DeSain Sahara

3 Simple Tips For Making Money Online Even If You Don’t Have Anything To Sell!

2011-02-07T08:24:00.000-08:00

3 Simple Tips For Making Money Online Even If You Don’t Have Anything To Sell!

Have an idea about making money online but don’t know where to start?

There are several ways to make money on the Internet – even if you don’t have a product to sell. Keep in mind that running an online business takes time and effort, just like running any business. However, you can get started without any products, which is one less roadblock for most people wanting to start a business.

You don’t need to be a computer expert to run an online business, but you do need to either be able to set up a website, or have the resources to pay someone else to do it for you.

Here are 3 simple ways to make money online even if you don’t have your own product:

Affiliate programs
Being an affiliate means you are selling other people’s products, and you get a percentage of the sale, or you make a small fee for each person who requests more information. Most major retailers offer affiliate programs, along with many smaller retailers (with lots of good products and services). It’s not a good idea to try to compete with an established retailer like Wal-Mart, Target, or Circuit City. A better way to make money is to find a “niche” that serves a smaller group of people, that you can easily reach.

For example, rather than selling sporting goods to everyone, you might start a fishing site that sells canoes and fishing products to people who like fresh water fishing. You can also find smaller retailers who may offer more specialized products to those who know a lot about fishing, while selling the basics from Wal-Mart to beginners.

A good place to start is http://mulyaditutorial.aweber.com , and you’ll get an idea of the products you can offer. Be creative in finding your niche, start with something you know a little about, or enjoy doing, and before long you can be making money online!

Adsense from Google
Adsense is an advertising program from search engine Google.com (there are other advertising programs you can offer, but for now Google’s is the biggest and most popular). By placing ads on your site, you earn money for each person who clicks on the ad. Google will automatically determine which ads are best for your site, based on the topic of each web page. All you have to do is place the code on your web page, and Google does the rest.

You can also sell individual ads, and determine your own terms and price. But using a program like Google is simple, and if your set gets a lot of visitors, you can make good money. Again, the best way to succeed is to find a niche, create a website around that topic, and Google will be able to determine the best ads for your visitors.

Write a “How-To” booklet
If you don’t want to sell other people’s products, but don’t have a lot of money to create your own, a simple way to get started is to write your own “how-to” booklet. Pick a topic you know enough to write about, and start writing. Information products are always good sellers – the key is to solve a particular problem. “How to catch fresh water fish” or “How to plan a fishing vacation on a tight budget” are possibilities for the fishing niche mentioned above.

To learn more, do a search for “creating information products” or “writing e-books”, and you will find lots of resources. Once you create your product, Clickbank.com offers a simple service to help you sell your information product, and there are others to help you get started.

Again, be creative, there are lots of problems out there that people need help with. And offering a good solution can make you lots of money!

Making money online takes more than just building a website. You need to pick the right products or services. Then you need to find the right audience to sell those products and services. Then you need to promote your website to enough people so you can make money. For now, you should have enough ideas to get you started – even if you don’t have a product to sell yet!

3 Easy, Money Making Internet Business Models

2011-02-07T08:18:00.000-08:00

3 Easy, Money Making Internet Business Models

Amid all the noise and hype on the Internet today, not many people realize that all the ideas and techniques you can find are petty much useless if you don't first understand your business model. In other words, even the most amazing Internet marketing technique will not work if you don't understand how to apply it to YOUR business.

The 3 most popular business models are:

1) Affiliate Marketing

This is perhaps the most popular one out there, since there are absolutely no barriers to entry. Almost anyone can sign-up for an affiliate program for free and start promoting the product or service on the Internet with hopes that someone will buy, giving them instant commissions. Affiliate marketers don't carry any risk, since they do not pay for the creation of the product, they do not handle customer service and they do not need any up-front investments.

When you consider that those are the top three things people want to avoid, it's no surprise that almost everyone and their neighbor promotes an affiliate program or another. In fact, if there is a single reason why the Internet today is so proliferated with ads and banners, it's because of affiliate programs.

Even though there are so many affiliate marketers out there, only 5% ever make any money and only 1% makes big money. The "Super Affiliates" do it very differently from all the other millions; therefore they earn the big checks.

You can get a good idea of how to be a good affiliate marketer here: http://mulyaditutorial.aweber.com

2) E-book and Information Publishing

Sitting at the other end of the spectrum, e-book authors need to be more disciplined in their approach to Internet marketing. Of course, they also need to invest more than affiliates do. While affiliates can get away trying to "get something for nothing" the same is not true for the e-book type of business.

If you're thinking about publishing and selling your own e-book online, and you think it's going to be easy, think again. You'll need to learn a lot more than affiliates are required to. You'll need to spend some amount of money getting your business up and running. However, when you do it right, the payoff in this online business model is much more rewarding.

The reason why e-book marketers and "Infopreneurs" make more money is simple; they have very, very low production and maintenance costs. Anything digital doesn't cost a single cent to be produced in millions if necessary. Whatever initial start-up costs spent can be covered by selling just a few copies of high-margin e-books, and you can even recruit an army of affiliates who are more than willing to do all the selling for you.

Of course, it's not as easy as it sounds, but the point is, when done properly, the "E-book Publishing" model is a truly profitable business.

You can learn more about e-book publishing at http://mulyaditutorial.aweber.com

3) Internet Based Network Marketing

I've heard many people say that the Internet and network marketing are a match made in heaven. In my opinion, though, almost 90% of people get it wrong when it comes to Internet based network marketing. People in this business usually think they're talking about network marketing, but in reality they are talking about affiliate marketing.

They try to make the Internet do all the work. They hide behind their computers and pretend everything's going great. They focus on selling more and more every month. They have systems that are so complicated only they can understand it. Well, that doesn't sound like network marketing to me!

Internet based network marketing is simple if you understand it, and are willing to put in the effort. The role of the Internet here is only to get you the names and contact details of people you can talk to, after which YOU, not a computer, has to build a relationship with these people and help them to start their own business.

For this simple purpose, it is not necessary for you to have a high-tech system and pretend that your auto responder is building relationships for you. It's not going to work. The key is to have simple systems that are duplicable, something you can teach to all those people you have built a relationship with. For this purpose I use NetMarkPro at http://mulyaditutorial.aweber.com and teach my own affiliates to use it too.

E-book authors, no matter what they say, have no obligation to teach you their "Secret Strategies to Become a Millionaire” of any variations to that. The reason is simple; why tell you the absolute truth when you'll end up as their competitor? No one wants more competitors, right?

Internet based network marketing is very much the opposite of that. You HAVE to tell people EVERYTHING you know or your business will never take off. For this reason alone, I always recommend that if you're new to the online world, you need to first join an Internet based network marketing business at least to learn. Rest assured, no one will be selling you half-baked truths when their success ultimately depends on yours.

These are the Top 3 most popular online business models today. There are more, of course, and you can read about it at http://mulyaditutorial.aweber.com

No matter which model you choose, make sure you understand the basics, and stop listening to and buying things that are not applicable to your business. Information overload can stop you before you even get started.

3 EASY WAYS TO LOWER YOUR COSTS!

2011-02-07T08:12:00.000-08:00

3 EASY WAYS TO LOWER YOUR COSTS!

If you have a business you should be bartering goods and services with other businesses. You should try to trade for something before you buy it. Barter deals usually require little or no money. Another option would be to network your business with other businesses. You could trade leads or lists. This will cut down on your marketing and advertising costs. 2) FREE AND LOW COST You should try visiting the thousands of freebie sites on the internet before buying your business supplies. You can find free software, graphics, backgrounds, online business services, etc. Have you ever purchased business equipment you only needed for a small period of time? You could have just borrowed the equipment from someone else or rented the equipment from a "rent-all" store. 3) SMART AND THRIFTY Make a list of business supplies or equipment you'll need in the future. Save money buying your business supplies in bulk quantities. Find lower prices on business supplies and equipment at online and offline auctions. If your business equipment and supplies don't need to be new, buy them used. You should always try negotiate a lower price for any business equipment or supplies. It doesn't hurt to try. Pretend you are talking to a salesman at a car lot. Also keep on the look out for new lower priced supplies. QUICK READ SUMMARY 1) Barter your goods or services and network your business with other ones. 2) Look for free business stuff online and if all fails, borrow or rent. 3) Find lower prices at online auctions, wholesale sources and don't forget to negotiate.

1st Thing You Need To Change in Starting Up a home biz

2011-02-07T08:09:00.000-08:00

1st Thing You Need To Change in Starting Up a home biz

Home business is a great opportunity to get your own freedom. If you are like me who doesn't like to work with others, who values more freedom than job security, then you are in need of doing your own business. Personally I hate waking up early in the morning just because I have to go to the office and get caught in traffic jam and wasting
my valuable time in the road.

Like Robert Kiyosaki says "Mind Your Own Business". So the first thing you need to change is your MINDSET. If you never have your own business before and you always work with others then you need to change your employee mindset into a business owner mindset.

It's not easy to start your own business. You need to start it with the right attitude. The attitude will define your success in future. You must understand that building a business is NOT a get rich quick scheme. It takes time before you will get the fruits of the business. Every successful business owners start their business from nothing with struggles and perseverance.
Its pretty similar with body building, you need to spend enough time and effort before you start seeing your muscle increasing in mass.

Try to ask yourself, Am I a risk taker? it means willingness to learn and try again if failing, 100% business owners will succeed just because they have "Never Quit" attitude.
Do I have time and money to be invested into my business?
Most people who quit doing their home based business is just because they don't treat it like other business. You must realise that ALL business needs TIME & MONEY to be invested. You need to make an INVESTMENT. Fortunately with the internet, home business owner can leverage their time and money.

With the right mindset you will run your business with the right attitude. Then followed with the right path to take in form of a series of proven actions (like my http//mulyaditutorial.aweber.com ) will give you success in a short time!

"Affiliate Programs to Avoid"

2011-02-07T08:04:00.000-08:00

"Affiliate Programs to Avoid"

As an affiliate marketer of Internet dating services, I'm always on
the lookout for good quality dating sites and products to offer my
single visitors. Merchants help me out when they let me know
about their new products and affiliate programs.

I was therefore thrilled when one of my friendly affiliate competitors
got in touch to tell me that he'd started his own Internet dating
service and affiliate program.

Having launched a community membership site myself last year,
I could fully appreciate the huge amount of time and money my
friend had invested to develop this new site. He was justifiably
proud of his accomplishment and I was excited by the prospect
of having a product to promote that would benefit everyone -
my customers, my friend and myself.

Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out that way.

The first stumbling block was the low commission he offered. His
top rate was 30%, with no commissions on recurring sales.

This puzzled me. As an affiliate marketer of dating programs, he
should have been aware that new sites offer at least 50% on
new and recurring sales to entice good affiliates to sign up. If
commissions on recurring sales are not offered, then the rates on
new sales should be increased to between 70 and 100 percent.

In most cases, his affiliate program would have struck out for me
at that point. However, as this was my friend's site, it occurred to
me that perhaps his product was so unique that the potential for
high volume sales might offset the lower commission. Hoping for
the best, I continued my review.

When I got to the site, the first thing I noticed was '6 registered
members' prominently displayed at the top of the homepage.
That normally wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that my
customers are looking for friends and soul mates. If I send them
to a site where there are only six people to meet, they'll likely be
disappointed. Worse, by wasting their time, they lose trust in my
judgement and then I will lose them as customers.

That's not good. My customers are literally my bread and butter.
Giving them what they want and expect is how I stay in business.
Paying for traffic that I send to a merchant site where there is
nothing to buy, will put me out of business.

(This is how a membership site should be structured. When
starting a dating service, the merchant pays for advertising to
bring people to their site. To entice visitors to sign up as members,
he will initially offer his services for fr*ee. When the database is
large enough to attract paying customers, the affiliate program
manager then invites potential affiliates to join their program.)

Although my friend's program had already struck out for my customers
and me, I was still curious, so I kept on looking.

Next I clicked on a link labeled 'Dating Resources'. Expecting to find
Internet dating tips and advice, I found links and banners pointing
to Lavalife, FriendFinder and other affiliated dating sites instead.
When I asked him about placing affiliate programs on his site, my
friend said he simply wanted to supplement his income until the
dating service got *rolling*. I can understand his motivation. However,
what he doesn't understand is the concept of customer 'hijacking'.

As an affiliate, you pay good money to get visitors to your site. You
presell your merchants' products and expect the merchant to honor
their end of the bargain by making the sale and sending your
commission check. You don't pay for the merchant to send YOUR
customers to THEIR affiliated merchants.

I didn't need to look any further. I told my friend that I would hold
off on signing up and why. Fortunately, he understood and has already
alleviated some of the problems I mentioned.

Knowing when NOT to sign up for an affiliate program can sometimes
be a tough call. However, you can simplify the process considerably.
Put yourself inside your customer's head. If the product won't work
for them, the program strikes out. Simple as that.

Top 10 Marketing Tools

2011-02-06T15:34:00.000-08:00

Top 10 Marketing Tools

Whether you are an early technology adopter or not, there is no denying that the careful application of certain technology tools can help you more effectively automate your marketing processes.

Automation allows you to contact more clients and prospects more frequently with less work - all good things.

The following is a list and brief description of my Top 10 Marketing Automation tools. (What got them on the list is that I use each one personally)

AWeber - This is a service that allows me to automatically manage my email database, send auto responses to requests and send this newsletter. There are many choices for this type of service but AWeber is the best. - http://mulyaditutorial.aweber.com
TypePad - This is a hosted blog software that is simple to use but very powerful. With a Pro account you can set-up as many blogs as you wish. Blogs are great but what about using the technology as a client portal. You can password protect a TypePad blog and use it to share information and files with clients.

AudioGenerator - Publish audio content to your website. Create audio testimonials. All you do is call a phone number, record your message like voicemail and pick-up the code to put the audio on your web site. This is a great way to get audio testimonials from clients.

Feedburner - This is a service I use to extend the power of my RSS feeds. Feedburner makes the feed compatible with any reader, gives me tools to promote subscriptions and even automatically alerts the major blog and RSS directories every time I add new content to my blog.

Google News Alerts - Type in as many search terms as you like, even your name and your company name, and Google will deliver an email alert of any mention of your search terms in the Internet new wires. This can be a great way to track some of your own PR and and keep tabs on competitors and industry trends.

BlinkList - Your surfing around the Internet and you come upon a web site that you want to remember. Hit a button and add the site to a BlinkList folder. The service is free and allows you to create and store web page URL's in a way that you can access them at a later date. This is a great research tool. An added benefit of this online service is that you can publish your lists as RSS feeds. Surf around and find lots of great resources that relate to your business and with one line of code you can paste this list on a web page. When you change the list, it automatically updates on your site.

Submit Your Article - This service allows you to submit up to four articles each month and then distributes the articles to hundreds of web sites, article directories and ezine publishers. There is a charge for this service, but it is well worth the exposure and traffic you will gain from consistent use.

PRLeads - Dan Janal's PR Leads service sends you leads from reporters who are working stories that relate to your business or expertise. Several times a day you will receive an email with contact information of reporters who are requesting information. This service has led to several major PR mentions for me including two appearances in Entrepreneur magazine.

PRWeb - A free press release distribution service. This service allows you to post press releases and see them automatically distributed around the Internet. For a $30 donation you also get inclusion in Google and Yahoo news. With the amount of sites that republish those news feeds you get great exposure whether a reporter calls or not.

ACT - This customer relationship management software allows you to keep detailed information on clients and prospects as well as keeping tabs on mailings and lead generation campaigns. Add a new contact and you can set-up ACT to alert you to mail the new contact series of letters automatically.

There you have it! Now, that should keep you busy for the rest of the week.

eCommerce Web Site Building: Where Do I Start?

2011-02-06T15:27:00.000-08:00

eCommerce Web Site Building: Where Do I Start?

Building a web site isn't something that is really cut and dry. There's a huge variety of products and services that can either help you get your web site where you want it or simply confuse you. It's also important that you make the right choices upfront so that you don't end up having to restructure your whole web site because of some problem in your design layout. The level of time investment neccessary for mastery in a lot of these software packages can range from little to a VERY significant amount. Because of this I feel it's important to be lead in the "right" direction to make sure you don't spend time in the wrong areas, or learning some software that might not be all that useful for you later on (*coughs* Frontpage *coughs*).

Where you should start greatly depends on what you plan on attempting to do, and how deep you're going to dive in. For a moderately professional, clean looking web site without a lot of automation or intensive animated graphics you can probably get by with some basic knowledge of html, ability with a good WYSIWYG editor, and an image editting program. On the other hand, if you're someone that's looking to build something that will really wow your audience then you might consider spending some major time and developing some animation skills with a program like Macromedia Flash. I personally always spring for what I believe will bring me the greatest amount of profit with a minimal amount of effort, and because of this I usually end up spending all of my time diving in deeper with ONLY my WYSIWYG HTML editor, and my image editor.

## What is a "WYSIWYG" editor? ##
A WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor is what allows you to get by with minimal knowledge of HTML. Yes, that means you don't have to know EVERYTHING about HTML to have a decent looking website. When you use a WYSIWYG editor it interprets what you're doing (inserting an image for example) as being a certain series of HTML tags with attributes, and does it for you... Thus, what you see on your screen is what you get. Instead of seeing a bunch of HTML code in text format, you'll mostly see what will actually show up in your browser once your web site is up WHILE you're making it. I highly recommend using the latest version of dreamweaver -- it is well-known as one of the best HTML editors by general consensus. Dreamweaver's interface is very friendly, has a built in FTP client, and is specifically built to be flexible enough to suit both the coder and the everyday amatuer webmaster.

## Image editing? What do I need that for? ##
Okay, let's be realistic here: If you're going to make a professional *appearing* web site it's important that you can make some basic, decent looking graphics. There's a lot of graphics problems that can truly get the job done, but as far as power and flexibility goes I recommend Adobe Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop definitely takes some time getting used to, but in the end it's VERY rewarding. I've ended up using my knowledge of Photoshop to make not only graphics for multiple web sites, but also touched up portraits, made business cards, flyers, and other online advertisments such as banners. Infact, I've used it for everything except animation... But it also comes with Adobe Imageready which is very good with animation. This software is amazing, and if you're going to learn ANY image editing software I recommend you start with Photoshop because of it's widerange of overall... usefulness!

## Let's get me some sales! ##
Kick off your new web site you've gotten up from your knowledge of webmastering and image editing with a few new sales... Sounds like a plan? Well a great way to do that quickly is with pay-per-click advertising. BUT WAIT! Doesn't that cost money? Well... Yes. But with the tools brought to us by some of the biggest pay-per-click advertisers out there we should be able to make a good evaluation of how much profit we're going to make without much investment upfront.

The big question behind pay-per-click advertising is whether or not it's worth the cash when you can simply get traffic from regular search engine ranking (otherwise known as organic traffic). Afterall, there are plenty of companies out there that promise to help get you all the traffic you need through optimizing your web site for organic ranking. The answer to this question is quite simple: profit is profit. Through conversion tracking tools such as those offered by Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google Adwords anyone can calculate exactly what their profit is after cost of PPC advertising is taken out. In my opinion, Google Adwords has the most user-friendly interface among the PPC advertisers. Google Adword's interface makes it very easy to see which keywords are pulling you in the most sales, and which ones aren't even worth your advertising money.

Let us not forget, however, that in order to make those conversions we're going to be needing a shopping cart! There's a lot of diverse software packages out there you can use, but I've been using Mal's E-Commerce Free shopping cart for a number of years with great success. The cart's server is hosted on their machines so that means you not only get away with not having to pay for the software itself, but you get out of having to buy an SSL security ticket too! Nothing's a better bargain than free, eh?

## Getting those sales leads you've been building up to BUY! ##
Once you've scored a few sales it would probably be a good idea to start using some kind of lead management services. I highly recommend the use of autoresponders for this purpose. Autoresponders are, essentially, a newsletter sign-up that allows you to strategically determine what you want to send each lead after a certain alotted amount of time. For example, let's say someone visits your web site and you offer them a free newsletter. If you were selling an ebook on some very complicated topic, you might consider sending them only information on the most basic concepts at first to get them interested. Slowly but surely, you can turn those visitors that might have left your web site and never have returned into some serious revenue!

As far as autoresponders go, I highly recommend the use of Aweber. Their customer service is superb (seriously, these guys really know their stuff!) and can be contacted at any point during the business day via online chat or phone. They also offer tons of free information, and guides on making the most of their services. Check out their month long free trial at http://mulyaditutorial.aweber.com/ .

Can You Really Develop An Outstanding Basketball Shot?

2011-02-06T15:24:00.001-08:00

Can You Really Develop An Outstanding Basketball Shot?

Struggling with your basketball shooting? We're going to begin fixing that right now! First, let's look at some general tips as you're striving to reach your full basketball shooting potential:
1) Focus: This is absolutely necessary to have any real success in basketball. Focus on delivering your best.
2) Confidence: You can know all the basketball tips, plays or drills in the world, but if you don't have a powerful self-image, you're in for a tough haul.
The good news? You'll develop more confidence as you practice.
3) Desire: Put simply, you gotta want it more than the next guy!
4) Positive Attitude: No one likes a crybaby, right? If you put out a negative vibe, it's gonna affect everything from your team to all your fundamentals and skills. Develop a child-like enthusiasm in what you do.
5) Never Give Up
Basketball shooting is what everyone gets the most excited about. It's thrilling when the ball makes it through the hoop and more points are piled on.
Realize that becoming great at basketball shooting (free throws, layups, 3-pointers, etc.) means putting in tons of practice time. Shooting is a skill. Whether or not you become better or worse depends on whether or not you're practicing correctly.
Let's dig into the fundamentals of the "One-Handed Set Shot".
Shot Set-Up
Get your basic set-up right. Feet shoulder width apart, weight spread evenly on the balls of your feet with the knees bent slightly. If you're right-handed, place your right foot slightly ahead of the left and stick your butt out slightly. Remember, your power comes from the legs, not arms. The shot begins from the floor up.
Ball Placement
Hold the ball close to your chest, just below your chin. Your shooting hand should be positioned a little under the ball and a little more toward the back. Non-shooting hand should be cupped, slightly under the ball and a little more toward the front.
Load the Gun
Lock your wrist and cock it back. If the ball is cocked correctly, you'll see wrinkles on the back of your wrist.
Elbow and Head Placement
Your hand, forearm, elbow, knee and foot should be in a straight line. Don't let your elbows stick out at your side. This will change the ball's rotation and might make it curve. Keep the elbow pointed at the basket.
Keep your head up and directly above the midpoint between your feet. Focus on the front of the rim before, during, and after your shot.
The Shot
Your weight should roll up onto the toes of your forward foot. Be sure you're releasing upward and toward the basket and not reaching forward as you release. It's OK to leave your feet a bit as your back foot gives you a quick, upward push. Throw your head up and through and then land just ahead of the position from where you began.
As the ball leaves your hand, the fingers and thumbs on each hand should be well spread with the palms almost facing one another. Snap your wrist to release the ball off your fingers and achieve the correct back spin necessary for a soft shot.
Follow Through
In your follow through, the forefinger should be the last finger to touch the ball. Your palm turns out a bit as the ball is released. Visualize putting your hand into the basket as this will help you get complete elbow extension and wrist flexion during the follow through.

Build Your Own Business and Quit Your Job

2011-02-06T15:21:00.001-08:00

Build Your Own Business and Quit Your Job

Do you dream of making a big income in your own homebased business? Can't wait to tell the boss you're leaving on your terms? If that's you, then you sound like us. In order to do that, you need to find the business opportunity that allows you to do so as quickly and easily as possible.
Let's explore how to find the right business opportunity. There are five keys to working with the right product and the right company:
1) Residual Income
You'll never be truly free until you find a business that'll pay you a continuing monthly residual income. If you have to keep fighting to sell in order to live, how much freedom have you achieved?
2) Consumable Product
Make sure you offer a product that your clients need to re-order on a monthly basis. This way, after you've made the effort to earn a trusting customer, you'll be paid over and over. You don't want to have to build a client base the size of China in order to have success.
3) Marketable
You want a product that's easy to understand. If it takes all day to get someone to understand what it is, how long will it take for them to understand why they need it?
Also, your product needs to get results fast for those using it. In today's fast paced world, people want results now. That's just the way it is. No reason to fight that fact with a product that takes so long to work, no one will give it a chance.
4) Get Started Quickly
Your company must allow you to start making money immediately. There are some good products that are marketable with great residual income, but you need to get licensed first or go through long, extensive background checks. If you're trying to attract someone into your business, which do you think they'll like better - getting paid in a couple of weeks or in 3-6 months?
5) Exclusive Product
You want to be marketing a product that is so unique that it can't be found anywhere else. If someone wants it, they have to get it from you. This is where most companies fall down. But if you research carefully, you can find products that meet this criteria.
Once you find a business opportunity that meets these five criteria, only a little hard work is what stands between you telling your boss you quit, living your life on your terms and feeling like a completely free individual.
By the way, it's a wonderful way to live!

Building Ecommerce Web Sites: Where Do I Start?

2011-02-06T15:17:00.000-08:00

Building Ecommerce Web Sites: Where Do I Start?

Building a web site isn't something that is really cut and dry. There's a huge variety of products and services that can either help you get your web site where you want it or simply confuse you. It's also important that you make the right choices upfront so that you don't end up having to restructure your whole web site because of some problem in your design layout. The level of time investment neccessary for mastery in a lot of these software packages can range from little to a VERY significant amount. Because of this I feel it's important to be lead in the "right" direction to make sure you don't spend time in the wrong areas, or learning some software that might not be all that useful for you later on (*coughs* Frontpage *coughs*).

Where you should start greatly depends on what you plan on attempting to do, and how deep you're going to dive in. For a moderately professional, clean looking web site without a lot of automation or intensive animated graphics you can probably get by with some basic knowledge of html, ability with a good WYSIWYG editor, and an image editting program. On the other hand, if you're someone that's looking to build something that will really wow your audience then you might consider spending some major time and developing some animation skills with a program like Macromedia Flash. I personally always spring for what I believe will bring me the greatest amount of profit with a minimal amount of effort, and because of this I usually end up spending all of my time diving in deeper with ONLY my WYSIWYG HTML editor, and my image editor.

What is a "WYSIWYG" editor?

A WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor is what allows you to get by with minimal knowledge of HTML. Yes, that means you don't have to know EVERYTHING about HTML to have a decent looking website. When you use a WYSIWYG editor it interprets what you're doing (inserting an image for example) as being a certain series of HTML tags with attributes, and does it for you... Thus, what you see on your screen is what you get. Instead of seeing a bunch of HTML code in text format, you'll mostly see what will actually show up in your browser once your web site is up WHILE you're making it. I highly recommend using the latest version of dreamweaver -- it is well-known as one of the best HTML editors by general consensus. Dreamweaver's interface is very friendly, has a built in FTP client, and is specifically built to be flexible enough to suit both the coder and the everyday amatuer webmaster.

Image editing? What do I need that for?

Okay, let's be realistic here: If you're going to make a professional *appearing* web site it's important that you can make some basic, decent looking graphics. There's a lot of graphics problems that can truly get the job done, but as far as power and flexibility goes I recommend Adobe Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop definitely takes some time getting used to, but in the end it's VERY rewarding. I've ended up using my knowledge of Photoshop to make not only graphics for multiple web sites, but also touched up portraits, made business cards, flyers, and other online advertisments such as banners. Infact, I've used it for everything except animation... But it also comes with Adobe Imageready which is very good with animation. This software is amazing, and if you're going to learn ANY image editing software I recommend you start with Photoshop because of it's widerange of overall... usefulness!

Let's get me some sales!

Kick off your new web site you've gotten up from your knowledge of webmastering and image editing with a few new sales... Sounds like a plan? Well a great way to do that quickly is with pay-per-click advertising. BUT WAIT! Doesn't that cost money? Well... Yes. But with the tools brought to us by some of the biggest pay-per-click advertisers out there we should be able to make a good evaluation of how much profit we're going to make without much investment upfront.

The big question behind pay-per-click advertising is whether or not it's worth the cash when you can simply get traffic from regular search engine ranking (otherwise known as organic traffic). Afterall, there are plenty of companies out there that promise to help get you all the traffic you need through optimizing your web site for organic ranking. The answer to this question is quite simple: profit is profit. Through conversion tracking tools such as those offered by Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google Adwords anyone can calculate exactly what their profit is after cost of PPC advertising is taken out. In my opinion, Google Adwords has the most user-friendly interface among the PPC advertisers. Google Adword's interface makes it very easy to see which keywords are pulling you in the most sales, and which ones aren't even worth your advertising money.

Let us not forget, however, that in order to make those conversions we're going to be needing a shopping cart! There's a lot of diverse software packages out there you can use, but I've been using Mal's E-Commerce Free shopping cart for a number of years with great success. The cart's server is hosted on their machines so that means you not only get away with not having to pay for the software itself, but you get out of having to buy an SSL security ticket too! Nothing's a better bargain than free, eh?

Getting those sales leads you've been building up to BUY!

Once you've scored a few sales it would probably be a good idea to start using some kind of lead management services. I highly recommend the use of autoresponders for this purpose. Autoresponders are, essentially, a newsletter sign-up that allows you to strategically determine what you want to send each lead after a certain alotted amount of time. For example, let's say someone visits your web site and you offer them a free newsletter. If you were selling an ebook on some very complicated topic, you might consider sending them only information on the most basic concepts at first to get them interested. Slowly but surely, you can turn those visitors that might have left your web site and never have returned into some serious revenue!

As far as autoresponders go, I highly recommend the use of Aweber. Their customer service is superb (seriously, these guys really know their stuff!) and can be contacted at any point during the business day via online chat or phone. They also offer tons of free information, and guides on making the most of their services. Check out their month long free trial at http://mulyaditutorial.aweber.com

How To Profit From Affiliate Programs Working just 10 to 20

2011-02-06T15:08:00.000-08:00

How To Profit From Affiliate Programs Working just 10 to 20

The beauty of the Internet is you can own your own business and
earn good money without spending much time at it. You don't have
to mind the store or keep office hours. You don't even have to
be there to answer the phone.

I've known any number of successful Internet entrepreneurs who
got started earning profits online while still working demanding
full-time jobs. Kevin Needham of Memail.com became a major name
on the Web while still holding down his government job. The
media often tells the story of Jim Daniels who started his online
publishing empire while working as a middle-manager for a tech
firm.

Kevin Nunley was a DJ at an oldies station when his articles
started appearing on AOL. Superstar Internet biz person and tech
consultant Kate Schultz was a corporate manager when she
began posting her own ads online.

The moral of these stories is don't let your busy life stand in
the way of your desire to earn extra money or even a good living
online. The Internet will bend, twist, and adapt for you more
than any other kind of business.

But you have to go at it the right way or you will wind up
spending way more time and money than you intended. Here is a
simple plan to get you earning online while working at it just 10
to 20 minutes each day.

1. Choose your affiliate program wisely. You will want one main
program you can promote intensively. It is much easier to make
an impact with one good program you market heavily than spreading
yourself too thin over a dozen or more programs.

Right now affiliates report their biggest earners are information
products that tell affiliate program members and others how to
earn better profits. Ken Envoy's "Make Your Site Sell" course,
Corey Rudl's "Insider Secrets," and Jim Daniels' big "Make A
Living Online" are real winners in this category.

You can also do well working with a company that represents many
products and other affiliate programs. Check the many affiliate
products and services housed under the ClickBank.com umbrella.
QuinStreet.com features direct marketing services and ecommerce
technology.

2. Market to friends and associates using a simple signature
file in your email. This is dirt simple yet incredibly powerful.
Email messages have a very personal quality that sells. Your
email program will let you set this up.

Your sig file should start with a headline that tweaks the
reader's interest. Then follow with your web site address and
your autoresponder address (more on this later.) Here's what
your "sig" might look like.

------------
I made $500 with this program last month. Want
to know more? See http://mulyaditutorial.aweber.com
------------

3. Remember how I promised you would only have to work 10 to 20
minutes per day? The key to this is using the Internet's ability
to automate tasks.

No question about it, you will want a series of canned email
messages you can send to people who are interested. Use a
multiple autoresponder to do this (freeautobot.com is a good
one.) When someone emails your autoresponder address, they get
your messages, one each day.

Chances are the affiliate program offers sales letters you can
use. If not, get a professional writer to help you put together
three sales letters. A set of three often works as well as the
more common seven messages.

4. Finally, get your own web site. It is super easy to build a
nice page or two using the free systems at Tripod.com and
Homestead.com.

While most marketing on the Net is done with email, customers
expect you have a web site with additional information.
Rather than using the free site the affiliate program gives you,
create your own site. Your site can tell your story, help people
get to know you, tell why you support the affiliate product, then
link to your affiliate member site.

There are two reasons for this. Starting prospects with your own
site gives you a lot more power to sell. You can tell the story
of how you used the product and succeeded (very powerful!) and
display additional products or services that compliment your main
affiliate offer.

Most search engines won't list a canned affiliate site, but they
WILL list the original site you create. Search engines can be an
immense automated source of free visitors.

That's all it takes! Do these four things 10 to 20 minutes per
day and you will be well on your way to earning with affiliate
programs.

Recent stats show the average person spends 20 hours per week
online. If you get organized, there is no reason you can't use
at least a little of your weekly Internet time to work your own
small business.

How To Fully Automate Your Website So You Don’t Waste Time Working

2011-02-06T15:04:00.000-08:00

How To Fully Automate Your Website So You Don’t Waste Time Working

So you don’t have a way of managing all of the customer responses coming through your inbox? I can relate, please let me share a personal story.

When I first started my online business, I didn’t know what an autoresponder was, and I was intimidated by setting one up on my site. I simply had an HTML form set up that would send e-mail address of people that wanted my newsletter straight to my inbox. I can only imagine the amount of money that I was leaving on the table. I had no way of responding back to my potential customers. When I saw a newsletter signup come into my inbox, I would copy and paste a reply back to them.

The times have changed. Not only is the above situation not acceptable, but there’s no way you can effectively grow your business without an autoresponder.

After all, since you now have your website set up to sell your e-book, you are going to need a way to handle the various types of correspondence being sent to you from potential customers.

Autoresponders are an effective and economical innovation (software program) designed to “respond” to any messages a website receives. Thousands of online businesses use autoresponders to send a confirmation “thank you” notice when anyone registers with their email address on the site. Think of them as an answering machine for your website.

Using an autoresponder is a critical component to having a successful ebook business. Not only do you need to respond to messages and inquiries, you must implement an email sales campaign to promote your ebook. If you were to try to manage the emails yourself, the task will eventually become impractical and extremely time consuming. You could hire someone to answer them, but when your site is receiving several hundred hits a day with an average of 50% registering to receive more information; you would need to hire several people thus making the cost very prohibitive. In business, “time is money and money is time”, and online, and autoresponder is the only solution.

If you do not have an autoresponder, you will lose sales, and lots of them. If you are not using an auto email program to get these non-committals to return to your site, you will not be able to sell your ebook to them. It’s really as simple as that.

How does an autorepsonder work? By utilizing the information you input into the programs, the Autoresponder will automatically answer any email or sign-up your site receives. You can even program a variety of responses and how many times you want to send your customers an email; plus any sales receipts, download information and access, support problems – can all be effectively handled by an autoresponder. Obviously if there is a support situation, you or your webmaster will need to step in and fix the problem, but the autoresponder can easily let the customer know that someone will be emailing them soon to help.

Due to the nature of your business (e-book sales), you will need a variety of email autoresponses depending upon the situation. A typical list of responses for an e-book sales site might include some or all of the following:

1) Thank you response for visiting and signing up;
2) Free newsletter emailed to all sign-ups;
3) Special offer emails to entice purchase;
4) Purchase notification/invoice;
5) Thank you for purchasing;
6) Informing of your newest e-book;
7) Offer free course/bonus for signing up;
8) Notification of problems/complaints received from customers;
9) Notification of feedback received.

Basically the uses of the program are endless, in fact anything that you would want emailed to several customers can be handled through an autoresponder. And just like the almost limitless uses, there are a vast number of autoresponder companies vying to handle your e-business correspondence.

Many sites have free autoresponder programs available which handle minimal email tasks; however because you are trying to sell ebooks, you should look for a system or service that does not limit the capabilities of your emails. Make sure you get unlimited email size plus you will need the ability to send multiple emails to the same person over a period of time. Remember, the reason for sending several emails over a course of time is based on the fact that most customers (about 60% - 70%) do not purchase on their first visit. If they are interested in learning more about your ebook, they will sign up for more information. And this is when you use an autoresponder to send multiple targeted information emails to drive those reluctant customers back to your site for the purchase. You will also want to have the ability to track your emails to assess the effectiveness of such a campaign. We use www.aweber.com and www.getresponse.com is also a good solution.

The messages you will want to send will depend upon the reason for the need to respond. One way you can handle this by having multiple email addresses for your site. Here is a short list of email addresses you will need:
1) support@yoursite.com
2) Yourname@yoursite.com
3) Yourassistant@yoursite.com
4) sales@yoursite.com

If you need additional addresses, do not hesitate to set them up and use them; the more you categorize your customer’s emails, the better you, your webmaster and your autorepsonder program will work. The autoresponder will know the difference between newsletter sign-ups, customer logins, purchases, and so on. This is all configured in the program, as is sending notification emails for receipt of a customer’s inquiry at one of your listed email addresses. Again, you or your webmaster will manually have to answer any inquiries received at a site listed address. Unfortunately at this moment in time, autoresponders cannot read and answer emails. I would imagine that sometime in the not too distance future this will become a possibility. One can always hope!

Now you understand why autoresponders are an important if not critical ingredient in developing a productive, functioning, 24/7 e-book sales site. Using one will help increase your sales, drive those hesitant potential customers back to your site and take care of those everyday tasks associated with having a professional and courteous Internet business. Offering excellent customer service is a significant business building tool, especially for online businesses when a customer assesses you and your site faster than you realize.

About the author:
David Hennebery is the owner and creator of a very successful ebook called ebookprofitmaker. He is regarded as an expert in eBook marketing and selling. To contact him email support@ebookprofitmaker.com Receive 35% ebook discount for reading this article

"How I Use Email Automatic Responders"

2011-02-06T15:02:00.001-08:00

"How I Use Email Automatic Responders"

An email automatic responder or autoresponder is the second most
important marketing tool I have to make money online. The first
would be my hosting company. Without these 2 tools my internet
marketing business is dead in the water.

In the world of internet marketing, millions of sites are
fiercely competing with each other to gain new clients. For any
ecommerce site to succeed, it must capture the interest and the
trust of its visitors. It is not enough that your site is
perfectly designed or has the latest in animation of content.

You should focus your efforts not only in attracting visitors
but also in leading them to make a purchase. There are dozens of
marketing strategies you can use to attract more buyers and pump
up your sales. One of them is by establishing an excellent and
professional reputation for prompt and efficient response.

As more potential customers visit your site, you should expect a
flood of inquiries and requests for information. This is an
excellent opportunity for you to capture more clients and lead
them to buying from your site. Thus, it is important that you
carry out an efficient and prompt response to every email you
receive. The fastest and most effective way to do this is by
utilizing an email automatic responder.

Autoresponder services use a computer program that automatically
return a prewritten message to anyone who sends an email to your
site. It is widely used for responding to consumer inquiries and
visitor comments and suggestions.

Follow up automatic responders are also used by e-zines in
responding to people who subscribe or unsubscribe to their
online magazines. Companies, who send out their e-newsletter
regularly, also use utoresponders.

How can effective autoresponder services help boost your
business? The answer lies in its ability to return a prompt
response to any e-mail the site receives. By responding rapidly
and efficiently, you create a very good impression on your
potential customer. Good email autorespondrs help you get
important information back to these customers immediately. An
effective autoresponder service helps you communicate your
message promptly, creating a sense of professionalism and
efficiency that your clients will definitely appreciate.

Another very important advantage of email automatic responders
is that it saves time with multiple marketing tasks. Certainly,
you do not have enough time to personally make and send all
correspondence. Autoresponder services allows you to send thank
you letters, newsletters, product information, brochures, orders
etc. to hundreds of clients almost immediately and
simultaneously. Autoresponder services are also indispensable in
any email marketing campaign.

Choosing the right autoresponder is very important. What makes
the best automatic responder? First, you should pick an
autoresponder that is reliable and can give you 24/7 service.
You cannot afford to lose a customer because your autoresponder
failed to answer his query or request for information. The
ability to respond promptly is the first thing you must look for
in any automatic responder.

Another key factor you should consider when choosing
Autoresponder servcies is flexibility. Good autoresponders allow
you to customize unique responses that will have maximum effect
on the customer. You should avoid creating an impression that
the customer is communicating with a machine instead of a real
human being.

An excellent email automatic responder lets you provide the
information that is specifically targeted for what the potential
customers are looking for. Because any email from potential
customers essentially represent the customer's intent on getting
more information about your product, which can ultimately lead
to direct sales, all emails are important. Thus, a top
Autoresponder servcie must fulfill all these duties to help you
boost your business.

For all of our autoresponder needs we prefer Aweber. They are
very reasonably priced and have proved to be reliable and easy
to use.

About the author:
Team-Schuman.Com contains the best make money online
and make money websites available today. If you want to
make money check us out here:

How to Do Effective Email Marketing

2011-02-06T14:51:00.001-08:00

How to Do Effective Email Marketing

by: Jeremy Hoover

Recently, there has been a lot written about email and its (impending) death. From what you read on forum boards and in newsletters from well-known internet marketers, email marketing is dead. Too many ISPs are taking it upon themselves to limit the number of emails you can send at one time, or are blocking your emails from even getting to your subscribers’s inboxes.

As a way around this, many marketers are telling you to get a blog and an RSS feed. This makes good sense, and there is some indication that RSS and related technology will become more popular in the near future, but before you invest in an ebook or multimedia course from a marketer, ask yourself if that marketer has a vested interest in moving you over to an RSS system (i.e., they conveniently sell an RSS starter kit, or affiliate for someone who does).

On the contrary, though, email marketing is not dead. Recently, on a membership-only forum, discussion centred on how Getresponse and Aweber have improved their open and deliverability rates for emails, even as high as 85% for deliverability. One contributor, who owns an autoresponder company, noted that many tricks marketers use to get their messages past spam filters (such as using "f^ree" for "free") are actually backfiring and triggering spam filters, resulting in emails being blocked. Instead, marketers should focus on trick-free, valuable content in their emails.

Apparently, email marketing works much the same way as search engine marketing (and, really, all good marketing) does: in the long run, you are rewarded for building (and sending out) trick-free, useful, and informative content.

So how should you build your business? With one quality blog post or article at a time. And how should you market with email? With one quality email message at a time.

So What Are the 5 Secrets?

2011-01-30T14:34:00.000-08:00

Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.

So What Are the 5 Secrets?
Well my friend... We’ve touched on a few above. Let’s go deeper...

1. Decisions...
Yes! That is the first secret. You must decide to be motivated. Don’t look around you... it’s not a physical revelation.
It’s not in a book or website... it’s not at a seminar. It’s not contained in an audio or visual presentation.
It’s in your mind.
Repeat after me, “I will let myself be motivated”.
It does take some effort... it means tuning out the distractions. It means planning to work and working the plan.
You have to decide it’s time to put down your doubts and fears... you have to decide to give up some things. Motivation is dependent on the decision to let yourself be motivated.
That’s the first secret.
Motivation Starts with a Decision to Let Yourself Be Motivated

2. “Acting as If”... you’ve already attained it.

Notice a lot of this is mental... it has nothing to do with your physical surroundings or the company you keep.
“Acting as if” is a powerful effort. Be confident and sure about your direction.
AND visualize that you have already achieved it... and act as if you have...
If you are poor... if you are beaten down... if life has given you a raw deal. You ARE NOT going to be affective picking yourself back up if you remain in that state.
Take care of yourself... Create the person you want to be.
Act like the person you want to be. Don’t complain to people about your problems. Work on your problems. Attack them knowing they are only temporary... be confident in the end result by acting as if it is inevitable. Act as if you have already accomplished that result.
Comb your hair. Carry your head high.
Help others... help others. Forget about your problems. Concentrate on lifting others up. In doing this, you can forget about your troubles.
Do business like you know what you are doing... maybe you don’t! Maybe you are unsure of yourself.
All the time I hear... “I’m a Newbie”... “I’m a Newbie so I apologize in advance!”
Stop! It’s OK if you are a Newbie, but loose the newbie mindset. Don’t keep repeating it to yourself... You know something? It’s just questions... even the experts have questions.
Concentrate on the building blocks. Don’t worry about not understanding how they all fit together; in time you’ll understand. In the meantime...
Act As If... The Rest You Will Find Out.
Act like you have already achieved and watch what happens... Alliances emerge... Joint Ventures emerge... become the person people want to know. People don’t want to hang around people that are in the dumps.
Become a success magnet by acting like a success!
...You don’t have to have lots of money to be successful. Again... it’s a state of mind.

3. Plan...
Have a Plan! You got a decision... now you need to plan the journey!
It doesn’t have to be complex. Take an hour... jot down some notes. But have at least a pretty good idea of what it will take...
Maybe part of that plan includes continuing education. You don’t have to know everything to find motivation and to forge ahead!
A person with a plan is a person that can make decisions that will help them achieve the goals they have set quicker and easier.
If you don’t have a plan, how do you know what decisions to make along the way?
Put Together A Plan so that Motivation Will Have a Map to Follow...

4. Visualize
See yourself achieving the prize...
See yourself walking down that path...
Visualize yourself as who you want to be...
It all ties in together. Your mental mindset must believe in what you are doing. You can’t move forward unless your mind sees the road.
Visualization... Make a list... make an outline... make some notes.
Review them often. See yourself taking on the different stages to get where you want to go. Think about it...
If you do this enough... everyday, your mind will take control of those thoughts...
You will find yourself driving your car thinking about your future... You will find yourself in the shower solving problems... You will find your mind wondering while doing the dishes...
The habit comes. In the beginning you have to build visualization into your routine, but eventually it will become your nature.
It should become your passion... A strong desire that develops out of a focused and deliberate effort to visualize your path.
Visualize and Provide a Clear Picture for Motivation to Embrace...

5. Action !
Combined with Faith We have covered a lot of ground in this small Report... You now know what you need mentally.
The 5th secret might actually surprise you...
Action... Combined with faith?
This last secret involves forgetting everything I have told you up until now...
Yes... you must work on all those things if you are going to stay motivated and make a better life for yourself and to achieve your hearts desires...
BUT... NONE of it will just happen.
You must act.
It’s that simple... Action will provides you with motivation; it’s not the other way around.
You don’t get motivated to act, you act and get motivated.
Just act.
Everything in this Report involves action... You must act in order to decide... You must act to fail... You must act to plan...
All of it... everything we do must first have action. So here’s what you do now that we are wrapping this up...
Go back over this guide... study it. Work on areas that you need work on.
And just starting doing it!
Not tomorrow!! NO! Today...
Not next week!! NO! This week...
Don’t wait for everything to be perfect. Even if you only got 5 minutes, act on something right now... start focusing on it.
Start acting as if. Start filtering out the environment you are in and start visualizing the
environment you will possess! We are NOT a product of our environment. Remember that.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

2011-01-28T19:55:00.004-08:00

HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA ISN’T

If these are some of the questions you’ve asked yourself, then you’ve come to the right place. Because this is a book designed to answer your questions about social media. More specifically, it’s a book that’s designed to help you set up, launch, and run
a social media campaign that makes money. After all, what’s the point of running a social media campaign if it doesn’t drive revenue?

Social media is a big, complex subject, but before we take a look at the new world of social media, let’s take a look at the old world of traditional marketing. By looking back before we look forward, we’ll have a better sense of where social media is going to take us in the future.

MARKETING HAS CHANGED MORE IN THE PAST 5 YEARS THAN IN THE PREVIOUS 100 COMBINED

It’s hard to believe, but more marketing changes have occurred in the past 5 years than in the previous 100 years. For perspective on this, let’s look back to the starting point for modern marketing. On Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Fessenden made the world’s first radio broadcast. Fessenden sent out a short radio program from Brant Rock, Massachusetts, that included his rendition of “O Holy Night” and ended with a reading from the Bible. And with little more than that, radio was born. Suddenly, companies such as Sears, Coca-Cola, and Ford had the capability to send their advertising messages to millions of people at once.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

More than 20 years later, the first television station launched in Schenectady, New York. That station, owned by General Electric, was able to broadcast images as far away as Los Angeles. By September 1928, the station was making four broadcasts a week, although the general population wouldn’t widely adopt television until the 1950s.
Then for the next several decades, nothing happened. Sure, there were a few leaps forward (such as the advent of cable TV), but the media used to connect companies to consumers didn’t change
in any quantifiable way for the entire twentieth century.

Fast-forward to today, when new media appear online monthly or even weekly. What’s driving this rapidly changing environment? Put simply, it’s the combination of broadband Internet and the wide adoption of personal computers, smart phones, and content tablets such as the Kindle and the iPad. These technological leaps forward have changed the way consumers both receive information and interact with the brands they love.
With change comes opportunity. But if you don’t know how to harness these changes, you won’t be able to take advantage of the opportunity.

Do you want to learn how to make money with social media? Would you like to find out how to measure the return on investment (ROI) of a social media campaign? Or would you like to see a road map to help you integrate a social media campaign into your existing marketing plan?

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA ISN’T
To do these things, we start by giving you a deeper understanding of what social media is. And the best way to understand social media is to start by talking about what social media is not. After all, social media is defined in many ways, so let’s zig while other people are zagging and talk about what social media isn’t.

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA ISN’T
Some people will tell you that social media is a “here today, gone tomorrow” fad, but those are the same people who are waiting for the eight-track tape deck to come back.

No, social media isn’t a flash in the pan. In fact, it’ll just keep evolving into something better, which is exactly what happened when personal computers (PCs) first came on the scene.
When PCs first arrived, word processing was about the only thing they were really good for. But then someone figured out a way to connect a few of them. When people started connecting them into expanded networks, they began to understand the true power of the technology.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

One of the first services to try to leverage large-scale computer networks was CompuServe, which experienced relatively stable growth during the 1980s and 1990s. CompuServe plugged along fine until America Online (AOL) came along. AOL was the first company of its kind to leverage the power of a user-friendly interface. Thanks to that strategy, AOL grew from 10 million subscribers in 1996 to 27 million subscribers by 2002.

But things didn’t last for AOL. When people realized that it was merely an add-on to the Internet, they decided to plug in directly. When that happened, the power of interconnected PCs really began to take off. First came early brochure-ware sites; then came blogs; then forums; then bookmarking, tagging, photo sharing, podcasting, virtual worlds, widgets, and ... well, you get the point. Things started to change. And they changed in ways that we couldn’t even imagine

when the personal computer first came around.
That brings us back to our point: The evolution of the personal computer from a simple word processor to a complex web of interconnected minicomputers is similar to the evolution of social media from simple networks to the Web 3.0 technology it’s becoming today. Both technologies continue to morph and evolve. And both technologies are here to stay.
With all that in mind, let’s keep talking about what social media is not.

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA ISN’T

Social Media Isn’t Traditional Marketing
As we’ve mentioned, traditional marketing is about having a monologue with your customers and prospects. Social media, on the other hand, is about having a dialogue. When you have a dialogue with a customer or prospect, the communication is much more fulfilling (and much more profitable).

In the old days, marketing was handled out of a single location (usually called headquarters) where a central authority analyzed customer research, sales trends, and demographic information to arrive at a unique selling proposition (USP).
Rosser Reeves of Ted Bates & Company invented the unique selling proposition. The idea was that, by identifying a single, unique point of differentiation for your brand, you could separate your brand from the competition. Reeves used this technique to create a campaign for Anacin that tripled its sales and, during one seven-year run, generated more revenue for Anacin than Gone with the Wind had generated in a quarter of a century.
The Big Idea
Traditional marketers focused their energies on what people thought about their brands. Contemporary marketers focus their energies on how people engage with their brands—online, in stores, at home, and through other channels.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
For most of the twentieth century, traditional marketing was pretty simple: Figure out your USP, get the creative people at your agency to come up with a good TV commercial, and run the heck out of it during prime time.
Given how simple marketing was back then, it’s no wonder the guys on Madison Avenue had time for three-martini lunches. They didn’t have much else to do.
But social media is more complex and more fluid than traditional marketing. And it requires an entirely new mindset.
That brings us to our next point ....
Social Media Isn’t Just for Young People
A recent study indicated that the fastest-growing segment on Facebook is women older than age 55 and that the largest demographic on Twitter is the 35–49 age group. So, no, social media isn’t just for young people. It’s for anybody who is interested in using new technologies to grow their sales and revenue.

However, people older than age 35 do take longer to adopt a new technology. Part of the reason is that most humans don’t like change, but another reason is that the neural patterns in their brains are already structured for traditional technologies. New technologies require rewiring the brain. So let’s keep going. What else is social media not?
WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA ISN’T

Social Media Isn’t a YouTube Video
We can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard someone say, “Sure, our company does social media. Just last month, we uploaded our CEO’s annual speech onto YouTube.”
For starters, let’s get something straight: The only person who watched the CEO’s annual speech on YouTube was the CEO and, perhaps, his or her family members. Nobody else tuned in. We’re serious. Sorry to break the news to you.

Second, just because someone uploaded a YouTube video doesn’t mean it’s a social media campaign. Social media is about communicating across a wide variety of channels for a sustained period of time. It’s not about tossing up a Facebook Fan Page or completing a LinkedIn Company Profile. It’s much more than that.

A social media campaign is similar to a marriage. You can’t expect to have a good marriage if your primary means of communication is a single conversation for ten minutes every morning. (Trust us, that doesn’t work—we know some people who have tried.)
What does work is a prolonged, sustained, two-way conversation across multiple channels that enables both parties to feel as though they’ve contributed and they’ve been heard. When you can accomplish that, your social media campaign is in very good shape.

Did You Know?

A recent University of Massachusetts study indicates that 22 percent of the Fortune 500 have a blog.2 Social Media Isn’t Always Online
For many of our readers, social media implies some form of digital social media or communications enabled through online technology. However, we can’t forget that a great deal of social media marketing happens offline—after people have turned off their computers.
In a recent study from the Keller Fay Group and OMD, offline communications are still the predominant mode of marketing across a variety of age groups. This study indicated that word- of-mouth is considered to be “highly credible” more often than online conversations.
Despite these trends, we believe numerous experts exist in the area of offline word-of-mouth and that a number of strong books in this area have been written. Therefore, for the purposes of this book, we focus on digital tools and techniques reflecting the booming growth of online social media demand.
Social Media Isn’t Something That Can’t Be
Measured Okay, we’re giving our editors heart palpitations because we used a double negative in this heading. But that doesn’t mean

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA ISN’T
it isn’t true. Social media can be measured—and, depending on whom you ask, you can measure it in a dozen or even a hundred different ways. (Hey, look! We said whom instead of who.)
The great news about social media is that, when you take the time to measure it, you might discover that it is a significant source of profits. Significant profits can make you rich. And we can all agree that money is the only important thing in life.
Okay, that was a joke. Money isn’t the only important thing in life. But you get our point—if you measure social media, you can track your ROI. If you track your ROI, you can increase profits. And that’s certainly not a bad thing.

We could go on and on about what social media isn’t, but then the title of the book would be What Social Media Isn’t, which doesn’t strike us as very appealing. So let’s keep the ball moving forward and dive into the topic at hand, which is how to make money with social media.

ENDNOTES
1. Seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_television.
2. See http://centerformarketingresearch.wordpress.com/2010/ 05/18/social-media-continues-to-be-used-with-higher- education-recruitment/.

THE OWNERS OF THE NEW RED’SPORCH,1 LOCATED IN A REFURBISHED FIRE STATION IN A TRENDY PART OF TOWN, HAD A BRILLIANT IDEA. THEY WOULD USE THE VIRAL POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA TO GROW VISIBILITY AND AWARENESS OF THEIR NEW RESTAURANT.

THE EVOLUTION OF MARKETING

Their idea was simple, elegant, and oh-so-viral. They would send tweets that they’d provide a free drink extravaganza at their restaurant if they could get just 100 Twitter followers by the following Monday.
Free drinks. Open bar. No charge.
IN THE WORLD OF MARKETING, THERE ARE TWO SURE-FIRE PROMOTIONS
The first sure-fire promotion is to give away free money. The second is to give away free alcohol, which is exactly what the members of Red’s Porch intended to do.

The promotion was so bold and so viral that the biggest concern was not whether it would work, but whether it would overheat the fledgling restaurant. After all, the mainstream media had written stories outlining the success of social media programs such as the one Red’s was about to conduct.Perhaps the best known of these success stories is the one about Dell Computer. Dell had designed a Twitter page called DellOutlet to provide special offers exclusively to people who followed the company. The Twitter page was so successful that it garnered more than 1.5 million followers and generated more than $2.0 million in incremental revenue for Dell.
A typical tweet on the DellOutlet page might read like this:

HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

15% off any Dell Outlet business laptop 11z, 15-1545 or 17-1750 laptop with coupon!
Enter code at checkout: PZMKKWHQG7DMM.

If you were an IT professional (or anybody interested in buying a computer), Dell’s offer (available only to DellOutlet Twitter followers) was too good to miss.
Given Dell’s success, it wasn’t surprising that the owners worried that giving away free alcohol would overheat Red’s Porch. The fastest way to kill a good restaurant and bar is to drive too many people to a location, which leads to an overworked wait staff and customers who are frustrated by long lines and a backed-up kitchen.

The owners were a little anxious when they sent their first tweet:
Help us grow our Twitter list. If we get 100 followers by Monday, we will invite all to a free drinks party. OPEN BAR!!!

They followed their initial tweet with several more tweets, all promoting one of the most bullet-proof promotions in the history of marketing—free alcohol. During the promotion, the owners checked in periodically to find out how many new followers they had generated.
Did they generate 1,000 new followers? 5,000 new followers? Perhaps 10,000?
Nope. They generated 23 new followers.

THE EVOLUTION OF MARKETING

What happened? For starters, they didn’t have something that we call social media magnetism.
With social media magnetism, your brand is so powerful that people are attracted to it the way metal is attracted to a magnet. Your brand is so powerful that people go out of their way to be affiliated and associated with your company because it gives them a sense of style, cache, and panache.Brands such as Nike, Apple, and Harley-Davidson have tons of social media magnetism, which is why you see people wearing Nike sweatshirts or putting Apple logos on the rear windows of their cars.
(Think about it: When was the last time you saw a sweatshirt with a Joe’s Plumbing or Nanci’s Florist logo on it?)
How to Tell If Your Brand Is a Social Media Magnet
1. Does the general public wear your logo on their sweatshirts? ___ Yes ___ No
2. Does the general public put bumper stickers with your logo on their cars?___ Yes ___ No
3. Does the general public wear hats with your logo on them?___ Yes ___ No
If you answered “no” to more than one of these questions, your brand does not have social media magnetism. Welcome to the club.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

The good news about social media magnetism is that, if you have it, you can grow your social media program organically. People actually want to be affiliated with brands that have social media magnetism. They want to have your logo on their car. They want to wear a sweatshirt with your logo on it. And they want to be a fan on your Facebook page.

To be a social media magnet, you usually have to spend millions of dollars and put in hundreds of thousands of man-hours. Nike, Apple, and Harley-Davidson didn’t just happen. They were part of a concerted effort to build brands that had social media magnetism. And building those brands took decades, not days.

The second challenge our friends at Red’s Porch had was that they were under the impression that creating a promotion was the first step in a social media campaign.
But it’s not the first step—it’s actually the second step. The first step is to use traditional media or word-of-mouth advertising to drive awareness and traffic to your Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, or MySpace pages.

The Big Idea

Brands with social media magnetism attract people to their social media campaigns more easily than brands that don’t have social media magnetism.

THE EVOLUTION OF MARKETING

Sure, if you have social media magnetism, you can easily skip the first step and jump to the second step. But if you’re like most of us, you’ll have to use a lot of the traditional methods to drive awareness. Those methods might include print, radio, and TV (if you’re a large, well-funded brand); or e-mail, public relations, and word-of-mouth (if you’re a small, underfunded brand).
All this leads us to one of our key points: You can waste a lot of time and money in social media if you don’t know what you’re doing.

This is where we come in—it’s why we wrote this book. Our goal for this book is to give you a tested road map designed to help you make money with social media. Nobody is doing social media because they want to be social. They’re doing social media because they want to do any combination of these three things:

1. Acquirenewcustomers
2. Get existing customers to buy again
3. Generate referrals from both new and existing customers

But hang on a second. Before we go much further discussing how to use social media to grow your sales and revenues, let’s take a quick look at where marketing has been during the past 150 years and where it’s headed today. By doing that, we’ll have an even better sense of how to set up, launch, and run an effective social media campaign.

Make Grafitti

2011-01-28T12:55:00.000-08:00

Make Grafitti with adobe photoshop

This is a pretty simple tutorial that shows how to make a wall image overlay.

Page 1 : Introduction

Here is the goal of the tutorial:

Turn this:

Into this:

Page 2: Select your Images

First you will have to select an image that you want to use. Of course I am using the wall picture from page 1 and this logo.

Then use the Magic eraser tool or any method you want to create the shape you want the picture to be.

Page 3: Paste it

Now paste onto the background picture of your choice. It does not have to be a wall. It could be a car, a computer, on a person to make the appearance of a tattoo, or any other picture that you would like to use.

Adjust and tweak major glitches or problems to the pasted picture at this time.

Page 4: Perspective

Now we will adjust to the direction of the background. Adjust your picture with the free transform tool right click then click perspective. This tool takes a little time to adjust to. Practice on a blank document.

The logo is now flattened and really unattractive. Let's adjust the height and length.

As you can tell I have erased the productions part of the logo to just showcase the TM in the square. Now on to the fun part.

Page 5: Adjustments and overlay

Move your picture around the background making sure that the scale and perspective match the area you’re placing your picture Then

I will be selecting overlay to complete the picture. Choose the option that better suits the lighting or feel of your picture.

Page 6: Solong

I hope that this tutorial helps with any problems you have or has shown you something new

WormHole

2011-01-28T12:08:00.000-08:00

WormHole

Here's how I created the Wormhole effect for Future Glimpse 6.

Page 1 : Displacement

The effect I used for wormhole is easy to do and has many uses from rippling water to warping the fabric of space-time. 1. Start off with the image you want to poke a hole in, and create another blank image at the same size and resolution, but in grayscale (Image - Mode - Grayscale).

Page 2: Making the Warp

Working on the blank image, create a new Gradiant Fill, alternating dark gray and white as shown below. The more stripes you create, the more waves your wormhole will have. For a mild ripple, use a lighter shade of gray. For a really warped look, alternate between black and white. You'll also notice I got farther apart as I moved from left to right - this detail makes the outer waves larger than the inner waves, a characteristic of rippling water. I chose a medium gray below:

Then apply the gradiant horizontally to your blank canvas:

Page 3: Twirl it!

Next, you're going to apply a Twirl filter to the gradiant (Filter - Distort - Twirl). Play around with the amount to get the effect desired. It doesn't have to be perfect, there will be plenty of time for editing. I used -450 here:

When you're happy with how it looks, save it as a PSD file, such as WARP.PSD.

Note: Instead of the twirl filter, you can apply the gradiant as a radial (it will have a bullseye-type effect when applied). This gives you a slightly different look. Experiment!

Page 4: Setting Up Back to your source image. First, make a copy of your source onto a new layer (Ctrl-J or Layer - Duplicate Layer). At this time, you can also place your "destination" image between the source and the duplicate, as shown below. Note that my "destination" is much smaller than my source, sized to fit in the "hole" we're going to make later. We can resize and reposition this layer as necessary once we make the hole.

Page 5: Warp Reality

With the top (duplicate) layer selected, apply a Displacement Filter (Filter - Distort - Displace). In this example, I used a horizontal and vertical scale of 50, Stretch to Fit, and Repeat Edge Pixels (which aren't important since the displacement map we created on page 3 is the same size as our source image). Apply the filter, specifying the warp file you saved in step 3 as the displacement map. Your image should now look like this:

Page 6: Restore Some Reality

Now you're going to define the wormhole. Apply a Layer Mask to the displaced layer. Set your foreground color to black, background to white, and select a soft-edged brush. Now, simply "paint" around the outside of the warp to expose what's underneath it. Remember, painting with black will Mask the area you're painting, painting with white will Reveal the area you're painting. Simply press X to toggle your foreground/background colors, painting in and out until you achieve the look you're going for:

Page 7: Poke the Hole

You could use the soft-edged brush to paint in the center hole to expose your destination, but I prefer the Ellipse Marquee Tool. Still in the Layer Mask, use the tool to make an ellipse in the center of your warp (you'll see how to best fit it to match the warp's waves), then feather it (Select - Feather) about 8 - 15 pixels (varies based on the resolution of your images - experiment!), and with your foreground set to Black, press Alt-Delete to fill the selection with black, exposing the center hole of your warp. You'll end up with something like the following:

Page 8: Getting Things Just Right

Now's your chance to move and resize your "destination" (the Alaska layer in this example). Play around with positioning, size, levels, all that good stuff. You can also return to your Layer Mask and touch up the Masked and Exposed areas of the Warp layer.

Page 9: Finishing Touches

To round off the image, I use the Smudge tool to smooth out any areas that seem to be too pixellated from the Displacement filter. I also use the Burn tool to darken slightly the opening of the hole, adding just a bit of depth. For some really cool effects, try the Liquify filter on the warp layer before starting your Layer Mask. You can also change the perspective of the displacement map (step 3) for an angled appearance to your wormhole. I hope you find this tutorial helpful, and I'm sure you'll find many cool uses for this effect. Please Message me with any questions or comments.

2010-02-02T05:56:00.001-08:00

Handling a crisis on the scale of Haiti

Many people are hungry and thirsty. Supplies of food and water have been slow getting on to the streets of Port-au-Prince

Troops, doctors and aid workers are flowing into Haiti, while nations pledge millions of dollars in aid. But how do you handle a crisis of this magnitude? Richard Gordon and Mike Evans of the Bournemouth University Disaster Management Centre, outline the planning and potential pitfalls of such an operation.

WHO IS IN CHARGE?

A fundamental principle of disaster management and international assistance is that it is the stricken country's responsibility to take the lead in inviting in international assistance (via the UN resident representative), and then co-ordinating that assistance to best effect.

In most cases, however, the host government to a greater or lesser extent, will have been incapacitated by the natural disaster, so the UN sends in Disaster and Assessment Coordination teams (UNDACS) to provide initial coordination of international assistance. UNDAC teams tend to deploy for no more than three weeks and then like to hand over once again to the host government. But this may not be long enough for the Haitian government to resume control of its own affairs.

The request for international assistance for Haiti will have been speeded up by the presence of UN troops and other agencies already on the ground.

The US has offered its assistance, in addition to the UN's in-country co-ordination teams. This will provide a significant logistical and command and control element. However, there are likely to be incidents of disagreement between US military and international governments and aid agencies on the ground, as priorities and objectives are set and implemented on Haiti's behalf.

CO-ORDINATION OF INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE

A plane packed with assorted aid arrives in Port-au-Prince

International assistance is co-ordinated in "cluster groups" to ensure that essential aspects of the disaster response are properly co-ordinated and monitored. In Haiti, these cluster groups include:

water, sanitation and hygiene (Wash) cluster: chaired by Unicef
camp co-ordination management cluster: chaired by IOM for natural disasters
emergency shelter cluster: chaired by IFRC for natural disasters
logistics cluster: chaired by WFP
emergency telecoms and IT cluster: chaired by Unicef / WFP
health cluster: chaired by WHO
nutrition cluster: chaired by Unicef
early recovery cluster: chaired by UNDP
protection cluster: chaired by OHCHR / Unicef

The UN has a concept of On Site Operations and Co-ordination Centre (OSOCC), which aims to provide that sort of tactical co-ordination to bring together international aid agencies and local government and community representatives.

In the past, there have been issues of who co-ordinates whom. The US is generally suspicious of UN personnel, and NGOs don't generally like to be co-ordinated by military - or by other NGOs for that matter.

The US lead will need to be sensitive in how it deals with these groups and, in particular, how it allows the dissemination of information between agencies. Too often, the military tendency to designate vital information as "restricted" or higher makes it impossible for troops and officers on the ground to share this information with local responders and aid agencies.

COMMUNICATIONS

Mobile communication is hampered by lack of signal and electricity

A fundamental principle of disaster management is that communications (telephones, mobiles) will fail and, therefore, a back-up needs to be planned. This is very seldom carried out in practice, and in the case of Haiti will have been impossible. Aid agencies will come with their own satellite phones and internet uplinks; the military will have their own comms. For Haiti's people, there will be very little to use to communicate with one another (lack of electricity, land lines, mobiles systems) and their vital need to talk to each other to confirm who is alive or dead will be frustrated. Organisations such as Telephones without Frontiers will make a vital contribution in providing a limited access for users.

DISASTER VICTIM IDENTIFICATION

According to Ian Hanson, Bournemouth University Centre for Forensics, a vital component of disaster management is identification of the dead and injured. There is a danger that with the use of mass graves to remove rotting corpses, many people will never be identified. On top of this, a significant number of people will never be found. Middle and long term psychological stress disorders will be prevalent.

Governments will be demanding that their ambassadors in Haiti get out to find out where their own citizens are, says Mr Hanson. Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) requires the careful collection of post-mortem data from a body and then matching it to existing ante-mortem data. In the case of international citizens in Haiti such ante-mortem data will include dental records, X-rays, fingerprints, and possibly facial recognition. DVI activity after the Indonesian tsunami in 2005 revealed that some 80% of positive IDs were from finger prints or odontology or a combination of the two. Kenyon International and other established organisations are deploying to Haiti to assist in this.

A body lies among the debris

For Haitians, there is likely to be an almost total lack of ante-mortem data because standard dental or fingerprint records may not exist. Visual records and identification will be their best chance, however this will become impossible if bodies are left too long before being recovered. The cost of excavating collapsed buildings for the Haitians with limited equipment is also prohibitive in the recovery of bodies, as is the cost of putting a body through an identification process. Many Haitians may never be identified but memorialised in some way. This is part of the reflection of the cost, political will, resources and technical skills available for poorer nations versus rich nations. As with other areas of disaster preparedness and response, there is a gap between who gets identified, if they can be, and where they are from.

SECURITY

Security is always a big issue in managing disasters. The maintenance of public order is a national responsibility. If, or when, the problems exceed the police capacity to handle them - which is probably already the case in Haiti - then the military are normally called in.

The Haitian police and military will both have suffered significant casualties - as has the already weak government.

There is a very high risk that, unless aid gets through much faster to the needy, there will probably be a major breakdown in law and order. This could raise very serious issues with foreign national forces - the US in particular - who are armed and who may be forced to use arms to protect themselves.

UN soldiers patrol the ruined streets of Port-au-Prince

Security of routes is essential, as it is roads that become the essential lifelines for logistical support and the movement of essential relief to where it is needed.

Roads are being blocked at present and it appears that the police are unable to deploy in sufficient strength to maintain route security.

As a result, the development of a co-ordinated security plan that uses local police as well as US military and UN troops will need careful co-ordination and agreed rules of engagement for outbreaks of public disorder.

CROSS-BORDER CO-OPERATION

Supply trucks from the Dominican Republic arrive in Haiti

Haiti has a land border with the Dominican Republic. Disaster management planning includes the prior agreement of cross-border co-operation protocols to ensure that assistance is not stockpiled at the border unable to cross over owing to import/export regulations which have not been previously sorted.

LESSONS FROM PREVIOUS EARTHQUAKES

Two key lessons will apply - among others, but these are the two most important:

Survivors want to stay close to where they lived - to be moved into camps is not a favoured option for survivors but it is often the selected option for governments because control is much easier.
A very difficult decision will be reached in the next few days - when to stop trying to find live bodies and to bring in heavy machinery to clear rubble. Trapped victims dehydrate and die after about four-to-seven days, sooner if seriously injured.

Possibly also worth noting that studies into previous earthquakes indicate that epidemics are not the great threat that media often make them out to be. Good quality water is a key.

2010-02-02T05:37:00.000-08:00

Government and international officials in Haiti are drawing up a strategy to help rebuild the long-impoverished country, while continuing to provide emergency aid to the hundreds of thousands survivors left homeless.

We look at the short and long-term priorities.

FOOD

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that while the relief effort in Haiti is beginning to gain its footing, providing food for more than two million people a day represents the most complex task it has ever faced.

Relief agencies have tried to buy goods locally and regionally, but such efforts have been hampered because local markets affected by the earthquake have been slow to reopen, and Haiti's subsistence farms have been unable to ramp up production. This has forced the WFP to use nearly all of its stores of high-energy biscuits and nutrient-rich meals which do not require water.

Aid agencies will begin to distribute staple foods such as rice, beans, vegetable oil and salt - instead of just emergency ration packs - once cooking equipment has been distributed widely and safe water supplies have been established.

WATER

There is an acute shortage of drinking water in areas affected by the earthquake. The water supply system, which before the disaster only provided 40% of the population of Port-au-Prince with clean water, has effectively collapsed.

Massive quantities of bottled water have had to be flown into Haiti

Aid agencies are shipping in massive quantities of bottled water and distributing water purification tablets. Many people, however, have complained that they have received little, if any, of either.

The rapid response phase is expected to last two months and will need to be followed by longer-term activities, such as providing reliable water supplies for rebuilt homes and new settlements.

HEALTH

The main challenges are post-operative care and logistical support to the health facilities in terms of fuel and medical supplies, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.

Haiti's ministry of health and the World Health Organization (WHO) is revising its emergency response strategy and will gradually shift the focus from emergency surgical cases to primary health care.

"Priorities are changing, and there is more need for post-operative care and follow-up. But there is still little capacity to help patients who need that follow-up care," WHO Director Dr Mirta Roses said on 25 January.

Among the most urgent needs are those of thousands of Haitians who had amputations as a result of injuries.

"These people will need physical rehabilitation as well as mental health services. That means more nursing and mental health personnel and more physical therapists, and of course the right equipment for these kinds of programmes," said Dr Roses.

Among the most urgent cases are the thousands of Haitians who lost limbs

Doctors fear many amputees will languish or even die without proper rehabilitation.

As the emergency phase of the disaster winds down, there is a pressing need for mobile and community-based clinics that can provide such services as maternity care, post-operative care, and treatment for chronic health problems including diabetes, heart disease, HIV, and tuberculosis, the WHO says.

Forty-three of the 59 hospitals, are now functioning, but they are having difficulty meeting the demand for health services, especially as the emergency medical personnel who arrived after the earthquake head home.

Also important is establishing surveillance networks to detect outbreaks of communicable diseases, a significant threat at the makeshift camps.

SHELTER

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says work is under way to improve the living conditions of the estimated 692,000 people in makeshift shelters in 591 camps in Port-au-Prince, until more durable solutions are found.

More than 235,000 people have taken advantage of the Haitian government's offer of free transportation to cities in the north and south-west.

The IOM estimates that 100,000 family-sized tents are needed urgently

Although the IOM had 10,000 tents stored in Haiti before the earthquake and has a further 30,000 abroad that will arrive soon, it says "the supply is unlikely to address the extensive shelter needs".

The UN agency estimates that 100,000 family-sized tents are needed to house about 500,000 people, but the UN says up to one million require shelter.

Meanwhile, work has begun at the sites identified by the Haitian government for the establishment of organised tented settlements. It is estimated that each settlement will accommodate up to 10,000 people. However, tents cannot be set up and displaced people relocated at the sites until they have water and sanitation facilities.

Tent settlements can only provide a short-term solution, officials say, particularly with the hurricane season expected to start around June.

REBUILDING

Haiti is likely to need billions of dollars to build new homes and government buildings in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area, which were densely-populated before the earthquake.

Many of the buildings that collapsed were poorly designed and built - mostly with concrete and often without steel reinforcement and foundations. There is a clear need for higher technical standards to be used during reconstruction.

Many of the buildings that collapsed were poorly designed and built

But Haiti's government, along with many planning and architectural experts, have also called for a new strategy that will help Haiti build for the future, including reducing Port-au-Prince's population density and replacing slums on unstable hillsides with homes that are safe, affordable and sustainable.

A new comprehensive building code that complies with international construction standards will be a priority.

Cletus Springer, the director of sustainable development at the Organisation of American States, said that for this to happen the authorities would have to work with the private sector and banks to help low-income families.

"Because of the poverty levels, not everybody's going to be able to build to the exacting standards that a building code would require," he said.

In the short-term, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is carrying out a rapid structural damage estimate of buildings in the affected area.

Jean Yves Barcelo, the agency's adviser in Haiti, hopes it will start planning for new settlements and at the neighbourhood level within a week or two.

Experts warn that desperate residents of the poorer areas of Port-au-Prince may begin informal and unregulated reconstruction before a long-term reconstruction plan can be instigated.

PORT-AU-PRINCE

The lack of investment in Haiti's rural economy over the past three decades has led to an average of 75,000 people moving to the capital, Port-au-Prince, every year. Since 1982, the city's population has grown from 750,000 to more than 2.5 million.

The rapid expansion was not planned and resulted in overcrowding, inadequate infrastructure, and the proliferation of slums containing scores of poorly-built homes, many of which were destroyed by the earthquake.

Haiti's ambassador to the US envisages a smaller, better-built Port-au-Prince

Key official buildings - the presidential palace, parliament building, police headquarters and 13 of the government's 15 ministries - were also destroyed.

Many experts say that Port-au-Prince should be reduced in size when rebuilt, and Haiti's economic and government activities decentralised. Some have even suggested relocating the capital altogether.

Hundreds of thousands of people have already left the city for tented settlements or family homes in other parts of Haiti. Many say they should be persuaded to stay.

Experts warn, however, that mass-relocation schemes after other disasters have usually failed because they isolate people from the jobs and economic opportunity that drew them to the city in the first place.

INFRASTRUCTURE

While the main airport in Port-au-Prince was not put out of action by the disaster, it was not equipped to deal with the volume of flights required by the relief effort.

The US military has taken over control of the airport

To speed up the process, the US military took over control of the airport and 160 planes a day are currently able to land. Aid flights are also coming into and out of the Dominican Republic and several other regional airports in Haiti.

Port-au-Prince's main port was also badly damaged and other ports in the area could only accept smaller vessels. One of the two piers in the capital's docks was recently reopened by the US Navy, allowing bulkier shipments to be delivered by sea. At present, 150 containers can be unloaded a day.

The transportation of aid by road continues to be hampered by piles of rubble and the volume of people trying to move out of or around the capital. But the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has begun employing local people to clear roads.

Telephones and internet connections were down in many areas of Haiti for some time. The situation has since improved, with emergency radios distributed and limited internet and phone capacity restored.

Experts say large-scale capital investment, led by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, will be needed to bring the road, electricity, water and telephone systems up to standard, and rebuild Port-au-Prince's seaport and airport.

SECURITY

There has been concern about the security situation in Haiti, with fears that people not receiving aid would turn to violence.

US troops have been tasked with some security responsibilities

In a bid to boost security and assist the relief effort, the UN Security Council is increasing the UN stabilisation mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) by 3,500 troops to 12,651. Brazil plans to double its current contingent of 1,300.

The EU is also deploying 150 officers of its new European Gendarmerie Force to assist the 3,500-strong UN police force, UNPOL, and the Haitian Police Force (HNP), which has, so far, managed to get half of its 8,000 officers back on the streets.

Meanwhile, the US has dispatched more than 15,000 military personnel to Haiti. About 4,700 are deployed on the ground with the rest on ships off the coast.

The UN and US military have also set up a Joint Operations Tasking Centre to co-ordinate security in and around Port-au-Prince.

ECONOMY

The US ambassador to Haiti, Ken Merten, says the rebuilding efforts have to focus on creating jobs and attracting investment to Haiti. Without it, those displaced will need income support or food aid to survive for the foreseeable future.

The UN Development Programme has said that as part of the rebuilding strategy, it aims to temporarily employ 220,000 Haitians to work clearing debris and restoring basic infrastructure.

A long-term economic strategy prepared by the UN in 2009 that remains valid aimed to create 150,000 jobs over two years by harnessing Haiti's advantages in clothing manufacturing, tourism and agriculture. International investors had launched a number of big projects before the earthquake and will be encouraged to stay.

Economists Paul Collier and Jean-Louis Warnholz, both of whom have experience in Haiti, say there is a need to relocate economic activity away from Port-au-Prince.

They propose that the construction of new homes be linked to the generation of new economic opportunities, in areas less prone to natural disasters. This would require the expansion of secondary cities and agricultural modernisation.

"Done right, international intervention can deliver immediate jobs through construction, and longer-term jobs through new enterprises. Done wrong, it will only pour relief into Port-au-Prince, luring in rural migrants from the impoverished central plateau, and further diminishing local food production at a time when it is most needed," they wrote in the Financial Times.

FUNDING

To guarantee effective management of the funding in a country where the government was overwhelmed before the earthquake, economists have proposed pooling money into a single "Haiti Fund" that can be used for development.

"It should receive emergency outlays from the United States and other donors; organise a board that includes members appointed by Haitian President Rene Preval, the UN secretary general and donors; and empower a management team to formulate and execute plans agreed to by the Haitian government," wrote Jeffrey Sachs, a leading development economist, in the Washington Post.

Mr Sachs estimates that annual donations of $2bn to $3bn will be required over the next five years to cover urgent reconstruction costs and development financing.

The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Khan, has even gone so far as to call for a new "Marshall Plan", which helped rebuild Europe after World War II, and warned against "a piecemeal approach" in Haiti.

AGRICULTURE

One of the first steps in the transition from emergency relief into reconstruction and development is food security, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned that it is crucial that any damage to agricultural infrastructure must be repaired as soon as possible.

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf says famers must be given immediate support before the spring planting season begins in March. The season, which lasts until May, accounts for 60% of Haiti's national agricultural production.

Over the past 20 years Haiti has become dependent on food imports, yet around 80% of the population are involved in agriculture.

In the long term, officials hope to develop a rural agricultural strategy that would enable Haiti to become more self-sufficient.

GOVERNMENT

At the recent donor conference in Montreal, the US and other nations made it clear that Haiti's government had to lead the reconstruction effort.

The international community also reiterated its support for Haiti's President, Rene Preval, and its Prime Minister, Jean-Max Bellerive.

Mr Preval, who was elected in 2006 with broad popular support, initiated reforms of the police and judiciary with some success, according to Mark Schneider of the International Crisis Group. His government was also able to forge a national consensus on a recovery plan following the devastating hurricanes of 2008.

Nevertheless, the destruction of its ministries and deaths of hundreds of civil servants has meant the government has struggled to take control of the relief effort. Survivors are growing increasingly frustrated by its perceived inaction.