Don’t Get Above Your Business

Don’t Get Above Your Business

by: Fernando Soave

Young men after they get through their business training, or apprenticeship, instead of pursuing their avocation and rising in their business, will often lie about doing nothing. They say, กI have learned my business, but I am not going to be a hireling; what is the object of learning my trade or profession, unless I establish myself?ก

กHave you capital to start with?ก

กNo, but I am going to have it.ก

กHow are you going to get it?ก

กI will tell you confidentially; I have a wealthy old aunt, and she will die pretty soon; but if she does not, I expect to find some rich old man who will lend me a few thousands to give me a start. If I only get the money to start with I will do well.ก

There is no greater mistake than when a young man believes he will succeed with borrowed money. Why? Because every manกs experience coincides with that of Mr. Astor, who said, กit was more difficult for him to accumulate his first thousand dollars, than all the succeeding millions that made up his colossal fortune.ก Money is good for nothing unless you know the value of it by experience. Give a boy twenty thousand dollars and put him in business, and the chances are that he will lose every dollar of it before he is a year older. Like buying a ticket in the lottery, and drawing a prize, it is กeasy come, easy go.ก He does not know the value of it; nothing is worth anything, unless it costs effort. Without selfdenial and economy, patience and perseverance, and commencing with capital which you have not earned, you are not sure to succeed in accumulating. Young men, instead of กwaiting for dead menกs shoes,ก should be up and doing, for there is no class of persons who are so unaccommodating in regard to dying as these rich old people, and it is fortunate for the expectant heirs that it is so. Nine out of ten of the rich men of our country today, started out in life as poor boys, with determined wills, industry, perseverance, economy and good habits. They went on gradually, made their own money and saved it; and this is the best way to acquire a fortune. Stephen Girard started life as a poor cabin boy, and died worth nine million dollars. A. T. Stewart was a poor Irish boy; and he paid taxes on a million and a half dollars of income, per year. John Jacob Astor was a poor farmer boy, and died worth twenty millions. Cornelius Vanderbilt began life rowing a boat from Staten Island to New York; he presented our government with a steamship worth a million of dollars, and died worth fifty millions. ‘there is no royal road to learning,ก says the proverb, and I may say it is equally true, ‘there is no royal road to wealth.ก But I think there is a royal road to both. The road to learning is a royal one; the road that enables the student to expand his intellect and add every day to his stock of knowledge, until, in the pleasant process of intellectual growth, he is able to solve the most profound problems, to count the stars, to analyze every atom of the globe, and to measure the firmamentthis is a regal highway, and it is the only road worth traveling.

So in regard to wealth. Go on in confidence, study the rules, and above all things, study human nature; for ‘the proper study of mankind is man,ก and you will find that while expanding the intellect and the muscles, your enlarged experience will enable you every day to accumulate more and more principal, which will increase itself by interest and otherwise, until you arrive at a state of independence. You will find, as a general thing, that the poor boys get rich and the rich boys get poor. For instance, a rich man at his decease, leaves a large estate to his family. His eldest sons, who have helped him earn his fortune, know by experience the value of money, and they take their inheritance and add to it. The separate portions of the young children are placed at interest, and the little fellows are patted on the head, and told a dozen times a day, กyou are rich; you will never have to work, you can always have whatever you wish, for you were born with a golden spoon in your mouth.ก The young heir soon finds out what that means; he has the finest dresses and playthings; he is crammed with sugar candies and almost กkilled with kindness,ก and he passes from school to school, petted and flattered. He becomes arrogant and selfconceited, abuses his teachers, and carries everything with a high hand. He knows nothing of the real value of money, having never earned any; but he knows all about the กgolden spoonก business. At college, he invites his poor fellowstudents to his room, where he กwines and dinesก them. He is cajoled and caressed, and called a glorious good fellow, because he is so lavish of his money. He gives his game suppers, drives his fast horses, invites his chums to fetes and parties, determined to have lots of กgood times.ก He spends the night in frolics and debauchery, and leads off his companions with the familiar song, กwe won’t go home till morning.ก He gets them to join him in pulling down signs, taking gates from their hinges and throwing them into back yards and horseponds. If the police arrest them, he knocks them down, is taken to the lockup, and joyfully foots the bills.

กAh! my boys,ก he cries, กwhat is the use of being rich, if you can’t enjoy yourself?ก

He might more truly say, กif you can’t make a fool of yourself;ก but he is กfast,ก hates slow things, and don’t กsee it.ก Young men loaded down with other peopleกs money are almost sure to lose all they inherit, and they acquire all sorts of bad habits which, in the majority of cases, ruin them in health, purse and character. In this country, one generation follows another, and the poor of today are rich in the next generation, or the third. Their experience leads them on, and they become rich, and they leave vast riches to their young children. These children, having been reared in luxury, are inexperienced and get poor; and after long experience another generation comes on and gathers up riches again in turn. And thus กhistory repeats itself,ก and happy is he who by listening to the experience of others avoids the rocks and shoals on which so many have been wrecked.

กIn England, the business makes the man.ก If a man in that country is a mechanic or workingman, he is not recognized as a gentleman. On the occasion of my first appearance before Queen Victoria, the Duke of Wellington asked me what sphere in life General Tom Thumbกs parents were in.

กHis father is a carpenter,ก I replied.

กOh! I had heard he was a gentleman,ก was the response of His Grace.

In this Republican country, the man makes the business. No matter whether he is a blacksmith, a shoemaker, a farmer, banker or lawyer, so long as his business is legitimate, he may be a gentleman. So any กlegitimateก business is a double blessingit helps the man engaged in it, and also helps others. The farmer supports his own family, but he also benefits the merchant or mechanic who needs the products of his farm. The tailor not only makes a living by his trade, but he also benefits the farmer, the clergyman and others who cannot make their own clothing. But all these classes of men may be gentlemen.

The great ambition should be to excel all others engaged in the same occupation.

The collegestudent who was about graduating, said to an old lawyer:

กI have not yet decided which profession I will follow. Is your profession full?ก

‘the basement is much crowded, but there is plenty of room upstairs,ก was the witty and truthful reply.

No profession, trade, or calling, is overcrowded in the upper story. Wherever you find the most honest and intelligent merchant or banker, or the best lawyer, the best doctor, the best clergyman, the best shoemaker, carpenter, or anything else, that man is most sought for, and has always enough to do. As a nation Americans are too superficialthey are striving to get rich quickly, and do not generally do their business as substantially and thoroughly as they should, but whoever excels all others in his own line, if his habits are good and his integrity undoubted, cannot fail to secure abundant patronage, and the wealth that naturally follows. Let your motto then always be กExcelsior,ก for by living up to it there is no such word as fail.

Fernando Soave

Editor and Publisher

CUTTING EDGE MLM

http://www.cuttingedgemlm.tk

Free Cutting Edge MLM

Newsletter.

This article comes with reprint rights. Feel free to reprint and distribute as needed. All that we ask is that you do not make any changes and to be sure that the web site address http://www.cuttingedgemlm.tk and is hyperlinked correctly.

About The Author

Fernando Soave is the author of กCutting Edge MLM News.ก He has been in marketing for 20 years and is helping individuals succeed online. Visit his site to find out how you can get free reports. http://www.cuttingedgemlm.tk or Subscribe to the Free Cutting Edge MLM Newsletter and receive your +$585 MLM Value Pack. Subscribe here http://www.cuttingedgemlm.tk

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 14, 2004

by Fernando Soave

Residual Income, a Myth?

Residual Income, a Myth?

by: Chris Andrews

Iกm writing this in response to the every distributor in every company and program that tell you that the greatest things about MLM/Network marketing is the residual/passive/ongoing income that กkeeps making you money foreverก and theyกll even try and convince you that it will กkeep on growingก whether you do anything with your business or not. Why? Because it is misleading at best.

What is residual income? Well, essentially in the world of sales when you gain a customer of a company you get a commission on that sale. Itกs been going on since people sold things for other people. The idea of a residual income is that you get paid on an ongoing basis. Usually monthly. For instance if you sell a subscription to a service then you can get a cut of that service on a monthly basis. Another example being in consumable products such as shampoo or nutrition, each time that customer buyกs their monthly supply you get another cut of the profits.

What a lot of networking companies class as residual is the income you get from your downline. Especially companies that are based on recruitment of people who กshop for themselvesก as กprosumersก and are totally based on self consumption with no sales outside the company at all. So yes, in this scenario youกll get a check on the efforts of others on a regular basis.

Why this page then? Purely because residual income is touted as the way to make your money and create a permanent income stream. People actually say you can sit back and do nothing for the rest of your life and the money will still come pouring in. Saying this turns a blind eye to many important things.

Money from your own customers is higher

Firstly, i should say that any commissions you receive will be higher form your own efforts than those of your downline. So being on a manic recruitment drive of self recruiters could be earning you less money that building yourself a solid customer base and teach others to do so.

Company can go under

Any company can go bust. I don’t care how long theyกve been trading. If they’re not profitable then theyกll soon not exist. The government of your country could deem that their compensation plan is illegal. Perhaps your company might decide that they can get their own customers and allow people in through their corporate web site when you’re not allowed to do the same. One company in recent times suddenly changed their minds and were not longer mlm!

Company could change itกs rules for qualifying for income.

You compensation plan isn’t set in stone. Companies have often been know to have a change of heart when it comes to dishing out the money. Or you could find yourself in a situation where idle company reps lose out on all or a part of their commission unless they meet monthly quotas.

Product could go out of fashion

The super whizzy products that your company promote could easily go out of fashion and no longer be what people want. Or be totally superceded by you competition. Result? A mass exodus of customers and recruiters.

Attrition

Attrition can be a killer to your income. Basically attrition is the drop off rate from your customer and/or distributor base. After all, people change their mind and no longer want your products and or services. Even a growing business has to offset itกs growth against attrition. Letกs assume that each month you keep 90% of your downline/customers (and thatกs a high estimate!) and start at that magical six figure income value of $100,000. In just 8 months, your monthly income of $8000+ is down to just under $4000 and in another 7 months it will have halved again. Before long, this ‘retirementก income is looking pretty pathetic indeed.

Scary eh? Well, it needn’t be. You should concentrate on building a great income and build up that passive income to great levels. Just don’t rely on it being there forever. Take the money you’re earning, supplement your income pay off your debts treat yourself and with whatกs left over build up your own income streams elsewhere. Iกm no expert in investment, but thereกs plenty of sources of info on using your money wisely in building a rental properly portfolio, a share tracker investment account or even a private pension to look after yourself.

Just don’t waste it all, okay?

About The Author

Chris Andrews has a keen interest MLM and network marketing, but not in the way most people are. He writes about his experiences on the site http://www.wanttoknowmore.com/ and the blog http://christopherandrews.blogspot.com/

Article may be reprinted provided content is not edited and links are kept live.

This article was posted on September 02

by Chris Andrews

How To Choose The Best MLM Leads

How To Choose The Best MLM Leads

by: Jeff Schuman

What are the characteristics of the Best Mlm Leads? This is a good question to ask before you spend any money buying leads to build your MLM business. Before we get to that letกs take a look at why you would want to buy MLM leads in the first place.

Over the years the multilevel marketing business has gotten a black eye because of the over hyped promises of money and freedom. Very few people have ever achieved a high level of success in any MLM business. And even fewer have ever been able to maintain the level of achievements over a period of time.

That does not make MLM companies bad. Nor does it make the opportunities they afford the average person as a way to make extra money or even as a way to drastically change your lifetsyle. It can be done and using MLM leads is a great way to do it.

There are 2 big benefits to buying MLM leads.

1. It gets you away from approaching your friends and relatives. If you have been in more than one MLM business over the years you may have already approached them and used up your credibility when you were unsuccessful.

2. This is a duplicatible way to build your business that you can pass on to your downline. Any successful network marketing business will tell you that one of the main components of success is duplication. Anyone can buy leads and work them over the phone or thur the internet with the use of an autoresponder.

If you are unsure of how to work a lead over the phone I would suggest getting the book ‘recruit Your Way To Millionsก by Fred Stegge. After reading this book you will be able to explain what you do and what you offer to a new prospect in 30 seconds or less. http://www.teamschuman.com/recruityourway

If you are unsure of what an autoresponder is or how to use one read this article I wrote กHow To Effectively Use An Autoresponder.ก This is an absolutely essential business tool if you are going to succeed online with your MLM business.

http://teamschuman.com/articles/article15.html

Now that you understand some of the benefits of buying MLM leads and how to market to them letกs take a look at what are the characteristics of the Best MLM Leads.

1. How many times are the leads sold? Many MLM lead companies sell their leads over and over. You will be contacting a prospect that has already been marketed to. Personally I like eads that are exclusive to me.

2. How old are the leads? Would you rather contact a prospect that has expressed an interest in the past 48 hours or in the past 48 days. Being able to strike while the iron is hot so to speak is a great benefit of a fresh lead.

3. How many leads do you get for your money? Obviously the more leads you can get for the best price the more leads you can buy at a time. This is especially important when you are first starting or when you are helping your downline get started.

4. What is the quality of the lead? Nothing compares to a lead that contains both a phone number and email address along with a few qualifying answers to questions like กHow much can you invest to get startedก or กHow soon do you want to get startedก or When is the best time to contact you?ก If a prospect is answering these type of questions you are getting a much better quality lead than if you just have a name and email address.

5. What is the response rate? This will improve as your skill level at working your leads improves, but the fresher higher quality leads will give you a better response rate even when your skill level is low.

6. Do your leads come with any extras such as an autoresponder, training on how to work leads, prewritten email marketing letters, phone scripts, your own website, flash presentations, etc.

These are the top qualities of the Best MLM Leads. Be careful when choosing a place to get your leads. Not all MLM Lead companies are created equal. It is going to be the single most important decision you make when trying to grow your MLM Business. Make the wrong choice and you will waste your time and money as well as the time and money of your downline. Make the right choice and you can be building your business successfully for years to come.

Copyright 2004 Jeff Schuman

About The Author

Jeff Schuman has made over $35 Million Dollars in sales in his 20 year sales and marketing career. His Best Mlm Leads website contains the best mlm leads companies available today. His TeamSchuman.com website contains the best make money, and make money online websites anyone can use to get started making money from the comfort of their own home.

http://www.teamschuman.com/bestmlmleads

http://www.teamschuman.com

This article was posted on November 01, 2004

by Jeff Schuman

The Legal Way to Make Money: The Start of Affiliat

The Legal Way to Make Money: The Start of Affiliates

by: Adam Espiritu

The Legal way. How? Affiliates and Ebooks

I hate writing this message because it makes me look like a sellout, but Iกm not.

I just want to help out my friends and make some money doing it. Also, I am broke as hell! The coffee house only does so much.

There are two ways of making quick and continuous (they keep paying you) money on the net. Refer something (affiliate) or make something from your ideas (ebooks)

What are Affiliates? Companies pays for telling others about their products, but only if someone buys something from them. Just check the bottom of any online store or dealer that you like and see if they have a referral or affiliate program. If you can’t find a good affiliate program try www.affiliatematch.com

Then check out this site

http://hop.clickbank.net/?aesp93/affbprint

The Secret to A Steady Income Online Without Creating Your Own Product!

Do you need a webpage? No, but it would help. Just get the link and post or send it to your friends. All a webpage does is get you more people to see your site and hopefully more sales and return sales. Don’t get a free webpage space. No search engine or business will take you seriously. Spend the $ 9 to get a space.

Discover the Way of the Tortoise and Leave the Rat Race behind. http://www.sitesell.com/Adam23.html

And win an amazing prize http://specialprize.sitesell.com/Adam23.html

Now ebooks are just your ideas put into a readable form. They are sold or given away. Most people I know have blogs now or some kind of hobby. It really is easy to get money from your rants or obsessions. Writing an ebook is not hard. Here are a few ways to do it without that much money.

33 Days to Online Profits

Or you could use

How to write and publish your own outrageously profitable ebook… in as little as 7 days!

Since I am a lazy as hell I like this one

กGive me 5 minutes and Iกll show you how a กlazy personก can make more money, work fewer hours and have a lot more fun than any กhard workerก youกll ever meet Guaranteed!ก

Most people I know are struggling to get by or thousands in debt due to student loans or car loans. These links will not make you rich overnight, but they could help with any of those payments. They are helping me right now as you read this message.

You can get up to 50% profit if someone buys these products! Don’t believe me. Just check it out.

Have fun and get money with these links. Email me if you have any question. Thanks

Adam [email protected]

About The Author

Adam Espiritu is the Author and CEO of Practical Time Management

http://www.practicaltimemanagement.com

He has inspired and help hundreds toward their success and goals.

Learn How to Gain More Time Through Time Management and Networking

http://www.practicaltimemanagement.com

This article was posted on August 14

by Adam Espiritu

The Importance Of Having A Mentor

The Importance Of Having A Mentor

by: Larry Denis

When you first start your business everything can be quite confusing. There are many pitfalls and problems that are difficult to work out on your own. Choosing the right business for you. How to get the edge on your competitors? What to do first? How to really make money and escape that 95 job? These are just a few of the confusing questions that face the beginner. If you try to begin without help, you are setting yourself up for failure. Very few can succeed in business without someone to help you and steer you in the right direction. You are indeed like a ship without a captain when you try to start a business alone
Here are a few common mistakes made by ขnewbiesข when they first start a homebased business.
1. Starting a business without knowing who you should be marketing to. Without knowing how to target your market you can spend hours of wasted time and a lot of wasted dollars.
2. Getting into the wrong business, with too much competition supply and not enough demand. If you do not get into a specialized market with high demand and less supply you are setting yourself up for failure and you will never make a decent living.
3. Believing that a free program will make you money, these are some of the biggest scams on the Internet.
4. Joining one business opportunity failing after a month and then joining another and another. This is how many beginners loose tons of money and valuable time.
5. Thinking that money can be made in a short time with no work, this is another pitfall too many ขnewbiesข fall into.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have some personal guidance, somebody who can work with you oneonone? Show you how to start right and save you all that time and money. Somebody who can help you ขcut a pathway through the trees.ข This is where a mentor will help you, and better still a course that comes with mentoring help.
There are very few true mentoring courses, where you can really get oneonone help. Usually you purchase your course and then have to work out the rest. However a mentoring course is different. When you purchase the course you will get oneonone help for your questions and any problems you may have. As you progress through the course your mentor will coach you on any problems you may have and show you how to overcome them. One of the main reasons for new Internet businesses failing is lack of guidance. There is just too much to know and do without someone to help you.
You can see how a mentoring course works and the obvious advantages, compared to trying to work out everything yourself. I speak from experience. When I first started my business, I had no idea what to do and where to go, until I finally stumbled upon a mentor course. After that there was no looking back, I cannot say that I did not make mistakes or come up with problems, but they were nothing that my mentor could not guide me through
Recently I came across a mentoring course that not only offers mentoring help but shows you how to start a very profitable home business, HomeBased Recruiting. Basically it is finding qualified candidates to fill job positions for different businesses, for which you will get a finders fee. When worked correctly, this is a very profitable business and one you can easily make a good living with.
However, as with any successful business, some help is very necessary. Larry Denis’s ขFast Cash In HomeBased Recruitingข is the mentoring course that will guide you stepbystep, from start to success, and with his expert mentoring you cannot fail. Larry is a seasoned veteran in this field and very successful at what he does. His course will show you the tips and tricks that top recruiters use to make substantial profits. Find the businesses that are expanding and get ahead of your competition, with the true ขtricks of tradeข known only by experienced recruiters like Larry. Overcome the ขfear of telephoningข by learning how to call people the right way. The training and mentoring you will receive from this course will be your key to building a profitable home business.
A mentor course is your gateway to success. Unlock the business potential within you, and see how you can achieve what you never thought possible, with the help of individual coaching. Experience the satisfaction of starting and building a truly successful business with help and guidance from a mentor.

About The Author

Larry Denis is the successful author of ข Fast Cash In HomeBased Recruitingข He is a seasoned homebased recruiter with 8 years of experience in his field for more information on homebased recruiting please visit him at http://www.homerecruiter.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on May 10, 2004

by Larry Denis

A Simple Ebay Money Making Trick Revealed!

A Simple Ebay Money Making Trick Revealed!

by: Dayne Herren

Let me guess, you hear of all these people making thousands if not millions on eBay and you are just completely baffled as to how they do it. Well, most of these people either sell high ticket items or sell hundreds and hundreds of specific กhotก items.

As you may know, finding items to sell on eBay can be tough and most of all, it takes time. You have to search through junk at garage sales and even thrift stores.

But what Iกm about to reveal to you will be an easy way for you to make some extra cash on eBay. It may even be enough to pay your mortgage or car payment. And best of all, it is very simple. You don’t even have to search your local garage sale or flea market for that hidden treasure to sell on eBay.

So here is what you do. First of all, you have to find a market on eBay that is buying. Take a look at expired auctions or current hot auctions. Once you find a hot subject, write up a 35 page report that gives solid content on that subject. If it solves a type of problem or explains กhow toก do something, even better. Sell your report on eBay for something around $2.99 to $5.99. Be sure to make your listing keyword rich so it gets viewed but the right audience.

Now, here is the part that may earn you even MORE money AFTER the sale of your report. If you haven’t heard of กaffiliate marketingก, then you are missing out! In a nutshell, affiliate marketing means that you sell someone elses product, and you get a percentage of the sale. There are multiple places you can sign up to start promoting other peoples products. A couple big ones that come to mind are cj.com, Linkshare.com, Clickbank.com and even Amazon.com. When you sign up, you find a product you want to promote, and then you you can pick either text links or banner ads to promote the product. When someone buy from that link or ad, you get paid. Plain and simple.

If you really want to make SERIOUS money on affiliate products, I would highly recommend you pick up your own copy of Rosalind Gardnerกs Super Affiliate Handbook. She makes over $400,000 a year just by selling other peoples products! She will show you exactly what to do to make great money. Go to http://dayne.us/affiliatehandbook.html and grab your copy.

The key to making more money off your report is to make sure you put in affiliate links within your report. I wouldn’t use more than two. I would advise using text links, that way you can blend them within the report text. Once you create your text links, they will be long, so go to www.tinyurl.com. This is a great site that can shorten the link for you.

Once you have your affiliate links shortened, blend them in within your report and hype them up a bit to promote the sale. But don’t overdue it. If you push it too much, people will realize that you are just trying to make a sale.

Lastly, when your report is complete with content and links, make sure you put in PDF format. If you don’t want to write the report yourself, just go to Elance.com and find someone who will write it for you. For a small report, it should only cost you around $20$40. Remeber, you can sell this report over and over again on eBay and you have exclusive rights to it!

Thatกs it! Now, you have the opportunity to make $5.99 from one sale on eBay and maybe even MORE with your affiliate links…and you didn’t even have to go hunting for items to sell! Just think if you get 10 reports selling on eBay. The profit potential can be huge!

About The Author

Learn how you can make THOUSANDS of dollars a month by selling other peoples products at http://dayne.us/affiliatehandbook.html.

Dayne Herren is a freelance artist, writer, and online marketer.

This article was posted on April 20

by Dayne Herren

Can I Advertise My Site with a $150 Monthly Budget

Can I Advertise My Site with a $150 Monthly Budget?

by: Brian Roe

Assuming all other bills are covered; web hosting, list building, affiliate programs, your own ezine, etc., you only have $150 a month to spend specifically on advertising. What are the best ways to stretch that dollar to its fullest potential? Glad you asked.
You will find article after article endlessly covering six free ways (except for one) to advertise. They include: Submitting articles to directories, submitting your ezine (which you need to have) to directories, exchanging links, posting in forums, announcement lists, and pay per clicks. This is not another one of those articles. To read one, go here http://www.cerebuswebmaster.com/ onsite/newsletter/issue4.html (Scroll down to ขA Crash Course in Website Promotionข).
Some of these ideas listed below are free, while some require an investment. With a limited monthly budget (and even without one), research before you spend anything, to make sure your money will be doing exactly what you want it to. Keep track of all expenses in real time, and when the funds run out, stop until next month.
The best way to compensate for lack of money is a lot of time. Think of time as your reserves. Since you do not a have a lot of money to spend, you need lots of time to research, plan, and execute. Until you have made enough money to use other forms of promotion, time is your greatest asset.
Free Ads
There are numerous websites that have free advertising (of course, they want you to upgrade for a fee, but the free version works just fine), and each has their own way to advertise to others. Most of them use some sort of credit system. Five are listed here.

www.trafficswarm.com
www.BannersgoMLM.com
www.MyViralAds.com
www.donttouchmyads.com
www.webdawg.com

Paid Ads
The problem with the free advertising sites is that they promise visibility, but not necessarily traffic to your site. At www.trafficaccount.com, you pay between $1.99 and $3.99 per one thousand visitors.
Classifieds
If classifieds are more your forte, www.qualitybooks.com/tenad.htm lists the best websites to place your classifieds for free. However, usually they are not as popular as the paid ad sites.
If you are going to spend money at a classified site, do your homework before you pay. Many free foralls are only visited by people placing ads and not seeking them. When researching, find out how many hits it gets, make sure your ad stays on the page and will not be pushed off when other ads come in, and that there is some worth to the site and not just inundated with ads. Visitors quickly leave websites with nothing offer.
You can always post classifieds offline, too. Some newspapers will not charge for the ad if the item you are selling is under $100.
Signatures
Including signatures in everything is an often overlooked tool to promote your website to your network of friends and contacts. On every e mail you send, forum you post in, sheet you fax, or article you write, at the very least always include your business name and website, and maybe a promotional tagline. Giving your address and phone numbers makes you look more legitimate to potential customers. The trust factor between business owners and consumers can make or break your online business.
Writing and Branding eBooks
Depending on your business, this may take some adapting to fit your personal business mold, but many people have made a lot of money by writing an ebook that promotes the heck out of your service, and giving it away to as many people as possible. Befriend other online capitalists that can promote and your book to their list. Submit your ebook to websites with free ebook directories.
You could also find ebooks with subjects or information that is very close to your niche or product. Read them, and if you can find a way that your product would benefit the reader of that book, pitch your product to the author, and if he agrees to include your product in an updated version of the book, split the profits of the traffic that came through the book.
WalkThru Tool
If designing your business model or even promoting your business lacks structure and coherence, the Marketing Dashboard ($59.95) at www.Getitgoing.com organizes everything for you. From your marketing vision to your profit plan, stats tracking and task organizing, it keeps your business plan focused.
Web Toolbar
This is more for the traffic you have already achieved. Give away a web toolbar (which can be made at www.webtoolbars.com) that is tailor made to promote your business. It allows you to inform anyone that downloads the toolbar of updates to your website, new products you have to sell, forum topics, etc. This will keep people from forgetting about your website and makes them much more likely to visit again. The Basic is $5 and the Pro is $45.
Advertising Offline
Many online entrepreneurs forget that advertising offline can be just as powerful as online. Never miss an opportunity to plug your business. You never know who you might bump in to. Definitely invest in some business cards. You can also purchase magnetic signs to place on your car, fliers to pass out at high traffic areas (be it people or cars), rubber stamps for all your letters. The possibilities are endless. You can buy all of these products at www.iprint.com.
As you can see, there are still many avenues to promote your site very cheaply. Most of these are free, and none of the above have residual costs. As your business slowly makes more money, you can eventually start placing welltested ads in extremely hightraffic sites. Until then, use these ways to get your feet off the ground.

About The Author

Brian Roe publishes Profitable Net Marketing, an innovative and informative newsletter full of helpful hints, opportunities, and time saving tools to help support YOUR home business. For a FREE subscription, check out http://www.profitablenetmarketing.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 23, 2004

by Brian Roe

How To Avoid Getting Scammed

How To Avoid Getting Scammed

by: Dean Phillips

Listed below are some of the most popular and common scams:

1. Nigerian Letter Scam:

This oneกs been around for many years but continues to flourish. Many of these emails claim to be from a person in Africa, usually Nigeria. The writer claims to have access to millions of dollars, either from a relative or from knowledge of an idle account. A percentage of this money is promised to the victim if they will allow the money to be processed through their personal bank account. The victim is instructed to keep their share and send the remaining money to the scammer.

The check given to the victims is fraudulent. The victim is then liable to the bank for the check they wrote to the scammer.

Hereกs what will happen when you give strangers your bank account information: They will take your money. Period.

2. Phishing Scams:

กPhishingก is a hightech scam that uses spam or popup messages to deceive you into disclosing your credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security number, passwords, or other sensitive information.

Phishers send an email or popup message that claims to be from a business or organization that you deal withfor example, your Internet service provider (ISP), bank, online payment service, or even a government agency. The message usually says that you need to กupdateก or กvalidateก your account information.

Recent phishing victims include Yahoo, Citibank, eBay, Best Buy and Bank of America among others.

If you get spam that is phishing for information, forward it to [email protected].

3. Chain Letters:

In this classic scam, you’re asked to send a small amount of money (usually $5.00) to each of several names on a list, and then forward the letter including your name at the top of the list, via bulk email. Many of these letters claim to be legal. They even include a section of the U.S. Postal Code on illegal schemes. Don’t be fooled. They are not legal. And if you participate, not only will you be breaking the law, youกll lose your money as well.

4. WorkAtHome And Business Opportunity Scams:

These scams tempt victims with ads stating กno experience necessary,ก promise high earnings and claim to have inside information. The scammers usually require victims to pay anywhere from $35 to several hundred dollars or more for information, kits or materials that do not provide the promised results.

Frequently, these schemes involve making handicrafts, stuffing envelopes, medical billing, or state, กUse your home PC to make money fast in your spare time!ก

In the craft making or envelope stuffing scam, after paying fees and completing the assembly of the products, victims are told their work is low quality and unworthy of compensation.

Medical billing scams require victims to purchase supplies and lists of doctors who, inevitably don’t exist or are not interested in the service.

5. Bulk Email Scams:

These solicitations offer to sell you bulk email addresses (spam software) or services to send spam on your behalf. Example: ‘reach 100 million websites, $39.95ก! The software is usually of poor quality. Itกs spam and a scam. Don’t do it.

6. Auction and retail scams:

These schemes typically offer highvalue items, such as Cartier watches, Beanie Babies and computers, in hopes of attracting many consumers. What happens is the victim wins the bid, sends the money and receives nothing or receives products of much lower quality than advertised.

7. Guaranteed Loans or Credit Scams:

This scam comes in a variety of flavors: home equity loans that don’t require equity in your home, personal loans regardless of credit history, etc. After you pay the application fees, you receive a letter saying that your loan request was denied. Usually, you never here from these companies again.

8. Credit Repair Scams:

These scams promise to erase accurate, negative information from your credit file so that you can qualify for loans, mortgages, unsecured credit cards, etc. It doesn’t work. Not only that. If you follow their advice and lie on loan or credit applications, misrepresent your social security number, or get an Employer Identification Number from the Internal Revenue Service under false pretenses, you will be committing fraud and violating federal laws. Another variation of this scam is the promise of a brand new credit file. Don’t do it.

9. Vacation, Sweepstakes And Prize Award Scams:

In these scams you receive notification congratulating you because youกve won a fabulous vacation, a car or some other prize award. All you have to do to collect your prize is pay a small fee (usually several hundred dollars). In return, what you end up getting is a toy car, (I kid you not) or a vacation certificate to the Bahamas or some other exotic vacation spot. Itกs really a lousy deal. You have to pay for your own airfare, and the accommodations that they arrange are usually in rundown hotels. Let the buyer beware!

10. Employment Scams:

Employment scammers take advantage of job seekers. They claim to offer employment services, inside information or inside contacts to jobs. After paying a fee, victims learn they only provide advice, help writing a resumeor less. Some fraudulent employment services simply sell lists of companies that they have gotten from public directories. They usually have not contacted those companies directly or know if there really are any job openings.

11. Multilevel Marketing (MLM) or Network Marketing Scams:

I know Iกm going to ruffle a few feathers with this one, so let me just say right now that all MLM or network marketing companies are not scams. Obviously, there are some good, reputable companies out there. However, there are so many bad ones that Iกm compelled to include the entire industry on this list. Before getting involved with any MLM or network marketing company, investigate, investigate and then investigate some more. Don’t get caught up in the hype. And hereกs a fact no MLM or network marketing company will ever tell younot even the legitimate ones: Unless you have outstanding sales ability and/or people skills, it is extremely difficult to make any money in MLM or network marketing.

Here are some other things you should watch out for: Make sure the website you’re visiting contains all three of the following:

A real persons name (not just a company or business name)

A telephone number

A street address (not just a P.O. Box)

If all three of the above are not present, walk away from the offer.

Before purchasing anything, you should always check first to see if the company has had any complaints lodged against it. The following websites publish complaints and/or scams:

http://www.scamwatch.com

http://www.worldwidescam.com

http://www.bbb.org

If you do get scammed, report it to the aforementioned websites immediately. You probably won’t be able to recover your money. Few people ever do. But at least by reporting the crime and making it public record, you make it harder for that company to scam anyone else.

In closing, always carefully investigate any business opportunity, and remember: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: [email protected]

Website: http://www.letsmakemoney.net

This article was posted on October 09, 2004

by Dean Phillips

Making Money with Popular Search Engines

Making Money with Popular Search Engines

by: Mark Bellinger

With so many internet and home business opportunities on the world wide web nowadays it is very confusing as to know which ones are scams and which are not.

However, even though I am sure that most of the money making schemes advertised have their merits, it would give the entrepreneur great peace of mind to know that he was building an internet business in conjunction with a credible and high profile corporate.

Credibility is a vital component of doing business on the Internet and I am sure that you would agree that credibility would give any ขInternet Business Opportunityข the ability to convince you that it was all above board and a genuinely sound opportunity.

Well there are such opportunities and you do not even have to have a website to capitalize on them and to build a successful online business.

This is how it works…

Some of the top search engines have pay per click programs that essentially show small text advertisements to the right of their many search engine results (and in other places for that matter – for instance Google shows them on websites whose publishers have signed up to display them).

These advertisements have been paid for by advertisers who are participating in the respective search engine’s pay per click program and are displayed and ranked according to the keywords they have selected and how much they have been willing to bid for them.

Now for the important part…

The power of this marketing strategy is such that with a well driven pay per click campaign, huge amounts of traffic can be driven to a particular site almost immediately.

For those of you who know, many sites have huge hours invested in them to improve their search engine rankings and to generate traffic and after years (in most cases) don’t come close to the amount of traffic that a Google Adwords campaign, for example, can generate overnight.

This type of campaign can have your text ads displayed in both the search engine results pages as well as one appropriate websites all over the internet. Therefore the reach of your advertising would be immense.

This means that you can set up a Google Adwords campaign and drive traffic to your affiliates’ sites (with your affiliate id in the url of course) and receive the commissions for all the sales that have been generated by the traffic driven through your adwords.

This all sounds great, but whatกs in it for you if you don’t even have a website?

Well, if you are affiliated to a site/s or company where you earn commission on sales, your commissions will skyrocket with an Adwords campaign aimed at your affiliates’ sites.

One word of caution…

You could waste your money and become disillusioned by embarking blindly on your pay per click campaign.

Therefore, it is highly recommended to read up on how to maximize your earnings & not to spend money unwisely and research carefully as to how much to bid on specific keywords and what keywords would work best for you.

For more resources on this subject go to http://www.income.za.net and http://www.internetbusiness.co.za.

About The Author

The Author, Mark Bellinger is an Internet Entrepreneur and creator of the following sites:

Internet Income: http://www.income.za.net

Internet Business: http://www.internetbusiness.co.za

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 2

by Mark Bellinger

Finally! NO Experience Needed To Profit Online

Finally! NO Experience Needed To Profit Online

by: Rizal Ahmad

As one of my subscribers, I wanted to let you in on a great opportunity available to you…

This is the PERFECT solution if you would love to begin making money online, but at this point aren’t ready (or willing) to create an online businesses of your own.

(It just doesn’t get any easier than this…)

Stone Evans, ‘the Home Biz Guyก, has agreed to set you up with your very own *customized* online business package…

… FREE!

Each package includes a personalized website designed to promote a handpicked selection of some of the TOP Internet marketing products online.

Your site ALSO includes a builtin email followup system inlucing a prewritten 400day email autoresponder campaign through which you can build your *own* list of subscribers!

But the BEST PART is, Stone will do all the set up work of customizing and even uploading your website… for FREE!!

Youกve got to check this out right away!!

Hereกs what your site will look like when itกs finished:

http://www.ProofProfit.com

… Everything you see will be working on YOUR behalf, INCLUDING the affiliate links and the email subscription form.

This is a professional online business package that would take most people *months* to create & setup, yet Stone will setup your website for FREE, normally within 24 hours!

(…Please allow an extra day or two in this case due to the tremendous demand that there will be for this opportunity Stone is just กone guyก and will obviously be setting up each website request one by one.)

So how do you get started?

Follow the steps on this page: http://www.ProofProfit.com/pips.html

Once you get there, just follow the 3 quick and easy steps that Stone needs you to complete so that he can get to work setting up and personalizing your new online business!

There are people all around you making money online…

Now YOU can get in on the action *regardless* of experience level: No HTML. No uploading. No payment links. NONE of that to mess with!

Stone will even show you how to *promote* your new site stepbystep using FREE and/or paid promotion techniques.

This is it. Your chance to create an online cashflow as quickly and easily as possible. No excuses left!! 😉

Hereกs that link again:

http://www.ProofProfit.com/pips.html

If you have any questions, just let me know!

Sincerely,

Rizal Ahmad

http://www.ProofProfit.com

http://www.ProofProfit.com/pips.html

About The Author

Rizal Ahmad

I discovered that earning residual income on the Internet is all about duplication. By helping YOU make money online, I can grow my income too. Itกs actually the perfect business model — I succeed only when YOU make money!

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 09

by Rizal Ahmad

Top 5 Tips for Frustrated Affiliate Program Market

Top 5 Tips for Frustrated Affiliate Program Marketers

by: Isaiah Hull

Do you go through affiliate programs like most people go through pairs of socks? Many Internet marketers do. In fact, 97% of all Internet marketers never make a single cent advertising opportunities on the Internet. They jump from one opportunity to the next and never see results. If you want to break free from this cycle of failure if you want to earn a living off of your Internet venturescontinue reading. I will tell you exactly how you can earn money from any legitimate affiliate program.

In order to get the most information from what I am about to explain to you, you must accept that these methods are not intended to be กsecrets.ก These are scientificallyproven, bestpractice methods that all top marketers use. If you want results, you will have to do and continue to do the following five things:

1. Know your product. Do not advertise for a product or affiliate program that you are not currently using. I cannot even count the amount of affiliate programs and product offers I have rejected immediately from people who know very little about what they are actually promoting. If you want to make money selling a product or service, you have to use it, understand it, and be able to convince your prospects that they should own it. If you yourself do not believe in it because you have not even tried itthen you will have a hard time convincing anyone else it is worthwhile.

2. Know your field. You must continually become more knowledgeable about the market in which you are selling your product or service. For instance, I try to read at least 50 pages on Internet marketing each day to complement the marketing I do. This keeps me learning about my field. The best part about this is that you can do it without spending any money at all. The Internet is loaded with free content sites where you can find free ebooks and special reports on any subject. The Internet is also loaded with affiliate program promoters who are outselling you. Use google to find these sites and then reverse engineer thempick apart the source code, page setup, and content layout to find out how you can become more like your competition who is outselling you.

3. Focus your efforts and limit your innovation. As much as กlimiting your innovationก may go against your business instincts, it is an absolute must with a limited marketing budget. Figure out what works for you scientifically by measuring your advertising results. When you find something that works, stick with it. If you are getting traffic from reciprocal links, continue to build them. If you are getting constant signups from your newsletter, improve your newsletter and order more leads. Do not stray far from your original plan. Preset the amount of innovative ideas you want to try out each night, but center your marketing efforts around getting better results from methods that have already worked for you.

4. Spend money wisely. The Internet is loaded with scams and bad information. It is really easy to be tricked into blowing money on กget rich quickก schemes and information that you can find in free resources. I personally have spent thousands of dollars needlessly. But do not get me wrong; I am not saying there are no legitimate affiliate promotion services or information products out there: I am saying that the vast majority of them do not work as well as they say they do. So hold onto your cash. When you find a product that multiple people have personally recommended to you, then consider buying it. Otherwise, conserve your cash for purchasing services or products that will produce hard, definite results, such as email leads for your newsletter or phone leads you can contact personally to promote your program.

5. Remember that your success is dependent on your choices and your work alone. If you get upset about not becoming successful with a specific affiliate program, do not blame the programblame yourself. Do a thorough analysis of what you could be doing better and how you could be making quantitative progress every single day. There are people who do not pay any money at all for promotional services and yet are still able to make a living just from using free tools on the Internet. If they can do it, there is no reason at all why you cannot. Joining a marketing group or forum in your field will help you realize this reality. Seeing and talking to people who are succeeding in your field will remind you that it is entirely possible to make money online without having a million dollars to begin with.

While there are some กsecretsก to getting more signups and site visitors, the bigger part of affiliate program marketing is following a sound business plan. If you keep the five concepts I have listed above central to your marketing campaign, you will not fail. But, if you continue to market sporadicallyswitching from product to product and method to methodyou will never break out of that 97% who never make money.

Copyright 2004 Isaiah Hull

About The Author

Isaiah Hull publishes Home Business Tips, a fresh and informative newsletter that focuses on building successful internet businesses and promoting affiliate programs. Stop by http://www.workathomerightnow.net or send a blank email to mailto:workathomerightnow.com to receive a yearกs subscription for free.

This article was posted on September 26, 2004

by Isaiah Hull

Home Business Success: What It Really Takes!

Home Business Success: What It Really Takes!

by: Nathaniel Balcom

These words are heard again and again by people attempting to build a real home business on the internet.

The real question should not be about winning because obviously, ขeveryone wants to winข, but should focus on the question of กHow do I get to where I want to be so that I consider myself a success in my home business?ก

Obviously, there is no roadmap that you can follow to reach the level of financial security that the majority of home business people would consider a success.

It is apparent though that the majority of people that are considered financially secure have some common qualities that they each possess, such as, almost all of the individuals that are financially secure appear to be selfmotivated and willing to commit.

Now, the reason that this is important as it relates to each person attempting to build a home business on the internet is because without a doubt most people join programs to make money, and improve their standing, at least in their own eyes, on the ladder of success.

The problem is that most people are not motivated enough from within to really commit to making the personal sacrafices needed to truly build a real online business and therefore earn the money and live the lifestyle that they desire.

I am of the opinion that there are two real solid reasons why this situation exist.

I shall discuss the first of these reasons in this article since I feel this is the reason that actually prevents most individuals from really going forward and reaching for their dreams.

I think that the majority of us, no matter whether we admit it or not, are limited in our ability to see ourselves at the level in life that we personally would consider successful. In most cases, we see ourselves as not being capable of reaching the level of success that we would truly like to reach because of the mental picture we have of ourselves.

In my opinion, this is the result of our having tried to achieve smaller goals in our lives at some point and having failed to reach those goals, for whatever reason, whether we admit it outwardly or not.

I know that if you talk to most people they will tell you that กI could be this or do that if I could get a breakข or ขif I had just a little luckข or ขif I could just get a helping hand.ก

This is so untrue.

Getting a กbreakก or กa helping handก in business is not about กluck.ก

กBreaksก in business are a matter of persistence and perseverance.

The number of people that actually make a substantial amount of money from home businesses is not large because the majority of people that have the selfmotivation, commitment, and discipline it takes to persevere to the level in which any big money is being made is small.

I can demonstrate this fact just by examining the statistics from a program that I am currently researching:

1. Currently only 17% of the total group has completed the basic requirements for understanding the program.

This program requires no commitment other than reading.

2. Of all the members in the group only 7% are qualified to earn all available means of income from the program.

This 7% represents 100% of the income and activity that is being produced within the group at the time of this article.

As a business owner, you should always set an example of how well your business products or services are by using them yourself.

3. Last month 68% of the income and activity produced by the group was produced by group members that have been members less than two months.

This occurs because these members still believe that they are capable of ขmaking it happen!ข

There are members of this group that have been onboard less than two months and have earned more money than other members that have been members for over a year or more that haven’t earned a cent.

I mentioned these facts only to demonstrate that home business success is a matter of selfmotivation.

Those members that are making money believe in themselves and therefore are motivated to take the initial actions to achieve, and, each achievement provides reinforcement that they can achieve the next step thus creating a perpetual belief that they can achieve whatever their desired goal might be in a stepby step goaloriented manner.

On the other hand for those that are not making money it is because of a deepseated doubt, I think, not of belief in the system, but of a lack of belief in their own abilities.

The failure to take even the first step demonstrates a lack of selfmotivation.

As a result the opposite affect is instilled and the perpetual doubt is reinforced each time that a desire to go forward is not followedup by any action that results in even a small amount of positive reinforcement that leads the individual to believe that they are capable of reaching the desired goal.

Success starts with an individual perception of ones self.

Action is a result of the motivation from within.

Selfmotivation is the key that must be turned in order to start the engine of success.

About The Author

This article was written by Nathaniel Balcom, the director of NVB and Associates, a internetbased home business group that provides assistance to its members as they attempt to build online businesses. He invites you to visit the following site if you are considering starting a business from your home: http://www.myofc.org.

This article may be republished provided this resource box is included as a part of the article.

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 01

by Nathaniel Balcom