How To Explode Blog Traffic

One of the things about the internet I've noticed is that when I'm searching for things I usually end up chasing one link into another into another, and find myself so far from where I started. However I usually come across 10-20 great sites I never would have found otherwise. They might not have a great standing in search engines and stumbling over them by clicking a link in another site might be the only way you will find them. While reading up on traffic and business I came across a very informative blog. Please check it out, because this blogger gives great ideas on getting more traffic. Here is the link:

Increase Blog Traffic: How to Explode Blog Traffic!!!

Don't ever stop what your doing

I now have 4 blogs and I'm trying my best to keep up. Don't ever stop what your doing when your trying to build a business, but also don't over extend yourself. I'm cutting down my 4 but yet there are people who have 10 or more blogs. Do they update daily? If not most of those blogs will die away. Take things slowly. Especially if your just starting out.

Increase slowly, lets say about 3 months after your first website or blog. Also remember that revenue drawers, like adsense, chitika, and yahoo only works if you actually have traffic so wait until you have steady traffic before trying to make money. All you will do to yourself is spend your days checking minute after minute and being super happy when you get 1 click and 5cents in your account.

Keep on trucking everyone. And remember to think realisticly.

Business and Ideas

I have recently been thinking about creating a book website. Not going to give away any secrets lol. I am stumped however because I am unsure how to do it and what hosting I should use. I can't use regular templates because I need to be able to search by author, title, and/or summary. I would really like to use isbn numbers thats on the books, and that is the biggest problem. I just don't know where to start with this.

Well I'll let you know how i'm doing.

Traffic Methods That Actually Send YOUR Traffic to OTHER Websites

By Maksym Nesen

Believe it or not, there are many rather popular website promotion methods that actually drive traffic away from your website. They usually clutter up your website with a bunch of graphics and do virtually nothing to improve your bottom line. Here are just a few examples:

Top Sites - The premise is that you put a vote button on your site and people click to vote for you, raising your site up in the list of "top sites". People who visit the top site list see your site near the top and click on your banner to see what your site is all about. Things to consider: You have to put a graphic on your site. Of course, you will make the link open in a new window, so you don't lose your visitor, but you have created a distraction for your visitor. You want your visitor to focus on your sales message, not a graphic that leads your visitors away from your website. Let's be serious. If you've participated in a Top Site or visited a top site page, when's the last time you did any shopping from it? Realistically, the Top Site List serves to best promote the website that created the list rather than the individuals on that list. Check your website stats to see how much traffic you get from this list and see if anyone buys.

Banner Exchange - Everyone participating in the exchange places a banner on his site. This banner rotates throughout the participating sites every time a page refreshes. The premise is that you get a lot of exposure by having your banner appear on a number of sites. Things to Consider: Again, you have to put a distracting graphic on your site. Usually banner exchanges are made up of like-sites. Why would you send your visitor to your competitor?! Most banner exchanges give you one impression of your banner for every two times the banner exchange appears on your website. Does it seem wise to possibly give away two visitors for every one visitor you might get back to your site? As in the Top Site List, the banner exchange serves best to promote the website that created it. The banner exchange usually has a link to the creator's site underneath the banner. This is the one link that doesn't change on the rotation, thus, giving the creator constant exposure on all sites, but giving you very little in return.

Web Rings - A web ring is a graphic placed on a website that allows visitors to travel from one related website to another. The idea is that everyone puts the graphic on her home page to create a continuous "ring". Things to Consider: It's the same old story. You're creating a distraction for your visitor and potentially sending your traffic to your competitor. It just doesn't seem like a good idea. These rings are often broken by members and you never know it.

And even more BAD ideas:

Buying Hits - It is so sad, but there is an entire industry that takes advantage of traffichungry website owners. If you see an ad that says, "Buy 10,000 targeted hits" or an eBay auction that says, "2 Million Hits to Your Website," run the other way. Here's how these programs work: Your entire web page pops-up while somebody is surfing another website or is using particular software. Sometimes these hits are delivered within in a day or a few days and you have no idea where your site is popping up. You must realize that these aren't bonus fide visitors to your website; it's just people who may have been annoyed by your website popping up in their faces. Let's go back to our conversion rate calculations. We know that a 1% conversion rate isn't bad. If buying hits was a good idea, we would get 100 sales for every 10,000 hits we bought. We've tested this. It just doesn't happen. And don't be fooled by people who tell you they can target your hits by country or industry. There is NOTHING targeted by forcing someone to view your website without permission.

Surfing for Traffic - There are all kinds of programs where you can surf other people's websites in return for other people surfing yours. These programs are generally free.

Search Engine Submission - It's big business but is a COMPLETE waste of time and money - Let us start by saying that you should NEVER pay anyone to submit your website to search engines. First of all, many of these programs use auto-submitters, which are against many search engine guidelines. But the biggest "scam" of all is that these companies will say things like: "Submit your site to the top 500 search engines" "Your site submitted to 5000 search engines" Let's be serious. There aren't 5000 worthwhile search engines, let alone 500. There are just a handful of search engines that will bring you a significant amount of traffic. These include Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Then you'll probably see some traffic from AOL, Netscape, Ask Jeeves, EarthLink, DogPile and a few more. But you know what? You don't actually have to submit to these sites to get listed. Search engines follow links on the Internet and if you have websites linking to you, these search engines will find you. So, if you want to get listed and stay listed, all you need is to acquire a few links to your website. If you don't believe us, take it from Google & Yahoo:

Google Webmaster Guidelines: "We add thousands of new sites to our index each time we crawl the Web, but if you'd like, you may submit your URL as well. Submission is not necessary and does not guarantee inclusion in our index. Given the large number of sites submitting URLs, it's likely your pages will be found in an automatic crawl before they make it into our index through the URL submission form...
...The best way to ensure Google finds your site is for your page to be linked from lots of pages on other sites. Google's robots jump from page to page on the Web via hyperlinks, so the more sites that link to you, the more likely it is that we'll find you quickly."

Yahoo Help:
"Yahoo! Search crawls the web every 2-4 weeks and automatically finds new content for indexing. If pages already in the Yahoo! Search index link to your site, it will be considered for inclusion in the next update of the index."

So, If you want a search engine to index you, get links from other sites on similar topics. We can give you help to post information on other sites. Just visit http://nezabudka.oksima.biz to find more information about advertising solutions.
The Oksima's Java developer.

Just Say No to Sign and Wait – 10 Steps to a Fast Action Start

By: Marie Gervacio

So you just signed up for a new, exciting opportunity… wait did you realize?

The majority of Americans are taught to follow the leader, follow instructions, and do a good job. There has been a trend for some years now to begin a home business. The lure of this trend is more time with family, less travel time, less fuel expense and more.

Unfortunately many quit their new business before they really begin. The lure of a dream life is not enough to keep them on the path to success. Many of the networking companies that they join are reputable, viable businesses with excellent compensation plans and training. So why is there so much attrition?

Though many dream of having their own business and not having to answer to a boss, unfortunately they are doomed to that life. It takes a special kind of guts to break away from what we have been taught and delve into uncharted waters.

Many start standard brick and mortar shops and services and are faced with a number of known expenses to get going and service customers. Those starting with seemingly low start-up like networking have a definite advantage. But both may forget important factors like the need to proper market and advertise their business. Some people are actually misled that all they have to do is sign up and they will have the work done for them and other such balderdash – huh?

So what can you do to give yourself and edge and a fast start for the long haul?

First, realize you are the boss. Don’t treat your new business like a hobby or think about “trying it out for awhile” (Quit now and save yourself time and aggravation if that is the case). No one is going to give you your schedule – you have to make a schedule. No one is going to make you punch a time clock – you need to make the most of your time. Answer this question for yourself, “Can I work put as much or more effort into my own business as I would for someone else’s business because my “job” depended on it?”

Second, (something you probably should have known before signing up by-the-way) use the product. Answer this question, “Why do I want this product?” Answering that question will eliminate virtually all your sales issues. People buy things they want ---- not need. Remember this, even essential purchases end up being purchased that way because one product is wanted more than another.

Third, determine your target market. Who wants what you are offering? Where do they live, shop, eat, etc.? Your answers will help you to reach out to them and connect them to what they need.

Fourth, determine your advertising budget. If it is small you will be starting small but that is ok. If you have more you can set aside then you will be able to reach your goals quicker (especially if you can do TV advertising like the “big guys” *smile*)

Fifth, determine how much time you can dedicate to your business. Make a schedule – and stick to it. Let everyone around you know your schedule just as if you would be away for X hours in the day so you are busy in their immediate presence. (Try and set aside an area away from family traffic flow if possible.) Allow for distractions in your schedule but preferably set aside family and friend time because we all started our own thing just so we could have the freedom to work loved ones into our schedule. This is really an important area that can cause failure either with family or business so you will really want to plan this one well for the long haul.

Sixth, create or order your advertising mediums. Business cards can be made or printed. T-shirts, hats or any other promo materials ordered. Ads in local fliers or online classifieds or both can be created and posted. Affiliate links can be promoted online by sending out safelist ads, ezine ads, solo ads, traffic exchanges, search engine pay-per-click ads and more. Some of these options can be free or economical depending on how much time you are willing to dedicate to doing the work yourself.

Seventh, start a blog. If you don’t have your own website, you will probably want to get one as soon as possible. A weblog, or blog is one of the new crazes that will not only help to drive traffic to your website but if you can not budget a website yet then a blog is a free way to start a web presence. I would recommend www.blogger.com because of it is owned by google, which can help being ranked sooner. All blogs are meant to be content-rich which is what all search engines love.

Eighth, set aside at least one hour a day, at least five days a week to do something that drives sales. The first and foremost should be talking to customers, prospects, leads. Though it is important to read, learn and set up promotions to get the customers to you, the bottom line is the sale. Many people forget this. Though I have promoted offline and online it seems it is mostly forgotten online when we expect sales to be done behind some kind of cyberspace wall. Unfortunately, (or fortunately) we tend to still not only buy things we want but we buy them usually from people we get to know, like and trust.

Pick up the phone, email, mail – however you do it communicate with customers, prospects, leads, preferably talk to them over the phone or in person. The world is becoming so small, I even use an online VOIP conference center that brings customers to my virtual room were we can speak and even see each other if both have webcams. I even meet with groups of people at the same time. I marvel at technology!

Ninth, focus. Understandably there will be interruptions, more within a home environment then in a workplace environment but if you have a plan and a schedule then you are half way to being truly focused. The other half is up to you to make it work and remember, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. Don’t let distractions take your eyes off the plan to become independent and free to do things they way you choose to manifest them.

Tenth, have fun! Who would add this to list but me, lol (laugh out loud). Really, we choose to become independent to free ourselves from the “mean ole boss”. I have told you first and foremost that now, “YOU ARE THE BOSS” which means take your business seriously but it doesn’t mean you still can’t have fun. Remember, we choose to manifest money, love, relationships, and fun. Choose to get the most out of your life, love and business. Enjoy the ride!

© All rights reserved by Marie Gervacio, founder and editor of Article Blender.com ShineYourStar.com, and SimpleBeautyTips.com. Get free content for your website, ezine or blog and/or publish your articles at ArticleBlender.com. Submitted with AD Submitter.

If It All Goes Wrong - Don't Panic

Submitted by: Lee Asher

It's a sickening feeling when your debts start to stack up, your marketing strategy is failing, and it doesn't look like you'll ever be profitable. Your family is getting stressed, your business can't pay its bills, and customers are starting to make angry phone calls asking why the things they paid for aren't happening. Don't Rush into Bankruptcy.

At this point, many people feel ready to throw in the towel. I'm here to tell you why you shouldn't be one of those people. If your business's survival is threatened due to serious financial problems, you need to determine your potential personal liability. The extent of your personal liability depends on two things: how your business is structured and whether you personally guaranteed or secured any debts.

A Proverb

There's an old Chinese proverb I'd like to share with you: the temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed. Nowhere is this more true than in home business. You might feel like you're failing over and over again, until you feel like giving up. The paradox, though, is this: you haven't really failed until you've given up.

Never Fear

If you really want to, there will always be ways to raise money for your company. You probably have all sorts of bills for things you don't use, not to mention possessions that could be sold or downgraded. Did you know that the average person has thousands of dollars worth of random stuff just lying around in their home? In other words, you can always find the money if you're really determined and not afraid of losing everything.

The only thing you should really try to protect is your house and some money for basic food -- everything else is expendable. Never forget that the worst thing that can really happen to you is that you'll have to go out and get a job. Would that really be so tragic?

Fear is your enemy in business. You cannot give in to your fear and give up before you've given it your all -- the real reason why so many home and small businesses fail is that their owners chicken out and run away at the first sign of trouble.

The Captain Goes Down with His Ship

When the chips are down, the only thing to do is to stake your personal success on the success of your business. After all, what's the point in bailing out before you have to? You're guaranteed to lose money that way.

Someone once told me that the difference between an average Joe and an entrepreneur is this: the entrepreneur will not give up on a business until his creditors come and take everything he owns. And even then he might try to hide from them and keep things going from his friend's basement.

Don't Tell Customers

It might seem dishonest, but for goodness' sake do not tell any of your customers that things are going wrong because your business is in trouble. They will immediately run a mile, putting your business in a far worse situation than it was before. You must always try to make it look like everything is going just fine -- admitting problems will put the final nail in your business' coffin.

Try a Voluntary Agreement

If your creditors are at the point of knocking on your door, you should try to get a voluntary agreement with them before you even consider declaring bankruptcy. This is when you negotiate your debts down to a lower level using the threat of bankruptcy, and your creditors sign an agreement with you to say that they will leave you alone once you've paid that money.

The Absolute Last Resort

I simply cannot get across to you how much you should not consider bankruptcy as a viable option, ever, until you are absolutely forced into it. Think of it as being like suicide: the absolute last resort. Would you commit suicide because your business was going badly? I hope you answered no -- which means that you shouldn't consider bankruptcy either.

Having had a bankrupt company stays with you for a long time in everything you do: your credit rating, your employment history, and even just in the way you think of yourself day-to-day. It's better to have everything wrestled from your hands than to give it up voluntarily -- otherwise you'll always be tortured by wondering what would have happened if you'd kept going just a little longer.

Original Source: Articles-Galore.com

Information supplied and written by Lee Asher of The Home Income Portal
Home of Serious Online Business Options.

New to Pay per Click?

Submitted by: unravel

You will see at the top (and/or sides) of the major search engines such as Google,
Yahoo, MSN, Searchwarp.com and many other Search Engines and Directories something called "sponsored listings or "sponsored results." These sponsored results are a quick and affordable way to target your internet advertising based on keyword searches or search engine queries. You can start having your advertising appear in front of thousand of potential customers from as little as $0.15 per click.

Pay-per-click (also known as ppc search engine marketing, cost per click listings, pay per placement, sponsored listings, pay-per-performance, etc.) is a method in which you can choose exactly what search terms you would like your internet advertising to be found under.

BIG DRAWCARDS TO PPC

- With PPC, or Cost-per-Click , CPC, you only pay for the number of clicks you receive to your website - that's the best part.

- As an advertiser your are only charged for the number clicks you receive not the number of impressions you receive - this form of advertising is Cost per thousand impression advertising or CPM.

- You can also cap your daily, weekly or monthly advertising spend so you never spend over your budget.

- You can also adjust your spend levels to co-inside with seasonality and specific offline campaign timings and more...

Search Engine Marketing unravelled at http://www.unravel.com.au

How to drive low cost targeted traffic to your website

By: Jack Summers

In this article I will outline how you can drive targeted traffic to your website either for no or very little cost by writing and submitting articles. Read on to learn more.

When your website has been created then your next objective is to drive traffic (or visitors) to your website to give it exposure. There are a number of ways to do this including the use of Search Engines, Safelists, PPC (Pay Per Click) Search Engines, Banner Ads, Ezine Ads, Bulk Traffic plus many more methods. Of these methods a Search Engine listing will bring you the best targeted visitors for the least cost. In order to get a high search engine listing however you will need to create backlinks to your website (i.e. hyperlinks to your website from other websites). This can be done best by submitting your website to directories or exchanging links with other websites. However a relatively new and popular way to do this is by writing articles containing a link to your website(s) and posting your articles to article directories. This method gives you free backlinks, which are extremely important to your search engine position, and also gives you free direct targeted visitors when they click on your link in the article.

When you are writing your articles you will need to make sure you are giving people good and useful information and not overtly selling anything in particular. If possible you should try to write about a subject you know a lot about. Write intelligently, making sure you spell check and proofread before you are in a position to show your articles to the world. You could also try to use the same phrase or keyword a few times in your articles to drive the right interest to them.

When you have created a good article or articles then you will need to submit or publish your articles to the web. The first method to do this is by manually submitting your article to article directories. By typing “article directory” and other similar terms in search engines you will easily find a plethora of sites willing to accept your submissions for free. A couple of good article directories to submit to and get you started are www.ezinearticles.com or www.article-world.net .You could also use a special piece of software which will submit your article to multiple article directories for you. A couple of good examples of pieces of software like this are Article Submitter Pro or Article Announcer. A final good method for publishing your articles is to use an article submission service such as Isnare or Article Marketer. These services will submit your article for you to multiple article directories for a fee.

Articles really are one of the most effective and cheapest methods of driving targeted visitors to your website, so good luck and happy writing!

Jack Summers currently owns and runs the article directory www.article-world.net and the niche article directory and blog for IT professionals and entrepreneurs www.itsuccessworld.com .

Free Traffic

By: Andrew Daigle


If you're an online marketer and own a website, you know what free traffic means. You also know there's really no such thing as free. There are free traffic exchanges that allow you to get free traffic to your website or promotion, but you must spend your time surfing through other websites to earn credits. Free traffic exchanges are a great way to get lots of visitors to your site however, so spending an hour a day surfing, is not a lot to ask if you're making sales from your efforts.

Free traffic exchanges are a great marketing tool for a many reasons. The best reason is that you get lots of people looking, and hopefully clicking on your website or promotional pages. But there are hidden benefits to free traffic exchanges you may not have even considered.

Search engines love free traffic exchanges because of all the incoming and outgoing links they generate. Plus the rapidly changing content is another reason the search engines love traffic exchanges. Exchanges that have more content also generate a higher page rank, and therefore more traffic, and increased memberships. The key is to find exchanges that are very active and have lots of members. The more members they have, the more potential customers you get looking at your offer and your chances for sales conversions are that much better. But bigger isn't always better.

Some free traffic exchanges may convert sales like crazy for one person, and be a complete waste of time for another. If everyone were promoting the same website or affiliate program is the same traffic exchange for example, then chances are you would not make many sales. Even if you were promoting the #1 thing on the internet, if everyone promoted the same program, your chances are much lower that someone will purchase through your website or link to make you any money. Also, when people see the same ad over and over again, they get desensitized to it. Don't fall into this trap. It's one thing to try and sell a very popular product/service/ebook etc, but it's another thing when a million other people are trying to do it too. Competition is a good thing, because it validates your market, but too much competition is tough and it's time to move on to something else.

We all know clicking on ads in a free traffic exchange can be very boring, monotonous and can take a lot of time. That's why you need to make the best of your opportunity or you will just be wasting a lot of your time and effort on something that just isn't working. If you have your own niche website, then you already differentiated yourself from the pack. If you are an affiliate marketer, then you need to find products/services that everyone else isn't promoting, especially within that particular traffic exchange.

One way to use free traffic exchanges to your advantage is to join a few at first, and see if your sales pick up. If your sales aren't doing well, then test out a few more. When you do find a few traffic exchanges that appear to be generating sales for you, then narrow those down until you find the one, or two that are working. Now concentrate your efforts on those because they're the ones you want. At least for now anyway. Things may change, so keep an eye on your campaigns and if sales seem to be falling off, then it might be time to change your offer or find another traffic exchange that could pick your profits up again.

As I mentioned, your individual promotion is everything. If you're trying to promote something everyone else is, I don't care what traffic exchange service you're using, your sales conversions are going to be very low, or nothing at all. You cannot always blame the exchange. Sometimes you have to look at yourself and think if you're doing all you can to make sales.

If you're going to use multiple free traffic exchanges, and I recommend that you do, you should get yourself a multi-tab web browser. Many of these browsers are free and run on PCs and MACs. The tabs feature allows you to have one web browser open with multiple tabs each going to a separate website. You could easily put 5 or 6 of your free exchange sites in these tabs, and earn credits for all of them at the same time. So instead of surfing for 1/2 an hour or an hour earning 200 hits for one exchange, you could earn 200 hits for 5 exchanges in the same amount of time. This is a huge time saver and multiplies your earned hits by 5X or 6X.

Getting free traffic to your website is a lot of work. If you don't have the money to spend on full blown PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns like Google AdWords, free traffic exchanges are a great way to get the traffic you need at a very good price. Free!


Andrew Daigle is owner and creator of TrumpTraffic.com, a Free Traffic Exchange www.trumptraffic.com , DXInOne Free Training Site and Forum www.dxout.com and Google AdWords Training www.adwording.com

How To Avoid Fraud, Deceit & Scams!

By: Joe Clare

The world is full of people who feel they can take advantage of others to obtain their goals in life. Fraud, Deceit & Scams happen in the real world every day. Just tune into your local news to hear about them. But, Fraud, Deceit & Scams also happen in the virtual world as well. And, unfortunately they often hit those who can lease afford the losses.

Online we are always inundated with "get rich quick schemes" and their claims of "overnight success". If you're like me you find this kind of s.p.a.m clogging up your email box on a daily bases. They tell us how easy it is. How we can just sit back and relax, do nothing all day long and still make a roll full of money. Hell, we might as well go golfing because we'll be making money hand over fist while on the golf course. :- Now while sitting back and watching the money roll in would definitely be nice, reality is, rarely does any get rich quick scheme ever work. The promises of millions never pan out no matter how hard you try.

The problem here is that so many people want and need to make more money. And they want to make that money as quickly as they can. So they believe, or hope that what the scammer is telling them will be true. But understand this, even the greatest, largest companies in the world took time and work to build. Martha Stewart for example will tell you that she started her business in the basement of her house. And look where that business is today. A multi billion dollar a year corporation. While we all can't be Martha Stewart, Donald Trump, Bill Gates or Hugh Heffner we can have our own successful home based business if we just stay away from the scams.

So, how do we spot the scams? Well, if you are serious about operating your own home based business there are things you can watch out for. Sort of the red flags of the business opportunity world. Let's have a look at some now.

- Charging you for information about their business opportunity.
It's pretty plain and simple. A so called business opportunity tells you all you have to do is go to your mail box pick up the checks and cash them, but first you must send them a check to get the information on how this is done. I'm of the thinking that your check is going to be the only check getting cashed here. This type of ad appears all over the internet. But if their business opportunity is so good why must you pay to find out what it is. Would it not make more sense to give you that information for free so they could get you interested in their product. I would think so! And unfortunately many people get scammed into sending these frauds the money they ask for. Then if they receive the information they paid for they will often find it pretty much useless and often they are require to send more money for more information. Stay away from these types of ads, they will not get you a successful home based business!

- They want to charge you a fee to sell their products.
O.K., I've got to ask - What's up with that?! If their product is so great won't you be selling them like crazy? Won't you be making money for not only yourself but for the company as well? Don't pay to sell someone else's products.

- They offer you free products.
Ever see these ads where you are entitled to a free (what ever) only to discover you'll need to purchase something first. ie: Sign up today and get (what ever) for FREE! Of course what they don't tell you is you'll have to purchase a sample package first in order to get the freebie.

- Fly by nights
Fly by night companies that pop up and take peoples money operate both offline and online. Very often they disappear without warning. So to keep yourself safe from these frauds ask yourself the following questions. Is this an established company? How long have they been in business? Do they have an actual street address or only a P.O. Box? Or worse, no address and no way to contact them at all? Do they use only an auto responder or do they have an email where you can get in touch with a real person?

I know that all these points seem like common sense. But why then, do so many people ignore them. That is why these scammers can exist. As explained in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" when looking for your perfect home based business it is important to look for a company that only gives you the straight goods. No promises of exorbitant amounts of money falling from the sky into your lap without you doing a thing to make it happen. And, they should not be charging you for any information on their business opportunity it should be laid out for you. Use your own common sense, if something looks to good to be true, then it probably is to good to be true.

Best of Luck!
Joe Clare


About the Author: Joe Clare is a successful eMarketer and Author. He has written numerous articles on how to make money online. Check out his latest ebook plus FREE Articles, Hot Tips and Advice on how you can work from home and write your own paycheck. http://www.ebooksnsoftware.com

These Are The Big 5 Internet Opportunities!

By: Mark Bellinger

All internet business ideas and concepts essentially fall into one of the categories below.

Therefore to help you come up with your novel online concept, examine the big 5 below for guidance with conceptualizing your business model.

There is nothing to stop you from using an idea that is already in existence if you think you can execute it in a better or different way.

1. Selling Products

a) One of the most popular methods of selling goods online, and earning commissions thereon, is to do so as an affiliate.

Many online companies have affiliate programs, the most famous being Amazon, which are usually free to join.

They normally supply promotional banners etc for their affiliates’ websites and track all sales that are generated via the affiliate’s unique tracking identity number.

b) To sell your own product you can set up your own website to promote and sell with an online payment gateway as well as promote and sell it via an affiliate program.

In other words you can harness the power of all the affiliates on the internet to promote and sell your product on a commission basis.

c) Another option would be to set up an online mall.

There are many shopping cart software programs available for this very purpose

2. Selling a Service

The internet provides a perfect medium for many service companies to promote and market their services.

As you probably know there are a variety of services that can be offered using the internet as a conduit.

You could set up your own web server and sell web hosting and associated products just as any other Internet Service Provider.

Other examples of service oriented offerings are online website maintenance, data backup, etc.

3. Online Training

Before the internet, employees going on courses would have to take a few days off work and be transported to a central point where the particular course was to be held.

This procedure not only came at a cost but also leant itself to counter productivity.

Nowadays, however, the internet delivers training courses directly to each employee’s desk top – the advantages of which are obvious for anyone to see.

4. Telecommunications

In some countries the telecommunications industry has blossomed with deregulation and the competitive marketplace has opened up.

The opportunities that exist in this field for the internet entrepreneur would range from simply selling telecom equipment and services to becoming a link in an internet telecommunications network.

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is a new internet telephone communications technology, that allows long distance calls to be placed over the internet at very low cost
This is therefore an area with lots of potential and opportunities for establishing the infrastructure required for Internet telephony and for re-selling international telephone call costs.

5. Publishing and Information

For writers and people who have content to distribute, the internet provides the perfect vehicle.

You, therefore, have the opportunity to create a publication without having to invest anything, for example in printing presses, ink or paper as you would have had to pre the advent of the internet.

Although the dot com rush and days of easy internet money are over, there are still many legitimate opportunities existing on the internet.


About the Author: The author, Mark Bellinger is a successful businessman and creator of the following websites:
http://www.income.za.net
http://www.internetbusiness.co.za
http://www.onlinesynergy.za.net

Is It Still Possible To Make Money On The Internet?

Is It Still Possible To Make Money On The Internet?
By: Larry Lim

Many people are saying that the Internet is dead. So is there still money to be made on the Internet?

The answer is a definite YES.

Research shows, time and again, that consumers want to spend more online, and that the internet is fast becoming an integral part of their lifestyle and it'll continue to be so. Internet consumers are cautious and they want Sites that are credible and worth shopping before they part with their money.

The traditional brick-and-mortar rules of business still apply to internet business. It's prudent to remember that the internet is not your business goal; it's a medium in helping you achieve your business goals.

Adhere to my following Rules and you'll be on your way to building a viable, sustainable and successful internet business.

1. Develop a viable business plan

The biggest reason why so many dotcoms failed is an inadequate business plan of how and when they will achieve profitability. To have a successful and sustainable internet business, developing a viable business plan from the outset is crucial.

Your plan must have a clear and sincere vision that has meaning to you and your business. Your main focus should be to "plan to profit within a set period of time" and this would require you to allow time for thoughtful researching, planning, execution and testing. You'll need to test out your business model first and ensure that it's viable and sustainable.

Don't make the same mistakes that many dotcoms made -- trying to build a global brand before their business model even worked as it'll lead you into receivership faster.

Regardless of how fanciful and good your website is, if your aim is not to make profit, you'll go out of business.

2. Model someone successful

It's always wise to learn from the mistakes of other people rather than to learn from your own mistakes as this can sometimes be very costly and painful.

Track and learn from benchmarked success stories, be they your competitors or otherwise. Why would you want to spend time re-inventing the wheel when you can learn from those who have already been there and done it successfully. Learn how they design their website, create products, write salescopy, their sales process, etc.

3. Focus on a niche market

Don't be everything to everybody by trying to dominate a huge and general market because you just simply can't do it effectively.

Focus your internet business on a targetable portion of the market or a narrowly defined group of potential customers. Address the need for a product or service that's not being addressed by mainstream providers. The advantage of this is that it's less competitive in such a market as large businesses won't want to be in it.

For this to be effective, the market niche that you're targeting must be fast moving, its customers accessible and there mustn't already be a dominant player in that particular market niche.

The key here is to find a niche market, assess the needs of the market and then offer them your products and/or services that meet their needs.

4. Differentiate your business

To capture a larger market share and be viable, sustainable and profitable, you'll need to differentiate or distinguish your business from your competitors; make your business special in the eyes of your customers and/or prospects.

You can do this by creating what is called an Unique Selling Propostion or USP and then effectively convey that USP to your target market via your marketing efforts and business performance.

This is particularly crucial if you're operating in a highly competitive market.

A USP is the one thing or idea that sets your business favourably apart from your competitors. Think about these questions: "What's the one thing that makes your business unique and distinct? Why should people buy from you and not from your competitors? Do you promise great value, benefit or service?"

Your USP is the focal point around which the success and profitability of your business is built and so you must be able to state it and fulfill it honourably and effectively.

5. Spent your funds wisely

Costs is one of the major determinants of your internet business' survivability. You'll need to carefully track and control your costs from the outset and make sure you can start to show a profit soon, as unmindful spending with no thought given to incoming resources will bleed you to death.

Credible websites not only require money to set up but also to maintain; advertisements cost money. Driving traffic to your website where you lose money on sales made is suicidal. Do your sums; consistently refer back to your vision to ascertain whether an expense is warranted or meaningful.

6. Superior customer service

In addition to a viable business plan, a superior customer service will be key to your success.

Superior customer service must be a high priority in your action plan. Build a trusting and long lasting relationship with your customers and prospects, send your staff for customer service training, fulfill your orders promptly, and constantly remind yourself the reason of your very existence.

This is crucial as it costs five times more to win a new customer than it costs to keep an existing customer. Moreover, a dissatisfied customer will tell, on average, five or six people about your bad service. The point I'm driving at here is that looking after your customers saves money and boosts profits.

Learn and apply what I teach you, do it right, and you'll rise above your competition and blow them out of the water in no time.

Copyright 2004 by Larry Lim, MarketingSphere.com

Article Source: http://101articles.com


Larry Lim is a practising marketing strategist and tactician who dishes out highly effective marketing strategies and tactics.

Visit his Internet Marketing Strategy website to learn how to skyrocket your sales, and shoot your profits through the roof.

Link Popularity: Distribute content, not just links.

Link Popularity: Distribute content, not just links
by Robert Raught

You've spent many hours trying to increase your online traffic with your linking campaign. You've sent out 200 e-mails pleading with other web sites to trade links with your site. Many of your e-mails bounce back.

The requests that find thier targets get rejected for numerous reasons. For example, your Google pagerank is too low or your links pages are dynamic and not static, etc., blah, blah, etc., ad nauseum. Out of those 200 requests, you wind up getting 25 reciprocal links, if you are lucky.

So, you say to yourself, "Great, now i have 25 more links!". But are these links really worth it? Do they generate any traffic?

There are many reasons why your links won't even get counted or indexed by the search engines. If your link is on a page among 100 other links, or the page is irrelevant to your subject matter, the page probably won't hold much weight with most search engines. It's also rumored that Google is changing it's algorithm to discount reciprocal links altogether.

So, what can you do to get your links indexed and noticed? Write your own content, distribute it to article directories or trade it with other related websites!

Here are 8 tips on increasing your online traffic with distributed content.

1. Try to write about popular content. The more popular it is, the more people will download it and want to include it on their websites and the more links you'll have pointing back to your site.

2. Try not to use any promotional jargon or sales pitches in your articles. If you do, many webmasters will not want to include your article on thier site.

3. Use plain English. Don't try to get too technical. Read it back to yourself and make sure you don't get tongue-tied while reading it.

4. If possible, work in your site's main keyword phrases into your articles. If your site is about online marketing, write articles about online marketing.

5. Make sure you include an "About the Author" section at the bottom. Make it somewhat short and always include a link back to your site in an anchor tag. And once again, include your keywords in the link text.

6. Proofread your article carefully. I see so many articles out there with misspellings. It just makes you look bad. After you spell check, have a friend or co-worker read it to double check for errors.

7. When you're finished with your article, submit it to popular article directories like goarticles.com, articlefactory.com, amazines.com and imparticles.com. For a fee, there are even services out there that will submit your articles to the top directories for you.

8. Make sure you publish your articles on your own website too, more content equals more traffic. Don't worry about getting penalized by search engines for having duplicate content. You only get penalized if the content is duplicated on your own domain, not if it's duplicated on other websites.

So there you have it. Distributed content allows you to make every link count, by creating targeted links that directly contribute to your search engine rankings, and by delivering targeted traffic on it's own. And besides, it might even make you famous!

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Robert Raught owns and operates Technet ( http://www.increased-online-traffic.com ) an SEO firm based in Washington State and publishes daily news and articles in an RSS enabled blog titled The Optimizer ( http://www.increased-online-traffic.com/seo-news.asp ).

Five Ways To Increase Internet Traffic in 15 Minutes or Less

By Catherine Franz
Abundance Center

Use Hidden Links and involve visitors to increase subscribers and maybe add a contest for additional fun. Place a not-so-easy-to-find link in your copy and then ask readers/visitors to find it. Give them a prize or freebie for finding it. Or you can give them the ebook after they find the link and click on it. By burying it inside the material, they will definitely need to read it carefully in order to find it.

Have unique information? Start a member-only web site or ezine. Tell subscribers what they will receive for joining. Offer free memberships in exchange for something you want. Or have some type of unique information on the site that no one else has --and make sure you tell visitors/readers that as well -- so they know this.
Use viral marketing to your advantage by increasing awareness about your product or service on discussion boards or blogs? Exchange your product or service with others who mentioned you on specific boards or blogs. You will want to track your postings (how many clicks throughs, number of times read or number of responses -- depends on the options available). You always want to keep the posts simple and single topic.

Set up an article directory or help someone else set theirs up. Offer your articles to be posted on their web site. This works well for others who do not write. It also creates links and increases search engine status for both of you. Posting old articles in new directories is extremely advantageous. It renews their energy whereas old hosting sites might have removed your article due to age.
Create a book website. Write an ebook or book, even a booklet. You can do this in lieu of offering a free ebook. Market it as a free web book. The term is seldom used and builds curiosity. Design the web pages with a title page, table of contents, chapters, etc. Then place your ad or banner for your product or service on the top and bottom of every page. Find new words to describe old ones and attract attention through curiosity.

Email Marketing Is Still King Of The Internet

I know! I know! Everybody and his dog has probably been telling you that email marketing is dead. Many people predicted that spam would be the death of email marketing. That blogs and RSS feeds would take over.

Well, if you've noticed, it just ain't so. It just hasn't happened. Sure Blogs and RSS feeds are important and should be a part of your internet marketing strategy but they just can't compete with email marketing when it comes to sales and marketing. Email marketing is still king of the internet.

Think about it, how do you get people to your blogs? I'm talking return visitors! You're probably getting your visitors to opt-in to your list so that you can send them an email reminder whenever you add something to your blog.

Email marketing through publishing an ezine and sending it to your opt-in list is extremely profitable, even if you have a small list. The nature of ezine publishing creates loyal readers and highly responsive buyers for your products and services.

Why is email marketing such a powerful marketing strategy:

- the majority of people check their email every day

- there is a significant savings in time and money

- millions of people subscribe to get information that they are interested in

- increases customer loyalty because of frequent contacts

- email builds your brand

If you have a responsive opt-in list then the potential for email marketing profits is enormous. Thousands of successful internet marketers can't be wrong when they say "The Money Is In The List."

Build your responsive, opt-in list. Send them useful and informative information in your newsletter. Find out what they want. Find that product or service. Offer it to your list. Then do it again and again.

Email Marketing is still King!

Lewis Leake is the webmaster of http://www.emailcash.com where you will find articles, product reviews and resources to help you develop successful email marketing strategies.

Email-The Indispensable and Powerful Tool of Successful Internet Marketers

Electronic mail, abbreviated e-mail or email is a method of composing, sending and receiving messages over the Electronic Communication System. The enormous development of the Internet has enabled emails conveying useful information, to be transmitted simultaneously to several recipients worldwide in a matter of seconds. The Power, Reach and Sophistication of Emails are such that it has become the most inexpensive and effective way to promote your Internet Marketing Business. Building opt-in lists has become part and parcel of the ritual of Internet Marketing today. Let's see what exactly the emails do to help the Internet Marketer?

1. I am right here. Emails remind people that you exist, that you are right here and that you are a living entity. It further helps to project your image and personality. It is nothing but natural that people tend to forget you after some time and reminding them by email without harassing them is a way of ensuring that they remeber you, your product or website.

2. Traffic to your Website, Email is acknowledged as the most effective way to drive traffic to you site. It is the email that keeps your clients and prospects returning to your site. This traffic without question is the very life blood of your Internet Marketing Business.

3. Building Awareness. One wonderful aspect of the email and used all too often by the Internet Marketers is to Alert Customers, clients, users and friends of products, articles and events. In addition the email alerts, play a prominent role in the promotion of new products and technologies.

4. Building Trust and Confidence. Sending emails is not a one off action. In addition to reaching out to customers, it is also used to follow up customers. Confirmation emails have become the norm today, especially after orders or subscriptions are placed. Over a period of time these email messages build trust and credibility between the parties concerned.

5. Building a feeling of Togetherness. Receiving regular emails from organizations and groups makes you feel wanted and creates a bond or feeling of togetherness with that organization or group. Even if reciprocal action is not seen immediately it will ultimately create a bond if your emails are handled properly.

6. Sharing of Emails. Another great advantage of emails is that it can be shared. Special promotions or informative content in Newsletters or emails are quite often circulated among friends and the end result is more traffic. Tell a friend images in websites too induce visitors to web sites to send email messages to friends informing them of their newly discovered product or information.

These are some of the main benefits enjoyed by the Internet Marketers but unfortunately the usefulness of emails is today being threatened by Spamming i.e. sending of unsolicited emails. It is hoped that technology will catch up with them before long. Nevertheless Internet Marketers continue to send millions of emails everyday with even more added sophistication such as embedded pictures and music.

Today the email has become such an inexpensive powerful medium of communication that it has become a reliable friend and an excellent indispensable tool of Successful Internet Marketers.

Copyright © 2005 Kanaga Siva About Kanaga: Kanaga Siva has a wealth of experience in Marketing and also running his own Home Based Business. He now operates his Internet Marketing Business. Visit his website http://www.business-fromhome.com for Articles, Resources,Ideas and Advise to start a Home Based Business and enroll for his Free Newsletter.

How Not To Destroy Your Online Business Instantly: The Chitika Example

Chitika eMiniMalls burst onto the online scene and dominated it quickly. They used a unique advertising display that allowed websites to place products on their site easily and get paid for people who clicked through. The Internet was on fire with website owners touting how much money they were making. They seemed to get glowing reviews everywhere and other than a few complaints on customer service they were looked very highly upon.

Chitika launched their eMiniMalls in October, 2005 and quickly displaced other forms of advertising on many a website. Some website owners even going as far as removing Google AdSense and other pay per click advertising forms from their websites in favor of Chitika. Running on a 30 day pay schedule, those who used the advertising in October would see their first revenue checks coming around the First of December, 2005 at the latest.

Days before the revenue checks were to be cut, Chitika announced that it was going to do an audit of clicks and that some publishers could see their revenue down a bit from what had been reported throughout the month. On December 1 Chitika implemented the auditing and the results were a bombshell that is bound to destroy the company. There was a firestorm around the Internet of some publisher's revenue being cut in the audit by as much as 90%.

Word spread quickly around the web and there was a huge backlash that the company is probably not going to recover from. Website owners around the web removed Chitika from their websites vowing to never deal with the company again and posting vicious and negative reviews of the company everywhere, such as those found at Inside Online Advertising.

Reputation for a business is the most crucial thing to lose. With a lot of consumers and clients you only get one chance. Chitika will probably not recover from this huge mistake of not making sure that their systems were working properly and that the promises they made to publishers from the start would be honored. Don't make this mistake yourself when starting your business. Look ahead and plan before you start signing contacts and making promises.


About the Author
Copyright Dan Amato

Dan Amato lived through the dot-com boom and bust in Santa Clara, CA. He is the co-founder of numerous companies from the ground up and currently maintains http://www.startuphints.com, a free resource for those starting a new business. He can be contacted on his blog at http://www.diggersrealm.com.

Driving More Traffic to your Home Based Business

Submitted by: Heather McLaughlin
http://www.featherish.com

It's your business dream come true.

You have started your own business online. You've done all the footwork by
choosing a domain name, getting a host and carefully selecting the inventory
that you wish to carry. The question is what to do next?

In order for any business to be successful on or offline, you need to advertise
or promote your business.

Here are some suggestions to help drive traffic to your web business.

Offer a newsletter. This is a great way to stay in contact with your existing
and potential customers. By mailing them periodically with new products, special
offers, or general news you help keep your store in their consciousness. If you
offer a newsletter, you will want to have an "opt out" process to comply with the CAN-SPAM
law. To keep your readership loyal, provide unique content or other reasons to keep them
subscribed and to keep them coming back to your web business.

Have a "Tell a Friend" form in a highly visible spot on your website. This is a no brainer
that allows someone to send a note to a friend with your website address. Word of mouth
is one of the best ways to get more visitors to your website. This simple improvement can help
create awareness. If 100 people told a friend, it could mean 100 more people visit your
website, at no charge to you.

Advertise offline. Look for affordable ways that you can print your website address. This
could be through classified or other paid ads, promotional products with your domain
name printed on it, or direct mailings with an invitational offer. Having your name in print
goes a long way. Some people will hold on to printed information for a period of time
before visiting or contacting your company. And printed material offers a form of prestige not offered by having a website alone.

Build Link Partners. If you have a localized business, see if other businesses have a website
that would provide a link to you. Local chamber of commerces, places of worship, friends and
other associates that operate websites are a great place to get started. You might also
consider categorized link directories that offer listings in your field. Link building
can be time consuming, but will provide qualified traffic back to you. You can also look
for other website owners that have related traffic and see if they would be interested in a
link exchange. Directories which offer paid inclusions are generally your best bet.

Advertise online. There are a great number of places to advertise online. Major search engines
such as Yahoo, Google and MSN offer paid advertising. This type of advertising is focused,
but may come at a premium. You may also want to consider advertising on smaller sites that
offer products and services related to your own.

Building your online business may take some time and effort, but is well worth it in the end.
These are just a few basic building blocks on your road to success on the internet. You can make
your business dreams come true!