Dollars for Blogging

New Social Networking Site With Extra Benefits

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Fri, 02 May 2008 22:04:00 +0000

I've found a new social bookmarking/networking site called ZenZuu. This site is only about six weeks old and it's quite an opportunity to be able to get in on it while it's new and growing! I've found it mostly user friendly, I would have to say it has a bit of a learning curve, but overall, not very hard to navigate around.

The site is free, of course. What is particularly good about it is that each user has an opportunity to share in it's advertising revenues, free of charge! If you go to ZenZuu, they will explain it much better than I can. They do offer a great benefit there though. They also have the opportunity to earn income by creating a downline, something I've never been particularly interested in spending my time on.

It's a bit like MySpace in that you can add friends, leave messages, add comments, and make or join groups. They also give you the option to share pictures, videos and music. You can also add your links to your website in your profile. I see it as an opportunity to get myself and my business "out there" and build up a network of likeminded people to
link to.

Most of us are interested in getting more traffic, and I certainly see joining ZenZuu as a way to do that. Also to build up a network of online "friends" that have likeminded interests. I give it a thumbs up - it's at least worth avisit! Let me know what you think. You can find it here: ZenZuu

How Important Is Building An Email List?

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:48:00 +0000

If you are new to internet marketing or maybe just have not gotten around to it, you may be wondering if you really want to spend the time and effort on building a list. After all, there is a lot of work involved. It’s not just a matter of slapping an opt-in box up on website. You have to take the time and come up with an attractive offer or incentive to join your list. Then you have to spend time setting up your autoresponder account and pay for it every month! Next, there’s the content for you email series, plus researching what offers to promote and picking where to sign up as an affiliate. Or, creating your own products to promote. You will want to create or find good quality content for your readers so they will find your emails to be of value…getting the idea?

Let’s look at the reasons why you should take the time and effort to build your list. Building and marketing a list helps build a stable and long-term asset. If you are serious about succeeding online you will want a group of targeted people to market to whenever you come across a product you think will interest them.
Imagine being able to send out a single email about a product (with value) and make several hundred to several thousand dollars from it, depending up the size of your list! Many successful online marketers or gurus will emphasize that having an email list is key to their success, especially to earning the big bucks.

You can put an opt-in box on your website or blog or you can build “squeeze” or “landing” pages to capture names and email addresses. Learn from others who are doing the same thing, for example, if a squeeze page captures your interest then you have something to pattern yours after. Another way is to maximize your earnings by doing a “one time offer” on your thank-you for signing up page, just make sure it’s something that is relevant to your subject.

Of course, drawing traffic to your site or squeeze page is key to getting sign-ups. That is a whole other complete subject! Article marketing, social bookmarking, forums, PPC, Squidoo, Hubpages and backlinks are some of the methods.

One Minute Sites- Build Your List For A Penny!

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:16:00 +0000

Bryan Winters new One Minute Site system is being promoted
as the newest software on the market designed to build lists,
and generate leads. It's supposed to take a minute or less
to build your site.

When I first heard about this I was skeptical. One, because
it does sound almost too good to be true, and in my experience
that means it usually is. Second,I usually don't do well with
anything technical and either end up wasting a lot of time or
giving up.

I decided to give it a try, however since I know that Bryan
Winters from InfoGoRound and AudioGoRound designs good products
and has a good reputation. Plus, I really was intrigued by the
idea of having a list building site that I didn't have to sweat
over.

This is what I found:
I read some clear and straightforward instructions,
then I filled in the blanks, clicked a button and voila!
There it was! I couldn't believe that it was that easy!

Along with my site, there was traffic generating tips, with the
promise of additional training and tips to come. Even better,
there's an opportunity to be an affiliate and promote this
product, which really DOES deliver what he says it does....

Get your online site generating system now while it only costs
1 Cent for a trial period. Try it out and see how you like it.

Enter One Minute Sites here!

How To Avoid The 3 Most Common Affiliate Mistakes

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:56:00 +0000

Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective and powerful ways of earning some money online. It gives everybody a chance to make a profit through the Internet. Since these affiliate marketing programs are easy to join, implement and pay a commission on a regular basis, more and more people are now becoming affiliate marketers.

However, like all businesses, there are lots of pitfalls in the affiliate marketing business. There are some common mistakes that beginner affiliate marketers often make. These mistakes can cut into your profit and waste your time. That is why it is better to avoid them than be regretful in the end.

Mistakes:
#1: Choosing the wrong affiliate company.

Many people want to earn from affiliate marketing as fast as possible. In their rush to be successful, they tend to choose a bandwagon product. This is the kind of products that the program thinks is “hot”. They choose the product that is in demand without actually considering if the product appeals to them. This may not be the best choice.

Instead of jumping on the bandwagon, try to choose a product in which you are truly interested in. Then do some research about that product to see if it is in demand. Promoting a product you are more passionate about is easier than promoting one for the sake of the earnings only.

#2: Joining too many affiliate programs.

Since affiliate programs are very easy to join, you might be tempted to join multiples of affiliate programs to try and maximize the earnings you will be getting. Besides you may think that there is nothing wrong and nothing to lose by being part of many affiliate programs.

True, that is a great way to have multiple sources of income. However, joining multiple programs and attempting to promote them all at the same time will prevent you from concentrating on each one of them.

The best way to get excellent result is by joining just one or two programs that pay a good rate of commission (40% or more is pretty good). Then give it your best effort by promoting your products enthusiastically. Look at other affiliate programs after you begin to have some regular success with the original ones you promoted.

The technique is to do it slowly but surely. There is really no need to rush into things, especially with affiliate marketing. With the way things are going, the future is looking real bright and it seems affiliate marketing will be around for the long term.

#3: Not buying the product or using the service.

As an affiliate, you main purpose is to effectively and convincingly promote a product or service and to find customers. For you to achieve this purpose, you must be able to relay to the customers the benefits of that certain product or service. It is difficult for you to do this when you yourself have not tried these things out. Thus, you will fail to promote and recommend them convincingly. You will also fail to create a desire in your customers to purchase what you are offering.

Try the product or service personally first before you sign up as an affiliate to see if it is really delivering what it promises. If you have done so, then you are one of the credible and living testaments and are aware of its advantages and disadvantages. Your customers will then feel the sincerity and truthfulness in what you say and will be a good motivation for them to try it them out for themselves.

Many affiliate marketers makes these mistakes and are paying dearly for their actions. You don't have to learn the hard way. Follow these principles and you can get a jump start on success with affiliate marketing!

Does StumbleUpon Work?

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:28:00 +0000

I must admit that I am a baby when it comes to social bookmarking. I've been signed up for StumbleUpon for awhile but had never done much with it. One day I decided to amble on over there for awhile and explore it. Well, I decided to enter a site of mine that I didn't have on it (not this one). All I did was write a couple of sentences describing it and let it go at that.

When I checked my site's stats about two hours later I saw that I had over 300 visitors - most through StumbleUpon! Now that was pretty exciting, but I'm afraid they weren't exactly targeted visitors. But I think generating that much interest was worth it!

Here's my link to my StumbleUpon page and you can check it out from there if you like.
Happy stumbling!

College freshmen earns fast cash online!

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:27:00 +0000

There's a really cool story about a 19 year college freshmen named Joel. He was engaged and needed some income in order to be able to get married to the girl of his dreams. A college student doesn't have a lot of time to earn money in, so Joel needed a fast way.

His buddy, Ryan did some affiliate marketing online and made a good bit of money at it. He offered to show Joel and some other college friends what to do. Joel jumped on the idea! All the guys went off to boot up their computers and make some sales! Most of them tried a few posts with an affiliate link and didn't make anything from it. They got discouraged quickly. Joel, however, tried a strategy that Ryan suggested and within a 1/2 hour got an $80 sale! The whole dorm floor heard about Joel's success! Then, he went back to his room and did it again!

In fact, every time he implemented that same strategy, he made a sale. Joel was able to drive a wave of traffic to his link and make quick sales from a targeted group of visitors! Most of the traffic would then die off. Joel, however, was happy that he had found a method to bring in sales easily and make quick cash.

The method he used wasn't particularly creative, but it was effective. And it did bring in cash every time. Read the whole story about Joel's method here.

Get dollars for blogging!

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 06:04:00 +0000

How many of us would love to get dollars for blogging? I know that there are paid to blog companies out there and that's okay if that's what you want to do. However, I've been looking for ways to make my own blog bring in the dollars! I briefly considered paid to read emails and surveys, but quickly came to the conclusion that there was too little to be made for the time it would take to complete them.

So, back to figuring out how to make my own blogs become moneymakers. After reading about keyword research, SEO techniques, bringing in traffic, writing articles, listing on directories, affiliate marketing, advertising...my mind was reeling. I did become somewhat frustrated because it seemed like there were so many directions I had to go, and so little time to go there! Finally, I settled upon a very good instructional ebook, "Honest Riches" after stumbling upon a very helpful forum that the author runs. It seemed like a small investment if I could go to one source and find all the information and resources I needed to get started. Plus, the people on the forum obviously thought highly of the author, Holly Mann. She was even offering additional support and answering questions - all I had to do was register (for free). The book, was a great investment and definitely got me started in the right direction. I will be referring to it for some time to come - I even got a free website already set up as part of the offer!

Some of the information and advice "clicked" and some of it went over my head. What finally did dawn on me was that it really was work trying to make money online. You have to put some thought into it, as well as time and effort. What really seems to work for me is to keep it simple. Find something that makes sense and follow it through.

Getting dollars for blogging isn't all that difficult if you're smart enough to take advice from successful people who are willing to help. Find something that works for others that you can see yourself doing. Put in the effort - and time into it and you can make it worth your while.

Tips for a "Happening" Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 06:24:00 +0000

You want people to sit up and take notice of your blog creation, right? Try out these tips and get noticed! You'll be blogging for dollars before you know it!

Follow the leader - steal tips from successful bloggers in your niche. See what works for them and try it out on your blog.
Keep your readers interested. Try to be colorful and entertaining. Be personal and write in the same way you would talk.
Post often to keep your blog fresh and worth coming back to.
Every time you post, ping the blog directories with pingomatic.com.
Use attention grabbing titles, like 10 tips about, 16 ways to...
Keep it short and simple. People don't often like to spend a long time reading.
Write it as if you were reading it. View it as "what's in this for me" like your readers will.
Link to other related content sites by leaving a useful comment with your url included.
Submit some of your blog posts as articles to places like ezinearticles.com to draw traffic.
Use your main keywords regularly for the search engines, but don't go crazy and keep it natural sounding.
Probably the most important tip - get started now. Don't put it off!

Good luck and have fun creating your blog!

5 Tactics Affiliate Marketers Use to Be Successful Online

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:03:00 +0000

Affiliate marketers all have one goal in common: find the most successful formula that will earn them the most money online. Unfortunately there isn't a magic formula or "get rich quick" scheme that really works. Don't let anyone fool you into thinking you can be successful without any work involved.

There are tactics that have worked over the years and continue to work in the online affiliate marketing world of today. It does help to study what has made other entrepreneurs successful. Here are three top marketing tips you can use to increase your sales and reach your goals in the affiliate marketing field.

What are these five tactics?

1. Each product that you want to market should have it's own unique web page. This is not the time to try and save a few dollars by not having to pay for web hosting. It's a worthwhile investment to have a site that will focus and really be geared toward selling one individual product. Good keyword research is important to getting a good placement in the search engines. One tool that will show you the strength of the competition along with the amount of searches is Micro Niche Finder.

2.Always include product reviews on the website to give visitors will have an understanding on what the product can do for those who buy them. Also include testimonials from users who have already tried the product. Look for affiliate programs that offer testimonials with names and photos(to add validity).

3.Have an opt-in box on your site. You can offer a free report, newsletter, etc. Most visitors to your site won't buy on the first go round. If you use an autoresponder service like AWeber (which has some of the best resources and is very reliable) and capture their email addresses, you can send them a series of offers. Just be sure to include some valuable information to make it worthwhile for your customer. Remember, it takes about 7 contacts with someone before they are ready to purchase something.

If you don't have a way to capture email addresses then you can expect one of two things:closed sale or the prospect leaving the page most likely never to return again. By placing useful information into their inboxes at certain specified period, you will remind them of the product they thought they wanted. Be sure that the content is directed toward specific reasons to buy the product. Making your email informational will convert much better than using a blatant sales pitch.

4.Writing articles detailing the uses or advantages of your product can be used to drive traffic to your site. Spending a bit of time researching will help make you sound like an expert on the subject! Give some thought to your headlines. Use your keywords in your title and throughout your article. You might ask a question or provide "tips" on your product. If you make your article interesting enough and hint at even more useful information in the bio box at the end of your article (with your website link in it,of course)people will want to come and check out your site.
Writing articles regularly will send targeted visitors your way. After a bit of practice, article writing does get easier. I've found that the very best place to submit articles to is: http://ezinearticles.com, for the most traffic. After that, I would also recommend: http://goarticles.com and http://articlecity.com

5.Do your research on the affiliate program (and product). For example, does their sales page make you want to buy the product? If the answer is no, you may want to reconsider promoting it and look for a product with a better presentation. Try to find a way to check out the reputation of the company or product. A high return rate would not be a good thing to deal with. You might send them an email with some questions and see how quickly they respond to and how well they answer you questions.
And, of course,last but not least, ask yourself if the potential profit is worth putting your time and energy into promoting a particular product?

The tactics given above can get you started down the right track to success as an affiliate marketer.

How do Search Engines Work?

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:47:00 +0000

Through search engine customers find your website.It's good to have an understanding as to how search engines actually work and how they present information to the customer initiating a search.

There are basically two types of search engines. The first is by robots called crawlers or spiders.

Search Engines use spiders to index websites. When you submit your website pages to a search engine by completing their required submission page, the search engine spider will index your entire site. A ‘spider’ is an automated program that is run by the search engine system. Spider visits a web site, read the content on the actual site, the site's Meta tags and also follow the links that the site connects. The spider then returns all that information back to a central depository, where the data is indexed. It will visit each link you have on your website and index those sites as well. Some spiders will only index a certain number of pages on your site, so don’t create a site with 500 pages!

The spider will periodically return to the sites to check for any information that has changed. The frequency with which this happens is determined by the moderators of the search engine.

A spider is almost like a book where it contains the table of contents, the actual content and the links and references for all the websites it finds during its search, and it may index up to a million pages a day.

Some examples of search engines: Excite, Lycos, AltaVista and Google.

When you ask a search engine to locate information, it is actually searching through the index which it has created and not actually searching the Web. Different search engines produce different rankings because not every search engine uses the same algorithm to search through the indexes.

One of the things that a search engine algorithm scans for is the frequency and location of keywords on a web page. You might think this is why you should absolutely stuff your site with keywords. It can detect artificial keyword stuffing or spamdexing that affects your rating negatively. Then the algorithms analyze the way that pages link to other pages in the Web. By checking how pages link to each other, an engine can both determine what a page is about, if the keywords of the linked pages are similar to the keywords on the original page.

Using the right keywords in your title to get good search enging ranking

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 23:45:00 +0000

Use Keywords In Page Titles

It is recommended to use keywords in page titles itself. Whatever text one places in the title tag (between the portions) will appear in the title bar of browsers when they view the web page. Some browsers also add to whatever you put in the title tag by adding their own name, as for example Microsoft's Internet Explorer or OPERA.

The actual text you use in the title tag is one of the most important factors in how a search engine may decide to rank your web page. In addition, all major web crawlers will use the text of your title tag as the text they use for the title of your page in your listings.

If you have designed your website as a series of websites or linked pages and not just a single Home Page, you must bear in mind that each page of your website must be search engine optimized. The title of each page i.e. the keywords you use on that page and the phrases you use in the content will draw traffic to your site.

The unique combination of these words and phrases and content will draw customers using different search engine terms and techniques, so be sure you capture all the keywords and phrases you need for each product, service or information page.

The most common mistake made by small business owners when they first design their website is to place their business name or firm name in every title of every page. Actually most of your prospective customers do not bother to know the name of your firm until after they have looked at your site and decided it is worth book marking.

So, while you want your business name in the title of the home page, it is probably a waste of valuable keywords and space to put it in the title line of every page on your site. Why not consider putting keywords in the title so that your page will display closer to the top of the search engine listing.

A last important tip is to dedicate the first three positions for keywords in the title. Avoid the stop words like "and", "at" and the like for good search engine optimization.