers using phone calls, email messages and face to face meetings. Nowadays the world has changed. People expect even more frequent updates, yet it's nearly impossible to meet with every business contact on a regular basis.
Thankfully, blogging has come to the rescue. Setting up a blog on your web site - and having an associated RSS feed - means you can keep in constant touch with your clients and potential customers. Plus you don't have to email them and they can get your latest news without having to visit your web site.
So how does this all work? A blog is really a fancy name for a web page that gets updated regularly. It's nothing special. There are several methods of writing 'blogs', but they are nothing more than computer programs which allow you to easily update a web page. Far and away the easiest way to start a blog is with a website called blogger.com.
However, for keeping in touch with your customers, RSS is the key. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. What this means is that your blog can be automatically delivered to people who want to read it - you don't have to send it to them and neither do they have to come and collect it. All they need is the address of your RSS Feed and their RSS Newsreader can do the job for them. There are several RSS readers available and new web browsers incorporate the ability to read RSS feeds and keep them updated.
Why Blogging is Essential to Your Business?
Whenever you add new content to your blog, the RSS Feed automatically gets updated in everyone's Reader program or web browser. That means you are guaranteed to be able to keep in touch with clients and prospects. You don't have to do anything other than produce the content. Equally, you don't face the problems of email filters and anti-spam programs blocking your email. Furthermore, people tend to read RSS Feeds because they have subscribed to them. Whereas they tend to ignore non urgent emails.
As you can see, there are several advantages to Blogs and RSS Feeds. But it doesn't stop there. Search engines love them. That's because blogs provide fresh and new content - precisely what searchers are looking for. Hence the search engines are actively pushing blogs higher up the search engine ranking. This means if you don't have a blog for your business, you are seriously reducing your chances of a high search engine ranking. You need a blog nowadays to get noticed by the search engines.
So, blogging is essential. Not only does it improve your web presence, it also means you can keep in touch with clients and prospects more easily. And all the marketing research you can find will tell you that keeping in regular touch with your customers is an important component in gaining new business. So get blogging!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author: Chet Holcomb of http://www.internetpromotions.biz/ is a successful marketing expert providing advice for web marketers and webmasters on how to promote your website, or product using marketing tools that work.Source: http://www.isnare.com/
17 Mistakes Professionals Make with Their Blogs
Copyright © Denise Wakeman
Hundreds of blogs are started each day and many of them are abandoned after several months because it takes time and energy to keep a good business blog going.
Are you getting results from your business blog? Is it getting harder for you to spend time on your blog because you’re just not seeing how it is going to pay off? If so, you’re not alone. Hundreds of blogs are started each day and many of them are abandoned after several months because it takes time and energy to keep a good business blog going.
Make no mistake, blogs are a great tool for building community, interacting with potential clients, and marketing your services. And, it’s not enough to set one up and post occasionally. You have to use it effectively to drive traffic and gain readership.
We’ve discovered several common mistakes professionals make with their blogs. Mostly, they aren’t using some the features available to them with their blogging software, because it hasn’t been sufficiently explained. Eyes glaze over with the mention of RSS, pinging, trackbacks and permalinks. Professionals may be ignoring these things, hoping they don’t really need to know.
But they do if they want results from their business blog.
Here’s a list of what we found on a recent trip around the professional business blogosphere:
Content:
1. Not posting frequently enough. (Recommended: 2-3 times a week.)
2. Content is not focused, and the target audience is not clearly defined.
3. Posting articles that are too long, instead of using extended post features.
4. Not linking profusely (because the professional isn’t researching their field on the internet).
5. Poor spelling, bad grammar and typos.
Design
6. No name of author in tag line or on side bar.
7. No author photo.
8. No signature or name in the footer; no way to tell who wrote post on a multi-author site.
9. No subscription form; no way to get blog updates through RSS or email.
10. No way for readers to leave comments and use trackbacks.
11. Too many categories or none at all.
12. No information about their business services and products.
13. Calendars for no reason at all (what is the point of those calendars anyway?).
Marketing
14. Blog isn’t submitted to blog directories.
15. Not pinging each time a new post is published.
16. Not using trackbacks referring or linking to other blogs.
17. No blogroll or list of favorite blogs or websites.
If you’re considering using a blog to build your business, optimize it by taking time to learn the features and steps that will ensure success.
A blog is like any other marketing tool – you've got to use it correctly to get positive results.
Here are a couple of suggestions:
1. Get an ebook and take the time to learn about your blog software or hosting provider.
2. Hire a professional blog expert to coach you on how to rev up your blog.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman are two blog experts who have teamed up to form The Blog Squad (http://www.fixmyblog.com). They provide advanced training and coaching for professionals who want to beef up their blog for marketing optimization. Each month a blog is selected as Blog of the Month and undergoes a rigorous makeover. At the end of the month, the blog must pass the Blog Squad Seal of Approval to be certified a success. Patsi and Denise also publish a popular blog at http://www.buildabetterblog.com
Hundreds of blogs are started each day and many of them are abandoned after several months because it takes time and energy to keep a good business blog going.
Are you getting results from your business blog? Is it getting harder for you to spend time on your blog because you’re just not seeing how it is going to pay off? If so, you’re not alone. Hundreds of blogs are started each day and many of them are abandoned after several months because it takes time and energy to keep a good business blog going.
Make no mistake, blogs are a great tool for building community, interacting with potential clients, and marketing your services. And, it’s not enough to set one up and post occasionally. You have to use it effectively to drive traffic and gain readership.
We’ve discovered several common mistakes professionals make with their blogs. Mostly, they aren’t using some the features available to them with their blogging software, because it hasn’t been sufficiently explained. Eyes glaze over with the mention of RSS, pinging, trackbacks and permalinks. Professionals may be ignoring these things, hoping they don’t really need to know.
But they do if they want results from their business blog.
Here’s a list of what we found on a recent trip around the professional business blogosphere:
Content:
1. Not posting frequently enough. (Recommended: 2-3 times a week.)
2. Content is not focused, and the target audience is not clearly defined.
3. Posting articles that are too long, instead of using extended post features.
4. Not linking profusely (because the professional isn’t researching their field on the internet).
5. Poor spelling, bad grammar and typos.
Design
6. No name of author in tag line or on side bar.
7. No author photo.
8. No signature or name in the footer; no way to tell who wrote post on a multi-author site.
9. No subscription form; no way to get blog updates through RSS or email.
10. No way for readers to leave comments and use trackbacks.
11. Too many categories or none at all.
12. No information about their business services and products.
13. Calendars for no reason at all (what is the point of those calendars anyway?).
Marketing
14. Blog isn’t submitted to blog directories.
15. Not pinging each time a new post is published.
16. Not using trackbacks referring or linking to other blogs.
17. No blogroll or list of favorite blogs or websites.
If you’re considering using a blog to build your business, optimize it by taking time to learn the features and steps that will ensure success.
A blog is like any other marketing tool – you've got to use it correctly to get positive results.
Here are a couple of suggestions:
1. Get an ebook and take the time to learn about your blog software or hosting provider.
2. Hire a professional blog expert to coach you on how to rev up your blog.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman are two blog experts who have teamed up to form The Blog Squad (http://www.fixmyblog.com). They provide advanced training and coaching for professionals who want to beef up their blog for marketing optimization. Each month a blog is selected as Blog of the Month and undergoes a rigorous makeover. At the end of the month, the blog must pass the Blog Squad Seal of Approval to be certified a success. Patsi and Denise also publish a popular blog at http://www.buildabetterblog.com
16 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
Copyright © Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff
You've got your blog set up and you've started posting pithy, useful information that your niche market would benefit from and enjoy. Days go by, you keep publishing, but no one comments and your traffic stats are barely registering. What do you do?
Like any website you own, you must do some blog promotion to start driving traffic to your site. Here are 16 steps, in no particular order of importance, that you can start doing now to get traffic moving to your blog.
1. Set up a Bloglet subscription form on your blog and invite everyone in your network to subscribe: family, friends, colleagues, clients, associates. Http://www.bloglet.com
2. Set up a feed on MyYahoo.com so your site gets regularly spidered by the Yahoo search engine (see tutorial on http://www.biztipsblog.com)http://www.my.yahoo.com
3. Read and comment on other blogs that are in your target niche. Don't write things like "nice blog" or "great post." Write intelligent, useful comments with a link to your blog.
4. Use Ping-0-matic to ping blog directories. Do this every time you publish. http://www.pingomatic.com
5. Submit your blog to traditional search engines: http://www.submitfire.com
6. Submit your blog to blog directories. The most comprehensive list of directories is on this site: http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
Tip: Create a form to track your submissions; this can take several hours when you first start so schedule an hour a day for submitting or hire a VA to do it for you.
7. Add a link to your blog in your email signature file.
8. Put a link to your blog on every page of your website.
9. If you publish a newsletter, make sure you have a link to your blog in every issue.
10. Include a link to your blog as a standard part of all outgoing correspondence such as autoresponder sequences, sales letters, reports, white papers, etc.
11. Print your blog URL on your business cards, brochures and flyers.
12. Make sure you have an RSS feed URL that people can subscribe to.The acronym RSS means Rich Site Summary, or some may consider its meaning as Really Simple Syndication. It is a document type that lists updates of websites or blogs available for syndication. These RSS documents (also known as 'feeds') may be read using aggregators (news readers). RSS feeds may show headlines only or both headlines and summaries. To learn how news aggregators/RSS readers work, see this site: http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-readers.htm
13. Post often to keep attracting your subscribers to come back and refer you to others in their networks; include links to other blogs, articles and websites in your posts
14. Use Trackback links when you quote or refer to other blog posts. What is TrackBack? Essentially what this does is send a message from one server to another server letting it know you have posted a reference to their post. The beauty is that a link to your blog is now included on their site.
15. Write articles to post around the web in article directories. Include a link to your blog in the author info box (See example in our signature below).
16. Make a commitment to blog everyday. 10 minutes a day can help increase your traffic as new content attracts search engine spiders. Put it on your calendar as a task every day at the same time.Tip: Use a hit counter to track your visitor stats: how many unique visitors, how many page views, average length of visit. You can get a free hit counter at http://www.sitemeter.com
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About the Author
Denise Wakeman of Next Level Partnership, and Patsi Krakoff of Customized Newsletter Services, have teamed up to create blogging classes and marketing services for independent professionals. Read and subscribe to their blogs at http://www.biztipsblog.com/, http://www.coachezines.com/ and http://www.bizbooknuggets.com
You've got your blog set up and you've started posting pithy, useful information that your niche market would benefit from and enjoy. Days go by, you keep publishing, but no one comments and your traffic stats are barely registering. What do you do?
Like any website you own, you must do some blog promotion to start driving traffic to your site. Here are 16 steps, in no particular order of importance, that you can start doing now to get traffic moving to your blog.
1. Set up a Bloglet subscription form on your blog and invite everyone in your network to subscribe: family, friends, colleagues, clients, associates. Http://www.bloglet.com
2. Set up a feed on MyYahoo.com so your site gets regularly spidered by the Yahoo search engine (see tutorial on http://www.biztipsblog.com)http://www.my.yahoo.com
3. Read and comment on other blogs that are in your target niche. Don't write things like "nice blog" or "great post." Write intelligent, useful comments with a link to your blog.
4. Use Ping-0-matic to ping blog directories. Do this every time you publish. http://www.pingomatic.com
5. Submit your blog to traditional search engines: http://www.submitfire.com
6. Submit your blog to blog directories. The most comprehensive list of directories is on this site: http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
Tip: Create a form to track your submissions; this can take several hours when you first start so schedule an hour a day for submitting or hire a VA to do it for you.
7. Add a link to your blog in your email signature file.
8. Put a link to your blog on every page of your website.
9. If you publish a newsletter, make sure you have a link to your blog in every issue.
10. Include a link to your blog as a standard part of all outgoing correspondence such as autoresponder sequences, sales letters, reports, white papers, etc.
11. Print your blog URL on your business cards, brochures and flyers.
12. Make sure you have an RSS feed URL that people can subscribe to.The acronym RSS means Rich Site Summary, or some may consider its meaning as Really Simple Syndication. It is a document type that lists updates of websites or blogs available for syndication. These RSS documents (also known as 'feeds') may be read using aggregators (news readers). RSS feeds may show headlines only or both headlines and summaries. To learn how news aggregators/RSS readers work, see this site: http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-readers.htm
13. Post often to keep attracting your subscribers to come back and refer you to others in their networks; include links to other blogs, articles and websites in your posts
14. Use Trackback links when you quote or refer to other blog posts. What is TrackBack? Essentially what this does is send a message from one server to another server letting it know you have posted a reference to their post. The beauty is that a link to your blog is now included on their site.
15. Write articles to post around the web in article directories. Include a link to your blog in the author info box (See example in our signature below).
16. Make a commitment to blog everyday. 10 minutes a day can help increase your traffic as new content attracts search engine spiders. Put it on your calendar as a task every day at the same time.Tip: Use a hit counter to track your visitor stats: how many unique visitors, how many page views, average length of visit. You can get a free hit counter at http://www.sitemeter.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author
Denise Wakeman of Next Level Partnership, and Patsi Krakoff of Customized Newsletter Services, have teamed up to create blogging classes and marketing services for independent professionals. Read and subscribe to their blogs at http://www.biztipsblog.com/, http://www.coachezines.com/ and http://www.bizbooknuggets.com
12 Reasons Why You Need A Blog
Copyright © Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian
"Why Should I Blog? I Simply Don't Get It"
This post on a popular discussion forum set me thinking - and I came up with 12 reasons you should blog.Read them and get started on your blog. Or better still, go get your blog up and running and THEN come back and read this :)
1. You Do Not Need To Know HTML.
One of the biggest hurdles many hopeful website creators face is they don't know to design a webpage. Blogs overcome this - all you do is type into a box, and the blog software automatically converts it into a webpage and publishes it on the World Wide Web for anyone to see.
2. You Are 'Forced' To Keep Your Content Fresh.
Blogs are essentially online diaries. It doesn't make sense to write in your diary every month or two. Similarly, running a blog itself 'forces' you to update it often. And refreshing your blog often makes it more useful to readers and consumers - and by extension, to search engines who are in the business of presenting *their* clients with valuable resources.
3. Your Blog Is AUTOMATICALLY Optimized For Search Engines.
Search engines love fresh content. But that's not the only way blogs are powerful tools to rank high. Indeed, most blogs are structured to offer a high degree of search engine optimization. All sections of your blog are linked together. The terms used as link 'anchors' are keyword-optimized. Categories can be created to host themed content. Navigating through your blog is intuitive. Archives can be customized, and generate hundreds of pages of content that act as 'search engine spider bait'.
4. You Get A Built-In Linking Structure.
With very few exceptions, most blogs are structured to be a tightly integrated network of links - to other sections of your blog! It's quite easy for a visitor to get 'lost' within your blog... without ever leaving it.Calendars link to posts on specific dates. 'Recent Post' listings point to your freshest content. Archives connect all your earlier posts. Search boxes let browsers look for certain kinds of content. And it all happens automatically, without you spending hours on creating a link structure or sitemap!
5. You Generate Multiple Content-Rich Pages.
Every post you make on your blog is content. And by intelligently setting up your archiving preferences, you can turn each post into many different forms of content, each on a page of its own. Blog regularly for a few months, and you could end up having a 100+ page website - all filled with relevant, keyword-optimized, themed content!
6. You Can Keyword-Optimize Your Blog Extensively.
All parts of your blog's template can be customized. And a very powerful way to do it is by inserting relevant keywords. It's a do-it-once job that will give you ongoing benefits for as the life of your blog. You can include keywords in your blog title, description, blog post headings, trackback links, comment invitations, archive titles, and category names.
7. You Create An Online Community.
If your blog is on a specific theme, you can build a loyal readership and develop an online community. You can even take it a notch higher by tying it in with a forum or membership site. Ask for comments, suggestions, ideas and feedback, or invite reader participation. Pretty soon, your blog will be growing organically - even if you don't write a lot!
8. You Initiate Conversations With Readers.
Of course, the first step is yours - to initiate a dialog with readers. You could do it with your blog post, asking a question or by inviting comments and interaction. Your blog will be read by an audience that's already interested in your subject or theme. This conversation will be priceless to you, the blog owner.
9. Your 'Inbound Link' Process - Trackbacks.
Blogging is about distributed conversations online. Links are an integral part of such an informal network. Trackbacks are a kind of blog technology that make it possible - and simple! Your blog will benefit from the inbound links a trackback will bring, and you'll also get extra traffic from other sources.
10. You Can Syndicate Your Content Easily.
Getting readers for your content is good. Getting your content out where many more readers can see it is GREAT! Syndication (via RSS feeds) is built in to most blogging platforms, giving you a quick and easy way to get a wide readership for your blog posts.
11. You're Creating Stuff Search Engines LOVE.
Search engines exist to offer their audience a compilation of the best resources on a subject or keyword. Your blog is the answer to a search engine's prayers! By sticking to a theme and presenting the content in an organized, structured, intuitively connected pattern, your blog will be appealing to search engines in a way only a very professionally planned and designed website can ever hope to be.
12. You Get 'Alternate' Traffic Sources.
Remember what we saw about blogs being linked and networked together? Bloggers like to share opinions with others. And when they 'talk' about you, they are going to point to your site, or a post on your blog, to show their readers what they mean. They become 'alternate' traffic sources - for YOU!
Other tools like blog rolls, furls, favorite bloggers and more can drive sporadic - but sometimes big floods - of traffic your way. And best of all, it's effortless and costs you nothing! Not yet convinced? Well, then maybe blogging isn't quite your cup of tea. But if you trust me, try it - you just might be pleasantly surprised.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author
Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian is author of 'Blog Profit Ideas Exposed - 33 Ways To Profit From Blogs" - http://www.BlogProfits.com - and 'How To Profit From RSS Feeds" - http://www.RSS-Marketing.com and publishes 8 different 'niche' blogs and has been reporting on marketing with blogs and RSS feeds since 2001.
"Why Should I Blog? I Simply Don't Get It"
This post on a popular discussion forum set me thinking - and I came up with 12 reasons you should blog.Read them and get started on your blog. Or better still, go get your blog up and running and THEN come back and read this :)
1. You Do Not Need To Know HTML.
One of the biggest hurdles many hopeful website creators face is they don't know to design a webpage. Blogs overcome this - all you do is type into a box, and the blog software automatically converts it into a webpage and publishes it on the World Wide Web for anyone to see.
2. You Are 'Forced' To Keep Your Content Fresh.
Blogs are essentially online diaries. It doesn't make sense to write in your diary every month or two. Similarly, running a blog itself 'forces' you to update it often. And refreshing your blog often makes it more useful to readers and consumers - and by extension, to search engines who are in the business of presenting *their* clients with valuable resources.
3. Your Blog Is AUTOMATICALLY Optimized For Search Engines.
Search engines love fresh content. But that's not the only way blogs are powerful tools to rank high. Indeed, most blogs are structured to offer a high degree of search engine optimization. All sections of your blog are linked together. The terms used as link 'anchors' are keyword-optimized. Categories can be created to host themed content. Navigating through your blog is intuitive. Archives can be customized, and generate hundreds of pages of content that act as 'search engine spider bait'.
4. You Get A Built-In Linking Structure.
With very few exceptions, most blogs are structured to be a tightly integrated network of links - to other sections of your blog! It's quite easy for a visitor to get 'lost' within your blog... without ever leaving it.Calendars link to posts on specific dates. 'Recent Post' listings point to your freshest content. Archives connect all your earlier posts. Search boxes let browsers look for certain kinds of content. And it all happens automatically, without you spending hours on creating a link structure or sitemap!
5. You Generate Multiple Content-Rich Pages.
Every post you make on your blog is content. And by intelligently setting up your archiving preferences, you can turn each post into many different forms of content, each on a page of its own. Blog regularly for a few months, and you could end up having a 100+ page website - all filled with relevant, keyword-optimized, themed content!
6. You Can Keyword-Optimize Your Blog Extensively.
All parts of your blog's template can be customized. And a very powerful way to do it is by inserting relevant keywords. It's a do-it-once job that will give you ongoing benefits for as the life of your blog. You can include keywords in your blog title, description, blog post headings, trackback links, comment invitations, archive titles, and category names.
7. You Create An Online Community.
If your blog is on a specific theme, you can build a loyal readership and develop an online community. You can even take it a notch higher by tying it in with a forum or membership site. Ask for comments, suggestions, ideas and feedback, or invite reader participation. Pretty soon, your blog will be growing organically - even if you don't write a lot!
8. You Initiate Conversations With Readers.
Of course, the first step is yours - to initiate a dialog with readers. You could do it with your blog post, asking a question or by inviting comments and interaction. Your blog will be read by an audience that's already interested in your subject or theme. This conversation will be priceless to you, the blog owner.
9. Your 'Inbound Link' Process - Trackbacks.
Blogging is about distributed conversations online. Links are an integral part of such an informal network. Trackbacks are a kind of blog technology that make it possible - and simple! Your blog will benefit from the inbound links a trackback will bring, and you'll also get extra traffic from other sources.
10. You Can Syndicate Your Content Easily.
Getting readers for your content is good. Getting your content out where many more readers can see it is GREAT! Syndication (via RSS feeds) is built in to most blogging platforms, giving you a quick and easy way to get a wide readership for your blog posts.
11. You're Creating Stuff Search Engines LOVE.
Search engines exist to offer their audience a compilation of the best resources on a subject or keyword. Your blog is the answer to a search engine's prayers! By sticking to a theme and presenting the content in an organized, structured, intuitively connected pattern, your blog will be appealing to search engines in a way only a very professionally planned and designed website can ever hope to be.
12. You Get 'Alternate' Traffic Sources.
Remember what we saw about blogs being linked and networked together? Bloggers like to share opinions with others. And when they 'talk' about you, they are going to point to your site, or a post on your blog, to show their readers what they mean. They become 'alternate' traffic sources - for YOU!
Other tools like blog rolls, furls, favorite bloggers and more can drive sporadic - but sometimes big floods - of traffic your way. And best of all, it's effortless and costs you nothing! Not yet convinced? Well, then maybe blogging isn't quite your cup of tea. But if you trust me, try it - you just might be pleasantly surprised.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author
Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian is author of 'Blog Profit Ideas Exposed - 33 Ways To Profit From Blogs" - http://www.BlogProfits.com - and 'How To Profit From RSS Feeds" - http://www.RSS-Marketing.com and publishes 8 different 'niche' blogs and has been reporting on marketing with blogs and RSS feeds since 2001.
11 Ways to Promote Your Blog
Copyright © Chileshe Mwape
1. Ping weblogs.com and other search engines. When you ping a blog, you are telling the search engine that you have updated your blog content and that your listing should be refreshed. Weblogs.com is a blog update notification service that many individuals and services use to track blog changes. Pinging your blogs to the search engines is the fastest way to get the search engine robots to visit your blog. Also, many people browse these sites to find something new.
2. Submit your blog address to blog search sites and directories. You can submit your blog's url to websites such as Technorati, Daypop, Blogdex and Popdex. For a complete list of websites where you can submit your url, go to www.guidetorss.com
3. If you have some cash you can promote your blog using pay per click search engines such as Yahoo Search and Google Adwords.
4. Set your blog to display RSS feeds and submit your blog's RSS feed to the major RSS feed directories online. A good place to start is www.guidetorss.com provides a list of the top RSS directories.
5. Put your blog URL in your email signature. If you’re a regular at any online discussion forum, you can also add your url to your signature line at the bottom of each message you post.
6. Install a blogroll. A blogroll is a collection of links to other weblogs. Services such as Technorati spider your links to tell who’s linking to you and who you’re linking to. If you show up on someone’s Technorati link list for their site they’re likely to visit your site to see what you said, increasing your exposure. Blog owners can also visit your site to check it out if you show up on their referral logs.
7. Be an active commenter. Try to leave comments on the blogs that you regularly visit. Most comment systems also provide a way for you to leave a link back to your blog which begs a visit at the very least.
8. If you plan to have anything printed up, put your blog’s web address on it. You can print your blog URL on business cards, stickers, leaflets, etc.
9. Take advantage of blog software features that help to promote your Blog. For example, if you're using Blogger, you can do this by turning on: "Email This Post", "Post Pages" "Site feed" and the Blogger Navbar. These features will help attract new visitors to your blog.
10. Exchange Links with other Bloggers or blog owners. This is another effective strategy for generating targeted traffic to your blog for free. It involves contacting other blog owners for a possible link exchange partnership. All you have to do is locate blogs that are related to yours and contact the webmaster to swap links.
11. Write articles or free reports for other webmasters to publish and put your blog url in the byline. The ‘byline’ is the short paragraph that goes at the bottom of each article and describes who the author is and what they do. If you write good content, your articles will be published by other webmasters and many readers who like your article will go on to visit your blog.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author
Copyright © 2005. Chileshe Mwape writes for Debt Consolidation Loans UK: http://www.best-debt-consolidation-loan.co.uk/. Visit our site to consolidate debts and apply for a loan online. This article may be reprinted as long as all the above links are active and clickable.
1. Ping weblogs.com and other search engines. When you ping a blog, you are telling the search engine that you have updated your blog content and that your listing should be refreshed. Weblogs.com is a blog update notification service that many individuals and services use to track blog changes. Pinging your blogs to the search engines is the fastest way to get the search engine robots to visit your blog. Also, many people browse these sites to find something new.
2. Submit your blog address to blog search sites and directories. You can submit your blog's url to websites such as Technorati, Daypop, Blogdex and Popdex. For a complete list of websites where you can submit your url, go to www.guidetorss.com
3. If you have some cash you can promote your blog using pay per click search engines such as Yahoo Search and Google Adwords.
4. Set your blog to display RSS feeds and submit your blog's RSS feed to the major RSS feed directories online. A good place to start is www.guidetorss.com provides a list of the top RSS directories.
5. Put your blog URL in your email signature. If you’re a regular at any online discussion forum, you can also add your url to your signature line at the bottom of each message you post.
6. Install a blogroll. A blogroll is a collection of links to other weblogs. Services such as Technorati spider your links to tell who’s linking to you and who you’re linking to. If you show up on someone’s Technorati link list for their site they’re likely to visit your site to see what you said, increasing your exposure. Blog owners can also visit your site to check it out if you show up on their referral logs.
7. Be an active commenter. Try to leave comments on the blogs that you regularly visit. Most comment systems also provide a way for you to leave a link back to your blog which begs a visit at the very least.
8. If you plan to have anything printed up, put your blog’s web address on it. You can print your blog URL on business cards, stickers, leaflets, etc.
9. Take advantage of blog software features that help to promote your Blog. For example, if you're using Blogger, you can do this by turning on: "Email This Post", "Post Pages" "Site feed" and the Blogger Navbar. These features will help attract new visitors to your blog.
10. Exchange Links with other Bloggers or blog owners. This is another effective strategy for generating targeted traffic to your blog for free. It involves contacting other blog owners for a possible link exchange partnership. All you have to do is locate blogs that are related to yours and contact the webmaster to swap links.
11. Write articles or free reports for other webmasters to publish and put your blog url in the byline. The ‘byline’ is the short paragraph that goes at the bottom of each article and describes who the author is and what they do. If you write good content, your articles will be published by other webmasters and many readers who like your article will go on to visit your blog.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author
Copyright © 2005. Chileshe Mwape writes for Debt Consolidation Loans UK: http://www.best-debt-consolidation-loan.co.uk/. Visit our site to consolidate debts and apply for a loan online. This article may be reprinted as long as all the above links are active and clickable.
10 Tips for Bloggers
Copyright © S. Housley
Tips for creating a blog. There are no hard and fast rules on how to blog. Having said that, bloggers will likely increase their exposure by following some simple blog guidelines.
1. Stay on topic.Opinions are generally accepted but the content of the items in the blog should all relate to a general theme. Unless you have an uncanny knack for wit, humor or cynicism, the majority of your readers will be interested in the content that relates to a specific defined theme or loosely defined area of interest. Most readers won't care that you eat Cheerios for breakfast. They may, however, be interested in the fact that vinegar takes out stains and that toilet paper rolls make great wreaths. Define a topic and stick to it. This will ensure that you create a loyal following of interested readers.
2. Stay informative.If you are attempting to create the impression that you are knowledgeable about a specific industry or sector, be sure that you stay current on news. If you are endorsing a product or voicing an opinion, be sure to check your facts; your reputation is at stake. If you are offering an opinion, be sure to qualify your post, making it clear that the content is intended as an editorial.
3. Old news is not news.While blogging every day can be a drain, it is important that the information presented is current and accurate, writing an article or blurb about something that happened 6 months ago, will not be of interest to many. Telling your audience that Martha Stewart was convicted and will be going to prison, after her sentence is completed will make people question the value of your columns.
4. Adhere to a schedule.Create a schedule and stick to it. Realizing that blogging requires time and effort, don't create unrealistic expectations and be unable to deliver. An occasional lapse or holiday is generally understood but readers returning to find stale, out-dated content are going to find another blog with similar content. New blogs and RSS feeds are popping up on a daily basis. If you have worked hard to develop an audience and a community you don't want to lose them due to lack of communication.
5. Clarity and simplicity.Keep your posts and blog entries clear and easy to understand. Remember, the web is global and expressions, idioms and acronyms don't always translate. Sometimes a little explanation goes a long way.
6. Keyword-rich.If the goal of your blog is to increase your visibility, include related keywords in the title of the blog. Use the title as a headline to attract interest. Each item post should have a title that will attract attention but still be relevant to the post. The title should be no longer than 10-12 words.
7. Quantity matters.In order to attract the attention of search engines, you will need to develop content and substance. A headline or simple sentence is not going to generate the interest of readers or help with search engine ranking. Be sure to archive old blog posts to develop a large portal of similarly-themed content.
8. Frequency.If your blog content is updated frequently, search engines will tend to spider the pages at regular intervals.
9. Spell checking and proof-reading.It only takes a few extra moments and can save you from having to make embarrassing explanations. Remember that whatever you publish on the Internet can be found and archived. Think carefully about what you post before doing so.
10. RSS. RSS will increase your blog's reach. It is important that you include your blog's content in an RSS feed to increase readership and distribution.
Most weblog audiences are small, but with time and regular updates audiences grow. Bloggers may never have more than a few hundred readers, but the people who return to regularly are generally interested in what you have to say.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author:Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing and publishing RSS feeds and NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software.
Tips for creating a blog. There are no hard and fast rules on how to blog. Having said that, bloggers will likely increase their exposure by following some simple blog guidelines.
1. Stay on topic.Opinions are generally accepted but the content of the items in the blog should all relate to a general theme. Unless you have an uncanny knack for wit, humor or cynicism, the majority of your readers will be interested in the content that relates to a specific defined theme or loosely defined area of interest. Most readers won't care that you eat Cheerios for breakfast. They may, however, be interested in the fact that vinegar takes out stains and that toilet paper rolls make great wreaths. Define a topic and stick to it. This will ensure that you create a loyal following of interested readers.
2. Stay informative.If you are attempting to create the impression that you are knowledgeable about a specific industry or sector, be sure that you stay current on news. If you are endorsing a product or voicing an opinion, be sure to check your facts; your reputation is at stake. If you are offering an opinion, be sure to qualify your post, making it clear that the content is intended as an editorial.
3. Old news is not news.While blogging every day can be a drain, it is important that the information presented is current and accurate, writing an article or blurb about something that happened 6 months ago, will not be of interest to many. Telling your audience that Martha Stewart was convicted and will be going to prison, after her sentence is completed will make people question the value of your columns.
4. Adhere to a schedule.Create a schedule and stick to it. Realizing that blogging requires time and effort, don't create unrealistic expectations and be unable to deliver. An occasional lapse or holiday is generally understood but readers returning to find stale, out-dated content are going to find another blog with similar content. New blogs and RSS feeds are popping up on a daily basis. If you have worked hard to develop an audience and a community you don't want to lose them due to lack of communication.
5. Clarity and simplicity.Keep your posts and blog entries clear and easy to understand. Remember, the web is global and expressions, idioms and acronyms don't always translate. Sometimes a little explanation goes a long way.
6. Keyword-rich.If the goal of your blog is to increase your visibility, include related keywords in the title of the blog. Use the title as a headline to attract interest. Each item post should have a title that will attract attention but still be relevant to the post. The title should be no longer than 10-12 words.
7. Quantity matters.In order to attract the attention of search engines, you will need to develop content and substance. A headline or simple sentence is not going to generate the interest of readers or help with search engine ranking. Be sure to archive old blog posts to develop a large portal of similarly-themed content.
8. Frequency.If your blog content is updated frequently, search engines will tend to spider the pages at regular intervals.
9. Spell checking and proof-reading.It only takes a few extra moments and can save you from having to make embarrassing explanations. Remember that whatever you publish on the Internet can be found and archived. Think carefully about what you post before doing so.
10. RSS. RSS will increase your blog's reach. It is important that you include your blog's content in an RSS feed to increase readership and distribution.
Most weblog audiences are small, but with time and regular updates audiences grow. Bloggers may never have more than a few hundred readers, but the people who return to regularly are generally interested in what you have to say.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author:Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing and publishing RSS feeds and NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software.
10 Benefits of Being a Blogger
Copyright © Nicholas Dixon
I have been a blogger since September 2004 but only began to take it seriously this year. My blogging journey began when I stumbled upon a company owned by Google named Blogger.com that offered free tools to build a website.
In fact Blogger provides you with free several templates which you can customize in addition to a domain name hosted on their server. You can host your blog on your domain if you like to.
Here are some benefits I found while blogging:
1. Easy to manage. A blog can be set up by even a novice in no time. All you have to do is post and publish. Blogging can get as simple as that or even more complex.
2. Easy to update. Blogs can be updated weekly or daily instead of sometimes monthly for a static website. Even adding a few paragraphs a day can be done in no time and can be beneficial to your search rankings.
3. Get spidered quickly. Search engine spiders crawl blogs with greater frequency than static webpages. I have had webpages that took over eight months to be indexed in Google where as Yahoo sometimes index my blogs in weeks sometimes days.
4. If you write articles then you can post all of them on your blog in addition to free reprint content that is widely available everwhere. The more content you have the better.
5. You can get your website indexed quicker. An article or a piece of news about your website with an optimize anchor link will send the spiders your way in no time.
6. Sell advertising space. If you have a popular blog then you can create a revenue stream by selling ad space. Blogads is one of several places where you can sell your ad space to major companies.
7. Similar to offering ad space, you can add Adsense to your blog to monetize your content. What I love about Blogger is that once you plug in the Adsense code into your main template, a new page is created and Adsense is automatically displayed when you make a post.
8. Review your affiliate products. If you have a blog that is in a niche then you can find affiliate programs for that niche and do reviews of them for a commission. Every time someone purchases the product or service through your link you make money.
9. It is still early to catch on. Blogs and RSS feeds are used by the minority of internet users which makes it excellent for you to start blogging right now. Less than 10% of the Americans which is the biggest online market use this emerging trend.
10. Can be syndicated. An easy way for your readers to stay in touch with updates is to add your blog to their My Yahoo and My MSN. They can see the latest information and how long ago it was added.
11. Yes a bonus! Savvy marketers know that if you add your blogs to My Yahoo you can have it indexed in no time by Yahoo. You can use these two websites to inform blog directories that you have updated your content.
a. http://WWW.Ping-o-matic.com
b. http://WWW.Rssfeedpromoter.com
So with all those benefits in mind there is no reason you should not start your own blog. So when do you decide to go blogging?
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© Oceanroc Web Publishing
About The Author
Nicholas Dixon has successfully use free articles as his primary source of marketing. Subscribe to his Free Four Day Email Course on how to use free articles to generate business and traffic at SubmitYourArticles@Getresponse.com or visit http://WWW.Oceanroc.Blogspot.com.
I have been a blogger since September 2004 but only began to take it seriously this year. My blogging journey began when I stumbled upon a company owned by Google named Blogger.com that offered free tools to build a website.
In fact Blogger provides you with free several templates which you can customize in addition to a domain name hosted on their server. You can host your blog on your domain if you like to.
Here are some benefits I found while blogging:
1. Easy to manage. A blog can be set up by even a novice in no time. All you have to do is post and publish. Blogging can get as simple as that or even more complex.
2. Easy to update. Blogs can be updated weekly or daily instead of sometimes monthly for a static website. Even adding a few paragraphs a day can be done in no time and can be beneficial to your search rankings.
3. Get spidered quickly. Search engine spiders crawl blogs with greater frequency than static webpages. I have had webpages that took over eight months to be indexed in Google where as Yahoo sometimes index my blogs in weeks sometimes days.
4. If you write articles then you can post all of them on your blog in addition to free reprint content that is widely available everwhere. The more content you have the better.
5. You can get your website indexed quicker. An article or a piece of news about your website with an optimize anchor link will send the spiders your way in no time.
6. Sell advertising space. If you have a popular blog then you can create a revenue stream by selling ad space. Blogads is one of several places where you can sell your ad space to major companies.
7. Similar to offering ad space, you can add Adsense to your blog to monetize your content. What I love about Blogger is that once you plug in the Adsense code into your main template, a new page is created and Adsense is automatically displayed when you make a post.
8. Review your affiliate products. If you have a blog that is in a niche then you can find affiliate programs for that niche and do reviews of them for a commission. Every time someone purchases the product or service through your link you make money.
9. It is still early to catch on. Blogs and RSS feeds are used by the minority of internet users which makes it excellent for you to start blogging right now. Less than 10% of the Americans which is the biggest online market use this emerging trend.
10. Can be syndicated. An easy way for your readers to stay in touch with updates is to add your blog to their My Yahoo and My MSN. They can see the latest information and how long ago it was added.
11. Yes a bonus! Savvy marketers know that if you add your blogs to My Yahoo you can have it indexed in no time by Yahoo. You can use these two websites to inform blog directories that you have updated your content.
a. http://WWW.Ping-o-matic.com
b. http://WWW.Rssfeedpromoter.com
So with all those benefits in mind there is no reason you should not start your own blog. So when do you decide to go blogging?
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© Oceanroc Web Publishing
About The Author
Nicholas Dixon has successfully use free articles as his primary source of marketing. Subscribe to his Free Four Day Email Course on how to use free articles to generate business and traffic at SubmitYourArticles@Getresponse.com or visit http://WWW.Oceanroc.Blogspot.com.
Earn Income By Starting Your Own Home-Based Business
Copyright © 2004 Paul Jesse
Are you interested in starting a home-based business? You may want to work from home for several reasons, including dissatisfaction with your current job, because you have small children or elderly parents that require you to be at home, or you may just need the income a home-based business opportunity can provide. Since you have come this far, you are already an Internet entrepreneur ready to take the first step in creating a steady income and implementing your home-based business ideas. You can be your own boss and generate steady income with your own home-based Internet endeavors.
The first step in starting a home-based business is to develop a business plan. Researching your options thoroughly and making wise decisions can make your home-based business very successful and give you a steady stream of income, all from the comfort of your home. There are numerous business opportunities geared towards those who want to work from home. Some promise instant wealth and long lasting success for simply signing up. The truth is that any home business will require effort, marketing, and a network of contacts. The amount of work you are willing to put into your home-based Internet business is directly related to the amount of income you may earn.
Plan each step of starting your business carefully. Examine your short and long-term goals and plan how you are going to achieve them. Some home business opportunities are free while others require an investment. Check into free affiliate programs, free home-based businesses, and take a look at those which will need an upfront financial commitment from you. It is possible to earn serious cash from home, but you will have to commit to your business plan and follow it closely. A home-based business must follow certain guidelines. The difference is that the business is located in your home.
Do not restrict what you do based on self-imposed doubt and lack of confidence. If you have an idea to start your own home-based business and are truly ready to take that step towards making your dreams a reality, then develop your plan and implement it. It takes self-discipline to plan your business and your life then work towards turning your ideas into steady cash. Make informed decisions and give your home-based business the time and energy it takes to build wealth. Distinguish yourself from the competition and you will be on your way to financial independence.
Successful home-based businesses utilize all available resources. There are many tools and sources of information freely offered that will assist you in achieving your goals. You can find any number of tips, marketing plans, strategies, and advice from the Internet and small business organizations. It is common for those starting an Internet or other home-based business to feel as if they are getting nowhere fast. Patience, discipline, and old-fashioned hard work are the key in creating a constant cash flow. If you have the motivation and discipline it takes, you can operate your own successful home-based business, generate the income you need, and enjoy the freedom of being your own boss.
To your success!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Jesse is a retired government employee and the author of several articles on home business and internet marketing. For home business ideas and opportunities visit his website at http://www.sheamarketing.com
Are you interested in starting a home-based business? You may want to work from home for several reasons, including dissatisfaction with your current job, because you have small children or elderly parents that require you to be at home, or you may just need the income a home-based business opportunity can provide. Since you have come this far, you are already an Internet entrepreneur ready to take the first step in creating a steady income and implementing your home-based business ideas. You can be your own boss and generate steady income with your own home-based Internet endeavors.
The first step in starting a home-based business is to develop a business plan. Researching your options thoroughly and making wise decisions can make your home-based business very successful and give you a steady stream of income, all from the comfort of your home. There are numerous business opportunities geared towards those who want to work from home. Some promise instant wealth and long lasting success for simply signing up. The truth is that any home business will require effort, marketing, and a network of contacts. The amount of work you are willing to put into your home-based Internet business is directly related to the amount of income you may earn.
Plan each step of starting your business carefully. Examine your short and long-term goals and plan how you are going to achieve them. Some home business opportunities are free while others require an investment. Check into free affiliate programs, free home-based businesses, and take a look at those which will need an upfront financial commitment from you. It is possible to earn serious cash from home, but you will have to commit to your business plan and follow it closely. A home-based business must follow certain guidelines. The difference is that the business is located in your home.
Do not restrict what you do based on self-imposed doubt and lack of confidence. If you have an idea to start your own home-based business and are truly ready to take that step towards making your dreams a reality, then develop your plan and implement it. It takes self-discipline to plan your business and your life then work towards turning your ideas into steady cash. Make informed decisions and give your home-based business the time and energy it takes to build wealth. Distinguish yourself from the competition and you will be on your way to financial independence.
Successful home-based businesses utilize all available resources. There are many tools and sources of information freely offered that will assist you in achieving your goals. You can find any number of tips, marketing plans, strategies, and advice from the Internet and small business organizations. It is common for those starting an Internet or other home-based business to feel as if they are getting nowhere fast. Patience, discipline, and old-fashioned hard work are the key in creating a constant cash flow. If you have the motivation and discipline it takes, you can operate your own successful home-based business, generate the income you need, and enjoy the freedom of being your own boss.
To your success!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Jesse is a retired government employee and the author of several articles on home business and internet marketing. For home business ideas and opportunities visit his website at http://www.sheamarketing.com
5 Tips for better management of home business
Copyright © 2004 Arun Pal Singh
Home business on the net offers an opportunity to earn a lot of money. But like any other business it demands a constant input. A better execution of efforts would bring better results. Inculcating a professional approach and attitude would take you to the success at a real pace.
1. Be your real boss:
Being your own boss is very lucrative but the responsibility of making it success is also with you. The very boss in your regular job (who is hated more than often) does a lot of work for you. Be it disciplining or producing the necessary motivation for the required results. This is your business now. You are your own boss. Nobody else will share the responsibility (for that matter credit of success will also be yours only). So be a boss really. Don’t fall into leisure trap otherwise time will fly and you will find yourself without any progress. When you are in business, business is the top priority. You are at home for work and not for relaxation. It is not just home anymore. It is your office too.
2. Grasp your business, Stay put:
Be clear in what you are doing and why are you doing. Grasp the concepts of tools you need to use. Understand where you are in your business. Growth of a business is exponential. That implies that in early part the curve is almost flat before it rises steeply. Don’t let that flat part discourage you. Keep working, the bang will be there. Stay put. Success will come.
3. Organize your business:
Set your goals. Accomplish your daily list of work. A small step everyday would take you to the destination. Contrary to the perception home business requires efforts. And more so in the early phase. Yes, the success is sooner on the net but it is not instant. Schedule your work. Better if you can make a time table. It helps to maintain discipline. Find you peak efficiency hours. It could be early morning or late night. Devote with full concentration.
4. Keep yourself motivated:
Encourage yourself regularly (remember your boss who used to do this!). Read motivational books. Get inspired. Think positively. Keep the fire inside you burning. It is a good idea to learn the success stories of people who have made it. A good source is IAHBE . It offers you numerous success stories of people who started like us. One gets a great inspirational boost.
5. Maintain a good health:
Last but not the least keep a good mind and body. As you work from home you don’t have privilege of interaction with your colleagues as in regular job.It gets boring sometimes. Join a health club. Shape yourself up. It will increase you efficiency too. Take breaks frequently. Enjoy your hobbies.Entertain yourself. Finally, this is your baby. You can groom it in any way you want. Some time later you can be a proud father.
That will be the time when you will look back, smile and pronounce ‘I did it’. Till then keep working. Wish you success.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arun Pal Singh runs a successful business from home at http://www.homeforprofits.com. He is also publisher and editor of Home business tips and tricks , a free newsletter with hundreds of tips for home business which can be subscribed by mailing to homeforprofits@getresponse.com
Home business on the net offers an opportunity to earn a lot of money. But like any other business it demands a constant input. A better execution of efforts would bring better results. Inculcating a professional approach and attitude would take you to the success at a real pace.
1. Be your real boss:
Being your own boss is very lucrative but the responsibility of making it success is also with you. The very boss in your regular job (who is hated more than often) does a lot of work for you. Be it disciplining or producing the necessary motivation for the required results. This is your business now. You are your own boss. Nobody else will share the responsibility (for that matter credit of success will also be yours only). So be a boss really. Don’t fall into leisure trap otherwise time will fly and you will find yourself without any progress. When you are in business, business is the top priority. You are at home for work and not for relaxation. It is not just home anymore. It is your office too.
2. Grasp your business, Stay put:
Be clear in what you are doing and why are you doing. Grasp the concepts of tools you need to use. Understand where you are in your business. Growth of a business is exponential. That implies that in early part the curve is almost flat before it rises steeply. Don’t let that flat part discourage you. Keep working, the bang will be there. Stay put. Success will come.
3. Organize your business:
Set your goals. Accomplish your daily list of work. A small step everyday would take you to the destination. Contrary to the perception home business requires efforts. And more so in the early phase. Yes, the success is sooner on the net but it is not instant. Schedule your work. Better if you can make a time table. It helps to maintain discipline. Find you peak efficiency hours. It could be early morning or late night. Devote with full concentration.
4. Keep yourself motivated:
Encourage yourself regularly (remember your boss who used to do this!). Read motivational books. Get inspired. Think positively. Keep the fire inside you burning. It is a good idea to learn the success stories of people who have made it. A good source is IAHBE . It offers you numerous success stories of people who started like us. One gets a great inspirational boost.
5. Maintain a good health:
Last but not the least keep a good mind and body. As you work from home you don’t have privilege of interaction with your colleagues as in regular job.It gets boring sometimes. Join a health club. Shape yourself up. It will increase you efficiency too. Take breaks frequently. Enjoy your hobbies.Entertain yourself. Finally, this is your baby. You can groom it in any way you want. Some time later you can be a proud father.
That will be the time when you will look back, smile and pronounce ‘I did it’. Till then keep working. Wish you success.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arun Pal Singh runs a successful business from home at http://www.homeforprofits.com. He is also publisher and editor of Home business tips and tricks , a free newsletter with hundreds of tips for home business which can be subscribed by mailing to homeforprofits@getresponse.com
Tips for Starting a Legitimate Home Based Business
Copyright ©2004 Mal Keenan
The number of home-based business opportunities is rapidly growing. In fact, over 50% of small business owners work from home. Numerous programs and options are available. If you would like a legitimate home based business but are having trouble deciding which is right for you, exercising a few precautions can go a long way in making sure you choose the best program for you.
There are legitimate home business opportunities that can start you on your way to financial freedom. Research each opportunity thoroughly and choose wisely. You can earn an excellent income, be your own boss, and work the days and hours you desire.
The home business industry is expanding continuously and research suggests that revenue generated from home-based businesses will increase by 17% yearly through the year 2008. Legitimate home business opportunities are highly successful when they are more than just get rich quick schemes. Valuable marketing tools combined with affiliate/prospect systems, discussion groups, and contact with those who are already earning money from the same company are excellent ways to help you make your business successful.
There is a wide range of business opportunities to consider, including Internet based businesses, retail sales, import/export, and even stuffing envelopes. Some are legitimate businesses, and some are not. It's important to know everything about the company and to communicate with those already involved so you understand completely any risks you may be taking, how long before you can reasonably expect to make serious money, and what amount of work is required to make that money.
Have practical expectations when starting a home-based business. Expecting to make enormous amounts of money in a very short time is unrealistic. Most legitimate home businesses do not promise instant wealth, but may offer a steady income stream that can increase gradually. It takes a certain amount of time to build a successful home business. Spend adequate time researching your business.
Make sure there is a large market for your service or product to help ensure your economic success. There is plenty of information on the Internet and through the US Small Business Administration to assist you in making informed decisions as to starting a home-based business.
People start a home-based business for many different reasons. They may be dissatisfied with their current job, unemployed, or have family situations that require them to be at home. By starting and maintaining a legitimate home-based business, you can realize your dream of being your own boss.
It is a good idea to write a business plan, as it may be your roadmap to reaching your objectives. There are numerous articles on the Internet and in libraries that can assist you in developing your business plan as well as addressing the many other issues involved with starting and operating a business from home.
And last, but not least, seek the advice of a tax professional. Your first reaction may be that you can't afford such expenses right now; but in reality you can't afford not to seek such advice from the very beginning of your home business start-up. They can advise you about ways you may be able to reduce the amount of taxable business income at the end of the year. Paying for an hour or two of consultation with a tax professional at the beginning will probably save you much more than that amount later on down the road.
An amazing number of people seem to think that magic is somehow created when you put the words "home-based" in front of the word "business." It's still business...it just happens to be based in the home.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mal Keenan is editor and publisher of Home Business Tips Newsletter:
http://www.home-business-tips-newsletter.com/
For A Home Business You Can Believe In, With Benefits, Click Below: http://www.eliteteamireland.com
The number of home-based business opportunities is rapidly growing. In fact, over 50% of small business owners work from home. Numerous programs and options are available. If you would like a legitimate home based business but are having trouble deciding which is right for you, exercising a few precautions can go a long way in making sure you choose the best program for you.
There are legitimate home business opportunities that can start you on your way to financial freedom. Research each opportunity thoroughly and choose wisely. You can earn an excellent income, be your own boss, and work the days and hours you desire.
The home business industry is expanding continuously and research suggests that revenue generated from home-based businesses will increase by 17% yearly through the year 2008. Legitimate home business opportunities are highly successful when they are more than just get rich quick schemes. Valuable marketing tools combined with affiliate/prospect systems, discussion groups, and contact with those who are already earning money from the same company are excellent ways to help you make your business successful.
There is a wide range of business opportunities to consider, including Internet based businesses, retail sales, import/export, and even stuffing envelopes. Some are legitimate businesses, and some are not. It's important to know everything about the company and to communicate with those already involved so you understand completely any risks you may be taking, how long before you can reasonably expect to make serious money, and what amount of work is required to make that money.
Have practical expectations when starting a home-based business. Expecting to make enormous amounts of money in a very short time is unrealistic. Most legitimate home businesses do not promise instant wealth, but may offer a steady income stream that can increase gradually. It takes a certain amount of time to build a successful home business. Spend adequate time researching your business.
Make sure there is a large market for your service or product to help ensure your economic success. There is plenty of information on the Internet and through the US Small Business Administration to assist you in making informed decisions as to starting a home-based business.
People start a home-based business for many different reasons. They may be dissatisfied with their current job, unemployed, or have family situations that require them to be at home. By starting and maintaining a legitimate home-based business, you can realize your dream of being your own boss.
It is a good idea to write a business plan, as it may be your roadmap to reaching your objectives. There are numerous articles on the Internet and in libraries that can assist you in developing your business plan as well as addressing the many other issues involved with starting and operating a business from home.
And last, but not least, seek the advice of a tax professional. Your first reaction may be that you can't afford such expenses right now; but in reality you can't afford not to seek such advice from the very beginning of your home business start-up. They can advise you about ways you may be able to reduce the amount of taxable business income at the end of the year. Paying for an hour or two of consultation with a tax professional at the beginning will probably save you much more than that amount later on down the road.
An amazing number of people seem to think that magic is somehow created when you put the words "home-based" in front of the word "business." It's still business...it just happens to be based in the home.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mal Keenan is editor and publisher of Home Business Tips Newsletter:
http://www.home-business-tips-newsletter.com/
For A Home Business You Can Believe In, With Benefits, Click Below: http://www.eliteteamireland.com
There Is No Such Thing As Time Management!
Copyright © Ann Rusnak
Many years ago hanging on the office wall was a caricature of a young man. His hair was disheveled and his face portrayed the look of frustration and aggravation. The words next to him summed up that look... "God put me on earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I am so far behind, I'll never die!!"
Have you felt that way yourself? You have so much to do, no time to do it and the list keeps getting longer. Have you said to yourself "if I can just manage time better, I can get a lot more down."
The word manage means to have under effective control. Can you have time under effective control? You begin every day with 24 hours. You can't add to it, you can't borrow more time, you can't rearrange time, you can't bank extra hours. In reality, there is no such thing as time management because the can't control time.
What can you manage? The activities within a 24 hour period can be managed. I was very ill several years ago and there were days I couldn't get out of bed. With the help of 5 mentors, all successful business owners and super-achievers, I learned how to accomplish things 15 minutes increments.
There are three areas in your life that most activities occur, personal, family, and business. You can effectively maximize activities by understanding yourself. Know your peak performance time and your personality temperament. What are the activities you do in the three areas of the life? How long does it take you to do each of them? Create a time budget for those activities.
Here is a sample time budget of what a typical business day will look for me. Your day will probably be different.
6:00 - 6:30 Get daughter off to school
6:30 - 8:30 Back to bed and sleep
8:30 - 9:30 Breakfast, clean up and dressed
9:30 - 1:00 Business activities
1:00 - 2:00 Lunch
2:00 - 3:30 Business activities
3:30 - 4:00 Pick daughter up from school
4:00 - 4:30 Talk to Husband who just came home from work
4:30 - 5:30 Business activities
5:30 - 6:00 Straighten office and review next day activities
6:00 - 7:00 Microwave dinner and eat
7:00 - 10:00 Personal and family time
10:00 - 1:00 Business activities
1:00 - 6:00 Sleep
I'm a night person and there are times I will take a nap in the afternoon. Also I found the need to keep personal activities out of the business time. There is another day dedicated to laundry, shopping ect.
Develop a time budget based on your activities and what works for you. Be flexible.
Fifteen Steps to Time Maximizing Activities
1. Keep a time journal of all your activities for the next week or two. This includes play time. The goal is not look like "A Super Person". You want this to be a reflection of your life. If you play Nintendo for two hours, put it down. Do you require 8 hours of sleep? Does working in the garden relax you?
2. Analyse your journal. How many things do you do? How long does it take you to get them done? What activities can you delegate?
3. Create a time budget like above for those activities.
4. Get organized.
5. Schedule quiet time to do you planning and time budget weekly.
6. Schedule maintenance time to stay organized.
7. Allow flexibility. The time budget is guideline not a strict regiment.
8. Learned to say NO.
9. Spot negative trends.1
10. Handle paperwork immediately and only once it is possible.
11. Keep clutter under control.
12. Respect the time of others.
13. Overcome procrastination.
14. Be accountable to someone.
15. Take time for yourself. VERY IMPORTANT!
Activity management won't happen overnight. It will take time to form this new habit. But once you grasp it, you be surprised at what you can accomplish in less time with less stress.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ann Rusnak is the 15 Minute Time Coach helping entrepreneurs use The "15 Minute a Day" Technique to put them in control of their time to grow their business faster and more profitable in less time with less stress! Subscribe to "Just 15 Minutes" and receive time saving information to grow YOUR business in less time.http://www.just15minutes.com
Many years ago hanging on the office wall was a caricature of a young man. His hair was disheveled and his face portrayed the look of frustration and aggravation. The words next to him summed up that look... "God put me on earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I am so far behind, I'll never die!!"
Have you felt that way yourself? You have so much to do, no time to do it and the list keeps getting longer. Have you said to yourself "if I can just manage time better, I can get a lot more down."
The word manage means to have under effective control. Can you have time under effective control? You begin every day with 24 hours. You can't add to it, you can't borrow more time, you can't rearrange time, you can't bank extra hours. In reality, there is no such thing as time management because the can't control time.
What can you manage? The activities within a 24 hour period can be managed. I was very ill several years ago and there were days I couldn't get out of bed. With the help of 5 mentors, all successful business owners and super-achievers, I learned how to accomplish things 15 minutes increments.
There are three areas in your life that most activities occur, personal, family, and business. You can effectively maximize activities by understanding yourself. Know your peak performance time and your personality temperament. What are the activities you do in the three areas of the life? How long does it take you to do each of them? Create a time budget for those activities.
Here is a sample time budget of what a typical business day will look for me. Your day will probably be different.
6:00 - 6:30 Get daughter off to school
6:30 - 8:30 Back to bed and sleep
8:30 - 9:30 Breakfast, clean up and dressed
9:30 - 1:00 Business activities
1:00 - 2:00 Lunch
2:00 - 3:30 Business activities
3:30 - 4:00 Pick daughter up from school
4:00 - 4:30 Talk to Husband who just came home from work
4:30 - 5:30 Business activities
5:30 - 6:00 Straighten office and review next day activities
6:00 - 7:00 Microwave dinner and eat
7:00 - 10:00 Personal and family time
10:00 - 1:00 Business activities
1:00 - 6:00 Sleep
I'm a night person and there are times I will take a nap in the afternoon. Also I found the need to keep personal activities out of the business time. There is another day dedicated to laundry, shopping ect.
Develop a time budget based on your activities and what works for you. Be flexible.
Fifteen Steps to Time Maximizing Activities
1. Keep a time journal of all your activities for the next week or two. This includes play time. The goal is not look like "A Super Person". You want this to be a reflection of your life. If you play Nintendo for two hours, put it down. Do you require 8 hours of sleep? Does working in the garden relax you?
2. Analyse your journal. How many things do you do? How long does it take you to get them done? What activities can you delegate?
3. Create a time budget like above for those activities.
4. Get organized.
5. Schedule quiet time to do you planning and time budget weekly.
6. Schedule maintenance time to stay organized.
7. Allow flexibility. The time budget is guideline not a strict regiment.
8. Learned to say NO.
9. Spot negative trends.1
10. Handle paperwork immediately and only once it is possible.
11. Keep clutter under control.
12. Respect the time of others.
13. Overcome procrastination.
14. Be accountable to someone.
15. Take time for yourself. VERY IMPORTANT!
Activity management won't happen overnight. It will take time to form this new habit. But once you grasp it, you be surprised at what you can accomplish in less time with less stress.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ann Rusnak is the 15 Minute Time Coach helping entrepreneurs use The "15 Minute a Day" Technique to put them in control of their time to grow their business faster and more profitable in less time with less stress! Subscribe to "Just 15 Minutes" and receive time saving information to grow YOUR business in less time.http://www.just15minutes.com
How To Save BIG In Your Online Business
Copyright © 2005 Willie Crawford
When you're first starting an online business, it can be a struggle finding the money to invest in the things that will grow your business most. Only later do you discover things all the guru's know that could have saved you a small fortune. Here are a few things that will help you save on Internet marketing business necessities.
In order to be in business on the Internet you DO need a website. Hosting that website doesn't need to cost you an arm and a leg. Here are two ways to save:
1) Don't register your domain through your web host. Instead go to a discount registrar. Your web host will charge you up to $40 or more (per year) just to conveniently handle your domain name registration. You can register or renew your domain name yourself for as little as $8 per year. I've set up a service for my subscribers and clients to do just that at: http://WillieCrawford.com/domains/
How am I able to offer you such a bargain? I have a domain name reseller account at Wild West Domains. For around $100 per year, practically anyone can become a domain name reseller. You are charged a wholesale price for domain name registrations (and other services offered on my site above). You decide how much you want to mark up your prices above that. I have practically no markup because I enjoy helping beginners get off to a good start. I know that you'll be back for other products and services that I offer - after you're a big success :-)
2) Consider getting a web hosting account here: http://www.profitautomation.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=119107
I have an account that lets me host up to 50 domains for only $109 per month. That equates to about $2 per domain, per month. The $109 package that I have gives me 4400 meg of disk space and 100 gigabytes of monthly bandwidth to spread among my 50 domains in that account any way that I want to.
The account above is intended for people who want to open their own web-hosting business. Basically, you can get one of these accounts and then charge your online or local customers whatever price you choose. Find 50 local customers and charge them $100 each and you've just turned $109 into $5000. That's a nice monthly revenue stream and it's also in-line with what offline businesses expect to pay.
The above account isn't for everyone. It doesn't come with a lot of free tech support. You have to go through some online tutorials and then you're the tech support. If you need help, you can get it through an online forum or through a trouble ticket system (where you pay by the minute). When one of your customers needs help, their trouble tickets go to you. If you pass them along to the parent company, you are billed by the minute.
I use the above account to host many of my own domains. I have numerous very simple sites that are only a few pages. Some are only a one-page sales letter. I save a bundle by paying only $2 per month to host these. When you're paying only $2 per month for hosting you don't need to make a lot of sale for a site to be profitable.
Another necessity is basic Internet access. For that I use my local cable company but I also have a backup dialup connection. That account, which offer decent service cost me less than $10 per month. Because I transfer many 30 meg or larger files back and forth regularly, this account probably isn’t robust enough to be my primary. However, my local cable company does sometimes have outages for various reasons. That's when I use this dialup account most. I also use it sometimes while I'm traveling. You can checkout the company I use at: http://47928.yourdialupservice.com/ They offer thousands of local access numbers in the U.S. and Canada.
I have not located a comparable resource for outside the U.S. and Canada, but will pass it along when I do.
Another way to save big is to get your own merchant account. When you use Paypal or Clickbank, your initial investment may be less. However you pay much higher processing fees, and your less professional appearance DOES cost you sales. Savvy customers who understand Clickbank and Paypal will recognize that you're not processing enough volume to consider a merchant account worthwhile. They may consider you an amateur that they don't want to risk major purchases with.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't use Paypal or Clickbank when you first start out and you're not confident that your product will even sell. I AM saying that "when you're ready to run with the big dogs, you need to look like one of them." Top marketers that I know who are processing tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of dollars per month in credit card transactions use: http://WarriorProcessing.com Take a look at the site and you'll see why it's who we use.
As you get your online business rolling, the other thing you'll need is traffic. When you first get started, the fastest way to get it is from the pay-per-clicks. I use Google AdWords to drive initial traffic to all of my sites when I need that traffic fast. That allows me to quickly get enough traffic to test and improve my conversion rate. None of the other pay-per-clicks usually deliver the volume of traffic that I want quickly enough.
After I refine things using Google AdWords, I do set up accounts at some of the other pay-per-clicks. I use Google AdWords at first because I place a very high value on my time and I don't want to spend months just getting enough traffic to refine the sales process on a single site.
Unless you have lots of free time, I wouldn't waste time on any other traffic source initially EXCEPT for the one I am using right here. Writing and submitting articles to ezines and article directories has proven the single best source of free traffic for me. It works so well that I've written over 300 articles on various aspect of Internet marketing. To prove that this works, just enter my name at any search engine. You'll see millions of returns and most of them are simply from my article writing activities.
The other thing that will save you time is studying and practicing copywriting. Minor improvement in your web copy can easily increase your conversion rate by 100 times. Not learning copywriting is practicing false economy for most of us. If only 1 out of every 200 visitors to your site buys and just by changing a headline you can change that to 1 in 20, that shows just how important copywriting is. There have been countless documented cases of people getting improvements this dramatic from minor but important improvement in their web copy.
To learn copywriting, I went through and highly recommend Yanik Silver's Ultimate At-Home Internet Copywriting Workshop. This will be your largest initial expense, but it's a necessary one. Words sell, and if you're not willing to learn to use words properly in your marketing, then you probably shouldn't waste time setting up a website.
You can get all of the details on this course at: http://www.ultimateonlinecopymanual.com
We've just gone over a number of way that you can dramatically cut the expenses associate with operating your online business. I'm willing to bet that I've just told you things that NO ONE else has told you. They aren't all trying to take advantage of you. However, they are hoping that out of ignorance you'll spend more on the same items through them. Save that money and plow it back into growing your business.
This article is excerpted from Willie Crawford's Revised, Free 20-lesson Internet Business Success Course. To sign up for the entire course today, simply visit: http://WillieCrawford.com
When you're first starting an online business, it can be a struggle finding the money to invest in the things that will grow your business most. Only later do you discover things all the guru's know that could have saved you a small fortune. Here are a few things that will help you save on Internet marketing business necessities.
In order to be in business on the Internet you DO need a website. Hosting that website doesn't need to cost you an arm and a leg. Here are two ways to save:
1) Don't register your domain through your web host. Instead go to a discount registrar. Your web host will charge you up to $40 or more (per year) just to conveniently handle your domain name registration. You can register or renew your domain name yourself for as little as $8 per year. I've set up a service for my subscribers and clients to do just that at: http://WillieCrawford.com/domains/
How am I able to offer you such a bargain? I have a domain name reseller account at Wild West Domains. For around $100 per year, practically anyone can become a domain name reseller. You are charged a wholesale price for domain name registrations (and other services offered on my site above). You decide how much you want to mark up your prices above that. I have practically no markup because I enjoy helping beginners get off to a good start. I know that you'll be back for other products and services that I offer - after you're a big success :-)
2) Consider getting a web hosting account here: http://www.profitautomation.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=119107
I have an account that lets me host up to 50 domains for only $109 per month. That equates to about $2 per domain, per month. The $109 package that I have gives me 4400 meg of disk space and 100 gigabytes of monthly bandwidth to spread among my 50 domains in that account any way that I want to.
The account above is intended for people who want to open their own web-hosting business. Basically, you can get one of these accounts and then charge your online or local customers whatever price you choose. Find 50 local customers and charge them $100 each and you've just turned $109 into $5000. That's a nice monthly revenue stream and it's also in-line with what offline businesses expect to pay.
The above account isn't for everyone. It doesn't come with a lot of free tech support. You have to go through some online tutorials and then you're the tech support. If you need help, you can get it through an online forum or through a trouble ticket system (where you pay by the minute). When one of your customers needs help, their trouble tickets go to you. If you pass them along to the parent company, you are billed by the minute.
I use the above account to host many of my own domains. I have numerous very simple sites that are only a few pages. Some are only a one-page sales letter. I save a bundle by paying only $2 per month to host these. When you're paying only $2 per month for hosting you don't need to make a lot of sale for a site to be profitable.
Another necessity is basic Internet access. For that I use my local cable company but I also have a backup dialup connection. That account, which offer decent service cost me less than $10 per month. Because I transfer many 30 meg or larger files back and forth regularly, this account probably isn’t robust enough to be my primary. However, my local cable company does sometimes have outages for various reasons. That's when I use this dialup account most. I also use it sometimes while I'm traveling. You can checkout the company I use at: http://47928.yourdialupservice.com/ They offer thousands of local access numbers in the U.S. and Canada.
I have not located a comparable resource for outside the U.S. and Canada, but will pass it along when I do.
Another way to save big is to get your own merchant account. When you use Paypal or Clickbank, your initial investment may be less. However you pay much higher processing fees, and your less professional appearance DOES cost you sales. Savvy customers who understand Clickbank and Paypal will recognize that you're not processing enough volume to consider a merchant account worthwhile. They may consider you an amateur that they don't want to risk major purchases with.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't use Paypal or Clickbank when you first start out and you're not confident that your product will even sell. I AM saying that "when you're ready to run with the big dogs, you need to look like one of them." Top marketers that I know who are processing tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of dollars per month in credit card transactions use: http://WarriorProcessing.com Take a look at the site and you'll see why it's who we use.
As you get your online business rolling, the other thing you'll need is traffic. When you first get started, the fastest way to get it is from the pay-per-clicks. I use Google AdWords to drive initial traffic to all of my sites when I need that traffic fast. That allows me to quickly get enough traffic to test and improve my conversion rate. None of the other pay-per-clicks usually deliver the volume of traffic that I want quickly enough.
After I refine things using Google AdWords, I do set up accounts at some of the other pay-per-clicks. I use Google AdWords at first because I place a very high value on my time and I don't want to spend months just getting enough traffic to refine the sales process on a single site.
Unless you have lots of free time, I wouldn't waste time on any other traffic source initially EXCEPT for the one I am using right here. Writing and submitting articles to ezines and article directories has proven the single best source of free traffic for me. It works so well that I've written over 300 articles on various aspect of Internet marketing. To prove that this works, just enter my name at any search engine. You'll see millions of returns and most of them are simply from my article writing activities.
The other thing that will save you time is studying and practicing copywriting. Minor improvement in your web copy can easily increase your conversion rate by 100 times. Not learning copywriting is practicing false economy for most of us. If only 1 out of every 200 visitors to your site buys and just by changing a headline you can change that to 1 in 20, that shows just how important copywriting is. There have been countless documented cases of people getting improvements this dramatic from minor but important improvement in their web copy.
To learn copywriting, I went through and highly recommend Yanik Silver's Ultimate At-Home Internet Copywriting Workshop. This will be your largest initial expense, but it's a necessary one. Words sell, and if you're not willing to learn to use words properly in your marketing, then you probably shouldn't waste time setting up a website.
You can get all of the details on this course at: http://www.ultimateonlinecopymanual.com
We've just gone over a number of way that you can dramatically cut the expenses associate with operating your online business. I'm willing to bet that I've just told you things that NO ONE else has told you. They aren't all trying to take advantage of you. However, they are hoping that out of ignorance you'll spend more on the same items through them. Save that money and plow it back into growing your business.
This article is excerpted from Willie Crawford's Revised, Free 20-lesson Internet Business Success Course. To sign up for the entire course today, simply visit: http://WillieCrawford.com
Starting a Home Business on a Budget
Copyright © 2005 Suzanne Morrison
Have you ever dreamed of starting your own business? Have you wondered what it would be like to get up every morning and be in control of your financial destiny without having to depend on a job? Perhaps you enjoy your job and you simply want to start a part-time business from home to supplement your income but the problem is you have very little extra money to invest in a new venture.
If this is your dream then now is the time. Never before in history has there been a better time to start a home business and this is especially true for those on a limited budget. Why is this so? The answer is simple. The World Wide Web. The Internet has enabled hundreds of thousands of people to start home businesses working from home with very little start up cash. It is now possible for individuals working from home in their pajamas to start businesses and compete in the global marketplace on the same playing field as large corporations. Anyone with a service or something to sell can build a website and using the available and often free tools on the Internet be in business almost instantly.
Setting up an Internet home business usually has much lower start up costs than the traditional brick and mortar alternative. With a traditional business there are significant overhead expenses which are usually due even before you can start making money. These expenses include: rent for office or store space, inventory to stock your store if you are planning to sell retail products, advertising, liability insurance, and the list goes on. In fact it can costs thousands.
Starting an internet business has much lower start up costs because your store is in cyberspace and your office is in your home. You can find numerous low costs options for building websites online as well as suppliers who will ship your products to your customers as they are purchased instead of storing huge amounts of products which is expensive and takes up storage space.
One of the best ways to get started on a low budget is by selling products on eBay. Millions of people are shopping on eBay every single day looking for just about every kind of product you can imagine. One of the reasons eBay is such a great place to start a home business on a budget is because the traffic is already there. Ebay has already done the advertising and all you need to do is show up and post your products. If you were to build your own website you would need to market your site and buyers would need to find it before they could buy from you. Secondly, eBay has taken the expense and difficulty out of building an Internet store. For a low monthly fee you can build an Internet store on eBay complete with your own logo and a shopping cart system. This is actually very similar to setting up shop in a mall in the brick and mortar world.
Another low cost way to make money on the Internet is through affiliate programs. Affiliate programs allow you to make money by placing links on your site to other websites and each time someone clicks through to the website you are an affiliate for you make money. If you have a website this is one of the easiest ways to add revenue to your current income. Many Internet retailers have affiliate programs.
There are many other opportunities on the Internet for starting your own home business. It is recommended that you take some time to research the various options but be careful of scams. If you do an Internet search on topics such as “home business” or “work at home” you will likely find a lot of good information but you will also find many scams out there who promise riches only want to take your money and leave you with nothing to show for it. The best tip for avoiding scams on the Internet is the old saying, “If it sounds too good to be true – it probably is.”
Whatever type of business you decide to start on the Internet it is important that you treat your business like a business. Above all, find something that interests you and that you will be passionate about and you can be successful beyond your wildest dreams.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Suzanne Morrison is the owner and webmaster of How to Start an Internet Business She makes her money online using the Plugin Profit Site You can get your own Plugin Profit Site set up and ready to make money for you within 24 hours.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Have you ever dreamed of starting your own business? Have you wondered what it would be like to get up every morning and be in control of your financial destiny without having to depend on a job? Perhaps you enjoy your job and you simply want to start a part-time business from home to supplement your income but the problem is you have very little extra money to invest in a new venture.
If this is your dream then now is the time. Never before in history has there been a better time to start a home business and this is especially true for those on a limited budget. Why is this so? The answer is simple. The World Wide Web. The Internet has enabled hundreds of thousands of people to start home businesses working from home with very little start up cash. It is now possible for individuals working from home in their pajamas to start businesses and compete in the global marketplace on the same playing field as large corporations. Anyone with a service or something to sell can build a website and using the available and often free tools on the Internet be in business almost instantly.
Setting up an Internet home business usually has much lower start up costs than the traditional brick and mortar alternative. With a traditional business there are significant overhead expenses which are usually due even before you can start making money. These expenses include: rent for office or store space, inventory to stock your store if you are planning to sell retail products, advertising, liability insurance, and the list goes on. In fact it can costs thousands.
Starting an internet business has much lower start up costs because your store is in cyberspace and your office is in your home. You can find numerous low costs options for building websites online as well as suppliers who will ship your products to your customers as they are purchased instead of storing huge amounts of products which is expensive and takes up storage space.
One of the best ways to get started on a low budget is by selling products on eBay. Millions of people are shopping on eBay every single day looking for just about every kind of product you can imagine. One of the reasons eBay is such a great place to start a home business on a budget is because the traffic is already there. Ebay has already done the advertising and all you need to do is show up and post your products. If you were to build your own website you would need to market your site and buyers would need to find it before they could buy from you. Secondly, eBay has taken the expense and difficulty out of building an Internet store. For a low monthly fee you can build an Internet store on eBay complete with your own logo and a shopping cart system. This is actually very similar to setting up shop in a mall in the brick and mortar world.
Another low cost way to make money on the Internet is through affiliate programs. Affiliate programs allow you to make money by placing links on your site to other websites and each time someone clicks through to the website you are an affiliate for you make money. If you have a website this is one of the easiest ways to add revenue to your current income. Many Internet retailers have affiliate programs.
There are many other opportunities on the Internet for starting your own home business. It is recommended that you take some time to research the various options but be careful of scams. If you do an Internet search on topics such as “home business” or “work at home” you will likely find a lot of good information but you will also find many scams out there who promise riches only want to take your money and leave you with nothing to show for it. The best tip for avoiding scams on the Internet is the old saying, “If it sounds too good to be true – it probably is.”
Whatever type of business you decide to start on the Internet it is important that you treat your business like a business. Above all, find something that interests you and that you will be passionate about and you can be successful beyond your wildest dreams.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Suzanne Morrison is the owner and webmaster of How to Start an Internet Business She makes her money online using the Plugin Profit Site You can get your own Plugin Profit Site set up and ready to make money for you within 24 hours.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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