Making Dollar Online

A Click On Your Profits

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:02:00 +0000

Pay-per-click advertising is a very economical compared to other advertising tools on the Internet. You pay only when a visitor clicks on your ad and goes to either your web site or to the website of which you are an affiliate of. The advantage of pay per click advertising is that you do not need a website, and this is an ideal way for home business beginners to earn money on a low budget.
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The main advantage of Pay per click adverting is that you only pay for actual clicks on your ads. Pay per click internet advertising lists your ads according to your bids on your keywords. Of course, ads which pay more are ranked higher.

Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing are the two most popular Pay per Click programs on the net.

Another advantage of Pay per Click programs is that you can constantly monitor the progress of your ads, edit your keywords, change the bids on your keywords, Change the Daily Budget (You can set a daily budget for your ads. After your daily budget gets exhausted, your ads stop running. on that day) This can be done anytime and any number of times. If you find your ads are not working for you , you can pause the ad or simply delete it.

Before you actually launch on a pay per click advertising, make sure to check out your competition. It will give you a good idea as to how to structure your ad. Also make out a list of keywords with which you want to link your product. A useful tip is to try out Wordtracker’s trial package to get the necessary keywords. You can also get the KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) here which will allow you to determine the niche keyword and not get lost in a sea of keywords. This is a very effective tool to determine the competition of the keywords and gives you a good idea as to which keywords to bid for to get targeted audience to click your ads at an economical price.

The Pay per Click advertising allows you to test market your future campaigns. If you intend to launch a full fledged website , Pay per Click advertising allows you to test the waters. You can analyse your keywords and find out which works for you best You can also test viability of the products for which you are an affiliate of.

Pay per Click advertising not only helps you in earning money but can also be a very effective marketing and information tool for your future businesses.

Your New Website is Inside

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:01:00 +0000

Today’s Internet is a lot different than it used to be. With new developments such as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and web standards, building websites the same old way just won’t cut it anymore. The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) creates guidelines and regulations that designers strive to follow to make their sites as accessible and functional as possible. Compliance with W3C standards ensures that your site achieves its full potential across a range of systems. However, the W3C regulations continue to change everyday. Do these new rules and regulations on the Internet mean that your website has to suffer aesthetically? The answer is NO. With CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), web designers have the ability to do anything on the web, from browser compatibility to full control of all the aesthetics of any web page. CSS also gives a more solid foundation for SEO, usability, and compliance with web standards.

From a development aspect of web design, the first great advantage of CSS is cross browser compatibility. Every web designer has sat down at a foreign computer and opened one of their websites only to find that the layout is mangled. Everything is either in a different spot or not present at all. This happens because different Internet browsers, and even different versions of the same Internet browser, display websites slightly differently. Web designers are forced to test their builds on as many browsers as possible to minimize this problem. However, users constantly upgrade their computers and download new features to enhance their experience on the Internet. As a developer, you can never control all the variables, but you can eliminate the majority of the problems by using CSS – an extreme advantage when one considers that everything on the Internet is about usability. If the user is at ease and comfortable then they are more likely to return to your site, purchase your product, recommend your service to others, etc. If they get confused because the navigation moves or doesn’t function properly, they are more likely to move on to another site.

Web designers know that the power of CSS gives them many options, but a great deal of designers do not use CSS to its full capabilities. By learning about this language, you can develop it to do more. The cascading part of CSS is the most important feature and yet it is still the most over-looked. CSS makes it possible for the designer to alter one file and, in doing so; make modifications to the entire site. For example, rather than adjusting every font tag individually, this programming technique allows the designer to alter every font in the entire site by changing a single tag in the CSS file. CSS also creates code that is cleaner and less bulky than other scripting languages. Less code means that the search engine “bots” will have enhanced access to the content on your website. In turn, your website will be indexed more effectively, matching your site with appropriate inquiries from users looking for your services. Older development techniques like frames and tables limit the search engines’ ability to crawl your website, so the bot will leave without registering the content. This significantly limits the search engines’ ability to view and catalogue all of your information, and ultimately limits your presence online.

Increased ease and efficiency is another great benefit of CSS. Once you have obtained a decent knowledge of the programming technique, however, it is very easy to let the styles of the CSS control the way you design. CSS functions much like building blocks. At the bottom levels, building is very easy to accomplish, but the larger you go the more advanced and detailed the work becomes. I see many websites that boast about the designer’s ability to utilize CSS, but the site is rather plain and boring. I am a big fan of minimalism but not when it results from a lack of creativity. Which brings me to the question, has the ease of CSS made designers lazy? For some, the answer is yes, but others use the many advantages of CSS to connect creative design with utility and performance. As a full-time designer, I devote all of my energy to creating graphic-focused, visually stimulating websites with CSS as the structure everything is built on.

A website doesn’t have to be simple or boring to work properly. CSS does not limit the design graphically but instead gives the designer the power to create an aesthetically pleasing and fully functional website. If you took two identical designs and built one with tables and one table-less (CSS), the CSS site would have a higher usability across more platforms, it would rank better with the search engines, and the overall performance of the website would be better. Graphically intense CSS layouts do take more time to think through and build out, but that is why I make custom websites. In the ever-changing online world, CSS-based sites are the most up-to-date and effective way to build W3C compliant websites that push the limits of design and function.

Basic Online Business Techniques

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 10:00:00 +0000

When someone starts an online business, and many do, they tend to think that they know what they are doing. In other words, they don't have a clue. Everyone keep telling them that they need a nice looking website, throw some affiliate programs on it, advertise at free classifieds pages, and watch the money roll in. Easy money, right? That's what they think.

"I don't need anyone to show me how to do this. It shouldn't be hard at all. Actually, it should be a walk in the park." Many people probably think like that. So they advertise here and there. Free classifieds. Free advertising. Maybe some forum posting every day. Free traffic, right?

A few days go by. Then a few weeks go by and they only made about $30 in sales in one month. Many continue to do this and think that if they keep doing the same thing, maybe a miracle will happen.

Not so......

It so very true that the online work at home arena is highly competitive. If you are doing the same thing and keep getting the same results over and over again, not only are you killing your potential for online success, but you are allowing other competitors to pass you by. The only thing that you need to do is to stop and find someone who is already succeeding with their online business. Become like an investigator. Investigate what they do EXACTLY on a daily basis that created that wealth for them.

Here are a few good pointers on what you can do to succeed online:

1) Start Getting Educated......

Again, find someone who is very successful online and see what they are doing on a daily basis that creates their success. Do some detailed research online as to what methods and techniques are working for them and others. You can not succeed if you keep associating yourself with people who aren't successful online. So you need to take yourself by the hands and start to associate with successful online friends.

2) You need an Auto-responder.....

Before I go into explaining this subject, it is important that you know that you will want to work with an opt in email subscribers who will come to your site and give you their personal permission to send them periodic emails. What you will not want to do is to buy email subscribers. If you do buy them and send them your emails, then this can kill you and your online reputation.

Having and opt-in email list will allow you to free up lots of your time because your prospects will be receiving messages from you periodically and automatically. The nice thing about email marketing is that instead of you having to call them each time you want to promote something, which will take you forever, your auto-responder system will be working for you while you go out and have fun.

Imagine having an opt in list of 10,000 subscribers. If you were to call each one of them to promote one of your programs, think how long it will take you to reach all of them. It would be impossible for you. With email, you can contact them all in a matter of a few seconds or minutes. You write one email and hit the "submit" button, and you are all done.

"If I don't get an auto-responder and email subscribers, will this cut my chances of succeeding online?"

I am not saying that it will, but if you do get one, your income will just keep growing all the time as your subscribers do.
3) Find a mentor

After you find someone who is very successful online, email them and tell them that you will want to work with them one on one if it is possible. Don't try going into their training thinking that you know it all. Listen and follow each guideline that they are recommending to you.

This person will be your mentor. Your coach and most of all, your friend.

By stepping out and trying a proven way to make money online, you will begin to see that you too can make a nice income online. And the best advice that I can also give you is to never ever give up. A lot of people are making nice incomes online and so can you. Believe in yourself and you will succeed.

Paid Autosurf For Cash - Make Money In 5 Minutes A Day

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 09:59:00 +0000

Autosurf programs are the new big online moneymakers. For people who have always wanted to earn money online with very little effort autosurfing is the new king.

What is autosurf and how can you make money with paid auto surf programs? Companies that have web sites will pay for traffic. They will pay to have people visit their sites and hopefully buy what they are selling. Autosurf web sites are the go-between, the connection between you and the companies looking for more traffic. They will pay you to view web sites and online content specifically targeted to web promotion professionals like yourself.

Some people are making hundreds of dollars every day in just a few minutes of time. And maybe you want to do the same thing. It’s a very simple process to get started making cash with paid autosurf programs. This article will explain the basics of what you need to do to get started in the amazing world of auto surfing.

There are many online money making scams, Ponzi schemes or pyramid schemes available to people who are willing to invest their hard earned money before doing their homework. Greed can cost you a lot of money if you aren’t careful. This article is not concerned with those schemes, but will cover the high-earning potential of paid autosurfing, also known as autosurf for cash.

Let’s say a company called ABCD Investments (this is a make believe company) wants to get more traffic to their web site. They contact an autosurf company such as 12 Daily Pro and pay them money to increase their web traffic. ABCD Investments believes that a certain percentage of people visiting their web site will buy what they are selling. So they are willing to pay to get potential buyers to their site.

In exchange for this payment 12 Daily Pro turns around and pays internet users like you and me to view ABCD Investments’ web site for a few seconds. This way ABCD Investments gets the traffic they want while the web site surfers like you and me get paid to view their web site.

There are thousands of companies that will pay to get additional traffic to their sites. Auto surf companies such as 12 Daily Pro have thousands of web sites that they are supposed to get traffic for and thousands of people that they pay to view those sites. Web surfers just like you can “auto surf” those web sites for just a few minutes a day with the possibility of making a huge return on their investment.

To make money with paid auto surf programs there is usually a membership fee required. The larger the membership fee the more money the member can make. Getting started in autosurfing is a very simple process. A person will sign up with an auto surf web site and then deposit money to become a paid member. Once they are a member they will autosurf for a few minutes each day to earn money. After a specified period of time, usually several days to a month, the member who autosurfs can cash out their earnings. They can then take their earnings and stop or they can put the money back in for more autosurfing and more earnings.

One thing to be aware of is that there are probably more scam autosurf sites than there are legitimate ones. So it pays to do your homework and only invest in auto surf sites with a good history of paying what they owe their members. Like all investments there is a risk that you could lose every cent you put into it. So be very cautious before investing your hard earned money in a risky venture.

12 Daily Pro is a company that has a long track record of paying their members on time, every time. They are at the top of the list. There are other companies that have so far proven very reputable and reliable, but one needs to do their homework before putting money into an autosurf company.

Analyze This Web Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:58:00 +0000

So, you think you’re off to a good start because you finally got your new Web site up and running. You even have one of those counters at the bottom of your homepage so you know exactly how many people visit your site. Done patting yourself on the back yet? When you are, it’s time to move your site to the next level. It’s time for Web Analytics.

Web Analytics may sound like some sort of complex configuration for your web site, but for amateur Web page developer and internet retailers, Web Analytics is actually an incredibly useful, and easy, tool. In one fell swoop, Web analytics can help you figure out all the important information about people who visit your site. Put simply, it’s a way to study who visits your site, what they do while they are there, and why they leave. We’re talking about, all the Whos, Whats, Wheres, Whens, and Whys.

If you’re looking to sell something on your site, Web analytics can tell you what product pages are attracting the most viewers, which ones the least. The tool can even tell you what parts of your site are confusing to your visitors. And it can tell you where your biggest customers are coming from.

If you’re looking to market yourself on search engines, there’s no better way than Web Analytics. The tool allows you to figure out which keywords work best to drive traffic to your site. It can help you figure out how many hits you’re receiving from your advertising campaigns. That way, you can build your Web content to focus on those keywords and campaigns, and to drive even more traffic to your site.

The benefits of Web analytics are many, so here is just a short list of the main ones.
Web Analytics can:

• provide a traffic count. But unlike those basic counters on the bottom of a homepage, Web Analytics can breakdown your visitors by how many are new, or “unique,” visitors, and how many are repeat visitors, along with what pages, and how many pages, they viewed.

• track down the IP address of your visitors, which is like their numerical address on the Web where the visitors are coming from. Not only that, you can track them down to their geographical, real-world location, too, as well as the time of day that they came.

• breakdown individual visits by the entry page, where the person first landed at your site, and the exit page, the last page they visited before they left. Entry pages generally show that the visitor may have bookmarked your site on that page, probably because of its valuable content. Exit pages, on the other hand, could be your site’s most boring content.

• count the total time that visitors spent on your site, and exactly what path they took through the site. This can give you the better idea about how well-designed your Web page is, so you can learn how to better design your site’s navigation to direct visitors where you want them to go, and get them to stick around your site longer.

• trace your visitors back to the links that brought them to your site. The more links other Web sites have to your pages, the better. On the other hand, visitors may have come straight to your site, which is also not too shabby. It could mean that word-of-mouth on your site is working.

• weigh the value of search engine keywords in your Web content. You could find out what search terms visitors are using at your site. And you could also analyze which terms people are using at search engines to find your site. Either way, it’s a great way to optimize your content to what your visitors are looking for.

The ultimate benefit of Web Analytics is to make your site more worthwhile to its visitors. But of course, you want to make it more worthwhile to you too.

Reciprocal Link Exchange Systematic Approach Produces Results And Success.

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:55:00 +0000

There is not the slightest doubt that Reciprocal Links have a major role to play in increasing your link popularity, securing a high page rank and bringing in traffic. Though Search Engines consider one way links superior to reciprocal links, the fact remains that we do need them. The biggest problem faced by new webmasters is that their request for reciprocal link exchange is often turned down by webmasters with high page rank websites because the new site often is PR0.

This often causes disillusionment and disappointment in the ranks of new webmasters who had spent many hours researching the internet and identifying the related high PR websites.

By following these steps systematically you will soon be on your way to achieving your objective and be happy enjoying your work.

Step 1. Complete Construction of Website:

First and foremost your website should be complete. Your website should have excellent content and be related to the theme of your website. The site should be optimized for your chosen keyword or keywords. Remember content is king. Search Engines love them, so too will your website visitors.

Step 2. Submit to Search Engines:

Submit your website to Google, Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista and to all the leading Search Engines. Do not submit “under construction” websites as they will never be indexed and could further delay future indexing.

Step 3. Submit to Directories:

Submit your website to Directories such as Open Directory, Yahoo, JoeAnt and to other leading directories. There are three types of directories. (a) Those that accept free listing without reciprocal linking. (b) Those that accept free listing but require reciprocal linking. (c) Those that have only paid listing. Some do have a combination of all these. Since submitting to the paid directories could be too costly to the newbie, the best option would be to start submitting to the free submission directories that have a high PR. This will make your site visible in the internet world, increase its overall importance and bring you several one way links and reciprocal links.

Step 4. Writing and submitting Articles to Article Directories:

While you are in the process of submitting your site to the directories you should commence writing articles on the theme of your website or related themes and submit them to article banks, article directories, and article distributors and to related high PR websites that accept articles. Your articles should be of good quality, helpful to the audience and display to the internet world your knowledge and expertise. If you don’t have the ability to write articles the other option is to obtain the services of a ghost writer to write a few articles for you.

The purpose of writing these articles is to obtain one way links and also traffic to your website. Hence it is important that you have a resource box at the end of your articles with your website link embedded in them. Article writing is one of the best ways of obtaining one way links and you are bound to get dozens in quick time. The more number of relevant one way links you obtain, the greater will be your chances of improving your link popularity and climbing up the Page Rank ladder.
If in the meantime you get requests for Reciprocal Link exchange from good relevant sites you may accept them.

Step 5. Posting at Forums and Writing Testimonials:

Post your expert comments and advice at related discussion forums with your signature file and URL
Write testimonials about the products that you have used and request the webmaster or vendor publishing your testimonials to display your site URL when he publishes the testimonials. These can all bring you one way links to boost up your link popularity.

Step 6. Request for Reciprocal Links:

The above systematic approach will propel your website to PR2, PR3 or even PR4. You are now beginning to be recognized by the search engines, and also by other webmasters who have read your articles and forum posts.

The time is now ripe for you to request for reciprocal links seriously not only from sites of equal page rank but also from PR5 a PR6 websites as well.

Your reciprocal link exchange requests are now not going to fall on deaf ears and will receive serious consideration because: (a) You have a reasonable page rank. (b)You are beginning to be recognized as an expert in your field. (c) Your website is being identified as one that has good content and potential of achieving higher page rank.

Wise and experienced webmasters can identify such websites and will find it hard to reject your reciprocal link exchange request. In fact you will find quite a few webmasters who would like to be associated with you by either publishing your articles or accepting your reciprocal link request.

Conclusion:

The rejection, the consequent pain of mind and disappointment unfortunately kills the enthusiasm of some of the newbies. Though it might appear difficult initially but writing articles and posting in forums are much easier than obtaining a reciprocal link from high Page Rank webmasters.

By following the above method systematically, Link Exchange becomes a more enjoyable and rewarding experience. bringing in its wake heaps of Reciprocal Links, One way links, high Page Rank, increased Link Popularity and Targeted Traffic. What more do you want?

5 Steps To A Successful Interne Business

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 09:22:00 +0000

STEP 1. Find something you feel is a good business opportunity. You can scour the internet for all sorts of different business ideas and opportunities. Doing a search on any search engine with the keywords Work At Home, Business Opportunities, Home Based Business, Affiliate Programs, Make Money Online, etc., will produce 1000's of different search results. Affiliate programs are THE ABSOLUTE BEST business opportunities out there because the ONLY thing you need to do to run your internet business is to market your affiliate link. With a traditional business you must deal with inventory, storage, packing, shipping, complaints, returns, phone calls, emails, checks and credit cards just to name a few! Not so with affiliate programs, once someone has clicked on your affiliate link your only job is getting the next person to click on it. Sweet deal!

STEP 2. Get your own webpage. You want to put your internet business on a webpage of your own. A webpage is like a store front. It projects respect to your business and who you are. Think about it. Do you feel the same about buying from a vendor on the street as you do about buying from a person in a store? They’re both vendors, but the store gives you a certain feeling about the person you are buying from that a street vendor just can’t give you! Your webpage dose not have to be fancy. If you only have a brief description of what your webpage is about along with individual descriptions of your product or products people will respect that. If it is affiliate programs you have decided upon, simply put a BRIEF description of what is being offered along with your affiliate link. Do not disclose too much in your description because people might THINK they know what it is all about and not click on your link. You want to let your affiliate website do all the selling for you. These sites are professionally designed to maximize the number of people who buy or join so a brief description, just enough to spike their curiosity, is sufficient.

STEP 3. Get your own Blog and make one post a day. A Blog, short for, “Web Log,” is a great way to establish yourself as an authority figure on whatever topic you decide. As people return to read your daily articles, they will eventually come to view you as an authority on whatever your Blog is about. They will eventually develop confidence in what you are saying, and will begin to trust you. As a result some people will check out your webpage to see what you have to offer them, and people tend to buy more from people they know and trust. Their confidence in you will be an additional factor that will compel people to buy from you. There are many places online that will host and let you set up your Blog for free.

STEP 4. Put Cost-Per-Click(CPC) advertising such as Google AdSense on your website. Having Cost-Per-Click advertising on your website is a way to earn additional income that can be VERY substantial. Most people who visit your website will not buy from you. If people are going to leave your website, wouldn’t you rather them leave through a link on your website that will pay you money every time someone clicks on it? Google makes putting their AdSense on your website E-A-S-Y! The ads are relevant to the content of your website. Google can even put its AdSense on your Blog as we’ll.

STEP 5. Write and submit articles to article submission sites. This is the most important advice you need to know. This is how you will get FREE advertising! People are searching the internet for free information. When you submit your articles online, the search engines will eventually find them and will spider every word. When people do a search using keywords or phrases that are in your articles, they will turn up in the search results, so be sure to insert highly searched for keywords and phrases into your articles! You will need to include at the bottom of all your articles your bio. Your bio will contain a brief description about who you are along with a link to your website. It might read for instance [ John Doe is the owner of yoursite.com. John helps people to work at home using various business opportunities that include affiliate programs. If you desire your own home based business visit http://www.yoursite.com] The more articles you write and submit, the higher the chances are of your articles keywords and phrases showing up on search results. The more links you have pointing back to your website, the higher your websites page rank with the search engines will be, meaning the higher up on the search results will your article turn up, so don’t stop writing and submitting articles! I do want to stress however, quality over quantity. Take your time and check your spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc. No one will take what you have to say seriously if you don’t write correctly.

So there you have it! Having a successful internet business is simply a matter of understanding how things work, and applying that knowledge. It dose not take any special skill or any great intelligence. If you follow these five steps, you cannot fail. The most important thing, as with anything in life, is persistence. Continue following steps three and five and watch your internet business grow!

7 Secrets To Building Your Online Credibility

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 09:20:00 +0000

In a way, the Internet may be compared to the Wild Wild West. (Where do you think the acronym 'WWW' came from?) There is no real central authority that is in charge and many scam artists take full advantage of this. Especially as a small business owner with no large company name behind yours, building credibility in the prospect’s mind becomes crucial.

Here are seven ways to build your online credibility.

1. You may find it beneficial to place your picture (even a smugshot) on your website.

Brick and mortar stores have the advantage since the clerk has a direct face-to-face conversation with the customer. It is therefore easier to ‘connect’ and form a relationship.

I recently read an interesting thread on a marketing forum message board with several people giving their opinions on the pros and cons of placing your picture on your site. Most of the fears expressed were that people might be turned off by the owner’s ethnicity. Even though this is a real fear I think that the best reaction I read on this point came from an Italian-American small business owner. She said that she would not want to do business with someone who was prejudiced against her anyway – I thought to myself – “Problem solved!”

Your photo helps your visitor to reach across the great chasm of the Internet and touch your customer -– right from their monitors. Why do you think cellular phone customers are trading in their ‘old phones’ for the new ‘talk-to-me-and-see-me-at-the-same-time’ models

2. Provide an audio message in your own voice.

This is closely tied to the former tip. It all has to do with feeling connected and human. We are not computers – we just use them. We have emotions and use them to communicate. There is nothing that can communicate emotions like the human voice.

I can still fondly remember those days before my family could afford a television. As children we often listened to those radio dramas. You were there in the center of the action. ‘The Loooooonee RRRRanger!” the gallop of the horses, the crackle of gunfire … trust me, you were there. You smelled the gunpowder and rode those horses!

What can you use your voice to do? At least it can say, “There is a REAL person behind this website”. In this our automated age REAL counts.

3. Place your PHYSICAL address and contact information on every page.

Here again you are being transparent and in the open about your identity and how you may be contacted. You have nothing to hide, and you do not intend to take their money and close down your website the next day.

Your address also adds a sense of structure to the very fluid environment of the Internet. It is much like the sign on a brick and mortar store – this is where I’m located. That is why just a post office box number would not suffice.

Can you be reached by fax, landline phone, email, and mobile phone? This information adds to your credibility, not to mention your perceived availability.

4. Do not use a free email or hosting service as your main site.

Tied closely to credibility are the perceptions that you create of your business. Some say that in business image is everything. That may be taking it a little too far but you are NOT who you think you are but what the customer perceives you to be!

If you use a free email service such as hotmail.com what does this say about you? You are so successful but you cannot even afford a paid email service? Most spammers use these free email accounts anyway – that’s another count against you. It may be best to use the account associated with your paid website’s domain. I think that almost all web hosting services provide POP email accounts.

5. Have an ‘About’ page.

When a surfer appears at your site for the first time it is like going on a blind date. The visitor may have heard a little about you and know where to find you but she is practically just window-shopping. The ‘About’ page gives her a good chance to get a quick background check on you. She can then know if you are the one she really wants to build a relationship with.

Information you should place on this page includes:
- a personal and professional biography,
- maybe a photograph of yourself,
- name, address and telephone number,
- your company objectives,
- a comprehensive description of you and your company.

Just knowing this ‘outline’ of who you are places the visitor at ease and most of the nervous jitter hopefully disappears. Why? She sees you are not afraid to be checked out.

6. Include a ‘Privacy Statement’.

Internet users are becoming more and more sensitive to how their personal information is being used. This makes it almost imperative for you to provide a page with your privacy policy.

General concerns that would have to be addressed are:
*How you use the information that is collected.
*Is the information shared with a third party?
*Let them know how they can opt out of any mailing list they sign up for.
*Why you track their IP address.

For a more detailed discussion on website privacy you may check: http://www.truste.org/

7. Use your customers’ unsolicited testimonials and product reviews.

What you say about your product or service is not really taken seriously. I mean what are you expected to say anyway? It’s your product ... duh. What carry the greater weight are the opinions of other experts in your field. But what carries the greatest weight is what the customers themselves say.

This means that you can get instant credibility if you present the unsolicited testimonials of your satisfied customers. These testimonials should be accompanied with the email address or website and full name of the customer. The less information you give about the customer who is providing the testimonial the less believable it is. I have had visitors who actually contacted these customers to confirm that the testimonials were real.

So pour on the testimonials – too much is not enough.

There you had it. Use all these strategies to help build your credibility online and see more customers willing to open their wallets and their hearts.

Using Google Alerts To Help Your Business

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:54:00 +0000

At times it seems that Google releases more new products and services than we can keep track of. From Google Calendar and Google Video, to Google Base, Google Finance, and Google Trends, it can be overwhelming just to remember what each one does. One of the oft overlooked hidden gems in Google's enormous offering is Google Alerts. Within minutes, one can be signed up for email alerts that can give them and their business a leg up on the competition. Alerts can be used to spy on competitors, keep track of what people are saying about your business, or follow an important news story.

How Does It Work

Google Alerts sends you an email each time a new page for your chosen term makes it in the top twenty results on Google's web search. You can also have the alert check Google News and/or Google Groups. To sign up for a Google Alert, all that you need to do is visit the Google Alerts homepage (http://www.google.com/alerts), enter the search term, type of alert (search Google News, Google Groups, or the web), frequency of emails (daily, as it happens, or weekly), and your email address. You can set up alerts for as many terms as you like using a Google Account. So why would you want an unlimited amount of alerts? Because as a business owner, you have a lot to keep track of and very limited time to do it.

Spy on Your Competitors

Every business has a competitor. More likely, you have several direct competitors and several more indirect competitors. While regularly checking out their websites is an important part of the process, it doesn't paint the whole picture. A competitor’s website is very much crafted to the image that they want to portray to their customers. This is great if you want to know what their latest sale is or how much their new product costs, but it isn't likely to feature a negative review in last Sunday's newspaper.

That's where Google Alerts comes in. By simply setting up a News, Groups, and search alert for each of your competitors, you will know what other people are saying about your competition – both the media and consumers, both good and bad.

Keep Up To Date on Your Industry

Equally as important as what people are saying about your competition is what people are saying about your industry in general. If there's a negative PR swing against violent video games, and you just happen to run a video game store, you will probably be affected. By receiving alerts on important key words related to your industry, you can be on top of any sudden changes and react accordingly. By the time your competition realizes what's happening they will be scrambling to catch up to you.

Track Yourself and Your Business

It goes without saying, if it's important to know what people are saying about your competitors and about your industry, it would stand to reason that it's important to know what people are saying about you. I have Google Alerts on both my name and my businesses name. I know that they go hand in hand – if one is getting slandered you better bet it will hurt the other. By receiving alerts, you can be on top of anything negative relating to you or your business, and hopefully nip any problem in the bud before it grows too large. On the flip side, there's nothing better than receiving an alert where someone praises your business. Those are the types of things that you want to make sure are on the PR page of your businesses website.

Get News Stories for Your Site or Blog

I own a site where I do weekly news updates about what's going on in the industry. Some weeks, there are tons of news items to choose from, other weeks it's hard to find anything. In addition to the regular industry news sites that I check to get information, I have Google Alerts set up for each of the key terms. You'd be surprised how frequently a unique story from a local newspaper pops up in Google News. Many times these stories haven't been seen by my competitors and I am able to “break” the news to the online community. This works well for blogs too – if you have a daily blog about being an entrepreneur, having an alert for the word “entrepreneur” can fetch you several quality stories each day to help inspire fresh posts.

In this increasingly competitive business world, you need each and every leg up on your competition that you can get. Used properly, Google Alerts can be an extremely efficient way to track what's going on across the web. The alternative would be to search each term every day for new updates. Who has time for that? Spending less time researching enables you to spend more time on the things important to your business.

10 Easy Steps For Getting Video On Your Business Website

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:18:00 +0000

I'm often asked, "I have no video training but I want to put video on my website to help promote my products and services what can I do?" Well the answer is simple. If you can shoot a home movie you can put a video clip on your website. Now the first thing is to not be scared of the camera. A good sales person needs to be able to speak clearly and present their product in a manner that everyone can understand and enjoy. So with that in mind turn on your camera, cell phone, or whatever video capturing tool you have and begin shooting. But here are a few tips for making your shoot successful and getting it up on your website.

1. Speak clearly, and so that everyone watching can understand what your saying and what your product is about.

2. Make sure you have enough light so that you and your product can be seen. But be aware that you can also have to much light. So the best thing to do is to test your video and the area your going to be shot in. Make sure you look natural.

3. A microphone is important and you need to be heard. If your using a mini-dv camera you can easily get a microphone that can attach from the camera to your clothing. Use make sure you can't see the wire that connects the mic and the camera during your video.

4. Have FUN! No one wants to see a sour face on camera. So make sure you are having fun and that you SMILE. The better you come across on camera the more people would want to buy your product or services.

5. Don't use big words in your video presentation. Keep it short sweet and simple.

6. Once you've finished your recording, watch it. Make sure it's what you want and something that you'll feel proud to have on your website.

7. Now get the clip to your computer. Your camera will have instructions on how to upload the footage. Now you can get fancy and use one of the high end video editing products. But those take a long time to learn. So if your on a PC use Windows MovieMaker and if your on a Mac use IMove and edit your clip to your licking. Don't use to make crazy effects keep it about you and your product.

8. Now once your clip is edited you need to output it to a web file. If your on a PC then output the file to a WMV. And if your on a MAC then output your clip to a .MOV file.

9. Upload it! If you don't have server space then use http://Video.Google.com or http://Youtube.com. You can easily upload your video to these services. Not only will you have the code to embed the file to your website but you will also allow others to see your video and your product who haven't been to your site yet. It will be as easy as CUT and PASTE to an HTML page.

10. Promote your video clip. Include links to your clip in your weekly newsletters. Send your clip to your friends, family, and business associates. Let them see the work you've done and ask them to pass it on to other friends. Son you'll notice that you have a ton of visitors watching your video and more traffic to your website.

14 Tips For Writing An Effective Online Survey

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:16:00 +0000

Developing a useful, well-written online survey that extracts the information you need from your users can be a challenge. In this article, I will review 14 tips for creating a useful online survey.

1) Write a brief, concise survey. Start with a mental framework that focuses on only what is essential to know. Ask questions only if the answers will give you the data you need and can use. If a question is not important enough to include in your report on the survey’s findings, then remove the question. Try to envision each question as its own specific theory that you are testing.

In addition, research has shown that people skim and skip on the web because it is difficult to read lots of heavily condensed text on a computer screen. Most users do not want to scroll through a long page of text, so your online survey completion rate will be higher if the survey is short and succinct.

2) Try to begin the survey with interesting questions. Interesting questions will inspire the respondent to keep reading and complete the survey.

3) Develop questions with answers in the proper format for your purposes. For example, if you believe your students need more time to complete the questions in your lesson, ask, “How long did it take you to complete the unit and accompanying questions?” with various time intervals as possible answers. This is better than asking, “Do you need more time to finish the unit and accompanying questions?” with yes or no as possible responses.

4) Plan ahead of time how you and your company will analyze the information before you send out the final version of the survey. This may affect your questions and format when you realize that the statistical analysis you need to perform cannot be done with these particular question results.

5) Use the simplest language possible and respect the respondent’s dignity when constructing questions. Your survey respondents will undoubtedly come from many different groups, and more often than not, are less expert in the field than you are.

6) Use neutral language. The online survey is being developed to find out what your audience thinks and is not a forum for you to air your perceptions or opinions.

7) Relax your grammar a bit so your questions do not sound too formal. For instance, the word “who” is often acceptable when “whom” is technically correct.

8) Be sure to ask only one question at a time and put them in a logical order. Questions like “If you scored less than 70% on the test and you have taken the test another time previous to this, what do you think would help you receive an 80% or above the next time you take the test?” will be difficult for respondents to answer and even more challenging for you to interpret.

9) Avoid double negatives, difficult concepts, and specific recall questions. Respondents are easily perplexed when trying to interpret the meaning of a question that uses double negatives. Respondents can also become quickly overwhelmed and lose detail of events or circumstances that are farther back in time. Most importantly, if the survey is too complex and/or difficult to fill out, respondents won’t complete it!

10) Try to use more closed-ended questions, with no more than one or two open-ended questions. Respondents usually have a better understanding of closed-ended questions because they are more straightforward and offer responses they can choose from.

Open-ended questions require a written response. An excessive number of open-ended questions can wear down the respondent and reduce the quality of the answers they provide.

11) Scaled response questions should have answers that are at balanced, comparable intervals. For example, offering choices of excellent, very good, good, and terrible would cause you to miss important information in between the values of good and terrible.

12) Whenever possible, responses should be developed as discrete amounts instead of general statements of quantities, with specific options from which to choose. It’s better to ask, “How many times a month do you go to the movies?” “0”, “1 to 3 times a month”, “3 to 5 times a month or more”, instead of “How often do you go to movies?” “almost never”, “one and a while”, “I am there at least once a week”, etc.

13) Name your survey and write a brief introduction. Providing a survey name and a brief introduction are good ways to give your respondents some background and a frame of reference. It also prepares them for what is to come.

14) Craft a well-written subject line for the email you send with the survey to capture your respondents’ attention.

While not exhaustive, the points listed above are enough to get you started in the right direction. In summary, a well-written online survey has higher completion rates and is an effective method for gathering information.

What Web Businesses Can Learn From Online Gambling

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:52:00 +0000

Abstract: learn how to gain visitors' trust by studying how online casino websites have overcome enormous obstacles to building trust among site visitors.

Online gambling is one of the fastest growing segments of ecommerce in the US, an especially impressive feat since it is illegal in the US. Due to their illegal status, gambling sites face high hurdles in the advertising and promotion arena as well, since most US-based online media companies, most notably Google and Yahoo, refuse to advertise them.

You might think that online gambling websites would face an insurmountable obstacle in gaining users' trust, as well. Trust has long been an issue in ecommerce, historically plagued by credit card billings and websites that disappear just before the orders were to be shipped–and a constant mainstream media drumbeat of the dangers of online transactions. Building trust has long been a chief concern of businesses selling over the web.

The trust issue is only compounded for the online gambling industry when it comes to serving US customers. Would you trust a website with your money if it were located overseas, and you had little legal recourse whatsoever to get your money back if you were dissatisfied–and if the "product" itself were essentially intangible, anyway? To top it off, what if the purchase itself was illegal?

This is precisely the challenge that online casinos meet every day, with the estimated 60 percent of their industry's customers who come from the USA. Casino websites owned and operated entirely outside the borders of the US are free to accept US customers. But gambling online with real money is illegal in the US under federal law, specifically the Federal Wire Wager Act, not to mention a host of state laws.

How Do Online Gambling Websites Gain Visitors' Trust?

* Trust symbols: gambling websites' businesses, being located outside the US, are not eligible for most US-based business certification programs such as the Better Business Bureau or Square Trade. So, they created their own trust seal: ECOGRA, E-Commerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance. Online gambling sites are also wont to make a prominent display of their secure connection certificates, from organizations such as Thawte.

* Assurances: users' concerns about reliability are not just answered implicitly with fancy seals or confident language. One of the most successful online gambling websites contains this prominent declaration on its homepage: "We are licensed and regulated by the Government of Gibraltar, and our games are tested by iTech Labs, an independent tester of gaming and wagering devices to ensure that the games are fair and operate correctly."

* Transparency: while it is often hard to tell just who is behind most ecommerce sites, successful online gambling sites are models of transparency: the location of the company owning the casino is always prominently displayed, and assurances of honesty are backed up with independent audits of the technology used.

* High-quality design: successful gambling websites always look great, no matter how small the business behind them. Plain old HTML may be enough to convince people to post their room rentals on Craigslist, but it doesn't seem enough to make web users fork over their credit card digits to an online casino.

* Low barrier to entry: gambling websites generally either have a free option or require only a small upfront payment.

* Highly optimized designs. It's usually only a single click, if even that, from the homepage to the virtual betting tables. When you can get straight to doing what you want to do, there is not a lot of time to start nursing doubts.

In short, if you take your online business's trustworthiness for granted, you may be missing out on potential customers who need additional assurances. Take a lesson from websites that can't trust their trustworthiness to be taken for granted: make sure visitors to your site feel comfortable opening up their wallets.

10 Tips For Web Success

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:15:00 +0000

The webmaster's biggest job is to get their traffic up and keep customers/visitors coming back. Building the site is one thing, but simply building and posting a website does not guarantee traffic. In fact, a website could be beautiful and an example of all the latest technology and still not attract a single visitor if not promoted correctly. Here are 10 tips to guide you to success with your website.

(1) The internet is a new medium.
At least compared to print, it is. A website is a waste if it simply re-hashes something which could easily be put into print. Don't have the site be just an online brochure. Put up features which take advantage of the internet as a medium of communication. Filter information for them. Provide search capability. Provide interactivity with features like forums, quizzes and tools. Web visitors like to interact.

(2) Treat the Customer's Time as Valuable.
When a person visits your website, you have their attention for that point in time. You either need to use it or you will lose it - fast. Most visitors have short attention spans, what you need to design your site homepage so that it grabs their attention and provides what they are looking for right away. Its like walking into a restaurant. If you walk in and just stand there and nobody comes to greet you, you might wonder what is happening. But, if the hostess comes and greets you right away and walks you to a table, then you will be there for awhile and eat. The same analogy goes for websites. Don't overcomplicate your website homepage. Best results will be obtained if you make it very clear where to click to find what they need.

(3) Design the site for customers, not the company.
Your site needs to satisfy the needs of customers, not the company. So, don't post content which is not really useful to the site's customer. And avoid over-flattering marketing hype about the company. It inflates the ego of the company more than it helps your customer.

(4) Involve the Visitor.
Keep the visitor involved and make them feel like a valuable contributor. Actively ask for the feedback and suggestions. Ask for communication from your visitors and answer that communication swiftly. When getting that communication, capture their email address. This will allow you to communicate with them long after they have moved on and forgotten about you.

(5) Keep it Current.
You need to have content on your website which is timely and relevant to the customer's life. Posting month-old news is not interesting. Posting dry product information which never changes is not interesting. Yes, you need to have product information and other information on your site that won't change much, but you can also post more timely content. You can, for example, post content about how your products can be used in certain situations in life. Provide tips and techniques - things which are immediately applicable and solve a problem.

(6) Pay Attention to Form/Design.
Some sites simply over-do it on the eye-candy. Big graphics just for the sake of graphics often impress the site's designer more than the visitor. Do not use graphics that are large and purposeless. Remember, some visitors may still be accessing your website via dial-up. Your site needs to load up quickly for all users. A slow website will cause your users to leave quickly. Also, pay attention to graphic and design size. Many web designers operate on fairly large screen resolutions and sometimes forget that even though a graphic looks great to you, it will appear enormous to somebody on a smaller resolution. On the flip side, don't go too light on graphics. A site which is poorly designed and using the default font and no color is not very aesthetically pleasing. Any web visitor, whether they admit it or not, judges your company by your website unless they have something else to go on. A well-designed site communicates professionalism. A poor design makes the site seem like an afterthought.

(7) Promote.
When a visitor communicates to you via email, it is best to use a web form. not only will this keep your email address from being picked up by spammers, it will also allow you to ask your customers for their email address and then store that address for later use. Employ the "push/pull" marketing strategy. A visitor coming to your website is the pull, but later you want to push content back to them in the form of a newsletter or other promotional material. Start a mailing list and use it. Invite visitors to sign up. Promotion makes or breaks a business, and as long as you respect the ethical considerations of your mailing list, you should use it.

(8) Don't Operate in a Cocoon.
The internet is a medium which is shared by millions. When you set up your website, don't operate as if you are a self-contained island. Get out there and keep in tune with what is happening on other websites related to your own. Participate in forums. Post links to other websites and ask for a link in return. Form partnerships with other sites if it is appropriate. When it comes to communication, people like personal contacts. Hiding behind general email address like "sales" and "info" is OK as long as there is a way to also email you directly. A company site which allows email direct to the management is good. Just remember how much you hate calling a company and getting stuck in their phone system. Sometimes you just want to talk to somebody. Give your visitors that ability.

(9) Have a Plan to Attract Repeat Traffic.
Use newsletters, out-going email, contests, forums, clubs, auctions - anything that will cause people to return to your website. When posting links to other websites, don't just send your visitors somewhere else. They may never return. Provide them an exit page. Give them a pop-up when they try to leave your site. Or at the very least make external links open in a new window.

(10) Track Your Visitors
Pay attention to your site's statistics and react accordingly. What are people reading? How are they finding you? Do they just come and leave right from your homepage? How long as they are on your website? Do they return? This data is immensely valuable in fine-tuning your website based on customer needs and wants. Remember, the biggest mistake of any webmaster is designing the site for what THEY want. A successful website is designed for the target audience, not to impress the site's owner.

Paid Surveys Online - Make Money By Working At Home

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:50:00 +0000

What would you do with……

• An extra $200each month? Pay a bill?
• An extra $500 each month? Pay cash (instead of credit!) for things you have been wanting?
• $ 1,000??? Now you can dream a little here……

This kind of extra “fun money” is definitely within your reach!

You can make these amounts each and every month right where you are sitting now, in your own home. All that is required is to fill out simple, quick, Paid Online Surveys.

You have no doubt filled out some sort of survey before. Did you get paid for it though? Take another look at dollar figures above.

So think about it, filling out paid online surveys at home, on your own computer. You do the surveys YOU choose, do them when you want to. No boss and no deadlines.

The paid survey company we work with are currently paying between:

• $10 and $95 per online survey! (Up to $95 /hr. !)
• $25 to $75 per hour to shop, eat, or see a movie !
• $10 to $35 per hour just to drive your car!

The obvious question is ….Why would some company pay me to do these things????

- It costs companies a small fortune to develop, launch, and advertise new products! If they hire people (employees) to test the products or try them out, the results are not always reliable and unbiased.

- Gathering YOUR valued opinions and paying you, even at the rates above, are just what these companies want. They can reach many different types (all ages, sexes, etc.) of consumers faster. For them it is all about direct access.

Is there a catch?

NO! These are legitimate businesses that need to know what you honestly think about their product before they go into large scale production and distribution. They need consumers opinions in order to make informed marketing and advertising decisions They are more than happy to pay for this service.

There is no free lunch! You will have to work, but how hard is completely up to you. Most surveys take 20 minutes, some a little longer, but they pay you for it too.

A few tips as you continue on….

• You could get your name enlisted in as many companies as possible. This will take some research in order to find the best ones with decent paying surveys. There are many to sift through, we did the same thing.

• Or you can make your life easier and look to an organization that has a database of 250 to 450 companies in their network that offer paid online surveys.

• Registration in an organization like this will carry a minimal cost of $25 to $35, but you benefit from the quick access, ongoing support, updates, and bonuses.

• We recommend you register, then choose the companies whose surveys appeal to you, and register with them individually.

• No further payment is required at this point, and in a flash you will be receiving surveys in your inbox!

Avoiding scams…..

• Unfortunately, there are paid survey companies that are unreliable, have no customer support, and just collect fees from ambitious newcomers.

• Learn to recognize these paid survey scam sites. These are full of outdated directories, lame resources, useless phone numbers, and dead-end email addresses.

• One sure sign of a rip-off is the lack of any guarantee whatsoever.

After extensive research, there is one paid survey company that we found, and highly recommend. They offer an unconditional, 60 day, money back guarantee. They have outstanding customer service and support. They are constantly updating their survey database and offer a special $25 sign up survey for new members! They offer the best resources for making real money doing paid surveys online!

6 Steps to an Effective Online Business

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:13:00 +0000

Creating and running an effective online business is realistically comprised of several hundred, rather than 6, but this will serve as a guide for the direction of your efforts. Contrary to what you may hear rampantly on the Internet, there is no cookie-cutter, get-rich quick scheme on the web. Not only is every online business different, what works for one person or in one month may not work for another person or in the next month.

The Internet is constantly changing, and the online market is inherently different this year than it was last year. New technological improvements occur monthly, and impact the online business environment. What works for one individual when he is the first to sell a certain product a certain way may not work just six months later when he has sold his idea to 40,000 other marketers, and they all begin to promote it. Traffic generation tactics are significantly different than they were just a year ago, and hardly resemble profitable strategies three years ago.

These 6 Steps are simply the bare-bones skeleton of what has to happen for your online business to be successful. They are foundational, and although the implementation strategies are different today than several years ago, the basic steps remain the same.

1. Develop or discover a product. You must find a product that meets today’s needs. A 5 year old product whose resell rights you can buy for a dollar or get for free probably won’t meet the needs of today’s consumers. You must be willing to pay for the rights to sell a current , useful product, or become an affiliate marketer, where you promote a popular product, and in exchange are paid a percentage of the income from the sale.

2. Determine how the potential customers can view your product and see a sales presentation. If you develop your own product or purchase the rights to sell someone else’s, you will need a website. A few tips here: Rather than accept free web hosting, purchase your own domain name and pay to have your domain name and web site hosted by a professional web hosting company with a reputable history. If your free web hosting company goes bankrupt, they generally take your fledgling business with them.

3. Once you have your web site up and running, unless you are using an affiliate program that supplies a sales page, you must develop a sales script and web copy. Aside from your web hosting decision, this is probably the most important thing you can do. You may be tempted at first to write a sales pitch on your own, but unless you already have a lot of experience in the offline market writing effective sales letters, you need to, absolutely must, invest in a few courses on web copywriting. Be willing to spend some money upfront on learning this skill. Too many marketers try to wing it in this area and after a few months of losing money online, finally break down and purchase the knowledge to write a good sales pitch. Do it the other way around—buy the knowledge first, and start making sales from the beginning. Customers will not buy just because you have a web site---they buy from the web site that does the best job of convincing them it has the best product for their need.

4. You must develop a traffic source that works. When you first begin, you may be on a shoestring, and that is OK. Assuming you have been willing to spend some money on sales letter writing and a decent web host, you may be able to skimp in the traffic arena for awhile, if you have plenty of time. If you do not have money to advertise, nor time to seek out low cost advertising, you probably shouldn’t be attempting an online business. If you do choose to go the low-cost route—know two things up front—the returns are really low and you will spend vast amounts of time on traffic generation. Once you begin to make sales, you must invest your income in paid forms of traffic generation. If you do not, you will run out of enthusiasm for generating the free traffic, and without reinvesting the income from your first sales into advertising, you are sure to fail. Good sources of low-cost, but time consuming traffic are: writing articles and posting them to article directories, low cost classified ads, and ezine ads. You may see hyped-up ads for thousands or visitors for a low cost or millions of banner ads for another reasonable price—both of these methods may have worked 2 years ago, but they are a sure waste today.

5. Once you begin to get traffic to your online business site, you must keep detailed records of where the traffic comes from, and what percentage of visitors from each source are purchasing your product. If you have visitors that cost you $50 per hundred to come to your web site, but on average they only purchase $25 per hundred visitors, the income may feel good, but you are not profitable, and are losing money. By tracking your expenses on each type of visitor and by tracking your revenue on the same sources of visitors, you can determine which campaigns need changes or need to be eliminated and which need to be increased in intensity.

6. By following this pattern of steps, and by keeping diligent records (there is plenty of good web site tracking software on the market that can help you do that), you can develop a profitable online business. Again, it will not happen overnight, and you will not get rich quick. However, if you build a solid online business with a solid foundation, and are willing to spend some money learning how to do it right, you really can become successful in business online.

Why The Internet Is Creating Millionaires Daily

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:49:00 +0000

There are millionaires created daily via the Internet. How are they doing it? If they can, can you?

One of the secrets these millionaires believe in is setting your goals high. The more one earns the more confidence he has that he can earn double that amount or even triple.

The secret to building mailing lists of over a million people, millions of hits on your website and marketing high end products are the three events that are making Internet millionaires.

It doesn't hurt to come up with a unique idea, like software to create instant communication access to board members and company officials.

Brainstorming and interacting with ordinary people who have already made their millions is a great way to pick their brains, find out how they started and what they did to keep going.

The Internet has the possibility to reach millions of potential customers and making you a millionaire.

Just a few steps could help you start making the money you've only dreamed of.

1. Decide what niche you are going to market to and create a website. Give something away FREE. Right, free, but require them to sign on to your list to receive it.

2. Respond quickly when a visitor signs up.

3. Send the new subscriber some new quality information. Promote a product of your own or an affiliates.

4. Promote your website and continue to add subscribers to your list.

5. Create a newsletter that goes out every week. Remember this is going to your niche market so be sure to include quality information and earn the trust of your visitor list.

6. Offer them a sales pitch, you don't have to every week, but don't be afraid to sell something!

Using these six simple steps, you too can make millions on the Internet. Find your market niche and start your marketing campaign today.

5 Big Internet Business Lies

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:09:00 +0000

You have heard from people saying Internet Business is a waste of time, you will not make any money, there is no real money to be made online, it will never work and so many others negative words coming from people who don’t really understand in this Internet Business industry.

The thing is, it does work. Why some people make a fortune and some don’t even make money at all? Simply because the people who make thousands or millions of cash knew all the lies in this business and they will not trust these lies.

So what is this big internet lies? Below here are the 10 big internet lies that you should know:

1. Starting And Running A Business On The Internet Is Expensive

Do you know that you can start your business with zero cost? You can actually earn your income by joining a very high quality affiliate program. Usually, as an affiliate marketer, your job is concentrating on marketing only. All the follow up, delivery of the product, answering questions from customers and so on are done by the owner of the program.

Usually the ‘expensive’ statement often comes from people who are living in non-U.S. countries, especially if the country’s local currency is smaller than that of the U.S. Dollar. If it is not a currency issue, it is a vision issue. See and think small to get small. See and think big and your results will have a tendency to match your thoughts.

2. You Can Make Easy Money From The Internet

Most people believe you can make money overnight and by not doing anything at all. If it is what you have in mind right now, this myth is what sets the realistic apart from the unrealistic. You have probably heard of stories of how people make 5 to 6 figure incomes in the shortest period of time imaginable.

These stories might be true but did you know most of them have failed so miserably several times before they can really make money? They have learned from their mistakes and move on. It may seem as if some gurus are overnight successes with the wild numbers some people have brought in during a day or a week selling information or products online.

Some interesting facts about overnight success – it normally takes months if not years to realize. In other words, they prepare, they create a joint ventures, they get ready and then build up anticipation for a launch – then BOOM it explodes!

3. You Must Know HTML, Programming And Graphic Designing In Order To Start Your Business

You don’t need to know all of these at all. Period. In fact, one of the biggest shockers was the discovery that most of the biggest on the gurus today do not have the first clue as to how to build a web page.

These gurus earned more money because they knew how to reach people. They either outsource for professional help or establish Joint Ventures with other individuals who can compensate their lack of knowledge in any one of these areas.

As a matter of fact, most successful people are true successes because they only focus their time on what brings them successes.

If you want to create your web pages without having to learn programming, HTML and designing skills, just find someone else that can do it for you. There are many professional web designer you can find on the Internet which you can hire them to design your web pages exactly like you wanted.

4. On The Internet, There Is No Need To Know How To Sell

This statement has make people who hate selling are attracted to ads that read “no selling required”. Think for a moment, is there any logic at all you can make money without doing anything at all? Usually these programs are usually unworkable and some are run by fly-by-night operators.

In this business, don’t try to sell to other people. Instead, you inform your potential customers. Show people what their lives would be like with what you offer and you will have a sale without selling anything at all!

5. You Don’t Have To Build A Mailing List At All

Laughing out loud – that is like saying, “I don’t want to be in business”. Put this in your head, your mailing list is as important to you as the “Yellow Pages” is to a conventional B2B business.

“The money is in the list”. You probably heard this from most gurus out there. But you should also have this word in your mind, “The money is in the relationship”. The idea of networking with people is unattractive to most who hate to sell.

Remember though, you are not selling anything. You are just showing people their life and how it can easily be enhanced by what you have to offer.

All the above are just some of the big Internet lies. Actually there are a lot more Internet lies you should stay away from. You have to be smart in order to really achieve success that you could possibly imagine. Success is like enlightenment. It is a path and not a destination.

Alexa Toolbar - The Ultimate Internet Tool

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:46:00 +0000

There are numerous tools available on the Internet to assist online businesses. A valuable tool that you should use is the Alexa Toolbar. Even better, this tool is free.

Alexa Toolbar

Founded in April 1996, Alexa.com was designed to provide an interactive web navigation system. The most impressive part of the platform, now owned by Amazon.com, is the free Alexa Toolbar.

First released in 1997, the Alexa Toolbar is known as the “B.S.” detector for Internet sites. With over 10 million users, the toolbar tracks how people use the Internet and turns this information into ranking statistics for each site on the Internet. For instance, Yahoo is ranked as the number one most visited site on the Internet.

So how do you use this tool? First, you download the Alexa Toolbar as follows:

1. Go to Alexa.com.

2. Click “Download Alexa Toolbar” at the top of the page.

3. Click “Install” on the next page.

Reload the page you are viewing and the toolbar will appear across the top of your browser. The tool provides you with valuable information regarding any site you are looking at, including your own. It tells you the traffic ranking of the site compared to all sites on the Internet. The tool also provides you specific traffic information for the site and lays out sites that are similar to the one on your screen. Instead of making baseless assumptions regarding how “good” a site is or whether it is successful, you can use the Alexa statistics to get a better idea. If any company approaches you claiming they have a lot of traffic, you can just pull up their site and review the Alexa statistics. This allows you to verify who is receiving a significant amount of traffic and who is feeding you a line of “B.S.”

Let’s look at Google.com using the Alexa toolbar. Load Google on to your browser and click the #3 number in the toolbar. The Alexa Toolbar information for google shows:

1. The site is the 3rd most popular site on the Internet. [Yahoo is No. 1.]

2. The site takes .8 seconds to load, which is very fast.

Next, click the “see traffic details” link on the page to dive into the site statistics:

The site shows consistent traffic through the year, maintaining a number 3 position. 214,00 out of every million surfers visit the site, which is an excellent “reach” rating. Each visitor views approximately 5.4 pages on the site, which means that users are working there way into the internal pages of the site. This is always good news for a site.

As you can see, using the Alexa Toolbar system can provide you with specific information regarding web sites. The next time you are contacted by someone claiming they have millions of hits or are considering advertising on a site, you can use the Alexa toolbar to get an objective view of the site

Alexa Traffic Rank - What It Is and Why You Should Care or Not

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:30:00 +0000

Alexa is an Amazon owned company that is famous for its public traffic ranking service via its alexa.com website. Website promotion guides often make a big deal about how to improve your Alexa ranking because a top position is often associated with high profits. As a new webmaster, you must understand a few very important points about Alexa’s service. This article will explain what the data collected by Alexa mean and then describe why you should care or not.

There are three numbers that Alexa reports, reach, page views and overall rank. Reach refers to the percentage of all web users that visited your site. Alexa reports this number as “reach per million users.” For example if Alexa reports a reach of one, it means that on average out of one million web surfers one visits your site. Page views simply measures the average number of pages a surfer examines when at your website. Those sites with a lot of content and targeted visitors tend to generate a larger number of page views. The overall Alexa rank is a combination of the reach and page views numbers such that the larger both of them are the lower the site’s rank will be; for Alexa, a smaller rank indicates a more important website. Alexa reports these numbers for each day, one week and three month averages and the overall change over a three month period. So, how does Alexa gather these data?

On a daily basis, Alexa collects statistics about the number of visitors and page views for every website on the Internet. Actually, it does not have data for all the sites. You see, data collection happens via web surfers that have downloaded and installed the Alexa toolbar for their Internet Explorer browser. When one of these users visits and explores a site, the toolbar sends this information to Alexa’s servers. What this means for webmasters is that only those sites visited by users that have decided to install the toolbar will actually have data collected for them. In addition, since only a rather small subset of all possible Web surfers actually uses the toolbar, the ranking is a statistical average that is not necessarily a true indication of the quality and number of a site’s readers. In fact, the number is really inaccurate for sites with a small number of visitors and Alexa admits that this is true for those sites not in the top 100,000.

To make matters worse, the toolbar is only available for Internet Explorer. Of course, IE is the browser used by the majority of Internet users with data showing that it is used by about 83% of them (onestat.com). This is not a problem unless your audience is more likely to be in the other 17% of surfers, i.e., those that prefer to use Firefox, Safari, Opera or another alternative browser. For example, slashdot.org is a technology news site with an audience that is known to be very anti-Microsoft; Slashdot’s motto is “News for nerds. Stuff that matters.” One expects that most of its users would use any browser other than IE and in fact it was recently posted that an estimated 65% of Slashdot’s readers use a browser other than IE. As of this writing (July 12, 2006), Slashdot’s ranking was 176 with a reach of 5450 per million surfers. Slashdot is known for something called the “Slashdot effect” that is when a story on the front page links to a site, it receives so many visitors that the servers often are not able to handle the sudden increase in traffic. In other words, I would expect that Alexa’s rank is actually an underestimate of Slashdot’s true rank.

From a statistics point of view, Alexa’s rank cannot be thought of as an unbiased statistical measure. The sample of people used by Alexa for collecting data is not a randomly selected set but rather it is biased towards users of Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer as well as those who are willing to install the toolbar and submit to Alexa information about their browsing behavior. If your audience is similar to Slashdot’s then don’t expect accurate results. Anticipate the same if your audience includes people who are pro-privacy and would never install a toolbar that calls home making their browsing behavior known to a large corporation.

So, if you really want accuracy in terms of your site’s number of users and page views then you are better off using analytics software, for example Google Analytics, rather than Alexa. However, many advertisers use Alexa’s ranking as a neutral third party estimate of a site’s popularity; they consult Alexa in order to determine how much advertising space is worth on your site. This is the reason why many webmasters display their Alexa rank on the front page. If you happen to be on the upper end of Alexa’s ranking then you should be able to benefit from it; if you are not then you probably shouldn’t lose too much sleep over it. Focus on adding fresh content to your site; this way you will be able to drive more traffic to your site via the major search engines and also keep your visitors coming back.

15 Ways To Start Your Internet Business Sales

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:07:00 +0000

1. Find a strategic business partner. Look for ones that have the same objective. You
can trade leads, share marketing info, sell package deals, etc.

2. Create a free ebook directory on a specific topic at your web site. People will visit
your web site to read the free ebooks and may see your product ad.

3. Brand your name and business. You can easily do this by just writing articles and
submitting them to e-zines or web sites for republishing.

4. Offer daily or weekly visitor bonuses. This will increase your repeat traffic and sales
because your visitors will visit regularly to get the visitor bonuses.

5. Start an auction on your web site. The type of auction could be related to the theme
of your site. You'll draw traffic from auctioneers and bidders.

6. Allow people to download software or e-books from your web site at no cost. Just
ask your visitors in return if they'll refer their friends to your web site.

7. Remember to take a little time out of your day or week to brainstorm. New ideas are
usually the difference between success and failure.

8. Create multiple streams of income with your web site. You could sell your own products,
join affiliate programs, sell advertising space, etc.

9. Model other successful business or people. I'm not saying out right copy them, but
practice some of the same habits that have made them succeed.

10. Give your visitors compliments in your ad copy. This can earn their trust and put them
in a good mood, in return they will be easier to sell too.

11. Take risks to improve your business. Sometimes businesses don't want to advertise
unless it's free, sometimes you have to spend money to get results.

12. Include emotional words in your advertisements. Use ones like love, security, relief,
freedom, happy, satisfaction, fun, etc.

13. Ask people online to review your web site. You can use the comments you get to
improve your website or you may turn the reviewer into a customer.

14. Out source part of your workload. You'll save on most employee costs. You could out
source your secretarial work, accounting, marketing, etc.

15. Combine a product and service together in a package deal. It could increase your sales. If
you're selling a book, offer an hour of consulting with it.

Content And Copywriting

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 09:44:00 +0000

Today WebPages must compete for survival just like animals in the wild. Natural selection isn’t just a concept limited to Mother Nature. Even in the world of cyberspace there is a “law of the jungle”. Search engine optimization or (SEO) lies at the core of this law. Many skills must be mastered to rise to the top. Three important ones are keywords, content and copywriting. Let’s begin with the first of the three.

Keywords are extremely important because they act as a marker for search engines. Keywords can be placed anywhere on a website. Besides being noticed they must be carefully selected. You must take care to choose keywords that are not only relevant to your site but also that are likely to be used by those who are searching for what is on your site. Several things must be taken into account. Variations in spelling of the keywords as well as spelling errors can conceivably drive traffic to your site. The links in your site are a vitally important spot to place keywords because not only will they be noticed by search engines but they will also direct people to the other pages on your site thus increasing your ranking.

Content is the second factor here. Beyond the obvious fact that the content of your site is what people are going to read when they get to your site the content is the larger aspect of keywords. The keywords may be the specific point that a search may target but the better your content in both amount but quality the easier it will be to place you keywords. Imbedding keywords in content is one way to get them spotted by search engines but good content will force you to have good keywords. As it has been said the best way to hide something is in plain sight.

To better facilitate the use of the aforementioned factors you must understand copyright concepts. Certain things can be copyrighted and certain things can’t. Slogans, titles, names and related items can’t be copyrighted although titles can be trademarked. One important thing to keep in mind is how you use something. The context of how you use a word or phrase or what have you can violate a copyright or not. Copyright in many areas is tricky so be careful. Things created by the government are free domain as well as donated items or things people give permission to use by other people for any purpose.

Learn the rules before you play the game.

5 Ways To Drive Visitors Away For Your Website

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 09:06:00 +0000

There are tons of resources available that will teach you how to make money on the internet. Heck, I've written tutorials like that myself. But, perhaps it's easier to demonstrate what to do, with a lesson on what not to do. This article will teach you how to drive visitors away from your website screaming "Get me outta here!" If you prefer being alone with your website and don't want all those pesky visitors bothering you, then follow the guidelines below and you'll get rid of them quick as a blink.

1. Don't state on your website what you do or what you sell. Make it a complete mystery why you decided to build your website in the first place. It's like a secret club -- your visitors are left in the dark. Have you been to sites like this where you show up and think "What the heck is this site about?" If you're not presenting a clear statement about why your visitors should spend their money (or at least come back again), then you're on your way to hermit-land.

2. Overwhelm visitors with lots of information. Almost as bad as the "What the heck is this site about?" problem is the "Oh my Goodness! Oh my Gracious!" sites. As a visitor, you know the sites I'm talking about. The page opens and your jaw drops. There is a sea of banners, with links everywhere and articles galore. Where do you go? What do you do? I'll tell you what I do. Click the little "x' in the upper right-hand corner to get the heck outta there!

3. Make the ordering process really complicated. There's nothing I love more than putting items into my shopping cart and then spending 20 minutes trying to figure out how to set up an account and pay. Guess what? I sure don't click the 'contact us' button. I click the "x" instead. You've succeeded in getting rid of yet another pesky customer who wanted to spend money.

4. Fill your site with outdated information and broken links. Pfshew. You dodged a visitor with that one. They clicked on a link that was broken -- and off they went.

5. Make sure there's no way for an interested customer or business partner to contact you. Heaven forbid, you might get some spam if you have your contact information on your site.

Thank Goodness you don't have those gosh-darned customers emailing you while you're trying to read up on Brad Pitt's love life.

Obviously, I'm being silly, but you do know that these examples are true. You've seen sites that seem like they are trying to drive you away. If you are spending time and energy putting up a website to make money, then, make some money. You CAN do it!

Web Business Overview - Site Practicalities

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:55:00 +0000

When starting a web business, the first step is generating a business plan. Once completed, it is time to move on to the particulars of your site.

Research

Are people actually buying your widgets from other sites? To find out, you could check stock of stores and Web sites, ask for friends' opinions and find more data online, in media and at the library. If it turns out people are not buying very many widgets these days, now may be a good time to change you business plan. Also research what your competitors are doing and if there is any way to improve upon their business models.

Web Site?

After you have a business plan and done some research, it is time to begin building your business. Though it is not essential for a web entrepreneur to have a web site, for our purposes we will assume one will be required. Other methods of making money on the web are quite possible, such as by creating an opt-in mailing list or selling products though services such as eBay.

Host and Domain

In order to have a web site one must have a host and a domain name. Think of the host as the home of your web site and the domain, such as www.widgets.com, as its address. Domain names can often be registered for less than $10 per year. Free hosting is even available, but a user of such services is required to have the host's banners on their site, which is not particularly desirable.

A host should have reliable customer service, have very high uptime, meaning your site is accessible on the web as close to 100% of the time as possible, and give your business room to grow. You don't want your host to crash if you get ten thousand visitors in one day. If you need programming or ecommerce, you will want to make sure your host will support your needs. Server stats are also very handy.

Build It

After you have a home and address for your web site, you will need to build it. There are two roads you can walk down. Many web entrepreneurs choose to build their own sites and learn as they go. This is often desirable if you are interested in HTML and programming, have time to spare and don't require a professional polish. Many sites that make money promoting affiliate programs attract an audience that expect a rough, non- professional site to lead them to a polished sponsor site where they will spend their money.

The other road is to have a professional design your site for you. This is the best solution for many. Like a construction worker who knows the best way to build houses and can do it better and faster than the average layman, so it is with web design. If you are planning on selling a product or service directly, it is essential to have a sharp image by which your potential clients will judge you. With so much information and so many web pages available, surfers often move on after only a few seconds. A professional design will ensure you will be making the most of each visitor that views your site.

Now you have a plan, a product or service and a web site to sell it with. This is all very nice and all, but without people viewing your web site, you can't make any sales. You need a solid marketing plan to get the visitors to you site, by which you can make sales.

And that’s the subject of our next article.

Web Business Overview - Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:45:00 +0000

You’ve done your research, written a business plan and created a web site. Now it’s time to market your web business.

Internet Marketing

There are many ways to market a web site. One of the best ways is through search engines and directories. Search engines ensure pre-qualified traffic, meaning that if someone finds your site through a search engine, there is a good chance they are looking for the widgets you are selling. You just have to do you homework on keywords, optimize your site and submit it to search engines correctly.

Organic

There are several types of search engines and directories. A spider search engine uses programs called spiders to go around the web and collect data and bring it back to the engine. The data is then analyzed using various mathematical algorithms and your site appears in various listings. Of course, you want to get to the top of the listings, but that subject is beyond the scope of this article.

PPC

Then there are pay-per-click search engines, which require the site owner to pay for every click received from a list of search terms the site owner provides. Traffic can cost anywhere from a cent to a few dollars per click on pay per click engines. This is a good way to get immediate traffic to your site.

Directories

Then there are the directories, such as Yahoo. These directors have reviewers that check submissions for quality and categorize them in folder-like branches of information. Directories such as Yahoo require a payment for listing, whereas other directories, such as DMOZ, do not. Some directories use a combination of human and spider review as well.

Trading Links

Another way to get traffic to your site is by trading links with other sites. A banner or text link is placed on your site to another relevant site, then you kindly request that a link to your site be placed on the site you have linked to. Link trading has a side benefit, to wit, the more you trade the higher you will appear in organic search engine results.

Brick n’ Mortar

Other methods of web promotion include web rings, banner exchanges, print advertising, banner advertising, TV and radio advertising and good old networking. Far to often, web businesses fail to pursue regular old marketing methods. Don’t make this mistake.

Now that you have a good plan, done some research, provided your service or product for all to see with a web site, and marketed your site to no end, there is nothing left to do but sit back and rake in the cash. Until, of course, your competitors start moving in on your customers and you have to start the cycle all over again.

Web Business Overview - Have a Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Andi) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:41:00 +0000

So you've decided you'd like to go into business on the web, eh? This article will give an overview of options that are available for your web business and will help to give you an idea of what goals should be set for your project.

After deciding to be a web entrepreneur, the next step is to create a business plan. Business plans are as essential to a web entrepreneur as blueprints are to a construction worker. To build a business most efficiently, you must first be an architect and plan how you would like your business to look, what it will do and how your goals will be accomplished.

There are many ways a person can go about making money with the Internet. Options include selling products as a wholesaler or retailer, selling services, promoting products or services as an affiliate partner, selling advertising, selling email or demographic information, selling subscriptions to sites and any number of other ways and combinations of money making ideas.

A good business plan will include details on the service or products you will be offering, growth goals for your new business, projected expenses and losses, employee projections, and any other information you will need to clearly outline your successful business. Though there are many approaches to the actual construction of a business plan, a month by month or quarter by quarter analysis is common.

For example, if your online business will be selling widgets, you may want to go through, month by month and estimate the total number of widgets you will sell, the cost of selling these widgets, expenditures on marketing, hosting and overhead, and any other foreseeable factors you can think of. If within six months you want to begin selling skyhooks as well as widgets, this should also be accounted for in your business plan.

Before moving on to our next topic, it is important to remember that business plans are constantly changing. Some of your projections will be difficult to make accurately, so do the best you can with the information at hand. As more data becomes available through research and experience you will be able to make revisions to your business plan. I am of the belief that it is generally a good idea to make profit projections on the low end to start with. If you believe you can sell between 10 and 100 widgets your first month, it is better to plan to sell only 10, and be pleasantly surprised when you sell 55, rather than to plan for 100 and fall short of goals that have become unrealistic yet necessary for the survival of your business.

After you have a good plan for your business, the next step will be to research your business. But that’s a subject for the next article.