Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Getting A Solid Internet Marketing Foundation

Getting A Solid Internet Marketing Foundation
by: Willie Crawford
Copyright 2004 Willie Crawford

As we look at building our online businesses, many of us acknowledge, early-on, that we don't know it all. Those who don't, are almost certain to fail because they often attempt to apply techniques that simply don't work online - to their online businesses. The quickest way to online success is to model those who are already successful at what you want to do. It' s that simple.

Of all of the chores involved in building your business, marketing is usually the most critical. Poor marketing is also the reason so many businesses fail. You need to learn to properly market your business or hire someone else to do it for you. I'll give you a few recommended resources to help jumpstart your education in a minute.

A second extremely important skill that goes hand-in-hand with marketing is generating publicity. You can have the greatest product in the world, but if no one knows about it, it may as well not exist. If no one knows about you, then you won't make any sales!

Let's look at generating publicity first...

Publicity can take many forms, and they often overlaps what many would define as marketing. For today, I want you to focus on the most effective, and often cheapest, publicity. In fact, this great publicity is often free. What we're talking about here is publicity generated by getting the media and others talking about you and your business. We're talking about the publicity typically generated through tools such as press releases and doing media interviews.

Why is the above type of publicity so powerful? It's so powerful because people believe what others say about you MORE than they believe what you say about yourself. So when you can get magazines, newspapers, television and radio personalities, and even online ezines talking about you, those hearing this buzz believe it more and are therefore more likely to go check you out.

A second reason this type of publicity is so powerful is because you can literally generate millions of dollars in free publicity if you know what you are doing. You may not be able to afford a full-page ad in a major magazine or newspaper. However, let the right person know about your story and that same publication will be all to happy to tell the world about you... and give them your website url and/or your toll-free phone number.

Learning to get media attention is not hard. To make it even easier, I've arranged for my friend, Annie Jennings, who runs a top PR agency, to help you a little. Her site is at:
http://www.anniejenningspr.com/teleseminars.htm

I gave you the above url because it is the page where she tells you of upcoming telesemianrs she's hosting on various promotion and sales-related topics. These teleseminars are all free.

While at Annie's site, sign up for other goodies she offers including courses in generating press releases, creating a platform, getting on top radio shows, etc. She'll give you all types of freebies like audiotapes and coffee cups. When I first met her, and she sent me an intro package, it felt like Christmas :-)

So we'll let Annie turn you into a "media darling." Then you can focus on learning marketing. This is where most online business people should probably spend 80% of their time - not on all of the busywork that you can get someone else to do. The highest and best use of your time is probably in marketing your business, not making webpage updates, writing or even creating products. You can get freelancers to do this for you very inexpensively at places like Elance.com

Marketing is nothing more than communicating the benefits of your products or services effectively to your ideal customer. It all hinges upon effective communications, and your communications can be greatly improved if you understand how and why we interact the way we do with each other. To get a firm grasp on that topic I recommend that you read the book, "Influence, The Psychology of Persuassion," by Dr. Robert Cialdini.

You'll never be the same after you've read and digest this book. If you're like me you'll find yourself reading it over and over! You can find this book at online bookstores.

Another solid book on marketing is Jay Abraham's "Mr. X" book. This 376 page book distills several decades of the marketing know-how of Jay Abraham. The full title of the book is "Money-Making Secrets of Marketing Genius Jay Abraham And Other Marketing Wizards - A No-Nonsense Guide To Great Wealth and a Personal Fortune." This book is so good that you could devote six month just to studying the one book, and you'd understand more about marketing than 95% of your competitors.

This book is marketed by the Abraham Marketing Group, but Internet marketers working with the group run specials from time to time. Just watch your email for one of these specials.

A course that I recommend that isn't just on marketing but on developing the proper mindset is by Dr. Robert Anthony. It's called "Know How To Be Rich." In order to run a really successful business, you need to properly train your mind. Many people actually need to give themselves permission to be successful. Dr. Anthony's course was a big "A-ha" for me and many of my clients.
You can find it at: http://TheInternetLifestyle.com

You'll notice that none of the resources just recommended were specifically Internet-marketing-only resources. That's because internet marketing is just an offshoot of marketing, and most of the principles are the same. Most Internet marketers who are struggling, don't have a good grasp of the over-riding basic marketing principles. That's what the above resources will provide.

Two Internet marketing resources I will recommend are a private membership site I've set up, and a course on how to generate website traffic. You can find my site at:
http://TheRealSecrets.com The webpage does a great job of explaining why you need to be a member :-)

Without website traffic, your website basically has the same results as a billboard on a highway that no one travels. It produces no results because no one sees it. So you do need to learn how to generate traffic. For that I recommend the very indepth, crash course offered by John Reese's Traffic Secrets. I've personally gone through the 13 CD's and DVD ROM's, and 3 manuals - TWICE.

You can check out this course at:
http://TrafficSecretsByJohnReese.com
It's a little expensive, but well worth it if you USE what he teaches. If you aren't going to use it, then you should save your money.

If you work your way through the above resources you'll be well on your way to building a massively successful online business. None of these resources are something you give a quick glance and then the magic happens. They all require effort. Put in the effort now and you'll have a very solid foundation upon which to build your Internet marketing business. By understand basic marketing, and then how the internet differs, you'll possess some very powerful, rarely mastered knowledge.

About the author:


Willie Crawford is a corporate president, published author, seminar speaker and host, tele-seminar speaker and host, retired military officer, karate black belt, master network marketing trainer, and lifetime student of marketing. He shows people how to actually generate substantial income on-line using very simple, easily modeled systems. An example of such a system that you can study and duplicate is at:
http://ProfitMagician.com



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All Hits Are Not Created Equal

All Hits Are Not Created Equal
by: Jim Edwards
After all the debate over website design, shopping carts and credit card processors,
every website owner eventually comes to the startling realization that they need one
more thing to survive - website traffic!

Without website traffic it's the same as building an expensive billboard and, instead
of placing it alongside a busy highway, you hide it in your basement where nobody can
see it.

Upon realizing they need traffic, most website owners run out and start blowing chunks
of money and time trying to get "hits" to their sites, but they fail to realize that
all "hits" are not created equal.

In their quest to get eyeballs to their websites, most online operators don't realize
there's a big difference between driving "general" traffic to your website and driving
"targeted" traffic.

Just getting any traffic is the same technique TV advertisers use. They flash ads on
the screen in front of people who can't afford or don't need the advertised product.

Since general advertising can't hit specific targets, they hit everyone and hope that
someone in their target audience is actually watching at that moment. Spam, banner
ads, "safe-lists" and similar traffic techniques fall into this "general" category.

"Targeted" traffic is made up of people who are genuinely interested in what you have
to say or sell online. These people either share the same interests or have an
immediate need or problem they are trying to solve.

"Targeted" traffic is best because the people hitting your website have a much higher
likelihood of actually making a purchase.

Targeted traffic comes from people following recommended links on other sites, typing
in relevant keywords into the search engines, or even reading articles you've written
on a particular subject and then clicking over to your site for more information.

If you don't already know where to find the best sources of targeted traffic for your
website, you will need to experiment with lots of different sources to find the ones
that bring visitors who give you the most "bang for your buck."

The fastest way to determine which avenues provide the most targeted traffic is by
using an "ad tracker". An "ad tracker" is a simple program, residing on your web
server, that tracks how many visitors your site gets from a particular source and how
many of them purchased.

Though it sounds simple, most businesses don't do this! Most businesses can't tell you
their visitor to buyer conversion percentage and, therefore, don't know exactly how
much they can invest in traffic generation and remain profitable.

Whether you pay for your website traffic with cash (pay-per-click search engines,
ezine ads), or you pay for it with the sweat of your brow (article distribution, free
search engines), you must identify your best and most profitable sources of targeted
traffic that convert into buyers, subscribers, or leads.

Failure to identify and track where your buyers come from and then calculate how much
they really cost you ultimately translates into failure for your online business.



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About the author:

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use free articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...

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! Click Here> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com



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Focus On Your Target Market To Achieve Home Business Success

Focus On Your Target Market To Achieve Home Business Success
by: Kirk Bannerman
To achieve success in a home based business it is of critical
importance to maintain a laser beam focus on your target market
and to direct your marketing activities to that specific group.
Website traffic is one thing, but targeted traffic is everything.

You have no doubt seen dozens of offers similar to "10,000 hits
per hour driven to your website!". This type of website traffic
is completely untargeted and will undoubtedly result in a very
low conversion ratio. It's basically "throw it up against the
wall and hope something sticks". The big incoming numbers give
the illusion of progress, but you will achieve better results
with a lower volume of highly targeted traffic.

I speak from experience because in the early days of developing
my home business, I went for the big numbers instead of focusing
on targeting prospects. It took me a while to appreciate the
importance of targeting (quality) instead of just going for the
big numbers, but it was a lesson well learned.

Exchanging links has been an important part of generating website
traffic for quite some time, but the vast majority of people
looking to trade links don't understand that just wildly swapping
links with any willing webmaster is not the way to go.

For the last few years, most webmasters have been in a "pleasing
Google" mode since Google had such a dominant position. Now that
challengers are emerging, most notably Yahoo, MSN, and Ask
Jeeves, the search engine ranking landscape is becoming much more
complicated than just marching to the tune Google plays.

Many website owners seem to be of the opinion that the sole
purpose of exchanging links is to try to improve the search
engine ranking position of their website. While it is true that
links pointing to your website can help your search engine
ranking, the reason for obtaining inbound links goes far deeper
than that.

In my opinion, the targeted traffic that relevant links pointing
to your site will bring can be as important as the traffic that
comes to your website from people using search engines. This is
where linking philosophy comes in. If you limit yourself to
exchanging links only with websites that have a theme highly
relevant to your own, the traffic you receive from those links
will be far more targeted (valuable) than traffic you might
receive from links with websites that have nothing to do with
your theme.

Not only do highly relevant links bring you more highly targeted
traffic, but they also play a "customer satisfaction" role for
visitors to your website who arrived there as a result of a
search engine query. If someone arrives at your website after
performing a search for, lets say "work at home" and then finds
your website full of links to a bunch of off topic sites (Viagra,
online casinos, hotel reservations, sports betting, etc, etc)
the impression is often not favorable and may actually drive
your visitor away before they consider whatever it is that your
website itself is offering.

Keep your eye on the bullseye and develop highly targeted traffic
by having good content on your website and exchanging links with
highly relevant sites that also offer good content. Always keep
in mind that...traffic is one thing, but targeted traffic is
everything.


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About the author:

Kirk Bannerman operates his own successful home based business
and also coaches others seeking to start their own home based
business. For more information visit his website at http://www.home-based-business-team.com


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How do I drive traffic to a brand new website?

How do I drive traffic to a brand new website?
by: Richard Grady
Copyright 2005 Richard Grady

Every single day, more and more people upload brand new websites to the Internet. I don't have any figures but there must be hundreds of thousands of new pages being added daily (if not considerably more!)

The one thing that all of these new websites need in order to make their existence worthwhile is traffic, which leads me to one of the most common questions I am asked and the subject of this newsletter:

'How can you generate traffic to a brand new website?'

Of course, there are a number of different answers to this question and what I would do myself is probably very different to what a completely new Internet entrepreneur would do. The reason I say this is that the first thing I do when launching a new site is make use of my existing website traffic by advertising the new site on my other established sites. In addition, I have the luxury of a large mailing list which I can use to drive traffic to the new site.

I appreciate that anyone starting out in online business won't have these options open to them (and in fairness, neither did I when I first started), so let's look at things from the beginning. Day one of your first website.....

It is a fact that the quickest and probably most effective way of bringing targeted traffic to your website is by paying for it. Now before you rush off and sink $50 into one of those '50,000 hits for $50' schemes, DON'T, this isn't what I mean. Those schemes are largely a complete waste of money. Even if you get the traffic that you are promised (as opposed to some software script visiting your site and pretending to be a visitor), it will not be targeted and therefore there is a very low chance that the traffic will generate sales. When I talk about buying traffic, I mean by using the pay- per-click services offered by most of the big search engines.

You probably already know the sort of thing I mean - for example, Google Adwords. Pretty much any search on Google will display a list of adverts down the right-hand side of the page and these are all paid adverts. Every time you click on one of them, the advertiser pays Google a fixed amount which could be anything from 5 cents upwards (depending upon how competitive the keyword is).

Pay-per-click allows you to be very selective about which keywords your advert is shown for and this allows you to target your advertising perfectly. Other big names in the pay-per-click market include Overture, Espotting and Findwhat.

Now, before you all start emailing me and saying that you already knew about PPC let me just say that I am well aware that people know about it. The problem (as I see it), is that people aren't using this type of service because of the fact that they don't want to spend any money on advertising. That's all well and good but the fact is that the Internet is getting more and more competitive each day and the chances of you building a successful website business from scratch without investing any money are tiny to say the least.

If you want to attract a decent level of traffic to a brand new website in a short period of time, it is almost a necessity that you use pay-per-click on one of the main search engines. If you don't, then the growth of your traffic levels will be painfully slow and inconsistent at best.

When I launched my very first websites I invested heavily in pay-per-click advertising. At one point, I was spending over $6000 a month on Google Adwords alone!!! Seriously I really was spending that much money. It was a constant battle to tweak the website sales copy and continue to test the advertisement text just to make sure that my sales were covering the advertising payments each month. At the time I was probably just about breaking even but buying traffic in this quantity meant that I was able to fine-tune my sales pages and start to build up a list of mailing list subscribers.

Once you have got to the stage where you know your sales pages are converting visitors into buyers, then you can start to gear up with other methods of getting traffic to your site - writing articles, linking strategies, viral methods (ebooks etc), using your eBay 'About Me' page, using your link as a signature when you post on forums etc. All of these methods will win you traffic (and in most cases it will be completely free) but it will take time for the traffic to build to a worthwhile level. If you rely solely on free traffic, you really will be building your business one hit at a time.

Of course, once the free methods of gaining traffic start to pay off, you can begin to wind down your paid methods, though you may not want to - after all, if you are earning more in sales than you are paying for your pay-per-click traffic, why stop it?

As your portfolio of websites grows, you will also be able to share the traffic around a bit by linking to your own sites and of course, if you are capturing your visitors email addresses, you will be building a mailing list of people interested in the products you are offering.

Like I say, I appreciate that the above may not be the ground-breaking secret that you were hoping for but as with so many things online, there really is no secret. Achieving success is simply about taking action and whilst you can succeed online by spending very little money, the chances are that you will succeed a lot quicker by making a bit of an investment. You don't have to be spending thousands of dollars a month as I was but any new business owner should be prepared to invest a few hundred dollars a month in order to get things off the ground....


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About the author:

Richard Grady has been helping ordinary people earn online since 1998. He writes a free newsletter which is published every two weeks. To subscribe (and claim your free gifts), visit: http://www.thetraderonline.com/newsletter.html


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Marketing Magic: More Money in Less Time

Marketing Magic: More Money in Less Time
by: Christopher Enders
by Christopher Enders
http://www.double-payment.com

Which is more precious: time or money? If you could have an ample supply of either, but not both, which would you choose?
It's a tough question. If you choose money, you may not have the time to enjoy it. If you choose time, how will you get along
financially?

Since the dawn of the Internet, people have been looking for ways to have BOTH lots of time on their hands and lots money in their
wallets. It seems like very few of us have broken that secret code that allows us to make a great living without giving up all
of our precious spare time.

Like a great magician, a great marketer never reveals the real tricks of the trade...those methods he or she uses to make a great living without sitting at the computer for 16 hours a day. Of course they want to keep their techniques a secret; they'd like to keep all the money to themselves, right? Just like magicians like David Copperfield want a monopoly on magic, Internet millionaires want a monopoly on success.

So what about the rest of us? What are we supposed to do? Every day we're bombarded with business opportunities that either rip
us off or simply don't work. But we continue to work at it, trying to find that one golden key to easy street.

If you have found something that works for you, more power to you. If, like the rest of us, you're still struggling to make
your big break, keep looking. Success is out there for people who take the time to sniff it out.

Believe it or not, there are money-making systems out there that you really cannot lose with. Even if you fail at the system, you still make money. Best of all, these systems can be worked without huge time or financial commitments. True success systems
are complete and turn-key. They bring you website traffic (even if you don't have a site yet), residual income, and lasting
success without backbreaking work.

Income systems really do exist that allow you to: 1) make a full-time income in one hour per day, and 2) completely eliminate the cost of online advertising and promotions. And, did you know that virtually all successful Internet marketers use the same powerful billing technique?

There really is no complicated Internet success bible. If you can harness the power of a few very powerful, yet closely guarded
techniques, you can succeed in almost any Internet business. Dig deep, travel far, and do some serious homework, and you'll find the goldmine you're looking for.



About the author:
Author Christopher Enders is founder of
http://www.double-payment.comand provides marketing advice and copywriting. Learn the closely-guarded secrets of the Internet
success gurus to make a full-time income in just a few hours a week!


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Need more traffic to your website? Three sites that will increase your traffic for free!

Need more traffic to your website? Three sites that will increase your traffic for free!
by: Sher Holloway
Three sites that will increase your web traffic for free!

What good is a website if no one visits? And how do you get traffic to your website without spending a fortune? Getting visitors to your website doesn't have to be hard and you don't have to spend hundreds of dollars to find out how to get more traffic. It just involves some common sense.

What do you do when someone wants to visit your house, but doesn't know where it is? You give them directions to find it. The same applies to your website. You've got to tell potential visitors how to find it. The more people you tell, the more people you will have visit.

Below are three places that can increase your website traffic for free. All you have to do is put some elbow grease into it and these websites can help serve as the map to your site.

1. DMOZ. http://www.dmoz.org: If this isn't your first website, I don't have to tell you how important it is to be listed in DMOZ. But just in case this is your first trip around the net, you HAVE to be listed in DMOZ. Why? The short version is because a listing with them will ensure listings with others. Go there right now and spend some time looking for the perfect category for your site. Once you've found it, click on "suggest URL" and enter your information. DMOZ is selective, so be sure your website is in tip top shape first.

2. Family-Content: http://www.Family-Content.com. The owner of Family Content, Donna Schwartz Mills, is providing a wonderful service to webmasters. Essentially you write a short article on any subject about which you have some knowledge. Whether it's how to wax a mustache or how to bake bread or how to make a million dollars, everyone has something to write. Spell check your article, check for errors in grammar and most importantly, add a resource box at the end. Once you submit your article to Family Content other webmasters are allowed to use your content for free in their websites or ezines so long as they keep your resource box intact. Every person that reads your article... and that can amount to A LOT...will also have the opportunity to visit your website. Not sure what a resource box is? You'll see mine at the end of this article.

3. The Business Owner's Idea Cafe: http://www.IdeaCafe.com.

This is one of the best sites for small business owners and people who hope to someday be small business owners on the net. They've been mentioned in everything from The Wall Street Journal to Business Week to USA Today. The Business Owner's Idea Cafe can help you increase traffic to your site for free in two ways.

First of all, they have a vast message board of sorts that covers a variety of topics. Search the boards, called Cyberschmooz, to find a topic to which you have something to contribute. Write a well thought out reply and as you should already be in the practice of doing whenever you post to any message board, add a link to your website after your name.

If you've been in business over six months, you should also submit your "biz profile" in their "Biz Celebrities" section. If you're accepted, your website will be prominently displayed on the front page of their site along with a story about you and what you do. It's not easy to get listed and for goodness sake, don't try to submit your business the very first time you visit their site. But, once you've become familiar with who they are, what they do and what they are looking for, you have a shot.

There you have it. Three places you can visit on the Internet that can dramatically increase the traffic to your website completely free. You can start right now and before you know it, you'll see a jump in the number of visitors to your website. What are you waiting for? Get busy!




About the author:
Be sure and visit http://www.MomAndHerVisit http://www.MomAndHerMoney.comtoday for lots more free information about working from home."Make more, spend less, be happy!"



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Why You Need an Article-Marketing Strategy before Posting a Single Article Online I

Why You Need an Article-Marketing Strategy before Posting a Single Article Online I
by: Dr. Lynella Grant
Part 1 of a 2-part series
To read Part 2
http://www.promotewitharticles.com/strategy102.html

First, Define your Bulls Eye

If you’re going to write and post articles on the Internet,
be unambiguous about what you expect them to accomplish.
Don’t start writing just yet. Think beyond the mechanics of
writing an article or deciding where to post it.

It’s one thing to spin out an article or two. It’s quite
another to incorporate them into a strategy that builds your
website traffic, reputation, and business. All your
marketing methods should work together - online and off.

Your Strategy Clarifies:

- Who you’re trying to reach
- How to find them
- What you want them to do next (does your website support
that aim?)
- Your primary goal and message
- How articles (with particular titles and keywords) mesh
with your other marketing

Article marketing is nothing more than a way to get
information (not advertising) broadly distributed on the
Internet. It can’t compensate for a muddled or dull message.
And it won’t build your site traffic unless it connects to
readers in an interesting way.

Write Articles that Trumpet a Unique Business Message

A frequent business error is treating each customer-
attracting activity as though it stands alone. Yet each
method works better when echoing a common message that links
to the others.

To quote Roy Williams, the Wizard of Ads,
http://www.wizardofads.com "It’s hard to tell a powerful
story badly. But it’s easy to tell a weak story well. I’ve
never seen a business fail because they were "reaching the
wrong people." But I’ve seen thousands fail because they
were saying the wrong thing... It’s amazing how many people
become the "right people" when you’re saying the right
thing. Believe it or not, it’s advertising third, customer
delight second, strategy always first."

Maximize your Customer-Attracting Methods

Last year I wrote an ebook showing how to make the business
website and Yellow Page ad work together to bring new
customers. It made the point that each promotional method
has its own strengths, and reaches different groups
http://www.yellowpagesage.com/smarts.html By them working
together, each approach does a more persuasive job.

As an example, the directory ad should display a website
address. A recent study found that over 60% of people
surveyed only call Yellow Page ads that show a website (even
if they don’t intend to visit it). Besides, the website lets
the business provide information that won’t fit within the
dimensions of an ad.

A single approach can’t cover all your bases. The same
applies to article marketing.

Article Marketing Strengths
- Ability to deliver an interesting "sample" of your
expertise
- Long enough to be informative (600-800 words)
- Reaches and speaks to tightly focused interest groups
- Quickly delivers the message throughout the Internet
- Long shelf life - some websites keep articles posted for
years
- Builds on the keywords that your website uses
- Incoming-links from websites that post your articles

Plan More than One Article at a Time

You can’t develop much momentum with one article. That’s
like shooting a gun with a single bullet, or a PPC (pay-per-
click) campaign for just one term. The odds of hitting your
mark aren’t too good. Several articles written to reinforce
each other generate more mileage. As you get more articles
out there, people start paying attention, and you can target
more keywords. Repeated publications develop a personality
that readers recognize.

Plan a number of titles in advance, with a theme building
from one to the next. Keep each one tightly focused, but
related to the others. In that way, you develop the in-depth
"voice" of an expert. And your information won’t lapse into
ho-hum generalities. Write first-rate articles when you rely
on the extensive free resources
http://www.promotewitharticles.com at Article Marketing
Academy.

Try writing some in a series (like, Part 1 of 3 parts) to
build anticipation for future segments. Also, your message
won’t be confined to the 600 to 800 word article limit.
Since each article in the series resides on your website,
readers needn’t wait to read them all (giving them an
incentive to visit your site). Later, the whole series can
be offered as a special report or ebook (once related
material is added).

Write with your keywords in mind. Maintain your primary
message, with a different twist for parallel niches. Go to
the extra effort to say something new. That’s easy when you
provide stories, examples, case studies from your own
experience. As you dish out practical assistance in your
articles, readers will be eagerly watching for your next
ones.
ฉ Lynella Grant, 2005

Part 2 includes posting articles, writing to please the
search engines, and ways to re-use articles. Part 2 of 2,
http://www.promotewitharticles.com/strategy102.html




About the author:
--Dr. Lynella Grant http://www.promotewitharticles.com- Article Marketing Academy - Promote yourself, business, website, or book with articles posted online.
Author, Yellow Page Smarts, http://www.yellowpagesage.com/smarts.html(719) 395-9450



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Friday, January 05, 2007

How To Find The Top Keywords Relating To Your Theme

How To Find The Top Keywords Relating To Your Theme
by: Jeff Schuman
Copyright 2004 Jeff Schuman

Have you ever wondered what people are searching for online? More specifically have you ever wondered what people are searching for as it relates to the theme of your website?

Let's say you have a website built around the theme of music downloads. Here are 2 easy ways to get a list of keywords you can use to build your home page and then build more pages around each specific word.

1. Do a search by typing in music downloads here:
http://www.pixelfast.com/overture

As of November 2004 the keyword phrase" music downloads was searched 1,068,310 times. We can also see that "free music downloads" was searched 1,169,992 times.

As you look down the list you will find all kinds of combinations of keyword phrases with the words "music downloads" included in them.

You can build specifc web pages centered around each keyword phrase. You will find that lesser searched keywords have less competition and therefore will be easier for you to make it to the top of a search engine and generate free traffic.

For example the keyword phrase " free mp3 music download" was searched 22,360 times. This would be a great keyword phrase to target in comparison to the more generic phrase "music downloads."

2. Take a look at what people are willing to pay for a keyword here:

http://www.team-schuman.com/7searchkeywordtool

When typing in "music download" it brings up the keyword, number of searches, and the top 5 bids. It also brings up a complete list of possible keyword phrases and what people are paying for them. You can use this information to find affiliate products relating to each specific keyword phrase and then build additional web pages relating to each specific one. You can add these keywords to your home page and then join 7Search as an affiliate and add pay per click text to your pages.

Then get paid by 7Search when someone clicks on an ad relating to that keyword. I do this to generate hundreds and thousands of dollars each month. It is a great way to make some money on your site for generating traffic to it. Here are examples on 2 of my websites. You will see the text ads for the Top 10 websites at the top of each page.

http://www.team-schuman.com

http://www.sites-plus.com

If you are looking for top keywords being searched in a broad range of categories then subscribe to the "Keyword Report" here:
http://www.team-schuman.com/wordtracker

Click on the link for Keyword Report and you will receive the top 500 keywords people are searching for delivered to you by email every week. Then use the Overture and 7Search keyword tools to find more specific keywords you can build websites and web pages around. This is a great strategy and a great way to get started making money with your own theme website and web pages around that theme.

Remember this simple point. People go to the internet to find information. They will type in all kinds of keyword phrases and variations of those keywords. The more web pages you can build targeting those specific keywords the better off you will be when it comes to increasing your website traffic and making more money online.

About the author:
Jeff Schuman is using this strategy to create new websites around specific keywords relating to a theme. You can see his Top 10 Make Money and Top 10 Small Business Websites here:
http://www.team-schuman.com
http://www.sites-plus.com


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Website visitors for your business - Building strong website traffic

Website visitors for your business - Building strong website traffic.
by: Peter Jordaan
It is worth looking at some values and strengths of a few technical and promotional elements of your website that will help you to lay a foundation in building profitable online success. Once you have decided on your market and have chosen a relevant domain name for your online business, you need simple and effective tools and methods to put and keep your business on a profitable track. Ideally you will want to make use of easy-to-use methods that keeps visitors coming to your website. Lets look at a few practical ideas.

When a visitor comes to your website you have to get their follow-up information by collecting their email address. It is important to ‘enable’ your web site to automatically deliver quality content such as a newsletter to visitors and allow you to follow up with extra information when necessary. Top marketers agree that this forms a large percentage of their online success. How do you do this? You create forms on your web pages, giving visitors the chance to subscribe to your opt-in list, newsletter or report. This allows you to introduce your service and offer something valuable in order to build relationship. Email follow-up through autoresponders is totally free and an absolute necessity for implementing. All you need to do is integrate the autoresponder into your web site via a form so that you can pre-load it with your newsletters. You may say that you’re not a writer, but what do you know about your industry? Write it down and put it into an informative newsletter. Subscribers can now begin to see you as an expert on the subject and look to you for the solutions that your business is already offering.

Once your newsletter is up and running, you can use these very same tips and ideas you share with your subscribers and also write a weekly article about your product or service, and then submit it to ezines online. This is very easy to do and will have great response for your business. There are tens of thousands of ezine publishers online that needs good content, and will give you valuable exposure for your business. You will have many sites linking to your site and people will be able to read what your business is about and visit your website. Then they will also be able to subscribe to your newsletter which provides even more information about your product or service. Each article has got a resource box at the bottom which allows visitors to visit your web site. Write your 4 to 6 line resource box by viewing some samples online and making up your own. Finding details of ezine publishers can quite easily be done through looking up in search engines.

Let’s go a step further and look at newspaper classifieds. By using little snippets of ideas from your newsletters and articles, you can come up with short eye catching promotional messages to use in newspaper classifieds. There are newspaper companies that offer state wide and nation wide advertising in their papers, often covering readership in excess of 2 to 3 million. By placing 10-15 word tiny classified ads all over the globe can dramatically increase your website traffic. A big mistake people make when doing this is to try and make sales directly from their ads instead of just generating leads for later follow-up. You would want to get your leads to your web site first from where they can subscribe to your automated content.

Lastly lets consider the eye opener an affiliate program can have for your business. With the right product or service it is by far the hottest way of building your business and customer base. Submit your program to affiliate directories across the web. You’ll have affiliates making sales for you and not paying a cent in advertising until you’ve made the sale! Your advertising will be covered by your affiliates, and you can concentrate on providing customer service and continue follow-up with your increasing customer base through newsletter delivery and other product offers. By becoming familiar with how important it is to stay relevant in implementing these factors will benefit your business and you will find that you’ll be achieving better results.


About the author:
Peter Jordaan is the owner of a hosting company and shares
information regarding values of hosting a successful online
business. In his free onsite e-course he covers more relevant
information about these qualities. You can visit his
site by going to http://wirelessbusinessmedia.com



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Amazing Secrets Of A Free Traffic Generation MASTER

Amazing Secrets Of A Free Traffic Generation MASTER
by: Willie Crawford
Copyright 2004 Willie Crawford

Without traffic to your website, you're not going to make any money in your online business (unless you're able to tap into someone else's traffic).

For many websites... especially new sites, one of the fastest, surest ways to drive traffic to the site is pay per click search engines. The RISK in using pay per clicks is that you don't know how well that traffic is going to convert before you've paid for it. You can adjust your webpages and your pay per click listing fairly quickly, but today I want to share with you two of my MAJOR free traffic generation methods.

The most powerful weapon I've used in my marketing arsenal lately is actually... blogging. A blog is simply an on-line diary or weblog. Since they are usually updated frequently, the search engines love them and visit them often.

The way that I use my blogs is that when I make a post, I include a link to a site or webpage that I want spidered by the search engines. Google actually visits my blogs daily, and takes snapshots of everything there, and follows links from the pages, and takes snapshots of those pages! So, I make minor changes to pages that I want to get ranked higher, and then I "help" Google to find those updated pages. It's a simple, ethical, and very powerful method.

I'm fairly new at blogging, but I'm quickly getting the hang of it. Most of what I know about blogging I learned from a course by my friend Paul Short. The course is called RSS Exposed. I recommend you get a copy of Paul's course today and set aside 2 hours to digest it. Get it at:
http://www.profitautomation.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=109478

Paul is like me... he's very busy, and doesn't have time for fluff. So his course is under 100 pages, and it's all "stuff" that you can read and then immediately implement.

Does this stuff work thought. My friend Stephen Pierce taught me that NOTHING is more powerful than concrete PROOF. So let's look at how I rank for a few keywords that I'm focusing on right now. I'll show you with a few of the more than 100 niches that I have top 10.... often top 3 rankings for. I know that showing you these examples may attract the attention of potential and existing competitors, so I won't show you the most lucrative ones :-)

Readers who know me, know that my real online success started with a simple soul food or southern cookbook! That one cookbook still generates a very nice six-figure income! This season of the year, I know that people are on-line searching for holiday recipes and also gift-giving ideas. My logs show me how my market finds me... keywords and sources. They show that for the cookbook, most find my site through Google, with MSN being a distant second. Here's how I ranked for a few cooking related terms (as of November 21st, 2004):

Soul Food Recipes - #2 out of 1,220,000
Soul Food - #3 out of 8,840,000
Soul Food Cookbook - #2 out of 273,000
Deep Fried Turkey Recipe - #3 out of 257,000
Deep Fried Turkey Recipes - #4 out of 302,000
Sweet Potato Pie - #2 out of 614,000
Sweet Potato Pie Recipe #2 out of 394,000
Fried Chicken Recipe - #2 out of 861,000
Fried Chicken Recipes - #2 out of 1,160,000
Southern Fried Chicken - #2 out of 436,000
Deep Fried Turkey - #14 out of 330,000
Pound Cake Recipe - #2 out of 547,000
Macaroni And Cheese Recipe - #1 out of 207,000
Collard Green Recipe - #4 out of 21,200
Southern Recipes - # 15 out of 4,970,000
... I guess I need to work on that last listing :-)

One of my other markets is "Internet Marketing," and those looking to start or improve upon an online or home-based business. How do I rank there? Here are a few of the thousands of terms that bring me in free search engine traffic (again based upon my website logs):

Internet Marketing 101 - # 1 out of 5,550,000
Internet Marketing Course - #2 out of 10,600,000
Free Internet Marketing Course - #2 out of 11,800,000
Free Internet Marketing Lessons - #2 out of 2,810,000
Homebased Business - #9 out of 1,930,000
Homebased Business Course - #1 out of 522,000
Free Homebased Business Course - #1 out of 483,000

For those of you without your own product, let's see how I do with products I have reprint rights to. One is a web copywriting course by Bob Serling called Power Copywriting For The Internet. When someone is searching for that course they search on very specific terms... but... since their search is so specific, a higher percentage of them will buy when they get to my website. This is a more niche market, but some of my rankings are:

Internet Copywriter + Bob Serling - #1 out of 985
Web Copywriting + Bob Serling - # 7 out of 918
Web Copywriting Course + Bob Serling - #5 out of 16,400
Power Copywriting For The Internet - #2 out of 128,000

Another product that I have reprint rights to is an excellent course on how to increase your website, and advertising, conversion rates. It's called, "Small Changes - Big Profits." Here's my ranking on keywords customers have recently used to find (and buy) this product:

Increase Website Conversion - #6 out of 2,480,000
How to Increase Website Conversion - # 6 our of 2,490,000
Note that when you enter that last phrases, Google tells you that "how to" is a very common phrase and therefore not included in the search. However, notice that Google found an additional 10,000 pages when I gave it that expression. Ok, so I'm confused too :-)

My second most powerful weapon right now is that I write lots of ezine articles... like this one. Since 1998, I would estimate that I've written over 300. Those articles are a very powerful way of getting one-way links to my site. Those articles are a powerful way for people with specific problems or interest to find my sites.

Here's a simple example of how powerful articles can be. I know for a fact that the majority of people in network marketing aren't doing that great. I also know why. The proof that I know what they are doing wrong, and how to correct it, is provided by the fact that I was recently the #2 producing representative in a major network marketing company for 2 consecutive months. The only reason I wasn't #2 longer is that I've only been with the company a little over 4 month, and that in my fourth month, I was the #1 top producing rep in the entire company!

Recognizing what many network marketers are doing wrong... especially those that market over the internet, I wrote an article on the topic. This article targeted those who wanted to know why their network marketing is failing. So if you go to Google and enter...

"Network Marketing Failing" without the quotation marks, you'll see that the returns for webpages featuring my article take up the entire first page. If a person were to type in the statement "My Network Marketing Is Failing" my page ranks #1 out of 312,000. Do people search on these terms? Not as many as search on more competitive terms, but why not go after easier terms... why not go after "the low-hanging fruit."

People do visit my sites after reading the hundreds of articles that I've written, and they do make purchases and join my network marketing team. That's proof that writing and properly using articles is a very powerful traffic generation technique. I have lots of resources on how to properly do this inside my private membership site. If you're not a member, you should join today. Inside the site you'll find lots more solid, usable information like you just gotten in this article.

I've just shared with you two of my most powerful free traffic generation methods. I actually know HUNDREDS but only use a handful. I believe that it's better to get really good at using a few rather than tinkering with (but never mastering) many. You need to do your research and find the techniques that work best for you.

If you'd like a really comprehensive course on website traffic and sales generation methods, I recommend John Reese's Traffic Secrets Course. Check out John's course to learn a ton of ways to outflank your competition at:
http://www.profitautomation.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=110203
It's 14 DVD's, so realize that it will throw a LOT of information at you. Make sure that you pick just a few techniques he covers, and then put them into immediate action rather than letting the sheer volume of information overwhelm you.

As I've demonstrated, being a master at generating free, responsive traffic doesn't have to be complicated or even difficult :-)

About the author:


Willie Crawford is a corporate president, published author, seminar speaker and host, tele-seminar speaker and host, retired military officer, karate black belt, master network marketing trainer, and lifetime student of marketing. He shows people how to actually generate substantial income on-line using very simple, easily modeled systems. An example of such a system that you can study and duplicate is at:
http://ProfitMagician.com



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Pay per click & Adwords 2005: expensive without expert help

Pay per click & Adwords 2005: expensive without expert help
by: Drew Harris
Copyright 2005 Drew Harris

Despite being online using email since 1995, at the start of the summer of 2004 I had no idea what pay per click was.

During that summer, I had taken some time off work and was researching online opportunities. This led me to Ebay, various get rich quick type scams, and then an email referral to marketing using pay per click.

What was pay per click, I remember asking.

Days of research later, I learned that pay per click (also called ppc) was a type of search marketing where advertisers pay a set amount every time their ad was clicked by a prospect. This is known as a click thru, click through rate or ctr.

The opportunity to place your ad directly in front of a prospect at the exact moment they are searching for your product or service is tremendous.

Performance based advertising is not only cost efficient and effective, but it is track-able and user-friendly. The advertiser, you, in this scenario has control over the keywords that best represent your product.

The PPC model allows you to decide how much you are willing to pay per customer. Unlike banner ads that demand payment on a cost per thousand basis, the only viewers you pay for are those that are actively seeking your product or service.

In a Google search, I learned the small sponsored ads on the right hand side of the page were a type of pay per click called Google Adwords.

I discovered that the pay per click world was huge, with millions of clicks delivered by hundreds of search engines such as Overture, Find What, ePilot, Enhance and GoClick.

The great benefit is the cost-effective, highly targeted website traffic that this type of search generates.

However, the massive popularity and growth of pay per click had also made it very expensive.

For example, Google Adwords allowed me to set up campaigns and see them live within 15 minutes. This was very, very exciting and very addicting.

Within days of learning about pay per click, I was generating 1,000 clicks per day to my various campaigns. I thought I was seeing success in pay per click.

In the early days of ppc, that may have been true because your bids on popular keywords were just pennies a click.

By the time I was hitting it, popular keywords were around $1 dollar per click and I was actually losing hundreds of dollars per day.

Worse yet, my keywords were being disabled and my ads were getting disapproved.

Then I started watching for sales. I kept watching, and watching, and watching and by the end of that first week, my 6,800 adwords clicks had produced only 3 SALES for $55.

I was crushed. My brand new online business had already lost $500. This is when I realized just how steep the learning curve was.

I signed up for free-5 part email courses on Adwords and pay per click. I learned about converting traffic into sales, avoiding the curse of disabled ads, return on investment, finding niche keywords and lowering my cost per click.

Today, no one is quite sure where the pay per click industry is going.

The bottom line is pay per click campaigns can bring large numbers of highly targeted visitors to your website. The industry is growing rapidly, it is hugely competitive and campaigns can become prohibitively expensive.

Success of any pay per click campaign comes down to paying pay a reasonable price for each visitor, that each visitor is highly targeted, and that you continuously monitor and track your positions.

About the author:
Adwords-Hints.com/pay-per-click shows you how to maximize profits from Google Adwords and pay per click advertising. This website features hundreds of pages of resources. Find tools for keyword analyzing, lowering costs and increasing click throughs. http://tinyurl.com/5nb46



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What Should You Know About Search Engines and Pay-Per-Click?

What Should You Know About Search Engines and Pay-Per-Click?
by: Chet Childers
Here’s a fact for you, 85 to 95% of websites are found through a search engine. You may have the most incredible website on the Internet, but it will receive little or no traffic without search engine visibility and ranking. Can you imagine a billboard in the Sahara desert? Who sees it?

So, how will searchers find your website? What types of search engines could they use?

Search engines fall into two categories. The first is referred to as natural, organic or standard. The second is called pay-per-click, paid inclusion or paid placement.

Natural, organic and standard are interchangeable terms describing a search engine that bases its search rankings on a ranking algorithm. The algorithms involve a number of criteria and parameters, all relating to the content of the website, the website’s size, the number of incoming links to the website, and the content’s relevancy. You will hear terms such as keyword relevancy and keyword density to describe various components of the algorithms.

For the standard search engines, you, your webmaster or hired search engine optimization specialist could spend considerable time optimizing your website to achieve top rankings. The goal is for your website to appear on the first or second page of the search engines’ results when your target user searches keywords or keyword phrases.

The good news is rankings on standard search engines are free. The downside is the tremendous amount of time and effort required to achieve exceptional search engine rankings. Let’s confess to each other that top rankings on standard search engines can be tough and timely to achieve!

The interchangeable terms pay-per-click, paid inclusion or paid placement describe a search engine that bases its search rankings on a "bid for position" basis. Simply stated, you "bid" a price to be in a specific position of the search rankings for a particular search keyword or keyword phrase. For example, the #1 position on the search phrase "pay per click" recently required a bid of $3.55 per click, whereas the 15th position required only a bid of 55 cents. As a result, your differential website advertising costs between position #1 and #15 can be considerable.

With pay-per-click search engines, your ability to bid high can dramatically impact your website's search engine ranking when the search results display website domain names or URL's for the search keyword or keyword phrase. The benefit is your website gains visibility with the searcher, but you are not charged the pay-per-click "bid" until a searcher actually clicks on your website domain name or URL displayed in the search engine results. The selection of your website in the search engine results is called a click-through.

In general, click-through rates range from 1% to 5% of the number of impressions. What is all of this? A click is when a searcher selects or "clicks" your pay-per-click ad. An impression is one display of your pay-per-click ad on the search engine results. So, the click-through rate is a measure of the total number of ad clicks versus the total number of impressions in a period of time:

Click-Through Rate % = Total Number of Ad Clicks / Total Number of Ad Impressions * 100

Let's do the math for our #1 position bid of $3.55 per click. In September, 2004 there were 21,535 searches for "pay per click." First, let’s assume a 1% click-through rate. The top bidder spent $764.49 (21,535 * 1% * $3.55). Now, at a 5% click-through rate the top bidder spent $3,822.45 (21,535 * 5% * $3.55). Budgeting and controlling marketing expenses with such a broad range of potential costs could be tough. Plus, such costs could be the tip of the iceberg. We still must consider derivatives of the keyword or keyword phrase. So, was being #1 worthwhile? That depends on your website’s cost per visitor, conversion rate and profit margin of your product or service.

From what we’ve covered so far, you should realize you can achieve a top or high ranking through the pay-per-click search engine. But, a high ranking will cost money and these costs can be volatile. Meanwhile, the standard search engine remains free.

However, pay-per-click offers one significant advantage. It enables you to achieve website visibility with a high ranking instantaneously or overnight. If you want to draw traffic to your website fast for any reason, pay-per-click can make that happen. Remember, maximizing the standard search engine process takes time!

Let’s summarize the pros and cons of pay-per-click marketing:

Pros

* Improves your website’s ranking and traffic quickly.
* Tests the marketability of your product or service swiftly.
* Determines the ability of your web site to convert visitors to a call to action or make a purchase promptly.
* Identifies which keyword phrases will provide the best conversion rate rapidly.
* Provides complete control of the search engine campaign, both position and cost.

Cons

* Cost

Many individuals criticize pay-per-click because of the costs involved. But, have you really thought about the cost issue? Unless you or someone in your organization has expertise in search engine optimization, you’ll probably pay several thousand dollars in fees to a search engine optimization specialist to improve and optimize your website to achieve higher rankings in the standard search engines. So, my question to you is. Are the standard search engine rankings really free?

At the end of the standard versus pay-per-click search engine debate, it’s like the old saying, "There is no such thing as a free lunch." Or, it’s like the old commercial, "You can pay me now or you can pay me later." The reality of the debate is you must evaluate your specific website situation and utilize the search engine approach that maximizes your website promotion goals and investment.



About the author:
Chet Childers is a successful Internet marketer utilizing both pay-per-click marketing and search engine optimization to increase website traffic. His clients’ websites promote products such as window treatments, furniture, medical uniforms, swimming pool tiles, capital equipment, computer software and much more. To learn more, visit http://www.ThePayPerClickMarketer.comand enroll in our free e-course.


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The Home Business University That Changed My Life

The Home Business University That Changed My Life
by: Gobala Krishnan
Copyright 2005 Gobala Krishnan

During my first 2 years as a struggling home business entrepreneur dreaming of making big money and leading a free lifestyle, I made many mistakes. Some of those mistakes cost me money. Others caused me heartache, and a few almost completely destroyed my faith that an ordinary person like me could dream of extraordinary things.

But I have also made a handful of good decisions, and at the top of that list is my decision to become a member of the IAHBE. The IAHBE (http://www.iahbe.org) stands for International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs. In one sentence, it is simply "An online Home Business University with an extensive Learning Center packed with home business information, reports, articles, seminars and other content put under one roof."

Being an exclusive paid membership resource, I was very half-hearted at first at the thought of spending a good $29 for something as intangible as "information". As I once asked myself, many people now ask me this question: "Can't I get this information for FREE on the Internet? So why do I need to pay for it?"

I have to admit that this is a valid question. And I have to agree that you CAN find similar (but not exact) information for free, scattered around the Internet. So why choose the IAHBE? How can it help you?

Let me tell you my story, from the point of view of an entrepreneur living in Malaysia, while trying to build a global business on the Internet. This is how it changed my life...

1) Your Words are the Holy Truth

Not too long ago, I used to think that my ex-MLM upline leader had my best interests at heart. I thought that the meetings I went for and the methods they preached were the only way to build and market a home based business.

That couldn't be any further from the truth. For example, my upline thought me these lessons about prospecting:

a) Go door-to-door and ask people to come to the Opportunity Meeting...
b) NEVER mention that it is a "business opportunity meeting"...
c) Personally go to the prospect's home and bring them to the opportunity meeting...
d) Make a surprise visit to your prospect's home and show them the compensation plan...
e) Convince the prospect to join or buy the products

I could go on and on, but surely you get the point. In the IAHBE, I came across an article by Tom “Big Al” Schreiter about prospecting, and it changed my life forever. Here's what the article said:

"Professionals sort, amateurs convince"

I wish words could express how that simple sentence changed my idea of prospecting forever...

The point is this: You can never rely on a single source of information. The IAHBE has so many good and qualified authors, every one of them a success in their own rights. Finally, I found a place where I can get so much high quality information, compare them, and decide for myself which ideas I want to follow.

If you’ve decided to climb the home business ladder to success, and you want to REALLY make sure that it’s not leaning against the wrong wall, you’ll need guidance from people who have "been there and done that" before you start your journey.

2) Running Around in Circles

Before I joined the IAHBE, I was scouting around the Internet for free home business tips and ideas. I found many, but the problem was that I now had to ask myself:

- Which Internet "guru" you should I listen to?
- What should I invest in?
- Which resources will help me achieve profitability and which ones won't?
- What steps should I take to get where I want without busting my budget?

As I sat around cracking my head with these questions, I realized another undeniable factor to home business success, TIME! The fact is that there are only so many hours in a day, and why was I wasting time trying to wade through the sea of information called the Internet?

Information on the Internet, I learned, can never be fully trusted, especially if it's FREE. There are so many "Fake Experts" out there pitching ideas they have not tried themselves, which can lead the new guy astray.

With the IAHBE on the other hand, I can be assured that I am getting only top quality information. All writers are screened and evaluated before their material is accepted by the IAHBE. You don't get the fake ones here, and that's a real relief.

3) Keeping My Home Business Costs under Control

As a budding home business entrepreneur, my survival depended on how well I controlled my meager finances and small capital. And yet, every business owner knows the costs associated when starting your business. For example, I had to spend on:

a) My personal growth - books, ebooks, reports
b) Advertising - ezine ads, PPC, leads and print media ads
c) Operations - PC software, productivity tools

I had, at that time, spent close to $3000 just getting started. Most that was spent on useless website traffic schemes, so called "targeted" home business leads, books, software and PPC advertising. But in my second month as a member of the IAHBE, I realized that I actually have hundreds of unused coupons, discounts and special offers for the same products and services that I paid the full price for elsewhere. How can they do this?

It's a question of simple economics. What you cannot achieve as an individual, you can easily achieve as a group. Since the IAHBE has thousands of members, they can easily negotiate for special bulk discounts, free trials, and even free gifts from various suppliers, manufacturers and retailers.

4) A Simple Choice I had to Make

Many of my downline affiliates ask; is the IAHBE suitable for me? To this question I always ask them back:

"Do you want to spend time finding information, or do you want to spend time building a business?"

The reason is this; if you're content in running around chasing information, instead of actually building a business, you don't need the IAHBE. If you want to learn only from truly successful people, and get the information delivered to your doorstep, there is no smarter choice. After all, it only costs you around a dollar a day. Heck, even useless 'lifestyle' magazines cost more :)

5) The Journey Makes a Full Circle

The only apparent weakness of the IAHBE was that it did not provide information specific to Malaysia, where I live and run my Internet business. Sure, the articles and tips were great, but when I needed information that applies to me as a Malaysian, I dreaded the thought of going back to the world of offline information retrieval.

In an email, I told them that they should be more "International" as their name suggests. To my honest surprise, three months down the road, they did indeed become truly "International". And they were looking for writers to complement their search for information on Asia, especially in home business hotspots like India, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Japan and the Philippines.

Good things happen to those who persist. Not only did I get what I want, I was also appointed as a writer for topics related to Asia. Now I had to give back, and I could not be happier doing so.

So even if you are based in far corners of Asia, the International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs could be the smartest choice you make this year to help you improve as an entrepreneur, as a marketer, and as a human being.

Take it form a guy who learned the hard way. Take it from a guy who is a member, writer and 100% believer in the IAHBE, and how it can change your life. You can get more info at http://www.home-business-association.com/IAHBE/

Seek only the truth, for the truth shall set you free. In the story of my life as an entrepreneur, it did indeed.

About the author:
Gobala Krishnan is a home based business entrepreneur and Internet marketer. You can contact him at http://www.GobalaKrishnan.comor become a member of his Six Figure Income Dream Team at http://www.sfidreamteam.com



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Traffic Exchange Sites

Traffic Exchange Sites
by: Bryan Quinn
Traffic Exchange Sites are websites where you get page views of your own site in exchange for visiting others. Many such sites are available. However, choosing the right one or a combination of them can be a very time consuming process.

Basically there are two types. Manual surfing and Auto surfing. Some Traffic exchanges cater for Manual surfing only, some cater for Auto surfing only and some cater for both.

Manual surfing - This requires your input by clicking a button after a specified time period, generally 15, 20 or 30 seconds, although there are a few other variations. With manual surfing, the surfer is expected to view each site. However, with most exchange sites, it is possible to minimize or resize the windows. This defeats the purpose because it allows multiple sessions to be run simultaneously. On the better exchange sites, security measures are often used to deter this. These are normally random prompts that require user input. For example, after x number of page views, you may be required to enter a code, select a color or image or perform some other variation of this.

Auto surfing - This requires no input. However in reality, your input may be required because of popup or frame breakers. Some traffic exchange sites require that the pages run are maximized and although you can minimize the page yourself, it will automatically maximize at the next refresh. You will also find that with some exchange sites, pages will run on top whereas with others, pages will run quite happily underneath, allowing you to do what ever you like without ever viewing the page content.

Both manual and auto surfing will bring traffic to your website, but there is a much greater likelihood of your web pages being actually seen with manual surfing.

Credits - As well as surfing, credits are usually acquired for subscribing, for referrals and for any winnings associated with exchange site lotteries, games or competitions. These credits can then be used to increase the traffic to your site. Some exchange sites will also allow you to sell your credits to other members.

Free or Paid - The majority of Traffic Exchanges offer a paid option. This option may give you a better surf ratio, bonus credits, money for referrals or other benefits. Before paying however, it is important that you test how targeted the traffic is that you receive. There's no point in paying for extra traffic if it doesn't generate any more income for you.

Click for Credits or Buy Credits - Is it worth buying credits?

This can depend on a number of reasons. The two main ones are time and money.

Let’s take an example

At the time of writing the cost of 2000 credits for free members of a well known Traffic Exchange Site was $40. This works out at $0.02 a click. For pro members the same $40 bought 2200 credits.

With the number of clicks limited to 250 per day and page views of 20 seconds this means that in theory it will take you 250 X 20 = 5000 sec or 83 minutes 20 seconds to view the 250 pages. However in practice you must allow extra time for clicking the next button, clicking the title of the page you will be viewing and any sites worth looking at.

Since I am a firm believer in practical results, I viewed the 250 pages. It took me 2 hours and 12 minutes to accomplish this. During that time, I accumulated 854 credits. To buy these credits would have cost $17.08 as a free member and approximately $15.53 as a pro member. Allowing for rounding up, this equates to almost 390 credits per hour or $7.80 per hour cash value.

Now ask yourself this. Would you work for $7.80 per hour?

I must emphasize that this is only one example and that other results will differ because of the random allocation of credits. It is shown here only as an example and to give you an idea of the cost implications for one particular traffic exchange site. The cost of credits may differ dramatically for different exchange sites. If you buy or intend to buy credits from a traffic exchange site, you can apply what is shown in the example. There's no need to click on a large number of websites to find out if your exchange site is giving you enough credits for your money. A sample of around 20 sites should give you enough information to produce a rough value-for-money guide.

If you enjoy this sort of thing or want a break from train spotting, you could expand on this. Increase your sample size, increase the number of samples, select a good representation of traffic exchanges and tabulate your results. Choose enough sites and you will be able to create your own league table. There’s a market for everything.

Whether you use traffic exchange sites or not in the quest for more visitors to your site, you should at the very least know what they are and what they do. But don't totally dismiss them. They are part of an expanding market. I recommend that you try at least one traffic exchange site. You could read every book on the subject, but without active participation, you will not be qualified to comment on their worth or suitability. The time taken for a few mouse clicks is a small price to pay. If it works for you, you have learned. If it doesn't work for you, you have learned.