How to Read A Person Like A Book

How to Read A Person Like A Book

by: Oscar Bruce

The human mind is an innovative hybrid that allows us to anticipate the future to think big thoughts. Thatกs the good news.

However, a growing number of psychologists and behavioral scientists are finding evidence that our brains are hardwired for mistakes in today social environment, especially when it comes to assessing the personality and predicting behavior of people we encounter.

Why are we so bad at reading the intentions of others? Built on top of the older กemotionalก parts of our mammalian circuitry, there is a กrationalก cerebral cortex. The two are often at odds, and under the surface, our protective instincts are always lurking. Unfortunately the กemotionalก circuitry frequently overwhelms the กrationalก cortex. When we encounter people we simply give more weight to elements in their personalities that support our beloved preconceptions than to any evidence to the contrary. Thus we frequently completely miss the target and pay a price of our misjudgments.

ARBITARY OBSESSIONS

The frontal lobes have fallen in love with our preconceptions. This hardwired programming undercuts us in a host of sadly familiar ways. The most common is the way our preconceptions and prejudices distort our perception of individuals we wish to assess.

CONFIRMATION BIAS

This is our all too natural ability to convince ourselves of whatever it is that we want to believe. How? We simply give more weight to events that support our desired prejudice or preconception than to any evidence to the contrary.

PREPARATION MUST PRECEDE OPPORTUNITY

Consider how many great opportunities are lost by what I call กsemantic sabotageก. If youกve ever found yourself stumbling over your words, or simply not knowing what to say next youกve experienced ‘the dialog dilemma.ก Also if youกve uttered a statement, then realized that it wasn’t exactly what you meant to say. These are all curable maladies.

IกLL BET YOURกVE NEVER HAD THIS EXPERIENCE… Someone introduces themselves to you. Then you tell them your name. Suddenly you realize you can not recall their name. Why does this happen so often? Simple, you didn’t forget their name you never really heard it in the first place! You still had yourself in the middle of the picture.

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand they listen with the intent to reply or impress. This is never successful because the mind does not have simultaneous capability. Therefore, if you are contemplating your next statement, you are not focusing on his words, tones and actions.

In order to read a person like a book, you must get them to open up, get them talking. Getting people to open up is a skill that you can learn.

A skilled conversationalist uses specific question in three different categories. (1) Conversation starters. (2) Personal questions. (3) Philosophical questions. Once youกve mastered a small inventory of optional questions you can switch categories to control the outcome.

QUESTIONS ARE THE KEY TO KNOWLEDGE and source of power. He who does not ask the right questions always hears the wrong answers. An unclear question has an infinite number of answers.

Many say that information is the path to power. The wealthiest people will tell you that itกs their ability to make wise choices in dealing with people is their greatest asset. And that when they did make mistakes, it was often disastrous for them socially and financially.

About The Author

Oscar Bruce is considered the ultimate personal communications guru. His dynamic books are considered field manuals for mastering conversation and confrontations. His website offers several verbal strategies that can add power to your conversations at no cost.

HIS FREE NEWSLETTER is available at http://www.oscarbruce.com

Copyright: 2005

Article Autoresponder: mailto:[email protected]

Author Contact Email: mailto:[email protected]

TERMS OF REPRINT Publication Rules

The requirements for publishing this article are:

You May Not change the content of the article, except for minor corrections for layout, typos or grammar.

You May Not use this article in UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email). Email distribution of this article MUST be optin email only.

If you post this article on a website, you MUST set any URLกs or email addresses in the body of the article or in the Authorกs Resource Box as hyperlinks (clickable links).

Please, if possible, forward a copy of the ezine or newsletter in which you published the article, or if on a webpage, the link to the article, to the author.

This article was posted on March 25

by Oscar Bruce

Getting Web Site Traffic in Less Than One Day

Getting Web Site Traffic in Less Than One Day

by: Cheap Hosting Directory

Every web site owner has wanted to drive additional traffic to their web site – and of course we’re all in a big hurry to do it. But have you ever thought about the fact that any webmaster can drive great qualified traffic to their site in less than one day? That’s right – you can literally set up an entire traffic driving campaign and see the traffic coming to your site even in the same day! Here’s how:
Harness the Power of Targeted Search with Google
The absolute fastest way to get really serious targeted traffic to your web site is to use the power of Google. You know, Google the guys that get, oh say, over 50% of all searches conducted on the Internet today. Yeah Google the guys who figured out how to produce relevant search results. Google the guys who are gonna go public and make like 20 zillion dollars. That Google.
They have a braindead easytouse advertising product called Google AdWords – and you can set up an account, create keywords, have them appear on the relevant search terms in the Google search engine, and see real live qualified traffic to your web site in the space of a few hours.
Setting Up a Google AdWords Account StepbyStep
Okay, take a deep breath. Settle into the chair in front of your computer and get ready to go. Follow these steps exactly:
1. Navigate your browser to: https://adwords.google.com/select and click on the ‘Sign Up Now’ area.
2. Select the appropriate language and gepgraphical targeting – ‘Regions and cities’ if you are a local business, ‘Global or nationwide’ if you serve all regions (we’ll use this setting for our example). Click the ‘Save and Continue’ button.
3. Next you choose your countries. If you are a North American business, I highly recommend selecting ‘United States’ only. To do this – go to the right hand box entitled ‘Selected Countries’ and highlight ‘All Countries’ with your mouse. Then click the ‘Remove’ button. The ‘Selected Countries’ box will now be empty. Go to the left column and highlight ‘United States’ – then click the ‘Add’ button. Click the ‘Save and Continue’ button.
4. Now you name your ad group and create your first online ad. Don’t worry – you can always go back and edit your ad at anytime. Just have fun with it for now! To get started, think up a name that you want to call your first group of ads. Type this name into the box labeled: ‘Name this Ad Group’.
Now go to section ‘A: Create Ads’ just below. You simply fill in the boxes and Google does this cool ‘automatic update’ that shows you what your ad will look like as you are filling in the boxes. When you have an ad that you like click the ‘Save and Continue’ button.
5. Choose the keywords that will trigger your ad. If you sell ‘tennis rackets’ then start with that keyword. If you sell ‘palm pilots’ then start with that. Once you have typed in a search term, you can always use the ‘Keyword Suggestion Tool’ link on the same page to expand your list. Google will automatically suggest words that may expand your traffic. Be sure to do a reality check against this list – it’s automated and some terms may not be appropriate for your business. Once you have a list of keywords, click the ‘Save Keywords’ button to continue.
6. Choose your maximum bid. I always set this to $.05 (five cents) to start. This is Google’s minimum bid amount. You can always change it later if you need more traffic. Type in .05 and click the ‘Calculate Estimates’ button. Ignore the resulting estimates – they are almost always wrong. Simply click the ‘Save and Continue’ button. At this step Google will ask if you want to create another ad group – simply bypass this step by clicking the ‘Continue to Step 3’ button.
7. Now you specify you daily budget. I suggest being conservative here as well. You can always increase this later. For now – figure out how much you can spend each month for traffic and divide by 30. Put in an amount that is this number or even lower. I usually start with $5 per day as a maximum. When you’ve decided, simply click the ‘Save and Continue’ button.
8. Entering your contact information and password. This step requires you to give Google a valid email address that you can check – in order to send you to the final confirmation and billing step. Fill in your email and pick a password that you can remember – preferably one that has at least 1 numeral and is difficult to duplicate easily.
When you’ve filled in your information, click the ‘I agree – Create my AdWords account’ button.
At this point you should see the following message: ขThank you for signing up with AdWords. Please check your email ([email protected]) for a message from Google containing a link to our verification program.ข Follow the link in that message to confirm that we have your correct email address.
9. Check your email and finish setting up your account. Go to your eamil and retireve the Google email. Follow the link inside – this will verify that your email is valid. Then simply login to your AdWords account using the email address and password that you supplied in the last step.
10. Once you log in you will see the following message: ขNote: Your account hasn’t been activated. Payment information is required in order to run your ads. Please provide your payment information on the Billing Preferences page in the กMy Accountก section. Typically, your ads will begin running almost immediately after you submit this information.ข Simpy follow the ‘Billing Prefences’ link and enter your credit card information. When complete click the ‘Save Changes’ button.
11. Your AdWords account is now live! You will see traffic from your ads coming to your site almost immediately if you have selected popular keywords.
Then entire process described above can easily be completed in less than 2 hours. I just did it myself in less than an hour. Good luck and remember if you ever have any problems with the account running through too much cash – you can simply ‘pause’ the account giving you time to reduce your bids, or delete keywords. While you won’t become an AdWords expert from this start up guide, you will begin to see highly targeted web traffic come to your site in less than one day!
Next we will be publishing our 4 Part guide to กCheating Adwords Selectก

About The Author

Author: Cheap Hosting Directory .com

Email: [email protected]

CheapHostingDirectory.Com is a resource for webmasters and consumers looking to find a web hosting company or a quality expiring domain names with traffic. CHD is part of the TechPad Agency network of web hosting related sites, visit www.thetechpad.com for more information.
This article may be reprinted or published without the authors consent as long as the ขAboutข and ขweblinksข are kept intact. If you publish this article, we would love to know the location. Feel free to email us.

This article was posted on June 14, 2004

by Cheap Hosting Directory

Please Protect Your Confidential Files

Please Protect Your Confidential Files

by: Robert Kelly

You’d be disgusted to know just how some doctors, businesses, lawyers and high profile companies treat your confidential records. Often they have extremely good email security, only to have the files left completely unprotected on their actual hard drive. Really, what good is that? If somebody takes the computer, or simply bypasses your firewall, not a difficult task, they would gain access to all of your confidential information. What about that notebook computer? I’m sure where all thinking about security when we take our laptops from place to place…

To combat the problem Australian based IT Security company, Quantum Digital Security has created an incredibly interesting tool. The product, named CleverCrypt, acts as an encrypted hard drive for your computer. Once you’ve installed the product you simply protect all of your confidential files, by dragging them into the CleverCrypt drive, and the program automatically encrypts them all. After your files are in your encrypted drive, you simply open the files from the drive.

CleverCrypt seems to be able to encrypt almost any kind of file, including Microsoft Word / Excel files and all of our business management files. You can also protect images and some system files.

The benefit? If somebody hacks into your computer, or just outright takes it, all of your data is protected inside your CleverCrypt drive. According to the company website it would take a supercomputer over 149 trillion years to crack a CleverCrypt volume, and that’s if you’re using the least secure option.

CleverCrypt is an incredibly interesting product, useful for anyone dealing with confidential data or simply wants a little more privacy.

So, what’s your doctor using to protect your records?

CleverCrypt is available for $89.95 from Quantum Digital Security, Australia

You can try CleverCrypt for 30 days by visiting www.qdsecurity.com

About The Author

Robert Kelly

Busy Business Bob takes a look at a new security product designed to protect your confidential, or just downright private, files.

[email protected]

This article was posted on October 21, 2004

by Robert Kelly

iPhoto 5 Magnified

iPhoto 5 Magnified

by: Jelaine Macaraig

Want a userfriendly, efficient and versatile digital imaging software that allows you to be creative and produce professional projects? Then you’ll definitely love iPhoto 5.

It has the standard functions one can expect from an image editing application – the RedEye button for well, red eyes, the Retouch Brush for removing blemishes and other unwanted ขdirt,ข freehand Crop Tool to capture only the best elements of your photo in one frame, the Straighten tool to level horizons using the handydandy grid, and the Advanced Editing Dashboard for precise adjustment of black and white points using the Levels tool, adjustment of exposure and color saturation, modification of color temperature and for finetuning tint, as well as brightness and contrast. While editing a photo, iPhoto 5 even allows you to compare it with the original image simply by holding down the Control key. You can also reset all the adjustments you’ve done with the different sliders using a single button. Yup, iPhoto 5 has all these… and so much more.

It supports not only the ohso famous JPEG file format, but even the RAW file format, which has become a favorite among professional photographers and higherend enthusiasts who wish to preserve the maximum image quality. It also supports the MPEG4 file format for video clips and if you’re concerned about file size, don’t worry – iPhoto 5 imports them just as fast and easy as it would JPEGs and from almost any data source too. With a USB cable, simply plug in your gadget to your Mac, whether it’s your digital camera or your memory card reader or your iPod and iPhoto would automatically launch. It would then give you a dialog box where you can put in information about your images like name, subject, keywords and other metadata, which you can later on use for fast and easy search of photos, albums or digital roll. You can also import images stored in CDs or your hard drive in two ways – either you select and add your image folders to the library from the File menu or simply drag the folder into the iPhoto window.

Lastly, one of the many features that iPhoto 5 prides itself of is the intelligent and advanced slideshow feature. First off, the slideshows are separate from the albums. Therefore, you can modify the contents of one slideshow, like maybe add a few images from another album, without affecting the albums themselves. And since iPhoto 5 supports MPEG4, you can create slideshows consisting of both still images and video clips. It also has a lot of fantastic transitions, which you can control the speed and direction of, and even allows you to adjust the slide duration on a perimage basis. You might be thinking, a good soundtrack would be lovely too – but setting the perfect timing may be difficult to achieve. With iPhoto 5, you wouldn’t have to worry about that as it has a tight integration with iTunes. Simply select a song or an entire playlist from your iTunes library and iPhoto will do the math for you and synchronize your music with your slideshow! Now how’s that for a total viewing experience? Your family and friends might think that you had a professional do all these creative work for you!

About The Author

Versatile and hardworking. Two words that clearly describes Gemกs work attitude. She can just write and talk about everything. Her green thumb for writing can turn seeds of ideas into excellent writing pieces She loves to read books especial novels that are set back into the Medieval Period.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 03

by Jelaine Macaraig

Getting More Work DONE In Your Online Business

Getting More Work DONE In Your Online Business

by: Willie Crawford

If you’re anything like me, there never seems to be enough time to get all of the things done that youกd like to do. If your income goals are as high as mine (sevenfigures,) then you also realize that youกll have a very hard time reaching them if you’re trading time for money. I realized this second point when I first noticed all of the doctors and lawyers leaving those practices to start their own businesses. When I asked them why, they explained that they only got paid when they worked, and that the fact that they could only work so many hours per day was what limited their incomes the most.

Assuming you’re not simply trading your time for money… working for a salary or at an hourly wage, how do you simply get more done?

First of all, you need to make sure that you’re only trying to do the things that you should be doing. For most entrepreneurs that means doing things to grow and market your business. Most other work should be farmed out… subcontracted or outsourced to technicians. If you can easily hire someone to do it cheaper than you can do it, then YOU shouldn’t be doing it.

Trying to do everything yourself is one of the biggest reasons I see most netrepreneurs failing. You simply can’t be an expert at everything, or do everything yourself. You need to identify those things that will offer you the highest return on your most limited asset (your time), and then you need to focus on doing just those things.

Yes, you may need to understand how to do some basic things yourself at first. For example, when putting up your first website, it may make sense to learn some basic html or atleast how to use a WYSIWYG (what You See Is What You Get) HTML editor. If you can afford to hire a webmaster and programmers to do everything for you though, even learning those things may not be the best and highest use of your time.

My personal experience, like that of many of my contemporaries, is that I learned to use DreamWeaver to do my own webpages. I simply didn’t want to be trapped waiting for my webmaster to make minor changes (that I knew would dramatically improve my bottom line) to a webpage . Good webmasters and programmers are often in high demand and very busy.

After I learned to do the basics, I also often fell into the trap that I want YOU to avoid. I want you to do two things. First, learn to say กNOก and secondly, learn to prioritize.

Learning to say กnoก can be hard. Itกs human nature to want to do favors for others. We want to be liked. We believe that if we say กnoก to requests for assistance, we will be liked less. Until you learn to say กnoก when you have a full plate, others will control your time and decide what you do… when. You can’t afford to put that much control over your time, your business, and your LIFE into the hands of others. So, itกs critical to master the skill of saying กnoก sometimes. You can do it politely 🙂

Learning to prioritize is the second essential that you must master. Otherwise, youกll simply find yourself doing the easy, enjoyable things that produce little longterm benefit, while you ignore the very things that you should be doing.

There are a lot of systems for prioritizing, and you have to choose the one that works best for you. For me, it involves making a list of the things that I must get done and then doing the most important ones first. This takes firmness and being honest with yourself. You have to do the most important things first because, then, if something doesn’t get done, it will be the less important things that you simply can’t fit in.

In prioritizing, you do need to seek balance though. Things you probably don’t want to compromise are your health and your relationships with your family. Make those a higher priority than business.

A common trap too many netrepreneurs fall into… one that Iกve fallen into, is offering to do too many things for others. In a phone conversation, or perhaps a discussion board thread, someone needs help doing something that is very simple to you. You try to explain to them how to do it, and they just don’t seem to กget it.ก So you offer to do it for them. Before you know it, you find yourself doing the very things that you normally get someone else to do for you so that you can focus on better uses of your time.

Hereกs how I got out of the trap I just described… I often had clients who needed to get minor things done before we could get other goals accomplished. They needed to know how to do minor things like FTP’ing a file, making minor edits to webpages, or perhaps changing out a graphic. In the interest of expediency, I often offered to do these minor chores… until I saw how often they mushroomed into major projects. My solution…. I found, or created, video tutorials explaining how to do these simple task. I reasoned that it made more sense to just do the task once, and record it so that I would have it handy if needed again.

If you visit my site at: http://WillieCrawford.com/how.html youกll find links to a few of these videos I did in Camtasia. These are flash videos on how to:

Copy and paste

FTP a file

Make minor webpage edits etc.

I actually have dozens of these but just share these few with you for illustrative purposes. Setting up something like this may be a great timesaver.

Very similar to the concept above, if you find yourself getting asked the same questions over and over again, perhaps you should set up a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section on your website. This will stop hundreds of emails or phone calls. Just make the link to it prominent on your website.

If you find yourself answering the same email questions, or requests, over and over again, set up email templates in your email program so that you have those answers handy. Then, often all you will need to do is pull up the template and change the name to respond quickly via email. You could also use programs that scan an email looking for keywords and then automatically send a response based upon the context of the email. Thatกs a little advanced for this article, so I won’t explain it here.

Similar to the Camtasia videos, if you find you’re explaining the same thing over and over again, you could also post an MP3 teleclass recording online for your clients. You could also just set up a phone line with the recorded messages, instructions, or other information, and provide your clients with the phone number for listening to the recording. Many sales organizations use this idea for weekly training meetings, etc.

There are many other common sense things you can do to get more done. A couple of quick ones that I use are:

Just working smarter… i.e., I don’t stand in line at the post office. My staff and I have arranged to just walk up to the counter and leave the containers full of mail on the counter. The clerk simply gives us more mail กbuckets,ก and we buy postage in bulk or over the Internet. If we do need to actually talk to a clerk, we visit the post office during the least busy times of the day… NOT during lunchtime when everyone visits the post office.

Avoid time wasters such as spending too much time at online discussion forums. These can be great places to network, brainstorm, or do research, but make sure you’re not just avoiding getting started on an urgent project.

Identify when you are most productive and use that time to do your most challenging work. Set aside times when you are least productive (based upon your natural body cycles) to answer email or return phone calls.

Stop procrastinating! Often we procrastinate because a task seems so large. Simply break it down into bitsized steps and it will seem less ominous. Then choose a step and do it. Mark that step off your schedule to reinforce the fact that you are making progress 🙂

Automate where possible using things like autoresponders and interactive web forms to dispense commonly requested documents. You can even use software to automatically update or change the content on your webpages. One such piece of software that I use and love is called ‘traffic On Steroids.ก You can check it out at:

http://WillieCrawford.com/trafficonsteroids.html

These are just a few of the ways that you can get more focused and get more done. Itกs really just a matter of prioritizing and then doing it. Adopt just a few of these ideas and youกll be surprised at how much more you do actually get DONE! Without implementing a few of these suggestions you can’t be successful simply because youกll never finish all of the tasks that you need to do.

Copyright 2005 Willie Crawford

About The Author

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

This article was posted on March 24, 2005

by Willie Crawford

Why We Hate to Promote Ourselves

Why We Hate to Promote Ourselves

by: Suzanne FalterBarns

In the last week or so, Iกve begun enrolling people in the next session of my Platform Push Coaching Program on my other site, www.getknownnow.com. And boy, has that been interesting. In a few brief encounters, Iกve learned a lot about the power of permission.

The course is demanding; it requires these coaching students to really make a commitment to building their platform. Over six months they work on creating a brand phrase and identity, creating a branded website, setting up media kits, head shots, developing ezines and blogs, speaker materials and media mailings. The course requires a lot, but it promises a lot, too.

So I find myself speaking to many of my registrants as they make the decision whether or not to join the program. Some are on the fence for technical reasons that are hard to overcome, but many are simply on the fence. This is how these conversations go:

ME: กHi, itกs Suzanne calling about the Platform Push Coaching Program you were

interested in.ก

THEM: (Enthusiastically) Hi Suzanne!

ME: So how are your platform building efforts coming?

THEM: (Audible groan/sigh/exhalation of breath) Well… (another sigh) …. I

don’t know.

That audible groan comes up in nearly every phone call. Nearly every one! Rare is the person who simply says, กIกm not interested in promoting at the moment,ก or even กI haven’t made time to focus on it.ก Instead, thereกs just the groan.

What that groan says to me is that getting known by the public scares them. Even thinking about it makes them feel small and inadequate. And yet they know that they must if they want to reach the people they’re meant to. So they feel both guilty and annoyed with themselves at the same time. (Sound familiar?)

I can relate to this completely, which is why I developed this work in the first place. Itกs hard to do this stuff not for technical reasons, but simply because of what it portends. ‘theyก, the general public, may finally know us. They might love us. Or they could potentially kick sand in our faces. And thatกs scary.

Now, there are people out there who actually love promoting themselves, and God bless them. Most of us come from this small, shy place about blowing our own horn. Thatกs why I almost always find myself giving the people I speak to permission to go big. Hereกs how that part goes:

ME: So whatกs holding you back from doing this work?

THEM: I don’t have a website! I don’t have anything! I feel like a rank beginner.

ME: Thatกs why thereกs a course like this. So you don’t have to create this thing

alone in a dark corner.

THEM: But can I really do it? I mean, you think Iกd be able to?

ME: Sure! Why not?

THEM: Wow … really?

This is the most starting revelation of all in this process. Many of the people I speak with seem to need permission to become bigger and better known. Itกs as if we’re naturally programmed to stay small and circumspect. And yet, getting better known can only help our ability serve others and give us more credibility in the marketplace.

Of course, there are those who aren’t quite ready yet to move into a bigger arena. They may not know yet whom they’re supposed to work with or just what they’re hereto accomplish. Yet, most of us are truly stuck just short of this hurdle, waiting for someone, anyone, to give us the courage to get going.

If thatกs you, may I urge you to take the first step and give yourself permission to go big. You have everything you need, right now, to move forward and serve others. And if you happen to be waiting for permission to move ahead, well … here it is. Consider yourself booted ahead.

About The Author

The bi weekly ezine, The Joy Letter teaches anyone with a dream the secrets to living your joy. Sign up and receive our free report, ก35 Guaranteed Time Saversก right now at http://www.howmuchjoy.com.

To reprint this article, please use with this bio box intact.

Thanks! ©2005 Suzanne FalterBarns LLC.

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 16

by Suzanne FalterBarns

10 Quick and Easy Steps To Building A HIGHLY Targe

10 Quick and Easy Steps To Building A HIGHLY Targeted And Responsive OptIn List

by: Cory Threlfall

Weกve all heard it that in order to stay in business online you need to build a Targeted กOptInก list.

Well… I truly have to agree with that simply because this is where youกll always have a consistent source of FREE Targeted traffic(also referred to as กSticky Trafficก) to promote your offers or related information to for years to come.

It just makes sense, wouldn’t you say?

And, we all know that กEmailก is where the $MONEY$ is truly made when it comes to marketing your business online because it gives You the ability to FollowUp your potential customers until they decide to buy from You.

But, the problem that usually takes place is that people don’t know where to start when it comes to building there own targeted OptIn list.

Now, for those of you that are new Internet marketing and don’t know what a กOptInก list is, hereกs a quick definition:

An กOptInก list is simply a database of peoples Names and Email Addresses that have subscribed to an email list via a web form giving that list owner permission to send them periodic emails on the topic they are interested in.

Notice how I said, กgiving that list owner permission to send them emailก.

When they subscribe to your OptIn list they are giving You permission to send them offers or related information on the topic they are interested in, this is known as กPermission Email Marketingก.

This is the ABSOLUTE safest form of email marketing where You won’t get accused of กSPAMก.

This is very important that You understand this from the beginning.

So, now that you have a clear idea in your mind of what an OptIn list is and how it will benefit You and your business, I guess itกs time to share with you the simple ‘ten Step Processก that I have put together for you on HowTo build your own targeted OptIn list that you can email your offers to at any given time for $Profit$.

Step #1. Pick your Target market or Niche.

This is a very important step because this is where you need to figure out who your target market is going to be for the Product or Service your going to offer.

So, for example, if I was interested in selling a book related to Internet Marketing, well then, my target market would be Internet Marketing related.

Step #2. Can your Target market or Niche be reach online?

This step is where you need to do a little research on whether or not your particular target market can be reached online.

In order to do this you need to do some keyword research using keywords related to your target market.

You can do this by using the Overture keyword research tool located at the URL Iกve provided below.

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Simply type in the keywords related to your target market in the form provided.

This will give you a detailed history of how many searches have been made in the last 30 days on the keywords related to your target market.

As a general rule, if your targeted keywords aren’t pulling in 15,000 or more searches per month, then this is a market I wouldn’t pursue simply because there isn’t much demand for it.

Step #3. Are they making money in this Niche?

This is where you need to do some research on your competition to see if people are spending any money in this Niche.

You can do this by going to Google at http://www.google.com and type in your targeted keywords related to your Niche in the form provided.

This will give you a list of search results.

Those results are your competition, but even more important, to the right youกll notice little ads.

These are paid ads offered through Google Adwords.

This means that somebody is willing to pay to advertise and is paying attention to this particular Niche and must be making money if they’re willing to pay for advertising.

Thatกs good news for you.

Step #4. Use Forums to find your Target markets problems.

Forums are a great place to find out exactly what your potential customers TOP problems are by simply scanning there posts and looking for the most common threads.

By doing this youกll be able to know right away what your target markets TOP problems are and how you can help solve there problem.

To find Forums related to your Niche simply visit Google http://www.google.com and type in your targeted keywords with ก+ forumsก after your keyword.(ex. internet marketing + forums)

Step #5. Whatกs keeping them from getting what they want?

This is where you have to figure out whats keeping them from getting what they want in order to fix the problems they are dealing with, meaning, this is where you need to work with them to find a solution to there problems.

Whether its a Product they need or a Service of some sort.

Step #6. What can you offer them to solve there problems?

This is where the money is being spent.

Now, the only thing you need in order to receive your share of the revenue is a Product or Service that will solve your potential customers problem.

If you don’t have a Product or Service of your own don’t get discouraged.

Iกm going to give you two resources where you can find products or services that You can become an affiliate for that are related to any Niche that will pay you a commission for every sale you make by simply referring your traffic to there website.

The two websites to visit are http://www.clickbank.com and http://www.associateprograms.com

Step #7. SetUp a simple direct response minisite.

Here is where you SetUp your lead generating website with a FollowUp System that your potential customers will come to and OptIn to your list to start receiving offers or related information on the topic or problem they are having.

This is a very simple process to do and you can view my website as an example of how one would look.

http://www.internetwondersezine.com

If you don’t know how to build your own website you can always hire someone to do it for you by going to… http://www.elance.com

Step #8. Get an AutoResponder account.

This is where youกll be laying the foundation down for your list.

You MUST have an AutoResponder account SetUp before you make your minisite go live because this is where your potential customers are going to come and submit there Name and Email Address so that you can start building a list to send your offers or related information to.

So, do not miss this important step.

Step #9. You need to figure out what กBaitก to use.

What I mean by กBaitก is… what are you going to offer them for FREE to get them to subscribe to your OptIn list.

Here are some examples of what you can use as กBaitก: ebooks, special reports, minicourses, coupons, etc.

These are the most common. It really depends on who you are targeting, so be creative.

Step #10. Reach out to your target market.

This is the part where you send traffic to your website in order to get subscribers.

Iกm going to mention only two methods.

These methods are the most POWERFUL and for good reason, they work.

The first method is Writing Articles.

By Writing Articles your showing your target market that You are someone who knows how to help solve there problem and may have a possible solution for them.

This is the quickest way to build INSTANT credibility in your Niche.

The second method is to send targeted traffic to your minisite through PayPerClick search engines.

PayPerClick search engines are where you bid on the keywords terms related to your target market and are listed according to the highest bid for that keyword term.

By using PPC search engines, it will get you infront of your target market Instantly.

Writing articles gives you INSTANT credibility and will put you infront of thousands of readers, and PayPerClick search engines send you HIGHLY targeted traffic to your website within minutes depending on which PPC search engine you are using.

The More traffic you send to your website, the More subscribers youกll receive.

Itกs simply a numbers game.

Well… there you have it, ก10 Quick and Easy Steps To Building A HIGHLY Targeted And Responsive OptIn Listก.

Now… itกs up to you to take the neccessary Action in order to get started with your own targeted OptIn list.

If you already have an existing web business online simply implement the steps outlined above to your existing website.

These are the 10 basic steps required in order to get your OptIn listing building started in the Right direction.

Simply follow them and youกll be on your way to receiving your first subscriber in No Time.

Copyright 2005 The IWE, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

About The Author

Want To Learn HOWTO Build And Profit From Your Own HIGHLY Targeted กOptInก List In Record Time? Click here=> http://compactURL.com/pcex Or if you want to get MORE กInsiderก marketing Secrets subscribe to Cory Threlfallกs Free กWeeklyก ezine called… The Internet Wonders eZine at http://www.internetwondersezine.com

This article was posted on March 31, 2005

by Cory Threlfall

How To Use PopUpกs Effectively To Generate More P

How To Use PopUpกs Effectively To Generate More Profits!

by: Cory Threlfall

What Iกm about to explain to you will change to way you do your online marketing Today, Tomorrow and Years to come with little effort on your part.

This simple But effective technique involves the use of a กPopUpก on your website, but, the difference between this technique and just a standard กPopUpก or กExit PopUpก as we all see them is that when your potential prospects see them they are more then willing to give you there Name and Email address.

Why you ask?

Because your offering them something of Value for FREE.

As you well know the word กFreeก is one of the most Powerful words on the internet when used correctly and when combined with an กPopUpก… it could make you alot of extra money with little effort.

As a marketer myself, a simple Name and Email Address is worth hundreds, if not thousands of extra dollars a year if I collect and followup my leads properly, but, the questions that always seem to arise are…

…How do I do it? …What steps do I need to take?

So… now that I have your attention, let me explain to you how this can be achieved in a simple กStepByStepก fashion.

Step 1:

What do you have that you can give away to your visitors as they leave your website that is of value to your visitor and more importantly, will benefit from?(Hereกs a hint… Free Reports, eBooks, eCourses, etc.)

(Note: Give away brandable ebooks, reports, etc. with your affiliate links embedded within them. Make sure they’re related to the subject of the content.)

Step 2:

Once youกve figured out what your going to give away, put together some ad copy for your กPopUpก that your going to build that will grab your visitors attention and get them to signup for your กFree Offerก or กGive Awayก as they leave your website.

(Note: You don’t have write alot, just a few attention grabbing sentences pointing out the กBenefitsก of your offer.)

Step 3:

Write a short Solo. You need this because after they signup through your webform from your popup, this is what they will receive in there Inbox with either download info or other instructions that you specify in order for them to receive there Report, eBook, eCourse, etc.

(Note: Also, make sure you attach a กSignature Fileก at the end of your Solo. Many marketerกs forget this part and are losing out on alot of extra profits. Don’t Forget!)

Step 4:

You need to go to your กAutoresponderก management console and setup an seperate autoresponder with the solo you wrote for your กFree Offerก and/or กGive Awayก.

Once youกve set your autoresponder its now time for you to copy the HTML code for your autoresponderกs WebForm and paste it into the กPopUpก you just put together.

(Note: Autoresponder services may very. Simply follow there directions.)

Step 5:

This is the easy part, once you have completed all of the other steps, simply paste your กPopUpก code into your desired webpage(s).

If you use popup software that creates and automatically inserts the code for you simply select the webpage you want the code to be placed on and the software will do the rest.

Now simply upload your newly formatted webpage and popup to your host and start sending it Traffic!

As a general rule, test out your popup for your first week a see how it pulling. You may need to tweek it if its not performing to your stardards. All it takes is just a few words to be changed to make your popup a success.

Thatกs it… your Done!

These are the 5 basic steps needed to turn your website into an fully กAutomated Sales Machineก that will automatically followup your leads 24/7/365 without you lifting a finger.

It may take a little time to setup initially, but itกll be worth it in the long run.

Now, I just have one last tip for you.

If you really want to get the most out of your PopUp and the leads it brings in simply loadup your already setup กAutoResponderก with 6 or 7(or however many you want) followup emails and set them to go out every 3 to 4 weeks.

For maximum results make sure that you target the particular Product or Service you are offering or promoting because it makes no sense to offer a Product or Service that doesn’t relate to what your initial offer was that they signed up for.

(c)Copyright 2004 by Cory Threlfall

About The Author

Cory Threlfall is the Editor and Publisher of a internet marketing newsletter called the กInternet Wonders eZineก. Its main focus is towards webmasters by providing Expert Articles, Product Reviews, Tips, & More on how to Promote there web business.

internetwondersezine.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on October 19, 2004

by Cory Threlfall

Traditional businesses on the Internet

Traditional businesses on the Internet

by: Dirk Wessels

Have you ever thought of putting your business on the Internet, but simply not known where to start or you’re not sure whether the Internet is really meant for your business?
Most of the time we see the big Internet businesses like Google, Amazon and Yahoo or the big corporations like Microsoft, Airlines companies and banks being successful on the Net. On the other hand you find someone with a brilliant idea who slaps a website together and makes a huge success with very little effort simply because they had the right idea and acted on that idea. Of course, there are also those who recognizes a good idea, jumps on the bandwagon and shares in that success.
Bu what if your company does not fall into any of those categories? What if you have a traditional business where you manufacture a product or offer a service to your local community?
Does your business still belong on the Internet?
Most definitely!! Other than a place to share information, the Internet is intended to be a marketplace where we can find things that add value to our lives. If your local community finds value in your service or product, then the rest of the world should also. And even if your product or service cannot be made available to the rest of the world, which is hard to believe, the Internet could be used simply to make your product more attractive to your local community.
Can your business still be successful on the Internet?
Again, the answer is most definitely!! It simply depends on how you choose to use the Internet.
Let me give you two examples of local, South African businesses that successfully use the Internet to advance their business.
The first is Sizanani.com, an Internet logistics company that is tremendously successful in South Africa. They do not rely on their website to bring in new customers and yet the website is the core of their business. To my knowledge, Sizanani is the largest logistics trading zone in the Southern hemisphere. They have more than 200 customers and more than 400 transporters (who are actually also customers of Sizanani) doing huge amounts of business on the Sizanani.com website every day. Yet, when you look at their homepage, you would not believe that there are hundreds or probably thousands of transactions processed on that site every day.
In my opinion, the secret of Sizananiกs success is not in their brilliant Internet marketing skills, but rather lies in a concept often forgotten on the Internet Human Interaction. Every customer, including the transporters, has physically met a representative of Sizanani. When a customer needs help with the Sizanani system, they do not send an email to some faceless email address or fill in a meaningless form on the website. Instead, they pick up the phone and talk directly to someone they know at the company. In other words, this is a reallife, old fashioned company doing traditional business as we knew it before the Internet. The only difference is that they are using the Internet as a viable and convenient medium for delivering their service to their customers.
The second example is Qushum.co.za. This is a fairly new website and is not nearly in the same category as Sizanani. However, it is again an example of a business successfully using the Internet to deliver their service to their customers.
Qushum is a consulting company that helps their customers to obtain ISO 9000 accreditation and maintain that status. By placing their service on the Internet, they are not offering some incredible solution to their customers which has never been possible before, but the Internet is simply making the service more accessible to their customers and therefore making the customerกs daytoday life more convenient. Also, by putting their business on the Internet, they have taken a lot of mundane tasks out of their own hands, which allows them to spend their time more effectively on growing their business.
These are only two examples of traditional business being conducted successfully over the Internet. I am sure there are millions of other such examples, but I simply wanted to show you that the Internet can be used as an effective medium for traditional business. In both cases they are not putting their faith in specialized Internet marketing techniques or employing search engine optimization specialists or any of those concepts that generally scare oldfashioned business owners away from the Internet. They are simply using the Internet in a fashion that adds value to their businesses. Isn’t that the whole idea?
So how do you get started?
There are millions of articles on กGetting your business on the Internetก and I won’t repeat that here.
If you approach a web design company and ask them to กput your business on the Internetก, they will most probably sell you a complete restructure of your business with online payment and product catalogues and whatever else goes with an online business. Not because they are necessarily trying to make a quick dollar out of you, but simply because this is what most people think they want from the Internet.
My advice to you is this: Before you approach anybody about designing a website for you, decide what it is you want. How can the Internet add value to my existing customers? Think of the two examples above and try to use that approach in your own business. If you can find a solution to that question, then, by default, you will have a solution that will add value to new customers as well and your business will sell itself on the Internet.

About The Author

Dirk Wessels is a web designer and owner of GetquotesIT.com

This article was posted on July 07, 2004

by Dirk Wessels

Make All Your Mailing Lists Double OptIn

Make All Your Mailing Lists Double OptIn

by: John Lynch

Accusations of spam can be so harmful to your business that every effort should be made to prevent it.

However, simply requesting a surfer to enter an email address into an online form on your website is not a guarantee of not being accused of spam.

Here’s what could happen

One of your competitors could visit your website and enter the name of a wellknown antispammer. When your autoresponder sends out the latest copy of your newsletter or minicourse to this person, he will become very angry.

It is no good protesting your innocence. Since he didn’t ask to subscribe to your newsletter, he will claim that you are spamming him. While you are arguing your case with your Web host, your competitor will be taking your profits!

Here’s how Double OptIn works

When a subscriber signs up for your newsletter online, he or she receives a confirmation email to which they must respond if they are to be added to your list.

The confirmation usually involves simply clicking a link or hitting the replyto button.

Taking these precautions can prevent a lot of trouble and ensure that your optin subscribers really want your information.

© 2003 John Lynch

For Free courses on how to succeed in Internet Marketing, Affiliate Programs, Online Auctions go to: http://www.merchantaccountservice.com/free_courses_online.html

About The Author

For Free courses on how to succeed in Internet Marketing, Affiliate Programs, Online Auctions go to: http://www.merchantaccountservice.com/free_courses_online.html

This article was posted on December 14, 2003

by John Lynch

Do your customers waste your time?

Do your customers waste your time?

by: Richard Grady

I saw a post on a marketing forum a few weeks ago and it was from a chap that had purchased a piece of software from a well known Internet marketer. After purchasing the product, the buyer had sent several emails to the seller with questions about how to install/use the software. These questions were answered and then followed up with several more emails all filled with further questions.

It turned out that the buyer was very new to computing and this lack of experience meant that he needed the seller to educate him in far more than how to use the software that he had purchased (ie. how to use Adobe Acrobat Reader, how to upload files by FTP etc). In the end, the seller refunded the payment that had been made for the software on the basis that he simply didn’t have the time to train the buyer on how to use his computer.

The forum post was basically a complaint from the buyer that this was an appalling way to treat customers and that it was outrageous that his money should have been refunded just because he didn’t know how to use his computer.

I have to say that I can see exactly where the seller was coming from. When someone buys your product (regardless of what it might be), then they are paying you for the product NOT for hours of consultation in how to use that product.

Of course, I am not saying that you shouldn’t offer some level of support with anything that you sell (online or offline) but there has to be a limit, otherwise you could end up spending your day training people to use their computers (or whatever).

I sell hundreds of eBooks every single month and the vast majority of buyers are fully capable of opening and reading .pdf files. If they are not, then most will take the time to read my instructions and within a matter of minutes will have educated themselves as to how to do it. Occasionally, I will get an email from someone who is having difficulties and I will do my best to resolve the issue. But what happens when one email becomes two, five or even fifteen? (yes, it can happen!) Suddenly, my $20 ebook sale is looking far less profitable because of the time that I have had to spend troubleshooting what is most likely a local issue on the users computer or simply that the user is doing something wrong. Both of these problems are very hard to resolve remotely and therefore, sometimes, it is necessary to take a step back and simply refund the payment. $20 buys an eBook, it doesn’t buy two hours of consultancy time.

Regardless of what you sell, you should give consideration to how you will deal with longwinded support issues that may end up costing you far more in time than you received in payment for your product. Many large companies charge for support for example, electrical products often have a กhelplineก that is charged at, say, 50p/$1 a minute.

Your customers are, obviously, responsible for your income but a very small number of them can be a huge drain on your resources. In my opinion, these are the customers that you can do without because you will never make a profit from them, you will simply end up being a personal consultant whenever something goes wrong.

Remember, I am not saying don’t offer support of course you should I do and wouldn’t dream of leaving paying customers without assistance if they had a problem. In fact, I help numerous people even when they have not purchased anything from me and it is this level of customer service that helps me turn subscribers/visitors into customers BUT there is a limit and at the end of the day, we all want to make a profit and you can’t do that if you are wasting your day training people for free 🙂

Copyright 2004 Richard Grady

About The Author

Richard Grady has been helping people earn online since 1998. Find out more about Richard at: http://www.thetraderonline.com

eBay sellers: http://www.theuktrader.co.uk & http://www.theustrader.com

This article was posted on August 26, 2004

by Richard Grady

How to Booost Your Affiliate Commissions by 30%

How to Booost Your Affiliate Commissions by 30%

by: Satyajeet Hattangadi

Affiliate marketing is one tough business. Everyone online today is looking to make or save money in any way they can.

In the good old days when internet marketing was in its infancy, most of the people who clicked on your affiliate links used to purchase without a second thought… but, now as times are getting tougher, and visitors getting more cynical, youกll be amazed at the number who won’t!

Just one flaw in a system and you will find dozens of unscrupulous people waiting to exploit it. Same goes for affiliate commission tracker systems. People who know how to manipulate the system will replace your affiliate ID with theirs and กhijackก your commissions.

Most affiliate links are some form or the other of http://www.thesite.com/?YOURID

Where your affiliate id is passed as a parameter. A thief has to simply change the กYOURIDก part to ‘tHEIRIDก to put your money in their pocket.

In other cases, there are visitors to your site who simply can’t stand the thought of you กmaking money off themก so they bypass you by simply chopping off the end of your affiliate link that contains your ID.

Instead of buying from http://www.thesite.com/?YOURID, the bypasser will simply กchop offก the affiliate ID at the end and simply buy from the plain URL http://www.thesite.com/ without your affiliate ID attached!

Bam! you just got cheated out of your rightful commission.

Studies have shown that this phenomenon causes about 30% lost sales.

By following some of these simple tips you will be able to at least confuse most hijackers and, in many cases, often disarm them completely.

You might notice I said most and not all. This is because if the hijacker is well versed at html and javascipt he will be able to eventually get to your affiliate link. However, most hijackers are just opportunists who will only act if they see an easy buck and its this segment that we can beat.

The simplest way to hide your affiliate links is using a javascript redirect page.

This is where you hide your affiliate link in a page on your site using a simple javascript that redirects people to your affiliate link.

This way your กnakedก affiliate link is not exposed in your actual email messages and ezine ads, but people get redirected to the true affiliate link.

One possible drawback of this method is that some affiliate programs, like clickbank for example, expose the affiliate link along with your ID in the browser address bar.

So if the viewer is eagleeyed he will notice that heกs been redirected through an affiliate link.

A safer method to hide your affiliate links is using a zeroframe or กinvisibleก frame that masks the affiliate link by making it appear you are sending people to a page on your website. In reality, you are actually sending them to your affiliate link.

This technique is also used by many domain redirection service sites.

Unfortunately if the user views the source of the page. He know whats that youกve loaded an affiliate link.

The solution is to use javascript encryption to scramble up the page code.

Even though there isn’t a 100% perfect solution to this problem, if you want to get paid more often through your affiliate links, make sure itกs not obvious you’re referring people to an affiliate link.

If they can’t see that its a affiliate link, lower the possibility of you getting stiffed of your commission.

If you are looking for a tool that lets you do all this plus earn affiliate commissions even from those folk who dont click your affiliate link then do check out Covert Affiliate at http://www.novasoftinc.net/covertaffiliate

About The Author

Satyajeet Hattangadi is the Owner of Novasoft Inc (http://www.novasoftinc.net), a software solutions provider, who specialize in affordable customized software solutions.

This article may be reprinted as long as the text and resource box are kept intact, and the links remain live and spiderable.

This article was posted on April 15

by Satyajeet Hattangadi