Thinking of launching a startup? Launching something from the ground up means money. Unfortunately, not everyone with a startup idea has the financial means to sustain his idea to fruition, let alone compete against already established brands. If you don’t have enough capital to skyrocket your startup to prominence, before you throw in the towel and go about thinking your brilliant idea is too brilliant to materialize anyway, here are some services you might want to consider:

1. PickyDomains – It all starts with a name. And choosing the right name, the right slogan for your startup is one of the most important things a startupper needs to do. Differentiating your brand starts with a catchy, relevant name that your target market can relate to. This is where PickyDomains comes in. PickyDomains is a risk-free crowdsourcing site where a client specifies what he needs, either for a brand name, domain name or slogan. Fees range from $50 for a name or domain and $75 for a slogan. With a pool of over 50,000 contributors giving out suggestions and a proven pay-only-what-you-want scheme, PickyDomains may be your best bet in coming up with a strong brand and/or slogan that has the potential to dominate your niche market.

2. FreeLogoServices – Now that you have your brand and your slogan, up next on the list is a logo that consumers visually remember your brand by. Free Logo Services is an online platform that allows you to design your own logo for free. All you need to do is sign up, supply the text you want to appear on the logo, choose from thousands of designs in the site’s database, customize the design and then save. Your logo is saved for 5 days, at which time, you’re allowed to tweak the design until you’re finally satisfied with the outcome. Only when you decide to use the logo commercially – on letterheads, business cards and your website – are you required to pay a nominal fee of AUD $39.95.

3. iSpionage – For a business to survive in the marketplace and win, business owners should know who their competitors are and what they’re doing to capture market share. iSpionage is an online tool that allows you to “spy” on your competitors and affiliates. iSpionage offers search intelligence on competition across all three major search engines: Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Instead of spending hours hunting through the search engines for competitor and affiliate campaigns, iSpionage sends you an e-mail alert whenever anything relevant happens. Anything relevant, in this context, can range from new competitors in your niche, new competitor ads and keywords, alerts concerning your trademarks such as URL, product names, etc. The service iSpionage offers starts at $59 with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

4. CrowdTilt – If you’re really strapped for cash, a fundraiser might be your best shot. Then again, the rigors of gauging people’s interests and collecting the pooled money through a variety of means can be a tad too much. CrowdTilt is a site that helps you do exactly what you intend to do minus the worries. Signing up for a campaign with CrowdTilt is absolutely free. You specify the amount you need to raise and then share the campaign to your friends and community through social media. If the campaign tilts – meaning, it is successful – you’re charged an admin fee of 2.5% of the total pooled money.

5. PRLog/PRWeb – PR, press release, publicity, whatever it’s called, it’s important for business. You can’t expect people to know about your company if nothing has been said to the community or the media about it. You’ve heard about MarketWire, BusinessWire, PRNewsWire. If you take time to do some digging around, you’ll find out soon enough that these services deliver. Then again, they’re most probably not for startuppers with zero-to-low budgets. For business owners with zero budgets, PRLog, being a free service, is the best place to go. If you have some money to spare, PRWeb caters to business owners on a limited budget. Basic package at PRWeb costs $89.

6. oDesk – Most companies seek to cut down on overhead costs while maintaining their staffing needs. oDesk, an online staffing platform, can take care of that. Whether it be about writing, developing or updating content for your website, administrative functions, complicated programming, writing an e-book, infographic design, oDesk has a broad pool of freelancers with the skills you need. You can choose from a wide range of applicants who charge just about right or significantly less for their work hours. Plus, you don’t have to worry about employee-related taxes.

7. KillerStartups – Raring to find out if your startup is the next big thing, just like YouTube and Facebook? Pitch your company for a review with KillerStartups. KillerStartups is an online startups community where 15+ startups are being reviewed everyday. And as much as KillerStartups believes in the power of the crowd, community members vote, give their opinion and participate in the overall rating of a company, with the goal of finding early on which startup is destined to be the next big thing.

8. Vator.TV – Vator, coined from the term “elevator pitch,” meaning a presentation, business or otherwise, delivered in the same time span as an elevator ride, is a community-based site focused on funding and giving exposure to startups. It taps the power of social media, news and video to organize presentations for a diverse group of investors and entrepreneurs. At Vator, entrepreneurs submit videotaped “elevator pitches” and/or funding requests, which the Vator community ranks according to quality.

8 Sites Financially-Challenged Startuppers Should Know About is a post from: Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk

8 Sites Financially-Challenged Startuppers Should Know About Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk - Saving, investing and making money with technology.

The world is becoming more social.  The internet is allowing us to connect in new and exciting ways.  Social media is fast growing and becoming a powerful marketing tool.  However, that’s just one aspect of how the social internet is improving our lives.  These days social networking and social media is also being used in new and unique ways as an investing tool.

Social networks allow us to utilize the experience and power of a community.  This community can be a powerful tool.  Are you looking to get more information on a stock?  Or do you need funding to create a new product?  Perhaps you wish to invest directly in people?  Or lean on the experience of a savvy currency trader?  Social Networking provides new and exciting tools to help you in all these different ways.

Social Investing is a Powerful Tool

Take a look at something as simple as picking a stock.  Social Picks is a social network for picking a stock that is gearing up for a relaunch.  A social networking site like this will allow for people to follow the stock picks of the community and hopefully lead to better investments overall.

Imagine having an entire community of analysts and financial specialists as well as informed laymen all discussing stocks.  Analyzing the ins and outs of a particular company in a group to pick the best investments.  The community can direct each other and inform each other of the best picks and discuss their methods.

Social Lending

Beyond traditional stock picks, I’ve made no secret that I am personally a fan of social lending.  This is the type of investing where lenders and borrowers are part of a community and can invest in each other.  I’ve been getting great returns from social lending through Lendingclub.  Here’s a screenshot of my recent returns:

One of the things that I love about Lendingclub (besides the awesome returns) is that I can get a glimpse of the borrower’s personality and likelihood of repaying the loan based on their answers to lender questions.  Seeing a brief conversation between the lender and borrower gives me a lot of insight into my investment.  This is information that is beyond mere numbers.  I can see whether the person is serious about the loan or whether they appear to be nonchalant about the money they are being lent.

To me this kind of interaction is extremely informative and gives me tremendous insight into my social loan that I wouldn’t get in a traditional investment.  If I invested in a stock, I can see that companies financials.  But I wouldn’t normally get an interview with the CEO to ask them what they plan to do with my investment.

It’s this kind of interaction that I love about social lending and why I personally recommend investing in social lending through Lendingclub.

How About Social Currency Trading?

Currency trading is fast paced and volatile.  Plus it takes a great deal of insight and knowledge into world events.  It’s hard to learn and difficult to excel in this type of investment.  Still, many people are lured into currency trading because of the potential for high returns.  It’s a high risk, high reward investment.

But what if you could utilize the skill and knowledge of other experienced traders?  What if you could instantaneously follow the trading styles of the gurus?

Could you imagine this in the stock market world?  If you could hit a button and instantly copy all of the trades of Warren Buffet, would you?

I found a tool that allows you to do exactly this in forex trading.  eToro has this awesome tool called copy trader that allows you to follow the gurus in forex trading.  Not only that, but they give you a free practice account so that you can feel comfortable learning about trading currency.

Their social platform allows you to actively participate and discuss the latest currency trends.  Take a look at what it looks like below:

I’ve been using their copy trader system with a practice account to learn the ropes.  So far, my practice account has seen over 10% gain.

I started with $10,000 total.  As you can see, I have 9,633 invested, but I also have $1,963.18 left in my account balance.  So, my total gain is just about $1600.  Not bad for a forex noob.

While, I’m still in the learning stages and using a practice account, I love this system of learning and investing.  I’m quite impressed with eToro and I think it’s well worth trying out their system with a practice account.

What if You are an Entrepreneur or Inventor?

This is a great time to be an entrepreneur or inventor.  If you need funding for a project, you don’t need to go out and pitch angel investors.  You can simply start a kickstarter project.

Kickstarter allows you to follow and fund projects as a community.  You can either start your own project or invest in someone else.

Some mainstream entrepreneurs are seeing the advantages of seeking funding on kickstarter and we’ve been seeing some huge projects and revenues.  You can find some awesome crowdfunded projects on kickstarter these days.

How About Small Projects

I love the world’s smallest marketplace, fiverr.  While many may think of this as just another small marketplace, I think that one of the things that drives fiverr is that it also has a social component.

Each seller has a profile of their projects that you can view and rate.  You can share popular projects with others and leave your own feedback on gigs that you’ve purchased.

One of the best indicators of a good gig is through reading the feedback.  I rarely purchase a gig with no feedback.  I like to read what the other people say about a gig and I also like looking at the profile of the person selling the gig to see how they rate overall.

If you have a small project and don’t need to go the route of crowdfunding, then you can sell your project in small $5 increments on fiverr.

Final Thoughts

These are just a few ways that you can use the social platform to invest and make money.  Social networking is providing awesome tools in every aspect of daily life, including finding new investment opportunities.  I think it’s time to branch out and diversify your portfolio and see how social can help you make more money.

What I Love About the Growing Opportunities of Social Investing is a post from: Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk

What I Love About the Growing Opportunities of Social Investing Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk - Saving, investing and making money with technology.

Internet has changed our lives in many ways, and home based businesses and work-from-home jobs are some of those revolutionary changes driven by the Internet. Having the option to work from home and making money is an opportunity many will grab with both hands, mainly because getting up early morning and getting ready for the office on daily basis, and then the time and hassle it takes to travel from your home to your workplace and then coming back are something nobody is fond of. An eight hour job usually takes 10 to 11 hours in a day, and makes it difficult to manage everything from proper rest to your diet, and from exercise to spending quality time with your family. Whereas having a work from home job means that you will be able to manage everything along with your job.

However, working from home is not an easy way to make money, instead you will have to put a lot more effort as compared to a routine job, in order to please your employers, and your workplace can play an important role in that. People think that all they need is a computer and good internet connection to work from home, but that’s not true, especially if you are looking to take a full time job. You must set up a small office at your home, since a make-shift arrangement will continue to do more harm than good.

Following are five reasons why you must invest on getting appropriate furniture for your home based office.

It will give you a Proper Working Environment:

As earlier mentioned, working environment can make a big difference to your overall productivity and efficiency, and when you are sitting with your laptop on a couch, with Television in front, and remote control within a touching distance, that’s far from being a good “working environment”. If you are looking to work from home, the first thing you should do is to get yourself a private and quieter space, and then arrange a table, chair, and probably a writing desk, and you will see yourself working with a new-found efficiency.

It will improve your Efficiency:

If you have worked at different offices, you will be aware that the environment, furniture, and working equipment can make all the difference on the efficiency of workers. That’s the reason businesses spend huge amounts on getting the best available technologies, equipment, and furniture for their offices. Being a home based worker, you wouldn’t need a lot of equipment, but you’ll surely need a good computer, fast internet connection, and appropriate furniture, rest assured you will be as productive as you can get.

It will save you From Sprains:

Repetitive tasks like typing or browsing all day can cause strains on your eyes, back, arms, and neck. Having the right furniture, even if it is a simple table and chair (and a correct posture) will save you from these strains and pains. Spending on an extra computer chair and table might appear extravagant at first (especially when there are many chairs/stools and tables at home), but you will thank yourself later on because of the comfort and convenience provided by the right furniture.

It will look good in Video Conferencing:

Many overseas employers now demand the virtual assistants or freelancers to join them in video conferencing, for interviews or meetings. Having a professional setup and the right furniture like some elegant white furnishings will present you in a more professional manner, as compared to someone who’s sitting on a bed in pajamas, with a laptop.

Better Management:

Office furniture like tables, chairs, cabinets, desk accessories, workstations, etc weren’t all designed for decoration purposes, instead all of these items have their own functions i.e. they can help you manage and organize your work more effectively. Therefore, it is advised that you get yourself some office furniture like cabinets, table and chairs, so that you wouldn’t be running around in home trying to find some important document or something to sit on.

Five Reasons you need to spend on good furniture when Working from Home is a post from: Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk

Five Reasons you need to spend on good furniture when Working from Home Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk - Saving, investing and making money with technology.

I’m a bit of an expert in this area actually. I borrowed some money a few years ago and went to live in Sri Lanka for the winter, where I surfed all day and lay around eating curry every evening. Bliss.

Now I’d personally reckon that’s the ideal way to get the best out of cheap personal loans online. Having been paying it off ever since, though, I’ve obviously seen the other side of the bargain. And would probably temper my enthusiasm for going off on a four month jolly with the sobering thought that you have to earn enough to afford your repayments and not notice them, otherwise taking out the loan is more hassle than it’s worth.

I also recognize, of course, that there are plenty of people out there who are considering cheap personal loans online for a variety of much less pleasing reasons. Financial problems make us want to find a way out and personal loans are one way of doing that.

You have to be careful what you want, and how you achieve that desire. For example if you have a range of financial obligations, such as multiple repayments to existing loans and credit cards, at punishing interest rates, it may be better to get one personal loan with a much better rate and lump them all together.

This works well for credit cards, which have uniformly appalling interest rates. The quicker you kill your credit card the better – and sometimes cheap personal loans online are the only way to do that. By shopping around through a broker you can discover loans your own bank might not be able to offer you, with better interest rates or lower monthly payments.

Speaking of monthly payments: life, as I’ve kind of hinted at already, isn’t always so good. We get ill. Eventually we die. And in many cases our financial worries extend beyond the grave.

Term assurance is one way to rectify a pressing or short term life insurance need. A term assurance is life insurance paid at fixed premiums over a pre-defined term, and may be the only way to ensure a significant pay-out in the event of sudden death.

Term assurance quotes are clearly useful in specific situations – though some advisers can advise you to take them out as a more cost effective way of insuring your life, investing the difference rather than buying long term cover. Clearly this advice falls flat if you fall ill between terms and are no longer eligible for the insurance to take effect.

From the joys of lounging around on a Sri Lankan beach to the sobering contemplation of your own death, life is ruled by money. Have you got enough to cover your monthly payments, will your dependents have enough to do the same when you’re gone. And for both these reasons, it makes sense to arm yourself with foreknowledge. Do your research and understand the products on offer to you, then you’ll know where to go when you need loans or life insurance.

How to Get the Best Out of Your Personal Loan is a post from: Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk

How to Get the Best Out of Your Personal Loan Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk - Saving, investing and making money with technology.

These days social networks are dominating the internet.  As a blogger, one effective way to market and grow your blog in it’s early days is through social media marketing.  While you are working on your SEO, you should also develop a social media marketing strategy to promote your blog.

Social media or social networking websites are online networks designed to create a community online.  People with similar interests can meet each other and connect.  If you enjoy connecting and meeting with new people, you may find that you have a knack for being an effective social media marketer.  You can turn these skills into promoting your new blog.

When you first start a blog, one of your goals in mind may be to build up traffic.  Perhaps you have a plan to monetize your blog some day.  All of this will come in time with your online promotion efforts.  However, one good way to boost awareness about your blog is through word of mouth via a social media website or through a social network. This is the online equivalent of spreading your message through word of mouth, and it can be a powerful way to garner interest in your blog.

When it comes to promoting blogs, it’s common for many bloggers to focus on SEO or search engine optimization.  You can easily find a thousand articles on effective SEO techniques with a simple google search.  You can implement many of those techniques, such as backlinking and keyword stuffing, and let the search engines do their job.  While this works well, there are a couple of downsides to relying solely on SEO.

First off, SEO can take time for your techniques to come to fruition.  That means that you need to wait for your site to get indexed and give your backlinks time to age.  This can be anywhere from a few months to about a year.  Much of this depends on how aggressive you are with your SEO technique.  However, there is a second downside if you become overly aggressive with your SEO.  As google recently demonstrated, a search engine can simply change their algorithm and your page rank could decrease as a result.  So, even if you find yourself ranking fairly high, depending on the methods you used to get there, you could lose that ranking very quickly.

However, social media marketing is not subject to the same kind of limitation.  Although a social media site may wax and wane with its popularity, a good social media marketing strategy would mean that you are active in several social media venues.  Also, the people you network with on those sites are also members of other communities.  If you are able to connect with the individuals and get them interested in your blog, they may be sharing it with their network and so on.  This has the potential of growing in a viral manner and your topics may become popular very quickly.

There are some common ways to promote your blog effectively on a social media website.  You don’t want to become a consummate salesman as that will turn people off.  A good subtle first option is to post a link to your blog in your profile page.  This way community members have the option of viewing your blog without feeling pressured.  You can then include social sharing links on your blog itself, so if anyone finds something interesting it is easy for them to share it with their community.

A more aggressive approach is to inform your online network more directly.  Either through public postings or sending your friends a private message.  While this can be more effective in simply providing a profile link, it is also more aggressive and you may turn people off.  One thing to do is that you may want to nurture your relationships for some time before you suggest your blog through a private message.

These days, virtually everyone is a member of a social network of some kind.  Facebook, twitter, pinterest, linkedIn are all becoming household names.  It is definitely a new frontier for bloggers to promote their blog.  As you nurture and grow your social network, you are also building a powerful blog promoting machine.  Think on the different ways that you can use your social network to promote your blog.

Using Social Media to Promote Your Blog is a post from: Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk

Using Social Media to Promote Your Blog Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk - Saving, investing and making money with technology.

All of us have numerous daily expenses that we need to meet, no matter what. Chances are though, you’ve never really thought about how much you spend in a day. I generally look at the big picture when I’m planning my finances – for example, I take what I earn in a month, take off all my bills, savings and rent and then just leave myself to spend the rest as I like.

It wasn’t until I realised that this just wasn’t going to cut it that I started looking a little closer. When you know you’ve got a couple of hundred bucks to yourself after you’ve been paid and you can spend it on absolutely anything you want, it can be pretty easy to go on late night internet shopping trips without really understanding the consequences of spending $10 here and $30 there. But it all adds up.

Breaking down your finances and seeing exactly how much you need to spend on everyday essentials will give you a better understanding of what your ‘fun’ money is – basically, the money you can use to buy the things you want, not the things you need.

If you drive or commute to work you will probably spend around $10 a day on travel. An easy way to lower your travel costs is to car-share or to buy a season ticket for public transport. Also, if your place of work is within walking distance you could walk instead of taking the bus or tram – this will also help you to get some exercise.

Food is one of the main expenses of everyday life and you should never try to cut back on it just to save money. Rather than going without when your bank balance is looking a little low, opt for cheaper supermarket alternatives or non-branded goods. Remember – eating out and buying convenience foods is almost always more expensive than cooking a homemade dinner each night of the week.

I have a pre-paid electricity meter at my flat, and when I first moved in I thought this would be incredibly annoying and almost had it replaced for a ‘normal’ one. I’m very glad I didn’t though because it allows me to monitor exactly how much I’m spending on electricity. This is a good frame of mind to be in, so if you haven’t got a prepayment meter you could get yourself a plug-in electricity consumption meter that will show you just how much each appliance is costing you.

If you have children you will probably find that your finances are stretched even further every month. Not only will you need to pay for your own food, clothing and travel, but for theirs as well. If you know that you will need to pay for new school uniforms in a couple of months’ time or your kids have a school trip coming up, you should start saving in advance.

Everyone’s daily expenses will be of differing amounts, but generally the main three are food, travel and  utility bills. Of course, you will need to account for all of your other bills as well, but as these are often set at a certain amount you can simply deduct them from your wage every month.

What are your daily expenses and do you have any ideas for ways to save money?

Guest post written by Charlotte Watson on behalf of Payday Express

What are the necessary expenditures of everyday life? is a post from: Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk

What are the necessary expenditures of everyday life? Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk - Saving, investing and making money with technology.

According to a recent report on the Bloomberg news network house prices fell for the fifth straight quarter in the run up to May. They also reported that an index measuring prices across 8 of Australia’s major cities has dropped 1.1 per cent last month and has fallen 4.5 per cent since April 2011. To all intents and purposes it seems that our housing market is going to continue its slump for at least a few more months.

However, in the last week many of the banks and lenders around the country have slashed their interest rates in an effort to revitalise the flagging market. Lenders like the Reserve Bank have made a 50 point basis point cut to the official interest rate and many others are expected to make similar cuts in the coming months. Many have already cut interest rates in the alst year but are expected to do so again. Previously one of the key problems stopping Australian’s getting on the property ladder was the higher than average mortgage rates we ended up paying; we actually pay more on average than any other modern country for our mortgages. With this seeming to come to an end though now is looking like a much more attractive time to invest in property.

For first time buyers the market is still tricky as if the slump continues people could end up wishing they had held off. However, it seems probable that the market will begin to pick up in the coming months as the new interest rates begin to take effect. At the same time in many areas and cities across the country there is a shortage of rental properties and in some areas renting now costs more than a mortgage; meaning first time buyers might actually save money by buying property.

For investors though the property market is looking increasingly ripe as demand for rentals is at an all-time high meaning it is easier to ensure a higher return on investment for properties. We cannot expect the property market to fall considerably in the years to come and it is more likely that when it does bounce back prices will return to their pre-recession levels and continue to rise. This is already happening in many countries around the world where property prices sank marginally or majorly throughout the recession. Investments in property are always a lucrative one as they provide a long term income. Understandably investors are still worried about the long term housing market prices and are worried that investing now means they will miss out on a cheaper property in a few months’ time. However, the truth is that the market already is at a low point and many people are desperate to sell. This means you can still secure a price below current market rates and still have ample wiggle room should the market flounder. The reality is though that the market is unlikely to continue to decline and these rate cuts should start the market picking up or, at the very least, stabilising.

Overall this is making the property market tempting for investors. In the coming months if more investors start to look at property then it is likely the market will begin to recover and grow. The key is that as soon as investors start realising the potential for the property market it will grow with the impetus being on investment based property purchases as much as individual consumers. Undoubtedly rentals will remain high among nervous consumers but for investors things are looking up. Companies like http://www.bankwest.com.au/personal/home-loans/home-loans-overview#investing-in-property can help you with the ins and outs of property investment and help you calculate the ROI from investing a first, second or third property. 

Why People Are Investing in Property despite the Fragile Market is a post from: Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk

Why People Are Investing in Property despite the Fragile Market Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk - Saving, investing and making money with technology.

The importance of physical health in a blogger’s priority list is often overlooked. May times the main focus is on churning out articles as fast as the mind can handle in order to rake in as much profit as possible. However, the tradeoff for this type of activity is long hours sitting in front of a laptop, munching on microwave dinners and sneaking in powernaps. It is definitely not a healthy lifestyle.

The Risk Posed By the Bloggers’ Way of Life

The problem with this type of setup though, is that even if you make a lot of money living this way, you may not be healthy enough to enjoy it later on. Also your blog will begin to suffer. If you are always exhausted and not eating properly, how will your mind come up with quality content?

In order to combat this sedentary lifestyle, bloggers must take precautionary measures to ensure they protect their health. The results can benefit you not only by ensuring you make money online, but also by guaranteeing you are healthy enough to keep earning long term. So it is time for bloggers to get fit and this article will show a few ways to do it.

4 Steps for Bloggers to Become Healthy and Fit

• Adopt a positive mental attitude: Attitude plays a big role in your work as a blogger. If you are positive and like to have fun, your attitude will dictate the type of work you produce. It can also help you to maintain a good work ethic to reaching your goals. If you want to stay fit you need to set goals for daily exercise and your attitude will assist you in reaching it. A good attitude will help you be consistent and centered on keeping fit.

• Plan and set realistic goals. In order to keep fit, you must have a diet and exercise regimen that is planned for you. Visit your local doctor or nutritionist in order to plot this out. Remember to plan realistically. Do not overdo yourself as this could lead to demotivation right away if you do not meet your goals.

• Discipline and practice.Execution is the final phase in your program to get fit. Once you have your meals planned out and your exercise routine in place, you must execute these actions with consistency. The only way you will acquire the benefits of a fit body and mind is if you stick to your plan. There are many pitfalls that can sidetrack you from reaching your goals, but with perseverance and patience you will start to feel the effects of a fit lifestyle.

• Get help. At the start it may be very difficult to discipline yourself with your exercise and meals. Just as you did when you first started a blog, it may be a good idea to look at how others achieved what you want to achieve. There are a lot of inspiring examples online. You can get a lot of help by fitness and weightloss organizations such as Medifast and Nutrisystem, which have helped thousands of people lose weight, get fit and stay healthy.

With these steps in place your mind will have the benefit of being supported by a healthy and prime condition body. This will result in in a quick and creative mind to produce work and bring riches.

Natasha is a fit and soon to be rich blogger. At her website you will find coupons medifast and nutrisystem promotional codes. Discounts and coupon codes for medifast and nutrisystem will let you save while purchasing plans.

How Bloggers Can Get Fit and Rich at the Same Time is a post from: Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk

How Bloggers Can Get Fit and Rich at the Same Time Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk - Saving, investing and making money with technology.

If you do business online, then marketing yourself online is the way to go. If you’re already using pay per click campaigns to help drive traffic to your site, you’re on the right track. However, you may not be entirely sure of how to get the most ROI from your PPC campaigns. Fortunately performing well on PPC campaigns isn’t an art. It’s a science, and anyone can learn how to do it. If you want to get more conversions per click, here are some strategies you can start implementing:

1. Switch up your keywords – If you notice that people aren’t clicking on your PPC ads, it’s time to change up the keywords in your ad groups. Analyze new keywords that are related to your business using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Pick keywords that have low competition scores and a good amount of people searching for them. Keep on trying out different keywords until you find the right ones. Don’t sit around hoping the keywords that aren’t working will someday work.

2. Make sure your copy is clean and compelling – You only have a little bit of space for your copy. So, make it as clean as compelling as possible. Make what you’re offering stand out from what other, similar ecommerce companies are offering. If you seem like another run-of-the-mill online retailer, people won’t exactly flock to you. If you’re able to get people to perceive that you’re doing things differently and better, you’ll have better PPC campaign results.

3. Measure your results – Open up an Excel spreadsheet, and get ready to measure! Monitor your website analytics regularly to see how many people are going to your landing page from your PPC ads. And monitor how many of those site visitors are turning into customers. You also need to keep track of your bids to make sure you don’t overspend. You may have to spend a little bit more money on your PPC efforts than you’d like, but don’t spend unnecessarily. A successful PPC campaign is the result of analysis. So, record all of the findings related to your PPC campaigns, and tweak things as necessary until you figure out what works.

The rule of thumb with PPC campaigns is that you have to spend money to make money. Without experimentation, good copy, and analysis, you could end up spending money and never seeing any ROI. Follow the tips above, and see results from your campaigns.

Author’s Bio: Carolyn is a guest blogger on the subjects of ecommerce management, ecommerce marketing, and order management as it relates to 3dcart, BigCommerce, and Shopify.

PPC Tips for Ecommerce Companies is a post from: Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk

PPC Tips for Ecommerce Companies Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk - Saving, investing and making money with technology.

Location, location, location.  That’s the key to any successful real world business.  Did you know that the internet is the same way?  The internet also has good neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods.  It’s all in the address.  The domain that you choose will determine whether your website is just another run down store in a commercial center strip mall or whether it’s the cute little boutique shop in the glamorous part of town.

Most people don’t think about it, but the internet has a geography of its own.  It’s all determined by the web address that you choose.  Last week, I talked about choosing a good host for your blog.  Hand in hand with choosing the right host is picking a domain name and registering your domain.

If you’ve ever registered a domain name, you’ll see that you have a lot of choices in the name.  You can also choose your top level domain from .com to .net, .org, and a variety of other choices.  In many cases, the less common top level domains are cheaper than a .com.

Think on that.  The real world has high rent and low rent districts as well.  This is the same thing.  What image do you want your website or blog to convey?

Big Metropolitan Image

The big city has the biggest potential for traffic.  It’s in the middle of all the bustle and activity.  It’s the popular spot to shop.  This is the .com district.

A .com domain is one of the most popular domains in the world.  When someone is thinking of a website, in their head they are thinking of such-and-such-website.com.  It’s the popular neighborhood.

While it generally costs a bit more to rent in the big metropolitan area, in internet dollars it’s worth the extra cost.  You’re probably talking about $10 a year for a .com domain.  Why not spend the little bit extra?

Just Another Store in the Big Metropolitan

You may get a lot of advice about naming your website based on your keywords.  However, you’ll notice when you do this that many times the .com domain is already taken.  Many registrars will then offer you alternatives of the same name at a .net or .nfo or other less popular choices.  Don’t fall for it!

Stay in the big metropolitan!  You want to have some authority behind your site and you want to stay in the popular neighborhood.  Try coming up with a good brand name for your site instead.

Personally, I don’t advocate going out of your way to keyword stuff your domain.  I think you lose branding power that way and turn into just another store in the big metropolitan.

You know what I mean.  With a generic name, you’re just one of those non-descript concrete boxes next to all the other concrete boxes in the downtown part of the city.  People pass by you all the time and they come in and buy stuff from you, but they can’t remember the name of your store.  You’re just that one store over on the corner of Main and Broadway…

On the other hand, if you are looking to buy stuff online, do you go to buy-stuff-online.com or do you head over to amazon.com?  The name Amazon has nothing to doing with buying stuff online, but people remember the name.

Off the Beaten Path

You’re not in the heart of the big city.  You’re a little boutique chop off a side street.  Not quite on the main street, but not far off into the middle on nowhere either.  You’re a .net domain.

These aren’t the most popular domains, but they are serviceable.  In fact there are many successful .net websites.  However, you need to make a name for yourself because the .net domain is just a little off the beaten path.

People don’t drive up your street unless they are looking for you.  This can have its own advantages if you build a good brand.  People come to your site with a purpose.

The Middle of the Swapmeet

This is how I think of the free domains.  You know the ones that come with the free hosting:  blogspot, typepad, wordpress, etc…

You are caught in the sprawl of all the other shops.  You may have a name, but it’s not memorable.  You’re just another tent in the swapmeet.  People may remember the name of the swapmeet, but the individual shops within are a bit harder.

This is why we don’t recommend these domains.  You are caught in the sprawl with a difficult to remember location.  Sure people may remember that you have a tent in the corner somewhere.  They’ll remember that you have a huge selection of CD’s, but what was the name of that shop again?

The Bad Neighborhoods

These are all the unheard of domains.  They come in the flavor of .info, .cc, .co, etc…

Nobody remembers these domains.  If hard pressed to remember the name of your website, they may just resort to a google search instead.

Now here is the danger of having a generic keyword name for your website combined with these bad neighborhood domains:  nobody will find your website.

Imagine if you wanted to start a pet training website.  It’s high competition, but you want the keywords train your pet.  So you are hoping to get trainyourpet.com, but that’s taken.  So is trainyourpet.net.  So you settle for trainyourpet.info.  Guess where people are most likely to go when those three results come up when they search for “train your pet”?

This is the bad neighborhood.  Imagine the part of town with low traffic, closed up shops, litter in the streets.  There’s the occasional store with the blinking neon sign, a letter burned out and the rest of the sign flickering as if ready to shut off.  That’s not the neighborhood where you want to set up your website.

Remember:  Location, Location, Location

We often forget that the internet has locations just as real as any real world city.  It’s god good neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods.  Memorable addresses and forgettable ones.

Your choices in picking your location will determine how hard or easy it will be for you to get traffic to your website.  It will affect how quickly people will remember your name.  To that extent it will affect how many visitors return to your site.

It is the starting point.  The first thing a visitor sees about your site.  What impression do you want to convey?

The Good and Bad Neighborhoods of the Internet: Location, Location, Location is a post from: Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk

The Good and Bad Neighborhoods of the Internet: Location, Location, Location Riches Corner |Tech and Money Talk - Saving, investing and making money with technology.