They Didn’t Think I Could Earn A FullTime Income

They Didn’t Think I Could Earn A FullTime Income Online, But I Proved Them Wrong!

by: Al Martinovic

When I first attempted to make money online I was so naive just like any newbie. But I learned from the school of hard knocks. I learned by trial and error and by just doing.

In the beginning I submitted my site to every search engine under the sun. I tried traffic exchanges, banner exchanges, FFAกs, safelists, online classified ads etc. and not surprisingly I got zero results. If anything… I was very good at getting spammed.

I wasted weeks and even months of my time with stuff that didn’t work. But little by little I started to head in the right direction. I dropped all the stuff that didn’t work and looked for other ways to bring traffic to my site.

I subscribed to a whole bunch of ezines and started posting free ads. The results weren’t great but at least this time I was getting some results. My confidence started to build and I knew I was heading in the right direction.

Then I started to spend a little money on my business and used pay per click search engines and things really started to take off for me and my confidence grew more.

Then I started writing articles and press releases and and in the middle of all this I would spend time learning how to optimize my site for the major search engines to get a high ranking.

The sales started coming in regularly. But I didn’t sit back. I wanted to convert more of my visitors into customers.

I added an optin form on my site to capture email addresses and set up an autoresponder to automatically follow up with my prospects. Eventually I added an alert box to capture email addresses which really exploded my mail list.

I started learning more about copywriting and experimented with different copy and headlines etc. on my site to get maximum results until eventually I had a consistent sales machine over at http://www.ineedsmokes.com

And when I had a sales machine that was on autopilot I then started pursuing other projects to make additional money.

But you know, it took alot of work to get to this point. It is a constant learning process and I still try to learn as much as I can because you never กknow it all.ก

If you think you กknow it allก you are finished because the internet changes so rapidly youกll quickly get left behind.

If you’re new to online marketing… it won’t happen for you overnight. It will take work, dedication and even sacrifice.

You need to keep working your business, be consistent and learn as much as you can about this internet marketing game and most importantly apply what you have learned.

Some techniques and tactics will work great in one business… but not in another. You won’t know unless you try. Find the things that work for you and build upon it.

And eventually… youกll get there too.

About The Author

Al Martinovic publishes the Millenium Marketers Newsletter featuring powerful internet marketing concepts, killer strategies, useful tips, and no bull business advice. Subscribe Free Today: http://www.milleniummarketers.com

This article was posted on November 18, 2003

by Al Martinovic

The Top Seven Marketing Mistakes

The Top Seven Marketing Mistakes

by: Ted Nicholas

In my view, nearly all government statistics about reasons for business failures are nonsense.

Undercapitalization, inexperience, or poor management are usually blamed for all business disasters.

Of course, there can be one or several more causes that result in a business going กbelly up.ก

However, from what Iกve seen, marketing mistakes are by far the primary reason businesses do not survive. This includes companies which consider themselves direct marketers as well as those who do not.

Here are the seven most common marketing mistakes:

1. Management treats marketing as a business expense or simply a department rather than a necessary business investment.

Solution: Marketing should be treated as the driving force of any company. It is the only function that brings in cash. The other major functions in a company are necessary. But they all spend cash. This includes the primary business departments of finance, production and research.

To market any product or service successfully, the company must do two things:

A. Provide marketing with sufficient resources

B. Put marketing at the heart of its business strategy

The whole company should be focused on the needs and wants of customers and be prepared to satisfy their demands.

Marketing must be part of the philosophy of all entrepreneurs and managers.

2. Management does not know specifically what it costs to recruit a new customer. Plus, there are no accurate statistics on the average customer lifetime value.

Without this knowledge, it is impossible to make sound decisions. You cannot determine how much to invest in marketing. If you spend more to gain a customer than their lifetime value, ultimately you will go broke. In the absence of this information, many businesses can and often do fail. To make matters worse, few of the casualties understand why they failed.

Solution: Before you invest large sums on marketing, determine the average lifetime value of a customer. An excellent book that I highly recommend on this topic is The Loyalty Factor by Frederick Reicheld.

3. Management makes no attempt to build a customer database. This is especially so with most retailers, restauranteurs and department store owners. However, Iกve seen this in many other businesses.

Solution: A companyกs database of customers is potentially its biggest asset. Itกs much more valuable than equipment, inventory, etc. This is not only true of companies that utilize mail order or Internet marketing. Every single company that wants to survive and prosper needs to build a database.

4. The company does not communicate often enough with its customers. The result is lower sales and profits than are otherwise possible.

Solution: Contact your customers a minimum of once a month. When I started my first business at age 21, I too made many mistakes. The business somehow survived and became a chain of retail confectionery stores called Petersonกs House of Fudge. At first I sent my customers an offer every six months. So I tried sending a sales letter every three months. My business doubled. I then began mailing every other month. My business again increased proportionately.

I wound up with the ideal and most profitable interval once a month.

At first I thought contacting customers every 30 days might be too often and that customers would get turned off.

But that didn’t happen. I got great feedback as well as higher sales. Providing your customers like, or even love, your product or service, as they should, they want to hear from you frequently.

This, of course, is in the context of your sending excellent offers, excellent copy and excellent information.

Indeed, if you are not in frequent contact, your customers will quickly begin to forget about you. Many will start buying from your competitors.

I urge you to contact your customers at least every 30 days (occasionally with special offers a week apart is perfectly fine too).

Your form of contact can be an email, postcard, catalog, telephone call or personal visit. Iกve found the most effective method of regular contact is with a wellwritten sales letter.

Rarely do I find a company of any kind which systematically mines the real gold in any businessthe customer database. Make sure you do not make this mistake.

Making offers to your customer database is often referred to as the กback endก in direct marketing jargon. But every business should cash in on the huge potential of existing customers by simply making frequent offers to them and giving them more opportunities to do business with you.

5. Management has no method of accurately measuring the results from its advertising investments. This is especially so with socalled image advertising.

Solution: The way this is done is to seek a direct response in each promotion. This can be a coupon, telephone call or store visit. Code each promotion. Then when an order is received or a customer visits your establishment, you can appropriately trace it to the particular promotion.

The coding system can be numbers or letters. If you use the telephone you can utilize separate telephone numbers for each advertisement. Or you can simply ask the caller which ad or letter they are responding to.

6. As many companies begin to enjoy some early success, many develop a disease that I call กBigCompanyItis.ก They start having endless, nonproductive meetings. They become bureaucratic. They move as slow as molasses.

Instead of continuing to insist upon a high level of employee performance and keeping a close watch and control over costs, management takes its foot off the brake. Costs can spiral out of control. Employee morale can suffer. Soon the company is in deep trouble.

Solution: The secret is to think big but operate much like a small business. Wellmanaged, large organizations that are highly successful are run more like a small entrepreneurial business. Managers have profit center responsibility. Their job is to help increase revenue or reduce costs, or both. They are held accountable. They maintain the financial controls and quick response of a lean and mean small business.

7. Management has no systemized upselling procedure in place to upgrade both new and existing customers to a larger sale. Result? Lower sales volume and lower profits than otherwise could be obtained.

Surprisingly, companies Iกve observed that market direct to consumers, such as mailorder businesses, tend to be incredibly poor at telephone communications and upselling.

Wellmanaged and properly trained customer service people can add 30%60% in added sales volume without any increase in marketing or administrative costs. Your only cost is the cost of goods sold. Best of all, your customers are the beneficiaries of more value and variety for their money. Everyone wins.

But here is where it becomes really interesting. Your gross sales will be much higher. But your net profit will increase by a huge multiple. Iกve helped companies achieve huge increases in their net profit just by learning effective and professional telephone techniques. Itกs not unusual to increase profits as much as 5 or even 10 times!

Effective telephone communications and upselling are the main reasons for the huge success of my own companies. My clients for whom I conduct training of their customer service representatives have experienced similar results.

Solution: Develop a strategy which includes the following:

A. Create an incentive compensation plan for your customer service representatives (CSRกs) based on added sales. Depending on your profit margins, this can be for example 5% to 10% of additional sales.

B. Run a daily special offered as an กadd onก that provides great value for the customer. For example, you can offer a new product at half price.

C. Prepare a verbatim script on how to present the special.

Tip: The selling price. Your special offer should not exceed 30% of your average order. This makes the decision to accept the special an easy one.

D. Provide your CSRกs with some basic telephone training. This should include the principles of active listening, voice pitch, pacing, learning to present things in a hearable way, and some gentle closingthesale techniques. A big factor is learning the secrets of boosting the sales without any pressure whatsoever.

Regards,

Ted Nicholas

About The Author

Ted Nicholas is one of the highest paid speakers and copywriters in the world. He has sold over 4 billion dollars worth of products and services. Go to http://www.tednicholas.com to subscribe to his free ezine, ‘the Success Margin.ก

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 09, 2003

by Ted Nicholas

กBloggingก For Fun & Profits

กBloggingก For Fun & Profits

by: Jim Edwards

Unless youกve been under a rock for the last year, youกve heard the term กblogก once or twice.

To most people, a กblogก simply represents a glorified online กdiaryก where geeks, computer nerds, and lonely teenagers record their thoughts in cyberspace.

However, many people don’t realize that กblogsก are quietly revolutionizing the way companies and customers interact about everything from existing products to new ideas and improvements in customer service.

In short, กblogก style communication has come of age and anyone with an online business better sit up and take notice fast!

In the beginning, กblogsก were basically an online diary to record your thoughts; but กblogsก have now evolved into dynamic websites that nontechnical people can update immediately without html editors or ftp programs.

Blogs allow their authors to make instant website updates through a computer anywhere in the world with a Web browser and Internet connection.

Blogs also allow readers to respond to the authorกs posts, provide additional information, links, expanded opinions, and more.

In short, an active กblogก creates an interactive community with the author as the hub and the readers as the spokes of the wheel that keep the whole cycle turning round.

Unlike traditional กstaticก web pages where content rarely (if ever) changes, an active blog evolves in a state of constant and neverending renewal.

With blogs, smart online businesses rediscovered a principal that small กmom and popก stores understood for years: know your customers and stay in close tune with their wants, needs, and desires.

Large companies throw billions of dollars down a black hole every year to literally กguessก what people want to buy. Most call it the กMarketing Department.ก

On the flipside, smart online businesses understand that blogs allow you to avoid guessing whatกs on your customersก minds and provide an active and uptotheminute means for them to tell you exactly what they do and don’t like about your services, products, and virtually any other aspect of the market.

This lightning fast communication makes it possible for small companies to literally snatch huge market share away from more traditional companies.

Blogging also has a distinct advantage over traditional email newsletters in that subscribers can get udpates without having to receive an email message. Through the power of RSS (real simple syndication), subscribers get notified of updated content though an rss news reader.

Bottom Line: publishing a blog with an RSS feed that your readers can subscribe to means your content NEVER gets blocked by a SPAM filter.

Blog software basically comes in 2 flavors: hosted and standalone. Hosted blogging solutions make it extremely easy to get set up with a blog, often in just a couple of minutes.

If you know how to type, you can create a blog. Log on to Blogger.com and you can set up a blog free of charge and start posting in just a few minutes.

Blogger.com (owned by search giant, Google) will even host your blog on their servers.

Typepad.com, which charges as little as $4.95 per month, is also an excellent hosted service offering additional features that enable you to quickly get your own blog up and running.

The alternative is standalone blogging software installed on your own website.

A very popular solution is Moveable Type, available from moveabletype.org, which provides a very versatile and powerful suite of tools for creating a fullfeatured blog to rival that of any size company in the world.

This is the solution Iกve chosen for my blog at http://www.IGottaTellYou.com/blog/

Whichever blogging solution you choose, if you plan to successfully conduct any form of business online, understand that a กblogก must form an integral part of your overall plan for customer communication and interaction.

© Jim Edwards All Rights reserved

http://www.thenetreporter.com

About The Author

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the coauthor of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links…

Simple ‘traffic Machineก brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months… without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

This article was posted on August 13

by Jim Edwards

How To Bully Your Prospects Into Buying Your Produ

How To Bully Your Prospects Into Buying Your Product or Service

by: Chris Coffman

Selling is a tough job, and sometimes you may need to appear tough in order to get the sale.

As a salesperson (whether in person or in print) you don’t have to appear to the customer as being needy of the sale. Many times, the opposite can work quite effectively, that is, to make the customer think of purchasing your product or service as a special privilege.

Here are a number of ways that you can ขbullyข the customer into buying from you.

1. State that only a LIMITED number is available.

This is a commonly used technique to push the customer over the finish line. Presenting your offer as limited in quantity nudges the prospect to act now since the offer may not be available later. Companies that manufacture luxury line vehicles often use this technique by manufacturing only in small batches. Think of Hawley Davidson motorcycles for example. Only a limited number is manufactured so as to keep the price high.

A limited time offer works just as well, even though it is less compelling since the buyer may still procrastinate depending on the time window that is given. On the other hand, a limited number offer may go at any time. This places a bit more pressure on the prospective buyer.

2. Place prequalifications on the prospect before they can buy.

Many business opportunity type offers normally indicate that the company is looking for a ขfew top leadersข in a particular geographic area. You are then required to call and listen to a recorded message that will further ‘qualify’ you to work with the company. In this way the rejection is placed on the side of the customer not the seller.

Another slant to this same technique is to simply state that this offer is not for everyone. And only a few special people will recognize the offer for what it is. This of course appeals to the person’s ego and pride. Again they are placed in the defensive position not the seller. They are the ones on the rope.

3. Show how most people will grab this offer.

This appeals to the ขbandwagonข or ขherd instinctข that is common to us as humans. We don’t want to be left out of the new trend or crowd. It’s all about ‘keeping up with the Joneses’. Show how thousands have already ordered and how your operators cannot keep up with all the calls coming in. Any statement which can show that other people are flocking for this offer will work here.

4. Demonstrate very strong credibility in your copy.

By showing all the years of experience you have under your belt and the many authority figures that recommend your products, you can bully the customer into submission. The customer feels that it will be very foolish not to trust you when all these other top authorities do. Having someone whom the potential customer admires and respects endorse your product can create the magic here.

5. Show that you are not desperate for the sale.

This is another technique that can place the customer at ease or on the defensive. Here you want to indicate that you’re already doing so well (mostly from the benefits you’ve derived from the product) that the small investment they are making will make no big difference to you. This may seem at first to be counterproductive but it works! Again if the prospect ever senses that you’re just dying to get that sale you can scare them away.

Another way of stating this is to show that you’re actually creating competition for yourself by sharing this product with them.

6. Tell them what will happen if they don’t get your product.

Most likely your product is satisfying a need or solving a problem otherwise you’ll not be selling it. So you can heighten the prospect’s awareness of the problems that they’ll continue to have if they choose not to purchase your product or service. Here is where you really want to ‘rub their faces in the mud’. Spell out, in no uncertain words, the pain they’ll endure and the loss they will suffer.

These six approaches are all based on a deep psychological principle that controls us all Our desire heightens for whatever is denied us or just appears to be denied us.

This reminds me of the story I read some time ago of a small hotel that had problems with guests fishing from the balcony despite clear warning signs to the contrary placed in all the rooms. In a simple experiment, the hotel management removed the ขno fishingข signs and the problem practically disappeared overnight! I guess that the thrill of fishing from the balcony vaporized with the signs—fishing was no longer denied.

Try making your product or service appear ‘denied’ to the casual prospect and see what happens to the dollars ‘fished’ out of your advertisement account.

It’s about time to go out there and be a respectable ขbullyข!

(c) Copyright 2004 by Chris Coffman

About The Author

Chris Coffman is the publisher of The Internet Marketing Letter. Visit http://www.theinternetmarketingletter.com to subscribe today and receive instant access to the IML member community.

This article was posted on April 27, 2004

by Chris Coffman

How To Write Effective And Unique Articles That Ar

How To Write Effective And Unique Articles That Are Optimized for the Search Engines

by: Karl Augustine

It is a well known fact that writing, distributing and posting articles to various location on the web is an extremely effective way to generate targeted traffic and establish yourself as an experienced marketer in your field. Unique articles that help solve the readerกs problems, assists the reader in advancing their marketing acumen, or otherwise generally inform tend to stay posted on many web sites throughout the Internet and usually generate targeted traffic for the writer.
In order to further maximize the benefits of writing and posting unique articles, it makes good business sense to optimize the articles so the search engines list the URLกs associated with those articles on search engine results pages (SERPกs). Ideally, youกd like to see your article URL on the 1st page of the SERPกs so you can capitalize on the free and targeted traffic from these listings.
So, what type of strategy can be utilized to optimize your articles for the search engines?
Thereกs quite a few different ways but here are some tactics that you may want to use:
Article optimization tactic 1: Choose keywords that complement your USP and name your article page accordingly. When choosing keywords that will be the central theme of your article, it is necessary to define what your article will be about, who the information in the article will benefit, and how it will tie into your USP before choosing your keywords. After youกve thought through this, then come up with a list of keywords that will be suitable as the central them of the article.
Next, decide which keywords you will center your article around based on the number of searches that keyword gets per day and by assessing how much competition there is for that keyword phrase. Once you have chosen your keyword phrase for the article, name your page.
Example: If กgreen widgetsก is the keyword you wish to base your article on, you may want to name your web page กgreenwdgets.htmก or กgreenwdgets.htmlก or กgreenwdgets.shtmlก.
Article optimization tactic 2: Utilize keyword in the title tag. Utilize your keywords that youกve chosen for your article in the title tag of the web page.
Example: Green Widgets | The best green widgets available
Article optimization tactic 3: Utilize keyword in headline tags. Using keywords in headline tags will increase rankings of your web pages.
Ideally you would use the keywords as the headline, but usually this doesn’t look natural.
Keep the h tags before and after the entire headline.
Example:Green widgets: We have the most affordable and powerful green widget available anywhere, guaranteed!
Article optimization tactic 4: Utilize keywords in the 1st sentence of the initial paragraph. This an easily be accomplished and still make the paragraph read well and in a natural sounding tone if read back. Remember that you want your reader to feel like they are being talked with not กatก and you want your reader to not realize that your placement of your keyword phrases might be planned.
Article optimization tactic 5: Utilize keywords in text with appropriate keyword density After you write your article, you can easily edit to try to obtain the best keyword density for the search engines youกd like to target.
Googleกs optimum keyword density is between 1.5% to 2.5% keyword density at the time of this writing.
Once you have the article written you can use GoRankกs keyword optimization tool (http://www.gorank.com/seotools/) to check what the keyword density is of the text of the article so you can edit accordingly.
Remember, you don’t want to กstuffก the page with your chosen and targeted keyword phrase but you do want to make sure that you utilize your keywords when you can up to the required amount for the desired keyword density.
Article optimization tactic 6: Bold or italicize keywords in text. When bolding and italicizing your keywords in your articles, it isn’t necessary to bold and/or italicize every keyword phrase. When the reader comes across bolded and italicized words they add emphasis to the text at the time they read those words. So you should use your best judgment as to what looks right and ‘readsก right when you edit your article.
One key item to remember to write naturally so you get your message across in a human manner.
You want the reader to click to your link at the end or in the body of the article and the more human and conversational your article comes across, the more likely that the reader will travel to the URL youกd like them to see. Some marketers write their articles without search engine optimization in mind and then go back and edit them for the search engines.
After your article is optimized, do all you can to get it posted to other web sites so the number of relevant links pointing to that article is heightened. If you get your article posted to some of the heavier web sites that post articles and have the correct categories where your article will fit, the faster your article URL will get indexed by the search engines.
Be humble, work hard, work smart.

About The Author

Karl Augustine Author, ก9 Deadly Mistakes To Avoid…ก. http://www.9mistakesonline.com ก65 Answers To SEO Questionsก http://www.seoexpertinterview.com

This article was posted on June 16, 2004

by Karl Augustine

Yahooกs Back!

Yahooกs Back!

by: Shawn Campbell

I was all set to write an article predicting the future of search engines, when Yahoo dropped Google and replaced it with its own engine. Now thatกs big news. In less than twentyfour hours, Google went from about 79% of the market share to about 51%, almost overnight. And what a welcome relief it is too! Being #1 in Google was great, but when you had the misfortune of dropping even a couple of positions you really felt it. Now there will be more stability; if you drop in Google today, your hits from Yahoo will remain consistent.

What is the new Yahoo?

Last year, Yahoo bought the AltaVista, Fast, and Inktomi search engines. The new Yahoo results are none of these. Many people are saying that the results come from a new Inktomi because the results are similar; but the results are also similar to all the other search engines out there. In comparing these engines, it seems to me that Yahooกs results are from a brand new engine. Maybe they took parts and ideas from all the search engines they bought maybe they even took the best parts , but whatever they did, the result is something completely new.

Which search engine is better?

I will be comparing Google and Yahoo for the terms กmusicก, กart prints and postersก, กBahamas real estateก, กmosquito netsก, and กliposuctionก. The other search engines all hold less than 4% of the market share (except for MSN which uses Yahooกs Inktomi), so I won’t be considering them. Here is what I found in the top 10 results for each keyphrase:

Music

Yahoo offers a lot of music resource sites. Information about music from different sources such as magazine, TV and other music news sites are found 6 times in the top 10 results. It also offered downloading and file sharing programs 3 times. The 10th result was an audio player program site.

Google has a lot more diversity. There were 3 music resource sites (but no magazines), one downloading program, one CD store, one radio station (Yahoo radio), one music directory, and the 10th result was an audio player program site. Google also had 2 sites in its top ten that were of no value whatsoever; MP3.com which just has one page stating that they no longer offer the services that they used to (with links to their parent company), and music.com, which is nothing more than an email gathering site for a newsletter (not a single link on the entire page).

Googleกs diversity is a big bonus, but the 2 spam/junk/useless sites really hurt it. The results? Yahoo 1, Google 0.

Art Prints And Posters

Yahoo offers 6 stores, while Google offers 5. The other links are all affiliate spam with no content whatsoever (just links to stores), with the exception of one of Yahooกs links, which has some biographical content about artists. So Google has 5 spam sites, and Yahoo has 3 and a half.

Yet another round goes to Yahoo.

Bahamas Real Estate

For this keyphrase, I found results between Google and Yahoo to be quite similar. The only differences were sites by actual realtors and sites that were simply property listings. Both types of results are useful, with Google having an edge in realtors. Google had some lower quality sites, but the information was just as good even though they did seem less professional. On the other hand, Yahoo did have one site that was nothing more than a links page from another realtorกs site. Big boo boo.

This one goes to Google.

Mosquito Nets

It seems to me that someone searching for กmosquito netsก wants either A) to buy them, or B) to learn about them, so I was expecting to find either stores or information about mosquito nets. Yahoo showed me 6 stores and 2 informational pages. The other results were a search result page (not a good result) and an inner page from a previous result (also not a good result).

Google gave me 7 stores and 3 charitable organizations (one of which was a store as well). The other 2 charitable organizations were a news article outlining what they had done regarding mosquito nets and information about mosquito nets.

So even though I didn’t necessarily want the latest news about what a charity did regarding mosquito nets, I think getting the same site twice from Yahoo (not to mention the search result page) is the bigger nono. Google wins this round.

Liposuction

I expected to find information about liposuction, liposuction organizations and either doctors or centers where you can have liposuction done. What I got was a lot of กhow to find a doctorก sites, with a lot of good information.

Yahoo results included 3 sites doubled. This is a problem that killed AltaVista in the late 90กs. Hopefully they will have it fixed soon. Other than the 3 doubled sites, the results included 4 informational sites, 2 sites for finding doctors and one poorly written article about the history of liposuction.

Google gave me 4 good informational sites, 2 good กfind a doctorก sites, one recent article about liposuction for people in the industry, one site with very poor information one written by a single doctor and one site that was nothing more than a directory.

Google gets this round as well. Overall, it looks like Yahoo needs to fix its doubling of sites and Google needs to clean out some spam (poor sites).

And The Winner Is…

You! Having two good search engines to choose from makes searching that much better for everyone. It also makes getting listings better. It also makes marketing better. It also makes traffic to your site steadier. The only way this could have been worse is if Yahooกs results sucked, and they don’t. They seem just as good, if not better, than Googleกs.

So rejoice, and enjoy a more dynamic world of online searching!

Shawn Campbell

About The Author

Shawn Campbell is an enthusiastic player in the ecommerce marketplace, and cofounded Red Carpet Web Promotion, Inc. (http://www.redcarpetweb.com/). He has been researching and developing marketing strategies to achieve more prominent listings in search engine results since 1998. Shawn is one of the earliest pioneers in the search engine optimization field.

Contact: [email protected]

This article was posted on April 05, 2004

by Shawn Campbell

The Internet FWord

The Internet FWord

by: Judy (Wogoman) Cox

For the last several months Iกve been collecting and organizing links for the free Christian Resource Center. Now that the public area is up and the members’ area is well under construction, Iกm running into one problem: the Internet Fword.

One of the most popular search terms in the world. One of the Webกs biggest search term lies in the wrong hands. It’s so controversial that I can’t put it in the subject line of an email. (Thanks to those selfappointed email guardians who have done such a commendable job of protecting the sanctity of our email inboxes by eliminating the fword, thus leaving more storage space for Viagra ads, adult sites, and really personal growth secrets.) It’s still one of the best magnets to draw targeted traffic.

So, what if I have to advertise that my กMembers Areaก will have links to over 25,000 fr^e resources? Or that my public area has links to over 1,000 fr^e resources. Or that my ezine will feature fr^e resources in every issue.

Itกs all part of life on the new frontier, keeping up with the changing rules, avoiding misdirected vigilante กjustice.ก

No, I don’t like the stupid email filters that filter out the ezines I subscribed to while apparently laying out the welcome mat for the scammers, spammers, smut merchants, and gamblers. I could gripe to my family and friends or change my domain name to keep my URL from triggering somebodyกs spam filter. But, hey, I live in the land of the fr^e and the home of the br@ve. Think Iกll keep my domain name and post the ezine on the Web site for those who can’t get it by email.

If I can’t figure out some way to let people know my site is out there, then Iกm just not a good enough promoter. If I can piggyback that ontosay, an article that (I hope) advances the cause of exposing the Spamnazis and ISPs for their meddling, ineffective and intrusive (non)solution to ‘the problem of spam,ก so much the better.

Maybe I could even come up with a title that piques the readerกs curiosity while illustrating the woeful inadequacy of กfilters.ก After all, Iกm fr^e to submit fr^e articles to fr^e content sites and fr^e ezines all over the Internet to advertise my fr^e resources. I just can’t use the fword in the subject line.

Note to self: add กfr^eก to metatags on Web site before the Googlebotกs next visit 😉

About The Author

copyright, Judy (Wogoman) Cox,CFO (chief freebiegatherer & organizer)From the early writings of the prophets to end times prophecythe Gutenberg Bible to Christian video gamesall free:

http://www.freechristianresourcecenter.com/

mailto:[email protected]

[email protected]

This article was posted on May 05, 2004

by Judy (Wogoman) Cox

How To Find Relevant Web Sites For Link Exchanges

How To Find Relevant Web Sites For Link Exchanges

by: Sandi Moses

If you’ve been on the internet very long at all, you know that one of the very best and certainly cheapest ways of making your web site known is by exchanging links with other sites similar to yours. The more relevant sites that link to yours, the more your rating will improve, the more people looking for whatever you have will find your site, the more traffic you will get and the more sales you will make! So just how do you go about finding webmasters who are willing to place a link to your new site onto their site?
When your site is brand new, your best bet is to type your key words or phrases into a search engine and see what comes up. The sites you see on the first few pages have made it to the top of the search engine rankings. Go to the sites and look around on the home page for the phrase ขlinks exchangeข or sometimes just ขlinks.ข They will have instructions for how to place their site on yours, and instructions on the information they need from you in order for them to place a link to your site on theirs. Always remember that the Golden Rule applies here. You want them to place a link to you on their site so you need to reciprocate. If you are uncomfortable with the content of their links page and would prefer not to be associated with that site, then just move on. There are millions of others.
Some of the higher ranked sites will have noncontent related restrictions about with whom they will exchange links. They will only exchange with you if your site and/or links pages have achieved a certain Google PageRank. (*More about that later.) If you encounter such a site, graciously just move on. Don’t waste your time linking to them or requesting a reciprocal link because they will most likely ignore you.
For instructions on Keeping Track Of Your Links Exchanges, please follow the link to another article that I wrote. Trust me on this one; you need to keep track. You will eventually have many many pages with similar sounding titles and URL’s and they will all begin to swim around in your mind. Only a savant could keep it straight!
OK. Now your site has been up and running for awhile and you would like to focus your search on exchanging links with sites that have a higher PageRank. Repeat your very first steps of typing your key words or phrases into a search engine and see what comes up. It may or may not be the same sites you saw before, but it will be the current top ranked sites for those key words. Go to the first site just as before, but this time click on the little blue icon on your Google toolbar (if you don’t have the Google tool bar click here to download it.) You will see a dropdown menu with 4 items on it. Click on ขbackward linksข and you will get a page of web sites that looks like a regular Google search but is really all of the web pages with a PageRank of at least 4 that have linked back to the site you started with. Go to each of those sites and request to exchange links with them. The procedure is the same, but all of these sites and pages will have a PageRank of at least 4 and the more pages ranked at least 4 that link back to you, the higher your site will be rated. Just keep plugging away at it. It is tedious to the max, but free (unlike some programs on the market) and effective.
At some point in time, other webmasters will begin to contact you requesting to exchange links. Tadaahhh! You’ve made it! The first thing you need to do is visit their site. Is their site relevant to yours? Are you comfortable putting a link to their site on yours? Would you want your Grandma to visit your site and follow that link? If the answer is yes, then put up the link. Email them back to thank them for the offer and to let them know where on your site you put their link. If you are not comfortable putting the link on your site, don’t worry about it. You will get requests from people who obviously didn’t read that you prefer not to link to casinos and Viagra sites or whatever, and you will get requests to exchange links with sites that have absolutely nothing to do with your site’s subject matter. Just ignore them, or you could reply and politely decline. Now here comes some more Golden Rule stuff. NEVER turn down somebody because their site or links page isn’t ranked high enough! Remember that you once had a whole site of ข0ข ranked pages and were so grateful for any of the exchanges you could get. Return the favor. Remember that you were new once and others helped you. Remember that the ขBig Kahunasข on the internet were new once and had ข0ข ranked pages that are now very highly ranked. That new person you agree to link to today could be tomorrow’s next ขBig Kahuna.ข Remember that Google has pulled the rug out from under people before and likely will do it again. Today’s top site could be tomorrow’s cellar dweller, and next week some site could shoot out of nowhere to the top. You don’t have to put their ข0ข page on your ข6ข or ข7ข home page, but do exchange links with them somewhere on your site. It’s the right thing to do. 

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

About The Author

Sandi Moses has been involved in internet marketing since November, 2003. Visit her site at http://www.123iwork4me.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 21, 2004

by Sandi Moses

5 Free Steps To Online Income

5 Free Steps To Online Income

by: Darren Power

If you are new to the online business world and would like to get involved without risking any of your hard earned cash then this article will show you one way to get involved for free.

We are going to discuss ways to promote affiliate programs without your own site and without spending any money.

Best of all if you choose a program related to your interests then it won’t even seem like any work is involved.

The 5 steps are aimed at promoting a product while you go about your normal daily surfing activities.

Before we get on to step 1 you need to locate and join an appropriate affiliate program.

This program ideally should be 2 tier, which means you get paid for sales made through your link as well as for the sales made by affiliates that you refer through your link.

To find an affiliate program search at Google for กaffiliate directoryก then visit the directories and search the directory for a keyword related to your interests.

Once you have joined a program you will receive a link to promote, you may also receive a second link to promote the affiliate program itself which can be used to recruit tier 2 affiliates.

Once you have a link take the following steps to incorporate the affiliate link into your surfing activities:

1. Add a signature to your emails, this will mean that every mail you send will have a tag line at the bottom which, in this case, will promote the service that you are affiliated with. Check the help files in your email program for instructions on how to do this.

2. If you already visit forums related to the product add a signature to your profile. This means that every time you post your link will be added to the end of your post.

Locate more forums where people interested in the product might hang out. Do a search for a keyword followed by forum at Google.

Try and think of all the different related subjects that might have forums and identify as many as possible.

Once you have identified your forums visit them all and join the ones that allow posters to add a signature file to their posts. Then get involved in conversations be useful whenever possible and every time you post an item your affiliate link will be displayed. This will be a lot less like work if you are promoting in a niche that is of interest to you.

3. If you have an eBay account then create an About Me page and include details of the affiliate program there. Click help once logged in to eBay and search for About Me to find instructions on creating your page.

Whenever you list an auction include a line at the top of the description that invites viewers to visit your About Me page.

4. Locate sites that have visitors that might be interested in the product that you are affiliated with especially those that have a mailing list or an ezine. Then contact the site owner and suggest that they join the affiliate program. If they join using your link you will earn a percentage of any commissions that they earn.

5. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat. With so many things success comes down to numbers. The more site owners you contact and the more forums that you post at the more commission you will earn.

Do all of the above and you will earn money for no investment, it may take time and might start slowly but it will happen.

Copyright 2004 Darren Power

About The Author

Darren Power is the author of The Money Seed, your quick start guide to making money online. You can join his affiliate program at http://www.themoneyseed.com/affiliate.

This article was posted on October 01, 2004

by Darren Power

Top 10 Business Email Basics

Top 10 Business Email Basics

by: Judith Kallos

When it comes to your business email communications, you need to make an impression that can lend to the determination that you are someone that will be a pleasure to do business with.

For your consideration below are the ‘top 10 email issues targeted at business men and women. These are the issues business owners and their employees minimally need to be aware of in their daytoday online communications.

1. SUBJECT: Field: The SUBJECT: field is the window into your email and can many times determine even if your email will be opened. If this is your first contact with a customer based on their request through your site or otherwise, be sure to have a short SUBJECT: that indicates clearly what the topic of the email is. Never be misleading in this regard! Typos, all caps or all small case can give the impression you are a spammer.

2. Level of Formality: Never assume a position of informality in your business email. Only time and relationship building efforts can guide when you can informalize your business relationships. And, in some cases that time may never arise. Do not assume that email is impersonal or informal when it comes to your business communications. It is very personal a window into the type of person you are and how you run your business. Remember, people do business with people not companies. One should communicate as if your email is on your company letterhead at all times. This is your businessกs image you are branding!

3. Addressing: How do you address your new contacts? I would suggest initially that you assume the highest level of courtesy: Hello, Mr. Anderson, Dear Ms. Jones, Dr. Osborne, etc. Until your new contact states, กcall me Andyก or กyou can call me Diane. Keep it formal until it is clear the relationship dictates otherwise. You will also be able to get clues by how your contacts approach you and their tone. Most business people do not mind being called by their first name, however, in a global economy that can be perceived as taking premature liberties in the relationship if used too soon.

4. TO:, From:, Bcc, Cc fields can make or break you:

..In the TO: field make sure you have your contactกs name formally typed. John B. Doe not john b doe or JOHN B DOE.

..In the FROM: field make sure your have your full name formally typed. Example: Jane A. Jones. Not: jane a jones or JANE A JONES. The later two give the perception of lack of education or limited experience with technology. Always use your full name. By only including your first name or email address you are giving the perception you have something to hide or do not know the basics of configuring your email program.

..Bcc: use this field when emailing a group of contacts who do not personally know each other. By listing an arms length list of email addresses in the CC or TO fields of contacts who do not know each other or who have never met is conducive to publishing their email address to strangers. No matter how great the list of people may be to you, never make this decision for others! This is a privacy issue! With those you are forging partnerships with, visibly listing their email address in with a group of strangers will make one wonder what other privacy issues you may not respect or understand. Not good.

..Cc: Use this field when there are a handful of associates involved in a discussion that requires all be on the same page. These business people know each other or have been introduced and have no problem having their email address exposed to the parties involved. If you are not sure if a business associate would mind their address being made public, ask!

5. Formatting: Refrain from using it in your business communications. Unless you would type something in bold crimson letters on business letterhead, don’t do it when emailing for commercial gain. Even something as simple as using a different font makes your emailกs display contingent upon the recipient having that specific font on their system or it defaults to their designated default font. The recipient may not have their email program configured in such a way as to display your formatting the way it appears on your system if at all.

6. Attachments: Do you think your relationship with a potential new customer is enhanced when you send them that 5M Power Point presentation they didn’t request and you fill up their inbox causing subsequent business correspondence to bounce as undeliverable? Nope. And, if they don’t have Power Point they couldn’t open the file anyway! Never assume your potential customers have the software you do to open any file you may arbitrarily send.

If you need to send a file over 200,000 in size, business courtesy dictates you ask the recipient first if it is O.K. to send a large file. Next, confirm they have the same software and version you do and what is the best time of day to sent it to them to ensure they are available to download the large file and keep their email flowing. Do not send large attachments without warning, on weekends or after business hours when the recipient may not be there to clear out their inbox and keep their email flowing.

7. Using Previous Email for New Correspondence: If you want to give the perception of lazy, find a previous email from the party you want to communicate with, hit reply and start typing about something completely irrelevant to the old emailกs subject. Always start a new email and add your contacts to your address book so you can add them to a new email with one click.

8. Down Edit Your Replies: Don’t just hit reply and start typing. Editing is a skill those you communicate with will appreciate as it lends to reflecting a respect for their time and clarity in your communications. Removing parts of the previous email that do not apply to your response including email headers and signature files removes the clutter. In addition, by making the effort to reply point by point keeps the conversation on track with fewer misunderstandings.

9. Common Courtesy: Hello, Hi, Good Day, Thank You, Sincerely, Best Regards. All those intros and sign offs that are a staple of professional business communications should also be used in your business email communications. Always have a salutation and sign off with every email. Here again think business letterhead.

10. Signature files: Keep your signature files to no more than 56 lines as this can be viewed as a bit egocentric. Limit your signature to your Web site link, company name, and slogan/offer or phone number. Include a link to your site where the recipient can get all your contact information from AZ that is what your site is for.

Don’t forget to include the กhttp://ก when including your Web site address within emails and your signature file to ensure it is recognized as a clickable URL regardless of the userกs software or platform.

The above Top 10 items will certainly allow your business communications to rise above the majority who do not take the time to understand and master these issues. When forging new business relationships and solidifying established partnerships, the level of professionalism and courtesy you relay in your business email communications will always gain clients over the competition that may be anemic, uninformed or just plain lazy in this area. Went it comes to business, regardless of mode of communication used, professionalism and courtesy never go out of style.

Publishing Guidelines: You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, at no charge, as long as the byline is included. A courtesy email letting me know where and when you will use my materials, including a copy if possible, would be nice. Thank you! 😉

About The Author

Judith Kallos is an authoritative and goodhumored Technology Muse whose experience and personalized methodology have opened doors to a legion of online entrepreneurs. She just put the wraps on her new book กBecause Netiquette Matters! Your comprehensive guide to email etiquette and proper technology use.ก due out 3/Q. For information check out: http://www.OnlineNetiquette.com.

This article was posted on August 05, 2004

by Judith Kallos

Discover the Lighter Side of the Internet

Discover the Lighter Side of the Internet

by: Jesse S. Somer

The other side of the Internet is light and fluffy. It can definitely turn a dark, gray cloud to white.

We all know the Internet is a great tool for finding out information and sharing knowledge. But as a human sometimes sitting at a computer all day can get quite tedious, especially if it is your job 5 days a week. This feeling can be compounded by other problems in one’s personal life, and the result can mean little productivity because of a sour mood. Well humanity does have a lighter side, and this too can be explored on the Internet. Sometimes a little humor or interesting trivia can really take the edge off a bad moment. You’d be surprised at how much comedy and insight is expressed on the Net. I’ve been exploring what’s out there and I just can’t stop laughing. Laughter of course is the ultimate medicine and some believe it to be the highest form of life. My only warning is don’t get hooked on this stuff as your work ethic will probably become worse than ever!

Now, there’s a lot of stuff on the Net and not all of it is positive humor, but you can surf around the undesirable stuff with ease. To give you an idea of some funny sites I discovered, here is a short list but I’m sure there are thousands of others you can find by doing simple word searches: www.bored.com, www.linkydinky.com, www.chickenjoke.com, www.crazyfads.com, www.crazythoughts.com, www.dancingbush.com, and www.stupidvideos.com. I really advise checking out the last site and watching the video entitled ‘Evil penguin2’. This nearly brought tears to my eyes as I already have a soft spot for penguins.

So, you’ve got jokes, funny videos, kooky trivia, strange thoughts and perspectives on different aspects of life, and even the most ‘powerful’ man on EarthGeorge Bush doing an animated dance imitating John Travolta in ‘Saturday Night Fever’. You’ve really got no reason anymore to sit in front of your computer worrying and wallowing in selfpity. I’ve always thought that humans have put too much emphasis on technological development as opposed to the spiritual side of things. This comedic aspect to the Internet has shown me that people can also be quite clever in more lighthearted endeavors. Some of the ideas on these sites really flip the world upside down and make you question why we do the things the way we do. This could be considered a step forward in our evolution as we see the underlying truths in our cultural systems.

Laughter is the key to humanity reaching a higher level of consciousness. Imagine if everyone on our planet could all be happy enough in one moment to laugh at the same time. The Earth would shake, the seas would rise, and all the animals would stop what they’re doing to join in. The vibration would probably cause a ripple to flow out into space affecting other planetary systems. Then, imagine all the beings of the Universe laughing at one time. We’re talking serious celebrations! We’re talking about black holes folding in on themselves in result of the positive energy wave forces demolishing all negative forces in their path! It’s called the Laughter Revolution, and it might just be the next step for you to take to reach that long awaited goal of happiness. Come on, take a look around, there’s a whole world of funniness just under the surface of our perceived ‘normal’ reality. We have to wake up and smell the cheese…Oh the sweet cheese.

About The Author

Jesse S. Somer, M6.Net

http://www.m6.net

Jesse S. Somer is a กlaughing boyก hoping to utilize the humanpacked comedy hidden in the Internet to morph into a กlaughing manก. He also hopes to incite others to join in the Laughter Revolution that one day will spread across planet Earth.

This article was posted on November 18, 2004

by Jesse S. Somer

Secrets to Free Website Traffic

Secrets to Free Website Traffic

by: John Baker

You have just uploaded your website and it looks great!

You feel good about it and you’re ready to make some money!

Thereกs only one problem, you need some Customers, or Traffic!

There are a few ways to do this, that are free, but will take some time and work.

First you will need to setup some link pages on you website. Then you will need to exchange links with other websites that are related to yours. For example, if you have a home business you can visit Google and type in กhome businessก. Google will then give you a few million related sites that you can start with. You will then visit these sites exchanging links. Most sites will have a กlink to usก or กAdd URLก page. You will click that link and follow the instructions to submit a link back to your website. It is good to start with at least a hundred links or more, (no more than 50 links a page). Exchange links with the first and second pages only, then you will want to type in maybe, กwork from homeก, กbest business ideasก, กhome careersก, กcomputer jobsก, etc. Repeat this procedure until you have enough. Sites on the first two pages of the Google search will have the most traffic, which will increase yours.

The next thing you will want to do is write an article. Writing articles is a great way to market your website and increase your traffic. Write a simple article relating to your website topic, if you need some help, visit Google and type in the subject your looking for. At the end of your article you will create an author bio or resource box. In it include a brief description of you and your website and your website URL.This allows everyone who reads your article to learn more about you and your business. Now you will start submitting your article to many article directories by visiting Google and search for กarticle directoriesก. By doing this your article will be posted all over the world for people to read, thus creating more traffic for your site.

Last, you can create your own newsletter. This is more of a longterm strategy, but one that you should start early so that you can get the effects as soon as possible. Everyone that signsup, 20% may return to your site from the links in your newsletter. This will build over a period of time and add lots of free traffic. A valid newsletter may consist of a single article about the subject of your site, followed by information telling them how to unsubscribe or subscribe. If you don’t have time to write your own article, there are many on the Internet with permission to reprint included, just remember to include the authorกs bio or resource box at the end. To find these articles, go to Google and type: ?????? articles reprint.

Just fill in the ?????? with your website topic.

Now you will start submitting your newsletter (ezine) to many ezine directories by visiting Google and search for กezine directoriesก. This will help you establish links to your ezine and create more subscribers for your newsletter, thus creating another source of free traffic.

Using these highly effective ways to increase traffic to your website will help you market your business and reach a larger consumer base.

This article may be reprinted providing it is published in itกs entirety, including the authorกs bio and link to the URL below.

About The Author

The author, John Baker, is the editor of BestHomeBusinessNews. A newsletter dedicated to supporting the home business entrepreneur. If you’re looking for some of the best home business opportunities, tools, thoughts, ideas, and support from a dependable source, come by, visit,and grab a FREE subscription today at: http://www.besthomebusinessideas.net

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 16, 2004

by John Baker