Mike Serovey - Business

What I found when I checked out ViralURL...

2015-08-21T21:35:00.004-04:00

So you have finally stepped into the world of making money online. You too, like the others, have decided to start with the affiliate programs. Also, you must have heard that it's not a big deal to make good money with affiliate marketing, provided you choose the right programs and do some strategic planning while promoting your affiliate products. So far so good.

Whether you are promoting other people's products or promoting your own products - that doesn't matter because after all it is nothing but your own business and your means to earn good money. So whichever be your case, I am sure you would not want to leave money on the table and invite others to steal your share of profit.

Even though the industry of affiliate marketing is pretty competitive but if you are cautious and are strategic in your marketing techniques then, it could be very profitable for you.

Take a close look at the industry, you will see that not every one who gets into affiliate marketing is successful. People who are doing well leave no room for failure and take all security measures and understand its importance.

Yes! Security is one of the key factors in affiliate marketing. If you do not adopt proper security measures, then your business will be at high risk. One of the most important way to restore security is to protect your affiliate links. Do not take them for granted. A bit of carelessness on your part in regards to affiliate links may cost you a lot of dollars.

Do you know the long complicated links that you send to your prospective customers not only look convoluted but they can create a lot of problems too! If you send such an affiliate link to your customers, then the smart ones will definitely figure out that you are promoting someone else's product and they would rather visit the parent company. Also, if your link does not function then your customers have to type a really long URL into the browser, which will definitely put him or her off.

You could be a victim of even a worse situation. What if some devious Internet pirates steal your affiliate links and replace them with theirs. If they do that, then you get no commission at all.

Did I scare you off with all of the above possibilities? Well, that certainly wasn't my intention. I just wanted to open your eyes and state facts that actually happen in the world of Internet. It happened with me until I came across ViralURL , that brought a revolution to my online ventures.

So, if you are not getting the desired results out of your affiliate marketing, don't lose hope. There's definitely a remedy to this problem and that is ViralURL

Do I hear you asking, what is it and how can it help in averting any adverse situation for an affiliate marketer like me?
Be patient and read on, if you love your business.

ViralURL is a link shortener & cloaker that protects you in the truest sense. There may be many unethical people lurking around, who might play with your affiliate links by cutting them off or replacing them with their own etc. How much effort you put in towards building your business and advertising your business, if your links are tampered with, then all your hard work will be rendered useless.

In order to avoid such a rip off, ViralURL gives you full protection and sees to it that your affiliate links never get exposed to others.

So save yourself from getting ripped. Get all the commissions to your account that you rightfully deserve. All this is made possible by ViralURL

It is a blessing for every affiliate marketer like you and me, who wants to achieve success in their endeavor.

Is ViralURL limited to only link protection?

NO!

It does much much more than that. Let's see what ViralURL can do for us:

*ViralURL helps us in protecting commission.
*ViralURL helps in building mailing lists.
*ViralURL helps in tracking statistics.
*ViralURL helps in earning extra ad credits.

In short, ViralURL allows us to create massive business leverage.
I don't see any negative aspect associated with ViralURL. All you have to do is join it for free, then cloak your links, promote them and see your business soaring higher and higher.

You can get all detailed information about the program from the ViralURL site at http://vur.me/mserovey. There, you can find several unsolicited testimonials from various users of ViralURL. So if you want to protect your business and see your earnings grow, try ViralURL. You have nothing to lose with it.

YouTube Video Ranking on Google

2013-11-06T06:04:00.001-05:00

My Video Got Ranked Number 4 in One Day

I put a video on my YouTube channel for Christmas and it ranked number 4 on Google for my long-tail keyword in just one day. I have no idea how long it is going to stay there, but I should be getting some traffic from people who are looking for this doll.

My Google ranking for "Adora Pin-a-four Season 20-Inch Doll on Amazon"

Click on this picture to see a bigger image and to confirm my number four ranking for the term "Adora Pin-a-four Season 20-Inch Doll on Amazon". The tips that I got on SEO seem to work!

Mike Serovey, MA, MISM

My First Book - Google Ranking for It

2012-09-26T01:52:00.002-04:00

I published my very first book on Amazon Kindle, Create Space, Barnes and Nobel, and Lulu.com. It is called Better Thinking for Better Chess and is based upon a directed study that I did back in 1988. It was part of my BA in Psychology program. I decided to look up the phrase "Better Thinking for Better" in Google and I got four of the top ten spots for that phrase. I also have my pictures showing next to two of my listings. I have not yet checked to see how well I rank for other search terms. I also noticed that when I did a search for "Chess Psychology" on Amazon that my book was a suggested item on the page of books that match that term.

Here is a screen capture of what I found two days ago:

Screen capture of my Google results for "Better Thinking for Better"

Google results for "Better Thinking for Better"

Pretty cool, huh?

Mike Serovey, MA, MISM

2012-07-07T16:20:00.003-04:00

wow!! just made $464 you have to see this http://ping.fm/l2l2H?Article=2263

2012-07-07T16:20:00.001-04:00

wow!! just received $338 Read this http://ping.fm/dd57Y?Article=7732

2012-07-06T18:38:00.001-04:00

GREAT!! just made $643 you should read this http://ping.fm/Y7z4X?Article=6242

2012-07-05T17:43:00.001-04:00

great to see moms in my area are working from home http://ping.fm/P5iPG?Article=57222&s=pf looks like im joining the party

Thoughts on Google Page Rank and Alexa Traffic Rank

2011-08-29T14:42:00.005-04:00

I have been using Traffic Travis Pro version 4 for a few months now and have been tracking how my sites rank on various key words and phrases. I am also tracking the number of backlinks, unique domains, etc. My chess site has a Google Page Rank of 3 for the home page and 2 for some of the internal pages. It has an Alexa Traffic Rank of 11,557,081. I am tracking 72 key words and phrases on all of the English speaking search engines. I have 1,505 backlinks from 642 unique IP's and 974 unique domains. Many of my key words and phrases rank in the top five on more than one search engine. Yet, the site is not earning any money! I get a few clicks on the AdSense ads that earn chump change, but the Amazon affiliate commissions so far have been a little over $13! It seems that my site visitors are freebie seekers that will not actually buy anything! I admit that this site started out as a hobby site, but I recently upgraded my hosting plan to 5000MB lifetime and renewed the domain name to the year 2020. This site will be around for a while! Now that I have invested all of this money into my chess site I would like to earn enough in affiliate commissions to cover the costs of this site.

Many Internet Marketing gurus want their customers to believe that if they buy products telling them how to rank well for relevant key words and phrases that they will earn good money in some micro niche. Maybe! Chess definitely is not one of them! The trick is to find a niche in which people are actually willing to spend money, and most gurus will not give that information up!

So, don't waste your time, energy or money getting good rankings for keywords and phrases that no one will look for or only freebie seekers use! Do not build backlinks to pages that don't sell something, allow people to opt in to your list or download something that may go viral. Traffic is useless if these people are not buyers!

Spamming Yahoo Answers with some push button software is a good way to get banned by the search engines and building product review sites that no one actually visits is also a waste of time, energy and money! So, please do not buy useless make money with three mouse clicks software like I did! Haley Milano is a paid actress who pretends to be a stripper that coerced some geeky programmer into making some software for her to get rich on the Internet. I wasted about $37 on this scam and it was too late to get my money back by the time I realized that her software does not work!

Kim Roach Is a Traffic Queen

2011-01-04T17:28:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite bloggers online is Kim Roach over at BuzzBlogger.com.

Kim is one of those rare finds in the IM space that consistently provides
tremendous value in everything she does.

She's a country gal at heart but don't let that fool you...

She's been beating out many of the big-name gurus with
her southern belle charm.

In fact, many refer to her as the 'Traffic Queen'. Which from
what I've seen is certainly a worthy title.

At the ripe 'ol age of 25 she's managed to unlock
the secrets to massive traffic...testing and tweaking
new traffic strategies... plus adding her own little
twists and tricks.

And unlike most other marketers, she spends most of her
time in the trenches, locked up in the marketing laboratory -
cookin' up more juicy traffic goodness.

But every once in a while she surfaces back up into the
real world to share her latest findings.

If you'd like to see what she's been cookin' up in
the lab lately go now to:

Traffic Dash Board

Kim's has unlocked her very best traffic strategies in her latest
product called 'The Traffic Dashboard'. It's a complete training
center that contains over 20 of Kim's top traffic getting methods.

Thes traffic techniqes are really quite unique as you can see
for yourself by taking a look inside the member's area...

Traffic Dashboard - a sneak peek inside...

Inside 'The Traffic Dashboar' Kim shows you how to go from nothing
to over 3,000+ subscribers in just 30 days. (all in step-by-step detail).

You literally point and click your way to increased traffic with Kim's
unique dashboard design. (as seen above)

You have to actually TRY to mess this one up! Because the point-and-click
learning system forces you to take action.

Here's a sneek peak at what you'll find inside...

An underground tool for extracting exactly
where your competitor's website traffic is
coming from. This is like being given the
keys to the kingdom. (I'm really surprised
Kim is sharing this little gem)

(If you thought Alexa was cool imagine knowing EXACTLY
how much traffic your competitors were getting each day
and knowing exactly where that traffic was coming from.)

"James Bond" tactics for spying on your
competitors and forcing them to hand over
all of their hard-earned, battle-tested,
profit-busting strategies.

A super simple method for cramming your opt-in
list with 200-400 subscribers in a single day...
(and NO this has nothing to do with ad swaps)

A really cool strategy that shows you how to get 10x
MORE traffic from EVERY article you write.

As many of you probably already know, traditional article
marketing is becoming less and less effective. What worked
in 2004 simply doesn't cut it anymore.

So Kim show's you 10 different ways to repurpose your content
for additional traffic and exposure. Use just a couple of the
strategies in this video and you'll have no excuse for not
getting AT LEAST a couple hundred visitors for every article
you publish.

... and that's just the tip of the iceberg!

This thing is packed with over 8 hours of juicy
traffic goodness... NO fluff... NO filler.

With over 8 hours of step-by-step video and
enough how-to information to DESTROY literally
every question, worry and problem you've ever
had in regards to traffic.

A Word of Warning: There's just ONE caveat to this
product. In fact, these traffic methods will NOT work in all
situations. In order for these traffic strategies to reap
their full power - you MUST be creating HIGH QUALITY CONTENT!
(not some auto-generated content that not even your momma would
be proud of...)

If you think you're going to slap together some useless crap,
throw up some auto-generated sites and have thousands of visitors
pouring in...This course is NOT for you.

This training course was created specifically for people who
are looking to build REAL businesses online... People who are
dedicated to providing top-notch value for their visitors,
subscribers, and customers.

This is something Kim stresses a lot, and I agree. If you're
not willing to take the time and effort to put together some
really good content and offer real value, then don't bother
with 'The Traffic Dashboard'. It will just be a waste of time
for you if you don't have good content in place.

But...

If you are dedicated to building a REAL business online and
providing your visitors with REAL VALUE then 'The Traffic
Dashboard' will help you to grow your business 10x faster.

Plus, at an affordable price to boot!

So, if you're ready to turn on the traffic tap, then
click on the link below...

Traffic Dash Board

There are no “tricks”, or “magic traffic buttons” here, just
proven traffic strategies that are designed to generate traffic
as quickly as possible.

Plus, for those of you who are more advanced, Kim combines old
school tactics with new traffic twists and tips that you won't
want to miss...

Traffic Dash Board

Mike Serovey, MA, MISM

Beware of Cyber Squatters!

2010-05-14T19:40:00.003-04:00

I used to own MikeSerovey.com but let the domain name expire because I wasn't using it. When I went to register it again I discovered that some other sleeze bag owned it. When I complained that he was using my name WITHOUT my permissison he offered to sell it to me for $300. It wasn't worth $300 to me then and still isn't! However, to complain about the improper use of my nanme to ICANN will cost me $1,500 the last time that I checked on this! Sleeze bags get away with MISUSING my name because the system actually protects cyber squatters from those of use who can't afford to hire lawyers to sue these scum bags! If you want to do business with the REAL Mike Serovey DO NOt UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES do business with MikeSerovey.com!!

Rules to Follow when it comes to Online List Building

2009-10-10T16:51:00.002-04:00

One of the biggest advantages of Internet marketing is that you don’t have any boss that tells you what to do. You can build your online business any way you like at your own pace. You are basically your own boss in this situation, but your success solely depends on what you do. There are still a few rules that you need to follow when building your online list which is necessary for making serious sales in the future. Breaking any of these rules can cause some serious delays in making sales.

Never Abuse your List

Keep in mind that every person that enters your list expects that you offer exactly what you claim to offer. They entrust your personal details to you as an Internet marketer and hope that you fulfill their needs so that they can establish a relationship which is good in the long run. Avoid using your list to spam links or information regarding off-topic things or other opportunities that were not indicated anywhere in your site. People see these types of e-mails as spam and usually lead to them opting out leaving a huge dent on your site’s image. Even sending personal e-mails can be a slight abuse and should only be done after you fulfilled the visitor’s needs.

Comply to whatever Terms and Conditions that you State

It is a rule of thumb for every online business website to include disclaimers and terms and conditions to give visitors a sense of comfort that your website is legitimate. It is very important that you stand by these terms and conditions that you lay out. If you are not very careful, you may accidentally violate something and once again, that can damage the reputation of your site.

Focus more on Quality than Quantity

With so many Internet marketers boasting huge lists, it is hard to resist building a huge list as fast as possible. But by focusing more on the quality of the leads, more sales can actually be made. It is a waste to advertise your website in all sorts of places and have half of your visitors signing up and never following up. Know your target market and let those visitors slowly build up your list.

Follow Up the Leads in your List Regularly

If you keep the marketing consistent, you may have leads flowing in every day and that is a good thing if they are responsive. But there may be some people that become a part of your list, but never bother in making the next move. Some reasons may include the failure to get their confirmation e-mail or the fact that they may have forgotten what to do next. To eliminate any doubts, you can follow up these leads by sending them an e-mail a few days after they signed up. You can also send a broadcast e-mail monthly to follow up everyone without much effort.

Follow these rules and continue with your Internet marketing and you should witness your list growing regularly. You may even make a few sales and a few partners as well if you are lucky.

Learn more about online list building at My List Quad. Learn about a direct to desktop sender software.

Benefits of Online List Building

2009-10-02T17:02:00.001-04:00

Creating and managing an online business is all about making some extra residual income to give people reasons to quit their jobs in the distant future. Aspiring Internet marketers should never keep their eyes off the prize and that often leads them to finding all kinds of ways to drive traffic to their affiliate websites and convince people to make the purchase so that you end up with commissions.

But one of the other objectives should involve building an online list. While it isn’t a requirement in becoming successful in an online business, there are four main benefits in building an online list.

Increases Chances of Making Sales for any Affiliate Program

No matter what affiliate program you are advertising, more sales are likely to be made if you manage an online list. Online lists give you the useful ability to send follow-up e-mails to all of the people that became part of your list. Since being a part of your online list is required for the affiliate link to be known, you are sure to keep in touch with every person that is interested in whatever you are selling. The follow-up e-mail gives the extra push in convincing people to go on with the purchase and that simple e-mail can lead to more sales.

Serves as a Backup for your Reputation as an Internet Marketer

Having an online list means having people on your side and the benefits really start to show when these people are giving you positive feedback because of the way you treat your leads and how your affiliate satisfied their needs. You can put these feedbacks in the form of testimonials on your website so that when future people check out your site, people can be easily convinced with you as an Internet marketer and that may lead to even more sales.

Future Online Business Ventures will Prosper Quicker

Once your online business realizes success, Internet marketers become inspired to make more online businesses that the public may be interested in. You won’t have as much of a problem as you did building your old business because you can use the same list in advertising your new online business or e-mail program. Again, all you need to do is send that broadcast e-mail to everyone in their list and that could be enough to give them the heads up.

Helps you Make Partners

You don’t have to treat your list as an ordinary list that you can send broadcast e-mails to. You can also send personal e-mails as well and express interest in building future ventures or simply getting to know them more so those people will have no problems in dealing with you in the future. You never know what kind of people are in your list until you reach out and communicate with them.

Online list building is very rewarding and can be achieved alongside making sales too. All you need to do is bridge your website and affiliate link with an autoresponder and from there, your list will grow as your sales does.

Get your free 50 Page ebook on how to do coaching here.

The Advantages of Being a Broke Nobody

2008-01-19T19:22:00.000-05:00

People such as Zig Ziglar and Tony Robins tell you that you need to set big goals and dream big if you want to be successful in life. They tell you that you pay the price for success only once but you pay the price for failure every day for the rest of your life. Maybe. I say that there are advantages to being a broke nobody! First, if you are dating you don't have to worry that the woman you are dating is only after your money because you don't have any money! That way, you know that she truly loves you for who you are, not what you have. Second, you don't have to worry about being kidnapped and held for ransom. If you are a broke nobody then no one will pay to get you back and kidnappers know this! They will not waste their time on you! Third, as a nobody you can travel anywhere you want any time that you want and not have to worry about being recognized or followed by the paparazzi! Forth, if you marry someone who does have money then you can come into a windfall. You have nothing to lose by marrying someone who has more money than you have! You also have the choice of marrying another broke nobody. Fifth, as a broke nobody people have much lower expectations. You don't have to worry about disappointing anyone and if you do succeed you will pleasantly surprise people!

Now, some people have said that you should try to get rich. If you don't like being rich you can always give your money away and go back to being broke. This is true as far as it goes. I have yet to find anyone who is willing to take my poverty away from me! And yes, even homeless people get robbed of what little that they do have. As for me personally, I have very little that can't be replaced. Mostly things of sentimental value. I am now at a cross road. Do I wish to continue being a broke nobody, or do I wish to finally do what it takes to become rich? I still haven't decided on this one. I will make another post when I have made a final decision.

Discover the 90/10 Principle. It will change your life.

2007-03-12T22:51:00.000-04:00

My sister sent this to me and I think that the writer makes a good point. I'm not sure who to credit for this.

What is the 90/10 Principle? 10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by how you react. What does this mean? We really have no control over 10% of what happens to us. We cannot stop the car from breaking down. The plane will be late arriving, which throws our whole schedule off. A driver may cut us off in traffic. We have no control over this 10%. The other 90% is different. You determine the other 90%. How? By your reaction.
You cannot control a red light, but you can control your reaction. Don't let people fool you; YOU can control how you react . Let's use an example.

You are eating breakfast with your family. Your daughter knocks over a cup of coffee onto your business shirt. You have no control over what just what happened. What happens next will be determined by how you react. You curse. You harshly scold your daughter for knocking the cup over. She breaks down in tears. After scolding her, you turn to your spouse and criticize her for placing the cup too close to the edge of the table. A short verbal battle follows. You storm upstairs and change your shirt. Back downstairs, you find your daughter has been too busy crying to finish breakfast and get ready for school. She misses the bus. Your spouse must leave immediately for work. You rush to the car and drive your daughter to school. Because you are late, you drive 40 miles an hour in a 30 mph speed zone. After a 15-minute delay and throwing away $60 for a traffic fine, you arrive at school. Your daughter runs into the building without saying goodbye. After arriving at the office 20 minutes late, you find you forgot your briefcase. Your day has started terribly! As it continues, it seems to get worse and worse. You look forward to coming home. When you arrive home, you find a small wedge in your relationship with your spouse and daughter. Why? Because of how you reacted in the morning.

Why did you have a bad day?
A) Did the coffee cause it?
B) Did your daughter cause it?
C) Did the policeman cause it?
D) Did you cause it?
The answer is D. You had no control over what happened with the coffee. How you reacted in those 5 seconds is what caused your bad day. Here is what could have and should have happened!

Coffee splashes over you. Your daughter is about to cry. You gently say, "It's ok honey, you just need to be more careful next time." Grabbing a towel you rush upstairs. After grabbing a new shirt and your briefcase, you come back downi n time to look through the window and see your child getting on the bus. She turns and waves. You arrive 5 minutes early and cheerfully greet the staff. Your boss comments on how good a day you are having. Notice the difference? Two different scenarios. Both started the same. Both ended different. Why? Because of how you REACTED.

You really do not have any control over 10% of what happens. The other 90% was determined by your reaction. Here are some ways to apply the 90/10 principle. If someone says something negative about you, don't be a sponge. Let the attack roll off like water on glass. You don't have to let the negative comment affect you! React properly and it will not ruin your day. A wrong reaction could result in losing a friend, being fired, getting stressed out etc.

How do you react if someone cuts you off in traffic? Do you lose your temper? Pound on the steering wheel? A friend of mine had the steering wheel fall off! Do you curse? Does your blood pressure skyrocket? Do you try and bump them? WHO CARES if you arrive ten seconds later at work? Why let the cars ruin your drive? Remember the 90/10 principle, and do not worry about it. You are told you lost your job. Why lose sleep and get irritated? It will work out. Use your worrying energy and time into finding another job.

The plane is late; it is going to mangle your schedule for the day. Why take out your frustration on the flight attendant? She has no control over what is going on. Use your time to study, get to know the other passengers. Why get stressed out? It will just make things worse.

Now you know the 90-10 principle. Apply it and you will be amazed at the results.Y ou will lose nothing if you try it. The 90-10 principle is incredible. Very few know and apply this principle. The result? Millions of people are suffering from undeserved stress, trials, problems and heartache. They never seem to be successful in life. Bad days follow bad days. Terrible things seem to be constantly happening. There is constant stress, lack of joy, and broken relationships. Worry consumes time. Anger breaks friendships and life seems dreary and is not enjoyed to the fullest. Friends are lost. Life is a bore and often seems cruel.

Does this describe you? If so, do not be discouraged. You can be different! Understand and apply the 90/10 principle. It will change your life.
Have a Great Day and even Greater Tomorrow!

7 Reasons Why Your Subscribers Aren't Buying From You

2006-09-11T19:08:00.000-04:00

Here is an article by Aurelius Tjin that explains some of the top reasons why people on your list may not be buying the products or services that you recommend to them. There are some minor grammar errors in this article, but overall it is well written and worth reading.

7 Reasons Why Your Subscribers Aren't Buying From You

As an Internet business owner, you hear the phrase “the money is in the list” on an almost daily basis.

Perhaps this form of social proof convinced you to build a list for your business in the first place, rather than sending visitors directly to a sales page.

Initially, things probably went off without a hitch. You created a high quality squeeze page, redirected all of your traffic to it, and then started counting the opt-ins. It may have bothered you at first to give up sales you could have made directly, but you knew it was worth it – or at least you thought it was worth it.

Unfortunately, things didn't work out as everyone predicted they would. And now you're struggling to make enough off of your list to pay for your autoresponder, when you know you could have made five times as much through direct sales. You want to give up and go back to direct sales, but you're hoping there's some other way.

So why aren't your customers buying from you? There are a number of reasons. In the remainder of this article, I am going to present the top seven – the most likely reasons why they have for not purchasing your offers.

You make too many offers too soon. This kills a lot of lists. If your first few emails in your autoresponder series bombard readers with offers, there's a good chance that the people receiving your emails aren't reading them anymore.

You give poor quality information. This, too, is a big list killer. In a desperate effort to make a list, site owners throw together low-quality information. What they don't understand is that this wont list subscribers reading.

You do not have credibility. If you immediately launch into a product offer in the first issue, you probably will have no credibility with your subscribers whatsoever, which will act as a barrier to their buying.

Your offer is poor. If you don't have at least reasonably good products, you can expect less and less list members to buy each successive product. You can also expect more return requests.

Perhaps you failed to give them a free demo version of your product or perhaps the sales copy simply was not compelling. Whatever the reason happens to be, you didn't compel your readers to buy, so they didn't.

You're offering the wrong products/information to your subscribers. If you are bombarding your lists with untargeted offers, not only will they not buy, but they also will stop paying
attention and may even unsubscribe.

You have made it too difficult for subscribers to actually purchase from you. If you don't accept credit cards and Paypal at a bare minimum, you can expect that very few people will purchase your offer. Also, making it hard for your subscriber to
find the "buy" button can be an annoyance.

You don't offer any value to your subscribers.

As I said earlier, I am not going to provide you with solutions to each of these problems. The solutions should be relatively self-evident. All you have to do now is re-read these seven items, identify which of these is preventing your subscribers from buying, and then revise your strategy to eliminate these barriers.

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Aurelius Tjin is owner and publisher of the 'Unstoppable Marketing' weekly video newsletter. You will discover simple tips, tricks & techniques that'll dramatically make a difference to you and your Internet marketing business. To find out more go to http://www.AureliusTjin.com and you'll get the latest video newsletter issue right away...

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list building

How to Design a PopUp Window to Boost Opt-Ins

2006-06-25T23:41:00.000-04:00

Here is another old article from my "Articles" directory at http://www.mikeseroveyenterprises.com. I hope that you find it useful.

How to Design a PopUp Window to Boost Opt-Ins
Copyright © 2004 Steve Shaw

I get many emails a month from people asking how to go about designing a popup window to extract the maximum number of opt-ins from visitors to their web site. In this article I outline the seven essential steps you should take in your design of a successful popup:

1. PAY your subscriber

Okay, not literally PAY them, but you generally need to give something back in return for the visitor's name and email address.

For example, a free course, a free book, a free consultation, anything that's of VALUE to your visitors and of RELEVANCE to your web site or business. I see so many popups that just say 'Type in your name and email address here:' without giving anything in return for these details.

2. Make your headline SELL

The headline of your popup is incredibly important, as it's often the first part of the popup window that the visitor's eye is attracted to. If it doesn't interest them, they'll shut down the popup immediately.

What can you do to improve your headline?

You need to focus strongly on the BENEFIT to the potential subscriber - tell them exactly how are they going to BENEFIT from giving you their name and email address. For example, the following are all headlines suitable for my own site that offer a clear benefit to the reader:

"Boost your Subscribers by 535%"
"Discover Secret PopUp Techniques"
"FREE Report: Exit PopUp Boosts Sales 110%"

You could emulate this type of benefit-laden headline for your own site.

3. Make it load QUICK

A slow loading popup is going to be a quickly closed popup! No visitor to your web site is going to sit around while your elaborate popup loads all your fancy graphics, they're just going to close it straight away - it's your job to CAPTURE THEIR INTEREST as soon as possible, and thereby prevent closure of the window before you've made your offer, and hopefully get them to type in their details.

Some graphics are usually more effective than none, but minimize your use of them, and optimize the graphics files before uploading to your server.

4. Use an effective TITLE

I see many popups where the title of the popup window (i.e., in the title bar, set by the HTML title tags) is completely inappropriate. For example, 'popup page' or 'popup1'. At best, this looks unprofessional, so try to make your title relevant to the offer you are making to the visitor, and mirror your headline in some way.

5. BALANCE the popup page

The page you display in the popup window should at the very least look pleasing to the eye. This means the fonts on the page should be consistent and not look out of place, the colors should provide high contrast and make it easy to read, and the alignment of the text and any images on the page should not make any element look out of place.

6. Offer a way to CLOSE the popup window

You can easily add a button or a link to your popup page that allows visitors to close the popup window if they wish. You can do this easily by adding the code onclick="self.close();return false;" to your link or button tag.

7. KEEP IT SIMPLE

Overall, the best rule you can follow is just to keep to the point and Keep It Simple - this way you can capture the attention of your visitor quickly and easily and not distract their attention from your main aim which is to get their name and email address. And of course, once you've got their email address, treat it well and keep their interest.

By following these seven essential tips, you'll definitely have all the basics in place. The trick then is to keep on tweaking and testing your popup to try and optimize on your results.

------------------------

Steve Shaw creates systems and software for effective e-marketing. His ListInferno.com site allows you to get thousands of 100% 0pt-In leads for your list - for free. For more details visit:
http://ListInferno.com
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popups tips

The Single Best Way To Boost Sales On Your Site - Forever

2006-06-24T00:36:00.000-04:00

Here is yet another old article by Steve Shaw that I hope you enjoy. It is from the "Articles" directory of http://www.mikeseroveyenterprises.com. Split Test Version 2 is out and it is NOT free, but reasonably priced as of this date.

The Single Best Way To Boost Sales On Your Site - Forever
Copyright © 2004 Steve Shaw

Imagine if you could put something on your web site that you know will increase your sales and boost your profits.

Imagine if you could adjust your web site in a way that you know will maximize the amount of visitors you can convert to subscribers.

And you can do all of this, and carry on doing it, without any shadow of a doubt in your mind that what you are doing is of benefit to your business.

This article details exactly what you can do to achieve this - and although it really is remarkably simple, so few people are actually taking advantage of it.

So what's the secret?

It's the very simple technique known as split-testing. This term refers to the method by which you display a different version of a web page (such as a sales page) to different visitors, and then measure which version of the page pulls the greatest response.

For example, let's say you have two versions of your sales page, your current page, Page A, and a new page you want to test, Page B. Both pages simply display a different headline, and you want to measure which headline brings you the best results.

So you put both pages up on your site, and show each one alternatively to each visitor. Visitor A will see Page A, Visitor B will see page B, Visitor C will see Page A, and so on.

You wait until you have say 20 sales from both these pages combined. Then you examine your stats to see which page pulled the most sales. Let's say Page A pulled 7 sales, whereas Page B with the different headline pulled 13 sales.

You then know, without a shadow of a doubt, that putting Page B up on your site, and removing Page A, is going to massively increase your sales - in fact, if you do the math, by about 86%.

If the result is less clear cut, you can simply wait until you have got more results in, and a clear and consistent leader emerges.

So how do you go about implementing split-testing on your site?

There are two distinct elements in the process:

Firstly, showing the separate versions of the page to different visitors
Secondly, knowing which version pulled which response. There are also two different ways of implementing the former:

Show a completely different web page, i.e. a different URL, to different visitors
Show the same web page, or URL, but with one or more elements on the page changed
You may choose to just change one or two elements on the page, or you may wish to present a completely different web page to test out a new approach.

Gets complicated, doesn't it?

Well it's not really - it all depends on exactly what you want to achieve.

You may believe a new headline would improve your sales levels - so all you do is test out that headline to see if it really does work as you have expected.

There is of course far more than just the headline that you might want to test out - you may want to test whether one testimonial would do better in a different position, or a reworded first paragraph would pull in more sales, or a photo of you in the top corner would improve results.

You can either do it intuitively, or scientifically. The scientific method via split-testing is of course far superior, as you are directing your business based on real results, rather than often-misguided emotion.

But doesn't it get rather...technical?

It can do - but it certainly doesn't have to be.

There's a script available at splittestgenerator.com that's currently completely free, and is designed especially for non-techies.

There are numerous other scripts available elsewhere too. And if you know about server-side programming, or can hire a programmer who does, it's easy enough to implement split-testing on your site using most web-based languages like PHP, ASP or Perl.

And if you're in any doubt about whether you should be split-testing, then you must also be in doubt about the future of your ebusiness. As Declan Dunn has so clearly stated, "There are two types of companies; those who test, and those who lose money." Which category do you fall into?

------------------------
Steve Shaw creates systems and software for effective e-marketing. His ListInferno.com site allows you to get thousands of 100% 0pt-In leads for your list - for free. For more details visit:
http://ListInferno.com
-----------------------
Boost Sales

How to Boost your Opt-Ins WITHOUT Pop-Ups!

2006-06-24T00:02:00.000-04:00

This is another one of the old articles that I had on my site at http://www.mikeseroveyenterprises.com. I hope that you can benefit form the advice given by Steve Shaw here. The link to the Lead Factory is now dead, but his advice is still sound otherwise.

How to Boost your Opt-Ins WITHOUT Pop-Ups!
Copyright © 2004 Steve Shaw

In this article I'll explain a powerful method you can use to radically boost your opt-in levels, without any use of Pop-Ups whatsoever!

Let's be honest, the number of opt-in subscribers you can attain via the use of a popup on your web site is limited to a proportion of the amount of traffic you receive. If, like most web sites, the number of unique visitors you receive every day is limited to a few hundred or less, your opt-in list will perhaps not grow as fast as you would like.

It's still important to use a popup to capture as many subscriptions as you can from your visitors, but did you know there are other complimentary ways in which you can grow your list?

One method we all hear about of course is to submit your ezine listing to the various ezine directories that abound over the internet - but there are so many ezines and newsletters nowadays, you may have been better putting your energies elsewhere.

Did you know that there are various services that allow you to purchase subscribers for your mailing list?

"What!", I hear you say, "I don't want to spend any money 'buying subscribers', that's ridiculous!"

Well, think about it for a second.

All internet marketers acknowledge that every one of their subscribers has a certain monetary value over the lifetime of their subscription. The actual value of this depends on many factors, and it would be another subject entirely to go into this in any depth, but if you have a well run ezine, this value in the long term (say a twelve month period) should far surpass what you might pay for the individual subscriber.

So how does it work?

The 'lead provider' will advertise your ezine in various places on the internet, usually paying a percentage of the cost of each subscriber to the publisher of the ad, and then forward the leads to you, either signing them up directly to your list, or sending you a report containing the leads collected over a certain time period. This means that every one of those leads have 'opted in' to your list, without going anywhere near your web site (or your popup!)

The key, of course, is finding a reputable service that can deliver quality leads.

After a conversation with an online colleague and customer who had recently started purchasing leads, and who was very happy with the results he had achieved, I started to look into using a similar service for my own list.

So I spent some time researching the various services available - I had so many questions like how much I had to pay per subscriber, what the quality of those subscriptions and email addresses actually were, how credible and reliable the service was, and so on. I certainly didn't want to lose money down the drain.

To be honest, the majority of services I wasn't too impressed with, but I found one that stood out from the crowd at http://takanomi.com/go/LeadFactory.html. The most likely reason was that the service had been endorsed by well-known guys I respected like Jim Daniels, Terry Dean and Willie Crawford, and that it seemed incredibly flexible to fit in with your own requirements. It was all done automatically, no heavy files to have to manually load up myself (unless I actually wanted to do that of course), and they even gave you an extra 10% subscribers to (over-)compensate for the odd undeliverable or duplicate.

So...after spending some more time looking around the site, ensuring that it met my needs, and even contacting David Beroff personally, one of the guys who runs the service, I gave it a whirl.

Their service is a little more expensive than most, though you pay for what you get, and I wanted quality and reliability, and that's exactly what they delivered. The subscribers started coming through almost immediately and boosted my opt-in list more rapidly than I had ever seen previously.

Although they don't direct the subscribers to my site, my sales went up too as a result of the free PopUp Masters ecourse I offer, so it was a very good result all round.

The only difficulty occurred when I suddenly stopped getting subscribers coming through - the LeadFactory team leapt on the issue at once. It turned out that the problem was with my autoresponder changing some mail filtering procedures on their server rather than LeadFactory, so they temporarily shut down the campaign until it was resolved, and gave me all the help I could ask for in supplying the relevant information to my autoresponder. They also manually sent me the details of all the subscribers, so I didn't miss out at all. Their customer service, from my own first hand experience, is excellent.

So, if you want to start boosting your opt-ins faster than a PopUp on the average web site could ever hope to do, I would thoroughly recommend the service from http://takanomi.com/go/LeadFactory.html.
------------------------
Steve Shaw creates systems and software for effective e-marketing. His ListInferno.com site allows you to get thousands of 100% 0pt-In leads for your list - for free. For more details visit:
http://ListInferno.com
------------------------
Optin List

Avoiding the Perils and Pitfalls of Opt-in Lists

2006-06-18T23:30:00.000-04:00

Here is another old article that used to be in my "Articles" directory at http://www.mikeseroveyenterprises.com. I hope that you find it useful!

Avoiding the Perils and Pitfalls of Opt-in Lists
Copyright © 2004 Steve Shaw

It's almost part of an initiation ceremony for budding internet marketers to grab a quick-as-they-can opt-in list, with all the promises of instant riches, only to find that rather than the bed of roses they were dreaming of, they end up with their fledgling internet business immediately shut down and their dreams in ruins.

This article, via a set of basic FAQs, tells you exactly how to avoid the perils and pitfalls of opt-in lists that befall so many, and instead move your internet business onto a solid, and profitable, foundation for the future.

1. When I purchase an opt-in list from somebody, how can I check and confirm that they are truly opt-in?

My advice here is simply NOT to purchase a pre-existing opt-in list from somebody, but to build your own - otherwise you are taking a sizeable risk.

What you can do instead is to order opt-in leads from a reputable source, e.g. you purchase say 600 leads, and these leads opt-in over time via the lead forwarding company. This means you may say get 20 new leads a day until your order is complete.

In general, such companies purchase advertising space on other web sites to advertise your list - but just be careful to order your leads from somewhere reputable. The ones I use and can recommend are at http://www.takanomi.com/leadfactory/ and http://www.worldwidelists.com.

2. How can I check and confirm that the company that is selling opt-in lists is legitimate?

Again, I'd advise you not to purchase a ready-made opt-in list - if you think about it, these people have definitely not 'opted in' to your list, they probably didn't know it existed, and have no idea that their names and email addresses are on a particular list that is being sold to people like you.

As such, their reactions are not likely to be favorable when you start mailing them, and you could find that your ISP shuts you down very quickly.

My general rule here is, if you are in any doubt whatsoever, just steer clear.

3. Can I send bulk emails to my opt-in list?

You can of course send emails to your list, I would advise using an online service such as the one I use at http://www.takanomi.com/par, or more basic providers such as at http://www.freeautobot.com.

This not only means that the delivery of your messages is taken care of on a server (rather than relying on your own PC and perhaps shaky internet connection), but it also makes the collection of your own opt-in leads very easy.

All you do is compose the email you want to send, and then click to send it to your group of contacts.

4. When I send bulk emails, should I send one email at a time or can I send 100 email at a time showing all 100 email addresses on Cc field?

I'd strongly advise that you use an online service as described above, or specialist PC-based software such as Mailloop from http://takanomi.com/mailloop or WorldCast from http://www.fairlogic.com/worldcast, rather than use existing mail software such as Outlook, which simply isn't designed for bulk mailing.

This means that you can not only send thousands of emails with a single click, but that each subscriber receives a personally addressed email that usually includes an easy unsubscribe option, which is important to build up the trust of your opt-in list, as well as your own credibility.

5. What if I purchased illegal opt-in emails (by mistake) from somebody and started marketing my product?

This would be your big risk of purchasing pre-existing opt- in lists, and a risk that I'd very strongly advise you not to take. So many fledgling internet businesses start off on this wrong foot, and have to live with the consequences.

The most likely result would be that your host would fairly quickly shut your site down and your internet business would simply cease to exist.

In conclusion, just ensure that everyone you are sending email to has definitely opted in to receive your individual publication, either via a reputable lead forwarding company such as described above, or via subscription from your own web site.

------------------------

Steve Shaw creates systems and software for effective e-marketing. His ListInferno.com site allows you to get thousands of 100% 0pt-In leads for your list - for free. For more details visit: http://ListInferno.com
Optin Lists

Top 9 Ways To "Speed Up" Your Surfing & Computing

2006-06-18T23:06:00.000-04:00

Here is an article by Jim Edwards that is quite helpful to those who use Microsoft products. I already knew most of these tips prior to posting them here but even I learned a few new tricks! Make use of these tips to save time and effort!

Mike Serovey

Top 9 Ways To "Speed Up" Your Surfing & Computing
- by Jim Edwards

(c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.IGottaTellYou.com
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Good Evening. We hope you have had a pleasant day.

It seems like "fast" never quite rates "fast enough!"

No matter how quickly your computer moves, especially on the Internet, it could always move faster. :-)

Email, web surfing, downloading files (legally of course), switching between applications... none of them ever go as quickly as we want or expect.

Well, let me do my part to perpetuate this "microwave oven" mentality (why must popcorn take 3 ½ minutes instead of 2?) by giving you some tips and hints for making your online experiences and overall computing as fast as possible (even on a dial up connection).

** Hit The Accelerator **

Sensing a need for faster Internet access in markets where broadband cable or DSL can't or won't go, Internet Service Providers (ISP's) like NetZero offer Internet "accelerators."

Using a system of caches, compression schemes, and other technology to double or even triple your dial-up connection speeds, Internet accelerators can save you hours spent waiting for simple web pages to appear in your browser.

Though they won't work for everyone in every single situation, check out www.netzero.com, www.propel.com and www.slipstreamdata.com for more information.

** Clean Up Your Hard Drive **

Often a messy hard drive can contribute to slow online experiences.

Perform a "Disk Cleanup" and a "Defrag" (available by clicking , , then ) to clean out the garbage files on your hard drive that slow your system down considerably.

This will help when running offline applications too, especially those that read and write from the hard drive frequently in the process of doing their tasks.

** Get More RAM **

RAM (Random Access Memory) allows your computer to process data more quickly without writing and reading from the hard drive.

Ask any nerd like me and they'll tell you straight out, "You can NEVER have too much RAM!" RAM costs so little now that virtually anyone can afford to add more memory to their computer without a big hit to their wallet.

** Avoid Time Wasters **

Speeding up your surfing doesn't just mean pulling the maximum amount of data through your phone line until it melts!

It also means avoiding things that suck your time up and leave you sitting twiddling your thumbs instead of getting things done.

Make the most of your time online with these time-saving tips:

~ Use Google - Search giant, Google.com, consistently returns relevant search results in minimum time.

Sure, big search engines like Dogpile.com and AskJeeves.com query multiple search engines, but the time spent waiting for and then wading through those results rarely makes it worth the occasional extra result.

~ Avoid Instant Messenger - "Heresy! I must have my instant messenger!" you cry!

Keep a log of how much time gets spent mindlessly chatting on the IM instead of doing something important. If you must IM, do it in moderation.

~ Filter Spam - Use a program to filter your spam instead of wading through it by hand.

Even if you only get 25 spam messages a day (I'd love to be you) and only spend 10 seconds on each message, at the end of a year that comes out to over 30 hours wasted on spam!

Filter your email messages before you take the time to download them to your machine and you'll love the spare time that magically comes your way.

** Slow Mouse? **

When I flick my wrist I expect that mouse to hop from one side of the screen to the other like the house was on fire!

A slow mouse can steal seconds of precious time that add up to hours of frustration over weeks and months.

If you suffer from a "slow mouse," click then "Control Panel" then "Mouse".

Then you'll see a tab that says "Pointer Options" or "Motion" (or something similar) and you can adjust the slider left or right to increase or decrease the speed of your mouse's movement across the screen.

** Use Windows Keyboard Shortcuts **

Windows has a number of nifty keyboard combinations that most people don't know about, but can save you incredible amounts of time, energy, effort and frustration.

+Z - I call this the "panic button."

Hold down the "Ctrl" key and hit the letter Z and you can often undo the last action you took in Windows.

This comes in especially handy when you've deleted something (like a term paper or 500 word article) and want it back.

If you accidentally do something wrong, STOP hitting keys immediately and do +Z to undo what you just did.

+D - Ever wonder what the little "flag" key is on the keyboard next to "Alt?" (I sure have wondered.)

Well, it turns out that little key has some cool uses.

Hold down +D and you can minimize all the open windows on your desktop. (Very handy when you keep many programs running and need to hit your desktop in a hurry.)

+F - allows you to search for any file on your computer immediately.

** Microsoft Office Shortcuts **

If you use Word or Excel (or any of the Microsoft Office Products), the following shortcuts will help you speed up many common activities.

Spell Checker - Hit the key in any Office application to launch the spell checker.

Quick Save - Hit +S to save any open file (very handy to quickly save a file repeatedly during a heavy typing session without having to grab the mouse).

Quick Copy - Hit +C to copy any highlighted text or cells.

Quick Paste - Hit +V to paste anything on the clipboard into a current document or spreadsheet.

Insert Date - In Word you can insert the date with ++D. You can insert the date in Excel with +; (semi-colon).

It will amaze you how much faster you can get things done just by understanding how to save little bits of time here and there using shortcuts, tools, and better ways of doing things.

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links?
"Turn Words Into Traffic" reveals the secrets for driving
Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate
links... without spending a dime on advertising!
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-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
computer tips
time saving tips

Formula To Achieve Success Online

2006-06-14T17:31:00.000-04:00

Here is an article by Patric Chan that gives a simple formula for achieving successs online. I first read it some time ago but reread it today and believe that it is worth posting here.

Formula To Achieve Success Online.

Copyright by Patric Chan

I’m writing this article because I thought you might want to know my formula for success for my online business.

This sounds very simple and yet, it might change your whole mindset. It applies when you are building your own online business.

Throughout my journey to achieve success, I’ve encountered many people who struggled to achieve success online. Most of them ask me questions like, ‘how to achieve success’.

Or questions like, ‘how to make more money from the internet’.

What’s the formula to achieve online success?

Ok, read on and I’ll reveal it.

The formula is simple. When you are working, you must have in mind that ultimately what you want to achieve from your online business is this:

Work less, earn more.

But first, you must understand this formula in order to achieve that.

Here’s the formula:

Assuming you are working 8 hours a day, and you are getting X result (X can be any amount of money you are getting now.)

Where most people failed to achieve success is, they try to earn X + Y (Y can
be any amount of extra money you want to get) without finding a way to work
less first. In another words, finding a way to work less while still getting X result.

In order for you to get Y result, you should find ways to work less than 8 hours first and still be getting X result. Let’s say 6 hours.

Once you able to achieve that, only then can you consider how to find ways to get Y result.

In a nutshell,

First step:

Work 8 hours (or whatever your existing working hours are) and get X result.

Second step:

Find ways to work 6 hours and still get X result.

Third step:

Work 8 hours again but get X + Y results.

Once you achieve this, your next step is to find ways on how to achieve X + Y results by working only 6 hours instead of 8 hours. Once you find that, only than you can think about getting Z result (Z can be any amount of extra money you want to have).

So, repeat the whole process:

First step:

Work 8 hours get X + Y results.

Second step:

Find ways to work 6 hours and still get X + Y results.

Third step:

Work 8 hours again but get X + Y + Z results.

Keep on repeating this process until you get the maximum results you can get (this can be A+B+C+X+Y+Z).

At some stage, you’ll probably reach the optimum of getting the results and you can hardly earn more by working 8 hours a day.

Once you achieve this, congratulations.

Now, what you need to do is to find ways to WORK LESS but still get the same results.

So at the end, you’ll be able to WORK LESS And EARN MORE.

People fail to achieve online success because they don’t know or understand this simple formula and practice it!

This formula stressed managing your fundamentals before engaging yourself to earn more. People failed to achieve more results because they try to earn more without learning how to maintain and work less first. So, they’ll end up working more hours each day.

That’s why, you can see many people becoming more stressed when their business increases.

I’ve been practicing this formula. Each day when I work, I’ll look into my existing business and find ways to reduce the work. Once I got that, only then I’ll think on how to make more money.

So, each month, I’m making more money but working less or putting the same amount of time invested. This is how you can achieve success without getting more stress in life.

What you should be doing now is go look at your job or business and apply this formula if you want to achieve success in the long term.

You "Chan" Do It!

-Patric Chan
Founder Of The "Chan Do" Internet Success System
http://www.youchandoit.com

online business success

7 Powerful Ways To Generate Unstoppable Traffic

2006-06-09T19:59:00.000-04:00

Here is an article that I just found. It explains 7 ways to get traffic and some of them I already knew while others are new to me.

7 Powerful Ways To Generate Unstoppable Traffic
By Aurelius Tjin

Generating traffic to your site means more chances of generating sales, leads and interests. There are multiple ways of driving traffic to your site. Some work and some don't.

Before I reveal to you the 7 ways to generate traffic to your site, you need to know the fundamentals of generating traffic to your website first. Basically, there are 3 types of traffic routes you can use.

The first is to buy traffic

Buying traffic includes pay-per-click such as Google Adwords, Overture & Miva. You can obviously place your ad on other peoples newsletters such as the Unstoppable Marketing newsletter for a small price between $5-$20 depending on where it’s located.

The second way is to D.I.Y (Do It Yourself).

This involves writing up your own articles and posting them to article directories such as ezinearticles.com & articlecity.com, setting up your own affiliate program and more.

The third fundamental is by borrowing traffic.

There’s no better way than to leverage your efforts with somebody else’s traffic. You can place your ad on someone else’s ezine/newsletter that’s related to your business.

Those are the 3 fundamentals you should know before going ahead.

Now let’s look at the 7 ways to generate unstoppable traffic 24/7.

Get involved with the community – Post on hyper-active forums & boards that relate to your market Why do this? Because your signature is added to all your posts and readers can click on the link which directs them to your site. Basically, we want to make the most out of signature files. Not only on forums & boards but to your emails as well. Here’s an example of a signature file I use:

Here for your success,
Aurelius Tjin

Sign-up for the Unstoppable Marketing newsletter now...
==> http://www.AureliusTjin.com
Some popular Internet marketing forums:
http://www.im4newbies.com/forum/
http://warriorforum.com/forum/
Pay for instant traffic using Google Adwords(r).

Adwords(r) are those little classified ads that you see on the right hand site when you search for something. You only pay if someone clicks on your ad.
Your ad will appear on Google's search in about 10-15 minutes time. It’s the fastest way you can generate targeted leads. You could also try Overture.com and Miva.com. But I'd highly recommend using Adwords - because of numerous reasons. There's enough information about Google Adwords out there.

Create your own blog

Get a free blog at blogger.com or Wordpress.org. Post content & keyword rich articles on your blog. Search engines love content. It’s best to have ‘original’ content rather then an articles that’s been posted to hundreds if not thousands of other sites. It also brings back news readers who regularly read your blog.

Use eBay as a traffic machine

Go to Alexa.com > Traffic rankings and search for ‘ebay.com’ and take a look at what ebay.com is ranked. As I write this report it’s ranked 9th in the world!

Here’s an example of how to generate traffic using eBay...
Grab a hot resell rights ebook you have in your collection.
Create a small txt file using notepad and add some information about your business and of course yourself.

Save it as “Bonus.txt” and include this small txt file with the resell rights ebook.
Now, what happens? You’ve got yourself a little viral machine going around to a highly targeted crowd. Remember, it’s a resell rights product so you can resell it to John Smith. John has the rights to resell it to other people as well. If he gave it out for free to his 10,000 list then how powerful would that be? It's create a massive viral effect, as long as the small “bonus.txt” file is included.

You could use alternative file formats such as .HTML or even better .PDF which appears to have more value. I have a video tutorial product called MyViralGenerator that’s purely dedicated to just this one idea i.e. – using eBay to drive traffic to your site.

Write & Submit Articles

You can either write one yourself or outsource it from elance.com or rentacoder.com if you hate writing!. Typically, I content-rich article consists of 400-700 words.

Post your article(s) to article directories such as EzineArticles.com and ArticleCity.com.
How does it bring in traffic?

Most articles include a ‘resource’ box at the bottom of the article where you can write a small paragraph about the publisher. This is your where you tell them to go. If your article was informative to the reader they will most likely click on the link in your resource box. You need to make them go somewhere after they’ve read so that’s how it works. But that’s not all. Most articles are free to pass along as long as the resource box remains intact. Can you see where it’s going now?

I did a test last year to see if it really works. About a month later I searched my name and I was shocked to see how many sites added my article to there site!

Here's a sample of a resource box you can copy:

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Aurelius is owner and author of WebCopyWordsThatMakeYouRich.com.
A FREE ebook and a huge list of power words & phrases you can use now on your web copy to increase sales today. Simply go to http://www.WebCopyWordsThatMakeYouRich.com/instant.htm
and download your free ebook to get started with your power word list building today.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Post comments on other peoples blogs

What better way than to post feedback on blogs that are related to your niche? Not just any blog, but a blog that dedicated to "Dog shampoos" or "Building your list".

First find blogs that generate a lot of traffic.

Second, make sure it includes content-rich posts. What does this do? Search engine love content so this will bring the person searching for your niche to that blog and thus seeing your comment.

It only takes a few seconds to do.

Joint Ventures

I saved this for last and I love it. Why? It’s helped one of my sites rank 507 in the world in less than 24 hours and the site is not at a consistent 10,700. If your site is under 100,000 that’s typically good.

Exchange links or ads with your JV’s. You place your link on their site, ezine or newsletter, and they place their ad on yours. It’s not hard to find JV’s. All you need to do is have a plan that’ll work both ways (a win/win), and never be afraid to ask. If you get rejected then so what. What if that person said yes? That would mean an extra 1,000, 10,000 or even 100,000 hits to your site. It’s all in the numbers game.

Applying just one of these methods to your business will increase traffic. Applying just an extra method is like a butterfly effect. The small things you do that make a dramatic difference overtime.

When you apply all of the 7 techniques, you will get an Unstoppable flow of traffic consistently coming in -- which in turn brings you sales, subscribers, leads, better page rank or whatever you wanted...

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Aurelius Tjin is owner and publisher of the 'Unstoppable Marketing' weekly video newsletter. You will discover simple tips, tricks & techniques that'll dramatically make a difference to you and your Internet marketing business. To find out more go to http://www.AureliusTjin.com and you'll get the latest video newsletter issue right away...
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traffic techniques

5 Top Tips For Attracting Targeted Traffic

2006-06-07T00:15:00.000-04:00

Here is another old article that used to be on my business site at http://www.mikeseroveyenterprises.com. I hope that you like it and learn from it.

5 Top Tips For Attracting Targeted Traffic
Copyright © 2004 Steve Shaw

One of the most common needs of online business owners is traffic. Without traffic, your web site barely exists, and is unlikely to make any profit whatsoever. With traffic, you stand a much greater chance of success - but not just any traffic.

As the owner of a network of web sites receiving well over a million hits a month, in this article I give you my five top tips for increasing targeted traffic to your web site.

Newbies on the web frequently make the mistake of just wanting traffic, and join any and every program offering just that - "thousands of hits to your web site", with the vast majority of them completely worthless. When their web sites fail to make any money, many of them give up on the web as a money-making myth.

For those that do persist, and try to learn from their experience, they realize it's not just any traffic they need - it's targeted traffic. That means web site visitors who actually want to visit (rather than those who are 'forced' to visit via some traffic exchange program), and so are actually interested in what you have to offer.

This type of traffic is far more profitable to you - your visitors are far more likely to purchase from you, simply because you have what they want.

But how can you attract targeted traffic?

Here are my five top tips:

1. An Affiliate Program

This works by giving those who promote your products a commission if they make a sale. Over time you can build up an army of people who are busy promoting your web sites for you.

My own affiliates account for well over half of all my sales, and to do that, by definition they have to be pushing a lot of traffic my way.

You can begin to see what my traffic and sales levels might look like without an affiliate program.

For beginners who are selling digital products such as ebooks or software, the easiest and cheapest way to start your own affiliate program is through ClickBank. That's how I started and I still use them today.

2. Add Content

Providing quality content on your web site is an excellent way to permanently increase traffic to your web site.

Search engines like Google appear to favor web sites with a clear navigation structure that provide quality content within a certain genre - that means not adding anything you can think of to your web site, but focus on a particular niche, and provide content broadly in line with that.

You don't even have to create it all yourself. For example, look in article directories on the web for free reprint articles you can use, such as http://IdeaMarketers.com.

3. Create Content

Just as you are looking for content you can quickly add to your web site, so are thousands of other publishers. By creating content yourself, you can not only put it up on your own web site, but also provide it to others for their use with a small resource box at the end of the article with a link to your web site.

In so doing, you can have literally hundreds of web sites all linking to yours. This provides a consistent stream of targeted traffic from readers of the article who want to follow through to your web site, and also from search engines like Google, where your ranking will broadly increase in line with the number of web sites linking to you.

Hundreds of ezine publishers are also on the look out for quality content that they can publish, on a wide range of topics - if a publisher with a large mailing list chooses to publish your article, this can lead to a surge in both traffic and sales on your web site when their ezine is published. Many ezines are published online too, providing another permanent link and source of high quality traffic to your web site.

There are various courses and ebooks available online that can teach you how to effectively distribute your articles and get them published - there's also a free e-course available at http://takanomi.com/publish-articles.php that tells you nearly everything you need to know.

4. Publish An Ezine

One of the most effective ways to build a loyal base of repeat visitors for your web site is your own mailing list, whether it's an ezine that publishes regularly, or a mailing list who you occasionally mail to.

By publishing quality information in your emails, you increase your credibility, build trust with your subscribers, and encourage repeated visits to your web site.

5. Pay Per Click Engines

When you use pay-per-click engines, you are effectively paying to have a high ranking position for certain keywords, on certain search engines. If you choose your keywords carefully, the traffic is highly targeted - the trick is to ensure you are not paying more per click than each visitor is worth.

To do this effectively requires some careful tracking of the visitors that arrive at your site from your keyword placements, but done correctly, the end result is net profit for you.

The main pay-per-click engines are Google Adwords and Overture - with Google, your ads are displayed within minutes; with Overture, it can take a few hours to a few days to have your ads approved and displayed.

I personally use all of the above methods to attract targeted traffic to my web site - of course, that's not the end of the road in terms of web site profitability. You then need to ensure that a proportion of this targeted traffic converts into paying customers. Once you've mastered this too, you are well on your way to online success.

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Steve Shaw creates systems and software for effective e-marketing. His ListInferno.com site allows you to get thousands of 100% 0pt-In leads for your list - for free. For more details visit:
http://ListInferno.com

3 Approaches to Successful Forum Marketing

2006-06-01T22:02:00.000-04:00

One of the easiest way’s to get traffic is through forum marketing. But it does take some time and effort to do it.

Think about it… dozens, if not, 100’s or even 1000’s of people will be exposed to your message and if it is good, they will be curious enough to check out your website to see what you are doing to make money.

The ways to expose the visitor of a forum to your message is simply by placing a message with a link to your website in your signature file. People who will visit your posts will be exposed to that signature file and, if they like what they read, they will click to the next page to see what your site is all about. An example of a good signature file you could copy when you do something with Internet marketing related products is:

I Made My First $1,000 Online!
See How I Did It Here...
==> ACS.com

This traffic can be handled in a couple of ways, you can either send them directly to the website of the product you sell (which I don’t recommend) or you could send them to a lead capture page, collect their information and then send them to a product that you want to sell. I recommend the last strategies because in that way you will build a list of interested prospects that you can follow up on again and again.

To see a killer lead capture page in action, you can click here.

Forum marketing may be the easiest way but there are certain ways of approaching this. I mean, you cannot just shamelessly advertise your product on the forum. It will not make you very popular and chances are BIG that you will be kicked out.

So here are the different approaches you should consider when you want to advertise in forums:

Approach #1: Ask questions

You can ask a question about any subject you don’t know a lot about (you can even do this when you do know a lot about it). This is a great way to get some fast exposure to your ad and most people just LOVE being an expert.

Approach #2: Answer questions

Are you an expert on a certain topic? Well, just go ahead and start answering questions. But don’t make your answer too long. Just make it as long as needed because you don’t want to bore their brains out and have them click away faster than they can see your ad. And when you do choose for the long way, at least make it an exciting read.

Approach #3: Ask for a critique

People just LOVE giving critiques so just go ahead, ask them for it. So whenever you post a new article on your Blog, post something about it on all the forums asking them to check out your Blog. This way you will also get a link back to your Blog and you get exposure to your ad.

OK, these are just 3 approaches you can use to get started and get some forum traffic. I think you will have enough information to get started using forums to drive traffic to any of your websites, FAST.

But HOW do I start now? Isn't this stuff too much work for too little results?

Well, true and not true. In fact, the traffic you are getting is extremely targeted AND if you give answers to questions, people will soon see you as an “expert” in your field and you will get more credibility in that way. Now, because you do, people will trust you more and you will get more sales.

So is it worth the effort? MOST CERTAINLY!

A couple of great forums to participate in are:

• http://www.ablake.net/forum
• http://www.howtocorp.com/forum
• http://www.bizweb2000.com/wwwboard
• http://www.mlmforums.com/forums
I hope you found this useful and have enough information to participate in the forums right now and start getting some much needed traffic.

Best Wishes

Mike Serovey

7 Profitable Joint Venture Tactics For Your Blog

2006-06-01T18:54:00.000-04:00

By Liz Tomey

Blogging has been a very hot topic for a few years now. Internet
marketers have embraced blogging, and turned it into an
incredible marketing tactic. I've done some "joint venturing"
with my blogs, and I'd like to reveal my most profitable joint
venture blogging tactics to you. Here are 7 joint venture
blogging tactics that you can implement right now in your own
business.

1. Find someone that has a blog related to your topic. Offer to
blog about their blog if they will blog about yours. In doing
this, you'll both be swapping blog readers that you may have not
been able to reach otherwise. Do this with several different
people that have blogs related to your topic and soon you will
have a huge blog readership.

2. Endorse a product that belongs to someone else via your blog.
Ask them to endorse one of your products in exchange. By doing
this both of you will benefit from each others blog visitors.

3. Grab a sheet of paper and a pen, or open your word processing
program. Now go to a blog search engine and search for keywords
related to your blog. When you find blogs related to your blog,
write down (or type) the blog website address, any side notes
about the blog, and the contact information of the blog owner.
Now take your list and start emailing each blog owner for a link
swap.

4. Get a group of people together that are bloggers. All of you
pick one topic that can be profitable either by promoting
affiliate products or by Google Adsense revenue. All of you will
start blogging about the topic. Take the RSS feeds from each
persons blog, and place them on one website. All of you will make
reference to this site where the RSS feeds are placed. By doing
this you will all share traffic via a group effort.

5. If you know someone that blogs on the same topic that you do,
ask for a blog post exchange. Tell them you will write a "guest"
blog post for them, if they will do the same. That way both of
you will be giving fresh content from a different person to your
readers. Adding some variety to your blogs will keep people
coming back often.

6. Create an audio blog post (podcast) for a few blogs related to
your blog. Make sure to mention your blog in it. Tell the blog
owner if they post the audio blog post on their blog, that you
will create an audio blog post mentioning their blog for them,
and post it to your own blog. You'll only want to do this with
blogs that have a lot of readers because there is a bit more work
involved in this tactic.

7. Large businesses actually hire people to blog for them. Not
because it's profitable for these big companies but because it
let's the outside world know what's going on with these big
companies. This starts to build a trust with the people who read
these blogs. Knowing this information, I decided to start a
testimonial category on my blog. In doing this, people begin to
trust me and see me as an authority figure on the topic I am
blogging on. You can also do this by telling people you have
started a testimonial category on your blog. Ask them to leave a
true testimonial on your blog in exchange for something like a
free ebook. If they have a testimonial category on their blog,
tell them you will give them a testimonial if they will give you
one. Always remember though only give true to heart testimonials.

Liz Tomey has been involved in Direct Mail Advertising since
1998. She runs a network of over 25 sites related to Direct Mail
Advertising. After coming into the Internet marketing world with
a bang, and sharing her secrets to quick profits, she has now
created http://www.JointVentureSeeker.com which teaches marketers
the true POWER of joint ventures!

You are more than welcome to reprint this article on your site,
blog, or your newsletter if you would like. Just make sure that
you include the resource box!

That's it for today! I'm starting my weekend early, so I'll talk
to you all next week!

As always, if you have ANY questions or comments,
please let me know by going to

http://www.LizLive.com

To your success...

Liz Tomey
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